SERIAL KILLER: "BTK" Pt. 1

Serial Killers & Murderous Minds

Crime House

True Crime

4.5 • 713 Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Before he was known as the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader was a quiet Midwestern boy with a dark imagination. Behind his polite smile and churchgoing charm, Dennis harbored fantasies of control, torture, and death.

In this first episode, Killer Minds hosts Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engels uncover how Rader’s early experiences — from childhood humiliation to secret obsessions — shaped one of the most chilling serial killers in American history.

A disturbing look into how a seemingly ordinary man became a master of deception and murder.

Killer Minds is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson. Looking for another Crime House original podcast to add to your rotation, you will love Clues with Morgan Absher and Kalyn Moore.
0:12.8	Every Wednesday, Morgan and Kalin dig into the world's most notorious crimes, clue by clue, from serial killers to shocking murders.
0:21.5	They follow the trail of clues, break down the evidence, and debate the theories.
0:26.3	It's like hanging out with your smart and true crime-obsessed friends.
0:29.8	Listen to clues on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:48.3	Music. or wherever you listen to podcasts. Every kid has their fantasies.
0:52.3	Some pretend to be superheroes.
0:55.0	Others see themselves as astronauts blasting off into space
0:58.2	or professional athletes scoring a game-winning shot.
1:02.2	Usually these childhood daydreams are a fun, harmless escape.
1:07.7	But Dennis Raiders' fantasies weren't so innocent.
1:11.6	From an early age, his imagination wandered into dark territory.
1:16.6	He dreamed about binding and torturing people, including those he loved.
1:22.6	Eventually, Dennis' fantasies consumed him, so he transformed them into deadly reality.
1:30.3	The human mind is powerful.
1:47.0	It shapes how we think, feel, love, and hate.
1:51.0	But sometimes it drives people to commit the unthinkable.
1:55.0	This is Killer Minds, a crimehouse original.
1:58.0	I'm Vanessa Richardson.
2:00.0	And I'm Dr. Tristan Ingalls. Every Monday and Thursday,
2:03.3	we uncover the darkest minds on history, analyzing what makes a killer.
2:08.3	Crime House is made possible by you. Follow Killer Minds and subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple
	...

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