For the History of a Public Controversy project, my group is investigating the question as to whether the actions of serial killers are innate or elicited in their childhood and upbringing, succinctly called the “nature vs. nurture” argument. For the initial research, I have been assigned to contextualize the case of Dennis “BTK” Rader to the aforementioned controversy, specifically focusing on Rader’s post-murder actions and how he seems to be an exception to the psychopathy and criminal profiling paradigms. The analysis, which will be condensed to accomodate the video time constraints, is in conjunction with research by Abhiram Kotireddy, Andre Mitrik, and Thomas Schindler.

 

The standout facet of the Rader case is his taunting of both the police and the media through letters and phone calls. In 1974, his first phone call led investigators to a self-authored letter describing his initial murders that contains the first reference to the nickname BTK (“Bind them, Torture them, Kill them”) and speaks of the “monster” permanently inside his head. Subsequent letters take the form of poems addressing his crimes (e.g., “Oh Death to Nancy,” referring to the murder of Nancy Fox). The most notable call came in the immediate aftermath of the Fox murder in 1977, in which Rader “accepted responsibility” for the homicide and led police directly to the scene. Perhaps most unique about the Rader case is the fact that he remained criminally dormant for over 30 years, continuing to play the media and the Wichita Police Department (WPD) between his 1970s crime spree and his early 2000s plans for additional murders, communicating semi-anonymously 19 times in all. He was finally apprehended in 2005 only after a floppy disk “promised” by investigators to not be used against him was traced to his home. In sending the disk to police, Rader actually believed that it would not be used to catch him. One may regard such a sentiment as a fatal mistake, but FBI agents such as Roy Hazelwood associate it with Rader’s desire for authority, exemplified in his persistent taunting of his quasi-superiors and culminating in the perceived sense of trust between Rader and the WPD. Being a part-time code compliance officer with a badge, many believe that Rader’s sadism is less a reflection of his sexual desires and more a manifestation of the innately human thirst for power. After all, Rader was legally determined to exhibit narcissism above all, so his crimes may simply be demonstrations of power and image projection corrupting the mind.

The veracity of Rader’s narcissism over his psychopathy is further aggrandized by his criminal profile, which incorrectly describes him as “not hav[ing] many friends,” “not be[ing] married,” and having “superficial” relationships. A 2002 study by Alison, et al. criticizes profiling methods as being contingent upon “broad personality types” and ignorant of hard evidence. However, it is indubitable that such profiling has resulted in the apprehensions of myriad serial killers, most of whom were attributed to upbringings not unlike that of Rader. Particularly, it is common among killers to have engaged in or witnessed their mothers’ sexual activities, with Ed Kemper actually having an affair with his mother. Evidence of a serial killer’s background being the major contributor to his actions is bolstered by findings that released psychopaths are three to four times more likely to reoffend that their non-psychotic counterparts; moreover, personalities, even inherently undesirable ones, tend to solidify over time. Thus, one may presume that all evil acts originate from childhood experiences. However, in cases like Rader’s, the actions of the killer—whether in the modus operandi of the crime or in the arrogance and obsession displayed afterward—embody themselves as a lust for power and satisfaction—inherent in all humans but manifested extremely so in people like Rader, Dahmer, Bundy, Holmes. The question raised by the eccentricity of the Rader case and others thus goes: can serial killers be prevented through an examination of the family unit, or does the desire for power rarely but inevitably translate to the desire to kill?