Dennis Rader's public life

After BTK disappeared in 1979, police would spend 25 more years in a frustrating search to try to capture him.

BTK, former Wichita news director Ron Loewen knew, could be anyone, anywhere.

A year before BTK was caught, Loewen told "Dateline," "I think this guy is probably a lot more normal than anybody thinks. He told us that it was easy.  After he killed someone, he just assumed his rightful place in the world. He's really the stranger beside you. He is a person who has been walking in that community."

Today that all sounds prophetic — because that's just what Dennis Rader was doing all those years: Hiding in plain sight, raising his children, going to church, getting a degree in his spare time, and attending Kansas State University home football games.

In fact, Loewen, who took a look at Rader's interview with the psychologist says the serial killer is even more ordinary than he imagined. 

Loewen: His family is so wonderfully Kansas.  His daughter was a high school golf champion. His son is I think in the Navy. His wife sings in the church choir and has a job in a convenience store.  They're average people making a simple good life together. Boy, you would never pick him out of a crowd. I thought there would be something that would be more evident.  But he was just as beige as beige could be.

Mike Fitch knew Rader when they were both employees at ADT, where Rader worked for nearly 15 years installing home security systems. He remembers Rader as a stickler for perfection - making his customers happy was Rader's top priority, even if he could be cranky and critical of others.

Fitch: I definitely didn't want to get on his wrong side.  So I was intimidated by him when I first started working there.

But Fitch says he saw no hint of Rader's violent side.

Fitch: We'd sit around and have popcorn before he went home.

And what could be more solid American citizen than being active in his young son's Boy Scouts?

Fellow scouting leader Bob Munroe says Dennis Rader always set a good example for the boys in his troop and for Rader's own son, who went on to be an Eagle Scout. 

Munroe: He took part in everything that we did in scouting and with his son, which was very important in cub scouting as you do work with your boys.  And so I consider him to be a very good parent and a very good scout leader at that time, of course.

Contrary to the common assumption that serial killers are generally loners or social outcasts, criminologist James Fox says they can often seem to be one of us. 

Fox: Many serial killers have families and children and friends. And no one suspects them. Because they have this ordinary, normal appearing life. And what people don't know about is the darker side, the hidden side.

Magnus: So you can be someone who binds, tortures and kills one minute and has a seemingly normal life the next?

Fox: Absolutely. We've seen it time and time again.

John Wayne Gacy of Chicago, who murdered 33 young men, appeared normal enough: He was once named Jaycees man of the year.

Ted Bundy, considered charming, was a law student and socialized in political circles until he was caught. He killed at least 33 women in five different states. 

On the other hand, New York's “Son of Sam,” a.k.a. David Berkowitz, who shot six, was a loner — and so too was Jeffrey Dahmer of Milwaukee, who dissected dead animals as a child, then later murdered and dismembered 17 young men and boys.

But why would anyone ever suspect a man like Dennis Rader? Consider his substantial involvement with his local Lutheran church. Paul Carlstedt has known Rader through the church for 30 years and says he was an exemplary member.

Carlstedt: He will be an usher. He will run the sound system. He'll count the money after the service.  If something needs to be done, Dennis was always available to help.

As hard as this may be to believe, the serial killer told the psychologist in the jailhouse interview that he considers himself a religious person.

Mendoza:  Do you pray?

Rader:  Yes, I do.  Study the Bible daily and that helps, not only just for spiritual.  But a lot of it is good meanings and the good concepts, things that you can use in life.

“Even serial killers can believe in God,” says Fox. “This is not inconsistent with the kind of person who can fulfill his sexual fantasies who feels he has the right to do it with people he regards as object or, things.”

And Fox sees special significance in Rader taking over this past January as the president of his church congregation, just weeks before he was caught.

Fox: Being in charge, being in control, power, importance are themes in his life. That's why he pursued this role in a church.

In 1991, Rader had found a  day job that could give him control and power.  He was made a compliance officer. Rader was now ironically, in charge of making certain others followed the letter of the law in park city, just north of Wichita.  His duties included making sure homeowners complied with various local ordinances like keeping their grass cut, their yards free of junked cars, or their dogs from running wild.

But it was in that job that at least some people saw a darker side to Dennis Rader.  Dee Stuart, a long-time acquaintance of Rader's, has a good friend who reported to him in the compliance department.  This friend, she says, found him controlling and belligerent.

Stuart: There were times when he when he yelled at her in front of other employees. He demeaned her. He told her she would never be as smart as he was.

But she says he could turn his good and bad sides on and off.

Stuart: He could be berating her, he could be screaming at her, and if the phone rang and it was a member of his family, he turned into Ward Cleaver.

Dr. Fox says this apparent Jekyll-and-Hyde personality is classic for many serial killers.

Fox: I don't believe there are two Raders in one body. It's just that we all have a range in our personality. And somebody like Dennis Radar indeed has two different shades, sides to his personality. And, he hides from the people in his life the dark, negative, brutal.

Magnus: Wouldn't those closest to Dennis Rader, his wife, his children have had to know something?

Fox: Nope. We'd like to believe that.  We think it's incomprehensible that those closest wouldn't know. John Wayne Gacy was burying bodies in the crawl space of his home while he lived in that house with his wife.  And there was a horrible odor coming from the crawl space.  And she asked him about it — "What's that odor?"  And he would say it was sewer gas and he'd take care of it.  And she'd believe him. Dennis Rader's wife would never suspect.  He gave no signs.

They'd find out eventually.  Because it seems Dennis Rader couldn't stand staying hidden forever.  

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