Daughter of BTK serial killer shares letters and drawings he sent her from behind bars

For the first time, the daughter of the BTK serial killer has shared letters he’s written to her from prison over the past 14 years, ahead of sharing that DNA from one of her past pap smears was taken without her consent and compared to crime scene DNA in order to secure his arrest.

Kerri Rawson’s life was turned upside down in 2005 when her father, Dennis Rader, was unmasked as ‘BTK’ (bind, torture, kill) – a moniker the murderer gave himself while terrorizing the city of Wichita, Kansas over three decades.

Rader, who was a married father-of-two at time of his crimes, was given a 175 year prison sentence in 2005 after pleading guilty to murdering ten people, including two children aged nine and 11.

Rawson revealed the contents of the messages Rader, now 73, has sent her to DailyMail.com ahead of sharing what it was like to come to terms with his gruesome acts in an interview with 20/20 on Friday.

Rawson said she was ‘horrified’ to learn her father had taken thousands of photos of himself reliving the murders with a Polaroid, and that she has a tendency to compartmentalize the man she knew and loved from the admitted serial killer.

‘To have somebody that seemed so prim and proper, to find out that was his other side, that was just weird,’ she said, referring to photos of him dressed in women’s clothes, hanging, and torturing himself.

 

Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK serial killer, is pictured

For the first time, Kerri Rawson (left), the daughter of the BTK serial killer Dennis Rader (right), has shared letters he’s written to her from prison over the past 14 years, ahead of an emotional interview with ABC’s 20/20 where she shared the shock she felt at learning DNA from one of her past pap smears was taken without her consent and compared to crime scene DNA in order to secure Rader’s arrest

Rader murdered 10 people, including two children, in Wichita, Kansas over a 17-year stretch between 1974 to 1991. He is pictured above in 2005 after being sentenced to 10 life sentences

Rader murdered 10 people, including two children, in Wichita, Kansas over a 17-year stretch between 1974 to 1991. He is pictured above in 2005 after being sentenced to 10 life sentences

BTK's ten victims: (L-R) January 15, 1974: #1 Julie Otero (aged 33) Strangled with a rope; #2 Joseph Otero (aged 38) Suffocated with a plastic bag; #3 Josephine Otero (aged 11) Hanged with a rope; #4 Joseph Otero, Jr. (aged 9) Suffocated with a plastic bag; April 4, 1974: #5 Kathryn Bright (aged 21) Stabbed 3 times in abdomen with a knife

BTK’s ten victims: (L-R) January 15, 1974: #1 Julie Otero (aged 33) Strangled with a rope; #2 Joseph Otero (aged 38) Suffocated with a plastic bag; #3 Josephine Otero (aged 11) Hanged with a rope; #4 Joseph Otero, Jr. (aged 9) Suffocated with a plastic bag; April 4, 1974: #5 Kathryn Bright (aged 21) Stabbed 3 times in abdomen with a knife

(L-R) March 17, 1977: #6 Shirley Vian (aged 24) Strangled with a rope; December 8, 1977: #7 Nancy Fox (aged 25) Strangled with a belt; April 27, 1985: #8 Marine Hedge (aged 53) Strangled with hands; September 16, 1986: #9 Vicki Wegerle (aged 28) Strangled with Nylon stocking; January 19, 1991: #10 Dolores E. Davis (aged 62) Strangled with pantyhose

(L-R) March 17, 1977: #6 Shirley Vian (aged 24) Strangled with a rope; December 8, 1977: #7 Nancy Fox (aged 25) Strangled with a belt; April 27, 1985: #8 Marine Hedge (aged 53) Strangled with hands; September 16, 1986: #9 Vicki Wegerle (aged 28) Strangled with Nylon stocking; January 19, 1991: #10 Dolores E. Davis (aged 62) Strangled with pantyhose

After arresting Dennis Rader, police found photos where he dressed up like his victims. Rawson said she was 'horrified' to learn her father had taken thousands of photos of himself reliving the murders with a Polaroid, and that she has a tendency to compartmentalize the man she knew and loved from the admitted serial killer

 After arresting Dennis Rader, police found photos where he dressed up like his victims. Rawson said she was ‘horrified’ to learn her father had taken thousands of photos of himself reliving the murders with a Polaroid, and that she has a tendency to compartmentalize the man she knew and loved from the admitted serial killer

‘Early on when my father wrote me in 2005, he said he was sorry,’ Rawson said. 

Rawson read from one letter she received from her dad, choking up as her eyes filled with tears.

‘Hopefully some day your heart will mend and you can forgive me,’ Rader wrote.

‘You will always be my baby girl that I raised right – proud – independence & now is a grown adult with many years of love to give Darian [her husband] & Brian [her brother] & Mom.

‘Life before arrest was good to me, and the dark side took me away. I’ll remember the family.’

Rawson read from one letter she received from her dad, choking up as her eyes filled with tears. 'Hopefully some day your heart will mend and you can forgive me,' Rader wrote in 2005. 'Life before arrest was good to me, and the dark side took me away. I'll remember the family'

Rawson read from one letter she received from her dad, choking up as her eyes filled with tears. ‘Hopefully some day your heart will mend and you can forgive me,’ Rader wrote in 2005. ‘Life before arrest was good to me, and the dark side took me away. I’ll remember the family’

Of their many messages, she said: ' I wasn't corresponding with BTK . I'm never corresponding with BTK. I'm talking to my father. I'm talking to the man that I lived with and loved for 26 years. I still love my dad today.' Rawson and Rader are pictured together in an undated photo

Of their many messages, she said: ‘ I wasn’t corresponding with BTK . I’m never corresponding with BTK. I’m talking to my father. I’m talking to the man that I lived with and loved for 26 years. I still love my dad today.’ Rawson and Rader are pictured together in an undated photo

When asked how that could be possible, Rawson said: 'Because I love the man that I knew. And so, you know, clinically there's, like, criminologists or psychologists that would say, your father's a psychopath and he's incapable of feeling. But I don't know a psychopath. That's not the man I knew and loved.' Rawson and Rader are pictured together in an undated photo

When asked how that could be possible, Rawson said: ‘Because I love the man that I knew. And so, you know, clinically there’s, like, criminologists or psychologists that would say, your father’s a psychopath and he’s incapable of feeling. But I don’t know a psychopath. That’s not the man I knew and loved.’ Rawson and Rader are pictured together in an undated photo

Of their many messages, she said: ‘I wasn’t corresponding with BTK. I’m never corresponding with BTK. I’m talking to my father. I’m talking to the man that I lived with and loved for 26 years. I still love my dad today.’

When asked how that could be possible, Rawson said: ‘Because I love the man that I knew. And so, you know, clinically there’s, like, criminologists or psychologists that would say, your father’s a psychopath and he’s incapable of feeling. But I don’t know a psychopath. That’s not the man I knew and loved. 

‘So I have a tendency to want to compartmentalize and disassociate and say, over here for 26 years, this man that I adored and loved that could sometimes be gruff and a couple times was abusive, and that’s not okay. 

‘You know, and then over here is this insane, torturous, violent, horrific man. I don’t know that man. So if I’m going to get up every morning and live my life, I better come to learn how to get back here [to knowing the man that I adored and loved].’

Rawson said her children know their grandfather is in prison and that he hurt people, but they don’t know he is a murderer.

Letters Rawson shared seemed as though they could have come from any doting father, with little to no indication they were penned by a convicted serial killer.

The communications include birthday and Christmas cards, often with colorful drawings included. 

One birthday message was written as a rhyme, for Rawson's 28th birthday

One birthday message was written as a rhyme, for Rawson’s 28th birthday

One birthday message was written as a rhyme, for Rawson’s 28th birthday.

Rader wrote: ‘Birthday greeting to my daughter/ wishing you every happiness this birthday season/ Bright and cheerie as a river otter/ And from deep within my heart, I share some special reasons.

‘Reasons f your faith, love and trust/ These of you I have seen and keep dear/ Remembrance of your birthdays past, family times and all of us/ Reflecting now upon your birthday I wish/ You the very best for that special time of year.’ 

One letter postmarked May 25, 2005 included purple flowers sketched on the envelope. An envelope from April of that year was decorated with a bird standing on a branch. 

Another still was decorated with a bear holding a flower, standing on a patch of dirt. At times, Rader included colorful origami addressed to ‘Ian’ and ‘Emilie.’ 

t times, Rader included colorful origami addressed to 'Ian' and 'Emilie'

t times, Rader included colorful origami addressed to ‘Ian’ and ‘Emilie’

Letters from Rader come with a notice that they have originated from the Kansas Department of Corrections and the envelopes contain uncensored content

Letters from Rader come with a notice that they have originated from the Kansas Department of Corrections and the envelopes contain uncensored content

One letter postmarked May 25, 2005 included purple flowers sketched on the envelope

One letter postmarked May 25, 2005 included purple flowers sketched on the envelope

. An envelope from April of that year was decorated with a bird standing on a branch

. An envelope from April of that year was decorated with a bird standing on a branch

Another still was decorated with a bear holding a flower, standing on a patch of dirt

Another still was decorated with a bear holding a flower, standing on a patch of dirt

In a letter dated June 9, 2016, Rader wrote: ‘Happy Birthday Kerri! Hope that day was grand, and all your birthday wishes came off first hand. Many more to come. Love, Dad [red heart drawing]’ 

With one drawing included with that message, Rader used chalk. 

He included instructions on how to preserve it, suggesting it be coated with ‘art fix-it spray’ or ‘mounted behind glass.’ 

In a letter dated June 9, 2016, Rader wrote: 'Happy Birthday Kerri! Hope that day was grand, and all your birthday wishes came off first hand. Many more to come. Love, Dad [red heart drawing]'

In a letter dated June 9, 2016, Rader wrote: ‘Happy Birthday Kerri! Hope that day was grand, and all your birthday wishes came off first hand. Many more to come. Love, Dad [red heart drawing]’

A drawing Rader sent to Rawson is pictured, dated June 9, 2016 as part of a birthday message

A drawing Rader sent to Rawson is pictured, dated June 9, 2016 as part of a birthday message

With one drawing included with that message, Rader used chalk and included instructions on how to preserve it, suggesting it be coated with 'art fix-it spray' or 'mounted behind glass'

With one drawing included with that message, Rader used chalk and included instructions on how to preserve it, suggesting it be coated with ‘art fix-it spray’ or ‘mounted behind glass’

This elaborate drawing was included by Rader in a message to his daughter sent by mail

This elaborate drawing was included by Rader in a message to his daughter sent by mail

In 2017, Rader’s birthday message to Rawson read: ‘Kerri – Happy Birthday, May this year and the years to come keep you healthy, strong & safe. More birthdays to celebrate and love to spread and share. Love Dad. 06.06.2017. Birthday – 2017.’

Another birthday message read: ‘Another year around the sun! “Most impressive!” with a drawing of a colorful Darth Vader character with the initials ‘M.V.’ on his helmet.

‘Happy Birthday Kerri. May the good force be with you always. Love Dad,’ it read.

In 2017, Rader's birthday message to Rawson read: 'Kerri - Happy Birthday, May this year and the years to come keep you healthy, strong & safe. More birthdays to celebrate and love to spread and share. Love Dad. 06.06.2017. Birthday - 2017'

In 2017, Rader’s birthday message to Rawson read: ‘Kerri – Happy Birthday, May this year and the years to come keep you healthy, strong & safe. More birthdays to celebrate and love to spread and share. Love Dad. 06.06.2017. Birthday – 2017’

Another birthday message read: 'Another year around the sun! "Most impressive!" with a drawing of a colorful Darth Vader character with the initials 'M.V.' on his helmet. 'Happy Birthday Kerri. May the good force be with you always. Love Dad,' it read.

Another birthday message read: ‘Another year around the sun! “Most impressive!” with a drawing of a colorful Darth Vader character with the initials ‘M.V.’ on his helmet. ‘Happy Birthday Kerri. May the good force be with you always. Love Dad,’ it read.

Rader also sent holiday greetings with elaborate drawings including candy canes, ornaments, bows and holly. 

A hand-drawn card with a sleeping cat wearing a striped snow cap in front of a Christmas tree read: ‘Thinking of you.’ 

Another was made of colored construction paper with multiple holly sprigs and a reindeer with ‘season’s greetings’ scrawled across the top. 

Rader also sent holiday greetings with elaborate drawing including candy canes, ornaments, bows and holly

Rader also sent holiday greetings with elaborate drawing including candy canes, ornaments, bows and holly

A hand-drawn card with a sleeping cat wearing a striped snow cap in front of a Christmas tree read: 'Thinking of you'

A hand-drawn card with a sleeping cat wearing a striped snow cap in front of a Christmas tree read: ‘Thinking of you’

Another was made of colored construction paper with multiple holly sprigs and a reindeer with 'season's greetings' scrawled across the top

Another was made of colored construction paper with multiple holly sprigs and a reindeer with ‘season’s greetings’ scrawled across the top

Rawson said she told her father she was pregnant in 2007, but then cut off communication until 2012, when she was able to forgive her father.

‘It was a very long journey,’ she said. ‘It was a massive relief [to let it go]. I realized I was rotting within.’

Rawson still holds him accountable, however, even if she’s been able to forgive.  

‘He’s definitely mentally ill, but hes not insane,’ Rawson said. ‘He very much knows what he’s doing and what he did.’  

When asked whether her mother had written letters back and forth with her father, Rawson said she didn’t think so. 

‘She wrote my father early on in the beginning months,’ but hadn’t contacted him since 2005, Rawson said, to the best of her knowledge. 

Letters are a familiar thing for Rader, who first alerted media to his killings by letter in 1978. 

In perhaps his first letter to media, which was sent to KAKE TV, the local ABC news affiliate, Rader wrote: ‘How many do I have to kill before I get national attention?’ 

That was the year Rawson was born. And also the point at which Rader took a seven year break from his life of killing.

‘He has said himself that he just got busy with raising kids and having a family,’ Rawson said.

Most of Rader’s kills occurred before he had his children. His first kills were the Oteros, a family of four, in 1974. Rader tortured, binded and killed each of Joseph, 38, and Julie, 33, along with their children, nine-year-old Joseph ll and Josephine, age 11.

That same year, he struck again with college student Kathryn Bright, age 21.

Three years later, he killed a mother of three named Shirley Vian in 1977. Then in 1978  he took the life of a 25-year-old named Nancy fox.  

Rader had called the killing of Fox his ‘perfect crime,’ completely in line with his fantasies.

Following that murder, Rader called in the homicide himself, the next day.

But long before all of this it was a murder by someone else in 1959 when Rader was 14 that he said aroused him to the notion of being a serial killer, before the label was even part of cultural awareness. 

Rader returned to his murderous ways in 1985, when he took the life of 53-year-old Maureen Hedge, his victim number eight. Hedge lived just six doors down from Rader and his family.

It was a rainy evening that night, and Rader was away with his son, Rawson’s brother, at an overnight scouting camp event.

‘I knew my dad was gone that night because I wouldn’t have ever crawled into bed with my mom if he had been there,’ Rawson said. 

The scouting event was the perfect excuse for Rader to slip away. Then he struck again in September of 1986 when he murdered Vicki Wegerle, age 28.

His last victim was Dolores Davis, 62, in 1991. But that wasn’t intended to be his final kill.

‘There was one already picked out,’ he told law enforcement, after his arrest. 

Thankfully, Rader didn’t get the chance to strike again because his ego got the best of him. Hedge, Wegerle and Davis were not initially recognized as having been killed by the BTK serial killer.

That didn’t sit well with Rader, who wanted to make sure people knew what he had done without revealing his true identity. 

After staying silent for as long as he could, Rader was caught 13 years ago, after resuming his correspondence with police because he had become irritated by a Wichita Eagle newspaper story in 2003 which suggested people had forgotten BTK. 

Rader has been referred to as a ‘power control’ killer, and part of that need for control included the desire to write his own story.  

Between 2004 and 2005 Rader received widespread coverage as he communicated with police, broadcasters and reporters. His downfall came when he sent a floppy disk that police traced to his church.

Rader has asked police through one communication if he could send a floppy disk without being traced, instructing officers to answer him in the want ads, in the classified ads of The Wichita Eagle.

Police responded in the paper with an ad that simply said, ‘Rex, it’ll be okay.’

Rader sent the disk, and police took it straight to a forensics expert who traced it to a computer at the Christ Lutheran Church in Park City, where Rader was president.

The computer was registered to the name of Dennis.

Police had kept DNA from the Otero murders in 1974, and after realizing Rader had a daughter, they got a warrant for her medical records at her college’s health center. 

‘I had no idea, Rawson said ‘They found out I had annual pap smears. They got a sample of my DNA.’

Rawson said it was her DNA that sealed her father’s fate, when it showed up as a close match to the crime scene DNA. ‘But nobody told me this,’ she said. ‘It would’ve been nice if someone had asked me for my DNA. I would have willingly given it. I felt like it was an invasion of my privacy.’  

Rader is now serving ten consecutive life sentences and, with no chance of parole for 175 years, will die in prison. He escaped execution because Kansas had no death penalty at the time he committed the murders.

Perhaps taking after her father’s penchant for writing, in February, Rawson published a memoir ‘A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming.’

In response to the book coming out, Rader responded to a list of questions from DailyMail.com sent to him at El Dorado Correctional Facility, the maximum security prison he shares with 1,510 inmates in Prospect Township, Kansas.

It is the first time he has answered questions from the media since his capture in 2005.   

Rader began the letter with a colorful geometric shape titled ‘El Caverna 2019’, which he later explained is the name he gives for his prison cell.

Next to the shape he wrote, ‘February – The Month of Heart Warmed Treasure” and “Epigram – We walk the beaches of life, never know what may wash ashore.’

He apologized for his handwriting and disjointed sentences, blaming it on suffering a suspected stroke last year which he also believes caused short-term memory loss. 

Rader's five-page letter to DailyMail.com begins with a colorful geometric shape titled 'El Caverna 2019', which he explained is the name for his prison cell at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Kansas. Now a poet, Rader wrote: 'We walk the beaches of life, never know what may wash ashore'

Rader’s five-page letter to DailyMail.com begins with a colorful geometric shape titled ‘El Caverna 2019’, which he explained is the name for his prison cell at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Kansas. Now a poet, Rader wrote: ‘We walk the beaches of life, never know what may wash ashore’

Rader described being treated well at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Kansas where he is serving a 175-year sentence for murdering 10 people

Rader described being treated well at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Kansas where he is serving a 175-year sentence for murdering 10 people

Describing life inside the prison, he said he feels safe at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

He wrote: ‘Very safe, I believe I’m the facility ‘pet’. They take good care of me but sort of hide the world or keep me under close wrap, but I have all the segregation privileges.

‘Live in segregation, own cell, a 8’x12’ room, nice window and full metal door with porthole window.

 ‘Have TV, radio, hot-pot, books, I can call people, have visitors, just live alone and can’t have contact with others outside my cell, unless handcuff, probably listed as ‘high profile”.  

‘Here I live 24/7 in my cell, read, some TV, if any news and weather, on TCM [Turner Classic Movies] in the evening, some sports and things like recent [ABC News show] ’20/20’ about my daughter and me.

'Very safe, I believe I’m the facility 'pet' - Dennis Rader describes a relatively easy life in his 8-by-12 foot cell where he watches news shows, works on art and writes poetry

‘Very safe, I believe I’m the facility ‘pet’ – Dennis Rader describes a relatively easy life in his 8-by-12 foot cell where he watches news shows, works on art and writes poetry

‘Work on art, poetry, write a lot of letters, keep record and book on life, exercise when I can. 

‘Do call close friends, that’s nice to talk to others, and they come and visit me, send me nice letters and cards, or buy books for me to read, I call them my ‘Cave Family’.

‘Been here 13 years and 190 days as I write, after a while you just get tired of the same thing day after day, but keeping busy helps, also changing one’s routine.’  

Rader claimed to DailyMail.com he had been possessed by two demons called ‘Batter’ and ‘Factor X’ when he ‘committed those terrible crimes’.

Rader wrote: “I blame ‘Batter’, he or it became the physical escape goat, sort of a metaphoric frog-looking dragon. I liked frogs and collect figurines at home, probably childhood days fishing at my grandparents’ farm pond and big bull frogs at the pond.

‘Actually the real Demon, is what I call ‘Factor X’. I have now figured it out…I know why I do these dark deeds, it is no more a mystery to me. So, in a way yes ‘Batter’ or ‘Factor X’ did make me the way I was as I committed those terrible crimes.’ 

Dennis Rader described to DailyMail.com how two demons he calls 'Batter' and 'Factor X' made him 'the way I was as I committed those terrible crimes' when he murdered 10 people

Dennis Rader described to DailyMail.com how two demons he calls ‘Batter’ and ‘Factor X’ made him ‘the way I was as I committed those terrible crimes’ when he murdered 10 people

Victim #11: Mary Capps worked with Rader for seven years as a compliance officer in Park City, Kansas until his 2005 arrest and believes she was to be his 11th victim

Victim #11: Mary Capps worked with Rader for seven years as a compliance officer in Park City, Kansas until his 2005 arrest and believes she was to be his 11th victim

Asked if he committed any more murders than the 10 he was convicted for, Rader said he had not but described coming close to killing an eleventh ‘retirement victim’.

That woman is believed to be Mary Capps. Capps worked for Rader for almost seven years as a compliance officer in Park City, Kansas up until Rader’s arrest in February 2005. 

Capps, who has dealt with post traumatic stress disorder, wrote the book ‘My boss was the BTK Killer – I was the next victim’.

She details how Rader was an abusive boss and, in the 12 months leading up to Rader’s arrest, had started to act increasingly odd and she believes he may have been targeting her as his next victim.

Rader asked her if she thought he looked like the sketch of the BTK that was being publicized in the media at the time. 

In the month before Rader was arrested, Capps said someone was intimidating her, calling her cell phone and unscrewing her front porch light every night after she would return home from work. This all ceased once Rader was arrested.  

In his letter to DailyMail.com, Rader wrote, ‘There was a eleventh victim chosen, but it didn’t work out that day. I’m sure, if I had not been arrested she eventually would have been 11.

‘She was to become my ‘retirement victim’ from the SK [serial killer] world, I was getting too old and wanted to back off and still remain BTK.  Unsolved cases, for who I was, a Wichita mystery!’  

Dennis Rader confirms to DailyMail.com there was to be an 11th victim 'but it didn't work out that day. I'm sure, if I had not been arrested she eventually would have been 11. She was to become my 'retirement victim' from the SK [serial killer] world, I was getting too old and wanted to back off and still remain BTK.'

Dennis Rader confirms to DailyMail.com there was to be an 11th victim ‘but it didn’t work out that day. I’m sure, if I had not been arrested she eventually would have been 11. She was to become my ‘retirement victim’ from the SK [serial killer] world, I was getting too old and wanted to back off and still remain BTK.’

Political message: BTK killer Dennis Rader described his dislike of President Trump. Rader told DailyMail.com, ''Impeach President Trump. That's all I will say about him. Believe the worst 'President Ever!'

Political message: BTK killer Dennis Rader described his dislike of President Trump. Rader told DailyMail.com, ”Impeach President Trump. That’s all I will say about him. Believe the worst ‘President Ever!’

Asked by DailyMail.com what current affairs issues he is particularly interested in, he responded, ‘Impeach President Trump. That’s all I will say about him. Believe the worst ‘President Ever!’ 

Rader added his health has suffered in prison, from a stroke last year to scoliosis, a painful and often-disabling sideways curvature of the spine.

Rader told DailyMail.com: ‘Difficult, well it seems as I age the list gets longer. I have “scoliosis” really bad, in the evening it tightens up and I can’t get around, do exercise mainly in the arms after bedrest, but can’t stay on my feet very long.’

Rader admits being in poor health. Scoliosis, a painful curvature of the spine, makes it difficult for him to stand and a suspected stroke last year caused him to lose his short-term memory as well as some coordination

Rader admits being in poor health. Scoliosis, a painful curvature of the spine, makes it difficult for him to stand and a suspected stroke last year caused him to lose his short-term memory as well as some coordination

He continued: ‘Also I had either a stroke or infected with bed bugs 9-25-18 of that year, vertigo problem for a long time, really sick, but much better.

‘I think it affected my handwriting & maybe brain, or that could be age at 73, good my memory but new memory not so much. Another reason to semi-retire I have lost some coordination.’  

Despite the brutality he showed to his victims, Rader spoke lovingly about his daughter Rawson and the book she wrote about him.

'She was my Tom-Boy Girl': Serial killer Dennis Rader (left) speaks fondly of  daughter Kerri Rawson (right) who has written about her life with him and horror at discovering he was BTK

‘She was my Tom-Boy Girl’: Serial killer Dennis Rader (left) speaks fondly of  daughter Kerri Rawson (right) who has written about her life with him and horror at discovering he was BTK

Rader tells DailyMail.com he hopes his daughter's book will help her heal from the horror of discovering he was a serial killer who had murdered 10 people

Rader tells DailyMail.com he hopes his daughter’s book will help her heal from the horror of discovering he was a serial killer who had murdered 10 people

Rader said: ‘Getting ready to retire from the infamous world spotlight, and let my daughter Kerri Rawson take over. Her new book out ‘A Serial Killer’s Daughter’.

“They [DailyMail.com readers] have to read my daughter’s book, that gives a lot of family history and love she had for me.

‘She was my ‘Tom-Boy Girl’, I love her deeply like the rest of my family, but she grew up, married, a new mother and new author of a book. 

‘I think that will help her heal a deep cut wound and tell others, ‘you may love and live ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’, to watch [out] for not normal behavior, or things not quite right, check that person out.’  

For Rawson, of her decision to be so public with her journey of healing following coming to terms with who her father is, she said  she tried living a quiet, private life for nine and a half years, but now acknowledging who her father is has helped with her anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Of her decision to stay in contact with him, she credits her faith and a lot of ‘heart work.’

‘I hope to see him in heaven some day,’ Rawson said. ‘Because he could be forgiven for his sins too.’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk