If you’re a regular here, you know I love a crime documentary or a documentary with a mystery vibe. “My Father the BTK Killer” is new on Netflix and another murder I have never heard about before watching this.
In short, the BTK (bind, torture, kill) killer was a serial killer in Kansas who murdered 10 people (maybe more) over the span of around 20 or so years. Later, through DNA, the BTK Killer was found to be a simple man with a family—Dennis Rader. This documentary is not about Rader. It’s not even about the murders. This documentary is about Kerri Rawson—his youngest daughter.
With that out of the way, I want to pause and say that prison was made for men like Rader and not men and women who commit petty crimes or are struggling to survive. It’s for sick murderers like this man.
Now, personally, I don’t think that this documentary was paced very well. I think it tried to balance between telling Kerri’s story and telling the story of Rader but I didn’t really get enough of either. For me, we breezed through the murders and detectives collecting Rader for him to give them a full confession. Then, we got bits a pieces of Kerri’s life ending with her assertion that she is her own woman and not just the daughter of the BTK Killer.
Here’s what I thought I would get with this documentary. I thought it would be more people who would be talking about Rader as the man they knew before everyone found out he was the BTK Killer and his motives. Instead, I got half a story about the man because Kerri was just born when he paused his killing spree. The only insight she gave us was her visit to him in prison and his demeanor at home. Nothing else she said gave me an insight into this man’s life or gave me something that the detectives couldn’t tell us.
Kerri, herself, is estranged from the family, and made a bold decision to delve deep into the persona of “daughter of the BTK Killer.” I say this because Kerri wrote an entire book about her dad, her, and his killing as a counter to Stephen King when he released Good Marriage. I get her not wanting to be the daughter of the BTK Killer, but it’s hard to separate her from that when she seemed so involved with it all.
I do feel for Kerri and her family because they don’t deserve the backlash they receive, especially Kerri because she is in the public eye.
I wanted a little more from this watch that I did not get. That being said, it’s not a bad watch….just a lacking watch for me.
