Wichita – BTK serial killer Dennis Rader was ordered to serve 10 consecutive life terms Thursday at a hearing that allowed family members to unleash decades of pent-up anger at the man who stabbed and strangled their loved ones while terrorizing the Wichita area starting in the 1970s.
“As far as I’m concerned, Dennis Rader does not deserve to live. I want him to suffer as much as he made his victims suffer,” said Beverly Plapp, sister of victim Nancy Fox. “This man needs to be thrown in a deep, dark hole and left to rot. He should never, ever see the light of day. … On the day he dies, Nancy and all of his victims will be waiting with God and watching him as he burns in hell.”
The two- day hearing also included rambling, sometimes-tearful testimony from Rader, who apologized to his family and victims, thanked the police and offered biblical quotes. Some family members walked out of court during Rader’s half-hour of testimony, saying they did not want to hear him.
“A dark side is there, but now I think light is beginning to shine,” Rader said, his voice choking at times. “Hopefully, someday God will accept me.”
Jeff Davis, whose mother was strangled by Rader, called Rader’s speech a “pathetic, rambling diatribe.”
“He just nauseates me,” Davis said at a news conference with other family members. “I just want them to put the cockroach away.”
Rader, 60, a former church congregation president and Boy Scout leader, called himself BTK for “bind, torture and kill” during his spree that started in 1974 and ended in 1991.
He was arrested in February and pleaded guilty in June.
The sentence – a minimum of 175 years without a chance of parole – was the longest possible that Judge Gregory Waller could deliver.
Kansas had no death penalty at the time of the 10 murders.
The sentencing in many ways was a formality, with the only issue before the judge being whether Rader would serve his 10 life sentences consecutively or concurrently.
