On July 26, 2005 Paula Rader was granted an emergency divorce from BTK killer Dennis Rader. The 60 day waiting period was waived by Sedgwick County District Judge Eric Yost and the divorce was finalized the same day it was petitioned. It was filed citing mental and physical distress under the advice of a mental health professional, and also grants Paula Rader full ownership of all property shared by the couple including the home that was recently auctioned. Paula Rader assumes responsibility for the house mortgage and her living expenses. Dennis Rader also gave up all income from two retirement accounts. Here is a link to the divorce petition and decree from kansas.com.
Dennis Rader recently admitted to being the notorious BTK Strangler serial killer that had terrorized Wichita, Kansas since 1974. He confessed to 10 murders committed in the Wichita area, the last known one being in 1991. He was arrested in February, 2005 after a 31 year hunt for the elusive killer. He had been there all along, living respectably as a husband, father, Lutheran church official and former Boy Scout troop leader. He installed alarm systems and later became the compliance officer/animal control officer for Park City KS, just a few miles north of Wichita where he had lived with his wife and family since 1971. His killings were a brutal mixture of home invasion, bondage, torture and strangulation. Not one person who knew him personally ever suspected that he could be the infamous BTK Strangler.
With Paula he fathered two children, now adults, who were conceived literally in between horrible murders. He had the ability to compartmentalize, to cut off the evil side from the apparently normal side and vice versa. He could kill and then go on like nothing had happened at all.
One of his victims was a pleasant lady who lived on the same street as the Raders, Marine Hedge. They would greet her as they strolled past her home when she was out working in her garden. BTK broke into her house one night in 1985 and hid in a bedroom. He waited until she went to bed that night then pounced on her, strangling her with his bare hands. He drove her body off in her own car and dumped it in a ditch a few miles away.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
fascinating and very disturbing - thanks and welcome Frank!
2 - Aaman
When is the movie version being released? And what will they call it?
3 - Greg
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.
4 - Phillip Winn
Amazing details. I've tended to avoid the case, but this post was compelling and with a fresh angle. Thanks.
5 - Nancy
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.
6 - Allyne
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.
7 - chas
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.
8 - Joe Smo
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.
9 - Frank Waldron
The movie being made for CBS-TV is called "The Hunt for the BTK Strangler", scheduled to air Oct. 9, 2005.
10 - GyasiM
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.
11 - Rex
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.
12 - Jennifer
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.
13 - Frank Waldron
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.
14 - Brittney Adams
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!
15 - chas
"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/
16 - Kim
The poems were typed or stencilled, not handwrittem.
17 - Bo Diaz
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.
18 - Frank Waldron
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.
19 - Mark Marcus
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
20 - Mary Anne
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.
21 - johnny
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!!!
22 - Lola
Great post, Mary Anne. Thank you for your response.
23 - Allie
Um, why are some people saying it is Paula's "job" to give her so-called "profits" to the victims? She did not profit anything wrongfully. The Rader home was their home, which would of course be her home after a divorce. And Rader's savings should also be hers after a divorce. He did not "profit" the money from his victims. His retirement savings were earned while he was employed.
Her marriage to this monster should not make her a guilty party. Why should it? She didn't take those people's lives. Maybe she was in denial when she was married to him. No one will ever know the whole truth. But just because she may have been naive or in denial, doesn't make her the same monster as Dennis.
I feel it is not Paula's "wifely" duty to make ammends with the victims of Rader. They were his horrific crimes, not hers. It is sad that some individuals would shame Paula because of her past marriage to Dennis.
Oh, and, Mary Anne had a good response.
24 - Liane Leedom, M.D.
I do not believe he could possibly have been "loving"- maybe acceptable or dutiful. But I hope that Paula, instead of hiding will become an advocate for the families of psychopaths. There are between 3 and 12 million psychopaths out there and so that makes a lot of family members coping with similar issues of evil in their midst.
25 - unoamongmany
there you go. You just proved my point. Kevin Bright was shot by Rader
and his sister killed. The Relford guy watched through a key hole as
his mother is strangled, the Oteros find their parents and siblings
murdered. The Weigerle son sits in a play pen while is mother is
strangled, and you say what a "Victim" Paula Rader is? Where was she
when the people who lost their loved ones came out? No where to be
seen. She and her kids are STILL alive, and only utter blindness could
compare her with those who's family members were killed, sometimes
right in front of their eyes! Of course she is not to blame for his
actions, but the only thing we hear of her is of her efforts to get a
good price for her home. She inadvertently supported this maggot for 31
years! Where is her sympathy for his victims families?? No where to be
seen.
and what about the "loyal" church she goes to and founded? Did they take up any money for the victim's families. No, one of them bought her house out of empathy.
No way. May she and her family live with the same pain, his victims suffer, and more