Dennis Rader at his 2005 trial. Photo: Bo Rader/The Wichita Eagle-Pool

The BTK serial killer says he’s read A Good Marriage, the Stephen King novella inspired by his crimes, and is working on a book himself. Dennis Rader, 69, who killed ten people between 1974 and 1991, signed away his media rights to the victims’ families after he was convicted in 2005. However, he revealed in a four-page, handwritten letter to the Wichita Eagle, his first public statement since he began serving his ten consecutive life sentences, that he’s cooperating with an author writing a book about him. A portion of the proceeds will go to the families, which Rader says is his main motivation for doing the project. “Something I had hoped for years, to help them and in a way to pay my debt to them,” he wrote, adding, “I can never replace their love ones, my deeds too ‘dark’ to understand, the book or movies, etc. is the only way to help them.”

Rader’s letter came after his 36-year-old daughter, Kerri Rawson, spoke out about the release of a movie based on King’s novella this weekend. Rawson said King is “exploiting my father’s 10 victims and their families,” and knowing he inspired King’s story will only give her father a “big head” because he’s a fan of his work.

In his letter, Rader said he’s been corresponding with author Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania. She’s written 54 books, mostly academic, and said her project isn’t like the salacious books that came out shortly after the BTK Killer was apprehended. “I’m trying to make this a serious effort that will have some benefit for people who study this kind of crime,” she said.

“I mean to burn no bridges,” Rader wrote, “and hope some day to open up. People like me, need to be under stood, so the criminal professional field, can better under stand, the criminal mind. That would be my way helping debt to society.”