Sentencing Phase For BTK Killer

The next chapter in the saga of the BTK serial killer opens Wednesday as the sentencing of Dennis Rader begins in Wichita, Kan.

A judge has set aside three days for the hearing. He must rule on whether Rader will serve his sentences consecutively or at the same time.

It's been 31 years since Kevin Bright surprised the BTK serial killer when he accompanied his sister home in 1974.

Dennis Rader bound the siblings, but Kevin loosened his bonds and ran for help, despite being shot in the head. His sister, Kathryn, was strangled and stabbed and died later at a hospital.

At their Goodrich, Texas, home, Sharon Bright has watched her husband struggle to decide what, if anything, to say when he finally gets his chance. Rader's sentencing hearing, which begins Wednesday, will allow the families of his victims to confront him in court for the first time.

"If he showed any kind of remorse, you could feel sorry for him, but he shows none," Sharon Bright said. "He even thinks he is a Christian."

Unlike June's courtroom confession in which Dennis Rader pleaded guilty and then coldly delivered a lecture-style recitation of his killings, the sentencing is expected to be wrenching as investigators disclose explicit details of the sexually motivated crimes and the relatives describe their loss and pain.

Rader told KAKE-TV — the Wichita station with which he had often communicated as "BTK" since the 1970s — that he was working on an emotional statement for his sentencing.

But emotional effect may come hard for Dennis Rader. CBS News 48 Hours Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports for CBSNews.com that while preparing for a 48 Hours Mystery segment on the BTK killer coming this fall, she met with Rader. He speaks in a monotone, Moriarty said, using the same matter-of-fact tone — whether he is talking about his work as a local dogcatcher or his method for killing people.

BTK was the killer's own moniker for "Bind, Torture, Kill." In a haunting prophetic message sent to KAKE in the 1970s, BTK wrote: "There is no help, no cure, except death or being caught and put away."

Rader, 60, will almost certainly die behind bars for the murders committed in the Wichita area from 1974 to 1991.

Judge Gregory Waller must rule on whether he will serve his 10 sentences consecutively or concurrently.

Prosecutors want Rader to get the longest possible sentence — a minimum of 175 years without a chance of parole. To support that, they plan to present 10 or fewer witnesses, along with photos of the crimes and other evidence, said Georgia Cole, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office.

The state had no death penalty when the crimes were committed.

Defense attorneys did not return calls seeking comment.

In his confession, Rader said sexual fantasies drove him to commit the killings, which he referred to as his "projects." Days after the confession, Rader called KAKE from prison and told them he had picked out an 11th victim before he was caught.

Rader, a former president of his church, blamed the killings on a "demon" that got inside him at a young age.

But, Moriarty reports, what is most unnerving about Rader is his ability to hide his dark side from people he knows. He never gave any details of his killings away in 34 years of living in the community he killed in.

Rader said his wife often spoke of her fear of the BTK killer. He comforted her by suggesting that she "just keep the doors locked. I wasn't really worried," he told Moriarty, "since I knew I was the one doing the killing."

The BTK killer taunted media and police with cryptic messages during a cat-and-mouse game that began after the first murder in 1974. BTK resurfaced in 2004 after years of silence with a letter to The Wichita Eagle that included photos of a 1986 strangling victim and a photocopy of her missing driver's license.

With the criminal case winding up, Rader now faces a series of lawsuits from the families of his victims seeking to keep him from profiting from his crimes.

Rader's ex-wife, Paula, has filed a petition to intervene in those cases, primarily to protect proceeds from the recent sale of their home.