March 10, 2025 • 25 mins
Producers Gnoems Griffin and Jesse Funk meet with Susan in Wichita. Together they visit key locations in the BTK story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to another special bonus episode of Monster BTK. My
name is Nomes Griffin. I'm one of the writers and
producers for this season of Monster. While we were in
production for the show, I flew to Wichita to meet
up with another writer and producer, Jesse Funk, and our
host Susan Peters. Over the course of three days in Wichita, Jesse, Susan,
(00:28):
and I sat down to interview Steve Ralford, Charlie Otero,
Bob Smeiser, and Larry Hatteberg. And Susan also acted as
our Wichita tour guide, showing us the city she's called
home for decades. We took time each day we were
there to visit the important locations in this story. Susan
(00:49):
told us that when she first met Steve Ralford, she
was able to accompany him to the home where his
mother was killed. It was an emotional experience for both
of them. She shared that for her the visit was
a chance to support a grieving Steve and pay her
respects to his late mother, Shirley Vayanne. But she didn't
have that for every victim, and in particular, she wanted
(01:11):
a chance to do that for the Otto family.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Okay, all right, perfect, So you went to I'm so sorry, honey. Well, okay,
I'm gonna call you later on today to see how
you're feeling.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
As we pulled into the Otaro's former neighborhood, Susan called
up Charlie Otero, the eldest of the Otaro siblings, and
they chatted briefly.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
All right, honey, I love you.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
When they hung up, we walked up the sidewalk to
the front of the house. It was a warm sunny
day and a rooster was crowing from the backyard. The
house faces a major street, so cars passed by rather frequently.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So I'll just be honest. I had never been to
this house before. I've reported on it one and a
half million times, seen it in video over and over
and over again. But coming to this property, I have
a pit in the middle.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Of my stomach.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It is so so haunting because you look at the
front door, everything's the same. It's a small white home
where a wonderful family lived in an average part of
town in Wichita, Kansas. It's a tree lined street with sidewalks.
(02:34):
This is a family neighborhood. In the seventies, this was
a total family neighborhood. The kids walked to school. Charley
O'tero walked to Southeast High School from this neighborhood. It's
on a busy street, and it was on a busy
street in the seventies. This was a neighborhood where you
thought you were safe. In the nineteen seventies in Wichita, Kansas,
(02:57):
every place was safe, and that evil, evil, horrible man
killed two children in this home. Dennis Raider's famous thing
that he was known for is cutting the telephone cord.
There's a home what ten feet away, but he had
(03:17):
the illness, the sickness to come to the middle of
these two homes, cut the court the telephone line, and
then go to the front door with a gun. The
Otero family home here on Edgemore Street is the beginning
of the changing of the Wichital community. This is where
(03:39):
the Witchitalk community began to change from a sleepy, safe
town where no one locked their doors, to.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
A town of.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, for years, horror, a town of horror, very very
haunting and unbelievable. Honestly, I am ripped apart being here
because it's the first time I've been here.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Knowing what Charlie.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Went through, my heart is broken seeing this house.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
The house is occupied by another family, so he didn't
stay long. Next, Susan wanted to visit the house where
Steve Ralford grew up again.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I've been to this house before, just a small white
house on a busy street in the middle of Wichita, Kansas.
And it looks exactly the same as when I brought
Steve Ralford here in two thousand and five. And I'm
sure it looks exactly the same as it did when
Steve lived here in nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It just doesn't look like it's changed much at home.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And after BTK was captured and we flew Steve Ralford
back to Wichita, I said, is there anything I can
do for you?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And he said, take me to the house.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So we picked him up and at the hotel and.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
We brought him here.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I had already knocked on the door of the house
and said, I'm Susan Peters, can would come in Steve.
They were very nice and said yes. We walked Steve
and I walked into this house at thirteen eleven South
Hydraulic and he said, it looks exactly the same. It
(05:41):
looks exactly the same. The living room's there. He walked
directly into the bedroom back here of this house, knelt
down in his mom's bedroom and started saying a prayer
and cried his eyes out. It was the first time
he had been back since the day of the murder,
(06:03):
since the day he witnessed his mother being brutally killed
by BTK, and so for him to be inside the house,
I think it provided some sort of I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Say closure, but it helped a little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Seeing that it still exists and that it's with a
new family who's making new memories here.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
The feeling that I get in front.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Of this house, I see Steve Ralford at this house,
but I don't see him as a six year old.
I see him as he is now, still a broken man,
and he'll even admit.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
That day broke him.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
My thought is of frustration, because a horrible parasite changed
a whole family's life forever inside this home by a
matter of chance. So my only other feeling besides complete sadness,
(07:18):
is very very much anger.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
About five minutes down the road from the Otto House
is where Catherine Bright lived in nineteen seventy four. The
houses that were once there have since been demolished.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
So this is Hillside and thirteen and which Test states
at seventeen. Okay, here we are at the site where
BTK killed his fifth victim and changed the life of
her brother forever. On this corner, that's an empty lot
right now. There were several houses. It was close to
which Test State University, so students would rent. And that's
(08:00):
who is here on this busy corner.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
On the lot where Catherine Bright's house once stood. You
can still see where the foundations were laid and where
the mailbox was. Today there's a neighborhood a block behind
the lot. It faces out to one of the busiest
intersections in East Wichita.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
They described it back then as her house being on
a hill.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
This is much of a hill as you get and
which you talked to ANSAs. The most shocking thing about this.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Is how many people were around that day. There had
to have been so many. There were businesses on this corner.
That's all that was on this corner were businesses.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
In fact, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Bright, after he was shot, ran from this corner down
to a business down the street and said, call the police,
Call the police.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
As we visited the second sight of a BTK murder.
Something sunk in for Susan.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I never registered. I'm gonna bend to some of the sites,
but it never registered.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
They're all busy streets, right.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I think Dennis Raider had such an ego.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
That he never thought he was going to be caught,
and he almost did in the back of his mind
did busy streets to say, I just dare you.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
I don't care if it's a busy street.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
He was a brazen evil person.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
From the Hillside intersection, we continued east on Thirteenth Street
to stop by a place Susan calls home, the Cake
TV Station.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Okay, here we are in the Cake studios where we
did the newscast.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
How does it feel to be in the newsroom were he's.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Been twenty five years? It feels wonderful. It still feels
like home to me. This studio still feels like home
to me. And the reason, I think one of the
reasons it does is because we went through so many
stories together and tragedies together, of course, the biggest one
being BTK.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
We went through that together.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
For a whole year and a half and it was
gut wrenching.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
It took all of our emotions out.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Of us because we knew when we were sitting at
this set that I'm standing at right now, when we
were communicating BTK stories, we were communicating to BTK, we
were saying things that would get BTK to react and
send another clue. So we were sitting here at this set,
(11:08):
not only doing a newscast in this set, but we
were trying to catch a killer from the set.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
He knew he was listening.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
We knew he was watching every night.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
We knew BTK was watching us from this news set
every night. He said it in his letters to us.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Well.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Susan told us about her memories in the Cake studio
during the BTK era. The new generation of KKTV anchors
listened in.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And then another memory I have of the studio in
relation to BTK.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
He pleaded guilty.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Okay, So the preliminary hearing, Okay, So my call anchor
and I Jeff, we set up a special BTK set
for the preliminary hearing and the sentenzene hearing and all that.
It was in that corner of the studio was a
special BTK set, And we go on the air that
morning and Jeff and I are talking in this corner. Well,
(12:07):
the preliminary hearing starts at nine o'clock. Okay, oh, we'll
be out of the studio by nine fifteen, nine thirty,
because it's just a preliminary hearing, please agreement. We sat
in that corner with our mouths dropped open for four
hours as Dennis Rader described in detail every single murder,
(12:35):
in detail, horrifying detail, like he was being interviewed on
an entertainment show, like he was accepting an Academy award.
I'll never forget. We sat in that corner, stunned, our
stomachs in knots, and of course, as an anchor person,
(12:57):
you're taking notes as to what he said.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I still have all those notes.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I can't even believe what I was writing down because
we couldn't believe what he was saying. And that's the
other spooky memory I have of this set is in
that corner, us just sitting there as all of Wichita was.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Are you kidding me? This is evil? Over and over
and over again.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I did not know about this, Oh he said, Oh yeah,
that says David. I'll never forget that morning. It was
my daughter's first day at school. They were in grade
school still.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I had one.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
In kindergarten and one four years older, so that would
be fourth grade. And I took him to school in
the morning. Was you know how emotional first day of
school is for parents. So I cried, dropped him off.
First day of school came right in the preliminary hearing
was starting at nine o'clock and I go, we can
(14:00):
get out of here because I just want to go
home and cry.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
And we go. You know it's going to be fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
It was so weird going from dropping them off at
school and crying and then coming right to the studio,
never thinking in a million years you were going to
sit through four hours of pure vile evil. And I
wasn't crying for me. I was crying for the victims'
(14:30):
families who were in the courtroom that day. And we're
watching them on camera in the courtroom, and I said
to myself, I just got to drop my kids off
at school, and here they Charlie was a school kid himself.
(14:52):
Steve Ralford was five years old. He never got the
chance to go to a normal school life again after
he watched just Mom being killed. Not to get too philosophical,
but how does God choose. I mean, I know it's
not God that chooses, but I don't know. I'm sorry, day, I.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Guess the studio has more in motion than it. I mean,
so much evil was talked about in this studio.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Okay, I think I'm done.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
We left the studio so the anchors could prepare for
the afternoon newscast, and Susan took us downstairs to the newsroom.
Here she explained to us what would happen after the
station received a BTK letter.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
So what would happen is the receptionist would get the
mail and she would get the feeling. The receptionists would
get the feeling that this is from BTK. She'd immediately
put on rubber gloves the news director and walk the
clue postcard back to the newsroom. Here, the news director,
(16:14):
I'm sorry, I'm taking it through a maze.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
This is the way I.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Used to get to the newsroom. So the receptionist would
call the news director. The news director would immediately get
his rubber gloves on and walk out and get the
letter and bring it up to the newsroom. And as
soon as the news director walked in the newsroom with
(16:42):
a clue or a letter from BTK. He'd call the
police first. Right after that, he'd call a photographer and say,
come shoot this video.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, got to get a video. So he'd go in
his office here.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
The police would come right in this office. The news
director would put his rubber gloves on in case there
were fingerprints or anything. A photographer would come in and
the police would come in, confiscate the.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Clue or the letter. We did that four times.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
The first letter BTK sent to us after he reappeared
was simply a piece of paper that said the BTK
story one through thirteen.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
We made copies of that copy copy.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
We went out into the newsroom and every single reporter here,
at every single desk you see a couple dozen desks here,
got a copy of that letter, and we just analyzed
and analyzed and analyzed. We were trying to figure out
what this was, who this guy was, and if this
(17:49):
could have given us any sort of clue. All of
us sat here in the newsroom and said we were scared.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Our final style was in Park City.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
The city of Park City bought this house from Denis
Raider's ex wife and then tore it down because there
were so many gawkers and sightseers who would drive by.
I'm sure there still are, especially with what has happened lately.
(18:24):
You can see remnants.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The week before our trip to Wichita, the news broke
that BTK was a suspect in the nineteen seventy six
disappearance a Missouri woman, Cynthia don Kenney. The month prior,
the Osage County Sheriff's Department in Oklahoma obtained apertmit to
search the lot for evidence.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
You see the sidewalk that's newly ripped up, newly excavated,
because they found mementos from one of Denis Raiders killed
buried underground here just last month, and so I'm sure
(19:07):
other people are coming here to sightsee. But this is really, really,
really after all these years, it's been twenty almost twenty
years since he reappeared, almost twenty years since he reappeared,
and this is the first time, really in twenty years,
that Denis Raiders' home is the site of another crime scene,
(19:33):
if you will, freshly dug up dirt and sidewalk that
housed some of Denis Raiders mementos from past crimes, past killings.
And it's really weird to see it because you never
thought you'd see it again.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
The sidewalk that Osage County tore up leads from independent
through the lot and behind neighbors' houses to a public park.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
So the city built a walkway here that welcomes you
to this park down the street and behind his property.
So it's almost like we're turning this place where an
(20:27):
evil parasite used to live into something nice for children,
into something that will help children grow and play and thrive.
Carrie Rosson and I came here to her former residence
(20:51):
where Dennis Raider lived when she first came out with
her book a couple of years ago, and we walked
along the property. She pointed out, see those tulips over there,
My dad and I planted them. My dad taught me
how to plant tulips. See this over here, She pointed
(21:15):
to that tree and said, see that tree. My dad
built the neatest treehouse for us in that tree, and
we used to climb up in the treehouse all the time.
And she's walking through this lot reminiscing about her normal childhood.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
What could you say? You know, I've noticed as we
were sitting, you know, walking through this property, well it
used to be his property. I've noticed two cars that
come pass, and you see they slow down.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
That's why the city of Park City wanted to tear
the house down in the first place, because it used
to be a steady stream, just a steady stream of
gawker down this quiet little street. And now even though
the house is torn down and we're standing in the
middle of an empty lot, we still see cars driving
(22:13):
by pointing to the.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Lot that this is where BTK lived.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
These neighbors here now, I'm sure they're very tired of
people coming down the street and gawking at the house.
But it'll happen that way forever and ever. There's no
stopping it.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
As we sit here, also outside of Raider's house, you know,
when everything's done with the new investigations, and what do
you think should be done to this property? Should you
just leave it as land or should they do you
have you know, no.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
That's a very good question.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
What do you think should be put here that can
make it maybe that being such a landmark.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
That is a very very good question.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I feel if it was a place that people had
access to, you wouldn't have people driving by. It would
just be another another thing on the street, and it
would cease to be be tk's property. If they built
something here that people could name, for instance, a food pantry,
maybe a mini park here the city of Parks city
(23:28):
could build. Maybe if they built a mini park here,
I don't think people would look at this area the same.
I think they'd look at it, look at it as
a park where kids could play and recreate. I don't
think they'd drive down the street and say that was
(23:48):
btk's house.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
I agree, and as I'm sitting here and looking, you know,
a dog park.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I've spent the last two years working on this project,
and our trip to Wichita was one of the most
difficult parts. Not only were the interviews emotionally heavy, but
so were these site visits. The demolition of Dennis Raider's
home should have signaled the finality of this case, but
walking past the torn up sidewalk, it just goes to
(24:23):
show you that closure is fickle. I don't know if
Dennis Raider actually committed this nineteen seventy six murder, but
after this trip, I do know that the city of
Wichita is incredibly resilient,
Welcome to another special bonus episode of Monster BTK. My
name is Nomes Griffin. I'm one of the writers and
producers for this season of Monster. While we were in
production for the show, I flew to Wichita to meet
up with another writer and producer, Jesse Funk, and our
host Susan Peters. Over the course of three days in Wichita, Jesse, Susan,
(00:28):
and I sat down to interview Steve Ralford, Charlie Otero,
Bob Smeiser, and Larry Hatteberg. And Susan also acted as
our Wichita tour guide, showing us the city she's called
home for decades. We took time each day we were
there to visit the important locations in this story. Susan
(00:49):
told us that when she first met Steve Ralford, she
was able to accompany him to the home where his
mother was killed. It was an emotional experience for both
of them. She shared that for her the visit was
a chance to support a grieving Steve and pay her
respects to his late mother, Shirley Vayanne. But she didn't
have that for every victim, and in particular, she wanted
(01:11):
a chance to do that for the Otto family.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Okay, all right, perfect, So you went to I'm so sorry, honey. Well, okay,
I'm gonna call you later on today to see how
you're feeling.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
As we pulled into the Otaro's former neighborhood, Susan called
up Charlie Otero, the eldest of the Otaro siblings, and
they chatted briefly.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
All right, honey, I love you.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
When they hung up, we walked up the sidewalk to
the front of the house. It was a warm sunny
day and a rooster was crowing from the backyard. The
house faces a major street, so cars passed by rather frequently.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So I'll just be honest. I had never been to
this house before. I've reported on it one and a
half million times, seen it in video over and over
and over again. But coming to this property, I have
a pit in the middle.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Of my stomach.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It is so so haunting because you look at the
front door, everything's the same. It's a small white home
where a wonderful family lived in an average part of
town in Wichita, Kansas. It's a tree lined street with sidewalks.
(02:34):
This is a family neighborhood. In the seventies, this was
a total family neighborhood. The kids walked to school. Charley
O'tero walked to Southeast High School from this neighborhood. It's
on a busy street, and it was on a busy
street in the seventies. This was a neighborhood where you
thought you were safe. In the nineteen seventies in Wichita, Kansas,
(02:57):
every place was safe, and that evil, evil, horrible man
killed two children in this home. Dennis Raider's famous thing
that he was known for is cutting the telephone cord.
There's a home what ten feet away, but he had
(03:17):
the illness, the sickness to come to the middle of
these two homes, cut the court the telephone line, and
then go to the front door with a gun. The
Otero family home here on Edgemore Street is the beginning
of the changing of the Wichital community. This is where
(03:39):
the Witchitalk community began to change from a sleepy, safe
town where no one locked their doors, to.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
A town of.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, for years, horror, a town of horror, very very
haunting and unbelievable. Honestly, I am ripped apart being here
because it's the first time I've been here.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Knowing what Charlie.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Went through, my heart is broken seeing this house.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
The house is occupied by another family, so he didn't
stay long. Next, Susan wanted to visit the house where
Steve Ralford grew up again.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I've been to this house before, just a small white
house on a busy street in the middle of Wichita, Kansas.
And it looks exactly the same as when I brought
Steve Ralford here in two thousand and five. And I'm
sure it looks exactly the same as it did when
Steve lived here in nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It just doesn't look like it's changed much at home.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And after BTK was captured and we flew Steve Ralford
back to Wichita, I said, is there anything I can
do for you?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
And he said, take me to the house.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So we picked him up and at the hotel and.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
We brought him here.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I had already knocked on the door of the house
and said, I'm Susan Peters, can would come in Steve.
They were very nice and said yes. We walked Steve
and I walked into this house at thirteen eleven South
Hydraulic and he said, it looks exactly the same. It
(05:41):
looks exactly the same. The living room's there. He walked
directly into the bedroom back here of this house, knelt
down in his mom's bedroom and started saying a prayer
and cried his eyes out. It was the first time
he had been back since the day of the murder,
(06:03):
since the day he witnessed his mother being brutally killed
by BTK, and so for him to be inside the house,
I think it provided some sort of I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Say closure, but it helped a little bit.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Seeing that it still exists and that it's with a
new family who's making new memories here.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
The feeling that I get in front.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Of this house, I see Steve Ralford at this house,
but I don't see him as a six year old.
I see him as he is now, still a broken man,
and he'll even admit.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
That day broke him.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
My thought is of frustration, because a horrible parasite changed
a whole family's life forever inside this home by a
matter of chance. So my only other feeling besides complete sadness,
(07:18):
is very very much anger.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
About five minutes down the road from the Otto House
is where Catherine Bright lived in nineteen seventy four. The
houses that were once there have since been demolished.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
So this is Hillside and thirteen and which Test states
at seventeen. Okay, here we are at the site where
BTK killed his fifth victim and changed the life of
her brother forever. On this corner, that's an empty lot
right now. There were several houses. It was close to
which Test State University, so students would rent. And that's
(08:00):
who is here on this busy corner.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
On the lot where Catherine Bright's house once stood. You
can still see where the foundations were laid and where
the mailbox was. Today there's a neighborhood a block behind
the lot. It faces out to one of the busiest
intersections in East Wichita.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
They described it back then as her house being on
a hill.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
This is much of a hill as you get and
which you talked to ANSAs. The most shocking thing about this.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Is how many people were around that day. There had
to have been so many. There were businesses on this corner.
That's all that was on this corner were businesses.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
In fact, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Bright, after he was shot, ran from this corner down
to a business down the street and said, call the police,
Call the police.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
As we visited the second sight of a BTK murder.
Something sunk in for Susan.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I never registered. I'm gonna bend to some of the sites,
but it never registered.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
They're all busy streets, right.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I think Dennis Raider had such an ego.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
That he never thought he was going to be caught,
and he almost did in the back of his mind
did busy streets to say, I just dare you.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
I don't care if it's a busy street.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
He was a brazen evil person.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
From the Hillside intersection, we continued east on Thirteenth Street
to stop by a place Susan calls home, the Cake
TV Station.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Okay, here we are in the Cake studios where we
did the newscast.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
How does it feel to be in the newsroom were he's.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Been twenty five years? It feels wonderful. It still feels
like home to me. This studio still feels like home
to me. And the reason, I think one of the
reasons it does is because we went through so many
stories together and tragedies together, of course, the biggest one
being BTK.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
We went through that together.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
For a whole year and a half and it was
gut wrenching.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
It took all of our emotions out.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Of us because we knew when we were sitting at
this set that I'm standing at right now, when we
were communicating BTK stories, we were communicating to BTK, we
were saying things that would get BTK to react and
send another clue. So we were sitting here at this set,
(11:08):
not only doing a newscast in this set, but we
were trying to catch a killer from the set.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
He knew he was listening.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
We knew he was watching every night.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
We knew BTK was watching us from this news set
every night. He said it in his letters to us.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Well.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Susan told us about her memories in the Cake studio
during the BTK era. The new generation of KKTV anchors
listened in.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And then another memory I have of the studio in
relation to BTK.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
He pleaded guilty.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Okay, So the preliminary hearing, Okay, So my call anchor
and I Jeff, we set up a special BTK set
for the preliminary hearing and the sentenzene hearing and all that.
It was in that corner of the studio was a
special BTK set, And we go on the air that
morning and Jeff and I are talking in this corner. Well,
(12:07):
the preliminary hearing starts at nine o'clock. Okay, oh, we'll
be out of the studio by nine fifteen, nine thirty,
because it's just a preliminary hearing, please agreement. We sat
in that corner with our mouths dropped open for four
hours as Dennis Rader described in detail every single murder,
(12:35):
in detail, horrifying detail, like he was being interviewed on
an entertainment show, like he was accepting an Academy award.
I'll never forget. We sat in that corner, stunned, our
stomachs in knots, and of course, as an anchor person,
(12:57):
you're taking notes as to what he said.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I still have all those notes.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I can't even believe what I was writing down because
we couldn't believe what he was saying. And that's the
other spooky memory I have of this set is in
that corner, us just sitting there as all of Wichita was.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Are you kidding me? This is evil? Over and over
and over again.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I did not know about this, Oh he said, Oh yeah,
that says David. I'll never forget that morning. It was
my daughter's first day at school. They were in grade
school still.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I had one.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
In kindergarten and one four years older, so that would
be fourth grade. And I took him to school in
the morning. Was you know how emotional first day of
school is for parents. So I cried, dropped him off.
First day of school came right in the preliminary hearing
was starting at nine o'clock and I go, we can
(14:00):
get out of here because I just want to go
home and cry.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
And we go. You know it's going to be fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
It was so weird going from dropping them off at
school and crying and then coming right to the studio,
never thinking in a million years you were going to
sit through four hours of pure vile evil. And I
wasn't crying for me. I was crying for the victims'
(14:30):
families who were in the courtroom that day. And we're
watching them on camera in the courtroom, and I said
to myself, I just got to drop my kids off
at school, and here they Charlie was a school kid himself.
(14:52):
Steve Ralford was five years old. He never got the
chance to go to a normal school life again after
he watched just Mom being killed. Not to get too philosophical,
but how does God choose. I mean, I know it's
not God that chooses, but I don't know. I'm sorry, day, I.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Guess the studio has more in motion than it. I mean,
so much evil was talked about in this studio.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Okay, I think I'm done.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
We left the studio so the anchors could prepare for
the afternoon newscast, and Susan took us downstairs to the newsroom.
Here she explained to us what would happen after the
station received a BTK letter.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
So what would happen is the receptionist would get the
mail and she would get the feeling. The receptionists would
get the feeling that this is from BTK. She'd immediately
put on rubber gloves the news director and walk the
clue postcard back to the newsroom. Here, the news director,
(16:14):
I'm sorry, I'm taking it through a maze.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
This is the way I.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Used to get to the newsroom. So the receptionist would
call the news director. The news director would immediately get
his rubber gloves on and walk out and get the
letter and bring it up to the newsroom. And as
soon as the news director walked in the newsroom with
(16:42):
a clue or a letter from BTK. He'd call the
police first. Right after that, he'd call a photographer and say,
come shoot this video.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, got to get a video. So he'd go in
his office here.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
The police would come right in this office. The news
director would put his rubber gloves on in case there
were fingerprints or anything. A photographer would come in and
the police would come in, confiscate the.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Clue or the letter. We did that four times.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
The first letter BTK sent to us after he reappeared
was simply a piece of paper that said the BTK
story one through thirteen.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
We made copies of that copy copy.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
We went out into the newsroom and every single reporter here,
at every single desk you see a couple dozen desks here,
got a copy of that letter, and we just analyzed
and analyzed and analyzed. We were trying to figure out
what this was, who this guy was, and if this
(17:49):
could have given us any sort of clue. All of
us sat here in the newsroom and said we were scared.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Our final style was in Park City.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
The city of Park City bought this house from Denis
Raider's ex wife and then tore it down because there
were so many gawkers and sightseers who would drive by.
I'm sure there still are, especially with what has happened lately.
(18:24):
You can see remnants.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The week before our trip to Wichita, the news broke
that BTK was a suspect in the nineteen seventy six
disappearance a Missouri woman, Cynthia don Kenney. The month prior,
the Osage County Sheriff's Department in Oklahoma obtained apertmit to
search the lot for evidence.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
You see the sidewalk that's newly ripped up, newly excavated,
because they found mementos from one of Denis Raiders killed
buried underground here just last month, and so I'm sure
(19:07):
other people are coming here to sightsee. But this is really, really,
really after all these years, it's been twenty almost twenty
years since he reappeared, almost twenty years since he reappeared,
and this is the first time, really in twenty years,
that Denis Raiders' home is the site of another crime scene,
(19:33):
if you will, freshly dug up dirt and sidewalk that
housed some of Denis Raiders mementos from past crimes, past killings.
And it's really weird to see it because you never
thought you'd see it again.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
The sidewalk that Osage County tore up leads from independent
through the lot and behind neighbors' houses to a public park.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
So the city built a walkway here that welcomes you
to this park down the street and behind his property.
So it's almost like we're turning this place where an
(20:27):
evil parasite used to live into something nice for children,
into something that will help children grow and play and thrive.
Carrie Rosson and I came here to her former residence
(20:51):
where Dennis Raider lived when she first came out with
her book a couple of years ago, and we walked
along the property. She pointed out, see those tulips over there,
My dad and I planted them. My dad taught me
how to plant tulips. See this over here, She pointed
(21:15):
to that tree and said, see that tree. My dad
built the neatest treehouse for us in that tree, and
we used to climb up in the treehouse all the time.
And she's walking through this lot reminiscing about her normal childhood.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
What could you say? You know, I've noticed as we
were sitting, you know, walking through this property, well it
used to be his property. I've noticed two cars that
come pass, and you see they slow down.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
That's why the city of Park City wanted to tear
the house down in the first place, because it used
to be a steady stream, just a steady stream of
gawker down this quiet little street. And now even though
the house is torn down and we're standing in the
middle of an empty lot, we still see cars driving
(22:13):
by pointing to the.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Lot that this is where BTK lived.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
These neighbors here now, I'm sure they're very tired of
people coming down the street and gawking at the house.
But it'll happen that way forever and ever. There's no
stopping it.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
As we sit here, also outside of Raider's house, you know,
when everything's done with the new investigations, and what do
you think should be done to this property? Should you
just leave it as land or should they do you
have you know, no.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
That's a very good question.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
What do you think should be put here that can
make it maybe that being such a landmark.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
That is a very very good question.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I feel if it was a place that people had
access to, you wouldn't have people driving by. It would
just be another another thing on the street, and it
would cease to be be tk's property. If they built
something here that people could name, for instance, a food pantry,
maybe a mini park here the city of Parks city
(23:28):
could build. Maybe if they built a mini park here,
I don't think people would look at this area the same.
I think they'd look at it, look at it as
a park where kids could play and recreate. I don't
think they'd drive down the street and say that was
(23:48):
btk's house.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
I agree, and as I'm sitting here and looking, you know,
a dog park.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I've spent the last two years working on this project,
and our trip to Wichita was one of the most
difficult parts. Not only were the interviews emotionally heavy, but
so were these site visits. The demolition of Dennis Raider's
home should have signaled the finality of this case, but
walking past the torn up sidewalk, it just goes to
(24:23):
show you that closure is fickle. I don't know if
Dennis Raider actually committed this nineteen seventy six murder, but
after this trip, I do know that the city of
Wichita is incredibly resilient,
Host
Susan Peters
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