True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Joseph Christopher. Picture credit: nypost)

[Please be aware that this post contains some disturbing content which covers racism and self harm/suicide]

It's hard to believe that there is not much out there about this particular case, I only just stumbled across it myself recently. I was putting together my 6 chosen serial killers for each decade of the 70s, 80s and 90s and Joseph Christopher's name just jumped out at me. I'd never heard of him before but as I delved in deeper through my books, I realised what a psychotic and sick person he really was. 

In this series, my aim is to cover cases that you may know about but also cases you may not have heard of before and so Joseph Christopher is the focus of this post. His case is a very disturbing story to say the least. He was born to a decent family on the 26th of July 1955 in Buffalo New York. His parents were hardworking and he grew up with two older sisters and a younger sister. His mother was a nurse and his Dad was a maintenance worker, they weren't rich but the family was comfortable and there were no traumatic events that occurred in Joseph's childhood to explain in some way what he would later become but he did struggle with the usual feelings of self-consciousness, being shy around girls and all of that sort of thing, nothing abnormal. 

Growing up in predominantly female household wasn't that much of a struggle for Joseph, he was very close to his father and whilst his mother and his sisters would be either cooking, shopping or doing what was seen as traditionally feminine pastimes, he would simply go and spend the day with his father. Joseph and his Dad would go walking for hours and do some hunting or fishing. His Dad was a fan of the outdoors and was into all things camping so he would teach Joseph tricks of how to live off the land, use guns and be self-sufficient.  

Joseph had dreams of making his Dad proud and using all that he had taught him by one day joining the army. He wanted to make something of himself and was a firm believer in what his parents had taught him about hard work. 

So the future looked bright for Joseph Christopher but as he got older he began to notice that he would suffer from mood swings, paranoia and hear voices in his head. At the time he put it down to stress. This strange experience would come and go. He did his best to carry on with his school work and was later described as a smart child but not 'book-smart'. I think that Joseph was more pragmatic and more of a hands on person who learned how to do things for himself but maybe not as gifted academically. Whatever the case, he kept himself to himself and did well in his studies and tasks. 

Being tired of studying he took the impulsive decision to drop out of school and not continue with his studies. Like a lot of young men he wanted to start making some money so he took some odd jobs but they never seemed to last very long. He wasn't very good at sticking to things or finishing tasks when he started them. He seemed to be a person that would give up easily and the psychological problems that he was having were still there, he was still troubled by the voices. 

After a string of jumping around different jobs he finally found one that looked like he would be able to stick at it for a decent length of time. He managed to get a job as a maintenance man at a college but he soon managed to mess this up by falling asleep and getting fired. 

Not having much money and facing months of unemployment yet again, he had no choice but to go back to his parents and ask them if they could help support him until he could get back on his feet again. He was only in his early 20s but he was feeling that pressure of wanting to have his life in order but things never seemed to go his way. Depression due to his already fragile mental state combined with being unemployed and struggling for money started to take their toll. He sought professional help and was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. Finally he had an answer for all of those years of feeling out of place, the paranoia, the mood swings, the voices. With this psychological condition, a sufferer will also experience delusions and hallucinations so it is quite a difficult thing to go through and requires regular monitoring and medication. 

With so much time on his hands and difficulties financially and not being able to find a job, Joseph began to spiral out of control with his depression but he admitted to himself that he needed to get some professional help. He was willing to be placed in a psychiatric hospital until everything was under control. In a shocking turn of events, Joseph explained to the psychiatrist at the hospital how he was feeling and surprisingly the psychiatrist felt that it would be best for Joseph to just go home. In their opinion, Joseph was not a danger to himself or to other people so they refused to admit him into the hospital. 

Joseph went home and things just continued to go from bad to utterly horrific because just 14 days after being sent away from the psychiatric hospital, Joseph Christopher went on a sickening killing spree. His target was African-America males. His first victim was just a 14 year old child by the name of Glenn Dunn. His killing spree lasted from September to December of 1980. He attacked 19 innocent people, all male, all African American for no reason other than the colour off their skin. People would be sitting in their cars minding their own business, there would be no argument or conversation, he would just walk up to people and either shoot or stab them and walk away. Some of the victims were strangled as well as being stabbed, some were slashed. At least two of the victims had their hearts removed. One victim's heart was cut out and another victim's heart was ripped out of their chest. It was like something out of a horrifying movie. 

His oldest victim was a 71 year old man, it all made no sense. He took a small break in between the murders to enlist in the United States Army but was soon put on a short period of leave so the killing resumed. When he did finally return back to the Army he tried to kill a fellow soldier who was African-American but luckily the man survived. Realising that he was totally out of control he was placed in solitary confinement where he tried to take his own life. When he was finally seen by a psychiatrist he told them that he wanted to kill all African-Americans.

A search of his home had turned up a stack of evidence that proved to the police that he was the person that they were looking for in connection to all these murders. Joseph cut quite a pathetic figure, he looked like he could cry at any minute and certainly didn't look like someone who could be a cold-blooded killer but as we know, appearances can be deceptive. He was placed on trial for the murders and was found guilty. He'd attacked 19 innocent people, 12 of which had sadly passed away and 7 who survived. In prison, Joseph claimed that he had actually murdered 13 people. He was sentenced to life, a 60 year jail term but this was overturned because the judge had barred the defense from presenting evidence to prove Joseph's mental state and history of Paranoid Schizophrenia. 

Joseph was just 25 at the time of the murders and nobody knows why he did these terrible things but his mental health played a huge role in his downfall and the lack of proper help was a huge factor. He did try and get professional help but an error in judgement seen him not taken seriously. It reminds me of the McDonald's Massacre case that I covered back in 2019 where Thomas Huberty had tried to contact a mental health facility in an attempt to get some help because he was having suicidal and homicidal thoughts. The call for him came too late and utter devastation occurred on that horrible day of July in 1984. 

There's no excuse for what either of these individuals did, they were both evil but their mental health had a huge part to play in their actions. One wonders, if they had been given the proper help, would they have still committed these horrendous crimes or would it have just delayed the inevitable? 

Joseph Christopher spent just over a decade behind bars with nothing to show for his life but a horrible legacy of pain, suffering and racism. His crimes put a community in fear and turned neighbours against each other. Tensions were high and in some places they are still this way to this day. At the time, the African-American community was living in fear because they had no idea when this murderer was going to strike next. The police would not help them, would not give them added protection or reassure them. The tensions between the police and the African-American community were tense then and they still remain tense to this day. 

It seemed that a little bit of karma came back around for Joseph Christopher and at the age of just 37 years old, he died of a rare form of breast cancer on the 1st of March 1993. 

His story is a horrible one from history but should still be remembered to this day. I'm saddened to say that I do not have any pictures of the innocent victims, they are nowhere to be seen. All we have is their names and I have no idea why that is. We have to take these lessons from history seriously and we have to take mental health more seriously. I'm shocked at the number of times potential murderers and sex offenders have proven themselves to be a danger to the public and yet they are allowed to walk the streets. Is it lack of funding? not enough beds or rooms for these people? The early 80s we had problems with a lack of mental health services in both the US and the UK and it seemed that today, in 2023 it's still the same and that is shocking. How many more innocent lives must be lost before our governments do something? It's true what the rapper and musician Tupac Shakur said ''They got money for wars but can't feed the poor.'' and this can apply to everything, feeding the homeless, lack of proper healthcare, lack of mental health care. It's a sad and dangerous situation to be in. We can but hope and pray that we will see positive change one day. 

RIP to the innocent victims & blessings to their families. Let's remember their names even if we don't have any pictures, to remember their names is so important. RIP: Glenn Dunn, Harold Green, Emmanuel Thomas, Joseph McCoy, Parler Edwards, Ernest Jones, Luis Rodriguez, Antone Davis, Richard Renner, Carl Ramsey, Roger Adams and Wendell Barnes. 

Thoughts also go to the survivors: Colin Cole, John Adams, Ivan Frazier, Albert Menefee, Larry Little, Calvin Crippen & Leonard Coles. 

Further Reading & Sources: 

- Joseph Christopher: Article | New York Post

- Joseph Christopher | Murderpedia

- Absolute Madness | Book by Catherine Pelonero

- Joseph Christopher | Wikpededia

- Joseph Christopher: News Article | WKBW

- Hunting Humans | Book by Michael Newton

- The Big Book of Serial Killers: Volume 2 | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

Thank you for taking the time to join me for this case in my Serial Killer series which has been focusing on this decade of the 1980s. I will be back in the next post and hope you will join me for that one too. I post every Sunday evening and you can find me on all of my socials here

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Thank you so much for your support, see you (hopefully) in the next post. Stay safe x 

 (Robert Black. Picture credit: Daily Record)

When it comes to real-life monsters, Robert Black certainly was one. With his cold, lifeless eyes, hard face, creepy demeanour, and not to mention his lack of personal hygiene, his outer shell wasn't exactly appealing but what was beneath the surface was even more monstrous. His face will no doubt be recognisable to many of you who have read serial killer books or watched related documentaries. When it comes to documenting the most sickest and evilest of killers from the United Kingdom, you'll find Robert Black's name somewhere near the top of the list. 

I've written about many horrendous individuals who have committed the worst things imaginable but one of the groups of killers that I intensely hate (I'm not going to use the softer term of 'dislike', I'll be honest) is child killers. Robert Black was a dangerous sexual predator with a sinister addiction to children and nobody knows for sure how many beautiful and innocent children met their end at his sickening hands and that is a frightening thought. 

I sit here and I think about the fact that he was working as a driver (the only job that he managed to keep for a decent length of time as he tended to drift from one to the other and had a habit of getting fired for creepy behaviour) for 15 years and had been all over the UK mainland and Ireland. Children were disappearing all of the time in the 1970s and 1980s, some were sadly found deceased and their remains returned to their families, some were never found. Some children just seemed to vanish without a trace and it's impossible to know what happened to them, we may never know. But Robert Black loved to use his job as an excuse to carry out his sickening acts and the constant driving around enabled him to kidnap children and bury them in remote locations across the UK and Ireland. 

A lot of serial killers tend to have these types of jobs where they can drive from place to place. It's very difficult with these types of murderers when it comes to trying to place them in a particular crime scene or specific location. They may have committed a murder in Scotland but spend most of their time in England and it never seems to cross anyone's minds that the killer is choosing sporadic locations to cover his tracks and keep the police off of the scent. Killers who are mobile and travel to various locations are particularly scary because they can strike anywhere and that's what Robert Black did. He was an opportunistic killer and because of the laid back attitude in those days with children playing outside or riding about alone on their bikes, it made it the perfect hunting ground for monsters like Robert Black. 

From my research on him I think that Robert Black had murdered and disposed of that many children that he himself could not remember.

In this post I will be delving into the sickening story of Robert Black and his crimes. As you are probably aware from the beginning of this post, I will be sharing disturbing details about a serial killer and sex offender which will be disturbing so I completely understand if you feel that you need to skip this post. 

It'll come as no surprise to you that Robert Black was born into difficult circumstances to a mother who didn't want him and an absent father. He was born on the 21st of April 1947 in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire (Scotland) and the red flags seemed to be there from day one. Throughout his childhood he was involved in all sorts of trouble and had a difficult temper. He'd be placed in different care homes and adults found him difficult to deal with. As well as his outbursts and disruptive behaviour, he constantly urinated his bed despite various attempts to get him out of that habit. He later claimed that he would be physically assaulted by his carers for this. His school life was no better, he was often bullied because of his lack of personal hygiene (an unpleasant trait that he maintained right up until his death). The children at school who were in his class would bully him and call him ''Smelly Bobby Tulip'', this further created that sense of feeling rejected and not belonging. Because of the lack of control in his life, Robert would take to bullying younger children or children who he deemed to be helpless. He enjoyed the power that he had over the younger children. He also began experimenting with sexual things such as touching other girls his own age or asking to see under their skirts, he also began an obsession with placing objects up his anus. 

Somewhere along this sickening line, Robert realised that having the power over younger children and placing objects inside of himself anally was something that turned him on. He realised that he was very different from other children and this continued as he got older. He was convinced that he was supposed to have been born female but had the wrong genitalia and this further reinforced his obsession with children's bodies, especially female children's bodies. This 'phase' of sexual experimentation or dark fantasies that he was having never diminished, they just grew stronger and he was determined that he wanted to carry out these sick thoughts in reality. 

When his foster parents passed away he was placed with another family but that soon turned sour when he indecently assaulted a young girl. The family wanted him removed from their home immediately and so he was placed again into care. Things just continued to get worse as he had been placed in a mixed care home. He began trying to assault the girls and expose himself. He was out of hand and would probably have been better suited to a psychiatric hospital but he was sent to an all male facility care home where he later claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a male member of staff and this abuse was said to have gone on for a period of three years. 

(Robert Black. Picture credit: The Guardian)

After spending time at this care home he was moved on to yet another one which was located in Greenock. Whilst staying at this home he started employment for a local butcher shop, helping deliver groceries. He learned how to drive from a young age and was even driving before he actually had a licence. It was during his rounds as a delivery boy that he claimed to have molested various children he encountered at their homes.

Robert soon realised that having a vehicle and the role as a delivery boy, gave him easy access to different locations and people's homes. Children would often be playing in the garden unattended which gave him the opportunity to carry out his sickening acts. Apparently he had committed around forty assaults but these were never reported and as usual with Robert his sickening behaviour escalated to the next level. 

This time he tried to abduct a child by claiming that he had some kittens to show her. The little girl was taken to a shed where he choked her until she passed out before he proceeded to masturbate over the child's body. It was sickening and this time he was caught and arrested but managed to get away with it. Apparently a psychiatrist (who should have been barred from the profession) claimed that this disgusting sexual assault and let's face it, attempted murder, was just a one off, spur of the moment thing and Robert just got a slap on the wrist and sent on his way. it is a wonder what that little girl's parents must have felt. It's utterly unbelievable and again we see this time and time again with cases that I have covered in the past, the signs and red flags are all there for everyone to see, there's no excuse for any of it and for Robert Black to have been let off the hook time and time again and just passed from one place to the other because people didn't want to have to deal with him. I think because he was such a disturbing individual that people just didn't know what to do with him and didn't want the responsibility of him so they all turned a blind eye. 

Some people are surprised when they find out that some peadophiles are able to have a full on relationship with a woman of their own age. In some cases these monsters will deliberately target a single mother in the pretense of a romantic relationship just so that they can get closer to the woman's child. It's horrible to think about but it happens. I used to live next door to a single mother who had two daughters and her new boyfriend moved in. He seemed creepy and as a child I always had a bit of a radar for these types of people so I tried to stay away from him. It turned out that he'd been molesting the two girls, it was so terrible and even worse was the fact that their mother had a baby with him and he was suspected of horrible behaviour there too. The whole thing came to light and the police and authorities were involved but it is very frightening. You have to be very careful who you trust or let into your families lives. Robert was able to have what appeared to be a normal relationship with a woman of his own age but he couldn't resist his urges and tried to engage her in extreme sexual acts to which she refused. The relationship soon fizzled out when the woman got fed up with his creepy behaviour and dumped him, this had a profound affect on him and he seemed to have lost his confidence at the idea of having another relationship with another woman of his age. So he turned his behaviour back towards children because that's where he felt that he was in complete control. 

Being the sick and perverted person that he was as well as constantly getting on the wrong side of people. He'd managed to ruffle feathers with the older couple that he had been staying with. Apparently he had began acting inappropriately with their granddaughter. Again, red flags, obviously sick behaviour on display and nobody does a thing about it. Instead of playing hell and calling the police, the family decided that they didn't want to put their granddaughter through any further trauma and swept the whole thing under the carpet whilst telling Robert to leave. He must have thought he was invincible at this point because no matter what he did, he seemed to get away with it. At this point it is unknown if he had murdered a child but what it certainly looks like in my research is that he grew more and more bold, almost like he was doing that little bit more and more, almost pushing the boundaries to see how much he could get away with.

Paedophiles, unless carefully monitored and in a secure environment (as well as medicated) are constant ticking timebombs. There is no cure (despite what some devious paedophiles will say to try to convince a parole board), this is what drives them. We have no control over what drives us as humans, what sexually attracts us. The minute these monsters are out of prison and on the streets, it's dangerous, it's a risk. They interpret everything in a different way than we do. We see children and we want to look after them, bake cakes with them, protect them. These monsters are thinking something else and in their twisted minds, the child is very much involved and happy to go along with their plans. There are also those that like seeing a child in pain. When there's nobody to stop them it's just a matter of time because they escalate the more time goes on. It goes from watching disturbing child p*rn on the dark pages of the internet and looking at these disgusting images to them hanging around outside schools (and a lot of them just get a slap on the wrist for that). They might move on to exposing themselves in a public park or a family restaurant in front of children. If this behaviour isn't abolished they move on to something more risky. Some have dolls or take popular cartoon characters and make the characters of video games do disgusting acts before they grow bored and want the real thing. All peadophiles desire to carry out their fantasies in reality and this is why recognised behaviours such as what Robert Black was displaying, should have been addressed properly before it spiraled out of control. 

After being kicked out by the grandparents of his latest victim, Robert managed to land on his feet again by moving in with another family who also had a young daughter. As predicted, Robert assaulted the child and this time some punishment followed, he spent a year at the infamous Polmont Borstal (I've known young men who have stayed there for a variety of reasons and put it this way, at that time and the time of when I was informed of the place, it was very harsh and let's just say that these boys that I knew, came out of there almost traumatized and refused to speak about their time there). Later when talking about his past, Robert Black would paper over the time he spent at Polmont and refused to talk about it. 

When he left Polmont it did nothing to change the error of his ways, he moved to London and flitted between jobs before he was fired from working at a swimming pool for indecently touching children. He managed to get away with this incident too. 

Like a lot of paedophiles, he disguised himself as a keen photographer. It's frightening to think that the likes of Robert Black and Thomas Hamilton (who I wrote about back in 2019 with my post on the horrific and heartbreaking story of the Dunblane Massacre), in the days before the internet, could have easy access through magazines and 'photography' clubs to exchange child p*rnographic materials. The way these people operate is like a military operation, they are devious and use codes. Robert would take his camera to a local park and pretend to be taking pictures of flowers and birds when he was actually taking pictures of children. Robert had a private collection of sickening photographs together with films of these poor children locked in various suitcases.

In 1972, Robert found himself living with another couple as a lodger staying in their attic. He met the couple in a local pub and enjoyed playing darts with them. Robert also had a fondness for playing darts and he had gotten to know the couple over time so they didn't see any harm in renting out the attic to him. The couple just saw him as a quiet guy, a bit of a loner and did also notice that he had a bit of a hygiene issue but they were willing to look past that. After a while they started to feel a bit uncomfortable with Robert's creepy behaviour, they noticed that he had a large stack of videotapes and magazines, various packages being delivered to the house but they didn't know what they were and didn't want to invade his privacy. They suspected the materials were pornographic but never imagined that they were the abhorrent materials that they actually were. They just thought it was standard, run of the mill pornography. They were happy to keep him on as a lodger and just thought of him as a bit odd and eccentric. 

Robert decided to buy a white van and originally he claimed that this was with the intention of helping him gain more steady work plus he enjoyed travelling. He managed to get a job delivering posters all over the UK and seemed to be quite happy in the position as his employers seemed to be happy with him. However, the long drives and obscure locations soon became a temptation for Robert. He would drive down isolated country lanes and past little houses in the middle of nowhere and he'd see a lone child just playing in the street or their garden and began to fantasize about kidnapping them and driving off to another location with the victim before disposing of their remains in another area. He thought he'd come up with the perfect plan, all these child abductions and deaths scattered about throughout the UK and Ireland, he thought they'd never be able to trace him and put all of the puzzle pieces together. 

As I mentioned before, Robert had been driving long before he actually obtained his licence and we know that he had always had this predatory and disturbing addiction to children so we can't say for sure when he first began killing. On paper, he is known to have sexually assaulted and murdered a nine year old child by the name of Jennifer Cardy and this beautiful little girl was abducted and murdered in Ireland. Jennifer had been out cycling to her friend's house when Robert Black struck. Her body was sadly found six days after she went missing. Her death was ruled to be as a result of drowning and strangulation. 

His second reported known murder took place in July of 1982. Susan Claire Maxwell was abducted by Robert Black as she walked home from playing tennis in a place called Comhill-on-Tweed which is a little village in England. Susan's deceased body was sadly found on the 12th of August 1982. Forensic investigators noted that she had been gagged with some sort of sticking plaster and her underwear had been folded and placed underneath her head. There were signs that she had been sexually assaulted but the manner in which she died could not be determined because of the state of decomposition. 

When the local community was questioned about any unusual behaviour in the run up to and around Susan's abduction. A number of the locals mentioned seeing a suspicious white van driving around. Robert Black had been actively driving around intentionally looking for children. 

On the 8th of July, 1983, Robert Black reportedly struck again and this time it was in Edinburgh. Caroline Hogg was just five years old when she was abducted, she was reported to have been the youngest known victim of Robert Black. Disturbingly, Caroline's naked body was discovered in a ditch on the the 18th of July 1983. She had been sexually assaulted but due to the level of decomposition the forensic team could not determine how she had died. 

After Caroline's murder, Robert Black reportedly abducted, assaulted and murdered a little girl in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sarah Jane Harper was just 10 years old when Robert Black snatched her off the street on the 26th of March 1986. She had been going to get some bread for her mother. Sarah's body was eventually found on the 19th of April 1986. She had been found in the River Trent near Nottingham, she had been bound, gagged, sexually assaulted and beaten before being thrown into the river. Her death was determined as drowning due to the severe injuries that she sustained before being thrown into the river, she would have been unconscious. The pathologist that carried out the autopsy said that her injuries were some of the worst they had seen. 

Local members of the community were questioned by police and again, the white van and a strange looking gentleman hovering around the area, was mentioned. 

Investigators began piecing together the similarities of each of the girl's deaths and realised that they could all be the same killer. They sought out information from the general public and a full investigation was launched into the connections between each of the girls and they quickly figured out that the killer must have been employed as a delivery driver. The FBI were in touch with UK police and they came up with a profile of the killer and it matched Robert Black to a T. 

''The abduction of this victim from a public area within walking distance of the victim's residence represents a desperate act by a man whose need for little children is greater than his fear of being exposed as a paedophile. He was relaxed and comfortable while ''buying'' the victim's favour in a public area, because he spends a great deal of time in such places watching and seeking out young victims.'' - Section of the 1988 FBI Psychological Profile of Robert Black, pertaining to the abduction of Caroline Hogg. 

The FBI's profile of Robert Black who had not yet been formally identified is chillingly accurate. They described him as: A white male, aged between 30 and 40 who was a classic loner and unkempt in appearance with a low level education. He was likely to have lived alone or in rented accommodation. They stated that they believed that the killer's motive was sexual and that he had a fixation with child p*rnography. 

The manhunt was on and it was only a matter of time before Robert Black was caught. He was eventually caught but the circumstances of his capture are terrifying. On the 14th of July 1990, a man witnessed what he believed to be a child abduction in a location known as Stow, a village in Scotland. The man noticed the daughter of his next door neighbour walking past a van when she was suddenly dragged inside. The man (who was amazing with his help) noted the registration number of the van as it sped off and he ran to his neighbours to tell them what happened and the police were called. 

The police arrived in the village pretty quickly and asked the witness for more information. During the conversation the exact same van was heading towards them and the witness shouted to police that it was the same van that was there during the abduction. The police stopped the van and Robert Black's days of hurting and murdering innocent young children was finally over. 

In a shocking and heartbreaking twist, one of the officers was the father of the girl who the witness had seen being abducted. Her poor father had to go into the back of that van not knowing if his daughter was going to be in there and what horror was going to await him. He noticed that there was a sleeping bag and initially thought the worst, he thought it was too late until he saw some movement. he dashed over to the bag and ripped it open to find his daughter, bound and gagged with a hood over her head. It was a horrific sight but she was breathing, she was alive and he thanked the Lord for that moment. 

''It was a rush of blood to the head. I have always liked little girls since I was a lad. I tied her up because I wanted to keep her until I dropped a parcel off. I was going to let her go.'' - Robert Black.

Robert Black admitted the abduction of the girl and sexual assault, he claimed that he didn't do more because he didn't have time. Investigators pieced together all of the evidence that left a trail that led back to Robert Black, they suspected him of many more murders but didn't have the evidence. 

His van was thoroughly and searched and along with evidence that the victims had been inside, they found a mattress, various items of little girls clothing - some of which did not belong to any of the victims that were identified or known to the police. There was also sex toys, hoods, sticking plaster, rope. The search of his accommodation which he was still living in (the couple who suspected him of being creepy and watching pornography continued to have him as a lodger right up until his arrest) proved to be a disgusting treasure trove of horrendous materials, more sex toys, books, videos, magazines, photographs of the worst and most graphic child abu*e you don't want to imagine. Just when you thought the nightmare of Robert Black could not get anymore sickening, the police found a copy of a newspaper which was reporting one of his attempted abductions (in 1988, Robert had tried to lure a young girl by the name of Teresa Thornhill into his van, she managed to get away) and there was semen all over the article. 

With the horrendous mountain of evidence against him, his trial only lasted one day. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment which he claimed that he was going to appeal but later gave up because he knew it was a losing game for him. 

The judge said as he sentenced him: 

''The abduction of this little girl was carried out with a chilling, cold calculation. This was no 'rush of blood', as you have claimed. This is a very serious case: a horrific, appalling case...you will go to prison for life, and your release will not be considered until such time as it is safe to do so.'' - Lord MacArthur Ross on the abduction of the Stow schoolgirl. 

In 1994, Robert Black was found guilty and convicted of the murders of Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper. He was further convicted of the murder of Jennifer Cardy in 2011. 

''I'm not exactly proud of the way I feel towards young girls.'' - Robert Black 

Robert Black never showed any remorse for his crimes and took a lot of secrets to this grave. He had suffered from poor health even at the beginning of his sentence. He suffered a stroke two years into his prison time and was a heavy smoker who suffered from high cholesterol. He died of a heart attack on the 12th of January 2016, he was 68 years old.

At the time of his death, investigators were just weeks away from charging him with the murder of another young girl by the name of Genette Tate. Genette was just 13 years old when she was murdered in 1978 and the police believe very strongly that evidence suggests that Robert Black was responsible. Robert Black had many victims not yet identified but the case remains open. 

Robert Black was cremated in Ireland and nobody came to his funeral, his ashes were scattered at sea a month later. Nobody cared, they were just glad to see the back of him but wished that he had identified the unknown victims, maybe he forgot because he murdered, abducted and harmed that many children that he lost count? Who knows? He was a true monster, a wicked, evil thing (I don't even want to say man) to ever have existed. He was on this planet for 68 years and all he brought was pain, misery and suffering to innocent children and their families all because he wanted to satisfy his sickening perversions. 

Further Reading & Sources;

- A History of British Serial Killing | Book by Professor David Wilson

- Serial Killers And The Phenomenon of Serial Murder | Book by Professor David Wilson, Elizabeth Yardley, Adam Lynes

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- End of Innocence: The Untold Stories Behind The Victims of Child Killer Robert Black | Book by Zoe Apostolides

- The Face of Evil: The True Story of Serial Killer Robert Black | Book by Chris Clark, Robert Giles

- Robert Black | Wikipedia

- Robert Black: News Article | Daily Record

- Robert Black | Murderpedia

- Robert Black: News Article | The Sun

- Robert Black: News Article | Examiner Live

- Robert Black: News Article | Daily Express

- Robert Black: News Article | Edinburgh News

As well as everything else, I hate the fact that this guy, thing (whatever we want to call him) was Scottish. I know that has nothing to do with it but when you find out that this horrible individual who inflicted such pain and suffering, was from your place of birth, it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I feel the same way about Ian Brady (one half of the infamous Moors Murderers). I know they are not a true reflection of Scotland but you just don't want a beautiful place with such warm people, known for it's beauty and hospitality, to have any sort of association with these horrendous monsters. 

RIP to all of the beautiful little angels who's lives were stolen. These girls should be with us today but they are never forgotten. Thinking of the victims that we know about and their families. I'm also thinking of the victims who are still not identified and their families because the pain of never knowing what happened to your loved one is a pain that I cannot imagine. RIP Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg, Sarah Harper, Jennifer Cardy, Genette Tate and many more x

Thank you for joining me in this installment of my 1980s Serial Killers series. I will be back next time with a case which features a disturbing story of another American serial killer. You may not have heard about this one, who knows? Hope you will join me and thank you again for your support. 

Check out the cases that I have covered already in my 70s and 80s Serial Killer series: 

- Who Is The Connecticut River Valley Killer?

- The Dating Game Killer

- I Murdered Over 90 Women

- The Killer Clown

- The Monster of The Andes

- The Many Faces of Ted Bundy

- The Butcher of Rostov

- BTK: Bind. Torture. Kill

Comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this case or email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com 

You can also reach me on my social media platforms

If you would like to support my weekly content and upcoming book, please donate here, many thanks x

See you in the next post, take care x

 (Dennis Rader - BTK. Picture credit: nzherald)

''There once was a girl who had all the right curves and a large tummy. All the better to wrap up tight and make a mummy.''- Dennis Rader (BTK) 

One of the things that I found really interesting and refreshing about the popular Netflix show Mindhunter, was that it introduced a lot of infamous serial killers to a new true crime audience. Some of us have had an interest in Criminology and studied it for a long time but some people just have a passing interest and are not as familiar with some of the shocking murder cases we have known about over the decades. 

If you follow me on social media you will be aware of my constant moaning in regards to the lack of a Mindhunter third season! To say I was addicted to that programme is an understatement, I would have to sit and watch every episode and I'd be glued to my sofa until 5am. Everybody I knew loved it and talked about it so it was a shock when they said there would be no more episodes. I'm still salty about it and you know who else is probably salty about it.....Dennis Rader! 

As you know, the series was based on the Mindhunter book by the famous criminal profiler and pioneer John Douglas and Johnny Dodd. I've mentioned John Douglas a few times previously on this blog not only because of his amazing work in the criminology field, his insightful and informative books but also because his work has inspired TV shows and even the famous character 'Jack Crawford' in my favourite movie of all time, The Silence of The Lambs. John Douglas is a legend in the area of criminal profiling and is still regularly consulted to this day, he's had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting across the table from some of the most evilest of murderers in history and he details a lot of his experiences in his books. I highly recommend John Douglas's books if you happen to have an interest in true crime. 

So the reason I mentioned that Dennis Rader would be salty about the third season of Mindhunter not coming to fruition, is because if you know a bit about him, the guy kinda likes a bit of publicity! I am of course talking about infamous serial murderer, Dennis Rader or as he likes to call himself....BTK (which stands for Bind, Torture, Kill). My best friend often refers to him as BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, which is a popular sandwich over here in the UK. I had to tell her to stop because it was confusing me and I started to actually call him this) but all jokes aside, the man is a monster and intriguing in a nightmarish way. Not a shred of remorse to be seen which is often the case with serial murderers but this guy seems to be really proud of his 'work' and will talk about it in detail until the cows come home. He's a publicity whore and if there's an opportunity for his name to be mentioned in anything, he'll take it. With the third season of Mindhunter, we were supposed to be getting closer to the focus being on the infamous serial killer BTK (the series had hinted about Rader in the first two seasons) but everything came to an abrupt stop and as of right now (I still live in hope) there are no plans for the show to continue. So the viewers never got the chance to find out the story of BTK, Ted Bundy and many more. I put off writing about BTK because I thought he was going to feature highly in Mindhunter and expected to see his story all over the place. We saw how Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and Edmund Kemper's popularity soared (I know that sounds in poor taste but serial killers who have featured in Netflix shows have a habit of attracting a cult following as disturbing as it may seem, some people are curious and some people actually idolize them) as soon as the Netflix shows were put out. 

I think that Dennis Rader was hoping for the same, for his name and crimes to be the topic of conversation again and possibly have a teen heart-throb like Zac Efron (that's what they did with the Bundy movie) play him and over glamourize everything as Hollywood and Netflix shows tend to do. 

In this post I was going to be moving into the decade of the 1980s with the focus being on the first of the six serial killers that I had chosen for that particular decade. I have already covered six serial killers from the 1970s and for some reason I planned to start the 1980s decade with Dennis Rader. Dennis committed most of his known murders in the 1970s with two known murders taking place in the 1980s and one in the 1990s. I should have placed him in with the 1970s decade but here we are. I have titled this post as Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s & 90s because Dennis Rader was active for all three of those decades. He terrorized Wichita, Kansas for over three decades and played cat and mouse with the media and the police for years until he was caught. I could have placed him in any one of my chosen decades but as the investigation and hunt for him was still actively ongoing in the 1980s and it was when the team of investigators (The Ghostbusters) that were sorely dedicated to the BTK case, was officially set up, I have kept him in this decade. 

I mentioned that he had been active in all three decades but although he committed murder in the 70s, 80s and 90s, he took breaks in between and the police, media and public were never sure of when he was going to strike again. So I will be delving into some facts and information about BTK in this post and I hope you find it informative. Please be aware that I will be sharing some disturbing details. 

• BTK came into the world on the 9th of March 1945 as Dennis Lynn Rader in Pittsburgh, Kansas (USA). He was brought up by his church-going parents, William and Dorothea, in Wichita. His childhood was described by some criminologists to be 'unremarkable and somewhat normal' but I beg to differ, I may not be a qualified criminologist or psychologist but Dennis was showing abnormal behaviour from a young age which included the torture and murder of animals as well as  masturbating into his mother's lingerie. His relationship with his mother was very up and down and she would beat him if she discovered that he had been masturbating this further led to him learning to be secretive. There was also an incident where he found a toy in the street one day and brought it home to play with, his intention was to take it back but his mother accused him of being a thief and ordered him to return the toy to where he found it. Although this does not sound like a major incident, to Dennis he would recall this moment in his childhood as traumatic and left him with feelings of humiliation and loneliness, He was a confused child who couldn't understand why his mother would be harsh with him one minute but very loving the next. 

• He spent a lot of time on farms as a child and would torture animals, mostly cats which he disliked. He was very suspicious of them and claimed that he thought they had mystical powers and were devious. He also said that they reminded him of women and that the cats were his first BDSM victims. He would either strangle or drown the cats and had made a box specifically designed to capture the poor animals so that he could carry out his sickening acts. Dennis said that he had seen a lot of animal cruelty in his childhood with various relatives either slaughtering animals for food or drowning them.

• When it came to animals, he intensely disliked cats but claimed to not have a problem with dogs because dogs reminded him of wolves. Dennis said that he could relate more to wolves as he saw himself as a lone wolf. In one of his many games with the police later on in his life, he would tell investigators false truths and one of them was that he tortured dogs which he later claimed to be untrue, he just told investigators that to create a bit of attention for himself which he always enjoyed. 

• Dennis had three brothers and complained that his parents didn't show him enough attention during his childhood because they worked long hours so they would have to make their own entertainment. Dennis would often play with other boys and they would go hunting, fishing or playing in the barns on the farm. He kept his fetish for lingerie secret but a small interest in women's underwear was soon developing into a full time hobby as he enjoyed dressing up in the undergarments and progressed to taking pictures of himself. In the beginning he thought it was a phase but soon learned that it was deeply ingrained into him and he would continue this interest all through the rest of his life. 

• He realised that he was not like other boys and he later believed that it had something to do with a couple of dramatic events in his childhood which may have caused permanent brain damage. When Dorothea was pregnant she had an accident and fell and there is a possibility that Dennis was injured as a result. She also dropped him when he was six months old and this time he had taken a blow to the right side of the head. Dennis claimed that he had turned blue but nobody took him to the hospital at that time. He survived the incident and nothing more was said about it. As for his unusual behaviour, the aspects of his personality that he did allow people to see, were still unusual for a young boy but everyone around him just ignored it. 

• As he grew older he realised that these strange fantasies were not going to go away. He developed a keen interest in detective magazines that depicted bound women on the front cover (many serial killers have mentioned these types of magazines before and how they peaked their interests), He was also drawn to movies which were violent in nature and included scenes of women being tied up. He also had an obsession with mummification and werewolves. He said that the idea of someone being in pain, wrapped up like a mummy and buried alive, turned him on. He was growing more and more interested in serial killers who he could identify with in different ways. He would study how they carried out their crimes and where they went wrong. Dennis considered himself more intelligent and was quite self assured believing that he would never be caught if he was a serial killer. 

•  He saw serial killers H.H Holmes and Ted Bundy as inspirations. After graduating from high school he went on to attend University and tried to keep his fantasies under control. He also spent four years in the U.S Airforce and had traveled to various countries around the world. He was always keeping himself busy and to some people on the outside, Dennis was a handsome and well adjusted young man but what they didn't know was that beneath the surface a horrible darkness was continuing to grow and had been festering. It was only a matter of time before he was tempted to carry out his fantasies. 

• After his time in the Airforce he decided to return home to settle down and marry his long term girlfriend, Paula as well as start a family. The couple lived in an area known as Park City which was situated just outside of Wichita and Dennis took a job at a local supermarket before returning to University to study for a degree in Electronics. He did very well at University and would later go on to gain a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, It was during this period of time that he and Paula welcomed two children into their lives, a boy and a girl. All through his murder spree and the moments where he took breaks, he was constantly working and involved in his local community. He was the president of a local church, a popular leader of a scout group, a family man and neighbourhood watch type figure that people felt they could trust and say hello to. He moved on to other jobs too, such as an assembler for a camping firm (Coleman company) which, ironically two of his victims had also been employees of. He'd also later worked for a company that specialised in installing security systems. Dennis seemed to pick up knowledge and techniques from everywhere he could, he learned how to tie knots from his time as a scout leader and he also figured out how to trick security alarms. His last position was for the Compliance Department of Park City and the power in this role seemed to go to his head. He was responsible for any of the housing complaints in that area and he was very tight with his restrictions, often giving fines and warnings for the least little thing. 

• Despite always keeping a busy lifestyle, Dennis could not shake off the fantasies that constantly plagued him. In private he would steal women's lingerie, wear the garments and masturbate. He would also stalk various women in his local neighbourhood but this only kept him calm for a short period of time, he wanted more and started to fantasize and plan what it would be like to commit a murder of a human being, even a family. 

• He was always watching people everyday and sometimes he would be driving past someone's house and he'd see a person and instantly pick them out as a potential 'project'. He saw all of his victims as 'projects'. He would carefully stalk and plan out how he was going to kill them and he would keep personal records and drawings of his crimes. Sometimes he would take items that had belonged to the deceased. 

• Whilst being able to carry out the everyday appearance of the hardworking, church-going family man and scout leader, Dennis Rader was living a double life. It is a wonder how he was able to organize and carry out his sickening crimes and then go back to his family but he had his own system in place. He nicknamed this dark part of his life as Factor X. As far as Dennis was concerned, he was able to switch either of the two sides of him on and off like a light switch. Any evil doing was simply carried out by the Factor X side of his personality and not the family man side. His first known murder was of 4 innocent people in 1974, The Otero family. The parents Julie and Joseph were murdered in a sickening fashion with their two children, Joseph Jr and Josephine. He didn't know the family personally but claimed that he had planned what he was going to do to Julie and Josephine. Dennis went around the back of the house and cut the phone lines, he then waited at the back door to which Joseph Jr suddenly opened the door and he forced his way in. He expected to see Julie and the two younger children but was surprised to see that Joseph Snr was in the house. He threatened the shocked family with a gun and claimed that he was an escaped convict. He told the family to put the dog outside and they did so. Joseph and Julie were begging for him not to harm them or the children and had offered him money, their car and to take anything that he wanted but he didn't care, he had no feeling or remorse, all he cared about was living out this sick fantasy that he had stored up for years. 

• At first Dennis instructed the family to lay down in the livingroom but then decided he'd rather carry out the killings in the bedroom so ordered them to go there. Whilst being tied up and held at gunpoint, the family were complaining about how tight the binds were and in a strange action, Dennis would attempt to loosen the restraints but also was concerned in trying to make Joseph Snr a bit more comfortable as he had complained of an existing rib injury from a previous car accident. Dennis placed a pillow underneath him to ease some of his discomfort in that moment. Dennis engaged in conversations with the parents and despite their pleas for mercy and offers of their belongings, he still planned to go ahead and kill them especially as they would now be able to identify him. He wasn't wearing any type of mask and could easily be identified so he knew he had to go through with his evil plans. He tried to kill Joseph Snr first by placing a plastic bag over his head with a ligature around his neck. 

• At this point Joseph Snr was not deceased but he was struggling whilst Dennis moved on to Julie and strangled her. During his confession in 2005, he claimed that he had never physically strangled a human being before so he wasn't sure how much pressure to apply or how long it would take before the victim would succumb to the lack of oxygen. Dennis was out of his depth with this first killing and struggled to control the victims, this was demonstrated when he had thought he had murdered all four family members but they were indeed, passed out. He noticed that Joseph Snr had managed to create a hole in the bag and was still alive so he placed another bag along with a t-shirt over his head with a ligature and sadly Joseph finally succumbed to lack of oxygen. He noticed that the others were stirring and he strangled Julie again until she was deceased. He then murdered Joseph Jr in the same way. Josephine was still alive but disorientated, he picked her up and carried her to the basement where he hung the child and when she was deceased he pleasured himself before taking a few items from the property which included a watch and a radio. He then took the car keys and drove the Otero family car to another location before walking back to his own vehicle. 

• The sickening murders of the Otero family were said to be Dennis's first experience of taking human life and the mistakes that he made during the killings showed that he was not an experienced killer. He did clean up the house after the murders and tried to cover his tracks the best he could. He made sure that he would plan better for his next project. Sadly, he had no remorse or disgust at taking the lives of this beautiful, innocent family, it just gave him more of a thirst to carry on because he enjoyed the power and the sexual satisfaction it gave him. 

• He would go on to murder six more innocent people who he referred to as 'projects'. The victims would be stalked, the same procedure would follow with the phone lines being cut and strangulation would occur. He never r*ped any of his victims but he would masturbate at the scene.

• His next victim was to be a young woman named as Kathryn Bright (aged 21). He had stalked her after driving past her house one day and planned how he was going to take her life. He broke into her house and waited for her to come home, when she finally did return, he was surprised to see that she had a man with her (he didn't know at the time that this man, later identified as Kevin, was her brother). The young siblings were shocked to discover Dennis in the house and he told them the same story that he told the Otero family, that he was a convict on the run and needed a car. He ordered Kevin to tie his sister up and then he proceeded to bind Kevin. Dennis had two handguns with him this time but he claimed that he didn't have his kill kit with him so there was a struggle with both victims with the binds not being tight enough. He fired one of the guns at Kevin and assumed that he had been killed so he returned to Kathryn and decided to stab her. Thinking that Kathryn was deceased he returned to check on Kevin who was still alive and able to make a run for it. Kevin managed to escape from BTK but Kathryn sadly didn't. 

• Chillingly, Dennis would later say that if he had, had the correct equipment with him that day then Kevin would have been deceased. 

''If I had brought my stuff and used my stuff. Kevin would probably be dead today. I'm not bragging on that. It's just a matter of fact.'' - Dennis Rader (BTK) 

• Another young woman was to be his sixth known, deceased victim and that was 24 year old Shirley Vian. Shirley had been chosen at random and Dennis discovered that she had three children. When he got into her house, he found her alone with the children and told her that he had sexual problems and desired to have sex with her. Shirley and the children were clearly terrified but followed instructions. The children were tied up and placed in the bathroom whilst Dennis carried out his attack on their mother. Just like the strange behaviour of placing a pillow underneath Joseph Otero Snr's body when he complained of a rib injury, Dennis ordered Shirley to place toys and blankets in the bathroom to keep the children (who were understandably distressed) occupied. 

• Shirley had vomited a couple of times and it's unclear whether this was because of the trauma of the situation or because she was actually sick (she had been dressed in a robe at the time). Whilst being sick, Dennis brought her a glass of water as if trying to be helpful, he then placed a plastic bag over her head with a rope and strangled her whilst her three children were locked in the bathroom. The children could clearly hear the commotion and were screaming and banging on the bathroom door. Dennis quickly cleaned up and placed his items in his briefcase (which was his kill kit. The briefcase contained rope, tape, gloves, one or two handguns, knives, handcuffs and tools for cutting wires and breaking into houses. Sometimes he would carry a camera in there along with fake identity papers and business cards). 

• He would go on to kill four more women in a similar fashion with the final victim said to be 62 year old Dolores Davis in 1991. He strangled Dolores with a pair of stockings and then looked through her house for items before taking her car. He took Dolores's deceased body with him in the vehicle because he said he had some commitments to see too. He later dumped her body underneath a bridge. 

• Throughout his killing spree, Dennis would often taunt the police and the press. He would leave messages in local library books and it was he himself who insisted on being called BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill). He made it clear that he was proud of his 'work' and wanted to be known as an infamous serial killer who was always one step ahead of the police. For years he evaded capture and would get irate and contact the police and media if someone was trying to take credit (as he saw it) for the murders that he committed. The real identity of BTK remained a mystery and continued to haunt Wichita was years with residents constantly having to look over their shoulder wondering if and when BTK would strike next. The police had an audio recording of his voice when he brazenly contacted 911 to report one of the murders by payphone. When the tape was made public his daughter (who later went on to write about her father) recognized her father's voice immediately. 

• His last known murder was of Dolores in 1991 and he later claimed that he was planning to 'retire' from murdering innocent people. He avoided detection all the way through the 1990s and continued to be a family man and pillar of the community. It was only when an article appeared in the Wichita newspaper which was focused on the 30th anniversary of the BTK murders, did Dennis suddenly sit up and take notice again. As always, being the publicity whore and attention seeker that he was, he was fuming as he read the article that basically implied that the community had began to move on from BTK and had mostly forgotten him. It was meant to be a healing article to show that the community was trying to move on after a horrific time in the past. Dennis didn't see himself in the past though, to him the murders (his 'work') was not in the past. He enjoyed being this mysterious boogeyman who outsmarted the police and had the community gripped in fear, walking around knowing what he had done and nobody suspecting him in a second, he enjoyed that power. But the huge bruise to his ego that he was just old news was enough to start the evil inside him rising again. He planned to commit another murder to show them all that he still had what it took. He contacted the police and the media again to let them know that he was still around.

• I'm sure a lot of people were hoping that he would be dead after being quiet for so long but their fears were to be ignited again with the knowledge that he could strike at any time. For the cops they saw this as another chance to finally get him.

• And the cops were to get their day because Dennis finally made the ultimate slip up and it was because of a computer disk. He contacted the police and asked them if he could be traced via a computer disk, they told him that they wouldn't be able to and he fell for it. He sent in a computer disk after he saw a secret code which the police had arranged to be printed in a local newspaper and it was through this that they were able to trace him. 

• It was an extraordinary moment when Dennis Rader aka BTK was finally arrested on the 25th of February 2005. It had been a long time coming and a lot of people had given up hope of ever seeing that day but here it was, the monster was finally caught.

• At first he tried to deny his guilt but the evidence was overwhelming and he just gave up and confessed to everything in chilling detail. It was chilling the way he was able to recall every minute detail from each of the murders as if it happened only yesterday. 

• There was no trial, Dennis and his lawyers knew the game as up and there would be no point with the huge amount of evidence against him. There was a hearing where the evidence was to be presented along with Dennis Rader's confession and a chance for the victim's families to have their final say. Dennis stood up in the courtroom and talked about each of the killings with no emotion, almost as if he was reading out a shopping list. 

• He was given 10 life sentences and missed out on the death penalty because it had not been reinstated at the time of his crimes. He is still alive today and continues to serve his sentence. A number of books, documentaries and movies have explored his crimes and he is very much still obsessed with gaining as much publicity as possible. He managed to get himself into the press recently by saying that he felt sorry for the alleged Idaho Four murderer Bryan Kohberger. Bryan is featured heavily in the media right now because he is due to stand trial, he also attended a criminology course which was being conducted by Dr Katherine Ramsland. Dr Ramsland is a well known 'expert' on the BTK murders and has been in personal contact with Dennis Rader for a number of years and has written a best-selling book on the case. Dennis claimed to feel sorry for Bryan because he knew what it was like to feel lonely in prison but assured that things would get better once the letters arrived. I think the letters that Dennis means are from the ghouls, the crazy people who are obsessed with serial killers and the ambitious true crime writers. 

(Known victims of Dennis Rader - BTK. Picture collage credit: the-line-up)

RIP to the known victims of Dennis Rader:

The Otero Family: Joseph Snr, Julie, Joseph Jr & Josephine.

Kathryn Bright (thoughts also to her brother Kevin who managed to get away and survive the horrific ordeal). 

Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox, Marine Hedge, Vickie Wegerle and Dolores Davis.

There was also a lady who nearly became another one of BTK's victims but fortunately she had returned home later that night and he had given up waiting for her. The lady had no idea that she was on his kill list until she started to receive items in the mail. Some items had been stolen from her house and returned in packages with a poem asking why she never showed up. It was chilling along with a lot of chilling things that he did. As well as the sketches, records, notes and personal items that he would keep of his victims (which he kept locked away from his family) he had personal, disturbing photographs of himself dressed up in lingerie and bound. He was able to set up this whole macabre scene himself. He would either go to a wooded area to play out these sick photoshoots or he would go to a motel for what he called 'Motel Parties' and it would just be him, taking pictures of himself in lingerie, tied up, posing as a victim. 

''When this monster entered my brain. I will never know, but it is here to stay. How does one cure himself? I can't stop it, the monster goes on , and hurts me as well as society. Maybe you can stop him. I can't.'' - Dennis Rader (BTK) 

(Dennis Rader - BTK. Picture credit: oxygen)

Further Reading & Sources: 

- A Serial Killer's Daughter | Book by Kerri Rawson

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- The Anatomy of Evil | Book by Michael Stone

- The Psychology of Notorious Serial Killers | Book by Todd Grande

- Inside The Mind of BTK | Book by John Douglas & Johnny Dodd

- The Killer Book of Serial Killers | Book by Michael Philbin & Tom Philbin

- Serial Killers & The Phenomenon of Serial Murder | Textbook by Prof David Wilson, Elizabeth Yardley & Adam Lynes

- The True Crime Dictionary | Book by Amanda Lees

- Confession of A Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, The BTK Killer | Book by Katherine Ramsland phD

- Dennis Rader - BTK: Full Confession | Courtroom Footage

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Born To Kill (Documentary)

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Murderpedia

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Wikipedia

- Dennis Rader: Article | The Independent

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Crime Museum

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Daily Mail

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Psychology Today

- BTK News | The Wichita Eagle

- Dennis Rader - BTK: Article | The New York Times

His level of evilness continues to intrigue and fascinate to this day, was he born evil or was it the injuries to his head as a child? Was he made to be a killer after years of watching relatives on the farm killing animals and slaughtering them? Did this take away any sensitivity, empathy and feeling he may have had for an animal or a human being in suffering? Nobody knows the answer and it continues to baffles us to this day. His wife was granted an emergency divorce in 2005 when the truth was finally revealed. He was able to live two separate lives for decades and nobody suspected a thing. I still hope that Mindhunter will return and that they will delve into the BTK case, not for attention for Dennis but for the viewers. We are all struggling to understand this type of evil behaviour and we all want to find ways to prevent it but it's an uphill battle. We may never be able to get to the bottom of why serial killers are able to do what they do. 

(Dennis Rader - BTK. Picture credit: wikipedia)

''I actually think I may be possessed by demons., I was dropped on my head as a kid.'' - Dennis Rader (BTK) 

If you have made it this far, as always, thank you, I appreciate it. I hope you will join me next time for my next post in the series. 

Take care x