Aug. 14, 2012 Vol. 1 Issue 1 Mass Murder the American Way Th e Unsolved Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls

Th e Century 16 theater in Aurora CO While conspiracy theories abound, the murders of two of Th e mass murder in Aurora, Colorado was as senseless and as inevitable rap’s biggest stars go unsolved. as any of the mass murders that preceded it. In the United States it is only by Cathy Scott a matter of time and place when the next gunman with a semi-automatic weapon murders innocent people in cold blood. BTK: Th e Serial Update: On July 30, 2012, Colorado prosecutors formally charged James. E. Holmes with 142 criminal counts, including 24 counts of fi rst-degree Killer Next Door murder, 116 counts of attempted murder, one count of felony possession of explosives devices, and one count for use of assault weapons during the shooting at the Century 16 theater. On the murder and attempted murder counts, Holmes was charged twice for each of the 12 murder victims and for the 58 persons wounded. One count was for “showing deliberation” and the other was for “showing extreme indiff erence to human life.” by J. Patrick O’Connor Th e Great Ponzi Dennis Rader Charles Ponzi, a poor immigrant from Lugo, Over a 17-year span that ended in Italy, pulled off an amazing investment scam 1991, Dennis Rader, who dubbed in 1920 that defrauded U.S. investors of $20 himself “BTK,” murdered 10 million ($240 million in today’s money). people. Fourteen years later, in an In the process, he perfected the infamous attempt for lasting notoriety, the “Ponzi Scheme” that was taken to new psychopath who became the presi- heights by the likes of Bernie Madoff , Tom dent of his Lutheran congregation, Petters and Allen Stanford. led Wichita police to his front door. by Mark Pulham by Denise Noe Mary Garden Table of Contents Oliver Gaspirtz Erin Geyer Mass Murder David A. Gibb Anthony Gonzalez the American Way Dennis N. Griffi n Randor Guy Charles Hustmyre John F. Kelly David Kirschner, PhD. Barbara Kussow Doris Lane by J. Patrick O’Connor Page 3 Jason Lapeyre Ronald J. Lawrence Th e Great Ponzi Aug. 14, 2012 Vol. 1 Issue 1 David Lohr Lora Lusher Publisher Lona Manning Joe O’Connor Hal Mansfi eld [email protected] Peter Manso David Margolick Editor Jessica Mason J. Patrick O’Connor Allan May [email protected] Paula Moore John Morris Richard Muti Tim Newark by Mark Pulham Page 5 Authors Denise Noe Lt. John Nores Jr. Th e Unsolved Murders of J. J. Maloney J. Patrick O'Connor Tupac Shakur and Biggie John O'Dowd H. P. Albarelli Jr. Smalls Jane Alexander Robert Phillips Betty Alt Liz Porter Scott Th omas Anderson Mark Pulham Mel Ayton Joe Purshouse Joan Bannan Patrick Quinn Dane Batty Randy Radic Scott Bartz Michael Richardson Bonnie Bobit Ryan Ross Gary Boynton Eponymous Rox John Lee Brook Anneli Rufus Patrick Campbell Laura Schultz, MFT by Cathy Scott Page 7 Amanda Carlos Cathy Scott James Ottavio Castagnera Fred Shrum, III BTK: Th e Serial Killer Ronnie Smith J. D. Chandler Next Door Ron Chepesiuk James A. Swan, Ph.D. Denise M. Clark John Tait Kendall Coff ey Marilyn Z. Tomlins Peter Davidson Claudette Walker Anthony Davis Robert Walsh Scott M. Deitche Phillip K. Wearne Michael Esslinger Sandra Wells Steven Gerard Farrell Evan Whitton Don Fulsom Peter L. Winkler Mark S. Gado Daniel B. Young by Denise Noe Page 9 2 Mass Murder the American Way

Th e Century 16 theater in Aurora CO

Th e mass murder in Aurora, Colorado was as senseless and as inevitable as any of the mass murders that pre- ceded it. In the United States it is only a matter of time and place when the next gunman with a semi-automatic weapon murders innocent people in cold blood.

Update: On July 30, 2012, Colorado prosecutors formally charged James. E. Holmes with 142 criminal counts, including 24 counts of fi rst-degree murder, 116 counts of attempted murder, one count of felony possession of ex- plosives devices, and one count for use of assault weapons during the shooting at the Century 16 theater. On the murder and attempted murder counts, Holmes was charged twice for each of the 12 murder victims and for the 58 persons wounded. One count was for “showing deliberation” and the other was for “showing extreme indiff er- ence to human life.”

Th e count pertaining to the explosives devices stemmed from the booby-trapping of his apartment.

by J. Patrick O’Connor

The midnight premiere of the a throat protector, a bullet-proof Batman Begins in 2005 and was fol- Batman sequel, Th e Dark Knight vest and leggings, a groin protec- lowed by Th e Dark Knight in 2008. Rises, had been playing for about tor, a gas mask, black gloves, and As USA Today reported on July 23, 20 minutes to a sold-out house at a long black coat, the man said, “I “Some fans already considered the the Century 16 movie complex in am the Joker.” Some in the audience trilogy cursed because of Heath Aurora, Colo., on July 20, 2012. At thought the fi gure in black was part Ledger’s death by accidental over- 12:38 a.m. a commado fi gure casu- of the premier’s promotion – that it dose. Ledger, who played Th e Joker ally entered through an emergency was all just some sort of stunt. in Th e Dark Knight, died months exit door to the audience’s right and before its premiere.” took up his position at the front of Th e Dark Knight Rises was the fi nal the theater. Dressed head-to-toe in fi lm in director Christopher Nolan’s Th e erstwhile Joker then hurled a combat gear that included a helmet, Batman trilogy that launched with smoke canister into the middle of 3 the 11th row of the theater, striking in neuroscience from the Uni- a woman there. He then fi red a sin- versity of California at Riverside. Th e booby-trapping of Holmes’s gle blast from a .12-guage, pump- Holmes soon told police he may apartment was extremely devious. action Remington shotgun into the have booby-trapped his car and Shortly aft er midnight the night of ceiling. As the smoke canister fell his nearby apartment with various the shootings, electronic music be- to the ground, it began spinning explosives. Th e car was not booby gan blaring in an endless loop from and then exploded, spewing gas trapped, but the apartment was. a sound system in his apartment. into the air and causing panic to Kaitlyn Fonzi, a 20-year-old woman grip the stunned audience. Another Inside the theater, 10 people were who lived directly below Holmes’s smoke canister was soon released. dead, including a 6-year-old girl. apartment, was preparing to go to As people stood in the middle rows Two other victims would soon die bed. She went upstairs to investi- to get away from the noxious gases, at the hospital. Fift y-eight others gate the racket, knocking loudly on the man began rapidly spraying sustained gunshot wounds of vari- Holmes’s door, causing it to rattle the front rows of the theater with ous severities. Several days aft er the as though it were unlocked. Fonzi, bullets fi red from an AR-15 assault shootings, 22 of those remained in a biology student, told police she rifl e equipped with a 100-round various area hospitals – 10 of them considered entering the apartment barrel magazine capable of fi ring in critical condition. By July 30, 10 but decided not to because she 50 rounds a minute. Th is caused victims still remained in hospitals, heard no other sounds on the other most of the audience to huddle on four of them in critical condition. side of the door except the boom- the fl oor, some using their bodies ing beat of the music. She said the as human shields to protect loved Th e mass murder at the theater oddness of that put her off . ones. Th e gunman then walked up was the worst in the country since the stairs and began fi ring into the a lone gunman at Virginia Tech Th e door had been left unlocked. audience in the middle portion of in Blacksburg, Va., murdered 32 Had she opened it she would have the theater. As the shooter climbed people in 2007, using two semi- most likely triggered a massive higher into the theater, some of the automatic pistols. explosion that would have added people in the front rows attempted signifi cantly to the mass murder to exit the theater up the opposite Booby-Trapped tally. Instead she went back down corridor. Th e gunman responded to her apartment and called the by unleashing a hail of bullets that When police offi cers arrived at non-emergency line at the police prevented them from getting to the Holmes’s apartment building at 2 department to report the irritat- exit and that forced them to retreat a.m. they peered in a window to ing noise. Th e music shut itself off back down toward the front of the Holmes’s third-story apartment to about 1 a.m. An hour later, Fonzi theater. When the semi-automatic see a wired maze of booby-trapped and the rest of the residents of the rifl e jammed aft er numerous explosive devices. Police then or- apartment building were awakened rounds, the gunman began fi ring a dered the entire apartment building by SWAT team members toting .40 caliber Glock handgun. Finally, vacated as well as four other nearby assault rifl es. All residents were im- silence engulfed the theater. apartment buildings. Inside the mediately evacuated. apartment, according to a July 23 A few minutes aft er the shooting article in USA Today, were 30 fi re- Later that day, police deployed began, the gunman walked out the works canisters known as “artillery a robot to disarm the trigger- back exit door. He put his weap- shells” fi lled with smokeless powder ing devices tied to explosives in ons back in his white Hyundai and and connected to trip wires. Also Holmes’s 800-square-foot, top-fl oor stood by the car and waited for the in the apartment were liter-size soft apartment located not far from the police to arrest him, still wearing drink bottles fi lled with incendiary University of Colorado campus his combat clothes. Standing there liquids and rounds of ammunition. in Aurora. Police then spent two at 12:45 a.m. was 24-year-old James Authorities said there was enough days disarming various incendi- Eagan Holmes, a recent Ph.D. stu- explosive power in the apartment ary devices, including one that was dent at the University of Colorado to take down the entire, three-story in Denver, and an honors graduate red brick apartment building. Continued on Page 11 4 Th e Great Ponzi

Charles Ponzi, a poor immigrant from Lugo, Italy, pulled off an amazing investment scam in 1920 that defrauded U.S. investors of $20 million ($240 million in today’s money). In the process, he perfected the infamous “Ponzi Scheme” that was taken to new heights by the likes of Bernie Madoff , Tom Petters and Allen Stanford. by Mark Pulham Recently, on its website, Time Magazine listed its Top Ten Swin- dlers. Th ey ranged from William Miller in 1899, to the recently convicted Allen Stanford in 2012. All 10 had something in common, apart from being crooks. Th ey de- cided to steal their money by using a Ponzi scheme.

Th e Ponzi scheme has now become so common that, seemingly, hardly a month goes by without hearing an incident of another one. Th e fi nancial pages are always report- ing them, and those who run them become criminal superstars.

And we are not talking about amounts that run into the hundreds or thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. Th ese are schemes that bring in millions, and sometimes, in the case of three on the list, bil- lions. Tom Petters took in $3.65 billion; Allen Stanford $7 billion; and the man whose name is now synonymous with fi scal immorality, Charles Ponzi Bernie Madoff , between $50-$65 billion. It begins when a con man fi nds One thing he will do is guarantee someone to invest with him. that you, the investor, will make a Surprisingly, there are still some He will likely talk about fi nan- larger than average profi t on this people who don’t know what a cial matters, throwing around investment within a short space Ponzi scheme is, or how it works. buzzwords such as hedge funds of time. and high yield returns, and will A Ponzi scheme is amazingly sim- present himself as someone very Th e investor does not have to do ple to run. Except for some minor knowledgeable in fi nancial mat- anything other than sit back and details, it is similar to a pyramid ters and investment strategy. He wait for the money to start rolling scheme. may even hint that he has insiders in. giving him tips. It sounds like a great deal. Almost 5 too good to be true, which should be everyone’s fi rst warning.

Let’s say the investor hands over $1,000 for a guaranteed return of 50 percent per month. At the end of the fi rst month, the investor receives a statement showing that he has made $500. Th e investor can, if he wants, cash in and take his money, in which case the con man hands him $1,500. But $500 for doing nothing – that’s easy money. Chances are the investor will let the money ride for larger returns each month. And sure enough, A young Charles Ponzi each monthly statement shows an con man can point to the earlier the Ponzi scheme and a pyramid increase in profi t. investors and show that they made scheme. One is that in the Ponzi money on the investment, so word scheme, the con man does all the What the investor does not know is of mouth from previous investors recruiting, while the investor does that the con man is making no in- bring in more people. As long as nothing. Th is means that the inves- vestments at all. Th e offi cial looking there are new investors that the tor, even if he was lucky and got out statement has been created by the con man can recruit, the plan will early with all his money and profi t, con man himself. continue to be successful, and the is still technically a victim of the profi ts for the con man can become scheme. What the con man has done is astronomical. recruited more investors into the In a pyramid scheme, the inves- same scheme, giving them the same But it is here that the scheme will tor has to do the recruiting, and he promises and guarantees, and send- begin to collapse. At some point, knows that his profi t comes from ing them the same fake statements. the con man is not going to be able the new investor. He may be given If he has recruited 10 new inves- to recruit new investors. If the con something to sell, such as a start up tors, that’s $10,000 added to the con man is getting 10 new investors for kit, but he knows that he will not man’s account. If the fi rst investor every one in the previous level, then make any money unless he brings wants to take out his profi t, or cash by the time he has reached the 10th in new investors. Th e signifi cance out altogether, the con man simply level, he needs 10 billion investors is that when the scheme collapses, takes the cash from the new inves- to cover the last set, an impossible which it will for the same reasons tors’ money and pay him off . task as the population of the world a Ponzi fails, the investor is not is only seven billion. Even if he only a victim but a collaborator as he To pay the second level of inves- doubles the number of investors for knows where the money is coming tors, the con man simply pays from each level, he reaches beyond the from, and could also face jail time if a third level of investors, and so population at level 34. prosecuted. on. Each level can have the same number of investors, but generally, However, the scheme will collapse Another diff erence is that a Ponzi the con man would recruit at least long before that point, though the scheme is always illegal, whereas a double the number of the previous more investors he persuades to roll pyramid scheme can be legitimate. level, just in case that previous level over their investment, the longer Mary Kay cosmetics, Tupperware, all want to cash out at the same the scheme can last. the Pampered Chef, and Avon are time, which is unlikely, but pos- sible. Th ere are diff erences between It helps the recruitment drive if the Continued on Page 14 6 Th e Unsolved Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls

While conspiracy theories abound, the murders of two of rap’s biggest stars go unsolved.

by Cathy Scott

Just before 3 p.m. on a spring aft ernoon in May 1998, a car drove up to a crowded car wash on a street corner in Compton, California. An argu- ment broke out between two groups of men and, a minute later, the sound of gunfi re erupted. When the smoke cleared, four men were sprawled out, bleeding on the ground. Two were already dead. And a third died early the next morning.

Th is a nation long hardened to the idea of black- on-black crime. Although a shooting in a white suburban school is cause for a national outcry, a gun battle in a black ghetto barely raises an eye- brow – at least from authorities.

Th e slaughter at the car wash would have been quickly forgotten but for the notoriety of one of the dead – 23-year-old Orlando “Little Lando” Anderson. A member of a Los Angeles gang known as the Southside Crips, Anderson was the man widely suspected in the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Th e killing of Anderson was the latest in a string of murders in the 1990s that blighted the repu- tation of rap culture and the image of young African-American men. Among the most famous victims were two of the biggest names in rap mu- sic: Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

Now, nearly 16 years aft er the murder of Tupac Shakur, no arrests have been made. Th e killing raises many ques- tions but provides few offi cial answers. Many fans see a conspiracy to cover up the real facts.

Does the police’s failure to solve Tupac’s murder simply refl ect what investigators consider the randomness of the violence, or is it the result of a troubling reluctance to solve murders in which the victims are black? Have investigators failed because some facts are being concealed? Some Tupac fans believe that a sinister pattern links Tupac’s murder to the shooting death of Biggie Smalls six months later with many seeing a conspiracy to cover up the real facts of the cases.

It is perhaps no big surprise that conspiracy theories are alive and well in the African-American community. Such theories are the refuge of the disaff ected and the disenfranchised. Th ose who already perceive themselves 7 to be disempowered fi nd it easy condominium in Teaneck, New Jer- to believe in obscure forces. Th e sey, that she inherited from her son. assassinations of Malcolm X and “It’s designed as if it were made for Martin Luther King Jr., continue ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’” to be questioned. Th e theory that she says. Th ough his fans knew the CIA helped fl ood crack cocaine him as Biggie or the Notorious into the black neighborhoods of B.I.G. – thanks to his six-foot-three, Los Angeles has been debated from 300-plus-pound frame – Wallace the streets of South Central all the still calls her only child Christo- way to Capitol Hill, brought to light pher. “When Christopher started in large part by the late Gary Webb, his music, Tupac was his friend,” a reporter who turned a series of she says in a steady, confi dent voice. investigative stories for the San Jose “Th ey would go to clubs, and they Mercury News into a book. would hang out together. Th ey were Tupac Shakur very, very close.” It is common, of course, for rumors Shakur was also a rising fi lm star, of conspiracy and cover-up to ac- Th e First Attempt on Shakur’s Life crete around icons like Shakur and having appeared in such movies as Poetic Justice with Janet Jackson; Smalls, especially when there was Although Smalls and Shakur start- Gridlock’d with Tim Roth; and a wall of silence surrounding their ed out as friends, as their reputa- Gang Related with Jim Belushi. deaths. But not solving the murder tions grew, their friendship cooled. Poetic Justice director John Single- of Tupac, not to mention Biggie’s, And for those who have claimed a ton praised Shakur’s acting at the might just be the biggest crime of connection between their murders, time, saying, “He’s what they call a all. that narrative begins on November natural. You know, he’s a real actor.” 30, 1994, in Manhattan’s Times Th e Brilliant Tupac Square. It was the fi rst time some- Tupac appeared to have it all. Lots one tried to kill Tupac Shakur. Shakur was a modern-day Ameri- of money, fancy cars, and the com- pany of beautiful women. He had can storyteller. His mix of rhythms Just aft er midnight, Shakur was escaped from a life in the projects; and rhymes were a raw and vivid on his way to a recording session he couldn’t, however, seem to get chronicle of the life of young black at Quad Studios in Times Square. the ‘hood out of his veins. man, raised in the nation’s ghettos. As he entered the lobby, three men He came of age in a housing project ambushed him. Aft er a scuffl e, As for Biggie Smalls, he grew up on on the outskirts of San Francisco, Shakur was shot fi ve times, taking the streets of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and he translated his experiences a bullet to the head, and left for raised by a single mother who sup- from the street into raps and dead. Th e gunmen fl ed as Shakur ported her son by substitute teach- rhymes. stumbled into the elevator. He went ing. Th en he discovered his natural up to the eighth fl oor, where Smalls talent for rap. He quickly rose Brilliantly talented, he turned the was recording with his producer, to prominence by rapping about poetry he wrote about the mean Combs. streets into raps. Arrested eight what he knew best: sex, drugs, and violence. He was a street poet who times between 1991 and ‘96, he had Accounts of what may or may fashioned himself aft er a Chicago created a thug image, and those not have happened start here. To mobster and shared Shakur’s love of rough-and-tumble lyrics made the surprise of much of the music the gangsta lifestyle. him a mega star. Shakur went on industry, an angry Shakur publicly to record one gold and four plati- accused Smalls of knowing that Tu- “I spoke to Tupac on the phone num albums before his death and pac was about to be set up. Smalls a lot, but I never met him,” says gave young America a new voice to denied any involvement in the relate to. Voletta Wallace, Smalls’s mother. Wallace lives in a lavishly furnished Continued on Page 19 8 BTK: Th e Serial Killer Next Door Over a 17-year span that ended in 1991, Dennis Rader, who dubbed himself “BTK,” murdered 10 people. Fourteen years later, in an attempt for lasting notoriety, the psychopath who became the presi- dent of his Lutheran congregation, led Wichita police to his front door.

by Denise Noe

For years on end, Wichita, Kan- sas and its surrounding environs were terrorized by a most pecu- liar serial murderer. Part of what made him so “peculiar” was that people who knew him in everyday life found him utterly normal. In contrast to the stereotype of the se- rial murderer as a lonely bachelor, Dennis Rader, who would become infamous as “BTK,” was a pillar of the community. His wife and two children loved him, he was able to rise to the top rung of his Lutheran congregation’s administration, he was active as a Scout leader, and Dennis Rader he was able to keep his last job as a did not want the homicidal desires ally stopped murdering people, glorifi ed dog catcher for 15 years. that obsessed him, enacting them the identity of BTK would most He literally was the serial killer next did not leave him tormented. He likely still not be known. One of door. could torment and murder, then the reasons he eluded capture for return home or attend church with so long was that there was nothing On the other hand, he was totally not the slightest sign of guilt or “signature” about his modus ope- without compassion or empathy for distress. What remains mysterious randi during the 17 active years of any of his victims, not even small is how such extreme abnormality his killing spree. His murders and children victims. He was a remorse- co-existed with a façade of perfect victims were so dissimilar that the less serial killer who aspired in his normalcy. police didn’t even know they were later years to treat his killings as if dealing with a serial killer until they were a motion picture and live In many ways one of the most Rader himself informed them and in infamy aft er his death, his family amazing aspects about Dennis gave himself the name “BTK.” Even be damned. Rader is that he was able to carry then, when the police knew they on as a serial killer for as long as were dealing with a serial killer, His background off ers frustratingly he did. As serial killers go, he was Rader could continue to murder his few clues to what led to the warp- extremely inept at his craft . Had he victims without the police know- ing of his personality – but warped not virtually turned himself into ing it was him – until he told them it most assuredly was. Although he the police years aft er he had actu- 9 himself. stood out about young Dennis was leaving most childrearing to his the absence of the sort of activities wife. Rader’s murders were intended to usually found in a growing child’s have a signature. His goal was to life. Dennis played no musical Dorothea Rader disciplined the slowly choke to death a woman or a instrument, did not participate children by spanking them with a young girl and then masturbate on in sports, had no collections, and belt. Th e spankings hurt badly but them. Even though he would stalk belonged to no clubs. He did not in young Dennis’s case they also his prey for weeks ahead of time, read books or build model cars or aroused excitement and pleasure. Rader’s best laid plans oft en went airplanes. People would recall him Dennis dreaded yet yearned for up in smoke at the outset. Some- as oft en appearing lost in thought, them. He oft en dwelled on the op- times, out of frustration at his own doing nothing at all. posite feelings spankings caused, ineptitude in stalking his prey, he feelings he desperately wanted to killed impulsively to quiet his urge. Decades later, childhood friends understand but could not. Only in the cases of four of the 10 could not recall anything unusual people he murdered did events go about him or about his family. Th e During his childhood, he never anywhere near as planned and even boy who would grow up to abuse told anyone about the excitement then his full plans for a crime were so many innocent people stoutly he felt watching animals choked or oft en thwarted because he had not denied he had ever been abused. the baffl ing pleasure he experienced made adequate allowance for the when spanked. He did not want to time that it might take. However, he readily acknowledges be considered “weird” or, worse, that he was oft en deeply confused “bad” in any respect. It was not Birth and Upbringing of a during his childhood. When very until his adulthood and arrest for Monster: Dennis the Divided little, he visited his grandparents’ multiple murders that he would fi - farm and witnessed his grandmoth- nally tell someone of the childhood Although the identity of the BTK er wringing the necks of chickens. feelings that had so bothered him. murderer would remain unknown He found this sight exciting. One He wanted to be viewed as a “good to the public for three decades, day he accidentally killed a cat. kid.” Indeed, family and friends he was Dennis Lynn Rader, born Th e death somehow made him feel viewed him as the responsible old- March 9, 1945 in Columbus, powerful. He wanted to experi- est brother. Kansas, not far from Pittsburg, in ence something similar again. He southeastern Kansas. He was the began taking cats, then a bird, and Th us began the division that would fi rst child of the four sons of Wil- then small dogs to barns. Th ere he defi ne his life: the outer Dennis that liam and Dorothea Rader. Shortly would tie the animal up, choke it, everyone saw, a trustworthy boy aft er Dennis’s birth, the fam- release it, choke it again, repeating responsibly following rules and the ily moved to Park City, a suburb this cruelty several times before inner Dennis, dwelling obsessively located six miles from downtown killing. Th e terrifi ed eyes and whin- on the eerie excitement of spank- Wichita. ing sounds sent a rush of pleasure ings and animal deaths, yearning to through the young boy. talk about these feelings but unable William Rader worked at a Wichita to. power plant and Dorothea Rader He wondered what it might be like worked for a grocery store as a to do the same to humans who, un- Tongue-tied, he had diffi culty ar- bookkeeper. Conservative Republi- like animals, could verbally beg for ticulating thoughts. He was poor in cans, the Raders were also devout, their lives and weep tears. spelling and grammar. church-going Lutherans. Despite his love of killing animals, At 8 or 9, he came across photo- Everyone around Dennis, both he could also have tender relation- graphs in a detective magazine of adults and peers, believed he was ships with them. He had a pet dog women tied up, apparently terrifi ed. a good child. It is harder to notice he loved. Th e images lingered in his mind. things that are absent than things that are present. In retrospect, what William Rader was a distant father, Continued on Page 23 10 American Dream Cont. $970 on body gear online; and $300 for booby traps placed in his rigged up to 10 gallons of gasoline. apartment. He apparently tapped Th e 30 aerial shells commonly used the $21,000 a year graduate student in commercial fi reworks had to grant he received from the National be defused. USA Today quoted an Institute for Health and the $5,000 unidentifi ed offi cial as saying the stipend he received as a graduate aerial shells “had been cannibal- student from the University of Col- ized, reconstructed and set up in orado to pay the more than $6,350 the living room, where a stream of expended on armaments and gear wires connected them to a ‘control – material that arrived in some 90 box’ in the unit’s kitchen.” Aurora packages for him at the university Police Chief Dan Oates told report- and at his apartment. ers there was no question the booby traps were “designed to kill” and Everything Holmes bought, he that most likely they were meant to bought legally. As a person with no kill arriving police offi cers. felony record, no state or federal James Holmes background checks or government to limit pretrial publicity advanced For many Coloradoans, the sense- oversight at any level was required by one Holmes’s public defenders. less Century 16 shooting was for any of his purchases. Not even In response to the defense motion, all-too reminiscent of the 1999 the Department of Homeland Judge William Sylvester issued a Columbine High School massacre Security – an organization provided gag order to limit the information when two heavily armed students with vast powers to protect U.S. law enforcement may release about gunned down 12 students and a citizens from terrorist attacks like the shooting. Th e suspect did not teacher before committing suicide. this one – got a whiff of what the speak during the 12-minute hear- Columbine is about 16 miles from young man was up to. Unlike in ing, not to the judge or to either of Aurora. California, Massachusetts and New his public defenders. One of his at- Jersey where there are restrictions torneys had to nudge him to stand A Killing Arsenal on ammunition sales – requiring when Judge Sylvester entered the permits for buyers or licenses for courtroom. Various news accounts For the academically gift ed James sellers – Colorado, like the vast reported that Holmes, his hair dyed Holmes, who spent a good portion majority of states, has no such regu- a reddish orange, seemed to fade of his free time online participat- lation. Holmes could have bought in and out. Th e Wall Street Journal ing in role-playing games, a great 50,000 or 500,000 rounds of am- reported that he “looked alternately deal of planning allegedly went munition without setting off one sleepy and wide-eyed, bobbing his into the mass-murder assault in red fl ag. At the federal level there head as the judge and the lawyers Aurora. During the fi ve weeks aft er is no statue restricting the Internet spoke.” he unexpectedly dropped out of sales of ammunition. As Dudley an elite graduate program on June Brown, the executive director of Arapahoe County District Attor- 10, 2012 – aft er failing part of his Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, told ney Carol Chambers told report- fi rst-year oral exam – he amassed a Th e New York Times, “I call 6,000 ers aft er the preliminary hearing major arsenal of weapons, ammu- rounds of ammunition running that the state may seek the death nition, combat gear, and explosive low.” penalty, but would wait on decid- booby traps. USA Today estimated ing that until she had discussed it that within the 60 days leading On July 23, Holmes appeared in with the wounded and families of up to the Aurora disaster, Holmes state district court in Centennial, those killed in the theater. Pursu- spent $2,248 on the four guns he Colo., for a preliminary hear- ing the death penalty is “a very long purchased from local gun deal- ing that dealt with such issues as process that impacts their [victim’s] ers; $2,870 on the 6,300 rounds of informing the suspect of his consti- lives for years,” D.A. Chambers ammunition he purchased online; tutional rights as well as a motion said. Since capital punishment was 11 devices, and one count for use of assault weapons during the shoot- ing at the Century 16 theater. On the murder and attempted murder counts, Holmes was charged twice for each of the 12 murder victims and for the 58 persons wounded. One count was for “showing de- President Barack Obama liberation” and the other was for visiting shooting victims “showing extreme indiff erence to Petty Offi cer Th ird Class John Th omas Larimer reinstated in Colorado in 1976, human life.” there has only been one execution hearing, he quietly stated, “Yes.” – that in 1997. Currently there are Th e count pertaining to the explo- three people on Colorado’s death sives devices stemmed from the Th e judge informed the prosecution row. booby-trapping of his apartment. and defense that hearings would be held on August 9 and 16 and that Police authorities reported that Th e 120-seat courtroom was during the week of November 12 to Holmes has refused to discuss any- packed. Victims and family mem- plan on both a preliminary hearing thing about the mass murder at the bers of victims occupied about half and an evidence hearing that will theater. of the seats; the proceedings also include several days of testimony. were piped into a satellite room News of the latest mass murder outside the courtroom that over- Th e fi rst hearing will concern the in the United States brought con- fl owed with spectators. high level of secrecy in the prosecu- dolences to the victims and their tion’s case fi le against Holmes that families from around the world. Various media outlets reported that has been kept under seal by court Pope Benedict XVI expressed his Holmes, his hair dyed orange and order. A consortium of news orga- regrets during his Sunday morning matted down on top, showed no nizations had petitioned the court blessing from St. Peter’s Square. emotion while the charges against to open those fi les to the public. him were being recited or when Across the street from the movie the judge informed him that he A primary purpose of the August multiplex in Aurora, a make- could face the death penalty. In- 16 hearing will be to consider a de- shift memorial took shape where stead, throughout the 45-minute fense motion fi led July 27 with the hundreds of people congregated hearing, he stared “blankly” at the district court to suppress the con- throughout the weekend. Teddy judge’s bench, the ceiling lights and tents of a package Holmes mailed bears, fl owers, candles and hand- the fl oor and spoke only one word. to his psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne written notes dotted the site. On When Judge Sylvester asked him Fenton, at the University of Colo- a hill overlooking the impromptu if he understood why his defense rado Anschutz Medical Campus. memorial, 12 white crosses were attorneys were asking for additional When the package arrived at the placed in honor of each of the dead. time to prepare for his preliminary university’s mailroom on Monday, July 23, university offi cials notifi ed Charges Filed law enforcement. A search warrant was issued and the package was col- Shackled around his waist and lected by Aurora police without Dr. ankles, Holmes was back in district Fenton seeing it. court on July 30. Prosecutors for- mally charged him with 142 crimi- Dr. Fenton is the medical director nal counts, including 24 counts of of student mental health services at fi rst-degree murder, 116 counts the university, where Holmes had of attempted murder, one count been a student until resigning from Rebecca Ann Wingo of felony possession of explosives the program in early July. She has 12 held that position since 2009. She the family was still making plans is also a member of the university’s for Veronica’s funeral and that Mrs. faculty. Th e New York Times re- Moser’s “lifetime of care will be a ported that Dr. Fenton’s research in- long road.” terests include “psychotherapy and the neurobiology of schizophrenia.” Th e oldest victim was 51-year-old Gordon Cowdon, a divorced single News reports soon quoted un- father of three girls and a boy. named police offi cials saying the package contained a notebook that Alex Sullivan was murdered on detailed Holmes’s plan for the as- his 27th birthday shortly aft er he sault on the theater that included tweeted that this would be “the “violent drawings.” Lawyers for best birthday ever.” A bartender at Holmes objected in their motion the Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, that information about the contents he would have celebrated his fi rst of the package was being leaked to wedding anniversary with his wife the news media despite the gag or- Cassie two days later. der Judge Sylvester imposed at the Veronica Moser-Sullivan initial hearing on July 23 and that shielded her with his body. Th ree Jessica Ghawi, 24, came close to leaking the contents of the commu- bullets hit McQuinn – one in the death at a mall in Toronto last sum- nication with Dr. Fenton violated chest, one in the back, and one in mer during a shooting spree that the doctor/patient relationship. his leg. One bullet hit Yowler in the killed two people. “I was reminded knee. She underwent surgery and that we don’t know when or where In the motion, Holmes’s public de- is recovering. Th e couple had been our time on earth will end. When fenders asserted that “Mr. Holmes dating for three years and worked or where we will breathe our last was a psychiatric patient of Dr. at Target. breath,” the sports reporter for MS- Fenton and his communications NBC wrote on her blog about that with her are protected” under the Jonathan Blunk, a 26-year-old Navy tragedy. Some 22,000 Twitter users doctor/patient relationship. veteran and father of two, covered followed her postings under her his girlfriend’s body by lying on top Twitter handle @JessicaRedfi eld. Prosecutors responded to the mo- of her. Jansen Young was not hit. tion by asking the judge to deny the Blunk was planning to re-enlist in Other victims included Alexander defense request. D. A. Chambers the Navy. Boik, 18, Navy Petty Offi cer John wrote in rebuttal that the contents Larimer, 27, Micayla Medek, 23, of the package had not been exam- Air Force Staff Sgt. Jesse Childress, Alexander Teves, 24, and Rebecca ined and had been retained for later 29, died trying to shield a friend, a Wingo, 32. inspection. In her court fi ling, D.A. woman stationed with him at Buck- Chambers stated, “Th e media is ley Air Force Base in Aurora. Whatever else will ever be said getting information from hoaxers, about the mass murders at Aurora, fraudsters, or maybe from nobody Th e youngest victim was 6-year- there was a chillingly indiscrimi- at all.” old Veronica Moser-Sullivan, the nate cold-bloodedness to them. daughter of Ashley Moser, who was Th is assailant did not care who he Th e Victims shot in the abdomen and throat killed, only that he killed en masse. during the theater assault. Mrs. Th ree of the 12 mass-murder vic- Moser, who was pregnant, suf- tims died in the theater attempting fered a miscarriage on July 28, the to save the lives of others. As shots day she underwent surgery for her rained down on the audience, Matt wounds. A statement released by McQuinn, 27, pulled his girlfriend, her family the following day, said Samantha Yowler, to the fl oor and 13 Ponzi Continued father. Ponzi began to skip classes, must have known he would arrive and slept the day away before get- in America virtually penniless, so all legitimate pyramid schemes, ting up late and joining his friends they had also provided him with a though they prefer the term Multi for the extravagant nightlife. prepaid train ticket to Pittsburgh, Level Marketing. Th e money is where he could stay with a relative. made not by bringing in new mem- It became clear to Ponzi that he bers, but by selling a product. If you was not going to get a degree, and For the next four years, Ponzi bring in a new member, you may it seemed he had no choice but to worked his way up and down the get a bonus, but that’s exactly what drop out of University. On the sug- East Coast with a succession of it is – a bonus. gestion of an uncle, Ponzi decided menial jobs. He was a grocery clerk, to try his luck in the United States, he repaired sowing machines, and So why is it called a “Ponzi” considered to be the land of op- he sold insurance. But none of scheme? portunity. His family bought him these jobs lasted very long. Some he a ticket for the steamship and gave was fi red from, some he quit before Although it was known by various him $200, which would allow him he was fi red. At one point, he was names before, it was in the 1920’s to establish himself in America. working in a restaurant, starting as that it began to be known as a He said goodbye to his family, and a dishwasher, but working his way Ponzi scheme, thanks to a charis- then headed for Naples, where, on up to being a waiter. However, he matic Italian immigrant who was so November 3, 1903, he boarded the was eventually caught short chang- successful at the scheme that it was S.S. Vancouver that was headed for ing a customer and was fi red for renamed in his honor, or dishonor. Boston, Massachusetts. theft .

He was born Carlo Pietro Giovanni But Ponzi had not learned his les- In those four years, Ponzi had Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, the son son from life at the University. Th e changed. He had grown a mous- of a postman, on March 3, 1882, ticket he had been given was for tache, become fl uent in English, in Lugo, Italy, though he himself second class, and so he avoided the and had changed his fi rst name would tell people that he was from misery of steerage with its cramped from Carlo to the more American- Parma. His early life is mostly un- and fi lthy sleeping quarters. With ized Charles. known, though Ponzi himself gave his infl ated sense of self worth, accounts of his youth. However, Ponzi fell into the same habits that In July, 1907, Ponzi decided to with Ponzi being a con man, it’s he exhibited in Rome at university, move out of the United States and diffi cult to tell what is true, what is spending money on drinks and head north to Canada. He caught fabricated, or what is embellished. small luxuries that he could not a train for Montreal and there aff ord, tipping waiters generously, wandered around, once again with Not long aft er his father died, Ponzi and gambling. hardly any money in his pocket. was accepted into the University But that was about to change. Just a of Rome - La Sapienza, much to It wasn’t long before the card sharks few blocks from the railway sta- the delight of his mother. But, far smelled blood and began circling. tion Ponzi saw a bank, the Banco from home, he met up with some Ponzi was invited to join a “friend- Zarossi. wealthy fellow students and, ne- ly” game of cards, and his $200 glecting his studies, spent much rapidly began to shrink. By the time Ponzi, confi dent as ever, walked of his time with them in bars and the ship reached America, Ponzi through the doors and applied for a cafés. was left with just $2.50. job, using the name Charles Bian- chi. It took just fi ve minutes, and he Th e lifestyle of his new friends Th e S.S. Vancouver docked in was hired as a clerk. was one of lavish indulgences, and Boston Harbor on November 17, Ponzi went along with it, unable 1903, and, aft er satisfying the im- Th e bank had been founded by to aff ord the same lifestyle, and migration offi cials, Ponzi stepped Luigi “Louis” Zarossi to service the rapidly blowing through whatever onto American soil. His family, no needs of the Italian immigrants that inheritance he had got from his doubt seeing his behavior in Rome, were fl ooding into the city. Rival 14 banks were investing the money in Banco Zarossi. As Ponzi had been tually becoming a clerk in the war- securities that were paying inter- there many times in the past, no dens’ offi ce. He earned the warden’s est at a rate of 3 percent, passing one took any notice of him when trust and was a model prisoner, and on 2 percent on to their customers he walked in. Ponzi crossed to the his prison sentence was reduced to and keeping the other 1 percent as offi ce of Damien Fournier, the com- just 20 months for good behavior. profi t. Zarossi, to the annoyance of pany manager, and walked in. Find- his competitors, was paying the full ing nobody there, Ponzi quickly Just two weeks aft er he was re- 3 percent, plus another 3 percent looked through the desk drawers, leased, Ponzi was on a train head- as a bonus. Th is was unheard of, where he found a checkbook from ing back to the United States. On and of course, people fl ocked to the the Bank of Hochelaga. Ponzi the train with him were fi ve other Banco Zarossi for the 6 percent and quickly tore out one of the checks Italians. When a customs inspector his business grew rapidly. and then left as swift ly as possible boarded the train, he questioned without causing suspicion. Ponzi about the other Italians. Th e rival banks, fairly certain that Ponzi said that he didn’t know there was no legal way Zarossi Ponzi wrote out the check for the them, explaining that he had run could pay that amount of interest, amount of $423.58, thinking this into a friend at the station who had their suspicions that he was ordinary seeming amount would asked him to accompany the men paying his older customers with the look more like a legitimate transac- as they were unfamiliar with the money from his new customers, tion, and signed it “D. Fournier.” country. He didn’t mention that this a process then known as “robbing True to his nature, the moment he “friend” once worked at the Banco Peter to pay Paul.” However, know- had the cash, Ponzi began a spend- Zarossi where he had pocketed ing something and proving it are ing spree, buying clothing and money from customers, and had two diff erent things. shoes, and a watch and chain. fl ed aft er the collapse of the bank. Ponzi also never mentioned that Months went by, and the Banco money had exchanged hands. Zarossi fl ourished. But eventually, proving the rival banks correct Th e fi ve Italians had no immigra- in their assumptions, the Banco tion papers, and Ponzi, before he Zarossi found itself in fi nancial had even crossed the border, was trouble. By the middle of 1908, arrested for smuggling illegal im- Zarossi, possibly on the advice of migrants into the United States. Ponzi, had fl ed to Mexico, taking He received a two year sentence in with him whatever money was left Ponzi jailed in Canada the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, in the bank. Georgia. But the Bank of Hochelaga had be- Ponzi, unlike other members of come dubious, and had confi rmed Ponzi made a couple of new friends the bank who had fl ed, stayed in their suspicion regarding the check. there. One was Mafi a member Ig- Montreal, living with Zarossi’s fam- Before he could even leave town, nazio Lupo, known as “Th e Wolf,” a ily, who he had left behind. But, by Detective John McCall had found Black Hand leader in New York. August, Ponzi felt the need to move and arrested Ponzi. Confronted, on, back to the United States. As Ponzi immediately admitted that he Once again, Ponzi worked in the usual, Ponzi had no money. was guilty. Charged and convicted warden’s offi ce, and the warden of forgery, Ponzi was sentenced to asked Ponzi to translate Lupo’s let- Ponzi’s First Two Arrests three years in the Saint Vincent de ters, hoping to fi nd something in- Paul Penitentiary just a few miles criminating. Ponzi had no problem On the morning of Saturday, from Montreal. with this. He knew that nothing in August 29, 1908, Ponzi visited the the letters was incriminating, Ponzi offi ces of the Canadian Warehous- He started out breaking rocks, but shared a cell with Lupo, and he was ing Company, a shipping agent that soon, he used his skills to move writing Lupo’s letters for him. once had been a customer of the himself into better positions, even- 15 Th e other friend he made at the system treated the wealthy diff er- free copies that he would mail out prison was a much more interesting ently than it did the poor. to companies, and then, some time person, from Ponzi’s point of view. later, mail out an updated edition Ponzi, aft er he was released, moved to the same companies, plus a free Charles W. Morse was a wealthy south for a while, spending several mailing of the magazine to 100,000 and amoral Wall Street business- months at a mining company in more companies. Th e advertising man, once known as the “Ice King” Blocton, Alabama, working as a generated would make him rich. as his ice supply business had at translator and bookkeeper, but in one time held a virtual monopoly 1917, he eventually made his way Ponzi estimated that the initial on New York. His monopoly ended back to Boston, where his adven- mailing would cost $35,000, but when an investigation revealed the tures in America began 14 years the advertising for the fi rst edition number of bribes he had made to earlier. would bring in $80,000. Th e prob- politicians. However, by that time, lem was acquiring the initial start he had managed to make a profi t of Ponzi Falls in Love up money, and he tried to entice $12,000,000. investors into the business. None On Memorial Day weekend, Ponzi were interested, and Ponzi was Aft er buying at least twelve banks, was at a Boston Pops concert, ac- running through his own money Morse tried to corner the copper companied by his landlady, when rapidly. market. Th e scheme failed and he spotted a beautiful young wom- partially caused the fi nancial panic an. It happened that his landlady Th e guide didn’t even make it to its of 1907. Morse was eventually knew her, and she introduced Ponzi fi rst edition. convicted of the misappropriation to her. Her name was Rose Ma- of bank funds, and sentenced to ria Gnecco, at 21 years of age, the But Ponzi wasn’t daunted by the Atlanta for 15 years. youngest child of a fruit merchant. failure of this enterprise. It was not Ponzi immediately fell in love with the fi rst time a business venture had But, in January, 1912, aft er serving her. fallen through and he knew that only two years in prison, Morse something else would turn up. And was granted an unconditional It was a whirlwind romance, and within a short while, something release following an illness that left despite the revelations of his past in did. him perilously close to death. If a letter to her from his mother, on he remained in prison, his lawyers February 4, 1918, Rose and Charles It was August, 1919, and Ponzi argued, he would die. Th is was Ponzi married at St. Anthony’s was in his offi ce going through his confi rmed by doctors who exam- Church on Vine Street. mail. One letter was from a busi- ined him on a number of occasions. ness in Spain, asking about the now Morse was supported by wealthy Ponzi worked a variety of jobs for abandoned catalogue. For Ponzi, it fi nanciers who appealed to Presi- a period of time, including a job at wasn’t the letter that he found inter- dent Taft . his father-in–law’s business, but he esting; it was the square slip of pa- wanted to strike out on his own, per that accompanied it, something Once Morse was freed from prison, and rented some rooms on the fi ft h Ponzi had never seen before. It was his health rapidly improved. It fl oor of 27 School Street. Aft er a an International Reply Coupon. turned out that just before he was couple of attempted start ups, Ponzi due to be examined by doctors, came up with an ambitious plan. Th e Ponzi Scheme is Born Morse would swallow a mixture He would publish his own foreign of shaved soap and chemicals, trade magazine that would be a Th e International Reply Coupon, producing the symptoms of sick- reference guide for businesses all or IRC, was introduced in April, ness. Th ese symptoms lasted barely over the world. His ambition was 1906, at a Universal Postal Union longer than the examination. to double the circulation at regular congress held in Rome. Sixty-three intervals. countries, members of the Postal To Ponzi, Morse was fascinating, Union, gathered to make it easier to and Ponzi realized that the legal He would start out with 100,000 send mail internationally. Up until 16 that time, it was extremely diffi cult It was a process known as arbitrage, School Street to invest in the IRC to send anything between nationali- and it was not even illegal. Ponzi set scheme, and by February, 1920, ties that required a return, stamped up a new business and called it Th e Ponzi’s profi t was $5,000, and by the envelope. Foreign stamps could not Securities Exchange Company. following month, it was $30,000. be purchased in other countries, Ponzi’s house in Lexington, Mass By May, it was up to $420,000, the and if the stamps from the original equivalent of over $5 million in sender were included, they would As with his last venture, the fi rst today’s money. be turned away. If the sender in- problem Ponzi had to solve was get- cluded cash to pay for stamps at the ting the initial amount of money By the middle of the year, Ponzi other end, it required the person to to get the process moving. He went had made millions, with estimates go to a bank, exchange the foreign to friends and explained how the suggesting that he was making cash for the equivalent in his coun- system worked, and some of them around $1 million a week. By this try, and then purchase stamps. invested. Ponzi had promised them time, he had purchased a control- an unbelievable rate of interest. ling interest in the Hanover Trust Th e International Reply Coupon Within 45 days, he told them, they Bank, which must have been satis- eliminated all the problems. An would make a 50 percent profi t. fying as they had originally refused IRC bought in Spain for the equiva- He had a network of agents who him a loan. lent of fi ve cents could be redeemed would do the bulk purchasing in for a stamp of fi ve cents in the other countries and send the IRC’s With almost everyone rolling over United States. back to Ponzi, who would then cash their money to be reinvested, the them in. scheme ran on longer, but some But for Charles Ponzi, holding the people were already beginning to slip of paper between his fi ngers, But there were other problems, have some doubts about the busi- what he saw was not a solution ones which he had not told his ness and questions were being to the return post problem, but a investors. First, he didn’t have a net- asked. multi-million dollar opportunity. work of agents buying up the IRC’s. Second, even if he did, the cost One fi nancial writer questioned Ponzi began to work out the fi g- of shipping them to Ponzi in the the business, suggesting that Ponzi ures. United States would be incredibly could never legally deliver returns high, possibly enough to eliminate this high in such a short period of Th e Great War had resulted in the the profi t. And there was a third time. Ponzi sued for libel, and as devaluation of many world cur- problem. He was informed by the the burden of proof in those days rencies, and Ponzi realized that postal service that they would not lay with the writer, Ponzi won, re- the IRC had not been changed to redeem the IRC’s for cash, but only ceiving $500,000 in damages. refl ect these devaluations. He knew for stamps. Th is meant there was that one of the worst hit currencies the added problem of then selling Th e Bubble Bursts – Investors was the Italian lira. In the United the stamps as well. Lose $20 million, Ponzi Goes to States, one dollar could buy twenty Prison IRC’s valued at fi ve cents each. Th at But by this time, Ponzi was com- same dollar in Italy could buy 66. mitted to this venture. He had However, some time later, the Bos- He knew that if he purchased them promised returns, and he paid ton Post, which had run favorable in Italy for one dollar and then returns. Ponzi paid off the early stories on Ponzi and his business in redeemed them in the United States investors from the money collected the past, contacted fi nancial analyst for $3.30, his profi t would be $2.30. from the newer investors, and word Clarence W. Barron, founder of fi - All he needed to do was buy the of how much money could be made nancial journal, Barron’s Magazine, coupons in bulk from foreign coun- by investing with the Securities to examine Ponzi’s claims. One of tries using American money, and Exchange Company spread rapidly. the things Barron noticed, other then redeem them in the United Ponzi had started an avalanche. than Ponzi was not investing in his States. own business, was that to make the Potential investors fl ocked to business work, there needed to be 17 at least 160 million IRC’s in circula- ruled that a plea bargain on Federal tion. Th e problem was there were charges have no standing in regard only 27,000. to State charges.

Th e Boston Post printed the fi nd- Th e 22 charges were split into three ings and this caused a run on trials. In the fi rst, Ponzi was found Ponzi’s business, forcing him to not guilty on 10 of the charges. In pay out $2 million over a three-day the second, the result was a dead- period. locked jury on fi ve charges. But in Boston Post the third trial for the remainder of By this time, Ponzi had attracted the charges, Ponzi was found guilty. the attention of Daniel Gallagher, He received a sentence of fi ve to the U.S. Attorney for Massachu- Th at same day, the audit commis- seven years. And, as Ponzi had not setts, and he commissioned an sioned by Gallagher gave Ponzi a obtained citizenship, the authorities audit of the Securities Exchange report of its fi nding. Ponzi’s debts also wanted him deported at the Company, which was made diffi cult were not $2 million, as claimed by end of his sentence. by the fact that Ponzi didn’t keep McMasters. His debt was over $7 any books on the business, just a million. Ponzi was released on bail as he stack of index cards and names. appealed the State conviction, and Th e Hanover Trust Bank was seized immediately ran away to Florida, Ponzi hired a publicity agent by authorities, and fi ve other banks where, in September, 1925, he cre- named William McMasters, but were brought down by the scan- ated an association, the Charpon McMasters, having discovered what dal. Ponzi was fully aware that he Land Syndicate, off ering investors Ponzi was doing, instead wrote an was about to be arrested and so land and promising returns of 200 article for the Boston Post claiming surrendered to the authorities, percent in two months. But the that Ponzi was at least $2 million in who charged him with mail fraud. land was actually swampland in debt. His investors lost virtually every- Columbia County. In February, thing, losing around $20 million, 1926, Ponzi was arrested and found Th is was the beginning of Ponzi’s or almost $240 million in today’s guilty of violating the Florida Trust downfall. money. laws, and was sentenced to a year in jail. He appealed the sentence and Joseph Allen, the Massachusetts Ponzi was charged with 86 counts paid a $1,500 bond. Bank Commissioner, worried that of mail fraud, which would have the run on Ponzi’s business gener- jailed him for the rest of his life. Once out of jail, he fl ed to Tampa, ated by the story would bring the However, his wife, Rose, urged him where he shaved his head and tried Boston bank system down. Bank to make a deal and plead guilty, to fl ee the country on a ship head- examiners informed Allen that which he did on November 1, ing for Italy. However, the ship Ponzi’s main account was now 1920, on just one count. Ponzi was made one last call in New Orleans overdrawn due to investors cashing sentenced to fi ve years in Federal and he was recognized and cap- out. Allen ordered the bank ac- prison. tured, and sent back to Massachu- count to be frozen. setts where he served seven more Aft er serving three and a half years, years in prison. Th e Massachusetts State Attorney Ponzi was released, and immedi- General issued a statement reveal- ately arrested once more and put Ponzi Deported ing that there was no evidence to on trial for 22 charges of larceny by support the claims made by Ponzi, the Massachusetts State. Ponzi was In 1934, upon his release, Charles and offi cials asked investors to give stunned. He believed that the deal Ponzi was deported back to Italy. their names and addresses so that he had made to plead guilty would an investigation could be carried result in the State charges being Rose, the love of his life, didn’t want out. dropped. Although he sued, it was to leave Boston, and so she stayed 18 behind, and fi nally divorced him in Tupac and Biggie Continued By October 1995, Tupac had served 1937. Rose later remarried and be- eight months in prison. Desperate came the bookkeeper for the New shooting, saying that Shakur had to get out, he signed a record con- Cocoanut Grove nightclub. simply been the victim of a botched robbery. tract with Marion “Suge” Knight, CEO of Death Row Records. Ponzi tried more schemes while Knight, a six-foot-three, 315-pound in Italy, but each of them failed. Police agreed. Th e day aft er the former bodyguard with a criminal Eventually, he began working for shooting, John Hill, commanding record, was one of the most power- Ala Littoria, Italy’s state airline, and offi ce of New York Police Depart- ful and feared men at the time in moved to Brazil to be their agent ment’s 19th precinct, held a news the music business. He had built there. However, when Brazil sided conference. “Rap star Tupac Shakur Death Row into a top rap label, with the allies during World War II, and three members of his group with $100 million in sales. But the airlines operation in Brazil was were robbed and shot,” Hill said. Knight wasn’t without controversy, closed down. Th at was it. No suspects. And, a few days later, the investigation into especially his known connection to the Bloods, a street gang in Comp- Ponzi worked as a translator for a the shooting was dropped. Detec- ton, where Knight grew up, and while, but his health was now fail- tive George Nagy of the New York rival of the Southside Crips. Still, ing. In 1941, Ponzi, now 59 years Police Department explained it like Shakur signed with Death Row. In old, suff ered a heart attack which this: "His lawyer never called back. return, Knight posted Tupac’s $1.4 left him very weak. By 1948, his No one called back. Th ey more or million bond. health had severely deteriorated. He less handled it their own way.” was almost blind, and had suff ered Bad Blood a brain hemorrhage that had left But Tupac refused to back down him paralyzed down his right side. from his accusations about Biggie. Shakur and Smalls, the two biggest gangsta rappers in America, were On January 18, 1949, at the Hos- Also, the day aft er the Quad Stu- now on the two biggest hip-hop pital São Francisco de Assis, at the dios shooting, a heavily bandaged labels. And Shakur was not about Federal University of Rio de Janei- Shakur was found guilty of one to let old rivalries die. Knight and ro, Charles Ponzi died. He was 66 count of sexual abuse for having Shakur repeatedly ridiculed Smalls years old. Th e man who had made molested a female fan in Novem- and Combs in public and in the millions passed away in a charity ber 1993. He was pushed into the press. hospital, penniless, and was buried courtroom in a wheel chair. Soon in a pauper’s grave. aft er, he was sentenced to a prison term of one and a half to four and a Th e beef between the two rappers escalated even more aft er Shakur Some believed that Ponzi never half years. While Tupac maintained boasted in a song that he’d had intended to rob people, and that his innocence, his fi nancial resourc- an aff air with Smalls’s wife, Faith he truly believed the IRC business es were stretched to the limit by the Evans. It triggered what became would work. But the business was legal action; he couldn’t make bail. widely known as the East Coast- fl awed and before Ponzi could stop West Coast war. Smalls and Shakur it, the business snowballed. It’s pos- As his lawyers worked on his ap- soon found themselves overtaken sible, though unlikely. peal, Shakur was locked up in a New York prison. It was during by the very violence they rapped about. But whatever the truth about Ponzi, this time that Smalls exploded on his name has entered the English the rap scene, following Tupac’s On September 7, 1996, Shakur language, and is almost never said example. He was the 1995 Billboard attended the Mike Tyson-Bruce without the word “scheme” spoken rap artist of the year and became Seldon heavyweight fi ght in Las Ve- straight aft er. Bad Boy’s biggest talent when his debut album, Ready to Die, went gas and was on his way to a party. platinum. Knight was at the wheel of his black 1996 BMW 750iL sedan; Shakur 19 was riding shotgun. At a stoplight er, more immediate motive for the the police let him go home to New at the busy intersection of Flamingo killing: Security video at the MGM Jersey without interviewing him Road and Koval Lane, a late model Grand Hotel showed that just three about possible suspects. white Cadillac with four men hours before the shooting, Shakur inside pulled up next to Knight’s and his entourage, including On November 10, two months aft er car. Suddenly, a gunman sitting in Knight, had beaten and stomped Shakur died, Fula was visiting his the backseat started shooting at the Anderson in the hotel lobby. Could girlfriend at a housing project in passenger side of the BMW. A bul- the killing have been revenge for Orange, New Jersey. In the middle let grazed Knight’s head, but Shakur the assault? Shakur’s mother, Afeni, of the night, gunfi re erupted inside was not as lucky. He frantically thinks so. In fact, she fi led a wrong- a dark hallway. When the police tried to climb into the backseat to ful-death lawsuit against Anderson. arrived, they found the 19-year-old avoid the gunfi re but was struck by Her lawyer announced that two Fula slumped against a wall near four bullets. Th e gunfi re ended as crimes were committed against a stairwell. Th e bulletproof vest he quickly as it had begun. Shakur: one by Anderson and the was wearing did not save him: He other by an incompetent police in- died hours later, having been shot Tupac Shakur was executed in cold vestigation. Th e case was scheduled in the face at point-blank range. blood. Th e Cadillac fl ed the scene. to go to trial this past September. “Execution style,” was how Orange Tupac never regained conscious- Now that Anderson is also dead, it police described it. ness and died six days later, on never will. Friday the 13th. He was just 25. Orange and Las Vegas police insist Following Shakur’s murder, Knight that Fula’s death was unrelated to Who Killed Shakur? was incarcerated. Th e courts de- the Shakur investigation and that cided that the assault he and Shakur it was not the result o trying to si- In the search for answers for had carried out on Anderson at lence a witness. Th e day aft er Fula’s Shakur’s murder, speculation again the MGM Grand was a violation murder, Sergeant Kevin Manning of focused on Smalls. “My son had of Knight’s probation from a prior the Las Vegas police said that Fula nothing to do with Tupac’s mur- assault conviction. He has been was simply one more young black der,” Voletta Wallace says. “He was sentenced to nine years in prison man to be gunned down. “Th e odds shocked and upset.” Wallace says at the California Men’s Colony, in were against him” because of his her son laughed at comments made San Luis Obispo, but many in the race, not because he was a witness by Shakur accusing Smalls of be- industry claim they still fear him. to Shakur’s murder. ing involved in the Quad Studios Knight refused to be interviewed shooting. Aft er Shakur was killed, for this story. (While writing this In the months following Shakur’s Smalls’s mother says, he quit laugh- article, I was warned off by enter- murder, other rappers began taking ing. tainment writers and attorneys. precautions, hiring bodyguards, Th eir biggest fear, they claimed, and wearing bulletproof vests. Even By October 1996, the Las Vegas was Knight and his reputation of with the apparent danger, though, Metropolitan Police Department strong-arm tactics.) Smalls took a break from New York had a possible suspect in the mur- and traveled to Shakur’s home turf, der, Orlando Anderson, but was At the time of Shakur’s murder, the West Coast. “Yes, Christopher unable to link him directly to the the police blamed witnesses for was comfortable,” Wallace says. killing. If Anderson murdered not providing them with enough “Maybe he was too comfortable.” Shakur, a Southside Crip, the information to make any ar- reason seemed relatively simple: rests. But there was one witness, Th e Murder of Biggie Smalls Shakur’s association with Suge Yafeu "Kadafi " Fula, who said he Knight and the Bloods, the Crips’ could possibly identify Shakur’s On March 9, 1997, two weeks rival, was well known. Shakur had killer. Fula was a rapper in Shakur’s before the release of his second even appeared in photographs backup group and was riding in the album, Life Aft er Death, Smalls, wearing a red scarf – the gang color car behind Knight’s on the evening 24, was celebrating at a party at the o the Bloods. Anderson had anoth- Shakur was mortally wounded. But Petersen Automotive Museum in 20 Los Angeles. About midnight, Los Th e murders led to an explosion Angeles fi re marshals broke up the of theories about the deaths of the party because the crowd of 2,000 two top performers in rap. Some exceeded the building’s fi re-code say that the killings were the result capacity. Combs and Smalls headed of an eff ort to rub out black gangsta to another party. Smalls sat in the rappers. Still others think they were passenger seat of a rented GMC deliberate hits by rival hip-hop Suburban. Combs sat in a car in camps with gang affi liations. Some front of his, and security guards conspiracy theorists go so far as to followed in a Chevy Blazer. Th e say that the federal government was streets were packed with people as involved and that the police have Th e Notorious B.I.G the caravan waited at a stoplight on conspired not to solve the crimes. Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Av- “Th e other thing I heard,” Voletta Tupac Shakur. In an eff ort to quell enue. Suddenly, a dark-colored car Wallace says, “was that the shot the rumors, I included a photo of pulled up alongside Smalls’s vehicle, was not meant for my son. Th e shot a very dead Shakur on the autopsy and an unidentifi ed black male was meant for Puff y.” Th at Combs, table. Still, every day I get e-mails, wearing a suit and bow tie opened and not Smalls, may have been the social media messages and phone fi re on the passenger side with a intended victim has not been ruled calls from fans unable to accept that 9mm pistol. Smalls was hit seen out by the LAPD. “It’s pending,” Tupac is gone.) times in the chest and was dead on detective Fred Miller said. arrival at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Critics of both the L.A. and Las Center. Even stranger still, many believe Vegas police investigations have that Shakur is not dead, that he claimed that if Shakur and Smalls Th e immediate assumption on the faked his own death, perhaps to had been white men, the cases streets was that Smalls’s killing was avoid returning to jail. Some sub- would have received more atten- a reprisal of Shakur’s death. “Non- scribe to what has become known tion. Th e police, of course, see it sense,” says Combs’ attorney, Kenny as the Seven-Day Th eory; Shakur diff erently. Th ey feel they have been Meiselas. “Th e (murders) were not was shot on the seventh, the num- continually frustrated by hundreds connected. I think everyone who bers of his age, 25, add up to seven, of witnesses and friends who refuse has investigated the cases or has and his posthumous album, for to talk. Among some sections of the had direct information about them which Shakur adopted the name younger African-American com- knows they were not.” Makaveli, was entitled Th e Don munity, a code of omerta is ob- Killuminati: Th e 7 Day Th eory. served. Th eir distrust of the police Th e most plausible explanation for Chuck D, an elder statesman of rap is so ingrained, and so powerful, Smalls’s death was that he owed and now a reporter for Fox News, that they refuse to cooperate, even money to someone, possibly to a responded to the death with a list when a close friend has been killed street gang he had employed as of 18 reasons that led him to be- or when their own lives are in security while in Los Angeles. Th e lieve Shakur was still alive. Th ey danger. Los Angeles Times backed up this included number six: “Th e name theory when it reported, using un- of Tupac’s next album is Makaveli In the Quad Studios shooting, the named police sources, that Smalls’s [Machiavelli] was an Italian war police contend that Shakur, the shooting was suspected to be over strategist who faked his own death victim, refused to cooperate, so the a fi nancial beef the rapper had with to fool his enemies. Perhaps Tupac investigation was simply closed. a Crips gang member whom some is doing the same thing!” “His lawyer never called back. No say Smalls and Combs hired to one called back,” explains detec- protect him on his trip to L.A. Bad Th e theories have been outland- tive George Nagy of the New York Boy, however, has denied ever hir- ish, but what is perhaps equally Police Department. “Th ey more or ing gang members for security. bizarre is how widely they are less handled it their own way.” Conspiracy Th eories believed. (Aft er Shakur’s death, I wrote a book titled Th e Killing of But Nagy – clearly frustrated – then 21 read about what unaware of any federal surveillance they’re doing of Smalls on the night of his death, in the newspa- and according to Kenny Meiselas, pers,” Chesnoff no one at Bad Boy has ever been says. contacted about an investigation by the FBI. Meanwhile, Combs Knight has re- stopped answering reporters’ ques- peatedly denied tions about the shootings. “Puff ’s that any money thinking is that talking to reporters from illegal ac- has not necessarily changed what tivities fi nanced they print,” Meiselas says. “It’s been Death Row. He frustrating for him.” has suggested that the federal But Wallace wonders if Combs may probe is racially know more about her son’s death goes on to outline the police’s at- motivated. “Suge is an exception- than he is telling the police. “Does titude in an extraordinarily bold ally smart and talented person who Puff y know something about my admission of the way things really got tainted with a bad image that’s son’s death? Maybe he’s afraid to are: “Why would a guy go out of his really undeserved,” Chesnoff says. talk. Maybe he’s intimidated,” she way to investigate a case when the “He’s one of the few entrepreneurs says. “But at least do something. guy who was shot didn’t even care?” who has made signifi cant contri- Give a hint. Don’t just sit back and he asks. “Why are you going to try butions to the community from act as if he was my son’s best friend hard when you have a million other which he came. I predict that, like and confi dant.... Th ere are a lot of cases?” a phoenix, he is going to rise from people out there who know some- the ashes.” thing about my son’s death. But Aft er Shakur was killed in Las Ve- they’re afraid to come forward.” gas, Nagy says, Las Vegas police did And then, out of the conspiracy not contact the NYPD to see if the box, came rumors that Smalls, too, Meiselas disagrees. “Sean Combs murder might have been related to was under investigation. Th e Los loved Biggie like a brother,” he says. the Quad Studios shooting. But Las Angeles Times reported that federal “He has done everything possible to Vegas police have a diff erent story. agents were monitoring him in the assist police in fi nding the person Th ey say they did contact New York week before his death as part of an who took his friend and creative detectives but were unable to learn investigation of criminals allegedly partner away.” who was handling the case. connected to Bad Boy. During the “Puff Daddy and the Th e U.S. Justice Department, mean- If Smalls was under surveillance, Family World Tour” in 1997, while, is reportedly looking into an- were the agents watching when he Combs repeatedly implored the other conspiracy. Th e FBI is investi- was murdered? “I was told that 10 crowds to remember Smalls. Th is gating Death Row’s possible links to minutes before he was shot, Chris- could have been a sincere gesture drug traffi cking and money laun- topher was under surveillance by or a publicity opportunity. “Be- dering by L.A. street gangs and the the FBI,” Biggie Smalls’s mother lieve me,” Voletta says, “it’s not the New York Mafi a. David Chesnoff , says. “Th en when he is shot, all of a buddy-buddy thing that the media Knight’s attorney, confi rms that a sudden they’re not there. Maybe the says their relationship was. Th ey grand jury was convened to look FBI knows who shot him. Maybe had a beautiful relationship. But it into Death Row and Knight about the FBI is the one who shot him.” was a business relationship.... Puff y two years ago, shortly aft er Knight Th e feds, meantime, weren't talk- was not Christopher’s best friend.” was jailed. Th e grand jury has not ing. When Wallace hears Combs talking yet made its fi ndings public. “Un- about how he is looking aft er her like the President Clinton grand Bad Boy, though, run by Sean “Did- fi nancially, she bristles. “Puff y’s not jury investigations, we don’t get to dy” Combs (formerly “Puff y”) was taking care of Biggie’s mother,” she 22 says. “Biggie is taking care of Big- gie’s mother. Puff y doesn’t buy my BTK Continued In conversations with authorities food, pay my mortgage. Everything aft er his eventual arrest, he said that was in Christopher’s name. He died He identifi ed with both the aggres- the obsessive fantasies of women a very rich man and a very smart sors who had bound the women bound and choking continued man,” she says proudly. and the women who were in bond- unabated. age. LAPD detectives say the Smalls Rader worked at the Coleman case is still alive, despite many stalls Young Dennis was interested in camping supplies factory in Wich- throughout the years. Th e inves- drawing but those around him ita in the early 1970s. Th ere he met tigation began with 20 detectives, criticized his drawings as show- friendly conservative Christian however; today, four homicide ing no talent. Some derided art as Paula Dietz. Th ey wed on May 22, detectives are assigned to the case. “sissy.” He feared pursuing it lest he 1971 when Rader was 26 and Dietz be considered girlish. 23. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Metro- politan Police Department says that When he got to his teen years, the He hoped marriage would cause his the Shakur investigation, which future BTK began secretly peeping secret bizarre yearnings to dissi- from the start was handled by two into women’s windows. Once he pate. He thought his secrets might detectives and one sergeant, is also broke into a house in the middle of be comparable to the “wild oats” continuing. Fift een years later, how- the day and stole lingerie. young men oft en sow before “set- ever, its investigation, though still tling down” into married life. Th e open, has stalled as well. He considered seeking psychiatric love of a good woman and the secu- help but feared that would look bad rity of marriage would heal him. Th e real story behind the death of on future employment records. He Tupac Shakur may never emerge. In did not attempt to act out fantasies He joined Christ Lutheran Church the meantime, his murder has be- with prostitutes because that would and attended regularly. Despite come so encrusted with conspiracy necessitate discussing them – and being busy with work, marriage, theories and myths, it’s diffi cult to having a living person know about and church, the preoccupations tell where the truth lies. Strip away his secret self. remained. No matter how oft en he hyperbole, innuendo, theories, and prayed to be relieved of them, they emotion, and the facts speak for In 1966, three years aft er graduat- persisted. themselves. Smalls’s and Shakur’s ing from high school, Rader enlist- deaths have absorbed the rage, the ed in the Air Force. He hoped that Jack the Ripper fascinated Rader. sorrow, the confusion, and the pain serving in the military – a rite of Th is man, who murdered and muti- in communities in which many passage for many men from youth lated prostitutes in London in 1888, have lost friends and relatives to to full adulthood – would make had taunted police through letters violence. him normal. and yet never had been caught. Rader believed Jack the Ripper In 2011, a joint law-enforcement In BTK Unholy Messenger: Th e must have been someone like him- task force investigating gang activ- Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial self who blended in well. ity for more than a year in the Los Killer, Stephen Singular writes that Angeles area looked into both cas- “During four years in the military, Rader gave the thoughts and es. Th e task force ended its probes he was a fi ne soldier and earned a impulses that had plagued him a without resolution. Both murders number of awards, including the name: “Factor X” or “Rex.” He drew remain unsolved. National Defense Service Medal, Rex as a devilish little frog. the Small Arms Expert Marksman- ship Ribbon, and the Air Force Occasionally Rader returned to his Good Conduct Medal.” He was childhood home where his parents a sergeant when honorably dis- still lived – not to visit them – but charged in 1970. to sneak into the basement. Th ere 23 he stripped naked and dressed in ter. “Josie” Otero, 11 and Joseph or women’s clothes. Sometimes he “Joey,” 9. would wrap a cord around his neck He found females with black hair, and stage a hanging of himself. He brown eyes, and brown skin like Rader felt a special pull toward photographed himself in these odd many Hispanics possess extremely Josie, a pretty girl with long, dark postures, oft en with a female mask attractive. He also felt there was hair. She liked Barbie dolls, paint- or a towel over his face. It seems something wrong about being at- ing, and poetry. Although Car- possible that he hoped to purge tracted to women outside his own men was also pretty, she held no himself of his fantasies by acting white Anglo ethnic group. interest for Rader. He planned to them out on himself. intrude into the home when only Rader had a conventional sex life Mrs. Otero and Josie were present. Rader started thinking obsessively with his wife but he feared even He gave his plans a specifi c title, about a woman who worked nights suggesting bondage to her, thinking one that focused on the girl: “Proj- at a nearby convenience store. He her conservative Christian values ect Little Mex.” Th e title indicated cased the store, imagining that he might cause her to react with hor- that he assumed incorrectly that would kidnap the woman, tie her ror. Perhaps even more importantly, the Oteros were of Mexican back- up, kill her, and leave her corpse in he did not want someone he would ground. the countryside. Still struggling to see in the future to know about this keep his impulses at bay, he did not part of himself. Aft er stalking for several weeks, follow through. he picked a date and time to at- In late 1973, Rader lost his job at tack. From what he had observed He stalked a woman out of a mall. Cessna. Th e Wichita Eagle quotes of the movements of Otero family She whirled around, scaring him Rader aft er he was fi nally arrested members, Rader was certain that away. as stating in a taped interview that only Mrs. Otero and Josie would the loss of the job “was demoral- be home around 7:30 a.m. on Aft er deciding on another particu- izing to me.” He also said it meant the morning of January 15, 1974 lar woman as a target, he drove to he had “idle hands,” and referred to when he arrived at the residence the countryside and dug a grave the old saying that “idle hands are equipped with rolls of black tape, for her. He broke into her house the devil’s workshop.” rope, wire cutters, gloves, a knife, when she was not home and waited and a .22 handgun. for her. As it got dark, she still did He may have also been depressed not come home. He feared his wife because his appearance was chang- When Rader arrive at the Oteros’ would miss him so he got in his car ing. As his hair receded and he put garage that morning, he saw some- and returned home. on weight, he went from handsome thing that alarmed him: a dog’s to homely. fresh paw prints. In all his stalk- In early 1973, Rader began working ing of the family, he had somehow for Cessna, a major company that Th e unemployed Rader began cas- missed seeing their pet. Th e weath- manufactures small aircraft . ing Julie Otero’s family. It had fi ve er was cold but Rader was sweating members. Her husband, Joseph profusely. His hands shook. Th e “Project Little Mex” Otero, relished jokes, cars, air- back door of the house opened. A planes, and drumming on bongos. 9-year-old boy let a dog into the Julie Otero, a lovely Hispanic Born in Puerto Rico, he came to the backyard. woman who used to work at the mainland as a child and came up of Coleman plant, had caught Rader’s age in New York City where he met Little Joey Otero looked up to see attention and held it. He oft en Julie. In the 1970s, Joseph worked a stranger in his parents’ garage. drove by her home at 803 North as a mechanic and fl ight instructor Rader emerged from the garage, Edgemoor in northeast Wichita. for the Rose Hill Airport. drew his gun and shoved Joey into On these drives, he saw that she the house, leaving the dog in the had a preteen daughter. He was Th e Otero kids were Charlie, 15, yard. When Rader got in the house, powerfully attracted to the daugh- Danny, 14, Carmen, 13, Josephine he was startled to see not only the 24 grown woman and young girl for ing him. When Mr. Otero stopped “Mommy!” she screamed. “Mom- whom he was there but an adult moving, Rader assumed he was my! Mommy! Mommy!” man. Only the Otero’s three teenage dead. children had already left the house Rader choked her to death. that morning. Mrs. Otero, Josie, and Joey screamed and frantically squirmed. Immediately aft er she died, the Joseph Otero spoke fi rst. Th inking Rader choked Mrs. Otero. She quit sexually aroused Rader mastur- the man holding a gun was making moving and he believed she was bated close to her body, ejaculating a practical joke, he asked, “Who dead. To Rader’s shock, he heard on her leg. sent you over? My brother-in-law?” a noise from Mr. Otero who had bitten through the bag and was Before leaving the house, he took Rader claimed he was a fugitive gasping for air. Rader strangled him Mr. Otero’s wristwatch, Joey’s radio, wanted in California and Mr. Otero again, this time actually to death. and the car keys. He drove the fam- believed him. ily’s car back to the Dillon’s parking Rader pulled Joey into another lot where he had left his own car. Rader told the four people that he room where he tied two t-shirts was not going to harm anyone but and then a bag over the boy’s head. Th at aft ernoon, Danny, Carmen, needed food, money, and their car. He choked Joey until he almost and Charlie came home. Danny and He said he had to tie them up but stopped breathing. Th en Rader Carmen got inside before Charlie. would take what he needed and watched as the child tried desper- Puzzled by the absence of seeing leave them unharmed. ately to breathe and then fell off the anyone or hearing anything in the bed and died. living room or kitchen, the pair Rader guided the four into the went to their parents’ bedroom. parents’ bedroom. He set the gun Again to Rader’s shock, he heard close beside him and tied their Mrs. Otero scream, “You killed my Danny and Carmen screamed at hands behind their backs with pre- boy!” the horrifying sight before them. knotted Venetian-blind cords and Th eir father lay on the fl oor with adhesive tape. Mrs. Otero and Josie Rader ran back to the master bed- a plastic bag tied around his head. were on the bed and Mr. Otero and room and strangled Mrs. Otero to His feet were tied at the ankles Joey were on the fl oor. death. Josie sobbed as she watched and his hands at the wrists. Th eir her mother being killed. Rader took mother lay diagonally across the All four Oteros complained about Josie down to the basement. Cel- bed, without a bag on her head pain. Mr. Otero said he had a lars had strong sexual associations but similarly bound. Neither was cracked rib from a recent car ac- for him as he had taken pictures breathing. cident so Rader placed a pillow and of himself in drag and demeaning coat under him. He loosened the poses in his parents’ basement. Th e When Charlie heard his siblings bonds on the others. terrifi ed girl asked what Rader was scream, he ran into that room. In he going to do to her. shock at the sight, he grabbed a Th e Oteros continued complaining. yardstick and snapped it in two. He answered, “Well, honey, you’re Distraught by the noise, Rader going to be in heaven tonight with Danny went to the kitchen. He considered just leaving but thought the rest of your family.” fetched a knife that he took back they could identify him because he to his parents’ room. He cut them wore no mask so he would be ar- Rader partially disrobed her and free of the ties and shook them but rested if he left them alive. Besides, pulled her underpants down to her they did not move. He picked up a he had come so far he wanted to see ankles. He tied her legs together phone to call an ambulance. Th ere it through. and tightly bound her hands. He was no dial tone. Th e phone lines wound a cord around her neck and had been cut. Rader placed a plastic bag over attached it to a sewer pipe. Mr. Otero’s head and started chok- Danny ran outside and found 25 neighbor Dell Johnson whom he strength to strangle a human to told about the terrible sight. Dell death. He purchased a small rubber Rader knocked on Kathryn Bright’s ran to the house and saw the bod- ball and habitually squeezed it to door on April 4, 1974, less than ies. Th en he raced home and called build strength in his hands. three months aft er he murdered police. the Oteros. No one answered. He In the aft ermath of the Otero mas- walked to the back of the house and Offi cers of the Wichita Police De- sacre, fear seized Wichita. Gun broke the glass back door. Her hid partment arrived. Th ey found Joey sales and security-system installa- in her closet. While huddled among in his room, also dead and with a tions skyrocketed. Women locked her clothes, he touched the .22 and bag around his head. their doors and children were accidentally fi red the gun. Startled, forbidden to play outside without he worried Kathryn Bright might In the cellar they found little Josie, adult supervision. smell gunpowder but stayed put. clad in sweater and socks, panties Excitement stirred through him pulled down, hanging dead by the “Project Lights Out” – Th e Killing when he heard the front door open. neck from a sewer pipe. No rape of Kathryn Bright had occurred but semen was on Rader exited the bedroom and Josie’s inner thigh and elsewhere in Rader believed that the reason the pointed the gun at – to his surprise the basement. Otero slaughter had failed to relieve and disappointment – two people: him of his obsessions was that it Kathryn Bright and her 19-year-old Th e Oteros’ car was not at their had not gone according to fanta- brother Kevin Bright. home. It was discovered that eve- sized plan. Th e presence of males ning in a nearby Dillon’s parking plus the disorder and noise had in- Rader later recalled that he tried lot. Examined for fi ngerprints, the terfered with his ability to exorcise to “ease them” with the same story only ones found were those of the his impulses once and for all. He he had told the Oteros: He was Oteros. thought he might be rid of them if a fugitive from California and he could adhere more closely to his wanted only food and a car. At Th e only item identifi ed as missing fantasies in another murder. gunpoint, Rader ordered Kevin to from the Otero residence was Joey’s tie up Kathryn in a bedroom. Kevin radio. With her cheerful disposition, obeyed. blonde hair, denim clothes and an- In the days that followed, Rader tique beaded purse, Wichita assem- Th en Rader ordered Kevin into the suff ered no remorse or was he bly line worker Kathryn Bright, 21, other bedroom where Rader bound troubled by the possibility of being seemed to personify her last name. him with a stocking and turned the caught. He was pleased that neither She captivated Rader. In his warped stereo on loud. Rader tightened the his wife nor anyone else noticed mind, admiration led to a desire to fabric around Kevin’s neck. Kevin anything amiss about him. destroy. desperately fought back and broke free. He grabbed Rader’s .357 out of In the aft ermath of the Otero As a reference to Bright, he called Rader’s belt and fi red at Rader but murders, Rader was haunted by a his plans for her “Project Lights the gun jammed. Rader wrestled deep sense of disappointment. He Out.” the gun away, then brought out his had expected to receive a catharsis. .22 and shot. Th e bullet hit Kevin in He had satisfi ed his cruel, mur- For weeks he followed and ob- the forehead. He crumpled to the derous, sexually brutal impulses. served her. She lived alone. She had fl oor, unconscious. He thought he should be rid of no boyfriend. He did not want a them. But he was not. Th ey were as male around this time. He decided When Kevin came to, he heard his strong, persistent, and troubling as not to cut her phone line and to use sister being strangled. He raced ever. rope but not Venetian-blind cord into the room in which she was because he did not want cops con- tied up on the bed. Kevin jumped He had learned something from necting this crime with the Otero on Rader and grabbed his .357. He killing the Oteros: It took a lot of murders. tried to fi re it and it jammed again. 26 Rader reacted by shooting the .22 that this crime had also failed to entered his brain and that he as into Kevin’s mouth. It ripped open relieve him of his troubling obses- well as “society” was hurt by it. He his lip and took out two teeth. sions. wrote, “Maybe you can stop him. Kevin hit the fl oor but remained I can’t.” In a P.S., the writer said, conscious. Rader turned his atten- In October 1974, six months aft er “Since sex criminals do not change tion to Kathryn. Kevin managed to Kathryn’s killing, a man was ar- their M.O., or by nature cannot do run out of the house. Th e bleeding rested for trying to have sex with a so, I will not change mine. Th e code Kevin shouted for help. A driver duck. While questioned, the would- words for me will be . . . Bind them, picked him up and took him to be duck rapist confessed to mur- torture them, kill them, B.T.K.” Wesley Medical Center. dering the Oteros. He implicated two other men whom cops soon Th e WPD decided not to publicize In the meantime, Kathryn fought arrested. Th ey also confessed to the the letter. Th e letter did serve to desperately. Rader took out his murders. clear the three emotionally dis- knife and stabbed her seven times turbed men. Only investigators in the back and four times in the On October 22, 1974, a man and the murderer could know the belly before fl eeing the house. He phoned Don Granger, director of details it recited. considered the crime “a total mess . community aff airs for Th e Wichita . . I didn’t have control.” Eagle and head of the Secret Wit- Aft er a period of unemployment ness hotline. Th e caller stated that Rader began working for ADT Se- Th e police found Kathryn, having the murderer of the Oteros had curity Services. He went to homes crawled out of the bedroom, ly- placed a letter in a mechanical throughout Wichita to install secu- ing in a pool of blood on the living engineering textbook at the main rity services. Some people told him room fl oor. She was rushed to the downtown branch of the Wichita they wanted security installed to same hospital where Kevin was be- Public Library. Th en he hung up. protect against a murderer who was ing treated and she clung to life for at large. Rader expected knowledge fi ve hours before dying. Granger reported the call to the of security systems to help him with police. Detective Bruce Drowatsky future crimes. Kevin was in the hospital two searched the library and found the weeks before being released. He typed letter. It was glutted with When Rader’s wife informed him told police the story the assailant spelling errors and grammatical that she was pregnant in 1975, had told him about being a fugitive mistakes but its message was clear. he hoped that becoming a father from California. Police were uncer- Its author said he wanted to save might fi nally free him from his tain as to how much credibility to taxpayer money and police time murderous urges. Brian Rader was give Kevin’s description of the man by informing them that the three born that year. As with the military, due to confusion from his injuries. in custody were innocent of the prayer, and marriage, Rader was Oteros’ slaughter. Th e author had disappointed to fi nd fatherhood did When Rader fl ed, he tried to start committed the crime by himself. nothing to alleviate his obsessions. Kathryn’s car but could not. He He then described the positions in ran to the Wichita State University which the victims had been found, Rader’s son Brian entered the campus where he had parked his the manner in which each had been Cub Scouts as soon as he was old own car. Covered in sweat, he drove killed, and the clothing they wore enough. His father became a troop home and cleaned up. Again he at the time of death. Th e writer said leader. Rader especially enjoyed was relieved that his wife suspected he stole little Joey’s radio and Mr. teaching the boys knot tying. In the nothing. Otero’s wristwatch. mid-1970s, Rader also enrolled at the Wichita State University where But again he was disappointed that Th en the icy, callous tone of the he majored in the administration of he had had to deal with someone letter changed as the writer claimed justice. He received his B.S. in 1979. other than his target and that the he was sorry the murders were crime had not gone as planned. committed but that he had little Popular with his neighbors, Rader Later he was disappointed to fi nd control over the “monster” that oft en told them that he appreciated 27 living in Park City because the sub- Vian on his way home from an He told Mrs. Vian he was going to urb had a much lower crime rate errand to the grocery store. His tie her up and rape her. She ob- than nearby Wichita. Most people mother suff ered a recent mild sick- jected that she was sick. As Rader liked Rader but a few were put ness so she had sent him out to buy began tying her, she vomited. He off by his prudishness. Rader was groceries. Rader stopped Steve, tell- went to the kitchen and poured a disgusted by off -color jokes and ing the boy, “I’m a police detective. glass of water for her to settle her swearing. He oft en objected when I’m looking for these people.” He stomach. She drank it. men swore around women. displayed a photograph of his own wife and son and asked if Steve had “Leave our Mom alone!” was one “Project Waterfall” – Th e Impulse seen them. Steve said he had not of the messages the kids shouted as Killing Shirley Vian and continued home. they banged frantically against the bathroom door. Between “projects,” Rader fondly His brother Bud and sister Stepha- mulled over memories of murders nie, both small children, were Little Steve managed to peek over he had committed. He also obses- watching TV but Steve did not join the transom. He saw his mother sively fantasized about possible them. Aft er he put down the gro- tied up lying face down with a future murders. ceries, he crawled in bed with his plastic bag tightly drawn over her ailing mother. head. Stephanie climbed up and As Th e BTK Strangler Serial Killer also saw her mother. Th e children Bondage Photos and Artwork Th ere was a knock on the door. screamed in terror and demanded notes, “He used tracing paper to One of the children answered and the man stop. Bud pushed against reproduce female images from pho- Rader again stated that he was a a little bathroom window so hard tographs, and then would add ropes detective. Aft er briefl y chatting with he broke the glass and badly cut his and other bindings. Rader was the children, he forced his way in. hand. Th e ruckus rankled Rader obsessed with cutting out magazine He immediately turned off the TV, who was always upset by disorder. and newspaper ads of women mod- lowered the blinds, and showed a When the phone rang, Rader ran els and sketching binding materials gun to Bud and Stephanie. from the house, leaving Mrs. Vian over them.” dead and the children screaming Hearing a commotion, Shirley in the bathroom. If he had had the He stalked women and considered Vian, still wearing a pink night- time, he would have murdered all various candidates for killing. But gown, ran into the living room. She three children. he did not strike again until three asked Rader not to hurt her and her years aft er Kathryn Bright’s death. children. He assured her he would It was a relief to get back to his not. He ordered the three kids into quiet and orderly offi ce at ADT. Two Wichita women lived together the bathroom. Th en he told Mrs. in a house near a street called Hy- Vian to gather toys and a blanket. Th is scene had been another disap- draulic so Rader called his plan to She did. Rader tied the door of pointment: He had not had time murder one or both of them “Proj- the bathroom to another door and to masturbate during or aft er Mrs. ect Waterfall.” shoved the bed against the door to Vian’s murder. trap the children. On the morning of March 17, 1977, Aft er the intruder departed, Steve carrying a briefcase fi lled with what Although Rader was disgusted by managed to ram his little body so he called his “hit kit,” he knocked the lingering odor of vomit left hard against the bathroom door on their front door. No one an- because Mrs. Vian had thrown up that he knocked it ajar. He squeezed swered. He decided not to break in. early that morning as well as the through. Horrifi ed by the sight of relatively unkempt appearance of his mother bound and not breath- He recalled, “I was all keyed up.” the house, he was determined to ing, her panties next to her, he ran see “Project Waterfall” through to a outside and asked neighbors to call As he walked down the sidewalk, satisfactorily brutal conclusion. police. he encountered 6-year-old Steve 28 Th e children were interviewed by authorities and then by a psycholo- He easily agreed, “Yeah, I’m sick, In January 1978, Mrs. Rader told gist. Th ey moved to Oklahoma to ma’am but that’s the way it’s got to her husband she was pregnant be raised by their maternal grand- be.” again. She delivered daughter Kerri parents. a few months later. She asked if she could use the bath- Two detectives working on the room. He said she could but must Rader kept busy working for ADT Shirley Vian homicide believed be nude when she came out. Nancy and studying for classes at Wichita BTK could be the culprit but most Fox was naked when she exited the State. thought that unlikely. Th e Otero bathroom. children had been killed but not Paula Rader discovered a poem her the Vian kids. BTK had not struck Rader clamped handcuff s on her husband had written. It frightened in three years so it was commonly and she got into bed. He began put- her and she asked him about it. believed that he had died, was in- ting other binds on her with panty- “We’re working on a BTK thing at carcerated, or in another area. hose and a sweater. To terrorize her school,” he said. She accepted the even more, he told her he was the explanation. “Project Foxhunt” – Th e Vicious serial murderer BTK. In her terror, Murder of Nancy Fox she squirmed around as she fought In early February 1978, Th e Wich- desperately, clawing his testicles in ita Eagle received a card on which In late 1977, Rader started stalking the process with her handcuff ed a poem was written that began, Nancy Fox, a young woman em- hands. “SHIRLEYLOCKS SHIRLEY- ployed at Helzberg’s Jewelry Store. LOCKS WILT THOU BE MINE.” When he peeked into a window of Th e next morning, Rader called po- Reporters and editors as the paper her home, he saw that she kept a lice from a pay phone and said they realized it probably referred to the clean and tidy home. He admired would fi nd a homicide at 843 South 1977 murder of Shirley Vian and that as well as her evident kindness. Pershing and that the victim was turned it over to police. In his twisted psyche, admiring a Nancy Fox. Cops found her with woman led to wanting to kill her. her ankles bound with a sweater. On February 10, Wichita’s KAKE- Several sets of pantyhose were TV received a letter than included On December 8, 1977, he began tightly wrapped around her neck a poem entitled “Oh! Death to Nan- “Project Foxhunt” by breaking into and the hands that were cinched cy.” A drawing of Nancy Fox lying her house through a rear window behind her back. She was gagged dead was with the letter. Th e writer and waiting in her closet until she with pantyhose. expressed frustration that there was returned from work. When she got not more publicity. He stated, “How to her bedroom, Rader burst out of For the fi rst time, Rader had spent many do I have to Kill before I get a the closet. Seeing a strange man in as long as he wished with a victim. name in the paper or some national her bedroom, she ordered him out Her face was grotesquely swollen attention.” and threatened to call the police. from the repeated cycle of chok- ing, releasing, and choking. Aft er He also stated that he would have He told her he had cut her phone he killed her, he masturbated while killed the Vian children if time had line. He added, “I just want to have gazing at her corpse. Th e police permitted. He continued that he sex and take some pictures of you found semen in a negligee lying would have enjoyed hanging the but I have to tie you up to take pic- next to her head. girl: “what a beautiful sexual relief tures.” Realizing she could not fi ght that would have been. Josephine, him off , she said, “Let’s get this over Rader never had raped a victim and when I hung her really turn me on; with.” She asked his plans. He said, never would. He masturbated either her pleading for mercy then the “I’m going to tie you up and then while or aft er strangling a victim if rope took whole, she helpless; star- probably rape you.” things went as planned. When they ing at me with wide terror fi ll eyes went awry, he left the scene of the the rope getting tighter-tighter.” As She said, “You’re sick.” crime without an orgasm. always, Rader’s grammar was poor 29 but his meaning was all-too-clear. her age meant she would put up house. little fi ght against a 34-year-old at- Th e Mysterious and Fatal “Factor tacker, although by now Rader had Police investigators determined that X,” also called Rex gotten rather fl abby. a Wichita State University copier had been used for these latest BTK Th e letter speculated about what He waited and waited but still she communications. the author called “Factor X,” a did not come home. Time was mysterious impulse that drove the running out. Rader knew his wife Following these letters, BTK would writer along with other serial mur- would miss him if he did not return not write again for 25 years. People derers. Rader wrote, “Th ere is no before midnight. Frustrated by the speculated he had died, been im- help, no cure, except death or being delay, he left the closet and went prisoned, or left town. caught and put away.” He called through the house looking for more having such desires a “terrible items to steal. Before departing, Rader was proud when his son nightmare” but continued, “I don’t he returned to her bedroom and Brian became an Eagle Scout and lose any sleep over it. Aft er a thing left rope and part of a broomstick his daughter Kerri became a high like Fox, I go home and go about handle beside her bed. At least that school golf champion during the life like anyone else.” He wrote would scare her when she found early 1980s. that he planned to murder another them and inform the cops that BTK victim. had been there. Although Rader was reputed to be humorless, he amused the Scout Police announced that a serial mur- When Anna returned at about 11 troop one evening during this time derer was loose in Wichita. Terror p.m., she was indeed alarmed to period when he and another man gripped the city as people bought fi nd her house in disarray and the dressed in women’s clothes and put locks and guns. broom handle and rope by her bed. on a funny skit. Th e Scouts hooted She tried to phone the Wichita and howled. Th at fear had to have aff ected Police Department but found her 63-year-old Anna Williams. She line was cut. She made the call from “Project Cookie” – Th e 1985 Mur- had suff ered a terrible trauma the a neighbor’s house. der of Neighbor Marine Hedge previous year, in 1978, when her husband died. She sought treat- Six weeks later, on June 15, 1979, Unlike Rader’s previous victims, ment for depression and other Anna received a large manila enve- 53-year-old Marine Hedge resided health problems. Seeking to lift her lope in the mail. It was addressed to in Park City. In fact, her home spirits by keeping active, she was at her late husband Clarence R. Wil- was only six doors away from his. a square dance on Saturday night, liams. Inside she found her stolen Th e friendly woman frequently April 28, 1979. scarf and jewelry, a typed poem and smiled and waved at her neighbors. drawings. Th e drawings were of a Originally from Arkansas, her While she was at the square dance, naked woman gagged and bound, high-pitched voice carried a hint Rader broke out a basement win- her eyes wide with fright. of a drawl that reminded some of dow at her house at 615 South the voice of singer Dolly Parton. Pinecrest. He cut her phone line Th e poem was entitled, “Oh ANNA Marine Hedge enjoyed gardening, and searched the house. Happy Why Didn’t You Appear.” Now playing bingo, cooking, attend- to see no dog, he headed to her there was no doubt the intruder ing her Baptist church, and dress- bedroom where he stole jewelry, a into Anna’s home was BTK. She ing nicely. Th e recently widowed scarf, and $35 in cash. Fearful but moved out of the house and in with grandmother worked at a coff ee excited, he hid in her closet, eagerly a daughter. shop which may have been why anticipating the fulfi llment of “Proj- Rader named his nefarious plans ect Pine Cone.” On June 16, 1979 KAKE-TV re- for his good neighbor “Project ceived an envelope with another Cookie.” He had selected Anna Williams as scarf and a letter confi rming it was his next victim because he thought BTK who had broken into Anna’s Rader had always avoided attacking 30 women in Park City but found an around the house until he was a culvert. Th en he drove her car advantage in it now because it was startled by the sound of a car door to the shopping center where he so easy to stalk her since they nor- slamming and a man’s voice. He had left his own car. He took his mally saw each other and waved. ducked into her bedroom closet, car back to the church where he He was wary of younger women disappointed that yet again another cleaned himself up and changed because Nancy Fox had so painfully male might be on the scene. into his Scout leader’s uniform. clawed his testicles. He believed Th en he drove his own car from the Marine Hedge would be unable In the closet, Rader heard a lengthy church to the campsite. As usual, to put up much of a fi ght. In addi- albeit muffl ed conversation be- no one noticed anything amiss with tion, she had no dog and no regular tween Marine and her male com- Dennis Rader. gentleman caller. panion. Th en he heard the welcome sounds of the man leaving, the door Marine’s car was found a few days In early 1985, Rader hid rolls of closing behind him, and the car later and her decomposing body black plastic, together with thumb- driving off . was discovered a few days aft er the tacks, at the Christ Lutheran car was found. No BTK victim had Church. He had something special Marine was in her bed asleep when previously been found outdoors planned for Mrs. Hedge – or rather Rader made his move. He left the or been murdered in Park City so for her corpse. closet and fl ipped on a light. Th en police made no connection. he got on the bed. Awakened, Ma- Th e Scout troop to which his son rine screamed, “What in the hell is “Project Piano” – Th e 1986 Mur- Brian belonged was holding a going on?” der of Vicki Wegerle campout on the Friday of April 26, 1985. Since the plan was to cam- Rader choked her for a long time, Oft en while working at his ADT pout until the next day, Rader saw his hands tiring in the process, job and sometimes on lunch breaks, an opportunity to murder without before Marine died. He removed Rader passed in a car or on foot fretting about getting home to his her sleeping garments, wrapped her the Wegerle home. He sometimes wife before she worried about him. in blankets, and carried the corpse heard Vicki Wegerle playing piano. to her car and put it in the trunk. He was entranced by her talent and He was wearing his Scout leader Th en he drove her car to Christ how pleasing the notes and chords uniform when he complained Lutheran Church. He tacked black of her music sounded. He called his about a terrible headache and left plastic over the church windows plan to murder her “Project Piano.” the campsite. He changed into dark with thumbtacks so people could clothes. Carrying a bowling bag not tell that the lights were on. He On September 16, 1986, Mrs. We- with his hit-kit inside, he walked took the body from the trunk and gerle drove her 9-year-old daughter into a bowling alley. Th ere he or- dragged it into the church. Stephanie to school. Back at home, dered a beer that he swished inside Mrs. Wegerle’s 2-year-old son Bran- his mouth and also purposefully He took her body to the basement, don was on the fl oor playing with spilled on his clothes. He called a a part of a building that, as previ- toys and Mrs. Wegerle was playing taxi. He asked the driver to let him ously noted, had special connota- her piano when they heard a knock out near his home. Deliberately tions for him. He put black high- on the door. Mrs. Wegerle went to slurring his words to feign drunk- heeled shoes on her feet, tied her answer the door. enness, he said, “I need to wear this hands behind her and stuck a gag off .” in her mouth. Rader had disguised himself as telephone repair worker. He wore To his delight, Rader saw that Ma- He photographed the corpse posed a hardhat with a Southwestern Bell rine’s car was parked in her drive- in various positions. logo and displayed a fake ID. He way. He cut her phone line. How- told Mrs. Wegerle he had to check ever, when he broke in through the When he fi nished, he put her back her phone line and she let him in. back door, he was disappointed to in the trunk and drove to a wooded At fi rst, Rader pretended to test her fi nd she was not home. He looked area where he placed the body in phone. Th en he pulled out a gun. 31 He told Mrs. Wegerle they must go ate. I’ve got a club, I’ve got a gun, to her bedroom. “Project Dogside” – Th e 1991 I’ve got a knife. You take your Murder of Delores Davis choice how you want it.” Weeping, she told Rader she ex- pected her husband soon. Th is was In late 1990, Dennis Rader became She promised to cooperate. not just a ploy as she did in fact president of Christ Lutheran’s expect husband home for lunch. Congregation. Everyone on the He handcuff ed her. She said she 12-member church council was expected a visitor and “he” would Rader said, “I hope he won’t be delighted with his selection and soon be there. Rader believed her home too soon.” Th en he forced impressed by how prepared and and was dismayed that his luck her into the bedroom as her tod- effi cient he was when he chaired could be so bad once again. He dler continued playing in the living meetings. forced her into her bedroom and room. started wrapping pantyhose around During January of 1991, Rader her throat. She begged him not to When Rader began to tie her up, began stalking attractive Delores kill her and he said, “Too late.” He she fought and they both landed Davis, 62, who lived in the country strangled her to death. on the fl oor. She scratched his a half-mile east of Park City. Rader face. She begged and then prayed was happy to learn that she lived Taking some personal items, he as Rader strangled her. When she alone. He did not want to run into dragged her body outside and was close to death, Rader took out a male again. Retired from an oil deposited it in the trunk of her own a camera and snapped a series of and gas company, Mrs. Davis had a car. He drove her corpse to a lake photographs. part-time job selling Mary Kay cos- and hid it in bushes. He drove her metics. She loved animals. When car back to her house and walked Leaving a 2-year-old child alone in her grandchildren visited, she oft en to where he had left his own car. He a house with a dead woman, Rader sat with them on the couch and drove back to the lake and hid the stole the Wegerle car and drove it watched fi lms that revolved around body under a bridge. to the shopping center where he dogs, cats, or horses. had left his own ADT truck. As Aft er spending the next day with he drove off in the truck, he saw Mrs. Davis lived near a dog kennel a Scout troop, he drove to Mrs. Emergency Medical Services racing so Rader called his plans for her Davis’s corpse. He was upset to toward the Wegerle residence. “Project Dogside.” fi nd that animals had already eaten away at her face. He returned to When Bill Wegerle came home One evening he peered through her his car and fetched a female mask. for lunch, he discovered his wife’s window but her cat struck the win- He placed the mask over her face. almost naked body sprawled on the dow with its paw, scaring Rader off . He shot a series of pictures of her bedroom fl oor and called 911. in various bondage positions, and Police made no connection be- On January 19, 1991, he pushed a then covered her corpse with de- tween this crime and BTK. Th ey cinder block through her sliding- bris. believed it likely Mr. Wegerle had glass patio door. murdered his wife. He took two Police found her decomposing polygraph tests – and failed both. Awakened, she ran into the kitchen corpse two weeks later but as with However, cops were never able where she saw an intruder. Th e the Vicki Wegerle murder, they did to gather enough information to shocked woman asked if he had hit not connect this murder to BTK. As charge him. her house with a car. He said he had far as the police knew, the last BTK and that he was a fugitive from the murder was that of Nancy Fox in For 18 years, Bill Wegerle lived un- law who needed to take some food 1977. der a cloud of suspicion. Children and then her car. She said he could taunted Stephanie and Brandon as not be in her house. BTK Productions having a father who had murdered their mother. He insisted, “You’ve got to cooper- In 2004, as Rader was approaching 32 59 years of age, he was an unat- tigation. He discussed the crimes tractive, middle-aged man whose On January 17, 2004, Rader read and then tried to directly address life was a routine of work as a Park an article in Th e Wichita Eagle that the culprit, saying, “Th e individual City compliance offi cer. He had upset him. Th e article was head- would be very interesting to talk held this job, which consisted of lined: “BTK Case Unsolved, 30 to.” enforcing minor ordinances about Years Later.” Reporter Hurst Lavinia such things as how high grass could quoted authorities who believed Leads poured into hotlines and a grow in a lawn and ensuring dog BTK was probably dead or perhaps website called CatchBTK.com was owners kept their pets under con- imprisoned. When he read that set up that also took leads. trol and on leashes and had current Wichita attorney Robert Beattie licenses since the mid-1990s. It had was writing a book about BTK, he Profi lers were divided about whom been over a decade since his last was particularly disturbed. Rader to look for. Some were convinced murder and a quarter of a century was off ended that anyone could BTK had to be a loner. A man with since he had written to anyone as presume to know about him and a wife and family could not pos- BTK. Brian and Kerri Rader were why he had murdered. sibly commit such horrible crimes no longer at home. Outside of without someone realizing some- work, his life was taken up with Th e Wichita Eagle received a letter thing was wrong with him. Others church attendance as well as the postmarked March 17, 2004. Inside guessed the truth that BTK had day-to-day chores he and his wife the envelope was a photocopy of mastered the art of blending in and shared as a long married couple. a driver’s license as well as three that his apparent normalcy func- photocopied photographs of a dead tioned as the perfect cover. Although he had reached the end woman in three diff erent poses. Th e of his killing spree 13 years earlier newspaper passed both envelope Semen samples tested for DNA with the murder of Delores Davis, and contents on to the Wichita showed that BTK was a Caucasian he was not content to take his terri- Police Department. man and would probably be in his ble secrets to the grave with him. To 50s or 60s by 2004. stave off this possibility, he came up Th e photographs were of Vicki with a plan he called “BTK Produc- Wegerle, who had been strangled to Police combed Wichita taking DNA tions.” He would take all drawings, death on September 16, 1986. Th e swabs from the mouths of middle- photographs, writings, and other license was hers as well. Authori- aged white men, most of whom memoirs associated with his crimes ties fi nally realized that BTK had easily cooperated. No swabs from and put them on CDs and put the murdered Vicki – and that husband men in Park City were taken. CDs into a safe-deposit box. His Bill Wegerle, despite failing two will would stipulate that the box be polygraph tests, was innocent. As the hunt for BTK intensifi ed, opened aft er his death. Rader contemplated a fi nal, most Th e return address on the envelope hideous project. A woman would Th e CDs would treat his murders read: Bill Th omas Killman; 1684 S. be strangled and wrapped in di- as a movie – one that would cer- Oldmanor; Wichita, KS 67202. No aphanous plastic and hung from the tainly leave the entire community one by that name lived in Wichita ceiling. However, he never worked of Wichita, particularly those who and cops instantly recognized out the specifi cs of how to do this. knew him, in shock. He would die the initials as BTK. Th ere was no with the knowledge that he had Wichita street called Oldmanor. On October 22, 2004, he left an outwitted them all and not lost a envelope at a UPS drop box. It was day of his freedom. Among those BTK was back. labeled “BTK Field Grams.” Inside whom BTK Productions would were magazine pictures of children shock were his wife and children Headed by Lieutenant Ken Land- with bindings penned across their but, despite his later insistence that wehr, a fresh investigation began. faces and bodies. Th ere was a poem he loved his family, he was quite On March 25, 2004, Lt. Landwehr entitled “Detective Ken Landwehr” willing to put them through this held a news conference announcing that threatened detectives. trauma and resulting shame. the re-opening of the BTK inves- 33 Finally, there was a purported his- January 17, 2005, Rader left a Post tory of BTK. Puzzled, the clerk mentioned the Toasties box propped up against a odd phone call to his supervisor, road sign. Lt. Landwehr held a press confer- who called police about it. Cops ence on November 30, 2004. He drove to that intersection but found He sent a postcard to Wichita revealed that BTK had given what nothing. radio station KAKE. Th e return he claimed was his history. Th e address read “S Killett” and 803 detective related that history. Five days later, William Ervin North Edgemoor, the address of walked across a nearby park and the Oteros when murdered. On the Not surprisingly, most of what picked up a white plastic bag. postcard, Rader stated the address Rader had written about himself Inside was a doll with make-up on where the Post Toasties box could was false. Unlike the character he its eyes and lips, hands tied behind be found. described, his father had not died its back and Nancy Fox’s driver’s when he was young nor did Rader license attached to an ankle. An Police found the box. Inside it was frequent Wichita prostitutes. He accompanying paper described a doll that had rope tied around its was too tight with money to pa- Nancy’s murder. neck and was fastened to a pipe. tronize hookers. Indeed, as far as is Th e paper stated “LITTLE MEX,” a known, he never performed an ac- Police offi cers searched stores that clear reference to Josephine Otero. tual sex act with any woman other sold the doll. Surveillance tapes Experts divide serial murderers into than his wife. He masturbated and were examined but all the purchas- organized and disorganized. Rader ejaculated when or immediately ers of the doll were females. wrote on a paper placed in the box, aft er murdering but did not rape. “An Organized Serial Killer Did the He had no aff airs. It is possible he Th e white bag came from Leeker’s Murders.” believed he remained “pure” if he grocery store in Park City but this did not commit adultery. was not considered signifi cant. Th at same paper had a question: Both Rader’s mother and his wife’s “Can I communicate with Floppy Th e claim that his father died mother had worked at that store. and not be traced to a computer. Be young may have refl ected a psy- honest.” chological truth: He felt his mother Since Rader was a serial murderer, was so much more important that he thought it would be witty to Offi cers were shocked by the naïve she might as well have raised him place a communication in a cereal inquiry. Could BTK really not alone. His mother was the one who box. He placed a Special K box in know that experts could discover disciplined Rader as a child – and the open metal bed of a randomly on which computer information sexually aroused him while spank- chosen pickup parked in a Home had been input in a fl oppy disk? ing him. Th e boy aroused during Depot parking lot. Could he be ignorant of the ability punishment became a man who of computer experts to retrieve de- viciously punished those who Th e pickup’s owner thought the ce- leted information? Could he really aroused him. real box was trash and consigned it expect police to answer the ques- to a wastebasket at his house. Aft er tion honestly? December 8, 2004 was the 27th a few days, the woman he lived with anniversary of Nancy Fox’s murder. saw the box in the trash and noted Cops were wary, thinking this Rader marked that day by making the handwritten “BTK” and “bomb” could be a trick. However, they a call from a pay phone to a Qui- on top of it. She looked inside and took out a newspaper ad reading: kTrip store. When the QuikTrip saw a necklace and computer paper. “Rex, it will be OK.” clerk picked up the phone, he heard Although she was puzzled, she a man talk about a package near waited several days before contact- Rader saw this ad. He sent a post- the intersection of Interstate 35 and ing the police. card to KAKE: “Tell WD that I Ninth St. When the clerk seemed receive the Newspaper Tip for a go.” uninterested, Rader slammed the Hearing nothing about the Special Bowing to police wishes, KAKE did phone down. K communication on the news, on not publicize the postcard. 34 called him “Dad” was enough to Rader mailed a fl oppy disk to justify an arrest. Lt. Landwehr answered, “Because I Wichita Fox TV station KSAS. It was trying to catch you.” was turned over to police. Th e fi le BTK’s Arrest that immediately came up stated, For the next several hours, Rader “Th is is a test.” It continued that On February 25, 2005, Rader was discussed his 10 murders in a the author wanted more communi- driving home for lunch when he matter-of-fact tone. He expressed cations through the newspaper. noticed a police car behind him no remorse but voiced concern with its red light fl ashing. He about ramifi cations for his family Th en cops retrieved deleted data. parked his Park City compliance of- and church. He seemed relieved at Th e names “Christ Lutheran fi cer’s truck at the side of the road. fi nally dropping the mask of nor- Church” and “Dennis” popped up. Other police cars surrounded him. malcy he had worn for so many Detective Randy Stone googled years. Christ Lutheran Church and “Hit the ground!” an offi cer shout- discovered that Dennis Rader was ed. When Rader’s DNA test returned congregation president. He then from the lab, it stated that his DNA learned that Dennis Rader was a Rader got out of his vehicle and was that found in the semen at Park City compliance offi cer who dropped to his belly. He was hand- the Otero, Fox and Wegerle crime resided at 6220 Independence St. in cuff ed. A detective asked if he scenes. that suburb for over 30 years. carried any weapons and Rader answered, “A knife.” It was taken While cops were delighted to have Offi cers had to be cautious. Af- from a pocket. BTK in custody, they were sad- ter all, the initial questions about dened at the task of having to whether or not cops could trace A small smile was on Rader’s face inform his family. a fl oppy disk or retrieve deleted as he rode in the transport car. He information from it – with the saw Lieutenant Landwehr. Rader Rader’s 79-year-old mother had expectation that police would not said, “Hello, Mr. Landwehr.” trouble understanding the news. mislead a serial murderer – had Paula, Brian, and Kerri Rader were seemed astoundingly stupid. Th e Th e detective replied, “Hello Mr. shattered, each telling the police whole thing could be an attempt by Rader. Do you know why you’re go- that there must be some terrible BTK to send police on a wild goose ing downtown?” mistake. His brothers were amazed. chase or, worse yet, to arrest some- Th ey also insisted that no one in one BTK was setting up to take the Th e Christ Lutheran Church the family had ever been abused fall. president said, “I have a pretty good sexually or in any other way. Th ey idea.” said they had grown up in a moral Rader was placed under 24-hour and loving family. surveillance. Detectives obtained Aft er Rader was swabbed for DNA Kerri Rader’s Kansas State Univer- at the station, Detective Landwehr Th e mood throughout Wichita and sity medical records. Her pap smear recited the famous Miranda rights. its surrounding environs was one of was examined. A lab reported that Rader said he did not want a law- celebration and relief. Th e boogey- DNA proved that the man who had yer. man that had terrifi ed and haunted left semen in the Otero basement citizens for over three decades was Kerri’s father. At fi rst, the two men discussed the had fi nally been run to ground. A BTK case in general terms. Th en storeowner put up a sign: “Even the Th is did not conclusively prove that Det. Landwehr placed the disk dogs feel safer now.” Rader was the man. Kerri could Rader had mailed on the desk. have been conceived through rape Calmly Rader said, “I’m BTK.” Rader’s mugshot was widely seen. or an extra-marital aff air. But the In pictures prior to his arrest, he chance that Dennis Rader was the Soon aft er, Rader asked in a hurt looks homely yet amiable. Th e hard, biological father of the girl who tone, “Why did you lie to me, Ken?” cruel expression on the mugshot 35 renders him ugly. It seems likely Nothing could make him appear if he received life with the terms this may have been the face seen by handsome but he looked polished. served concurrently. On the 10th his victims. count, Delores Davis’s murder, Judge Waller asked Rader what his D.A. Foulston sought the “hard 40,” While in jail awaiting trial, Rader plea was. “Guilty, Your Honor,” he meaning he could not apply for pa- spent much time reading the Bible. replied. role until he served 40 years. Since Pastor Clark visited once a week. he was 60 at the time, it would Judge Waller proceeded to ques- guarantee he had to be 100 before Paula, Brian, and Kerri Rader tion Rader closely about exactly he could apply for parole. never visited and refused all me- what had transpired at each murder dia requests for interviews. Rader scene. Writer Singular wrote that On the fi rst day of his sentencing received a bitter letter from his Judge Waller might have wanted hearing, August 17, 2005, Rader ap- daughter in which she told him he “a public purging of the evil Rader peared pale and thin in a dark blue had ruined all their lives. Rader had created, the torment and hate- coat. wept. fulness he’d imposed on an entire city for more than three decades.” D.A. Foulston was confi dent and “Guilty, Your Honor,” Rader dynamic as she displayed photo- pleaded Rader answered clearly and pre- graphs of his victims, their eyes cisely. Occasionally, emotion would grotesquely bulged due to stran- Judge Gregory Waller, a black jurist come through as he blushed, a hand gulation and their partially clad with a reputation for fairness, set a trembled, or sweat burst on his bodies posed in various degrading trial date of June 27, 2005. forehead. He oft en used the term positions. “put them down” as if describing Th ere were various pleas open to euthanizing dogs or cats. Th e next day, she put up pictures he Rader. He could plead not guilty by had taken of himself. In some, he reason of insanity; he could enter a When discussing his crimes against had snuck into his parents’ base- plea of no contest, acknowledging Kathryn and Kevin Bright, he noted ment to photograph himself in a the evidence was there to convict that the bonds he had tied them mask, a wig, and women’s clothes. without acknowledging guilt; he up with were from their house. He He was also in that basement when could, despite the enormous evi- elaborated, “If I had brought my he posed with a black bra, bindings, dence against him, plead not guilty. own stuff and used my stuff , Kevin a towel over his face, and a rope Or he could save Wichita the ex- Bright would be dead today. I’m not from his neck simulating his own pense and time of a trial and plead bragging, that’s just a fact.” hanging. guilty. Judge Waller set the sentencing Other pictures had been shot His attorneys were public defend- hearing for August 17. Sentencing outdoors such as the one in which ers Sarah McKinnon and Steve Rader to death was not an option he photographed himself inside Osburn. Th e lead prosecutor for the judge to consider because a grave he had dug, tied up, and was Sedgwick County D.A. Nola all of the murders Rader had com- wearing a female mask. Singular Foulston. mitted had occurred prior to 1994 observes, “Pain and shame and when Kansas reinstated the death desperation leaked out from these Th ey were all in the courtroom, penalty. photos.” Th ey were photographs along with Lt. Landwehr and other in which he appeared to punish BTK detectives, as well as several Most everyone believed Rader himself by turning himself into a family members of BTK victims, on would be imprisoned for life. Nola victim. the morning of June 27. Foulston wanted to ensure that he had no chance of freedom even In the aft ernoon, surviving vic- Rader was dressed in a cream- if he lived to be over 100. On the tims and their relatives gave victim colored suit, crisp white shirt, and fi rst nine murders, he could ap- impact statements. Charlie Otero dark tie. He wore a trimmed goatee. ply for parole aft er 15 years even stated, “Dennis Rader caused ir- 36 reparable damage to my blood fam- brought the community, my family light of life.” He ended his state- ily.” However, he asserted that he and the victims dishonor. It was all ment, “We speak of a man as an evil and his surviving siblings remained self-centered, selfi sh. I’m a sexual man. A dark side is there but now strong, remarking, “Dennis Rader predator.” He acknowledged more the light is beginning to shine. . . . has failed in his eff orts to kill the than once that he had been “selfi sh” Hopefully, this will keep me from Otero family.” and “dishonest.” going over to the dark side.”

Kevin Bright testifi ed, “My sister He mused on similarities between Th en Rader said, “Th at’s it.” suff ered so much.” He noted that himself and those he killed. He it took her hours to die. Kevin noted that both he and Joseph Judge Waller said, “Th ank you very Bright said he has permanent nerve Otero had served in the Air Force, much.” Th en he asked if the district damage from the gunshot wounds that he enjoyed gardening like attorney wished to speak. She did. that causes his body to sometimes Marine Hedge and that he was fond “overheat and become weak” and of animals like Delores Davis. Th is Remaining seated, Foulston noted, left him with a “digestive system led him to observe, “I have a lot “Mr. Rader did not turn himself in [that] is out of whack” so he has to of memories as a kid with a dog. and go peacefully. Mr. Rader was be extra careful about what he eats. A boy and a dog is what you have caught and intended to commit an He elaborated that even though he to have when you’re a kid.” He 11th murder, but for the actions of was injured, “I’m glad I was there appeared to see no contradiction the Wichita Police Department in that day to stop him from act- between this and the cruelty he’d bringing him to justice.” She char- ing out his sexual fantasy on [his shown to animals. He noted that acterized Rader as “an individual sister].” little Josephine Otero had liked who cannot be rehabilitated by the Barbie dolls as his own daughter nature of the crimes.” She ridiculed Rader burst into tears. Kerri had at that age. him for treating this hearing like “the Golden Globe awards” with his Jeff Davis, son of last victim, Delo- His drawing of parallels between round of thank-yous. res Davis, appeared to embody the his life and those of the people he fury of the community. He reviled murdered was tone deaf and pa- Foulston asked for life sentences for Rader as “social sewage,” “a rabid thetic. each murder to be served consecu- animal,” “a social malignancy,” and tively. In the 1991 murder of Delo- “a quagmire of madness” who had He talked about his respect for law res Davis, the prosecutor urged a “blasphemed in God’s house.” enforcement and said, “Sedgwick “hard 40” sentence that prohibited County has a good police force.” a convict from applying for parole Public Defender Steve Osburn until 40 years had been served. Th e asked Judge Waller for leniency, He began thanking people involved “hard 40” statute had been enacted stating that Rader had “in eff ect . . . in his case. He stated fondly, “Sarah in Kansas in 1990 for murders turned himself in” and pointing out (another public defender) has judged “especially heinous, atro- his cooperation with law enforce- been my workhorse.” He thanked cious, or cruel.” ment the person who cut hair from the sides of his baldhead and chose his Judge Waller sentenced Rader to Th en Judge Waller asked if the de- courtroom attire. He thanked many 10 consecutive life terms and put a fendant had anything to say before others. “hard 40” provision in for the Davis sentence was passed. As Rader rose, murder. He would not be eligible to all of his surviving victims and fam- Th e D.A. appeared amused by this apply for parole for 175 years. ily members of victims who were in round of congratulations. the courtroom stood up and walked Rader, who turned 67 in 2012, is out the courtroom. He appeared Rader read a poem from a Chris- imprisoned at the El Dorado Cor- startled by this walk out. Th en, tian magazine and a New Testa- rectional Facility where he is iso- with tears on his face, he began a ment verse: “He who follows me lated and spends 23 hours of each remarkable, rambling speech. “I shall not walk in darkness but have day in his cell. 37 38