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Essay: Dennis Rader and his brutal killings

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  • Published: 11 November 2015*
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This assignment will critically analyse the story of Dennis Rader and his brutal killings, his upbringing will be discussed along with his modus operandi and the reasons behind his killings, how he got away with it for such a long period and how he eventually got caught. The mass media and the influence they had in his killings and him eventually being tracked down and arrested, as well as the relevant psychodynamic, labelling and Social Learning theories will be discussed throughout the essay, how they relate to the case of Dennis Rader and the potential drawbacks and criticism of the theories themselves from relevant sources.
The official definition of a Serial Murderer according to (FBI, 2015) is broken down and a definition from that has been made. The breakdown is as follows-
– One or more offenders
– Two or more murdered victims-
– Incidents should be occurring in separate events, at different times
– The time period between murders separates serial murder from mass murder
From this, the FBI have come up with their own definition of what they believe is a serial murderer. ” The unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events”. There are also different types of murder, one being ‘spree’ and the other being ‘mass’ and there are differences between the three. The official definition of a Spree Killer is ”Murderers who kill two or more victims, but are more than one location. Although their murders occur in separate locations, their spree is considered a single event, because there is no “cooling off” period between the murders. An example of a Spree killer is Robert Polin, who killed one student and wounded 5 others at a high school in 1975. The definition of a Mass murderer is an individual who kills four or more people at one location during one period of time, it can be over a few minutes or a period of days. An example of a Mass murderer would be Richard Speck, who killed eight student nurses in one night in 1966 (Crime About, 2014).
Dennis Rader was born in Kansas on March 9th, 1945; he was the first of four sons. However, as a child there are contradicting views on how he behaved. Some say Rader appeared ‘outwardly normal’ and unremarkable. He also took part in youth group activities when in Church. Those who knew Rader also commented on how much of a ‘polite’ young man he was, and how he was often quiet and didn’t say much. Rader graduated from school with relatively poor grades, which led him to look for part time work and eventually join the Air Force in 1966 at the age of 21. It was also then his fantasies came to light, his constant attempts to engage in bondage activities we’re rejected. However, once in school his behaviour dramatically changed. Rader often had fantasies about bondage and torture. He also by his own admission, admitted to having sexual fantasies about tying girls up and ‘having his way’ with them (Denis Rader BTK, 2014). His first fantasies he admitted to was as a youngster, he said it was like a ‘picture show’ that he wanted to direct and take part in, no matter what cost. He started by strangling local cats and dogs around his neighbourhood before finally in 1974, Rader made his fantasies a reality when he killed 4 people, all from the same family (Crime and Investigation, 2014). Throughout his killing spree, he named himself BTK (Blind, Torture Kill). He ended up killing 10 separate people over a 20 year period. He started with Joseph Otero (38), his wife Julie (34) and their two children Josephine, aged eleven and her seven-year-old brother Joey. Rader was in complete control of the situation, at first promising the family that all he wanted was cash and their car whilst they we’re tied up (Independent, 2015).
After that, he went onto killing Julie Otero, who he said was ‘surprised’ with the time and effort it took to strangle someone, his first attempt was unsuccessful whilst Otero pleaded to let her go. She then went on to say ‘May God have mercy on your soul’ before succeeding in killing her after his second strangulation. He then strangled Joseph Otero II, who was only 9 years old whilst in his bedroom before finally killing Josephine Otero. He did this by tying a noose around her neck and hanged her from a pipe in the basement.
On the 4th April 1974 Rader continued his murder spree by killing Kathryn Bright. Despite her constant attempts and effort to restrain him, she died in hospital hours later after suffering stab wounds. Three year later, Rader killed again. This time on the 17th of March 1977, the victim was named Shirley Vian. When Rader got into the house, he put Vian’s three young children in the bathroom and told them he was ‘only’ going to rape her, then proceed to letting her go. However, he then proceeded to strangling her with a cord after revealing who he was. He also left semen next to her underwear found lying by her body.
In December that year, Nancy Fox was Rader’s latest victim. He broke into Fox’s flat, raped her and tied her to the bed. He also strangled her and left semen next to her nightgown. It would be 8 years until Dennis Rader committed his next murder, being 53 year old widow Marine Hedge. Rader hid on a closet whilst Hedge came home accompanied by a male friend, he waited for the friend to leave and then strangled her in her bed. He then took her body to church and posed for photographs in her basement.
A year later, Rader murdered his 9th victim. He posed as a telephone repairman and entered the home of victim Vicki Wegrele. He strangled her with a ligature as she tried her best to fight him off, before killing her and taking several photos of her dying body.
Dennis Rader’s 10th and final victim came 5 years later, in 1991. The victim was named Dolores Davis. He again posed as someone else, this time a criminal vagrant who was seeking food before binding and strangling her to death. He then dumped her body under a bridge (Free Webs, 2007).
After so many years of Police and authorities attempting to track down Rader, he was finally caught and arrested on 25th February, 2005 and charged with 10 counts of first degree murder. To the major surprise of everyone involved within the case, Rader pleaded guilty to all charges on June 27th, 2005. Whilst in court, he also gave the horrendous details of his crimes and how he committed them. Rader also managed to escape the death penalty as the law wasn’t enforced until 1994 (Biography, 2015).
The Mass Media had a massive impact on Rader’s crimes, and also his eventual arrest. When committing his crimes, Dennis Rader stayed in regular contact with the Police and Media, which in the end the Police exploited and managed to take advantage of when tracking him down. The Police investigation went on for nearly 30 years, with no one getting close to finding him. BTK sent letters and anagrams to the media and Police, this was to terrorise as much as possible and have a sense of power for the individual. During the investigation, the Police used Rader’s unusual fascination with the media to keep him communicating to find out as much information as possible. The FBI also got involved with the case and offered advice on how to handle press briefings which would help with their investigation and keep communication levels as high as possible. When releasing Police statements, they would carefully construct what they would say, not only to reach out for public help but also because they wanted him to continue talking with law enforcement so they could ‘close in’ on their suspect, in the end the medias strategy paid off when he was eventually arrested. (Police Chief Magazine, 2006).
Within the case of Dennis Rader, there is relevant theoretical perspectives which relate to Rader and the crimes he committed. Psychodynamic approach is one example. Some assumptions for the Psychodynamic approach are that the behaviour and feelings are powerfully affected by our unconscious motives. Also, that behaviour and feelings as adults are from previous childhood experiences. The theory also suggests that the personality is made up of three parts. The id, ego and superego. The behaviour of the individual is also made up of two separate drives, one being Eros (Sex Drive and Life instinct) and Thanatos (the aggressive drive and death instinct), (Simply Psychology, 2007). The general explanations of crime came from the influential work of Sigmund Freud, his belief was that sexuality is present from birth and there is a subsequent course of development which is the basis of psychoanalysis and one that has come with a certain level of controversy (Roger Hopkins Burke, 2009, P92). Some of the suggestions of this theory have a direct link to Dennis Rader’s killings, for example by his own admission Rader admitted his crimes we’re sexually motivated. This was Rader’s modus operandi behind his crimes. Dennis Rader also told Police that one of his victims (Josephine Otero) was a specific target as he was sexually attracted to Hispanics. He also admitted how he would satisfy his sexual fantasies by hunting his victims and referring to his killings as his ”projects” (BBC, 2005). He also strangled cats and dogs and had a fetish for women’s underwear when he was younger, which again suggests from previous childhood experiences the Psychodynamic approach links in with Rader’s killings. However, there are some arguments that this theory comes with, Freud originally claimed that experiences of sexual seduction in childhood are the basis of neurosis, which wasn’t the case with Rader as there was no record on him having sexual experiences when he was young, instead creating his own fantasies. Freud did eventually change his mind on this belief though, saying that the seductions may not have taken place, and that they were in fact fantasies, just like the case of Dennis Rader (Roger Hopkins Burke, 2009, P92). The fact that Sigmund Freud changed his mind on psychodynamic theory could suggest that it is unreliable and not completely accurate. On the other hand, Aichorn (1925) argued that when a child is first born, they have specific instinctive drives that ‘demand’ satisfaction that he or she is unaware and unaffected by it. This could be a counter argument that Rader had no control over what he was doing, and was just engaging and satisfying the urges he was ‘born’ with (Roger Hopkins Burke, 2009, P93).
Labelling theory is also relevant to Dennis Rader. The theorists believe that no behaviour is inherited, and instead only comes to the individual when other people influence the label upon the act (Roger Hopkins Burke, 2009, P168) When committing his crimes, he wanted to be known as BTK (Bind, Torture, and Kill). Rader clearly embraced this label as much as possible, he was quoted saying ‘I had a label on me. It was like the ‘Green River Killer’ and ‘Son of Sam’. These quotes from Rader links also links in with Power and Control theory, in which Rader believed he was a ‘dominant’ figure and felt powerful with such a nickname, he also said he wanted just his nickname to be on the ‘list’ of the world’s worst serial killers (Herald Sun, 2014). Labelling theories themselves have different concepts and insights (Roger Hopkins Burke, 2009, P167). Labelling theory can also have an effect on the way someone behaves in their life (like the case of Rader), meaning the label cannot be shaken off which could have been one of the reasons Rader was so keen to have a nickname and insisted on being called it by the general public. (History Learning Site, 2014). A critique of the labelling theory could be that although the argument is that crimes and behaviour only come to the individual once the label has been put upon them, Dennis Rader was committing crimes and his horrific murders before the mass media labelled him as the ‘BTK’, which shows that labelling theory might not be relevant in some cases. There is also criticisms of labelling theory from other sources since it became far more prominent in the 1960’s. One of those was Plummer (1979) who argued that the perspective of the theory isn’t defined and could harbour many different theoretical positions and leaving itself open for further criticism down the line. Gibbs (1966) also argued that labelling theorists claim that an act is deviant if a reaction follows, however at the same time the theory refers to ‘secret and primary deviants’ (Roger Hopkins Burke, 2009, P175). This shows the potential drawbacks that come with labelling theory and how there is an argument for contradicting within the theory itself.
Social Learning theory is also relatable to Dennis Rader. The theory first emerged in the 1970’s as the product of two separate theories all together (behaviourism and cognitive psychology). The main three concepts of Social Leaning theory are learning, social and cognition. The term ‘learning’ in the theory means that many things individuals do are learned, even from a basic age (Tim Newburn, 2007, P153). A Social Learning theory argument in the Dennis Rader case could be that he acted upon his fantasies based on what he observed in the past, whether that was through a poor upbringing and family members or something he found out for himself. On the other hand, to criticize this particular theory, unlike most Serial Killers Dennis Rader had a relatively trauma-free upbringing. In which case he wouldn’t have acted upon actions he hadn’t seen when growing up. Another critique of Social Learning theory came from Albert Bandura during the 20th century. He argued during an experiment which required learners to find a description of certain behaviours, experts suggest that the learning actually occurs after the observation and they might not repeat the same behaviour time after time (EHow, 2015). This suggests that there are shortcomings in the theory.
To conclude, the effect serial murderers have on law enforcement agencies is massive, however with more technology now developing every day it’s becoming easier for law enforcement to catch criminals much quicker. For example, CCTV is constantly improving, making it easier to identify any criminal at one time, as well as thermal imagining. Crime mapping is also a technique law enforcement agencies are using more often, this gives the Police the ability to predict future crime locations, they do this through intelligence led policing (Police Chief, 2004). With the ability to constantly improve different technology systems, this can only improve resources for law enforcement agencies to make sure there isn’t a moral panic amongst the general public and also so that a case like Dennis Rader, which took so many years to conclude, will never happen to that extent again.

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