(NewsNation) — Artist Ryan Almighty told NewsNation’s “Banfield” that BTK serial killer Dennis Rader appears to be upset with him.
Almighty is an artist who makes serial killer art, including shrunken heads of various killers using, in some cases, the killer’s blood and ashes.
Almighty said he received a letter from Rader through a pen pal, asking for a self-portrait. Almighty asked if Rader could send him strand of hair for the piece, but it backfired.
“I never in a million years would have thought he would have been offended by this. To send me some of his hair for the painting. … I never heard from him directly. I told her (Rader’s pen pal) that I was going to do the painting anyway because it would go well with that letter. And then she cut ties to me. I never heard from her again. … It is what it is,” Almighty said on “Banfield.”
Almighty completed the painting with his own blood.
“A lot of them are my own blood, and then I’ll frame them with a piece of memorabilia. … I’ve painted John Wayne Gacy, who I was pen pals with. In my museum I have quite a few pieces of his artwork. Richard Ramirez… Jesse Pomeroy. A lot of them are done though in my own blood. Not all of them that I have actual contact with,” Almighty added.
In 2005, Rader, also known as BTK, which stands for “bind, torture and kill,” was convicted of killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991. Investigators are currently looking into missing persons cases possibly associated with Rader.