It seems the wife of convicted serial killer and general narcissist Dennis Rader had, at least on two occasions reason to wonder about her husbands REAL identity. There were other, more subtle clues as well. Add them up if you're 'so inclined' and you tell me....
In 1977 she found a rough draft of a poem written about victim Shirley Vian (Relford), later to become the 'Shirleylocks' poem sent to Wichita police as a taunt. It disturbed her. She felt ill at ease enough over it to question her husband who told her it was for a school assignment at Wichita State University where he, Dennis Rader was a student. What class would be asking for a poem about a murder victim I wonder? SERIOUSLY people, what class would give a writing assignment to write a disturbing poem about a serial killers victim? Haiku for the Criminal Mind 101? So Paula let it slide. Did she think to ask again when she found out SHIRLEY was a victim? Guess not. Another question, did she see it BEFORE Shirley was killed? If so, my god what a smoking gun. "Honey, um, yeah, that Shirleylocks poem, um, well you wrote it for class before she even died. Either you have ESP or ah, how do I say this, the police are on their way"
"You will find a homicide at 843, South Pershing, Nancy Fox". BTK called 911 dispatch to announce the muder of Nancy Fox after we now know Nancy squeezed his family jewels and seemed pretty non-plussed BTK was in her home telling Rader "Let's get this over so I can call police". This 911 call was played again and again on local Wichita TV. Um, Paula, didn't you recognize your husband's voice? Don't EVEN say she never heard the call played on TV. This was a case TERRORIZING Wichita, it consumed the town. It was all over the news.
Days before his arrest in February, she told him he spelled "just like BTK." NO Light went off in your head? You didn't connect the poem at this point? If not then consider these cooincidences:
Well publicized packages to police were left in cereal (serial-get it?) boxes, quite a few empty cereal boxes were found in the Rader kitchen after his arrest.
Neighbor Marine Hedge was murdered in 1985. Hmmm, broken window for entry, strangled, dark of night, phone line cut, missing car, missing ID---just like the others for the most part. BTK written all over it I don't care WHERE she was found. The disposal isn't the crime, the crime is the B & E and the strangulation, and the CRIME screamed BTK.
At one point she told her husband she was afraid of BTK. He told her to keep the doors locked even though at the time he sold/installed and supervised ADT alarm systems. Wouldn't an alarm system have been an improvement in family protection considering they now had two small kids? I mean an extremely suspicious MURDER just took place a couple doors down and locking the doors hadn't saved anyone we know of yet, BTK, as we all know, used a ruse to get in or BROKE WINDOWS.
Is she THAT slow as to NEVER EVER NEVER add any of these things up? Evidence hidden around a small home in hidey holes and closets was found. 3x5 cards, slick ads, womens clothing, jewelery that wasn't hers etc.
It's simple math and something isn't adding up. Could it be she knew and to spare her he just decided to plead guilty in HOPES she could salvage SOME of her life? To spare the kids that mom knew (or had a hunch) as well. I have no doubt she feared him being the controlling jerk he has proven to be...I fear we'll never know if any of this could have been stopped earlier.
I'm NOT saying she knew, I'm saying the clues were certainly there and she should have had a hunch that after Dennis was gone late nights someone else turned up dead in the community. I'm not talking about the nights he was camping with the Boy Scouts and left to murder someone, I'm talking about the HOURS he spent on the break-ins he did, the stalking, the 'projects', the sheer number of nights he was gone and somebody died. Hmmm, Dennis was gone all last Thursday night and that nice Fox girl died.
Paula, is there anything YOU would like to say to clear this up? If you kinda sorta knew yet feared you'd be murdered fine, I think a lot of people could accept that (not me but I digress), but tell us the truth. Tell your side of the story.