“As before, Vian was a—actually on that one she was completely random. There was actually someone that across from Dillons was potential target. I had project numbers assigned to it. And that particular day I drove to Dillons, parked in the parking lot, watched this particular residence, and then got out of the car and walked over to it. It’s probably in the police report, the address. I don’t remember the address now. Knocked. Nobody—Nobody answered it. So I was all keyed up, so I just started going through the neighborhood. I had been through the neighborhood before. I know of knew a little—little of the layout of the neighborhood. I’d been through the back alleys, knew where some—certain people lived. While I was walking down Hydraulic I met—a young boy and asked him if he would ID some pictures, kind of as a russ [sic], I guess, or ruse as you call it, and kind of feel it out, and saw where he went, and I went to another address, knocked on the door. Nobody opened the door, so I just noticed where he went and went to that house and we went from there…. Potential hits. That—In my world, that’s what I called them….They were called projects, hits….After I tried this once, the residence, nobody came to the door. I went to this house where he went in, knocked on the door and told ‘em I was a private detective, showed ‘em a picture that I had just showed the boy and asked ‘em if they could ID the picture; and that time I—I had the gun here and I just kind of forced myself in. I just, you know, walked in—just opened the door and walked in and then pulled a pistol. … I told Mrs.—Miss Vian that I had a problem with sexual fantasies, that I was going to tie her up, and that—and I might have to tie the kids up, and that she would cooperate with this—cooperate with me at that time. We went back. She was extremely nervous. Think she even smoked a cigarette. And we went back to the—one of the back—back areas of the porch, explained to her that I had done this before, and, you know, I think she—at that point in time I think she was sick ‘cause she had a night robe on, and I think, if I remember right, she was—she had been sick. I think—I think she came out of the bedroom when I went in the house. So anyway, we went back to the—her bedroom, and I proceeded to tie the kids up, and they started crying and got real upset.…So I said oh, this is not gonna work, so we moved ‘em to the bathroom. She helped me. And then I tied the door shut. We put some toys and blankets and odds and ends in there for the kids, make them as comfortable as we could. Tied the—we tied one of the bathroom doors shut so they couldn’t open it, and we shoved—she went back and helped me shove the bed up against the other bathroom door, and then I proceeded to tie her up. She got sick, threw up. Got her a glass of water, comforted her a little bit, and then went ahead and tied her up and then put a blag [sic]—a bag over her head and strangled her.…Well, the kids were really banging on the door, hollering and screaming, and—and then the telephone rang, and they had talked earlier that the neighbor’s gonna check on ‘em, so I cleaned everything up real quick like, and got out of there, left and went back in—to my car.”

Annotation

Describing the March 1977 murder of Shirley Vian. Courtroom confession of Dennis Rader, 6/27/05.

Appears In: Serial Killer Quotes

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