From The Wichita Eagle comes testimony that Dennis Rader, the prime suspect in the BTK serial killings, just might possibly be a somewhat unlikable sort:
He is arrogant, by-the-numbers, rude and confrontational...How incredibly refreshing. I'm sick to death of people telling me that the homicidal maniac living next door to them is "really a nice guy" who sort of "keeps to himself". While the piece linked to above does, in fact, contain a lot of similar praise for the accused BTK killer, the negative feelings expressed by people who actually knew the guy are conspicuous due to their rarity.
During the '70s and '80s, Rader worked at ADT Security Services. Nobody who worked with Rader during his 15 years with the company could stand him, according to several former co-workers.
"I don't believe the gentleman was well liked at all," said Mike Tavares, a former co-worker at ADT, where Rader worked from 1974 to 1989, when most of BTK's victims were killed...
Tavares and others recalled Rader as blunt, by-the-book, egotistical, arrogant, rude and demanding.
Consider the following examples:
Gary Leon Ridgway, The Green Mountain Killer, was "basically a nice person". One neighbor recalled that Ridgway was "...a nice guy, I didn't notice anything weird. I just saw him out mowing his lawn, and we'd talk."
Ted Bundy was "intelligent, educated, personable, handsome, and charming..."
Columbine killer Eric Harris was "...just an odd, nice guy..." while his cohort Dylan Klebold was "...not the kind of person he is being portrayed as. He was a nice guy."
Hanna Rosin and David Plotz explore this issue and in this 1999 Slate article and postulate that:
Neighbors attribute decency to the killer next door because the standard of behavior required for being a good neighbor is so extremely low.They also note that:
...not everyone fails to understand the killers in their midst. Those who genuinely knew America's mass murderers have supplied the insight the neighbors missed.This is where the sheer laziness on the part of the media in this country enters the equation (Who did you think I was going to blame? This is a blog, after all). After the apprehension of a deranged lunatic like Rader or Dahmer, the media swarm to the home of the accused and interview all of the neighbors that care to comment. They get their five second sound bites and then punctuate their cursory reports with the ominous warning that if Mr. Nice Guy Killer can hide his deep dark secret in the little town of Cluelessville it can happen anywhere...even in YOUR town! This, of course, is followed by the inevitable teaser like "Stay tuned to Action7 news to see how you can identify the serial killer next door...after weather, sports and today's Wacky Pet Photo".
You're not going to get the real story on a guy from his neighbors. I could be living next to a serial rapist or a deranged cannibal or even a registered Democrat, for all I know. I see my neighbors for seconds at a time when I'm wheeling the garbage can to the curb or mowing the lawn or shooting small animals with my 22. We wave at each other, briefly mention the weather and then get on with our business.
You have to talk to the people who actually have meaningful contact with the accused nutjob, as this BTK case demonstrates. The neighbors may offer the usual trite comments about Rader, but his former co-workers found him to be a real jackass. Of course, all one really had to do regarding Rader is look to the fact that he was a city code compliance officer. Those guys are all deranged lunatics.
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