EXCLUSIVE: ‘I’m the prison pet!’ BTK serial killer Dennis Rader boasts of getting special treatment, tells how he was controlled by demons named Batter and Factor X and planned a ‘retirement kill’ before he was captured in shocking letter to DailyMail.com

• Dennis Rader, 73, called himself BTK, for ‘bind, torture, kill’ when he murdered 10 people, including two children, in Wichita, Kansas from 1974 to 1991
• He was arrested in 2005 after resuming correspondence with police, irritated by a local newspaper story which suggested people had forgotten who BTK was
• Father-of-two Rader  is serving 175 years in prison at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Kansas, for the killings. He escaped execution because Kansas had no death penalty at the time of the murders
•  His killing spree is now back in the spotlight after his daughter Kerri Rawson published a memoir ‘A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming’ earlier this month. He proudly calls her his ‘Tom-Boy Girl’
• Rader wrote a five-page letter to DailyMail.com, describing how two demons he calls Batter and Factor X made him ‘the way I was as I committed those terrible crimes’
• Rader told DailyMail.com he had planned an eleventh victim, a ‘retirement kill’, but ‘it didn’t work out that day’
• Despite his boasts, Rader admits being in poor health. Scoliosis, a painful curvature of the spine, makes it difficult for him to stand and a suspected stroke last year caused him to lose his short-term memory as well as some coordination 

By CHEYENNE ROUNDTREE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 13:55 EST, 22 February 2019 | UPDATED: 17:31 EST, 22 February 2019

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BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, in the first media interview since his 2005 sentencing, boasted to DailyMail.com he is being treated as a ‘pet’ in his high security prison.

Rader gave himself the name BTK, for ‘Bind, Torture, Kill’ as he murdered ten people, including two children aged nine and 11, in Wichita, Kansas between 1974 and 1991 before going dark.

The married father-of-two was caught 13 years ago after resuming his correspondence with police because he had become irritated by a local newspaper story which suggested people had forgotten BTK. 

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Dennis Rader murdered 10 people, including two children, in Wichita, Kansas over a 17-year stretch between 1974 to 1991. He is pictured above in 2005 after being sentenced to 10 life sentences

BTK’s ten victims: (L-R) January 15, 1974: #1 Julie Otero (aged 33) Strangled with a rope; #2 Joseph Otero (aged 38) Suffocated with a plastic bag; #3 Josephine Otero (aged 11) Hanged with a rope; #4 Joseph Otero, Jr. (aged 9) Suffocated with a plastic bag; April 4, 1974: #5 Kathryn Bright (aged 21) Stabbed 3 times in abdomen with a knife

(L-R) March 17, 1977: #6 Shirley Vian (aged 24) Strangled with a rope; December 8, 1977: #7 Nancy Fox (aged 25) Strangled with a belt; April 27, 1985: #8 Marine Hedge (aged 53) Strangled with hands; September 16, 1986: #9 Vicki Wegerle (aged 28) Strangled with Nylon stocking; January 19, 1991: #10 Dolores E. Davis (aged 62) Strangled with pantyhose

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 After arresting Dennis Rader, police found photos where he dressed up like his victims

Rader, 73, is serving ten consecutive life sentences and, with no chance of parole for 175 years, will die in prison. He escaped execution because Kansas had no death penalty at the time of the murders.ADVERTISING

His case is now back in the spotlight after his daughter Kerri Rawson published a memoir ‘A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming’ earlier this month.

Rader responded to a list of questions from DailyMail.com sent to him at El Dorado Correctional Facility, the maximum security prison he shares with 1,510 inmates in Prospect Township, Kansas.

It is the first time he has answered questions from the media since his capture in 2005.   

Rader began the letter with a colorful geometric shape titled ‘El Caverna 2019’, which he later explains is the name he gives for his prison cell.

Rader’s five-page letter to DailyMail.com begins with a colorful geometric shape titled ‘El Caverna 2019’, which he explains is the name for his prison cell at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Kansas. Now a poet, Rader wrote: ‘We walk the beaches of life, never know what may wash ashore’

Next to the shape he writes, ‘February – The Month of Heart Warmed Treasure” and “Epigram – We walk the beaches of life, never know what may wash ashore.’

He apologized for his handwriting and disjointed sentences, blaming it on suffering a suspected stroke last year which he also believes caused short-term memory loss. 

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Dennis Rader describes being treated well at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Kansas where he is serving a 175-year sentence for murdering 10 peopleBTK Killer discusses his crimes with DailyMail.comProgress: 0%0:00PreviousPlaySkipUnmuteCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time2:17FullscreenAdvertisement

Describing life inside the prison, he said he feels safe at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

He wrote: ‘Very safe, I believe I’m the facility ‘pet’. They take good care of me but sort of hide the world or keep me under close wrap, but I have all the segregation privileges.

‘Live in segregation, own cell, a 8’x12’ room, nice window and full metal door with porthole window.

 ‘Have TV, radio, hot-pot, books, I can call people, have visitors, just live alone and can’t have contact with others outside my cell, unless handcuff, probably listed as ‘high profile”.  

‘Here I live 24/7 in my cell, read, some TV, if any news and weather, on TCM [Turner Classic Movies] in the evening, some sports and things like recent [ABC News show] ’20/20’ about my daughter and me.

‘Very safe, I believe I’m the facility ‘pet’ – Dennis Rader describes a relatively easy life in his 8-by-12 foot cell where he watches news shows, works on art and writes poetry

‘Work on art, poetry, write a lot of letters, keep record and book on life, exercise when I can. 

‘Do call close friends, that’s nice to talk to others, and they come and visit me, send me nice letters and cards, or buy books for me to read, I call them my ‘Cave Family’.

‘Been here 13 years and 190 days as I write, after a while you just get tired of the same thing day after day, but keeping busy helps, also changing one’s routine.’  

Rader claimed to DailyMail.com he had been possessed by two demons called ‘Batter’ and ‘Factor X’ when he ‘committed those terrible crimes’.

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Dennis Rader described to DailyMail.com how two demons he calls ‘Batter’ and ‘Factor X’ made him ‘the way I was as I committed those terrible crimes’ when he murdered 10 people

Rader wrote: “I blame ‘Batter’, he or it became the physical escape goat, sort of a metaphoric frog-looking dragon. I liked frogs and collect figurines at home, probably childhood days fishing at my grandparents’ farm pond and big bull frogs at the pond.

‘Actually the real Demon, is what I call ‘Factor X’. I have now figured it out…I know why I do these dark deeds, it is no more a mystery to me. So, in a way yes ‘Batter’ or ‘Factor X’ did make me the way I was as I committed those terrible crimes.’ WARNING GRAPHIC: Rader confesses to murders during 2005 trialLoaded: 0%Progress: 0%00:00PreviousPlaySkipMuteCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time0:00Fullscreen

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Asked if he committed any more murders than the 10 he was convicted for, Rader said he had not but describes coming close to killing an eleventh ‘retirement victim’.

Rader does not name her in the letter but it is believed he is referring to Mary Capps. 

Capps worked for Rader for almost seven years as a compliance officer in Park City, Kansas up until Rader’s arrest in February 2005. 

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Victim #11: Mary Capps worked with Rader for seven years as a compliance officer in Park City, Kansas until his 2005 arrest and believes she was to be his 11th victim

Capps, who has dealt with post traumatic stress disorder, wrote the book ‘My boss was the BTK Killer – I was the next victim’.

She details how Rader was an abusive boss and, in the 12 months up to Rader’s arrest, had started to act increasingly odd and she believes he may have been targeting her as his next victim.

Rader asked her if she thought he looked like the sketch of the BTK that was being publicized in the media at the time. 

In the month before Rader was arrested, Capps said someone was intimidating her, calling her cell phone and unscrewing her front porch light every night after she would return home from work. This all ceased once Rader was arrested.  

In his letter to DailyMail.com, Rader wrote, ‘There was a eleventh victim chosen, but it didn’t work out that day. I’m sure, if I had not been arrested she eventually would have been 11.

‘She was to become my ‘retirement victim’ from the SK [serial killer] world, I was getting too old and wanted to back off and still remain BTK.  Unsolved cases, for who I was, a Wichita mystery!’  

Dennis Rader confirms to DailyMail.com there was to be an 11th victim ‘but it didn’t work out that day. I’m sure, if I had not been arrested she eventually would have been 11. She was to become my ‘retirement victim’ from the SK [serial killer] world, I was getting too old and wanted to back off and still remain BTK.’

Asked by DailyMail.com what current affairs issues he is particularly interested in, he responded, ‘Impeach President Trump. That’s all I will say about him. Believe the worst ‘President Ever!’ 

Political message: BTK killer Dennis Rader described his dislike of President Trump. Rader told DailyMail.com, ”Impeach President Trump. That’s all I will say about him. Believe the worst ‘President Ever!’

Rader added his health has suffered in prison, from a stroke last year to scoliosis, a painful and often-disabling sideways curvature of the spine.

Rader told DailyMail.com: ‘Difficult, well it seems as I age the list gets longer. I have “scoliosis” really bad, in the evening it tightens up and I can’t get around, do exercise mainly in the arms after bedrest, but can’t stay on my feet very long.’

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Rader admits being in poor health. Scoliosis, a painful curvature of the spine, makes it difficult for him to stand and a suspected stroke last year caused him to lose his short-term memory as well as some coordination

He continued: ‘Also I had either a stroke or infected with bed bugs 9-25-18 of that year, vertigo problem for a long time, really sick, but much better.

‘I think it affected my handwriting & maybe brain, or that could be age at 73, good my memory but new memory not so much. Another reason to semi-retire I have lost some coordination.’  

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‘She was my Tom-Boy Girl’: Serial killer Dennis Rader (left) speaks fondly of  daughter Kerri Rawson (right) who has written about her life with him and horror at discovering he was BTK

Despite the brutality he showed to his victims, Rader spoke lovingly about his daughter Kerri and the book she wrote about him.

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Dennis Rader tells DailyMail.com he hopes his daughter Kerri Rawson’s book will help her heal from the horror of discovering he was a serial killer who had murdered 10 people

Kerri recently told reporters she has not communicated with her father since October 2017. 

Rader said: ‘Getting ready to retire from the infamous world spotlight, and let my daughter Kerri Rawson take over. Her new book out ‘A Serial Killer’s Daughter’.

“They [DailyMail.com readers] have to read my daughter’s book, that gives a lot of family history and love she had for me.

‘She was my ‘Tom-Boy Girl’, I love her deeply like the rest of my family, but she grew up, married, a new mother and new author of a book. 

‘I think that will help her heal a deep cut wound and tell others, ‘you may love and live ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’, to watch [out] for not normal behavior, or things not quite right, check that person out.’ 

Rader also said he is on guard from ‘Vipers’, people who collect letters and books from him that they then sell as collector’s items.

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‘They couldn’t wait until I pass away.’ Dennis Rader describes how serial killer memorabilia collectors who he calls ‘Vipers’ prey on him so they can sell his letters, art and poetry 

He wrote, ‘You have a new ‘Viper’ in your city. I call him ‘DT’, but he put a book I read, actually a good book to read, ‘Five People You Meet in Heaven’ for sale, like $200.

‘He sent it to me, I read it, signed it to return to him. (Vipers are people that make money off inmates getting their letters, art, poetry and things they give to them. I have now about 42 of them listed.

‘But as I age/downsize there will be more Viper activity, they couldn’t wait until I pass away.’ 

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BTK serial killer Dennis Rader boasts to DailyMail.com of getting star treatment as the prison ‘pet’