Rader was a married man who held a variety of everyday jobs from council office worker to junior and middle management positions. He was known to be over-zealous and strict in his work and there is at least one reported incident of him using his position as a council worker in animal control to kill a domestic dog.

His modus operandi was always the same. He would identify victims at random and then stalk them for a period of time to learn their daily routines.

When he was ready he would break into their house, cut the phone lines and hide. When they returned home he would tie them up under the pretence that he wanted to steal from them or rape them which made some of his victims more compliant, hoping they would live through the ordeal. He would then repeatedly strangle and revive his victims many times before eventually killing them.

After the killings he would send taunting letters, poems and drawings to the police and suggest possible names for himself, of which BTK was one.

In 2004 he sent a barrage of communication to the police which eventually gave him away. He was arrested and was sentenced to life in prison without parole, totalling 175 years.