The Dog Catcher Poem by The Poet Darkling

His name was Dennis Rader
He was a dog catcher by trade
But that was just a cover
For the more evil game he played

It started in his childhood,
He was the oldest of four boys
But much unlike his brothers
He didn't play with normal toys

Instead he practiced murder
First, by pulling the wings off flies
Then sharpening sticks he found
To poke out some poor kitten's eyes

He grew, and went to college
Then served four years in the air force
Then afterwards he married,
His life followed the normal course

But there was something different
‘Bout this seemingly normal guy
On January fifteenth
The Otero family would die

He bound and gagged wife Julie
And her two youngest kids as well
Then he bound husband Joseph
And brought the four into his hell

Little Charlie Otero
Would discover the gruesome scene
He came home to find four dead
At the too-young age of fifteen

No one could guess the reason
For this fledgling killer's first flight
He struck again in April
When he killed Ms. Kathryn Bright

Kathryn was unsuspecting
When she arrived home that day
That Dennis was there waiting,
That she and Kevin were his prey

He separated the two
And tied them each to their own chair
Then he stabbed, shot and strangled
And left the pair for dead right there

But brother Kevin was strong,
He awoke when his sister cried
He was able to get help
Although Kathryn soon later died

It seems then, Dennis got scared,
He went in hiding for three years
Then he stalked and killed Shirley
About three months after New Year's

But his thirst for blood weren't gone
In seventy and seven
He waited ‘til December
Then sent Nancy Fox to heaven

His inner demons struggling,
He wouldn't kill for eight more years
That little town in Kansas
Had put to rest it's darkest fears

But Dennis liked the lime-light
And couldn't stand to be forgot
So he wrote a short letter
Bragging about that boy he shot

The dog catcher liked poems
And loved talking about his crimes
So he spent a couple years
Taunting the cops with silly rhymes

Then in April, eighty-five
He did his crime on Marine Hedge
He deviated this one,
The authorities would allege

He never killed at night time
Nor took bodies from whence they died
But remove Ms Hedge, he did
First, to church, then dumped her outside

The next was a young mother
Whom he killed in front of her child
She screamed, "What about my kid? "
But he just strangled her and smiled

Then he walked out the front door,
not touching the Wegerle kid
But later wrote a letter
Telling the cops just what he did

His last was Dolly Davis
In January, ninety-one
He told her he was wanted,
Just a criminal on the run

He mimicked he was leaving,
Gathering car keys and some food
Then he strangled Miss Davis
Right in the chair where she was glued

He took her out and dumped her
Returning later to take pics
‘Cuz jerking to their photos
Was how he really got his kicks

That's ten innocent victims
He sits in prison for this day
And that is not to mention
That old woman who got away

Her name was Anna Williams
He stalked her in seventy-nine
He hid out in her closet
After severing her phone line

But Anna was elusive
And had no schedule to keep
Dennis gave up on waiting,
Left without putting her to sleep

If he only stopped writing
He'd still be killing to this day
But his pride was his downfall
And was the end of B.T.K