Dennis Rader

BTK -- for "Bind, Torture, Kill" -- always said in his taunting messages that he wanted national attention and a catchy, tough-guy nickname. He became so audacious that he once called 911 to report a murder he had committed and strangled a neighbor who lived just six doors away.

BTK had a history of writing letters to police and news organizations, sometimes mailing them, other times leaving them in public library books.

"I can't stop it so the monster goes on and hurts me as well as society," he wrote after the early killings. "It's a big complicated game my friend the monster play, putting victims number down, follow them, checking up on them, waiting in the dark, waiting, waiting."

The Japan Times Weekly: March 5, 2005
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