The Trial [9]

You're listening to Monster BTK, a production of iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV. Listener discretion is advised.

One afternoon in two thousand and five, we noticed everything went very quiet at the police department. No one would return our calls, no one would even talk to us. And I remember talking to our police reporter and she said,

Please let me interview you.

Well, we all wanted an interview, but that wasn't going to happen. But I did write to him and I gave him my phone number and I said, if you can call me, this is my home phone. Give me a call. Now he's incarcerated, he's not going to come after me. And one Saturday morning he called me and the operator said, no, I have a collect call from the Sedgwy County Detention Center.

Will you accept the charges?

And you go, wow, yes I will. And on the other end, he said.

Larry, this is Dennis Rider. Okay, here we go.

I had my phone already set up to be able to record audio, and the problem was the phone in the jail is terrible. You talk about bad audio, this was bad audio. Pops and buzzes and beeps, and I have no clue how many people were listening on it. I said, well, I appreciate you calling me. I have thirty years of questions and he said I have twenty minutes.

I said, okay, So.

I started asking him questions. And one of the questions that I asked him and I will never forget this. I said, how could you kill two children? And he said, oh, well, they were just collateral.

Just collise. I will never forget that.

And he spoke about it as you would speak to the baker as you pick up a dozen donuts at the bakery, without feeling, without excitement, that they were just collateral. And that I found that stunning. And then a few months later the trial began in the Central County District Court. Someone killed four members of a family.

Had you vanished from her home suddenly last weekend? Her phone lines had been cut, her door left open.

You see the victim playing there with plastic bags over their heads, strangled. You could tell there was a planned scenario.

Well, police have said no more about the contents of the letter. It does contain some sort of threat and implies the killer may strike again.

He's going to play with these victims to the point of death and then bring them back, and then brings them back to the point of death.

From My Heart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV. I'm Susan Peters and this is Monster BTK. On February twenty eight, two thousand and five, just three days after he was arrested, Dennis Rader was charged with ten counts of first degree murder. During his initial interrogation, Rader had revealed that he was responsible for two murders the police hadn't known he was connected to those of Marine Hedge and Dolores Davis. While

There was a process in deciding how to charge it. You charged the ten murders. I remember Judge Waller asking what kind of bond we wanted, and I think I said something to the effect of a I mean, Judge, I don't know ten kazillion million. I don't know if there is a number that you could ask for on bond.

The next question was what sentence would the prosecutors seek.

There was a lot of discussion at the time, a lot of thoughts about whether or not he should get the death penalty. Kansas didn't have a death penalty during the years that he was committing these crimes. Kansas has one now but didn't then, and so you had a lot of confusion about why the death penalty wasn't being sought.

The death penalty had been banned in Kansas up until nineteen ninety four, when it was officially reinstated, but this was long after Raider's last murder, which took place in nineteen ninety one. Therefore, prosecutors had no choice but to instead seek life without parole.

We couldn't seek the death penalty. It wasn't an available punishment at the time he was committing these murders. The sentence was life, but sentence in Kansas the life sentence meant fifteen years, So for each.

Of Rader's ten murders, he would receive fifteen years in prison if found guilty.

The last murder of Dolores Davis occurred in ninety one, where there was a hard forty is what it was called, and that would mean that you got a life sentence, but you couldn't be paroled until you serve forty years, and you had to have a sentencing hearing on that.

Remember, Raider was fifty nine years old. So this hard forty rule effectively meant that if he was successfully convicted, Raider would spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance at parole. It seemed like Dennis Rader had his work cut out for him, but apparently he didn't want any part of it. He didn't find a lawyer or speak much at all after his initial interrogation, even though many attorneys had tried to represent him.

I remember getting a call from the jail saying that a local attorney was trying to get access to Dennis Raider, and I remember running from my office over to the jail because that attorney wasn't entitled to have contact with him. He hadn't requested an attorney at that time, but the jail had let him have access, and after that he decided he didn't want to talk anymore.

We don't know what happened that made Raider choose to stay quiet after that interaction, but he wouldn't talk again until months later. At one press conference, Nola Fulston and Kevin O'Connor were asked if there would be any talks of a plea deal with Raider.

I mean, in my opinion, you can't ple negotiated a Dennis Raider BTK case.

In the conclusion to the State's summary of the evidence, the destruct Attorney's Office echoed this sentiment.

Dennis Rader did not suffer from any mental disease or defect. He was not the victim of any psychological, physical, or sexual abuse. Rader murdered with premeditation and deliberation. He killed methodically and systematically, uninhibited by any moral concerns or considerations. Dennis Rader killed because he wanted to kill. The evil depravity of his deeds are beyond human comprehension. The time has come to hold Raider accountable, to punish him for

Raider's first court appearance was March first, two thousand and five. Just a few days after his arrest, Steve Osburne and Sarah McKinnon were appointed as public defenders. They hired two people from Cambridge for Insant Consultants to perform a psychological assessment on Raider to determine his competency to stand trial. Competency evaluations are not comprehensive mental health examinations. They focus only on present mental ability to participate in the various

Mendoza noted that there was no history of mental illness or drug abuse and no medical conditions. I'm in the journals and drawings that Rader had made and the crime scene photos. He also watched the videotape of Raider's police interrogation and examined medical school and prison records. During the evaluation, Raider was depressed, even tearful. His level of attention had declined,

This report also identified narcissistic personality disorder and obsessive compulsive personality disorder. Neither of these diagnoses rose to the level of a major mental illness for Raider, and so they did not affect his competency to stand trial, and thus the prosecuting attorney sought to finalize a trial date. They did not want Rader to get away with a plea deal.

We wanted to have that hearing. A lot of people criticize the district attorney, thinking that she was a media hound. You know, she just wanted the media attention. I can tell you and being in those meetings with her, that the goal was to make all the information a public record. As you all may know that police reports are not public information, but things that are presented in open court are.

They got their wish. Raiders first public hearing was scheduled for June twenty seventh, two thousand and five.

From Kate News.

This is a special report BTK Journey to.

Justice and Good Morning. Susan and Peters, along with Jeff Herndon, welcome the live team coverage of the BTK case. Each previous hearing built with mystery. This is no different. No one really knows what is going to happen, except for Dennis Raider himself. June twenty seventh, two thousand and five was one of the wildest days of my life. I

We have some live pictures now from the courthouse.

These are family members at the courthouse, victims of family members. It looks like Charles Bright is there. I see him. The big question this morning was whether Dennis Rader would change his plea. At a previous hearing, Raider refused to speak at all or enter into any formal plea, so by default, the judge entered him into a plea of not guilty on his behalf. But things had changed since then, and there were rumors that Raider planned to flip his plea.

There's really been a last minute decision that's being made, that they kept all their cards together, and they're going to evaluate things as late as this morning and figure out what's going to happen. And I also get the feeling that Dennis Raider is very much in charge of that final decision.

I know for a fact that the families wanted Raider to plead guilty. They wanted an end to this nightmare, and a guilty plea would move things much faster than a lengthy trial. Still, all of us were in suspense as to what Raider's choice would eventually be. At about eight forty am, the attorneys entered the courtroom. According to many sources, raiders defense attorneys appeared nervous.

These attorneys have been working with the Raider since the very since the first appearance when they were assigned. There have been some rumors that there is some discord amongst them with or between them and Raider.

Finally, after everyone else was settled, Dennis Raider entered the courtroom. There's Dennis Raider walking into court.

He does have a bulletproof vest on, it appears. Let's listen into the proceedings.

Thank you, please be seated all right?

At this time comes on before the court case captioned of the State of Kansas Plaintiff versus Dennis L.

Raider, Defendive.

After going through the standard introductory remarks, Judge Gregory Waller asked Rader the question everyone was waiting for how would he plead.

Yarn At this time, mister Rader wave his right to a jury trial and interplea of guilty to all ten counts.

Sir, I have been advised as your desire to enter a plea of guilty in this case.

Is that correct, yes, sir.

At perhaps the last minute, Dennis Rader chose to plead guilty to all ten counts of murder and thus avoid a trial. Then Judge Waller prompted Rader to explain how he murdered his victims. Surprisingly, Rader was more than happy to oblige.

On January fifteenth, nineteen seventy four, I'm maliciously, intentionally and premeditation killed Joseph of Terrell.

Had you planned this beforehand.

To some degree?

Yes?

If forgot in the house that I lost control of it, But it was, you know, back of my mind. I had some ideas what I was.

Going to do.

Raider spared none of the graphic details, shedding not an ounce of remorse or betraying any emotion.

I put a plastic bag over his head, and then some cords and fighting it after that.

I did miss this Otero.

I had never strangled anyone before, so I really don't know how much pressure you had to put on a person or how long it take.

This went on for forty five minutes straight, Raider going through each murder, not only admitting to them, but excitedly explaining his every move. My colleague Glarry Hedeberg was stunned.

The judge asked Dennis Rader to take him through all the killings in the courtroom live on TV. That was absolutely amazing. And here was Dennis Raider, and he was like the ringmaster in the center ring, and the spotlight was on him, and he was having the time of his life recounting in detail how he killed ten people. It was extraordinary, unbelievable, really, because he told it in the same method that he had talked to me on

Many of the family members present simply couldn't stand to listen to this, including Steve Ralford, surviving son a Shirley Vyanne.

Guy that walked out. Everybody fucking followed me.

I didn't want to hear what time to dad say?

All the other victims families walked out with you, but you were the first one to get up.

Damn great, he said, can they do that? What the fuck they want to do?

Why didn't you want to stay in court?

I'm here?

What he fucking had to say?

What did you want to do?

It's not loud on here, not allowed home?

So you you didn't want to give him the satisfaction of Is that why you walked out and everyone else walked out to do you think?

Pretty much?

What do you think he was doing that day?

Shelf pity?

I mean he went on and on about each murder.

What do you what do you.

Think he was doing that day?

Well, I forget what you call it, but glory, find money done, and not any fucking remorse.

She had this for himself. I won't hear a shit. Oh, I hear none of it.

When Rader was done, Judge Waller formally declared the conviction.

I will accept these pleas are guilty, and I judge you Dennis L. Raider guilty of murder in the first degree in count won a Class A felony.

It was a moment of mixed emotions. On one hand, it was a triumphant relief Dennis Rader had been found guilty on all charges. On the other hand, it was a moment of quiet sadness. The way Rader described his murders in grave detail left everyone shaken. People shuffled out of the courtroom silently. It was a bittersweet, even though justice had prevailed. Following his guilty plea and verdict, Rader was sent back to the Sedgua County Detention Center to

And so I asked before he was sent to prison, I said, I'd like to talk to you in person. Is that possible? And I got permission to talk to him in person. Didn't have much time, about fifteen minutes with him, and I went up with one of the other anchors from KTV. I was nervous about shaking his hand. When you go up there and talk to him, you have to do a prison handshake. He's on one side of the plexiglass, I'm on the other. He puts his

My impression was that after the June twenty seventh theory, Raider was feeling pretty good about himself. The way he talked about his murders in such a detailed and nonchalant manner tells me that he was ready to tell his story on his terms. Here he was on national TV with the world watching, and he got to read what was essentially his manifesto out loud for everyone to hear. His attitude leaving the courtroom that day appeared to be one of success. But what Raider wasn't prepared for is

They wanted everything my dad had done on record. They wanted it in public record because most of the details were not known at that point. Still, like all the case materials, weapons, times, dates, a lot of that was not public.

This is Dennis Raider's daughter, Carrie Rawson.

They wanted it all in the record, so they went through all of that. They brought in like the knife, he youths for Catherine, brought in all of this stuff just to put it under the record. They brought in the polaroids.

If you remember, Denis Rator at some point took polaroid pictures of himself where he would dress up in women's clothing and reenact his murders. The police had confiscated all of these when they searched the Raider household.

Now were they trying to humiliate my dad on the stand.

I don't know.

My dad was not expecting that. He was pretty lividly pissed.

How do you react?

Just angry.

You can see him trying to be under control in the videos of him just trying to maintain composure of these guys mocking him in court.

But he's exposed.

Now, he's exposed and known for what he is.

Carrie says that her father was visibly shaken by this barrage of evidence from the prosecutors.

He was not expecting that, and he's completely thrown and you see him trying to maintain control, and he's trying to hold those outer protective layers, and he's just sort of disintegrating. Mike Us would be inside. You see his voice change, he clicks his mouth like he's acting like he's like bored. He's just trying to keep control, and you can see it. He's almost tearing up. He's so upset, he's almost tearing up. And then he's also like really mad.

Of course, this was also the Raider family's first time hearing about Dennis's evil deeds.

My family did not know about the bondage. We didn't know about my dad and the women's lingerie. We didn't know my dad dressed up and victim's clothing and took polaroids in his parents' basement. Basically, he was recreating Josephino Tero's murderer. I didn't know any of that. So I'm finding this out with the rest of the world, and I was mad. I was mad at the police for not trusting us enough to tell us, or for Paris.

Finally, the family members of the victims had a chance to speak, and Dennis Rader had no choice but to listen.

Now it was my turn. He has his spot life for a long time. Now it's going to be my turn. I was gonna call him everything that I could possibly get away with, calling him on network GAV.

This is Jeff Davis, son of Dolores Davis. He gave one of the longest and most comprehensive victim impact statements.

I did a pretty good job of it. I was pretty creative the stuff that I came up with. And I did it because I knew he was watching, and every interview was focused directly at him. When I looked at the person I was interviewing, I wasn't looking at him. I was looking him. I wanted him to know that it was my turn. And now it's even time, and now I'm the one point in barged in your direction

For the last five three and twenty six days, I have wondered what it would be like to confront the walking cesspool that took my mother's precious life. Throughout that time, I always envisioned this day as being one for avenging the past. I could think of nothing but savoring the bittersweet taste of revenge as justice is served upon this social sewage here before us today. Now that has arised, surprise arrived. Surprisingly, I realized that this day is not

He wouldn't look at me. It was a four minute, thirty stecond in tirade. He would not look at me one time. He didn't have the guts to look at me.

All I could think about was revenge, revenge, get my hands on him.

This is Charlie o'teroll, eldest brother of the surviving o'taro family members. He says that this hearing was the first time he heard certain details about the murder of his parents.

I had no inside information or anything about how my family had died.

I didn't know any of that stuff that he said.

When he said that my mom's last words and may God forgive you, I knew that that's something my mom would probably have said because that's how she was. And it just broke my heart again, that feeling I had on my chest being tore open in my heart, it just came all came back to me. I knew that if I acted up, then I would never get a chance at him. So I had to maintain to wait for my chance. That and the world's sitting there and my brother and my sister, and once again the big

Then, like Jeff Charlie gave his own victim impact statement.

That's what I had to be good for. I had to get my impact statement, and I couldn't screw. I wanted to make that statement. But I also planned, this is gonna be my chance to get my hands on him, so I was prepared to go all.

The way with my revenge plans.

What happened was we left for lunch break and I had a couple of beers right away. I'm getting my strength up, my courage up, and then I planned to get my hands on him. And as we were walking to the detector, I got stopped by my filmmaker. We made a documentary and the filmmaker was there filming and he said, Charlie, you have a phone call. It was the mother of my son, who I had never seen before. He was named Joseph, his same name as my brother

I called Lynette again.

I call her back and she said, Charlie, Joseph's been hit by a car.

He's in a coma.

And I'm like, what is it?

An induced coma? Is it? They said, no, it's he's in.

A coma and he's got brain injuries that he's got shaken baby syndrome from being hit by the car. I start thinking about this. I'm thinking, how can I ask God to save my son?

If I am going.

To go do au dacardly deed, why would he save my son? So it's hard to describe it. Put in that instant, I got my religion back. I got my faith back because all desire for that revenge went away instantly, truly went away, and all I could think about was saving my son. I said, God, save my son. I'll give you my life, I'll do anything you want. You can take me right now, just save my son. So

There might have been people next to him.

And stuff, but he was I looked right at him, with nobody between me and him, all desire that I had to get my hands on him was gone because I knew the prison would take care of it, because that's what they did.

To child molesterers and child killers and stuff. I walked out the door.

I went outside, and some people started sticking microphones in my face, and somebody said, Charlie, you know the world's praying for you, And I said, no, no, no, don't pray for me. Pray for my son. He's been hit by a car and he needs prayer right now. He's in a coma and behold months later weeks. Weeks and weeks later, he wakes up a newborn child. I believe the Lord gave me.

Back my son.

Steve Ralford was also given the chance to give a statement.

And when I got up to speak, I stuck close about powered every where everybody. I couldn't talk. I lost seeming anger at that point. I'm bringing you fuck what anybody talk. I knew what I thought, I knew, I couldn't knew it.

Steve was simply too upset to say much of anything. For him, the difficulty of that day was it's nearly impossible to bear. But he wasn't alone. He was comforted by the fact that others like Jeff Davis and Charlie o'taro shared in his anger.

My emotion was pure, unadulterated rage. Now as I knew they would. They had six of the biggest sheriff's officers I've ever seen.

In my life.

They had three on each side of him, shouldered and shoulder. Because it wasn't just me who wanted him. Charlie o'tarroll wanted him, Steve Ralphord wanted him. There was a bunch of us that wanted peace to him, and we knew we couldn't do it, obviously, but I know I was still filled with rage that I was sitting there and knew how when you stare at somebody just right, they can feel you staring at him. He knew, he knew that I was burning a hole in the back of his head, that he.

Wasn't trying to look at me because you don't have the gut.

One of the stairs officers came over to me and he told me, he said, you need to sit back and relaxed, and he said, you look like you're getting ready to jump over that rail and go after him. He said, if the judge tosses you out of here, you won't get back in. So I was physically almost like I was raised the spring. I knew I couldn't do it, but I was just that chanced that I used to just grabbing on said the rails, and I

This shared hatred of Denis Rator had the effect of bonding these men. That day, they sat together in unison as they delivered their barbs to a cold faced denistrator. He said nothing and never looked in the eyes, but they knew that their words had cut him. After they were finished, Raider was given thirty minutes to respond. Here is an excerpt of what he said, as read by a voice actor.

The dark side was there, but now I think the light is beginning to shine. And I appreciate the family and friends and who I can be thankful for, and I think that will keep me from finally going to the dark side or hell. And finally, a final apologize to the victims' families. There's no way that I can ever repay you.

Raider actually appeared to tear up during his final speech. The victim's families were convinced that Raider's tears were for himself. Jeff Davis and the other families had no desire to listen to his self pity, so they decided once again to walk out.

And I was the instigator. I'm the one that is idea. It was that when he's stood up to talk, I'm the one that said, let's get out here, let's walk out. And minute he got up before he could open his mouth, about eight of us got up and just walked out of the courtroom, and everybody said to look on his face was priceless because he's like, wait, I haven't had my stay yet, and you're leaving because I told all those people I said he to stay. I want to

Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Fulston had this to say about Raider's words.

It's pitiful for mister Rader to stand here, looking all pale and pasty and say how sorry he is. Well, that's usually the culmination of what happens when defendants go to their last chance in order to convince a judge you know, gosh, I'm really sorry. Well, what else do you say after you kill ten people? He doesn't have the ability to be arrogant.

Today, after nearly three days of testimony, it was finally time the judge called the court to order. He picked up a piece of paper and slowly confidently, he read out loud Denis Rader's sentenced to the courtroom and to the world. Next time on Monster BTK.

I wanted to help him, like I'm mad at you when one second, I'm worried you're cold, and like I love you, I still love you.

We write some letters.

He wanted me to solve some codes.

The reason I stay kind of involved in it is that we still do not know what caused BTK to become a murderer.

I really wanted to go sleep Ennis in person, to see who he is.

The intensity of the anguish and the grief is still there.

Raider said, you know, I have a fantasy that I wish I could have lived out. I've always wanted to kidnap a female from a launder map.

Monster BTK is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Podcasts. The show is written by Nomes Griffin, Trevor Young, and Jesse Funk. Our host is Susan Peters. Executive producers on Behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay, alongside supervising producer Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of iHeart Podcasts include Matt Frederick and Trevor Young, alongside producers Nomes, Griffin and Funk and supervising producer Rima Ilkali. Marketing support