On 27th June 2005 BTK serial killer Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to 10 murders in the Wichita, Kansas area. He was later sentenced to serve 10 consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole for 175 years.

Rader was particularly known for sending taunting letters to police and newspapers over the 30 years he remained at large. Ironically (or perhaps inevitably) one of these messages was traced to a personal computer at his Lutheran church resulting in his capture on February 5th 2005.





This British documentary was produced just months before the arrest of BTK and gives a fascinating perspective on exactly what was known of this criminal prior to his arrest and provides an interesting contrast to the A&E documentary below, which was produced after the BTK trial and sentencing.





The BTK killer's last known communication with the media and police was a padded envelope which arrived at FOX affiliate KSAS-TV in Wichita on February 16 2005. A purple, 1.44-MB Memorex floppy disk was enclosed in the package. Police found metadata embedded in a Microsoft Word document on the disk that pointed to Christ Lutheran Church, and the document was marked as last modified by "Dennis". A search of the church website turned up Dennis Rader as president of the congregation council. Police immediately began surveillance of Rader.

This A&E documentary was produced post sentencing...





On August 18th 2005, Rader faced sentencing. The victims' families made statements, followed by Rader, who apologized for the crimes. He was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms, which requires a minimum of 175 years without a chance of parole. Because Kansas had no death penalty at the time the murders were committed, this was the maximum sentence allowed.




At his sentencing hearing on August 18, 2005, BTK killer Dennis Rader gave a rambling statement for 25 minutes addressing the court.



He was sentenced to serve 10 consecutive life sentences (one life sentence per victim), without possibility of parole for 175 years. This includes nine life sentences each without the possibility for parole for 15 years, and one life sentence without the possibility for parole for 40 years.

Labels: BTK, crime, Dennis Rader, Kansas, serial killer, usa, Wichita

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