Dennis Rader: Serial Killer

Mindhunter is an autobiography of John Douglas, an FBI agent. Douglas is renowned for his criminal profiling techniques that eventually led him to start the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) within the FBI. In the book, Douglas describes his childhood and how he eventually became part of the FBI. Throughout his past, he makes it very apparent that he developed the knack for profiling others at a young age and how it can be applied in various circumstances. When he eventually entered the FBI unit, he worked in a department that focused on criminal psychology. Since psychology is a softer science, the department was given little regard. Douglas initiated a huge progressive movement within the field by interviewing a variety of violent offenders such as Ed Kemper, Charles Manson, Richard Speck, and David Berkowitz. Through these interviews, he began to notice commonalities in their upbringing and other behavioral patterns that could be further organized into profiles. This sparked the beginning of understanding the phenomenon of serial killers and the implementation of criminal profiling, which is currently

On January 15,1974 Dennis Rader killed Four members of the Otero family. This was his first kill. He waited long for the him to recognize his self with the family He has watched them enough to know what he is going to be dealing with. Than he came in their back door and strangled the family one by one. When he was finished he left through the front door. Later that night their 15 year old son from the otero family came home and discovered the bodies.(3). By killing these people he gained a sense of pleasure feeling and power and control over what he was doing. “Left semen at the scene and later said he derived sexual pleasure from killing”(3). According to this article Rader not only feeling sexual pleasure from this but he felt

Profiling is like going into the minds of the criminals to predict their actions and behavior. He used it to catch serial killers for the FBI. One serial killer that Ressler used profiling for is John Wayne Gacy. He would lead victims into his house where he would strangle them. It is said that he committed at least 33 murders before he was sentenced to death at the age of 52 years old. Ressler found that “serial killers who were organized show planning, forethought, and cunning and are able to maintain full control over their lives and how they appear to those around them.” Gacy fit this profile because he would dress up as a clown to entertain local children, so no one would really suspect him to be a serial

Rader fits the reason for a serial killer’s motivation. In a testimony in the book he states,” In court testimony many years later, he attributed the killings to sexual needs, and he apparently molested at least one of the females” (190). He also held traits connected to all serial killers.

The serial killer I chose to do my report on was Dennis Rader. Rader was born on March 9, 1945 in Pittsburg, Kansas and as of today he is still alive. Rader was the oldest of four sons. When Dennis was a child he hung stray cats. He grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Rader served our country by joining the U.S Air Force which he served from the mid to late 1960’s. He got married to Paula in 1971 and he work for a company that sold camping gear but he only worked there for a few years. He worked for ADT services in 1974.

The Night Stalker. Ted Bundy. The Green River Killer. These are some of the many notorious killers that put the nation into a panic. With the help of forensic science these men were apprehended and brought to justice. The enigma of catching a killer has always amazed me. Killers like the ones mentioned where like characters from a prime time television drama. Dramas like Bones, NCIS, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation showcases the techniques that are used to catch the “bad guys”. Forensic science has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl watching Forensic Files with my father. He would teach me how the police would catch these men that seemed unstoppable but I saw how much more there is to it. The science behind catching a murderous

Rader sent numerous letters to police and media taunting them with gory details of his crimes. Then he stopped writing one day and police and the media thought he was never going to be caught and brought to justice. Then again in 2004 he wrote a letter to police because they did not connect a murder to him (Hickey, 2016). He wrote asking if there was any way to trace information from a floppy disk. The police lied and said there was no way.

Dennis Rader, or the BTK Killer, was responsible for the murder of ten people between 1974 and 1991. He was known for writing letters to police after a murder that offered information that nobody knew. Eventually the murders and letters stopped, then in 2004 Rader sent another letter to police claiming responsibility for a murder that was not connected to him before. Thanks to advancements in DNA technology police were able to collect evidence from underneath the victim’s fingernails. Rader soon then sent a computer disk to a TV station and police were able to analyze the data from a document found on it and learned that the authors name was Dennis. There was also a link to a Lutheran Church that Rader was a part of. After police did a search including Dennis and Lutheran Church, they found that the church has a deacon named Dennis Rader. After police get a DNA sample from Raders daughter, they

In January of 1974, Dennis Rader violently murdered his first victims, an entire family of 4, which he killed and left the bodies in his local city of Wichita, Kansas. From that point, he went on to kill 6 more people over the next 17 years. The majority of his victims suffered from strangulation, but one was stabbed, one was hanged, and the others were suffocated.

These killers plan, stalk, and do everything they can not to leave evidence behind. They are very organized and will do things to stay one step ahead of law enforcement”(Schurman-Kauflin). They will do anything to get away with their crime so they don’t have to go to prison for life. Nevertheless, with all the technology, such as DNA fingerprinting, actual

Though serial killer may have a fairly specific definition, there is no single precise profile for the serial killer. Each has a unique identity, set of motives and methods, and a unique psychopathology that would attempt to explain the mens rea, that is, the purpose or intent of the murder. “Psychological profiling is an investigative tool used strictly to answer the how of the crime, not the why” (Severence et al, 1992; Lanier and Henry, 1998). By examining the psychological make-up of the serial killer, it is often possible to explain the behavior, which might make it a useful tool in solving crimes.

For some reason, the police failed to lab test the cereal boxes that Rader planted near a Home Depot stuffed with murder details, along with the question asking officers to communicate a response to him in a newspaper medium that “Rex, it will be ok” to use an untraceable floppy to communicate with the police (Hansen, 2006). Rader wrongfully thought the floppy disk was actually not traceable, not appreciating the computer forensics of residual data about file author and date fields on the supposedly “wiped” floppy disk. In addition to the unwiped metadata, some deleted data was still accessible because it filled the slack on the drive, and slack is sometimes not deleted until it is ultimately overwritten with fresh data, leaving behind an incriminating trail of data that revealed his name and workplace. When he printed a letter to officers

Criminal profiling is one of few first things to think of when it comes to forensic psychology. Criminal profiling is featured in popular television shows such as in Law and Order and CSI. Often in those shows, the police officers were able to catch the criminals based on the criminal profile that forensic psychologists came up with. In a theory, the polices rely on criminal profiling to catch criminals, educate the public about a possible criminal, and confirm the witnesses’ accounts. Criminal profiling involves using various methods to guess a criminal’s background, behavior, and even preferences for the victims.

The psychologist contributes to investigations criminal behavior by profiling and similar techniques. The criminal psychologist can also assist with pretrial methods. This subsection is highly important because it includes the evaluation and treatment of suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime. The primary task of the forensic psychologist profiling. Psychological profiling involves “investigating an offender's behavior, motives and background in an attempt to further guide an investigation…,” (APA). There are several different areas of profiling that the professionals do in the field. In criminal profiling the psychologist analyzes the emotional, mental disposition of a suspect. While remaining as a slightly controversial technique, profiling has become an increasingly prominent part of criminal investigation. When used properly it has the capacity of being one of law enforcement’s most powerful tools.

Historically, crime and criminals have always caught the attention of law-abiding citizens. Whenever there is mention of serial killers or unsolved murders or abductions, psychological profiling, floats to the top of the list of concerns (Egger, 1999). Psychological profiling is an attempt to provide investigators with more information about an offender who has not yet been identified (Egger, 1999). Its purpose is to develop a behavioral composite that combines both sociological and psychological assessment of the would-be offender. The type of person who could have committed the crime can often be identified on the premise that accurate analysis and interpretation of the crime scene can point to a