Monster: DC Sniper · iHeartPodcasts and Tenderfoot TV

Payne Interviews Kerri Rawson, BTK's Daughter (Part 1) [bonus]

February 19, 2025·33 min·2 clips

Keri Rawson argues that Dennis Rader could love his family and murder strangers, a contradiction she says people avoid.

1. Monster: DC Sniper presents part one of Payne Lindsey’s interview with Keri Rawson, daughter of Dennis Rader, the BTK killer from Wichita, Kansas. 2. Payne Lindsey interviews Keri Rawson about her childhood, her father’s arrest in 2005, and her effort to rebuild an identity beyond “BTK’s daughter.” 3. The interview asks how a daughter can understand Dennis Rader’s family role alongside his crimes and use that understanding to identify similar offenders sooner. 4. Rawson says she was born in June 1978 and grew up in Park City, a northern suburb of Wichita with about 5,000 residents. 5. Rawson remembers being closest to her father because he took her gardening, fishing, camping, and walking the family dog. 6. Dennis Rader turned Rawson’s bedroom into a greenhouse when she was three or four, using solar lights and seedling trays. 7. Rawson says her father repeatedly immersed himself in gardening, dog-track gambling in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and stamp collecting before his arrest. 8. Rawson recalls her father becoming controlling and verbally abusive when ordinary disruptions occurred, including her mother’s fall during a Yellowstone trip. 9. Rawson learned in 2015 that her mother viewed the trip differently, saying, “your dad ruined my vacation.” 10. Rawson says she did not know about the BTK murders in the 1970s and first remembered neighborhood fear after Maureen Hedge disappeared when Rawson was six. 11. Rawson remembers a police officer canvassing the neighborhood while she played on a red pogo stick, followed by news that Hedge had been strangled. 12. Rawson describes childhood night terrors involving the repeated feeling that someone bad was in her room to kill her. 13. Rawson says her mother used the word “safe” to calm her, while experts later considered whether Dennis Rader might have frightened her after a crime. 14. Rawson says Dennis Rader told her mother she was safe during the 1970s BTK killings because he knew he would not harm her. 15. Rawson characterizes learning the truth as betrayal rather than simple lying, because her father’s hidden behavior affected the family’s understanding of everyday life. 16. Rawson says Dennis Rader asked how she felt after watching frightening films such as Seven, raising questions about his interest in other people’s fear. 17. Payne Lindsey’s conversation with Rawson uses a direct, probing interview format focused on memory, family dynamics, trauma, and criminal behavior. 18. Rawson’s answers shift between detailed domestic memories, psychological interpretation, and reflections on healing through trauma therapy and media appearances beginning in 2014. 19. Listeners interested in family perspectives on notorious crimes. 20. Listeners seeking a resolved true-crime conclusion.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Monster: DC Sniper