September 14, 2007
By Scott Coblio "kookoo guy" (West Hollywood, CA United States) 

This review is for: My Boss was the BTK Killer... I was the Next Victim (Paperback)
 
Having never heard of the BTK killer, I opened this book without any knowledge or pre-existing interest in the case. In fact, I didn't even know until partway through what the initials BTK stand for ("bind, torture, kill"). But "My Boss Was the BTK Killer" draws you in from the beginning and holds you til the end, in a quite unexpected way.

Interspersed with Ms Capp's diary-like account of working with Dennis Rader, are transcripts of his confessions detailing the various murders. It's always repellent to hear a killer sound indifferent, or--more offensively--gloating about their atrocities with no apparent display of remorse, empathy or objectivity about what they've done. Of course, this is also what makes them fascinating. Like distillations of the predatorial instinct run amok, they are society's cancer gene--they get a signal from their brain instructing them to murder someone, and once they've completed the task, they think to themselves "I've done a good job today. Finally, I can sleep." In short, they are pure killing machines.

Mary Capp's first-hand account of working with the murderer for six and a half years is told in such an informal, talky way that at first I thought it would fail to create a suitably spooky atmosphere. Accounts of pleasure-killing, when detailed in books, are usually mounted in a language that elevates the sordid details into the prose of gothic fiction. This makes them go down easier--we feel less depraved for enjoying it. Ms Capp's narrative voice, however, is chatty and real--like a journal entry, or a transcript of a telephone conversation between friends. At times, her habit of lapsing into extrannea can be disconcerting--her constant references to Diet Pepsi, musing about the plastic wrappers on her cigarette packs, naming the guys she went to every high school dance with etc., all seem tangential and off the point. Isn't there a killer lurking?

But as I read on, I realized that when evil people really ARE in your life, this is the way it is. All the banal things continue to happen around them, and their presence doesn't "enchant" the atmosphere. But then in private, when no one's watching, they morph from those everyday guises--a surly supervisor, in this case--into monsters that surpass our wildest nightmares. Only to return to their former, seemingly innocuous personas again the next day.

Hence the most daunting aspect of this book; How evil hides inside the banality of everyday life, interwoven with the fabric of it so that you might miss it at first glance. You might even miss it if you're working for it, living with it or married to it, drinking your Diet Pepsis and fiddling with the cellophane wrap on your cigarettes. You might even miss it until it kills you.

Consider "My Boss was the BTK Killer" your ticket to terror from the front lines. Eerie, chilling, unforgivable, unforgettable. But above all, consider it a warning. Evil hides in plain sight.

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January 12, 2009
By Brendan Collins (Tulsa, OK)  

This review is for: My Boss was the BTK Killer... I was the Next Victim (Paperback)
 
Only Mary Capps could have written this book.

Part memoir, part thriller, this book combines the most unlikely of the two genres. Mary "Mary Nova" Capps worked under Dennis "BTK Killer" Rader, the notorious Kansas serial killer, as a compliance officer. Throughout her six and a half year tenure, she felt as if Rader had singled her out for death. One year, for Christmas, Rader gave her an ornament of a snowman wearing a hat and scarf. "I look back on certain incidents," Mary Capps writes, "and wonder how close Dennis [Rader] was to choking the crap out of me."

(Fortunately for her, the killer was arrested before he ever got the chance to choke the crap out of her.)

Mary Capps has bad dreams, and recounts several of them for posterity to demonstrate how her subconscious was warning her of the impending doom. Mary Capps has circumstantial evidence to show that Rader was poisoning her Diet Pepsi with "tranq" (the substance used by compliance officers to tranquilize aggressive dogs). Mary Capps would also come home to find her front porch light regularly unscrewed. And once, Rader stood in front of her office door in a menacing manner. All of this leads to her case that Mary Capps was hand-chosen by Rader as his eleventh victim. Indeed, she has her mother's assent on this point.

"No, I wasn't murdered," Mary Capps admits, "but I sure in hell am a surviving victim." In fact, he even gave her a negative work performance review prior to his arrest - a review the municipality of Park City allegedly refuses to expurge from its files.

But this book isn't entirely about Dennis Rader and his crimes against Mary Capps. Mary Capps also shares some of her own biography with readers: she grew up with "Happy Days" on television, and listened to Bruce Springsteen in 1978 (after growing weary of Paul McCartney's Wings). She went through several serious relationships, and other personal crises. And as a treat for the reader, she delves into some intimate personal moments between her and her three children: "Our joke between my boys and myself is that I tell them, 'Don't make me get a ladder so that I can slap you.' And then we bust up laughing. One, because of the joke; and two, because I probably only ever struck my three children once or twice in their lifetime, but I can yell! That's another joke between the boys. I won't hit them, but I can sure scare the hell out of them when I raise my voice, that's when they know I mean business."

And with this book, Mary Capps truly does "mean business."

Although tormented on a daily basis by her psychotic boss, Mary Capps also takes the time to share a little seen side of Dennis Rader: his perceived sense of humor. In one instance, when Mary Capps was ordered to condemn a home which was soiled with "three inches of cat poop on the stove, and on the floor in every room," Rader acknowledged her efforts with a bumper sticker that read: SO MANY CATS, SO FEW RECIPES.

One criticism I have read of this book is that Mary Capps delves into her own history as well as into the specifics of the case. While it is true that there is a lot of focus on the author, perhaps an answer can be found between the lines: "In short," Mary Capps writes, "Dennis Rader is all about Dennis Rader."

Why, then, should Mary Capps be all about Dennis Rader, and not herself to some extent? Too many people have called her crazy in her lifetime - and finally Mary Capps has the means to show them who the crazy one really is.

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Announcing a “surprise” book signing event at Watermark Books & Cafe

Now Mary Capps is telling her side of the story in
My boss was the BTK killer…I was the next victim

WICHITA, KS June 30, 2007 – Sedgwick County resident and Wichita native Mary Capps will be featured in a major book signing event Saturday, July 14th, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Watermark Books and Café, 4701 E. Douglas in Wichita.

It is a “surprise” book signing as her book, which Capps co-authored with veteran crime writer Jim Dobkins, was written in virtual secrecy.  Neither the public nor the media was aware of the book’s existence until mid-June.

Formal publication date for the book is July 10th; however, through advance arrangement with the publisher, books are available for sale at Watermark Books & Café. 

The Saturday event will end the launch week for the Capps’ book – a week in which she is booked for 30 radio and TV interviews, including an appearance on Nancy Grace’s segment of CNN’s Headline News on Friday, July 13th.

Capps worked 6-and-1/2 years under the supervision of Dennis Rader in the Compliance Department for the City of Park City, Kansas.

Rader was her boss until his arrest in February 2005 as the BTK (Bind Torture Kill) serial killer, confessing ten brutal murders, over17 years, 1974 to 1991. The realization that he had targeted her as his eleventh victim sent her into Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

She reveals many things about Dennis Rader not previously made public, including the time her aunt and another Park City employee saved his life; how he terrorized her on the job; how he might have been poisoning her; and documents why she believes she was Project Broadwater – Dennis Rader’s intended eleventh murder victim.

Capps reveals why Park City Management unfailingly sided with her serial killer supervisor instead of her when she filed grievances about her boss’ erratic, intimidating behavior towards her.  She interweaves the despicable acts of BTK with events happening simultaneously in her life; from little girl daydreams to tormenting nightmares.

Capps gives unique insight into the man and monster before his exposure as BTK. Mary Capps began having horrible nightmares and premonitions of impending danger during the final months she worked under Rader's supervision. Those nightmares intensified when she realized he had been planning to murder her. It was her own Nightmare on Elm Street -- she desperately needed sleep but was afraid to sleep because she knew what awaited her.

It took many months for Mary Capps to recover from the nightmares and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.  She believed that the only way for her side of the story to be fully told was to write her own book. 

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New Book Release:  “My boss was the BTK killer…I was the next victim”

PHOENIX, AZ July 2, 2007 – Mary Capps worked 6-and-1/2 years as a Park City, Kansas Compliance Officer under the supervision of Dennis Rader, later exposed as the notorious BTK (Bind Torture Kill) serial killer.  The mental agony of finding out the deep and dark secrets that had been so closely guarded by her boss, plus learning that she was BTK’s intended 11th murder victim, plunged her into deep depression and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

She went into hiding, rarely venturing out into public places.  But there was one thing she could not escape -- the horrible nightmares.  She experienced her own Nightmare on Elm Street – nightly needing to sleep, wanting, to sleep, but afraid of going to sleep because she knew what awaited her.

Capps reveals many things about Dennis Rader not previously made public, including the time her aunt and another Park City employee saved his life; how he terrorized her on the job; how he might have been poisoning her; and documents why she believes she was Project Broadwater – Dennis Rader’s intended eleventh murder victim.

She also reveals why Park City Management unfailingly sided with her serial killer supervisor instead of her when she filed grievances about her boss’ erratic, intimidating behavior towards her. She interweaves the despicable acts of BTK with events happening simultaneously in her life; from little girl daydreams to tormenting nightmares.

In her book, Capps provides unique insight into the man and the monster before his exposure as BTK.  She talks about the physical symptoms she experienced many times during the afternoons . . . after feeling fine when she went to work -- the leg cramps, the sudden trouble breathing, the unexpected loss of memory -- all symptoms like those caused by a certain illegal date rape drug.

Was her boss poisoning her? Capps gives two plausible ways he could have done so. Was it a miracle when all of the symptoms cleared up immediately after her last day of working with him? Mary does not think so.

Dennis Rader hated to be called “dogcatcher,” which is exactly why the publisher registered the domain name www.btkdogcatcher.com for the book’s Internet marketing web site.  It might not be much, but it allows Mary Capps to get in a little dig at her ex-boss, the man who confessed to ten murders over a 17-year span, 1974 to 1991.

Jim Dobkins co-authored this book and other crime books.

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Valley Center News
By Josh Heck
Published: July 05, 2007 08:17:31 AM

There was nothing out of the ordinary about Mary Capps watering her jasmine plant this week at her east Valley Center home. But it wasn’t until recently that Capps’ life started getting back to normal.

Haunted by the thought that she was the next target of convicted serial killer Dennis Rader, Capps’ life was turned upside down when Rader was arrested Feb. 25, 2005.

She battled post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression, anger and nightmares after learning that her former boss was BTK.

In an effort to start living again, Capps revealed the events that led her to believe her life was in danger in a book set to be released July 10. “My boss was the BTK killer: I was the next victim” is being touted as the book that few saw coming — including those in the media. The book has been sold on the Internet since June.

The publication comes on the heels of the book recently released by the Wichita Eagle, titled “Bind Torture Kill: The inside story of the serial killer next door.”

Jim Dobkins, who has been working with Capps, said the only way for Capps to tell her side of the story was for her to write her own book. Capps declined to be extensively interviewed for the Wichita Eagle book, Dobkins said.

With the release of her book — which also gives some insight into Rader’s life before he was known as BTK — Capps has an extensive interview schedule in the coming weeks with various media across the country. A book signing has also been scheduled from 2 until 4 p.m. July 14 at the Watermark Books & Café, located at 4701 E. Douglas in Wichita.

“There is a surprising amount of national interest in Mary’s story,” Dobkins said.

But it wasn’t until recently that Capps was ready to tell her side of the story.

She sat down with The News July 2 to talk about some of what she went through in Park City with Rader as her boss and why she believes she was targeted as a murder victim.

Working with Rader

For years, Rader was the primary compliance officer in Park City, but that changed in 1998 when Capps was hired by the city. Rader was then promoted into a supervisor role.

From the beginning, Capps said their working relationship was strained. 

“He hated me,” Capps said. “And I hated him.”

She said Rader always dispatched her to the animal control calls while he stayed in the office. She said she thought part of the job was to be more visible in the community and wondered why Rader often chose not to go out on calls.
Rader kept a number of items related to the murders in his office at city hall in Park City.  

While she was out working, Capps contends Rader was in a sense “scrap booking” what he had done.

Capps contends all of her complaints and grievances about how Rader treated, harassed and bullied her essentially fell on deaf ears, She said city officials usually sided with Rader.

She wanted to quit, but needed the job, she said. She needed the insurance coverage.

Looking back, Capps said she was glad she never figured Rader out.

She wondered who she would have told if she had and who would have believed her, especially considering how she said her complaints against Rader were handled.

Capps often missed work for various reasons. Mostly, she said, because of Rader.

In 2001, Capps said she was visiting the doctor more frequently, complaining of various symptoms. Her doctor documented everything she told him about what she believed was happening to her.

Capps couldn’t explain why she said she would often experience leg cramps, trouble breathing or unexpected loss of memory while at work.

She said all of the “mysterious” symptoms went away when Rader was arrested.
Capps had a doctor’s appointment that day. But she would have to cancel her appointment.

She got a call that she needed to come to city hall as soon as she could that day near the end of February 2005. When Capps arrived, she said she met with Jack Whitson and then Mayor Emil Bergquist, who told her that the city was complying with a federal investigation and she was being put on paid vacation until further notice. Capps was told not to talk to anyone.

Still unsure of what was happening, Capps left city hall wondering if she had done something wrong

Had Rader finally pushed someone too far? Capps said she thought.

The next day during a news conference when Wichita police announced BTK had been arrested, “I broke down crying,” Capps said.

She said so much was going through her mind. Mostly, though, she said she was angry.

Angry because she said people didn’t listen to her complaints. Angry because all of the little things she said she encountered while working under Rader were starting to add up.

Despite Capps’ contentions that city officials didn’t listen to what she said about Rader, she said she was glad that she told someone about all of the things that went on while she worked for the city.

She said others would recall things that Capps told them and start putting the pieces together. During the month before Rader’s arrest, Capps said a number of “crazy” things were going on.

Rader was changing, she said.

Broadwater

Capps said she believes at some point Rader intended to kill her. She said a lot about Rader changed in the last year she worked with him that led her to believe he was targeting her as a victim.

Capps said Rader did a reversal from when she first started working for Park City. Rader started going back into the field and started making small talk with her about her family. Before that, Capps said she would try to talk with Rader, only to have him cut her off.

Capps contends he never stopped “trolling.”

In addition to Capps’ suspicions that she was a target, court records also indicate Rader might have killed again.

During his 32-hour interrogation after his arrest, records show Rader revealed plans for a Project Broadwater, or simply Broadwater.

“I tried to hit on her the day I dropped the Number Two at the UPS box,” court documents show that Rader said. “It was a run, it was a go and everything, but they were working on the roads. … You just do a back up and wait for another day. I was going to try it in the spring or fall …”  

Capps lived in a duplex off of Broadway near 57th Street at the end of a cul-de-sac. A lagoon sits behind the
property.

Hence the name “Broadwater,” Capps said.

Recovery

Following Rader’s arrest, Capps went into hiding, rarely going anywhere, while battling constant nightmares, her depression and post-traumatic stress. Capps said she stayed away from people and public places as much as she could for 17 months.

Now, she is recovered.

She began working for her aunt and uncle and started getting out in public again. She also started writing her book.

After a short time with her aunt and uncle, Capps started working with her fiancé’s trucking company.

She said she may never forget what she went though for six and a half years while working in Park City and the 17 months that followed Rader’s arrest.

Capps said she was happy with the way her book came out.

By sharing her firsthand experiences, Capps said she hopes people will be able to stand up for being harassed in the workplace. She said she would also like to see more stringent grievance procedures at the federal level.

“I hope my message is being delivered in the way I want it to be delivered,” she said. 

Rader pleaded guilty to killing 10 people, from 1974 to 1991.

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HUTCHINSON, KS July 27, 2007 – Sedgwick County resident and Wichita native Mary Capps will be featured in a major book signing event Friday, August 10th, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., at Hastings Books Music & Video Store, 416 East 30th Street in Hutchinson.

Capps co-authored My boss was the BTK killer…I was the next victim with veteran crime writer Jim Dobkins.  The book was written in virtual secrecy.  Neither the public nor the media was aware of the book’s existence until just before the book’s official release in mid-July.

Books are available for sale at the Hastings store in Hutchinson.

Capps worked 6-and-1/2 years under the supervision of Dennis Rader in the Compliance Department for the City of Park City, Kansas.

Rader was her boss until his arrest in February 2005 as the BTK (Bind Torture Kill) serial killer, confessing ten brutal murders, over17 years, 1974 to 1991. The realization that he had targeted her as his eleventh victim sent her into Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

She reveals many things about Dennis Rader not previously made public, including the time her aunt and another Park City employee saved his life; how he terrorized her on the job; how he might have been poisoning her; and documents why she believes she was Project Broadwater – Dennis Rader’s intended eleventh murder victim.

Capps reveals why Park City Management unfailingly sided with her serial killer supervisor instead of her when she filed grievances about her boss’ erratic, intimidating behavior towards her.  She interweaves the despicable acts of BTK with events happening simultaneously in her life; from little girl daydreams to tormenting nightmares.

Capps gives unique insight into the man and monster before his exposure as BTK. Mary Capps began having horrible nightmares and premonitions of impending danger during the final months she worked under Rader's supervision. Those nightmares intensified when she realized he had been planning to murder her. It was her own Nightmare on Elm Street -- she desperately needed sleep but was afraid to sleep because she knew what awaited her.

It took many months for Mary Capps to recover from the nightmares and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.  She believed that the only way for her side of the story to be fully told was to write her own book.