Zodiac Killer Research Paper

The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in Northern California for ten months in the late 1960s. He coined his name in a series of taunting letters he sent to the press until 1974. His letters included four cryptograms or ciphers, three of which have yet to be solved.
The Zodiac murdered five known victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. Four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted. Others have been inconclusively proposed to be Zodiac victims as well.
The killer's identity remains unknown. The San Francisco Police Department marked its investigation "inactive" in April 2004 and reopened it some time before March 2007.
Although the Zodiac claimed
in letters to newspapers that he murdered as many as 37 people, investigators agree on only seven canonical victims, two of whom survived. They are:
• David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: Shot and killed on December 20, 1968 on Lake Herman Road just within the city limits of Benicia.
• Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: Shot on July 4, 1969 at Blue Rock Springs Golf Course parking lot on the outskirts of Vallejo; Darlene was DOA at Kaiser Foundation Hospital, while Michael survived.
• Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: Stabbed on September 27, 1969 on what is today locally referred to as "Zodiac Island" at Lake Berryessa in Napa County; Hartnell survived six stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died of her injuries two days later at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa. [1]
• Paul Lee Stine, 29: Shot and killed on October 11, 1969 in Presidio Heights in San Francisco.
[edit] Suspected
Many others have been identified as potential Zodiac victims, although evidence is inconclusive and none are universally accepted as Zodiac victims. The more well-known suspected victims are:
• Robert Domingos, 18, and Linda Edwards, 17: Shot and killed on June 4, 1963 at a beach near Lompoc, California. Edwards and Domingos were named as possible Zodiac victims due to the specific similarities between their attack and the Zodiac's attack at Lake Berryessa.
• Cheri Jo Bates, 18: Stabbed to death and nearly decapitated on October 30, 1966 at Riverside Community College in Riverside, California. Bates' possible connection to the Zodiac only came to light four years after her murder when San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery received a tip regarding similarities between the Zodiac killings and the circumstances surrounding Bates' death.
• Kathleen Johns, 22: Abducted on March 22, 1970 on Highway 132 by I-580, west of Modesto, California. Johns escaped from the car of a man who drove her and her infant daughter around on the backroads between Stockton and Patterson for some three hours. After escaping to the police station in Patterson, she saw the Zodiac's wanted poster and identified him as her kidnapper.
• Donna Lass, 25: Last seen September 26, 1970 in South Lake Tahoe, California. A postcard with an ad from Forest Pines condominiums (near Incline Village at Lake Tahoe) pasted on the back was received at the Chronicle on March 22, 1971 and has been interpreted by some as the Zodiac claiming Lass' disappearance as a victim, despite an incorrect count (in his July 26, 1970 letter, the Zodiac was already claiming thirteen victims; Lass should have been the fourteenth, not the twelfth, as the Pines card suggests). The postcard has not been conclusively linked to the Zodiac nor has Lass' body been found. There was no official investigation conducted due to jurisdictional disagreements between the South Lake Tahoe Police and the Sheriff's Department, and it is unknown whether a crime was even committed.
[edit] Timeline
[edit] Lake Herman Road
The Zodiac Killer came to police attention for the apparently random murders of Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on December 20, 1968, just inside the Benicia, California city limits.
The couple was on their first date and had planned to attend a Christmas concert at Hogan High, which was just a few blocks from Jensen's home, but instead decided to visit a friend and stopped at a local restaurant.
At approximately 10:15 pm, Faraday and Jensen parked in a gravel turnout on Lake Herman Road. Shortly after 11 pm, the Zodiac pulled into the turnout and parked beside them. At least one witness drove by moments later and saw both cars, but did not see anyone inside either vehicle. Moments later he heard what seemed to be a gunshot, but was not sure since his radio was on.
The Zodiac shot Faraday once in the head and Jensen five times in the back as she ran away. Their bodies were found minutes later by Stella Borges, who lived nearby. She alerted Captain Daniel Pitta and Officer William T Warner. Detective Sergeant Les Lundblad of the Solano County Sheriff's Department investigated the crime, but no solid leads developed.
[edit] Blue Rock Springs
Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau were shot around midnight on July 4 - July 5, 1969 at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course parking lot in Vallejo, four miles from the Lake Herman Road murder site. While they sat in Ferrin's car, another car drove into the lot and parked beside them, drove away almost immediately, then returned about ten minutes later. The Zodiac parked behind them to prevent escape and approached the passenger side door with a flashlight, which he used to blind them. He then shot them with a 9mm Luger handgun.
At 12:40 am on July 5, 1969, a man anonymously called the Vallejo Police Department to report and claim responsibility for the attack.
He also took credit for the murders of Jensen and Faraday six and a half months earlier. The police traced the call to a phone booth at a gas station at Springs and Tuolumne, about three tenths of a mile from Ferrin's home and only a few blocks from the Vallejo Sheriff's Department. [2]
Ferrin was pronounced dead at the hospital. Mageau survived the attack despite being shot in the face, neck and chest.
Ferrin was a waitress at Terry's Waffle House in Vallejo. In a popular book about the case seventeen years later, an unsubstantiated story circulated that the Zodiac was an admirer and regular customer of hers. It was claimed that she knew him responsible for the Lake Herman Road (and perhaps other) murders, and that he killed her either to prevent her from fingering him or because she was blackmailing him in exchange for her silence. None of this has any basis in fact, and can be traced directly to the low-budget 1971 movie, The Zodiac Killer, the 1979 novel The Zodiac Killer by Jerry Weissman, and a May 4, 1981 story by Bill Wallace that appeared in the Chronicle.[3][4] Detectives John Lynch and Ed Rust of the Vallejo Police Department initially investigated the crime. Detective Jack Mulanax took over the case in the
1970s.
[edit] The Zodiac letters begin

The crosshair-like symbol used by the Zodiac Killer in signing his letters.
On August 1, 1969, three letters prepared by Zodiac were received at the Vallejo Times-Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner. The nearly identically written letters took credit for the three murders and also included one third of a cryptogram with a total of 408 characters which he claimed contained his identity. Zodiac demanded they be printed on the front page or he would go on a rampage and kill a dozen people that weekend. The threatened murders did not happen, and all three parts were eventually published.
On August 4, 1969, another letter was received at the San Francisco Examiner with the salutation, "Dear Editor This is the Zodiac speaking". The letter was in response to Chief Stiltz of Vallejo asking him to provide more details to prove he was really the killer of Faraday, Jensen and Ferrin.
On August 8, 1969, Donald and Bettye Harden of Salinas, California cracked the cryptogram, which did not contain Zodiac's name. The message read:
“ I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST [sic] BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANAMAL [sic] OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE [sic] IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAT WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE [sic] AND ALL THE [sic] I HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOI [sic] DOWN OR STOP MY COLLECTING OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE EBEORIETEMETHHPITI [sic] ”
The meaning of the final eighteen symbols was not determined.
[edit] Lake Berryessa
On September 27, 1969, Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were picnicking on the shores of Lake Berryessa, on a small island connected by a sand spit to Twin Oak Ridge. Zodiac, wearing a black executioner's type hood (but square on top like a paper bag) with clip-on sunglasses over the eye-holes and a bib-like device on his chest that had a white 3"x3" cross-circle symbol on it, approached them with a gun Hartnell believed to be a .45. The hooded man claimed to be an escaped convict from Deer Lodge, Montana, where he killed a guard and stole a car, and explained that he needed their car and money to go to Mexico. He had brought precut lengths of plastic clothesline and told Shepard to tie up Hartnell, before tying her up. The Zodiac checked and tightened Hartnell's bonds after discovering she bound him loosely. Hartnell initially believed it to be a weird robbery, but Zodiac drew a knife and stabbed them both, then hiked the 500 yards back up to Knoxville Road, drew the cross circle symbol on Hartnell's car door, and wrote beneath it: Vallejo 12-20-68, 7-4-69, Sept 27-69-6:30 by knife.
At 7:40 p.m., Zodiac called Napa County Sheriff's office from a pay telephone to report his crime. The phone was found still off the hook minutes later at the Napa Car Wash on Main Street in Napa by KVON radio reporter Pat Stanley,[5] only a few blocks from the sheriff's office and 27 miles from the crime scene. Detectives were able to lift fresh fingerprints from the telephone but were never able to match them to a suspect.
A man and his son who were fishing in a nearby cove had discovered the victims after hearing their screams for help and summoned help by contacting park rangers. Napa County Sheriff Deputies Dave Collins and Ray Land were the first law enforcement officers to arrive at the scene of the assault [6]. Both officers were quite some distance from the crime scene when they were dispatched to the scene. Collins was on patrol in the Vichy Springs area about 20 miles away while Land was in St. Helena. Cecelia Shepard was conscious when Collins arrived and gave him a detailed description of the attacker. Hartnell and Shepard were taken to Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa by ambulance. Shepard lapsed into a coma during transport to the hospital and never regained consciousness. She died two days later, but Hartnell survived to recount his tale [7] to the press. Napa County Sheriff Detective Ken Narlow [8] was assigned to the case from the outset and he worked on solving the crime until his retirement from the department in 1987.
[edit] Presidio Heights
On October 11, 1969, the Zodiac entered Paul Stine's cab at the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco and requested to be taken to Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Heights. For reasons unknown, Stine drove one block further to Cherry Street; the Zodiac shot him once in the head with a 9mm (a different weapon than the one used at Blue Rock Springs three months earlier), then took his wallet and car keys and tore off his shirt tail. He was observed by three teenagers across the street at 9:55 pm, who called the police as the crime was in progress. They observed the Zodiac wiping the cab down, either eliminating fingerprints or sopping up blood with the shirt tail, and then walking away towards the Presidio, one block to the north. The police arrived minutes later, and the teen witnesses explained that the killer was still nearby.
Two blocks from the crime scene, officer Don Fouke, also responding to the call, observed a man walking along the sidewalk then stepping onto a stairway leading up to the front yard of one of the homes on the north side of the street; the encounter lasted only five to ten seconds. His rookie partner, Eric Zelms, did not see the man. The radio dispatch had alerted them to look for a black and not a white suspect, so they had no reason to talk to the man and drove past him without stopping; the mix up in descriptions remains unexplained to this day. When they reached Cherry, Fouke was informed that they were in fact looking for a white suspect; Fouke realized they must have passed the killer. Fouke concluded that the Zodiac had resumed his original route and escaped into the Presidio, so they entered the base to look for him but the Zodiac had vanished. A search ensued, but nothing was found. The three teen witnesses worked with a police artist to prepare a composite of Stine's killer, and a few days later returned to produce a second composite. The Zodiac was estimated to be 35-45 years of age. Detectives Bill Armstrong and Dave Toschi were assigned to the case. SFPD eventually investigated an estimated 2,500 suspects over a period of years.[9]
On October 14, 1969, the Chronicle received yet another letter from the Zodiac, this time containing a swatch of Paul Stine's shirt tail as proof he was the killer; it also included a threat about shooting school children. It was only then that the police knew who they were looking for a few nights before in Presidio Heights.
At 2:00 am on October 22, 1969, someone claiming to be the Zodiac called Oakland PD demanding that one of two prominent lawyers, F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, appear on Jim Dunbar's television talk show in the morning. Bailey was not available, but Belli appeared on the show. Dunbar appealed to the viewers to keep the lines open, and eventually, someone claiming to be the Zodiac called several times and said his name was Sam. Belli agreed to meet with Sam in Daly City, but the suspect never showed up. Police officers who had heard the Zodiac listened to Sam's voice and agreed that he was not the Zodiac. Subsequent calls Sam made to Belli were traced to the Napa State Hospital, where it was learned that he was a mental patient there.
On November 8, 1969, the Zodiac mailed a card with another cryptogram consisting of 340 characters and on November 9, 1969, he mailed a seven-page letter in which he claimed that two policemen stopped and actually spoke with him three minutes after he shot Stine. Excerpts from the letter were published in the Chronicle on November 12, including the Zodiac's claim; that same day, Don Fouke wrote a memo explaining what had happened that night. The 340 character cipher has never been decoded.[10] Many possible "solutions" have been suggested, but cannot be accepted since they do away with codemaking conventions.
On December 20, 1969, the Zodiac mailed a letter to Belli and included yet another swatch of Stine's shirt; the Zodiac claimed he wanted Belli to help him.
[edit] Modesto
On the night of March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns was driving from San Bernardino to Petaluma to visit her mother. She was seven months pregnant and had her ten-month-old daughter beside her. While heading west on Highway 132 near Modesto, a car behind her began honking and flashing its lights. She pulled off the road and stopped. The man in the car parked behind her, stated her right rear tire was wobbling, and offered to tighten the lugs. After finishing his work, the man drove off, and when Johns pulled forward the wheel came off the car. The man stopped, backed up, and offered to drive her to the nearest gas station for help. She and her daughter climbed into his car. They drove past several service stations but the man did not stop. For some three hours he drove them up and down the backroads around Tracy, and when she asked why he was not stopping, he would change the subject.[11]
When the driver stopped at an intersection, Johns jumped out with her daughter and hid in a field. He came out to look for her, but when a truck driver spotted the scene Johns' abductor sped off. Johns hitched a ride to the police station in Patterson. As she gave her statement to the sergeant on duty, she noticed the police composite of Paul Stine's killer and recognized him as the man who abducted her and her child. The sergeant, afraid the Zodiac might arrive at any moment and kill them all, had Johns wait in nearby Mil's Restaurant in the dark. Her car was eventually found — torched and gutted.
There are many conflicting accounts of the Johns abduction. Most claim he threatened to kill her and her daughter while driving them around, but at least one police report disputes that.[11] Johns' account to Paul Avery of the Chronicle indicates her abductor left his car and searched for her in the dark with a flashlight; however, in the two reports she made to the police, she stated he did not leave the vehicle.[12] Some accounts state Johns' vehicle was moved then torched, while others contend it was located where she'd left it.[12] The various discrepancies among Johns' accounts over the years have led many researchers to question if she was an actual Zodiac victim.[13]
[edit] Further communications
The Zodiac continued to communicate with authorities for the remainder of 1970 via letters and greeting cards to the press. In a letter postmarked April 20, 1970, the Zodiac wrote, "My name is [blank]," followed by a thirteen-character cipher.[14] The Zodiac went on to state that he was not responsible for the recent bombing of a police station in San Francisco (referring to the February 18, 1970 death of Sgt. Brian McDonnell at Park Station in Golden Gate Park)[15] but added "there is more glory to killing a cop than a cid [sic] because a cop can shoot back." The letter included a diagram of a bomb the Zodiac claimed he would use to blow up a school bus. At the bottom of the diagram was a taunting score: " = 10, SFPD = 0".[16]
Zodiac sent a greeting card postmarked April 28, 1970 to the Chronicle. Written on the card was, "I hope you enjoy yourselves when I have my BLAST," followed by the Zodiac's cross circle signature. On the back of the card, the Zodiac threatened to use his bus bomb soon unless the newspaper published the full details he wrote. He also wanted to start seeing people wearing "some nice Zodiac butons [sic]."[17]
In a letter postmarked June 26, 1970, the Zodiac stated he was upset he did not see people wearing Zodiac buttons. He wrote, "I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a .38." [18] It has been proposed the Zodiac was referring to the murder of Sgt Richard Radetich a week earlier, on June 19, 1970. At 5:25 am, twenty-five year old Radetich was writing a parking ticket in his squad car when an assailant shot him in the head with a .38-caliber pistol. Radetich died fifteen hours later. SFPD denies the Zodiac murderer was involved in this murder. It remains unsolved.[15]
Included with the letter was a Phillips 66 map of the San Francisco Bay Area. On the image of Mount Diablo, the Zodiac had drawn a crossed-circle similar to that he had included in previous correspondence. At the top of the crossed circle, he placed a zero, and then a three, six, and a nine, so the annotation resembled a clock face. The accompanying instructions stated that the zero was “to be set to Mag. N."[19] The letter also included a thirty-two letter cipher that the killer claimed would, in conjunction with the code, lead to the location of a bomb he had buried and set to go off in the autumn. (The bomb was never located). The killer had signed the note with " = 12, SFPD = 0".
In a letter to the Chronicle postmarked July 24, 1970, the Zodiac took credit for the Kathleen Johns abduction, four months after the incident.[20]
In his July 26, 1970 letter, the Zodiac paraphrased a song from The Mikado, adding his own lyrics about making a "little list" of the ways he planned to torture his slaves in "paradice." The letter was signed with a large, exaggerated cross circle symbol and a new score: " = 13, SFPD = 0".[21] A final note at the bottom of the letter stated, "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians." [22] In 1981, a close examination of the radian hint by Zodiac researcher Gareth Penn led to the discovery that a radian angle, when placed over the map per Zodiac's instructions, pointed to the locations of two Zodiac attacks. [23]
[edit] Riverside
On October 27, 1970, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery (who had been covering the Zodiac case) received a Halloween card signed with a letter 'Z' and the Zodiac's cross circle symbol. Handwritten on the card was the note "Peek-a-boo, you are doomed." The threat was taken seriously and received a front page story on the Chronicle. Soon after, Avery received an anonymous letter alerting him to the similarities between the Zodiac's activities and the unsolved murder of Cheri Jo Bates which occurred four years earlier at the city college in Riverside, California, more than four hundred miles south of San Francisco. He reported his findings in the Chronicle on November 16, 1970.
On October 30, 1966, Bates spent the evening at the campus library annex until it closed at 9:00 pm. Neighbors reported they heard a scream around 10:30 pm. Bates was found dead the next morning a short distance from the library between two abandoned houses slated to be demolished for campus renovations. The wires in her Volkswagen's distributor cap had been pulled out. She was brutally beaten and stabbed to death. A man's Timex watch with a torn wristband was found nearby. The watch had stopped at 12:24, but it is believed the attack occurred much earlier. Also discovered were the prints of a military-style shoe.[24]

The Confession
A month later, on November 29, 1966, nearly identical typewritten letters were mailed to the Riverside police and the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Titled "The Confession", the author claimed responsibility for the Bates murder, providing details of the crime not released to the public, and warned that Bates "is not the first and she will not be the last."
In December 1966, a poem was discovered carved into the bottom side of a desktop in the Riverside City College library. Titled "Sick of living/unwilling to die", the poem's language and handwriting resembled those of the Zodiac's letters. It was signed with what were assumed to be the initials "rh". Sherwood Morrill, California's top Questioned Documents examiner, expressed his opinion that the poem was written by the Zodiac.
On April 30, 1967 -- the six-month anniversary of Bates' murder -- Bates' father Joseph, the Press-Enterprise, and the Riverside police all received nearly identical letters. In handwritten scrawl, the Press-Enterprise and police copies read "Bates had to die there will be more," with a small scribble at the bottom that resembled the letter 'Z'. Joseph Bates' copy read "She had to die there will be more" without a 'Z' “signature”.
On March 13, 1971, nearly four months after Paul Avery's first article on Bates, the Zodiac mailed a letter to the Los Angeles Times. In it he credited the police instead of Avery for discovering his "Riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there."[25]
The connection between Cheri Jo Bates, Riverside, and the Zodiac remains uncertain. The Riverside Police Department maintains that the Bates homicide was not committed by the Zodiac, but did concede some of the Bates letters may have been his work to falsely claim credit.[26]
[edit] Lake Tahoe
On March 22, 1971, a postcard addressed to "Paul Averly," believed to be from the Zodiac, appeared to take credit for the disappearance of Donna Lass from South Lake Tahoe, California on September 26, 1970. Made from a collage of advertisements and magazine lettering, it featured a scene from an ad for Forest Pines and the text "Sierra Club," "Sought Victim 12," "peek through the pines," "pass Lake Tahoe areas," and "around in the snow." Zodiac's cross circle symbol was in the place of the usual return address.[27]
Lass was a nurse at the Sahara Tahoe hotel and casino. She worked until approximately 2:00 am on September 26, treating her last patient at 1:40 am, and was not seen leaving her office. The next morning, her work uniform and shoes were found in a paper bag in her office inexplicably soiled with dirt. Her car was found at her apartment complex, and her apartment was spotless.[28] Later that day both her employer and her landlord received phone calls from an unknown male who falsely claimed Lass had to leave town due to a family emergency.[29] The police and sheriffs' office initially treated Lass' disappearance as a missing persons investigation, suspecting she simply left on her own.[28] Lass was never found. What appeared to be a grave site was discovered near the Claire Tappan Lodge in Norden, California on Sierra Club property, but excavation yielded only a pair of sunglasses.[30]
Researchers are split on the question of Lass being an actual Zodiac victim. Some believe the Lass postcard was not prepared by the Zodiac, but rather was sent by another person attempting to blame Zodiac for the crime. Others believe that the Zodiac sent the card but was not responsible for it. Either way, neither the South Lake Tahoe Police nor the Sheriff's Department (each of whom apparently believed the other should investigate) looked into her disappearance[citation needed].
[edit] Santa Barbara
In a Vallejo Times-Herald story that appeared on November 13, 1972, Santa Barbara Sheriff's Detective Bill Baker (ret.) theorized that the murders of a young couple in Santa Barbara County may have been the work of the Zodiac.
On June 4, 1963 (five and a half years prior to the Zodiac's first known murders on Lake Herman Road), high-school senior Robert Domingos and fiancée Linda Edwards were shot to death on a beach near Lompoc, California, having skipped school that day for "Senior Ditch Day". Police believed that the assailant attempted to bind the victims, but when they freed themselves attempting to flee, he shot them repeatedly in the back and chest with a .22-caliber weapon. He then placed their bodies in a small nearby shack and tried, unsuccessfully, to burn it down.[31]
Some believe that the murders of Domingos and Edwards are the work of the Zodiac because of similarities between this case and the Zodiac's attack at Lake Berryessa.[31]
[edit] The final letters
After the "Pines" card, the Zodiac remained silent for nearly three years, after which the Chronicle received a letter from the Zodiac, postmarked January 29, 1974, praising The Exorcist as "the best saterical [sic] comidy [sic]" that he had ever seen. The letter included a snippet of verse from The Mikado and an unusual symbol at the bottom that has gone unexplained by researchers. Zodiac concluded the letter with a new score, "Me = 37, SFPD = 0".[32]
The Chronicle received another letter postmarked February 14, 1974, informing the editor that the initials for the Symbionese Liberation Army, SLA, spelled out an old Norse word meaning "kill."[33] The handwriting was not authenticated as the Zodiac's, however.
Another letter received by the Chronicle, postmarked May 8, 1974, featured a complaint that the movie Badlands was "murder-glorification" and asked the paper to cut its advertisements. Signed only "A citizen", the handwriting, tone, and surface irony are all similar to prior Zodiac communications.[34]
The Chronicle received an anonymous letter postmarked July 8, 1974, complaining about one of its columnists, Marco Spinelli. The letter was signed "the Red Phantom (red with rage)". The Zodiac's authorship of this letter is debated.[35]
Another four years passed without communication — purported or verified — from the Zodiac. A letter of April 24, 1978 was initially deemed authentic, but was declared by three other experts to be a hoax less than three months later. In recent years, however, the letter has been deemed in some quarters as authentic. Inspector David Toschi, the SFPD homicide detective who had been on the case since the Stine murder, was thought to have forged the letter, since Armistead Maupin, who wrote Tales of the City, thought it similar to "fan mail" he received in 1976 that he believed was authored by Toschi. While he admitted writing the fan mail, Toschi denied forging the Zodiac letter and was eventually cleared of any charges. The authenticity of the letter remains in question.
On March 3, 2007, it was reported that an American Greetings Christmas card sent to the Chronicle postmarked 1990 in Eureka had been recently discovered in their photo files by editorial assistant Daniel King.[36] Inside the envelope with the card was a photocopy of two U.S. Postal keys on a magnet keychain. The handwriting on the envelope resembles Zodiac's print, but was declared inauthentic by forensic document examiner Lloyd Cunningham. Not all Zodiac experts, however, agree with Cunningham's analysis.[37] There is no return address on the envelope nor is his crossed-circle signature to be found. The card itself is unmarked.[38] The Chronicle turned over all the material to the Vallejo Police Department for further analysis.
[edit] Current status
The last SFPD investigators of the case were Homicide Detail Inspectors Michael N. Maloney and Kelly Carroll. They were the first to submit DNA evidence from Zodiac's letters for analysis, which resulted in a partial genetic profile. DNA testing seems to have conclusively ruled out their lead suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen,[39] and later Mike Rodelli's suspect, a prominent San Francisco businessman who lived near Paul Stine's murder scene.[40]
The SFPD marked the case "inactive" in April 2004, citing caseload pressure and resource demands.[40] They reopened the case some time before March 2007 and returned evidence to Vallejo police for additional DNA testing.[41] The case remains open in other jurisdictions as well.
[edit] Arthur Leigh Allen
Though many people have been suspected of being Zodiac through the years, only one, Arthur Leigh Allen (December 18, 1933 - August 26, 1992) has been seriously investigated. In July 1971, a friend of Allen reported his suspicions about him to the Manhattan Beach Police Department, and the report was forwarded to the SFPD.[42] When questioned later, Allen claimed without prompting that the bloody knives he had in his car the day of the Lake Berryessa attack had been used to kill chickens; and when asked if he had read The Most Dangerous Game, he replied affirmatively and said it had made an impression on him
.[42] (This interested the police, as the 408 character cipher appears to reference that short story). Allen was the only suspect in the case whom police had enough evidence against to execute not just one, but three search warrants: on September 14, 1972; February 14, 1991; and August 28, 1992, two days after he died.[42][43] Allen denied his guilt in interviews, but there was much circumstantial evidence against him.[44][45] Police found no physical evidence to prove that Allen was the Zodiac Killer, and the Vallejo PD chose not to press charges against Allen, even though he was a felon, and weapons and explosive components were found in his home following the 1991 search.[44] Ultimately, Allen's handwriting did not match the Zodiac's, his fingerprints did not match those suspected to be Zodiac's, no concrete evidence linking him to the Zodiac killings was ever found, and recent DNA testing on suspected Zodiac letters in 2002 did not provide a match.[46][47] However, neither Vallejo nor SFPD ruled Allen out after the test results. [48]
[edit] The Zodiac in pop culture
[edit] Movies
• The Zodiac Killer, directed by Tom Hansen and starring Hal Reed and Bob Jones, was released on April 6, 1971.
• Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood, was filmed in San Francisco and released on December 23, 1971. In the movie, which is very loosely based on the Zodiac case, the killer (played by Andrew Robinson), who calls himself "Scorpio", at one point kidnaps a school bus full of children and threatens to kill them all.
• The fictional "Gemini Killer" in the movie The Exorcist III, released on August 17, 1990, was also loosely based on the Zodiac killer.
• Edward James Olmos starred in The Limbic Region, a made-for-HBO movie first shown on June 30, 1996; it is based on Robert Graysmith's 1986 book, Zodiac.
• In 2000, a short film entitled Disguised Killer was produced in Vallejo; set in the present, it is based on the Lake Herman Road murders and has a Filipino cast.
• Zodiac Killer, a digitally recorded movie by Ulli Lommel, is about a cat-and-mouse game between the real Zodiac and a young copycat in 2002 Los Angeles. It was first shown at the Fearless Tales Genre Fest in San Francisco on March 30, 2005.
• The Zodiac, directed by Alex Bulkley, is about a fictional detective in Vallejo obsessed with investigating the real Zodiac. It opened on March 17, 2006 (on what would have been Darlene Ferrin's 59th birthday) on 10 screens nationwide, one of which was in Vallejo, less than a mile and a half from Blue Rock Springs where she was murdered.
• The most recent film about the Zodiac case is Zodiac, a Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures joint production directed by David Fincher. The film is based on the two non-fiction books by Robert Graysmith, Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer. Filming locations included San Francisco and Los Angeles, and it opened in theaters nationwide on March 2, 2007.
[edit] Television
• In the second season of the San Francisco cop show Nash Bridges in 1996, Don Johnson's police inspector is on the hunt for a killer copying the Zodiac's work from years before. "The Zodiac" episode ends with the real Zodiac making a taunting phone call to Bridges.
• The serial killer in the "The Mikado," a 1998 episode from the TV series Millennium, is based directly on the Zodiac.
• The Zodiac Killer was given a full feature episode on America's Most Wanted on February 25, 2007, which included full accounts of all canonical killings.
• A segment was aired on the now syndicated show Unsolved Mysteries, exploring a possible link between Zodiac and the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.
• Episode number 51 of Cold Case Files, hosted by Bill Kurtis, examines the crimes of the Zodiac Killer.
[edit] Novels
There have been a handful of novels either about the Zodiac Killer or based on him:
• The first was The Zodiac Killer: Still At Large in 1977 by Cliff Smith Jr.
• Jerry Weissman wrote The Zodiac Killer in 1979.
• The 1983 novel Legion, by William Peter Blatty, features a killer based on the Zodiac.
• T. Winter-Damon and Randy Chandler's Zodiac novel, Duet for the Devil, came out in 2000.
• Criminal profiler Michael Kelleher wrote Suspect Zero, a 2003 novel about the Santa Rosa coed murders, believed by some to be the work of the Zodiac.
• David Baldacci's 2004 novel Hour Game features a villain who bases his murders on the Zodiac killer's M.O., but claims that he isn't a copycat.
[edit] Graphic novels
The Zodiac has appeared in graphic novels, comic stories, and a trading card set:
• Steven Friel wrote and illustrated "The Zodiac" in Killer Komix, a UK publication, in 1992.
• Jack Herman and Karen Herman wrote and Ed Quinby illustrated "The Zodiac," based on Graysmith's Zodiac; it appeared in Psycho Killers M.I.A. Special, Volume 1, # 2, in 1992.
• "The Zodiac Killer" was card # 83 in the 1992 trading card series, True Crime Series Two: Serial Killers & Mass Murderers.
• Crisis, an illustrated screenplay, is a 2002 story by Matthew Stuart Busch about the Zodiac terrorizing present-day Detroit.
[edit] Music
Many popular music groups have paid tribute to the Zodiac murders in both name and song:
• Zodiac Killers released the CD Scorpio Rising in 1992.
• "Body Thief" was performed by Faster Pussycat in 1992.
• Slayer did the song "Gemini" in 1996.
• Supercharger recorded a song in 1997 entitled "Zodiac."
• Macabre did a tribute song called "Zodiac."
• The Zodiac Killers, a San Francisco punk band, released The Most Thrilling Experience in 1999, Have A Blast in 2001, Society's Offenders in 2003 and Radiation Beach in 2005.
• Hip hop artist The Zodiac (real name Brent Whiting) released two CDs featuring songs about the Zodiac Killer, Zeta Omicron Delta in 2004 and JUNE XIIITH in 2006.
• Balzac made multiple music videos featuring the Zodiac Killer, including a short horror movie and a Zodiac-based concept-album under the band name Zodiac.
• mk Ultra (Fronted by John Vanderslice) recorded a song in 1993 called "Death's Superstar" which was about the Zodiac Killer.

Dennis Rader
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Dennis Rader Rader's mugshot, taken during booking at the Sedgwick County Jail at around 8 p.m. on February 27, 2005

Born March 9, 1945 Wichita, Kansas

Charge(s) ten counts of First degree murder

Penalty life imprisonment

Status in prison
Occupation United States Air Force
Security firm
Sedgwick County's Board of Zoning Appeals and the Animal Control Advisory Board
Spouse Paula Dietz (May 22, 1971–July 27, 2005)

Parents William E. Rader and Dorothea M. Rader (née Cook)
Children Two children
Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer who murdered at least 10 people in Sedgwick County (in and around Wichita), Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. He was known as the BTK killer (or the BTK strangler), which stands for Bind, Torture and Kill, an apt description of his modus operandi. Letters were written soon after the killings to police and to local news outlets, boasting of the crimes and knowledge of details. After a long hiatus, these letters resumed in 2004.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Biography
• 2 Arrest and conviction
• 3 Modus Operandi
• 4 Victims
• 5 Letters o 5.1 Example
• 6 Arrest
• 7 Legal proceedings
• 8 Evidence pertaining to the murders
• 9 Post-arrest notoriety and profit
• 10 Notes
• 11 Books
• 12 External links

[edit] Biography
Rader was the eldest of four brothers. He was the son of William Elvin and Dorothea Mae (née Cook) Rader. He grew up in Wichita and graduated from Riverview School and later Wichita Heights High School. Rader attended Kansas Wesleyan University in 1965–1966 and then spent four years from 1966 to 1970 in the U.S. Air Force, including time in Texas, Alabama, Okinawa, South Korea, Greece and Turkey.
When he returned to the United States, he moved to Park City, a suburb located seven miles north of Wichita. He worked for a time in the meat department of Leekers IGA supermarket in Park City where his mother was also a bookkeeper. He married Paula Dietz on May 22, 1971. He attended Butler County Community College in El Dorado, earning an associate's degree in Electronics in 1973. He enrolled at Wichita State University that same fall. There he graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in Administration of Justice. Rader has two grown children. Both children were born after Rader's first killings.
From 1972 to 1973, Rader worked as an assembler for the Coleman Company, a camping gear firm, as had two of BTK's early victims. From November 1974 until being fired in July 1988, Rader worked at a Wichita-based office of ADT Security Services, a company which sold and installed alarm systems for commercial businesses during Rader's years there.[1] He held several positions, including installation manager. It was believed that he learned how to carefully defeat home security systems, thus learning how to break into the homes of his victims without being caught.
Rader was a census field operations supervisor for the Wichita area in 1989 for three months, prior to the 1990 federal census.
In 1991 Rader was hired to be supervisor of the Compliance Department at Park City, a two-employee, multi-functional department in charge of "animal control, housing problems, zoning, general permit enforcement and a variety of nuisance cases."[1] In this position, neighbors recalled him as sometimes overzealous and extremely strict; one neighbor complained that he euthanized her dog for no reason. On March 2, 2005, the Park City council terminated Rader's employment for failure to report to work or to call in. (By this time, he had been detained by the authorities.)
Rader served on both the Sedgwick County's Board of Zoning Appeals and the Animal Control Advisory Board (appointed in 1996 and resigned in 1998). He was also a member of Christ Lutheran Church, a Lutheran congregation of about 200 people. He had been a member for about 30 years and had been elected president of the Congregation Council. He was also a Cub Scout leader and leading member of the local Republican Party (United States)party. [2]].
On July 27, 2005, Sedgwick County District Judge Eric Yost waived the usual 60-day waiting period and granted an immediate divorce for Paula Rader, agreeing that her mental health was in danger. Rader did not contest the divorce, and the 34-year marriage was ended. Paula Rader said in her divorce petition that her mental and physical condition has been adversely affected by the marriage. She also contended that the couple was incompatible and that he had failed to perform material marital duties and obligations—possibly due to his incarceration.
[edit] Arrest and conviction
The police had begun DNA testing of thousands of men trying to find the serial killer. Altogether, some 1100 DNA samples would be taken.
Dennis Rader's daughter had a DNA sample tested after law enforcement had linked her father's name to the crimes.
On February 25, 2005, Rader was detained near his home at 6220 61st and Independence in Park City and accused of the BTK killings. At a press conference the next morning, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams flatly asserted, "the bottom line ... BTK is arrested. " Rader pleaded guilty to his crimes on June 27, 2005, giving a graphic account of his crimes in court. [3] He was sentenced to serve 10 consecutive life sentences (one life sentence per victim), without possibility of parole for 175 years, on August 18, 2005. 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.
[edit] Modus Operandi
Using personal jargon for his killing equipment, Rader casually described his victims as his "projects" and at one point likened the murders of his to euthanizing animals by saying he "put them down."
Rader created what he called a "hit kit," a briefcase or bowling bag containing the items he would use during murders: guns, tape, rope and handcuffs. He also packed what he called "hit clothes" that he would wear for the crimes and then dispose of.
Rader developed a pattern for his murders. He would wander the city until he found potential victims. At that point, he would stalk them until he knew the pattern of their lives and when would be the best time to strike. He would also get acquainted with his potential victims if they were his co-workers, making them easier to track down and identify. Rader often would stalk multiple victims at a time, so he could continue the hunt if one victim didn't work out. At the time of the murder, Rader would cut the phone lines, break into the house, and hide until his victim came home.
Rader would often calm his victims by pretending to be a rapist who needed to work out some sexual fantasies on them. This caused many of his victims to be more cooperative and even help him, thinking that once the rape was over, he would leave them alone. Instead, Rader would kill them.
The name BTK, chosen by Rader for himself, also described his methods. Rader bound, tortured, and killed his victims. Rader would strangle his victims until they lost consciousness, then let them revive, then strangle them again. He would repeat the pattern over and over again, forcing them to experience near-death, becoming sexually aroused at the sight of their struggles. Finally, Rader would strangle them to death and masturbate to ejaculation into an article of their clothing, usually underwear.
[edit] Victims
Rader's victims include:
• 1974: Four members of one family (Joseph Otero, his wife Julie Otero, and two of their five children: Joseph Otero II and Josephine Otero) and another separate victim, Kathryn Bright.
• 1977: Shirley Vian
• 1977: Nancy Fox
• 1985: Marine Hedge
• 1986: Vicki Wegerle
• 1991: Dolores Davis
He also attempted to kill Kevin Bright, but he escaped while Rader was occupied with his sister.
Police officials say there is no reason to believe Rader was responsible for any other murders. He collected items from the scenes of the murders he committed (crime trophy) and, reportedly, he had no items that were related to any other killings. He did have other intended victims, notably Anna Williams, who in 1979 escaped death by returning home much later than he expected.
[edit] Letters
Rader was particularly known for sending taunting letters to police and newspapers. There were several communications from BTK during 1974 to 1979. The first was a letter that had been stashed in an engineering book in the Wichita Public Library in October 1974 that described in detail the killing of the Otero family in January of that year. In early 1978 he sent another letter to television station KAKE in Wichita claiming responsibility for the murders of the Oteros, Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox and another unidentified victim assumed to be Kathryn Bright. He suggested a number of possible names for himself, including the one that stuck: BTK. He demanded media attention in this second letter, and it was finally announced that Wichita did indeed have a serial killer at large. A poem was enclosed entitled "Oh Death to Nancy". In 1979 he sent two identical packages, one to an intended victim who was not at home when he broke into her house and the other to KAKE. These featured another poem, "Oh Anna Why Didn't You Appear," a drawing of what he had intended to do to his victim, as well as some small items he had pilfered from Williams' home. Apparently, Rader had waited for several hours inside the home of Anna Williams on the 600 block of South Pinecrest. Not realizing that she had gone to her sister's house for the evening, he eventually got tired of the long wait and left.
In 1988, after the murders of three members of the Fager family in Wichita, a letter was received from someone claiming to be the BTK killer in which he denied being the perpetrator of this crime. He did credit the killer with having done admirable work. It was not proven until 2005 that this letter was in fact written by the genuine BTK killer, Rader, although he is not considered by police to have committed this crime.
In March 2004, he began the series of 11 communications from BTK that led directly to his arrest in February 2005. The Wichita Eagle newspaper received a letter from someone using the return address Bill Thomas Killman. The writer claimed that he murdered Vicki Wegerle on September 16, 1986, and enclosed photographs of the crime scene and a photocopy of her driver's license, which had been stolen at the time of the crime. In May 2004 a word puzzle was received by KAKE. In June a package was found taped to a stop sign in Wichita containing graphic descriptions of the Otero murders. In July a package was dropped into the return slot at the downtown public library containing more bizarre material, including the claim that he, BTK, was responsible for the death of 19-year-old Jake Allen in Argonia, Kansas earlier that same month. This claim was found to be false and the death remains ruled as a suicide. In October 2004, a manila envelope was dropped into a UPS box in Wichita containing a series of cards with images of terror and bondage of children pasted on them. Also included was a poem threatening the life of lead investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr and a false autobiography giving many details about his life. These details were later released to the public as though possibly factual, but the police were mostly trying to encourage the killer to continue to communicate until making a major mistake.
In December 2004, Wichita police received another package from the BTK killer. This time the package was found in Wichita's Murdock Park. It contained the driver's license of Nancy Fox, which was noted as stolen at the scene of crime, as well as a doll that was symbolically bound at the hands and feet with a plastic bag tied over its head. In January 2005, Rader attempted to leave a cereal box in the bed of a pickup truck at a Home Depot in Wichita, but the box was at first discarded by the owner. It was later retrieved from the trash after Rader himself asked what had become of it in a later message. Surveillance tape of the parking lot from that date revealed a distant figure driving a black Jeep Cherokee leaving the box in the pickup. In February there were postcards to KAKE, and another cereal box left at a rural location that contained another bound doll symbolizing the murder of 11-year-old Josephine Otero. Rader asked the police that if he put his writings onto a floppy disk if the disk could be traced or not. He received his answer in a newspaper ad posted in the Wichita Eagle saying it would be OK. On February 16, 2005 he sent a floppy disk to Fox TV station KSAS in Wichita. Forensic analysis quickly determined that the disk had been used by the Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita, plus the name Dennis. An internet search determined that Rader was president of the church council. He was arrested on February 25.
After his arrest, Rader stated he chose to resurface in 2004 for various reasons, including the release of the book Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler by Robert Beattie. He wanted the opportunity to tell his story his own way. He also said he was bored because his children had grown up and he had more time on his hands.
[edit] Example
The following is purportedly the text of a 1978 letter, including grammatical errors.[4]:
I find the newspaper not writing about the poem on Vain unamusing. A little paragraph would have enough. Iknow it not the media fault. The Police Chief he keep things quiet, and doesn't let the public know there a psycho running around lose strangling mostly women, there 7 in the ground; who will be next?
How many do I have to Kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention. Do the cop think that all those deaths are not related? Golly -gee, yes the M.O. is different in each, but look a pattern is developing. The victims are tie up-most have been women-phone cut- bring some bondage mater sadist tendencies-no struggle, outside the death spot-no wintness except the Vain's Kids. They were very lucky; a phone call save them. I was go-ng to tape the boys and put plastics bag over there head like I did Joseph, and Shirley. And then hang the girl. God-oh God what a beautiful sexual relief that would been. Josephine, when I hung her really turn me on; her pleading for mercy then the rope took whole, she helpless; staring at me with wide terror fill eyes the rope getting tighter-tighter. You don't understand these things because your not underthe influence of factor x). The same thing that made Son of Sam, Jack the Ripper, Havery Glatman, Boston Strangler, Dr. H.H. Holmes Panty Hose Strangler OF Florida, Hillside Strangler, Ted of the West Coast and many more infamous character kill. Which seem s senseless, but we cannot help it. There is no help, no cure, except death or being caught and put away. It a terrible nightmarebut, you see I don't lose any sleep over it. After a thing like Fox I ccome home and go about life like anyone else. And I will be like that until the urge hit me again. It not continuous and I don't have a lot of time. It take time to set a kill, one mistake and it all over. Since I about blew it on the phone-handwriting is out-letter guide is to long and typewriter can be traced too,.My short poem of death and maybe a drawing;later on real picture and maybe a tape of the sound will come your way. How will you know me. Before a murder or murders you will receive a copy of the initials B.T.K. , you keep that copy the original will show up some day on guess who?
May you not be the unluck one!
P.S.2
How about some name for me, its time: 7 down and many more to go. I like the following How about you?
'THE B.T.K. STRANGLER', WICHITA STRANGLER', 'POETIC STRANGLER', 'THE BOND AGE STRANGLER' OR PSYCHO' THE WICHITA HANGMAN THE WICHITA EXECUTIONER, 'THE GAROTE PHATHOM', 'THE ASPHIXIATER'.
B.T.K
[edit] Arrest
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. Also enclosed were a letter, a photocopy of the cover of a 1989 novel about a serial killer (Rules of Prey ISBN) and a gold-colored necklace with a large medallion. 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.
Sometime during this period, police obtained a warrant for the medical records of Rader's daughter. A tissue sample seized at this time was tested for DNA and provided a familial match with semen at an earlier BTK crime scene. This, along with other evidence gathered prior to and during the surveillance, gave police probable cause for an arrest.
Rader was stopped while driving near his home and taken into custody shortly after noon on February 25, 2005. Immediately after, law enforcement officials—including a Wichita Police bomb unit truck, two SWAT trucks, and FBI and ATF agents—converged on Rader's residence near the intersection of I-135 and 61st Street North. Rader's home and vehicle were searched, and evidence (including computer equipment, a pair of black pantyhose retrieved from a shed, and a cylindrical container) was collected. The church he attended, his office at City Hall and the main branch of the Park City library were also searched that day. Officers were seen removing a computer from his City Hall office, but it is unclear if any evidence was found at these locations.
Rader talked to the police for several hours, although he confessed almost immediately. Twelve DVDs were filled recording his confession.
On February 26, 2005, The Wichita Police Department announced that they were holding Dennis Lynn Rader as the prime suspect in the BTK killings in a press conference. (transcript via The Wichita Eagle [5])
Rader was formally charged with the murders on February 28, 2005.
[edit] Legal proceedings

Dennis Rader without facial hair for this booking photo for El Dorado Correctional Facility; Rader would have to serve 175 years there before becoming eligible for parole.
Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994. The last known BTK killing was in 1991, making all known BTK murders ineligible for the death penalty. Even if later murders are linked to the BTK killer, it was originally unclear whether the death penalty would come into play, as the Kansas Supreme Court declared the state's capital punishment law unconstitutional on December 17, 2004. That ruling from the Kansas Supreme Court, however, was reversed by the United States Supreme Court on June 26, 2006 in the case of Kansas v. Marsh, and Kansas's death penalty statute was upheld. The Sunday after his arrest, Associated Press reports cited an anonymous source that Rader had confessed to other killings in addition to the ones with which he was already connected. Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston called these reports "patently false." [6] On March 5, news sources claimed to have verified by multiple sources that Rader had confessed to the ten murders he is charged with, but no additional ones. [7]
On March 1, 2005, Rader was formally charged with ten counts of first degree murder (AP via The Wichita Eagle [8]). He made his first appearance via videoconference from jail. He was represented by a public defender. Bail was continued at $10 million.
On May 3, District Court Judge Gregory Waller entered not guilty pleas to the ten charges on Rader's behalf as Rader did not speak at his arraignment.
On June 27, the scheduled trial date, Dennis Rader changed his plea to guilty. In a very calm manner he described, in detail, the killings. He made no apologies. (Rader's pleas online in RealMedia format courtesy KWCH-TV [9].)
On August 18, Dennis Rader faced sentencing. The victims' families made statements, followed by Rader, who apologized for the crimes. He was sentenced to ten 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 killings were committed, this was the maximum sentence allowed. [10]
On August 19, Rader was moved from the Sedgwick County Jail to the El Dorado Correctional Facility, a Kansas state prison, to begin serving his life sentence as inmate #0083707 with an earliest possible release date of February 26, 2180. [11] According to witnesses, while travelling the forty-minute drive from Wichita to El Dorado, Rader talked about innocuous topics such as the weather, but when the victims' families' statements from the court proceedings a day before came on the radio, Rader began to cry. Rader is now being held in the EDCF Special Management unit, also know as solitary confinement, for "the inmate's own protection," a designation he most likely will retain for the remainder of his incarceration. He is confined to the cell 23 hours a day with the exception of voluntary solo one-hour exercise yard time, and access to the shower three times per week.
Beginning April 23, 2006, having reached "Incentive Level Two", Rader has been allowed to purchase and watch television, purchase and listen to the radio, receive and read magazines, and have other privileges for good behavior. The victims' families disagreed with this decision on the grounds that he had previously used those media to explore and act upon his own sexual fantasies.
According to Rader's record in the Kansas Department of Corrections database, he had a Class Two disciplinary report concerning "mail" on April 10, 2006. [12]
[edit] Evidence pertaining to the murders
Because Rader did not contest his guilt, most evidence was not tested in court. However, physical and circumstantial facts that would have corroborated Rader as the BTK killer include:
• DNA analysis of BTK's semen and material taken from underneath the fingernails of victim Vicki Wegerle match the DNA profile of Dennis Rader.
• Rader's grammar and writing style matches letters and poems received from BTK, though none of his communications were handwritten, but typed, stenciled, stamped with a stamp set or computer generated.
• A pay phone that the killer used to report a murder in 1977 was located a few blocks from ADT Security (Rader's workplace at the time).
• Rader had attended Wichita State University in the 1970s. Wichita Police Detective Arlyn G. Smith II and his partner George Scantlin painstakingly traced BTK's photocopied communications to two photocopy machines, one at Wichita State University and a second copier at the Wichita Public Library. BTK murder victim Kathryn Bright's brother Kevin, who was shot twice by BTK, reported that the killer had asked him if he had seen him at the university. A poem in one of the killer's letters was similar to a folk song taught by a professor on that campus in that time period, though Rader himself dismissed any connection.
• Rader lived on the same street as Marine Hedge, just houses away. The BTK killer's other victims were in and around central Wichita, except for his final victim Dolores (Dee) Davis, who lived a half-mile east of Park City.
• Two of the victims (Julie Otero and Kathryn Bright) worked at the Coleman Company, though not during the same period that Rader worked there. Rader worked at Coleman only a short time and not at the same location as the victims.
• Semen found on Josephine Otero or near the bodies of his victims Josephine Otero, Shirley Vian and Nancy Fox was critical evidence linking Rader to the crimes, and DNA obtained from fingernail scrapings of Vicki Wegerle's left hand matched Rader's DNA, eliminating any doubt that he was her murderer. Rader also sent trophies to police in his letters, and others were discovered in his office. Other cold cases in Kansas were reopened [13] to see if Rader's DNA matched crime scenes, but Rader's confession was limited to the ten known victims and police and prosecutors do not believe there were any more victims because of the extensive records and memorabilia he kept on each of his victims.
• Rader and Joseph Otero, one of the first victims, both worked as Air Force mechanics, but at different times and different locations. This is thought to be a coincidence and not relevant to the murder.
[edit] Post-arrest notoriety and profit
• On July 22, 2005, a controversy erupted on CNN's Nancy Grace show over a poem that Dennis Rader had written that was passed on to someone who then sold it on an auction site that specializes in serial killer memorabilia. The poem was titled "Black Friday," an ode to the day he was arrested. The poem expressed Rader's claimed unhappiness about being caught, with one of the verses proclaiming, "The dark side of me has been exposed."
• NBC aired Confessions of BTK. Robert Mendoza interviewed Rader after he pleaded guilty on June 27. They claimed on the program that Rader knew the interview might be on TV but that was a false statement according to Sedgwick County Police. They thought it was strange Mendoza recorded the interview with a camera. The interview filming was conducted by a company owned by Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, a contestant on the NBC reality show The Apprentice. Rader mentioned the interview during his sentencing statement. On October 25, 2005, the Kansas Attorney General filed a petition to sue Robert Mendoza and Tali Waters, co-owners of Cambridge Forensic Consultants, LLC, for breach of contract, claiming they intended to benefit financially from the use of information obtained from involvement in Rader’s defense.
[edit] Notes