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Unholy Messenger: The Life And Crimes of the Btk Serial Killer
To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City, Kansas, where he had lived with his family almost his entire life. He was a town compliance officer, a former Boy Scout leader, the president of his church congregation, and a seemingly ordinary father and husband. But Rader's average life belied the existence of his dark, sadistic other self: he was the BTK serial killer.
The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for thirty-one years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivated crimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with the media and law enforcement. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders—torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family—and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros' deaths and labeling himself, for the first time, BTK. Thus he established a pattern—stalking and killing a series of ten victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes—that ended in 1991 but left law enforcement confounded and the public with deeply troubling memories. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest.
Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly detailed thirty-two-hour confession, bestselling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully—for the first time—the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality.
The result is a chilling story of a man considered a "spiritual leader" by his pastor and congregation, who turned out to be the devil next door. More than just true crime, Unholy Messenger is a powerful, thoroughly engrossing examination of the intersection between good and evil, and of the psychology and spirituality of a killer in whom faith and bloodshed converged.
The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for thirty-one years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivated crimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with the media and law enforcement. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders—torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family—and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros' deaths and labeling himself, for the first time, BTK. Thus he established a pattern—stalking and killing a series of ten victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes—that ended in 1991 but left law enforcement confounded and the public with deeply troubling memories. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest.
Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly detailed thirty-two-hour confession, bestselling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully—for the first time—the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality.
The result is a chilling story of a man considered a "spiritual leader" by his pastor and congregation, who turned out to be the devil next door. More than just true crime, Unholy Messenger is a powerful, thoroughly engrossing examination of the intersection between good and evil, and of the psychology and spirituality of a killer in whom faith and bloodshed converged.
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First published April 4, 2006
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About the author
Stephen Singular
27 books40 followersStephen Singular is the author or co-author of 22 non-fiction books, many of them about high-profile criminal cases. He’s also written sports and business biographies and social commentary. Two of the books have been “New York Times” bestsellers.
His first book, Talked to Death, set the tone for his journalistic career. Published in 1987, it chronicled the assassination of a Denver Jewish talk show host, Alan Berg, by a group of neo-Nazis known as The Order. The book was nominated for a national award — the Edgar for true crime — and became the basis for the 1989 Oliver Stone film, “Talk Radio.” Talked to Death was translated into several languages and explored the timeless American themes of racism, class, violence, and religious intolerance.
His first book, Talked to Death, set the tone for his journalistic career. Published in 1987, it chronicled the assassination of a Denver Jewish talk show host, Alan Berg, by a group of neo-Nazis known as The Order. The book was nominated for a national award — the Edgar for true crime — and became the basis for the 1989 Oliver Stone film, “Talk Radio.” Talked to Death was translated into several languages and explored the timeless American themes of racism, class, violence, and religious intolerance.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
November 21, 2015
Competently written account of the BTK serial killer.
Definitely better written than your average true crime novel, and I'm surprised that many readers seemed relatively unimpressed with Singular's recounting.
I think for me, the inclusion of the BTK's pastor earned this an extra star, but mainly because I'm fascinated with belief and the nature of those belief systems particularly when it comes to religion. I was somewhat floored by the pastor's belief that Rader was possessed by a demon...and not the metaphorical kind. As if a "sick" or "abnormal" brain that elicits "sick" or "abnormal" behavior is so much less believable than possession by a demon. I also thought it was interesting to see the pastor's (and other church members') internal conflict regarding Dennis' soul. Christian theology says that even the Raders of the world have the right to salvation...that even the most sadistic and ruthless killers are deserving of God's grace if they repent. After all, we're all just sinners anyway, right??? Lie to you mom, cheat on your husband or worse your taxes, bind and torture an entire family simply for your own sexual gratification...and then do it again and again...it's all the same to God...heck, just say a few extra "Hail Marys." Sorry. But if I happened to believe in a hell (which I don't), I would like to believe it was reserved for the Dennis Raders of the world and not unbelievers like myself. (okay, not really but you get my point.)
Of course, I was also fascinated by the opposite response from those who said they would take comfort knowing that Rader would burn in hell for what he did. Obviously, religion exists because it serves a purpose, namely helping many deal with the unexplained tragedies of this world. I mean who knows exactly what makes a Dennis Rader. Healthy or not, there are certainly people who have violent sexual fantasies. Some even act them out in mutually consenting relationships. But very few go to the extreme that Dennis Rader did, and I'm not buying the explanation that his acting out is the result of being unable to express himself freely because of his religion/background, though I suppose that may have been one factor.
Then you have Dennis himself, whose only regret seems to be that he has shamed his family and his church. To the very end he had absolutely no compassion and/or empathy for the victims or their families. I watched his confession online and to hear him talk about the murders, detached and unemotional, well...it was just chilling. Something has clearly gone wrong, and it's not demons and/or detective magazines.
In some of the reviews I read, people saw the discussion around the pastor and Dennis' church as a distraction, but I personally thought it was the most interesting aspect of his story. Not only is this man "normal" to all those around him (a loving father and husband), but he is an active leader in his church, the same church in which he brought one of his victims for the purpose of taking bondage photos of her dead corpse. The cognitive dissonance is just mind boggling
This was not an abused child acting out and perpetuating their abuse as an adult. This was a "diseased" brain consumed with sexual appetites gone wrong in a way that is hard to conceive because the Dennis Raders of the world are the extremes, the abnormal but inevitable blips that are so unrelatable that the only label that seems to fit is evil...pure evil...whatever that means.
Definitely better written than your average true crime novel, and I'm surprised that many readers seemed relatively unimpressed with Singular's recounting.
I think for me, the inclusion of the BTK's pastor earned this an extra star, but mainly because I'm fascinated with belief and the nature of those belief systems particularly when it comes to religion. I was somewhat floored by the pastor's belief that Rader was possessed by a demon...and not the metaphorical kind. As if a "sick" or "abnormal" brain that elicits "sick" or "abnormal" behavior is so much less believable than possession by a demon. I also thought it was interesting to see the pastor's (and other church members') internal conflict regarding Dennis' soul. Christian theology says that even the Raders of the world have the right to salvation...that even the most sadistic and ruthless killers are deserving of God's grace if they repent. After all, we're all just sinners anyway, right??? Lie to you mom, cheat on your husband or worse your taxes, bind and torture an entire family simply for your own sexual gratification...and then do it again and again...it's all the same to God...heck, just say a few extra "Hail Marys." Sorry. But if I happened to believe in a hell (which I don't), I would like to believe it was reserved for the Dennis Raders of the world and not unbelievers like myself. (okay, not really but you get my point.)
Of course, I was also fascinated by the opposite response from those who said they would take comfort knowing that Rader would burn in hell for what he did. Obviously, religion exists because it serves a purpose, namely helping many deal with the unexplained tragedies of this world. I mean who knows exactly what makes a Dennis Rader. Healthy or not, there are certainly people who have violent sexual fantasies. Some even act them out in mutually consenting relationships. But very few go to the extreme that Dennis Rader did, and I'm not buying the explanation that his acting out is the result of being unable to express himself freely because of his religion/background, though I suppose that may have been one factor.
Then you have Dennis himself, whose only regret seems to be that he has shamed his family and his church. To the very end he had absolutely no compassion and/or empathy for the victims or their families. I watched his confession online and to hear him talk about the murders, detached and unemotional, well...it was just chilling. Something has clearly gone wrong, and it's not demons and/or detective magazines.
In some of the reviews I read, people saw the discussion around the pastor and Dennis' church as a distraction, but I personally thought it was the most interesting aspect of his story. Not only is this man "normal" to all those around him (a loving father and husband), but he is an active leader in his church, the same church in which he brought one of his victims for the purpose of taking bondage photos of her dead corpse. The cognitive dissonance is just mind boggling
This was not an abused child acting out and perpetuating their abuse as an adult. This was a "diseased" brain consumed with sexual appetites gone wrong in a way that is hard to conceive because the Dennis Raders of the world are the extremes, the abnormal but inevitable blips that are so unrelatable that the only label that seems to fit is evil...pure evil...whatever that means.
May 15, 2010
This was no Helter Skelter, but a thoroughly mediocre account of Dennis Rader's life and crimes, bedeviled by typos and bad grammar. I nearly had a heart attack reading this sentence: "Two years later, he and Paula's first child, a son they named Brian..."
Anyone who writes a sentence like that should have his college degree rescinded. It's fine to use a pronoun, but it needs to be a possessive pronoun, the way "Paula's" is possessive. If you're not sure what a possessive pronoun is, separate the parts of the clause:
Paula's first child (sounds okay)
He first child (very caveman)
Separating the parts of the clause should inform your ear what pronoun works there. His!
If all that is too confusing, you can just simplify it and write "their first child."
So, BTK (Bind-Torture-Kill, Rader's name for himself in taunting letters he sent to the police over many years). There is a large omission in the book: the torture. It's not clear whether this is because there was no actual torture (no real torture is described when Singular describes the crimes), or because BTK simply did not admit to the torture. It's not clear why he would be shy about admitting torture, since he admitted to murders and all sorts of sexual perversions.
Singular spends lots of time talking to Rader's Lutheran pastor, a very decent man but a little strange himself (he liked to go up to strangers, especially women, and ask if they wanted to see his stool samples. If they didn't run away screaming, he brought out a small container labeled "Stool Sample" which contained a tiny, three-legged stool). Needless to say, Pastor Clark and the Lutheran congregation feel shocked, horrified, and betrayed that they unknowingly had a serial killer in their midst. Clark tries to come to terms with it by talking about evil and demonic possession, which hardly seems an adequate explanatory paradigm, but Singular gives him dozens and dozens of pages in which to do so. It was a relief to hear from some experts at the end of the book, a psychologist and a clinical social worker (Howard Brodsky and Joycee Kennedy) who opined on how Rader had sexual desires and perversions, dating from childhood, which could probably have been channeled into non-murderous pursuits between consenting adults such as S&M and bondage clubs. (Presumably the impulse to strangle animals, which Rader also had and acted on, can be rechanneled somehow?) But since Rader had been brought up to be good, moral, and Christian, married to a Christian woman, with two Christian children, was a Boy Scout leader and President of his church, there was no socially acceptable outlet for his perverse impulses, so he hid them and they emerged in the form of stalking, binding, and strangling women, then photographing their dead bodies, sometimes with masks on. (His victims also included an adult male and a boy who happened to be home when he was attacking a woman.) Our language for talking about crimes like these is steeped in metaphor, Kennedy says. Not just evildoers, or bad people, but narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial disorders: these are just metaphoric labels for neurobiological problems - mental illness. Our criminal justice system is completely archaic on the subject of mental illness, she argues. Killers like Rader are mentally ill, but not in the way that the courts use that term. They're aware of the wrongness of their actions, but the way their brains are wired - their "impaired sensory-emotional integration" - is providing the impetus for their crimes.
Anyone who writes a sentence like that should have his college degree rescinded. It's fine to use a pronoun, but it needs to be a possessive pronoun, the way "Paula's" is possessive. If you're not sure what a possessive pronoun is, separate the parts of the clause:
Paula's first child (sounds okay)
He first child (very caveman)
Separating the parts of the clause should inform your ear what pronoun works there. His!
If all that is too confusing, you can just simplify it and write "their first child."
So, BTK (Bind-Torture-Kill, Rader's name for himself in taunting letters he sent to the police over many years). There is a large omission in the book: the torture. It's not clear whether this is because there was no actual torture (no real torture is described when Singular describes the crimes), or because BTK simply did not admit to the torture. It's not clear why he would be shy about admitting torture, since he admitted to murders and all sorts of sexual perversions.
Singular spends lots of time talking to Rader's Lutheran pastor, a very decent man but a little strange himself (he liked to go up to strangers, especially women, and ask if they wanted to see his stool samples. If they didn't run away screaming, he brought out a small container labeled "Stool Sample" which contained a tiny, three-legged stool). Needless to say, Pastor Clark and the Lutheran congregation feel shocked, horrified, and betrayed that they unknowingly had a serial killer in their midst. Clark tries to come to terms with it by talking about evil and demonic possession, which hardly seems an adequate explanatory paradigm, but Singular gives him dozens and dozens of pages in which to do so. It was a relief to hear from some experts at the end of the book, a psychologist and a clinical social worker (Howard Brodsky and Joycee Kennedy) who opined on how Rader had sexual desires and perversions, dating from childhood, which could probably have been channeled into non-murderous pursuits between consenting adults such as S&M and bondage clubs. (Presumably the impulse to strangle animals, which Rader also had and acted on, can be rechanneled somehow?) But since Rader had been brought up to be good, moral, and Christian, married to a Christian woman, with two Christian children, was a Boy Scout leader and President of his church, there was no socially acceptable outlet for his perverse impulses, so he hid them and they emerged in the form of stalking, binding, and strangling women, then photographing their dead bodies, sometimes with masks on. (His victims also included an adult male and a boy who happened to be home when he was attacking a woman.) Our language for talking about crimes like these is steeped in metaphor, Kennedy says. Not just evildoers, or bad people, but narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial disorders: these are just metaphoric labels for neurobiological problems - mental illness. Our criminal justice system is completely archaic on the subject of mental illness, she argues. Killers like Rader are mentally ill, but not in the way that the courts use that term. They're aware of the wrongness of their actions, but the way their brains are wired - their "impaired sensory-emotional integration" - is providing the impetus for their crimes.
March 5, 2018
The part of the book that detailed Dennis Rader's childhood and belief system was somewhat interesting, but the pages, and pages, and pages of detail about Rader's pastor Michael Clark were just too much. Yes, I understand that Rader WAS the president of his church congregation but a mini-biography of Pastor Clark really didn't seem warranted here. Clark's background, childhood, life as a pastor, plus several of his sermons are described in great detail .... and just did not interest me in the least.
February 6, 2017
Overall, pretty good. story takes a linear timeline which I like and there is a lot of information from the pastor to bolster the story so it isn't all gory and totally focused on the crimes themselves but more on Rader and why.
May 11, 2018
I get the angle the author was trying to make by connecting that church goer and devout man of faith can also be a vicious serial killer.
But this book talked about Rader's church way too much.
But this book talked about Rader's church way too much.
June 4, 2023
They cancelled MINDHUNTER before they really got into the BTK stuff, so I had to read the book instead.
He was a serial killer who terrorised Wichita in the seventies and eighties, while bring a pillar of his church and community. Like all serial killer books, it was fascinating and sad at the same time. All these lives taken and ruined by an utter inadequate.
He was a serial killer who terrorised Wichita in the seventies and eighties, while bring a pillar of his church and community. Like all serial killer books, it was fascinating and sad at the same time. All these lives taken and ruined by an utter inadequate.
December 28, 2017
Book was pretty good however didn’t care for the drawn out parts about his pastor. I understand he was very religious but don’t need the entire life story of his pastor.
June 23, 2024
Tough. Tough. Tough read. I usually enjoy true crime cases/ books however, this book was disturbing. I have only finished half of the book, I was not able to finish it.
January 2, 2009
This is perhaps the book based on the crimes of Dennis Lynn Rader (a.k.a. "The BTK Strangler") with the least usage of the word "monster."
Instead of trying to shock or startle his readers, Mr. Singular takes the story off into a very different direction than those other books. He's not trying to find monsters in a world of anguish - he's trying to find the man inside the murderer.
To differentiate his story from the other true crime "novels," Mr. Singular compares and contrasts Rader to Pastor Michael Clark, the leader of Christ Lutheran Church in Park City, Kansas (the parish in which Rader was elected President). The characters of both men becomes fully rounded out by the time the book concludes, without sole reliance upon typical lurid details of the crimes, all of which have arguably been recounted too often as it is.
This is not to say that these details were omitted from the book - no, such an omission would prove to paint Dennis Rader in too saccharine a context. But used in conjunction with a detailed amount of biographical information, Rader becomes more than merely "the man next door who was a serial killer." He becomes something more real than a "monster."
And this book focuses more on the good in Dennis Rader's life than on the horrendous things he did - not so much through his own actions, but by the positive elements in his life, such as his loving family and his faithful pastor.
Instead of trying to shock or startle his readers, Mr. Singular takes the story off into a very different direction than those other books. He's not trying to find monsters in a world of anguish - he's trying to find the man inside the murderer.
To differentiate his story from the other true crime "novels," Mr. Singular compares and contrasts Rader to Pastor Michael Clark, the leader of Christ Lutheran Church in Park City, Kansas (the parish in which Rader was elected President). The characters of both men becomes fully rounded out by the time the book concludes, without sole reliance upon typical lurid details of the crimes, all of which have arguably been recounted too often as it is.
This is not to say that these details were omitted from the book - no, such an omission would prove to paint Dennis Rader in too saccharine a context. But used in conjunction with a detailed amount of biographical information, Rader becomes more than merely "the man next door who was a serial killer." He becomes something more real than a "monster."
And this book focuses more on the good in Dennis Rader's life than on the horrendous things he did - not so much through his own actions, but by the positive elements in his life, such as his loving family and his faithful pastor.
April 16, 2012
This book wasn't about some police department going on a chase for some murderer. This book actually tells about how BTK was raised and what made him think all the things he thought. Even after reading this book and learning so much about BTK the murders he did, and the thoughts he thought, its still hard to believe that somebody that acts so normal and so generous could turn out to me a mass serial killer.
February 15, 2021
DNF - Somehow this author managed to make such an interesting story of BTK into a rather bland book. It sounds like someone from Wichita wrote it just for people from Wichita. Left nothing to the imagination, was too explicit with how things were said. I think I'm going to look for one from a different author.
January 23, 2016
Traces the decades-long buildup of tension and fear following the horrid "bind, torture, kill" murders in Wichita, KS in the Seventies. Then describes the relief and astonishment following the capture of BTK after he made an elementary blunder in the attempt to get his name back in the papers.
August 20, 2019
I was intrigued by this book after watching a Netflix show called Mindhunters, where BTK is shown in small scenes to lead up to what I believe will be the finale of the show. It was a great book and filled in a lot of details I was unaware of. Thanks Stephen for a great and informative read.
February 11, 2021
Good biography of BTK, however author added full Sermons and biography of the pastor that I thought was a little too much.
There were also some details that were repeated, as overview information, then again during the timeline.
There were also some details that were repeated, as overview information, then again during the timeline.
June 4, 2021
Well-written and informative. I lived in Wichita during this time and was frightened myself. This filled in the gaps for me with details I hadn’t known before. Not an “easy read” due to the horrifying details, but it has a satisfying conclusion for anyone who needs to put this case to rest.
February 13, 2016
Hiding in plain sight.
January 30, 2018
Good look into how the crimes not only the victims and their families but how it affected his own family and circle of friends.
February 9, 2024
This book starts out strong but quickly goes off into Lala land. Singular is a competent writer and reporter, no doubt. But if all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. That is to say, he runs off on tangents about the religious community in Wichita and how the city has moved to the right politically - as if it was relevant to the BTK murders. Singular does not show how it’s relevant other than that Rader was (or seemed to be) a devoted Christian. It comes off as very personal, and it seems like Singular just doesn’t much like Christianity. You don’t have to like it but don’t let it color your writing. Singular and wife Joyce are liberal baby boomers who think the greatest threat to freedom is evangelical Christianity. It’s like they’re still living in the early 80a when the moral majority was a real force on the right wing. I guess they haven’t noticed that the Catholic Church and practically all of the mainstream Protestant denominations have been converged into the liberal state.
July 23, 2021
I flew through this one on Audible in less than 2 days. It was so intriguing. I knew of BTK but didn't know all of the details and this book really dived into them and put it all out there. I knocked a point off due to the author spending just a little too much time on Rader's pastor, even including a full sermon. I get why there was so much time spent on the pastor and his story, but it became just a little too much at times.
But man, these crimes were so awful and so brutal. What a monster this guy was! And hiding in plain sight. Just crazy. So glad he was finally caught.
But man, these crimes were so awful and so brutal. What a monster this guy was! And hiding in plain sight. Just crazy. So glad he was finally caught.
November 10, 2017
WTF! Dennis Rader was the president of his church, military vet, father, husband, local government official and also a serial killer. The book has decent pacing but gets pretty boring when the author starts going on and on about the pastor, or his sermons, or god. Most of part 3 is pretty boring except for the end.
June 10, 2021
This pretty much covers the life of the BTK serial killer who terrorized Kansas residents in the 70s-90s and then resurfaced in the early 2000s. Unlike some other well-known serial killers, BTK wasn’t very smart, just quite lucky. His complete stupidity eventually led him to be caught and incarcerated forevermore.
September 13, 2024
I can’t understand people that believe that his crimes were the result of demonic possession.
That doesn’t affect my rating of the book - the book was fine. Nothing extra special, but not a bad read either.
That doesn’t affect my rating of the book - the book was fine. Nothing extra special, but not a bad read either.
January 13, 2025
This true crime book is one of those that starts off really good, then just drags on and on. If an author is not going to interview the killer or print transcripts of interviews with the killer, they should not write a book about that killer.
June 15, 2017
Just attempting to understand the mind of a killer this text breaks open the mind of BTK and again real life is the most terrifying
June 26, 2017
This just goes to show you what you can do if you set goals.
February 2, 2018
Nothing new here that interested me. Should have realized from title that it would delve on a religious tone. Had a lot about his church and pastor.
March 5, 2019
Interesting book about BTK and the murders. It was my first true crime book so I'm not sure how to compare it to others but I feel like something was missing?
April 5, 2019
Disturbing how he managed to get away with it for so long when he really wasn't that skilled at doing it. He left things allover the place that could tie him to it. Oh, that pesky DNA we have now!
September 18, 2019
Interesting analysis from the SK's perspective. Author strangely blames the SK's religion for his perfidygood. Otherwise good analysis.
September 25, 2020
So good, and extremely disturbing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews