10 life terms for killer driven by ‘demons’

Matt Sedensky, El Dorado

America's BTK serial killer, Dennis Rader, was ordered to serve 10 consecutive life terms at a hearing that allowed family members to unleash decades of anger at the man who stabbed and strangled their loved ones.

Rader went through the list of his 10 victims one by one, drawing comparisons between him and them.

He talked about victims who liked dogs when they were kids just like him. He talked about how one of his child victims reminded him of his kids.

"I know the victim's families will never be able to forgive me. I hope somewhere deep down, eventually that will happen."

He killed seven women, two children and a man.

Rader, 60, a former church congregation president, scout leader and dogcatcher from Wichita, Kansas, called himself BTK for "bind, torture and kill" during his campaign of terror between 1974 and 1991. He was arrested in February and pleaded guilty in June.

He told the court that he was driven to kill by "demons" and sexual fantasies, and taunted the police and the press in letters written over three decades.

The sentence a minimum of 175 years without a chance of parole was the longest possible that Judge Gregory Waller could deliver. Kansas had no death penalty at the time the killings were committed.

Captain Sam Houston of the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office testified about Rader's last known killing the strangulation of 63-year-old Dolores Davis in 1991.

Rader, who handcuffed Davis and tied her with pantyhose, told police it took two or three minutes for her to die and that fuelled his torturous fantasies for years.

"He could live in that moment for years," said Capt Houston.

After Davis was dead, Rader tossed her body under a bridge where it decomposed and apparently was fed on by animals. The defendant returned later to take Polaroid photographs of her wearing a feminine mask Rader had worn for his own bondage fantasies.

Testimony from detectives centred on his obsession with violent bondage acts.

After killing 11-year-old Josephine Otero and three other members of her family in 1974, Rader customised a Barbie doll to look like the girl.

He gagged the doll and bound its wrists, knees, ankles, just as he had the girl's.

He later strangled a 53-year-old neighbour and took her body to a church, and posed and photographed her in bondage positions on the altar.

"I do realise that the atrocious crimes I committed were the acts of a monster. I'm away from society now. I'll do my healing in prison," said Rader. He kept hundreds of pictures from magazines and circulars mounted on index cards, with details of the warped sexual fantasies he dreamed of carrying out.

They ranged from a little girl posing in a swimsuit to actress Meg Ryan.

In his home he kept "hit kits" bags with rubber gloves, rope, tape, handcuffs and bandanas.

BTK resurfaced in 2004 with a letter to The Wichita Eagle including photos of a 1986 strangling victim and a photocopy of her missing driver's license.

During the two-day hearing Rader gave rambling, weeping testimony, apologising and thanking police.

He often quoted from the Bible.

"A dark side is there, but now I think light is beginning to shine. Hopefully someday God will accept me," he said.