Suspect in 10 Kansas Murders Lived an Intensely Ordinary Life

By MONICA DAVEY

PARK CITY, Kan., March 5 - In his crisp beige uniform, cap and badge, Dennis L. Rader took his job upholding the most mundane city laws with unusual earnestness.

He was often seen in his white truck, the words "Compliance Officer, Park City" painted on the side, puttering along at 10 miles an hour, searching for overgrown lawns, overflowing trash cans or dogs wandering past their fences.

"He looked for absolutely everything, and he must have enforced every rule there ever was - just because he could, I guess," said Barbara Walters, 69, a retired auditor for the Internal Revenue Service, who challenged a $25 ticket that Mr. Rader issued in 1998, saying her dog, Shadow, was running loose.

Ms. Walters's lawyer said Mr. Rader arrived for court more prepared than some lawyers are for murder trials, bearing a lengthy file on Shadow, a videotape of the dog and a complicated system of notebook tabs linking the accusations to his evidence. Mr. Rader, and his pile of paper, won.

But the police say the man who was a stickler for the slightest pet infraction in this modest suburb of Wichita had also slain 10 people by then, as the killer known as B.T.K.