Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer

"Unholy Messenger" provides much more than a true crime re-telling of one of the most frightening serial killer attacks in American history. Stephen Singular takes the hard road of reporting and gives us a thorough portrait of Dennis Rader from all perspectives--his upbringing, psychological makeup and religious beliefs. "Unholy Messenger" is not just crime and cops, it's a thorough look at the layers of American life and how they may have come to bear on one extremely warped individual. Singular's approach is exhaustive and, in the end, you are left with an eerie glimpse inside Rader's evil mind. It's not a fun place to hang out. "Unholy Messenger" offers a vivid portrait of an individual who went to great lengths to repress his homosexuality and even greater lengths to express his "barbarically anti-female" view of the world. Contrast is what makes the "BTK" case so incomprehensible--a family man and prominent church leader who managed for three decades to keep hidden a sporadic series of horrific murders in and around Wichita, Kansas. There's plenty of material in the murders and the years and years of fruitless investigations as "BTK" surfaced off and on for decades. Singular doesn't skip any of this, including a gripping account of the psychological cat-and-mouse game that police played with Rader prior to his arrest in 2005. With his razor-sharp writing style, Singular does two things in "Unholy Messenger" that elevate this above the average true-crime rehash. First, he details the strict and pervasive religious environment of Wichita and the religious teachings of Rader's church. Religion isn't just a backdrop--something mentioned in a few paragraphs in the scene-setting stuff and then forgotten, it's interwoven into the entire tapestry of the book. Singular includes a compelling portrait of Pastor Michael Clark, who probably knew Rader better than anyone outside his home (or maybe better than anyone at all, given what little we know about Rader's wife, Paula). Two days after Rader's arrest (on a Friday), Clark had the unenviable task of delivering a sermon for his congregation to help them comprehend (perhaps to help himself comprehend) how one of their own church "leaders" could also have committed such heinous acts--and kept them hidden for so long. When Singular includes the text of the sermon word-for-word, non-judgmentally, it's compelling stuff. (Not surprisingly, the arrest of Rader is seen by Pastor Clark as an opportunity for renewal and healing: "Let us become the strong in faith, in love, and in hope.") Second, Singular includes compelling commentary from experts to help us understand Rader's exceedingly complex mental makeup--one part fastidiously organized and based in doing the right things, the other uncontrollable, unacceptable and wicked beyond belief. Singular checks in with a variety of psychology experts and scientists for the current scientific thinking that would explain one man's ability to manage such d

The critical reviews are nonsense; this is a well-written and compelling story. I read it in one day. Dennis Rader made fools of the cops, FBI, and serial killer experts for better than 30 years. Rader says is succinctly: Go to work every day, go to church, dress normally, be nice to people, feed their need to feel safe, and you can get away with murders forever.

After reading all the negative reviews, I'm almost embarrased to write this, but I thought it was a well written book and I could not put it down. Maybe that's because I'm not a "True Crime" aficionado.

Since the BTK perpetrator's ex-wife and adult children are not willing to talk about life with their father, who killed 10 people over 17 years and then went another 14 before being caught, author Singular chose to emphasize the effects of Dennis Rader's confession on his pastor and friends from Christ Lutheran Church in Park City, Ks. Yet there is plenty in here about his victims, and their survivor's pain. While it would be helpful to know more about Rader's childhood, or his life behind the closed doors of his home during his killing years, all a writer can do is work with the materials he has available. In this case, the betrayed friends, along with Rader's extensive confessions, souvenir collection, dairies of his crimes, notes and drawings and photos are what Mr. Singular had to work with. Given those limits, he does a nice job of explaining BTK's saga. Dennis Rader was incredibly lucky in his career as a serial killer. He was no master criminal, and most of his murders featured mistakes and misfortune for his plans. He seems to have escaped detection only because he was so "normal" and "boring" and "unimportant" in his family and professional life. His undoing was his ego and impatience and his impulsive, compulsive need to explain how brilliant he thought himself to be. At the time of his capture, he was a city employee, supervising compliance with ordinances that required citations but not arrests---a non-professional enforcer of the most minor of laws, so to speak. He was also newly-elected president of the board of his church, to which he was devoted for decades. He led the Cub scouts, was a veteran, and voted Republican. He was exactly the kind of person one would never suspect of being compelled to kill a family of four, and then six adult women over a span of many years. How and why he did what he did, and how and why he was caught, and how and why he decided to confess, are covered here. It is not a pleasant read, but I did find it a compelling one.

Not since In Cold Blood has there been a book about real-life murder this good. And Unholy Messenger's killer (BTK) is far more interesting, with a story much more universal and relevant to our own lives and times. There is much to be learned from this thoroughly-researched and beautifully-written book.