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True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers

UNHOLY MESSENGER-BTK-Joyce and Stephen Singular

True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers

Dan Zupansky

True Crime, News Commentary, Documentary, News, Society & Culture

42.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2019

⏱️ 86 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City, Kansas. The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for thirty-one years. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders -- torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family -- and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros' deaths and labeling himself BTK. Thus he established a pattern -- stalking and killing a series of ten victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes -- that ended in 1991. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest. Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly detailed thirty-two-hour confession, bestselling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully -- for the first time -- the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality. In Unholy Messenger, Singular recounts the year prior to Rader's arrest, in which the BTK killer reemerged, and the aftermath. The result is a chilling story of a man considered a "spiritual leader" by his pastor and congregation, who turned out to be the devil next door. UNHOLY MESSENGER: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer-Joyce and Stephen Singular

Transcript

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You are now listening to True Murder, the most shocking killers in true crime

0:51.9

history, and the authors that have written about them.

0:55.4

Gacy, Bundy, Dahmer, the Nightstalker, D.T.K.

1:00.8

Every week, another fascinating author talking about the most shocking

1:04.8

and infamous killers in true crime history.

1:07.6

True Murder, with your host, journalist and author, Dan Zufansky.

1:14.4

Good evening.

1:24.0

To all appearances, Dennis Raider was a model citizen in the small town of Park City,

1:29.2

Kansas. The self-named BTK for bind torture kill had terrorized Wichita for 31 years.

1:38.1

In 1974, BTK committed his first murders, torturing and strangling four members of the

1:45.2

Ortero family, and wrote the police on a dachshis letter declaring his responsibility for the

1:50.9

Ortero's deaths and labeling himself BTK.

...

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