Why We Love Serial Killers (20 page)

I asked Berkowitz if he hopes for parole. He has been eligible for parole but was rejected by the New York board on several occasions—most recently in 2012. He explained to me that he neither seeks nor expects parole in the future. In fact, he wrote a personal letter to former New York Governor George E. Pataki some years ago in which he said that he did not deserve parole. He understands and truly believes that he is exactly where he belongs. Berkowitz told me that he would love to be able to meet with young people outside of prison and warn them not to bow to temptation, commit horrible crimes, or destroy lives as he has done. However, he understands and accepts that he is not likely to be given that opportunity. Of his life in prison, Berkowitz said, “Although I’ve been in prison for nearly four decades, I no longer see the prison bars. My eyes are focused beyond that to see Jesus who is the author of my faith. My freedom is found in one word: Jesus.”

Contrary to popular opinion, Berkowitz is not mentally ill, and he neither receives treatment nor takes medication for any mental or psychological disorders. He will never be released from prison and he knows it. He claims that his only desire is to serve God and ease the suffering of others from behind bars for the remainder of his life in any way he can. He knows that he can never undo the harm he has done in this world. In many ways, I believe that Berkowitz is like a recovering addict today although he claims that neither drugs nor alcohol were ever a problem for him. He seems to be recovering from a malady of the spiritual variety. I believe that for most of his troubled youth, Berkowitz was trying to fill a spiritual void and overcome debilitating fear, rage, self-loathing, and loneliness. He turned to Satanism and the occult for answers but his obsession with it and desire to please Satan drove him to commit murder that he believed, ironically and tragically, would set him free. At Sullivan Correctional Facility, Berkowitz is paying for his horrible crimes. At the same time, he has finally discovered meaning and purpose in his life and he is now serving others to the best of his ability.

Berkowitz gets no material compensation or incentives of any kind for his service to others inside or outside of prison. He claims that his daily work and correspondence with his network of friends provide joy
and meaning in his life—the very things that he could not find outside of prison walls. Could it be that Berkowitz is sincere about his religious convictions, as well as his expression of sorrow and remorse for his crimes? I have personally witnessed his humility, remorse, and the service he provides to other people. I have also seen his peaceful demeanor and the apparent joy he receives from helping others. Could it be that no one, not even the former Son of Sam, is beyond redemption? Perhaps even the worst among us has the capacity to do some good in this world. As our prison visit was ending, I asked him what message he would like me to deliver to the public. Berkowitz said, “Tell them, with God there is always hope. If He can save someone like me, then He can save anybody.”

Conclusion

In this chapter I have described my interactions with David Berkowitz and discussed the unique insights I have gained into his background, personality, criminal life, and current way of thinking. My discourse with Berkowitz has produced revelations about both his past and present. I have come to believe that certain aspects of the popular Son of Sam legend—including key elements that are now taken for granted—are myths that were created and perpetuated by law enforcement authorities and the news and entertainment media over the years. In reality, Berkowitz became obsessed with Satan and very much like a drug addict was driven to kill by burning needs and desires that he could neither understand nor control. In many ways Berkowitz was the principle author and promoter of the Son of Sam legend, although it has been modified, rewritten, and sensationalized by others.

Berkowitz is paying for his terrible crimes through his loss of rights and freedom in this world. I believe that he is exactly where he belongs. The serial killer who has come to personify evil in our society is now a born-again Christian who spends most of his time working one-on-one as a peer mentor, spiritual adviser, and mobility guide for troubled and disabled prison inmates at the Sullivan Correctional Facility. Berkowitz reaches out from his prison cell through personal letters and a website maintained for him to comfort physically and emotionally sick people around the world. In his own way, Berkowitz is now a contributing member of society behind bars where he will remain for the rest of his natural life.

CHAPTER 7
THE UNREPENTANT SEXUAL PSYCHOPATH KNOWN AS “BIND, TORTURE, KILL”

Perhaps some people are simply born “bad to the bone” as blues-rocker George Thorogood sang in his 1982 song of that title. Thorogood’s hit could have been inspired by the exploits of Dennis Rader, the serial killer better known by his self-assigned pseudonym of “Bind, Torture, Kill” (BTK). Rader killed ten people, including men, women, and children, between 1974 and 1991. He loved to play a game of “catch me if you can” with authorities and sent them numerous taunting letters. He avoided detection and capture until 2005, when he was finally tripped up by his own egomania and narcissism. In between murders, Rader lived a remarkably normal-looking life with his wife and two children. He was perceived by acquaintances to be a pillar in his Wichita, Kansas, community. Inwardly, however, he was secretly satisfying his sexual needs and delaying his compulsion to kill for months and even years at a time by engaging in autoerotic fantasies until the need to commit murder became overwhelming once again. Now in prison and serving ten life sentences in isolation, he remains as unrepentant as ever.

If the story of David Berkowitz presented in the last chapter offers some hope that even the worst among us can be transformed, then the horrifying tale of Dennis Rader reminds us that some acts of evil defy comprehension and some stone-cold perpetrators scoff at the idea of redemption. This chapter presents the unsettling story of a man who considers himself a natural born killer driven by compulsions and instincts that even he could not comprehend. Reflections on my personal correspondence over several years with Rader provide important new insights into the motivations of a classic power/control killer who has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorders, including psychopathy and malignant narcissism. Based on the actual words and
actions of BTK, I provide unique insights into how he contributed to the construction of his horrifying public image as a serial killer. This is his story.

The Evolution of a Serial Killer

By all accounts, the childhood of Dennis Lynn Rader was normal and unremarkable. He was born on March 9, 1945, in a quiet corner of Kansas, close to where it, Oklahoma, and Missouri all come together. Rader was the first of four sons born to William and Dorothea Rader. He was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsburg, Kansas. His father was in the US Marine Corps, and later worked for the Kansas electric utility KG&E following World War II. Rader joined the Boy Scouts as a youth and participated in group activities at the Lutheran church. He attended Riverview Elementary School, where he was an average to below average student, and exhibited an introverted and withdrawn personality. He spent most of his time alone.

By his own admission, Rader developed fantasies about domination, bondage, and torture at a very early age—while still in grade school. Dr. Tony Ruark, a forensic psychologist who evaluated Rader following his arrest, believes that something happened early in Rader’s life to spawn the BTK Killer. He said:

If Rader was completely honest [which he is not] I am sure that what we would find would be some sort of childhood event that Rader immediately associated with feelings of sexuality. Somehow, very early on, Rader encountered an event where he immediately linked sexual pleasure with watching a living creature suffer and die. And after that first encounter, Rader probably began to work very hard to nurture those feelings.

Rader admits to having killed cats and dogs by hanging and strangling them as a youth. By puberty he already dreamed of tying girls up and having sex with them. Rader says that his fantasies were “almost like a picture show” that he wanted to direct and produce, no matter what the cost. Actress Annette Funicello, a “Mouseketeer” on the original
Mickey Mouse Club
TV show in the 1950s, was one of his favorite targets for imaginary bondage. He realized that he had to keep his developing inner world of bondage, killing, and sex a secret from everyone and he was able to do so effectively.

Despite his developing inner demons, those who knew him during adolescence describe a quiet and polite young man who preferred to keep to himself.
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It is said that Rader was not a joiner or known to be very socially active in high school. He did not attend school dances and he showed no interest in the popular music of the early 1960s. One high school friend described him as completely lacking a sense of humor.
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The same friend considered the young Rader to be very serious, determined, and highly focused. He was described as a person who chose his words carefully before speaking and when he spoke he was fully focused on his listener.

The only social activities that Rader indulged in during his youth were related to his Lutheran church or the boy scouts. While he was in the boy scouts, Rader learned the art of tying knots which would help him later in life as BTK when he bound his victims before killing them. Unceremoniously, Rader graduated from Wichita Heights High School in the class of 1963. He had a job for a time working in a local grocery store. In 1965, Rader left home and entered Kansas Wesleyan College in Salina. The records indicate that he was a mediocre student with poor to average grades. In the summer of 1966 at the age of twenty-one Rader joined the US Air Force, probably to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War.

His four years of active duty in the Air Force, much of which was spent on bases in Japan, appears to have been just as unremarkable as his childhood. Rader earned the rank of Sergeant and he worked on the installation of antennas and other communications equipment. As with tying knots, his technical training would later serve him well as the BTK Killer. While in the Air Force, Rader would peek through window blinds to watch women undress, and he broke into homes to steal their panties. Despite such behavior, a former buddy from his Air Force days was shocked to hear that Dennis Rader was BTK following the serial killer’s arrest in 2005.
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He recalled Rader as just one of the guys who blended in without incident in the Air Force. Rader received the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, and the National Defense Service Medal. He was discharged from active duty in the summer of 1970, and returned to his home town of Wichita, Kansas. He served two more years in the reserves.

Less than a year after his return to Wichita, on May 22, 1971, Rader married a young woman named Paula Dietz. She was from the same town as Rader and had even attended the same high school. She was
also a fellow member of the Lutheran church. Rader was twenty-six and Paula was twenty-three when they got married. They soon settled in Park City, not far from the Rader family home in north Wichita. At the time, Rader was working in the meat department of an IGA supermarket and Paula was an office bookkeeper. In July 1973, Rader found employment with Cessna, a manufacturer of small aircraft. He also attended Butler County Community College in El Dorado and earned an associate’s degree in Electronics. In the fall of 1973, Rader began working toward a bachelor’s degree at Wichita State University. He dreamed of becoming a police officer. It took him six years of night school to earn a bachelor’s degree in administration of justice. Rader was a poor student, even by his own admission. He cannot spell very well to this day and may actually have a learning disability, as suggested by the poor grammar in his letters to me from prison.

In late 1973, Rader was let go by Cessna Aircraft Company. He suddenly found himself unemployed, in a bad state of mind, unhappy, and with free time on his hands. He slipped deeper into the dark fantasy world that he had known since childhood and wanted to know just what it would feel like to strangle a woman with his bare hands until she died. He was obsessed with pornography and liked to daydream. He nicknamed his penis Sparky. He began to enjoy trolling, which for him meant driving or walking around certain neighborhoods and school campuses where there would be young women for him to observe and lust over. Rader stalked women as they shopped alone in grocery stores. He planned to hide in the backseat of their cars and kidnap them at gunpoint. He would focus in on a good prospect and then enter into his fantasy realm of bondage, sex, and murder. Soon his vile desires would reach a point where they could no longer be denied and would require him to take insidious action.

Trained, Armed, and Ready to Kill

By 1974, Rader was compelled to act on his obsessive fantasies of sex, torture, and murder. He had trained himself how to kill and avoid detection. He had learned to tie knots and nooses. He was ready. There was a new Latino family that had moved into the area and Rader had lustfully noticed Julie Otero, age thirty-four, and her daughter Josephine, age eleven. He had a thing for Latinas, admiring their beautiful brown skin and dark hair. Rader stalked Julie and Josephine Otero for weeks
in order to learn their daily routines. Based on what he learned from his surveillance, Rader devised a plan to take them by surprise in their own home. The girl was the real prize he sought. He gathered together his so-called “hit kit,” which included a gun, knives, hoods, cords, tape, plastic bags, gloves, and various tools for breaking and entering. On the morning of January 15, he could wait no longer. At 8:20 am he went to the Otero house, entered the backyard, and cut the telephone line.