Dennis Rader

Dennis Rader
Rader's mugshot at the El Dorado Correctional Facility
Born	Dennis Lynn Rader (1945-03-09) March 9, 1945 (age 71) Pittsburg, Kansas, U.S.
Other names	BTK Killer, BTK Strangler
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 175 years (10 consecutive life sentences)
Spouse(s)	Paula Dietz (m. 1971; div. 2005)
Children	2
Conviction(s)	Murder
Killings
Victims	10
Span of killings	1974–1991
Country	United States
State(s)	Kansas
Date apprehended	February 25, 2005

Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer who murdered ten people in Sedgwick County, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991.

He is also known as the BTK Killer or the BTK Strangler. "BTK" stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill", which was his infamous signature. He sent letters describing the details of the murders to police and local news outlets before his arrest. After a hiatus in the 1990s to the early 2000s, Rader resumed sending letters in 2004, leading to his 2005 arrest and subsequent guilty plea. He is currently serving 10 consecutive life sentences at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.

Dennis Rader is the oldest of four sons born to Dorothea Mae Rader (née Cook) and William Elvin Rader. Though born in Pittsburg, Kansas, he grew up in Wichita. According to many reports, including his confessions, as a child he tortured animals. He also had a sexual fetish for women's underwear and stole underpants from his victims and wore them himself.

Rader spent 1966–1970 in the United States Air Force. Upon discharge he moved to Park City. He worked in the meat department of Leekers IGA supermarket in Park City with his mother, a bookkeeper for the store. He married Paula Dietz on May 22, 1971, and they had two children.

Rader attended Butler County Community College in El Dorado, earning an associate degree in electronics in 1973. He then enrolled at Wichita State University and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's in administration of justice.

Rader worked as an assembler for the Coleman Company, an outdoor supply company. He worked at the Wichita-based office of ADT Security Services, a home security company, from 1974 to 1988, where he installed security alarms as a part of his job, in many cases for clients concerned about the BTK killings. Rader was a census field operations supervisor for the Wichita area in 1989, before the 1990 federal census. He became a dogcatcher and compliance officer in Park City. In this position, neighbors recalled him as being sometimes overzealous and extremely strict. One neighbor complained he euthanized her dog for no reason.