On June 30, 1991, Dahmer killed Matt Turner, twenty; Jeremiah Weinberger, twenty-three, on July 5; Oliver Lacy, twenty-three, on July 12; and Joseph Brandehoft, twenty-five, on July 19. While the victims were still alive, Dahmer would drill holes into their skulls and inject hydrochloric acid into their frontal lobes with a syringe to make them into submissive zombies, and then have sex with them. Residents of the Oxford Apartment building noticed terrible odors coming from Apartment 213, as well as the thumps of falling objects and the occasional buzzing of a power saw.
Arrest
A young man by the name of Tracy Edwards is Dahmer’s only known living survivor and in my eyes, a hero.
On July 22, 1991, Dahmer enticed Tracy Edwards into his home. According to Tracy’s later testimony, Dahmer struggled with Edwards in order to handcuff him, but failed to cuff his wrists together. With a large knife in his hand, Dahmer forced Edwards into the bedroom where Edwards saw pictures of mangled bodies on the wall and noticed the terrible stench coming from a large blue barrel. Edwards turned and punched Dahmer in the face, kicked him in the stomach, ran out the door, and escaped. As he ran through the streets, he still had the handcuffs hanging from one hand, but Edwards waved for help at a police car driven by Officer Robert Rauth and Officer Rolf Mueller of the Milwaukee police department. Edwards took the Officers back to Dahmer's apartment where Dahmer acted friendly towards them. However, remembering that the knife Dahmer had threatened him with was in the bedroom, Edwards asked the police to check. When one of the officers checked the bedroom, he saw the photographs of mangled bodies, and called for his partner to arrest Dahmer. As one Officer restrained Dahmer, the other opened the refrigerator and found a human head. A search of the apartment revealed three more decapitated heads, multiple photographs of murdered victims and human remains, severed hands and penises, and pictures of dismembered victims and human remains in his refrigerator. The officers called for backup and C.S.I. agents. Dahmer was taken into custody. Once the media was alerted, the notorious apartment gained infamy. It was reported that several bodies were stored in acid filled vats, he kept human skulls in his closet, and a human heart in the freezer. It was soon believed that Jeffrey Dahmer was not only a serial rapist/killer, but also a cannibal and necrophiliac.
Dahmer was indicted on seventeen murders; however, he was not charged with the attempted murder of Tracy Edwards. On January 30, 1992, his trial began with overwhelming evidence consisting of not only pictures but also body parts. He was found guilty and sentenced to 957 years in prison.
Prison, Death
Dahmer was incarcerated at the Columbia Correctional Institution. During his short stay, he professed to be a “born again Christian.” In prison, Dahmer was attacked twice. In July of 1994, another inmate tried to slit his throat with a razor while Dahmer was returning from the prison chapel. Dahmer was only wounded. He was not so lucky on November 28, 1994 when a prisoner by the name of Christopher Scarver beat Dahmer over the head in the prison gym with a broomstick. Dahmer died on the way to the hospital. When asked why he’d attacked Dahmer, Scarver replied, “It was the work of God.”
Dennis Rader
The BTK Killer
BTK stands for Bind, Torture, Kill
Victims (10)
Background
Dennis Rader was born on March 9, 1945 in Wichita, Kansas, to William and Dorothea Rader, the oldest of four boys. As a young boy in grade school, according to his own admission, he fantasized about tying up girls and having his way with them. He tortured small animals and had a fetish for women’s panties.
At twenty-one years old, Rader joined the U.S. Air Force where he spent four years in active duty stationed in various places around the world. He had an honorable discharge in 1970 as Sergeant and received medals for marksmanship, good conduct, and defense service. By all indications, he was a good, upstanding soldier. Later in life, when he was arrested, his comrades were very shocked.
Once he returned stateside, Rader continued to lead a normal life. He got a job at a local IGA supermarket, remained in the reserves, went to the Community College, and got a degree in Electronics in 1973. He later attended Wichita State University and in 1979 graduated with a degree in Administration of Justice. On May 22, 1971, he married Paula Dietz and had two children. Everything appeared normal on the outside, but in his mind Rader still maintained his fantasies of binding, torturing, and killing women. He would walk or drive around and admire women until in 1974, he decided to act on his desires and calculated a plan.
Bind, Torture, Kill
A new Hispanic family had recently moved into Rader’s neighborhood. One day, while dropping his wife off where she worked at the hospital, he noticed this beautiful Hispanic woman with dark hair, which he liked. He scouted the house for several days trying to get a routine of the family’s activities, and concluded that he could strike in the morning after the husband went to work. On January 15, 1974, at 8 a.m., Rader crept around the house and cut the telephone wire. But as Murphy’s Law would have it, the entire family was home when Rader broke in: the husband, wife, kids, and the dog. He used his gun and told them he only wanted money and a car to escape as he was a wanted man, and he ordered everyone into the bedroom. Joe Otero, thirty-eight, was killed first as he fought Rader to keep from putting a bag over his head. Rader then proceeded to strangle and kill Joe Jr., aged nine, and his sister Josephine, eleven, before he took Julie, thirty-four, to the basement where he hung her and masturbated over her. Rader did not know that the Oteros had three other children who had already gone to school. Those children arrived home to found their family killed.
He killed again 1974, and then “cooled off” until 1977. On April 4th, 1974, he broke into the home of Kathryn Bright, twenty-one, and hid in her bedroom closet until she came home. Again, he was not expecting anyone but Kathryn, but her brother Kevin, nineteen, was out running errands with her and came back to her house. When they entered, Rader came out of the bedroom with his gun and told them that he was a wanted fugitive traveling from California to New York and only needed a car and some money. He instructed Kevin to tie up his sister. Kevin then turned on Rader and put up a fight for their lives, only to be shot in the face. Kevin continued to fight, however, and only stopped when Rader shot him in the head.
Rader thought Kevin was dead and went to work on Kathryn, who also put up a struggle, until Rader stabbed her multiple times. But he then had to make a quick exit when Kevin came to and ran for help. Kathryn died later in the hospital. Kevin Bright is the only known survivor of the BTK killer.
In October of 1974, the killer wrote to the Wichita Eagle Newspaper describing the murders of the Otero family with details that only the killer could know. He ended the note by saying, “I did it myself with noone's help, the code words for me will be... Bind them, toture them, kill them, B.T.K...." Very poor penmanship and grammar as you can see.