Unholy Messenger

Author seems to have another agenda...

This is a well written book about BTK. However, the author pushes hard to convince the reader that an authoritarian upbringing with a strong religious (christian) influence is part of the cause for his atrocious actions. A much superior book is John Douglas' "Inside the Mind of BTK."

A visit to the Garden of Good and Evil

To all outward appearances, Dennis Rader was a middle-aged, rather dull, citizen. A heartland Republican, fastidious about his job and home, faithfully married to one wife for many years, father of two children, president of his local church's board, Cub Scout leader, local code inspector, a quiet man. While thousands of tips poured into Wichita's 30-year investigation of the BTK killer (bind, torture, kill) he was never even suspected of having another life. Unholy Messenger is good journalism but goes beyond the story itself to ask troubling questions about the nature of good and evil and how they can coexist in the same soul. Singular opens the book with BTK killer Rader's pastor at Christ Lutheran, Michael Clark. Throughout the book Clark contrasts with Rader; if anything, Clark's struggles and tragedies through his own childhood and adulthood would provide more excuses for psychological problems than Rader's. Yet it is Clark who holds his church together, reaches out to support Rader's family and Rader himself. The story asks the reader to understand that people are complex beings, part angel and part demon. To paraphrase Pastor Clark, it is too easy to dismiss dictators, criminals, or terrorists as one-dimensional demons; the truth is that even psychopaths also have aspects which appear good or loving. Toward the end of the book, Singular raises important questions about how forces in modern society inhibit the expression of socially unacceptable beliefs and attitudes. One key to understanding Rader is that he never felt free to appear less than perfect; his conservative, religious upbringing meant he repressed his desires and built a fantasy world involving violent sexual images about women. Though parts of the story are gruesome by nature, the book does not dwell on that. Instead it makes me wonder what keeps most people from going "over the edge" when a few such as Rader do.

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No text was provided for this review.