On this day, Aug. 18, 2005, the self-described BTK serial killer Dennis Lynn Rader was sentenced to 175 years for the slaying of 10 people between 1974 and 1991.
For years, Rader had taunted authorities in Kansas with letters stuffed in library books or to the media. He signed his letters, BTK, which stands for “Bind, Torture and Kill.”
By 2004, the trail of the BTK killer had gone cold. Then, Rader sent a letter to the police, claiming responsibility for a killing that had not been attributed to him. Evidence in the correspondence linked the killer to a church that Rader had attended for 30 years.
