My Boss was the BTK Killer... I was the Next Victim
Sometimes evil is so out in the open that it goes unnoticed.    Thirty-one years had elapsed from the time Dennis Rader bound, tortured and   killed four members of the Otero family on January 15, 1974 until his   arrest February 25, 2005.  He confessed to ten murders committed over 17   years.When I asked former Park City policeman Dan Lickey how Rader was able to   pull this off, he shook his head.  "Plain dumb luck."Probably no man was hated more by Rader than Lickey, who along with others   at City Hall had dismissed Rader as being a weirdo who was not good at   socializing with people.  Looking back, Lickey's biggest regret is that on   one particular occasion he did not recognize Rader's actions for what they   really were--the demeanor of a man who was hiding something.  This occasion   will be revealed later in this book.I interviewed Lickey and others during a one-week visit to Kansas in   November 2006 in which I finally got to meet Mary Capps in person.  Her   zest for life and the twinkle in her eyes gave no hint of her months-long   bout with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, which she'd been diagnosed as   having in the wake of her boss' arrest as the BTK serial killer.  She   appeared as fully recovered as is possible.  Mary's dad, George, former Police Chief of Park City, called Rader a   "strange ranger...a lazy ass...a coward."  George Capps said his biggest regret was "not doing more to get City Hall   to take action with regard to Mary's complaints about Dennis.  I did not   want people to think I was favoring Mary because she was my daughter."   His face reddened and his neck veins strained moments after beginning to   discuss City Hall's refusal to erase Mary's negative job reviews posted by   Rader.  "How would you feel if a serial killer gave you a bad job   review...and his supervisor would not even consider expunging it from your   employment records AFTER the guy was arrested as a serial killer?  It's   just not right.  She will be a victim of Dennis Rader as long as those job   performance reviews remain on file for any prospective employer to check   out."  While I was in Park City and vicinity, Mary gave me a tour of Dennis'   neighborhood.  A lasting impression I have is of facing five particular   houses.  Picture this in your mind--the house to the far right is the house   where Rader lived with his wife Paula and their children.  Four houses to   the far left on the corner is the house, 6254 Independence, in which Rader   murdered Marine Hedge in 1985--and in the house right in the middle is   where Paula lived with her mother.   "My God," I thought.  "How could any woman live two doors down from the   house she'd lived in so many years in the presence of the BTK killer and   two doors from the house in which he committed one of the murders?  In my   mind this did not, and still does not compute.  (The house Dennis Rader lived in was demolished on March 7, 2007 as the   first step by Park City to create a new entryway to Jardine Memorial Park.)One question I asked of nearly everyone I talked to in Park City and   neighboring communities was, "Do you think Paula knew or suspected her   husband was the BTK killer?"    The response I most often got was, "I don't see how she could not have   suspected him, especially with all those things he kept in their bedroom   closet."  Violet Capps, Mary's mother, had a more direct assessment.  "She's either   on the moon or in denial about her husband.  How could she not know?  She   had to be curious about what was in that closet."   I asked her, "What would you do if you found out your husband was a serial   killer?"  "I'd turn him in in a heartbeat."  George said, "We shouldn't jump to conclusions about Paula.  We have no way   of knowing what she knew or was thinking."  Violet got up from a chair at the dinette table and walked the several feet   onto the back patio of their home to puff a cigarette.  That was when   George's neck veins began to strain.  I said, "I don`t want you to have a   heart attack."  Violet heard my comment through the open arcadia door, and laughed.  "He   always does that when he gets worked up about something."  Mary's parents wear well their many years of marriage.  He's inches over   6-feet tall and in good physical shape; she's a short wisp of a woman.    Kind of a Mutt and Jeff duo.  Good people.  This book, although it does intertwine the evil deeds of Dennis Rader with   various time periods of Mary's life, it is not so much about the BTK killer   as it is about a woman whose innocent childhood hopes and dreams morphed   into terrible nightmares under his work supervision.  The nightmares didn't stop with Rader's arrest on February 25, 2005.  They   intensified.  Literally crippled by stress and fear, months of   psychological counseling enabled her to start reclaiming her life, and a   gradual return toward being the person she was before her hire to work for   Rader.  Having heard her story, I concur that she indeed was the next victim.    Being supervisor in the two-person Compliance Dept for the City of Park   City was the perfect cover.  It afforded the opportunity for Rader to keep   his nastiness against Mary secretive and tormenting.  There is strong   reason to believe that Rader was gradually poisoning her to affect her   enough physically and mentally that she would quit her job.  And then he   would kill her, as he suspected she was getting too close to figuring out   that he was the BTK killer.Jim Dobkins  May 18, 2007