Serial killer pleads guilty, then tells all

Chicago: A serial killer who taunted the people of Wichita, Kansas, for three decades has pleaded guilty to 10 murders, calmly and politely recounting his crimes in horrific detail in an hour-long court hearing, as victims' relatives stoically absorbed the sordid story.

Dennis Rader, 60, a former Boy Scout leader and church volunteer who in poems and packages sent to news outlets nicknamed himself BTK - for bind, torture, kill - referred to his victims as "projects" as he answered questions from a judge on Monday. Strangling them was part of a sexual fantasy, he said.

Repeatedly calling the judge "sir", Rader described trolling neighbourhoods in search of prey, plucking names from letterboxes and stalking women, but he said he also picked at least one target at random.

"Potential hits - in my world that's what I called them," he said, occasionally closing his eyes or rubbing his forehead as he spoke in a monotone.

"If one didn't work out I just moved to another one."
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