fascinating and very disturbing - thanks and welcome Frank!

When is the movie version being released? And what will they call it?

This is one of the most compassionate pieces I have seen written on BTK. I grew up in Wichita during that era. Thank you for respecting the family's privacy and the extreme difficulty they face going forward. How could anyone of them know what is real in their life going forward. This monsterous act is just unreal for them. God bless them.

Amazing details. I've tended to avoid the case, but this post was compelling and with a fresh angle. Thanks.

I can't even imagine being in that position. How horrific. And serial killers ARE extremely good at 'compartmentalizing' & dissembling. How were they to know? I can understand why she just couldn't live in that house any more. I think I'd move out of state & take a new name, too.

This is by far the best synopsis of the BTK case from the point of view of the unsuspecting wife that I have yet read. Frank combines a keen eye for detail with a thoughtful overview that misses nothing yet makes sense out of everything. That he did it in such few words is a remarkable achievement. Please keep writing, Frank.

While I welcome any pieces on BTK outside the mainstream media, this piece contains unsupported and overly generic/broad assertions, such as, "BTK's dark side was kept well hidden from the family and people he knew..." Also, the phrase, "We support Paula..", is not neccessarily the case as this is one person writing this piece - the plural shoudl not be used. Not everyone wants to just blindly grant her blanket support although most feel sympathy for her.

You might as well let the public see what pictures you have of Paula, because now a not-so-flatering picture of her is in the Globe.

The movie being made for CBS-TV is called "The Hunt for the BTK Strangler", scheduled to air Oct. 9, 2005.

There most be more to the the story. Either she knew something was not right, or Mr. & Mrs Rader weren't as close as a married couple should have been.

Kill him now. The State of Kansas should be embarrassed for letting Rader live as long as he has. Could have killed him during the arrest, said he tried to shoot a cop and have been done with it. Nobody would have complained. This scum needs to go. He can explain it all to Satan when he gets down there.

Paula Rader is the primary victim here? Excuse me? What about the families of the people Dennis Rader killed?

I am sick of hearing about how sad this woman's story is. True, she lived with an unimaginably evil man. But by all accounts he treated her well. He gave her two healthy children and supported all of them. And now that he's in prison, she's managed to get all of his assets transfered to her so that she can go on living the comfortable life that she's always had. Not only that, she managed to sell her house for far more than it was worth because of her husband's notoriety. While Son-of-Sam laws keep her husband from profiting from his crime, Paula Rader is more than happy to make money off the deaths of so many innocents.

Contrast her story with that of the families of BTK victims. They were widowed, orphaned, left alone and, in some cases, financially destitute. One man was investigated by the police for years for his wife's murder. The Otero children grew up without their parents.

Did Paula Rader have any idea that her husband was the BTK killer? We may never know. The question arises, though -- what would have happened to Paula Rader and her children if her husband had been arrested during the height of his crimes? She would have been left a single mom with two small children. She would have had to work and many of the family's resources could have been expended on Rader's defense. More than one woman has found those reasons enough to look the other way. Her willingness to profit now from her husband's crimes does not bolster her claims that she knew nothing at the time. A truly innocent woman would give the money away to the real victims.

No one is suggesting that Paula is the primary victim, she is one of BTK's many victims. According to police testimony, she had no idea her husband was the man she lived in fear of. She is entitled to her own life and assets and has shown no sign of wanting to profit from ex-husband's case.

I am 17, and I live in Wichita. When I had learned about who the BTK killer was from my grandparents, and mom and etc. they told me that hopefully someday they find out who the killer is. Now that we all know...I hope Dennis Rader ROTS for his nasty, insane murders and sexual fantasies. What kind of man puts on a bra and underwear and takes pix of himself? GAY? Lol..U tell me...Thanks!

"Paula found a draft of they 'Shirley Locks' poem before it was even sent by BTK (about victim Shirley Vian Relford). Rader also claims she commented that he spelled "just like BTK." Court testimony also shows a lot of Raer stuff was store right in their home, let alone in the car, the shed, etc. I am nether condemning her nor ready to say she knew nothing. I feel Frank's statements are not supported any more than saying she is absolutely guilty of knowing something was wrong. Let's not go overboard one way or the other.

Picture of Paula...
http://flickr.com/photos/13494015@N00/page3/

The poems were typed or stencilled, not handwrittem.

Why not post a link of Paula you stinking jackass! The victims pictures are posted all over the place and yet everyone wants to protect the wife of this animal. If she ddn't know this creature was btk then she should be given a citation for being an idiot. One of the victims lived right on their street and she found a poem about another victim in their house! Hello? 2+2=4. What a moron. I consider your blog weak and bogus until you post a link to see a picture of this dummy.

If Paula is a moron, so too are all of their friends and relatives as well as everyone in Park City that knew them. No one ever suspected Rader because he is a psychopath cum laude that fooled everyone all the time. Your insults don't otherwise deserve an intelligent reply.

It is a shock that as he was a church going man,did not confess or redemption enter his mind? Stalin reminds of of a man who stated: "One death is a tragedy a million is a statistic." Numbers meant nothing for Rader. The sympathy of a mother and her children is unexplainable. I pray for his family.

Mark Marquez

In response to Jennifer:

Paula Rader is deeply a victim as well. Obviously not a victim in the same sense as the murdered victims and their beloved family members, but a victim. And for that matter, so are Rader's son and daughter. Let's see - - - profit? What profit? They lived modestly. Paula - regardless of when Dennis Rader was apprehended finally - still worked outside the home, even after her two children were adults and self-supporting. Assets? I am no attorney but I believe that his assets upon conviction would transfer to his spouse - anyway. I mean, what's he going to do with them? Buy drawing pads in bulk?

You are being very judgmental and harsh. Paula - and John and Kerri - are victims, too. Losses? They have lost security. They have lost peace. They have lost the happy memories. They have lost the head of the household's income and insurance, etc. benefits. They have lost the once-respectable Rader family name. I daresay you can mention the name "Rader" in the far reaches of Timbuktu, and someone will recoil in horror at hearing it. If you don't think that's a loss, then I wonder at your intelligence and insight.

Paula and her children have lost an admittedly good husband and father's companionship, the trust they had put in him, the contentment on Independence Street, the contentment and solid relationships at Christ Lutheran (at least without eyebrows being raised and whispers being bandied around). Paula has lost consortium. Kerri and John have lost a normal, loving, jovial grandpa-dream for their children/future children. They have all lost favor - as wrong as that is - in society. They have done NOTHING WRONG. Yet they are made to suffer along with this horrifically disturbed man they called husband and father. Paula, Kerri and John can never - E V E R - for the rest of their lives - walk down the street with their head held high and feel quiet inside. And none of that is their fault. Only the people who know real love and kindness inside their own hearts dare to reach out to Paula. Or Kerri. Or John. And that's disgusting. They are victims. They have had the veritable floor pulled out from beneath them. All they have known for over thirty years has been a lie.

Be sensible and think hard on your response.

Paula Rader obviously tried to sell her house fast and got her degusting hubby to sign his half over to her, in an effort to deny the victim's families the money that was owed to them from anything that Rader profited from. Per countless news report she was twarted in her efforts. Yet she tries to come off as this cute Christian woman. Of course she belongs to the same church that her child murdering hubby belonged to, so there it is!!!