Kansas BTK serial killer jailed for life

WICHITA, Kansas - Confessed Kansas serial killer Dennis Rader was sentenced on Thursday to 10 life sentences after two days of gruesome testimony, tearful pleas by victims' relatives for harsh punishment and Rader's own statement that demons drove him to torture and kill 10 people.

Sedgwick County District Judge Gregory Waller said the 60-year-old Rader will not be eligible for parole for at least 40 years.

Rader was arrested in February and pleaded guilty in June to stalking, torturing and killing 7 women, two children and one man. He is not eligible for the death penalty because Kansas did not reinstate capital punishment until after his crimes, which ran from 1974 to 1991.

In a rambling, disjointed statement offered just before the judge passed sentence, the former dog catcher, Boy Scout leader and church congregation president called himself a Christian, quoted a Bible verse and talked about demons he referred to as "factor X" that drove him to torture and kill.

"I hope some day God will accept me. The dark side was there, but now I think light is beginning to shine," he told the judge.

Rader, who had dubbed himself BTK for "bind, torture and kill," also spoke fondly of his victims, tearing up as he said he had a lot in common with them, attending the same church as one woman and sharing a love for animals with another.

Rader's first victims were four members of the Otero family, including 11-year-old Justine, whom Rader hanged while he masturbated.

In another killing, Rader strangled a 53-year-old neighbour and took her body to a church, where he posed her in bondage positions on the altar as he snapped photos. He then rejoined the Boy Scout camping trip from which he had slipped away to commit the murder.

"This man needs to be thrown in a deep dark hole and be left to rot," a crying Beverly Plapp told the court. Rader killed Plapp's sister Nancy Fox in December 1977. He confessed to breaking into her home, binding her and strangling her before masturbating on her body.

As the family members took turns at the microphone, Rader removed his glasses, wiping his eyes and nose.

"It's been almost 19 years now that my brother and I had the most important woman in our life taken from us," said Stephanie Clyne, who was 10 when her mother Vicki Wegerle was murdered. "We didn't have enough time with her. Every day is a struggle to get through without her." During the two days of testimony, law enforcement agents said that Rader, a married father of two, had a secret lifetime obsession with sexual bondage.

When he was young, Rader would dress in women's clothes, take pictures of himself and torture and hang animals, according to court testimony.

During his murder spree, he collected souvenirs from his victims to remember the thrill the crimes gave him and wrote down fantasies about how his victims would serve him as sex slaves and servants in the "afterlife," police said.

Plapp referred to that in her statement to the court.

"I have some afterlife scenarios for him," Plapp said. "On the day he dies, Nancy and all his victims will be waiting with God and watching as he burns in hell."

- REUTERS