BTK: The Serial Killer Next Door

Dennis Rader seemed like the last person you’d suspect: a church council president, a devoted father, a Boy Scout leader, and the neighborhood rule-enforcer who always waved hello. But behind the clean-cut façade lived one of America’s most methodical and narcissistic serial killers — the man who called himself BTK: Bind. Torture. Kill.

In this episode, Jess G and Lex break down the chilling duality that allowed Rader to hide in plain sight for over 30 years. We trace his early emotional deprivation, the development of an escalating fantasy life, and the compulsive need for control that shaped his violent “projects” — all while he maintained the image of a stable suburban family man.

We walk through the timeline of BTK’s murders, the letters that built his persona, and the long silences where he lived quietly among the very community he terrorized. We also unpack the psychological mechanisms behind his double life — compartmentalization, narcissism, ritualization — and how these ultimately paved the way for his downfall in one of the most bizarre arrests in true crime history: a floppy disk, a metadata blunder, and a killer convinced of his own invincibility.

Finally, we explore the family’s perspective, the generational impact of discovering your father is a serial murderer, and the complex grief and betrayal that followed.

Join us as we step into the unsettling world of BTK — a case that forces us to confront the monstrousness that can hide beneath everyday normalcy, and the terrifying power of a well-maintained mask.

Content Warning: homicide, torture, sexual deviance, psychological manipulation, familial trauma, deception