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From its very first suicide-filled scene, there are a lot of creepy moments in Netflix’s new thriller about serial killers. However, there’s a very good chance that the most disturbing element of Mindhunter went right over most viewers heads. All throughout the show’s first season, Mindhunter flirst with the BTK Killer in the creepiest way possible, practically ensuring we’re going to see more of him in Season 2. Spoilers ahead.
Executive produced by David Fincher and Charlize Theron, Mindhunter is an adaptation of the book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit. The series follows FBI Agent Holden ford (Jonathan Groff), a fictionalized cop who becomes obsessed with the idea of interviewing what he dubs “sequence killers” or what would later be known as “serial killers.” The show follows a fairly familiar pattern with its overly optimistic lead slowly revolutionizing an element of police work while simultaneously being beaten down by the horrors around him. He’s assisted in his search to better understand these killers by his gruff partner Agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), the no-nonsense psychologist Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), and his postgrad student girlfriend Debbie (Hannah Gross). The resulting series is an often disturbing and darkly insightful look into the minds of some of modern history’s most horrific murderers.
However, playing on the outskirts of this series is one of the most infamous murderers in police history — the BTK Killer or the BTK Strangler. Here’s how you likely know of this murderer and how Dennis Rader is connected to David Fincher’s new series though his name is never mentioned.
Who was the BTK Killer?
Between 1974 and 1991, the BTK Killer murdered 10 people in the Sedgwick County area of Kansas. His self-appointed name came from his preferred method of attacking his victims — “Bind, Torture, Kill.” However, he was best known for taunting police about his crimes for decades.
Starting as early as 1974, the BTK Killer would routinely taunt both the police and media about his many crimes. He would often send disturbing letters, poems, drawings of his victims, their driver’s licenses, and, in the years after his crimes had been committed, even dolls bound in the same way as his victims.
When and how was he finally arrested?
It took a disturbingly long time for the police to connect the BTK killings to church council president and Cub Scout leaders Dennis Rader. By the mid-2000s, the case of the BTK killings had gone cold, but it picked up again thanks to Rader’s hand. In 2004, police started to receive more packages from the BTK Killer. It was during this time that the killer’s more disturbing trinkets — the licenses and dolls — were mailed. The authorities believed that the BTK Killer, who preferred to extensively stalk his victims before attacking, was preparing to commit another murder. However, it was technology that eventually tripped him up.
In 2005, the BTK Killer asked police if they could use a floppy disk to track him. Officers, obviously more interested in catching the killer than telling the truth, told him it would be safe. When the disk arrived, the police were able to use Microsoft Word metadata to connect Rader to the murders. From there, the police were able to gain more evidence against Rader before they were finally able to arrest him in February of 2005. If you want to hear a longer history of the BTK Killer, both My Favorite Murder and The Last Podcast of the Left have extensive specials on the murderer. Also, here’s Rader’s ultimate confession.
Who is the BTK Killer in Mindhunter?
Do you remember in Episode 2 when a mustachioed ADT employee is weirdly protective over some tape? That’s almost definitely Dennis Rader. The series never explicitly says the criminal’s name, instead referring to the character as “ADT Serviceman” (Sonny Valicenti). However, the show does scatter several clues about the man’s identity throughout its first season.
The mustachioed man is never given more than a few seconds of screen time per an episode, but during those brief scenes, we learn a lot about this future killer. Here’s a breakdown of everything we know about the man who will almost certainly bec Mindhunter’s BTK Killer:
- Episode 2: It’s revealed that the mustachioed man both works at ADT, a security installation company Rader worked at from 1974 to 1988, and is weirdly protective of tape, one of supplies used most often in these murders. The man also lives in Kansas, the site of all the BTK killings.
- Episode 3: He’s shown to own an ADT van (never a good sign).
- Episode 4: We see the man on a house call, advising a woman about security installation. Rader would often use his security installation job and the panic the BTK Killer evoked to better target his victims. It’s also shown that the man is consulting a married woman with young children. Rader’s first known victims were a family of four — the Otero family.
- Episode 5: The man, while wearing gloves, mails a letter. This is likely a nod to Rader’s habit of taunting the police and the media about his victims.
- Episode 6: While watching TV with his wife, the man ties a series of knots on a shoelace. The BTK Killer was identifiable for the various complicated knots he’d use on his victims.
- Episode 7: He’s shown packing a backpack with the following items — a fur-trimmed winter jacket, plastic gloves, tape, plastic bags, and a gun. Save the jacket, the BTK Killer often had those items in what he called his “hit kit.”
- Episode 9: The man is shown freaking out in his house, but what’s noticeable is the way he’s dressed. He’s wearing the aforementioned coat, thick gloves, and what appear to be stockings on his head. This outfit would minimize forensic evidence, and the BTK Killer was known for having a stocking fetish.
- Episode 10: Most damningly of all, at the end of the season the man is shown throwing drawings of tortured and bound women into a fire. The BTK Killer was known for meticulously documenting his victims, fantasizing about these murders before he committed them, and drawing disturbing pictures.
How will the BTK Killer affect Season 2?
The BTK’s limited sequences are some of the most brilliant uses of pre-credits footage on TV, subtly building up trepidation for this unnamed evil without saying a word. There are many eerie elements to Mindhunter, but the mustachioed man’s often-silent scenes are some of the most unnerving.
We don’t know much about the future of Mindhunter, but it seems safe to assume Dennis Rader will be a big antagonist in Season 2. The BTK Killer was one of the biggest disappointments in police history. Though he communicated with the police and the media often, he evaded capture for three decades. In that way Rader is much like another well-known, Fincher adapted murderer — the Zodiac killer.
