Illustrated in 1970s suburban home magazine illustration style
The Compliant Citizen
A Story About a Man Who Followed Every Rule But One
Dennis was the most ordinary man in Wichita, Kansas. He installed home security systems! He was a Cub Scout leader! He was president of his church congregation! He mowed his lawn every Saturday and measured the grass with a ruler. Dennis liked rules. He liked them very, very much.
Dennis Rader was a compliance officer, Cub Scout leader, and president of his church council in Park City, Kansas.
But Dennis had a secret hobby. He would choose a family, watch their house for weeks, and learn their schedule. He called it 'stalking a project.' Dennis was very organized about his hobby. He kept notes and drawings and even gave himself a special name: BTK. It stood for Bind, Torture, Kill. Dennis was not good at being subtle.
Rader meticulously stalked his victims, keeping detailed records. He created the BTK moniker himself and sent it to police and media.
Between 1974 and 1991, Dennis visited ten people who did not want to be visited. He tied neat knots, because Dennis did everything neatly. Then he went home, had dinner with his family, and went to church on Sunday. 'What a fine, upstanding citizen,' the neighbors said. And they were mostly right. Just not about the upstanding part.
Rader murdered 10 people over 17 years while maintaining a seemingly normal family life.
Dennis loved attention. He sent letters to the police and the newspapers. 'Why haven't you caught me yet?' he teased. Then he stopped writing for thirteen years. Everyone thought BTK had died or moved away. But Dennis was right there the whole time, measuring his grass and complaining about neighbors' fence heights.
Rader taunted authorities with letters, then went dormant from 1991 to 2004 before resuming communication.
Dennis asked the police a question: 'Can you trace a floppy disk?' The police said no. The police lied. The floppy disk led straight to Dennis's church computer. 'I'm disappointed in you,' Dennis told the detectives. He really thought they'd play fair. The compliance officer, it turned out, was not very good at compliance.
Rader was caught in 2005 after police traced metadata on a floppy disk to his church computer. He was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms.