“Vicki Wegerle was a potential victim. I went through those different phases, locked in on her as I would call it and decided that I would try that date. I used a ruse as a telephone repairman to get in her house. [I] drove there in my own personal car around lunchtime having lunch hour or approximately that time. It was earlier in the morning then. And uh put my…I actually went somewhere else and changed uh, changed my clothes into what I call my 'hit clothes.' And um…Hit Clothes. Basically different, you know, things I need to get rid of later. Not the same kind of clothes I had on. I don't know a better word to use it —crime clothes or hit clothes —I just call them hit clothes. Uhh, anyway I walked from my car as a telephone repairman. As I walked there I donned my telephone helmet. I had a briefcase. Went to one other address just to kind of size up the house. I'd walked by it a couple of times but I wanted to check it a little bit more. As I approached it I could hear a piano sound. I went to this other door, knocked on it and told them that we were recently working on telephone repairs in the area. And then went to her and knocked on the door and asked if I could check her telephone lines inside….I had a make believe instrument and after she was looking away I drew a pistol at her asked her if she would go back to the bedroom with me….I told her, when we went back to the bedroom, I told her I was going to have to tie her up. She was very upset. And I think we, I, used some material that was in, and that's another thing, I'm not sure but I that I used the material that they had in their bedroom, and after I tied her hands she broke that and we started fighting. And we fought quite a bit, back and forth….I finally got the hand on her and got a nylon sock and started strangling her….I finally gained on her and put her down and I thought she was dead but apparently she wasn't. But, uh, after she was down and not moving any more I rearranged her clothes a little bit and took some quick photos —I think three of them if I remember. And then after that there was a lot of commotion. She had mentioned something about her husband coming home so I got out of there pretty quick. The dogs were raising a lot of Cain in the back. The doors and windows were all open in the house. There was a lot of noise when we were fighting so I left pretty quickly after that. Put everything the briefcase and had her, I already gone through her purse and got the keys to the car, and used her car for my get away car.”
Annotation
Describing the 1986 murder of Vicki Wegerle. Courtroom confession of Dennis Rader, 6/27/05.
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