Killer: Dennis Rader (The BTK killer)
Victims: 10
Song background: To all outward appearances, Dennis Rader was an exemplar of his Wichita community. He was an employee of the city council, a Cub Scout leader, and president of the Congregation Council at the local Lutheran church. But between 1974 and 1991, he committed 10 murders around Wichita and wrote several letters to newspapers and television stations detailing his crimes in grisly detail. It was in one of these letters that he suggested a nickname based on his modus operandi: bind, torture, kill, or BTK. He tended to stalk his victims for weeks, learn their usual patterns, break into their homes (using skills gleaned from his employment at ADT Security Systems) and cut their phone lines. When they appeared, he would tie them up, strangle them so that they would fall in and out of consciousness, and eventually kill them. One of the women Rader stalked was 63 year old Anna Williams. Intending on making her his eighth victim, Rader broke into her house, cut her phone lines and stole a few items, but got frustrated when she did not come home and left. When Williams returned, she believed that she had been robbed, but two months later she got a mysterious envelope. It contained some of the items that were stolen, a drawing depicting what Rader was intending to do that night, and a poem entitled "Oh Anna Why Didn't You Appear."
lyrics
My perfect plan of pleasure was so bold on that Spring nite
My heart was hot with propension towards this new awakening season
So warm and wet with inner fear and rapture
My pleasure of entanglement was like new vines at night
Alone again, I trod in past memories of mirrors, and ponder why for number eight was not.
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
A drop of fresh Spring rain would roll down from your nakedness
To scent that lofty fever that burns within
That small world of longing, desperation, fear, rapture
The game we play falls upon devil ears
Alone again, I trod in past memories of mirrors, and ponder why for number eight was not.
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
As fantasies spring forth and mount to storm fury
They turn to winter calm at the end.
Alone now in another timespan I lay with private thoughts
On a bed of moist spring grass I am clean before the sun,
Enslaved with control, warm wind scenting the air
Sunlight sparkles tears in eyes so deep and clear.
Alone again, I trod in past memories of mirrors, and ponder why for number eight was not.
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
credits
from Serial Numbers,
released October 31, 2008
Lyrics: Dennis Rader (arranged by Charlie Crane)
Music: Charlie Crane
supported by 4 fans who also own “Oh Anna, Why Didn't You Appear”
The energy and punch, of Hussalonia, coupled with the unparalleled lyricism, shines through on Dogdammit! with an unbeatable catchyness. A 10/10 album, would recommend to literally anyone. jomikko
