Dennis Rader, ‘BTK Killer,’ says he didn’t speak to Bryan Kohberger

The BTK Killer has axed rumors he was in contact with accused quadruple killer Bryan Kohberger.  

“No on Kohberger all around,” the convicted serial killer, whose real name is Dennis Rader, told TMZ in response to a query about whether he had connected with the 28-year-old accused murderer of four college students in Moscow, ID. 

Kohberger, who was arrested on Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pa., had previously studied under forensic psychologist and true crime writer Katherine Ramsland while attending DeSales University in Central Valley, Pa.

Ramsland, the author of 69 books, wrote a headline-making opus about the BTK — “Bind, Torture, Kill” — killer, in collaboration with her subject, who is currently serving 10 life sentences for slaughtering 10 people in Wichita, KS, from 1974 to 1991. Rader had mocked police for years with letters and newspaper articles, until the coldblooded murderer was finally nabbed in 2005.

Rader’s estranged daughter, Kerri Raison, told NewsNation that she was “pretty shocked” to learn that there was “potentially a connection to my father.” She suggested that her father could have contacted or had an influence on Kohberger, considering that Ramsland had been his teacher.  Rader admitted that this theory wasn’t all that far-fetched.

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Oklahoma AG announces 4 new opioid settlements worth $226M

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma entered settlement agreements with three major pharmacy chains and an opioid manufacturer totaling more than $226 million, Attorney General John O’Connor announced Wednesday.

Including the new settlements with drugmaker Allergan and pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, Oklahoma has received more than $900 million from opioid makers and distributors to help address the state’s opioid crisis, O’Connor said.

“The opioid crisis has inflicted unspeakable pain on Oklahoma families and caused the deaths of thousands of Oklahomans,” O’Connor said in a statement. “Between 2016 and 2020, more than 3,000 Oklahomans died from opioid overdoses.”

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Justice Department files suit against one of largest drug distributors in U.S.

The Justice Department on Thursday filed a civil lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen Corp., one of the largest drug distributors in the country, alleging that it failed to report “at least hundreds of thousands” suspicious opioid orders to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Under the Controlled Substances Act, pharmaceutical distributors must monitor the orders they receive for controlled substances, and are required to flag any they deem suspicious to the DEA. According to the filing, AmerisourceBergen repeatedly failed to do so since 2014, despite being made aware of significant “red flags” at pharmacies across the country.

“In the midst of a catastrophic opioid epidemic AmerisourceBergen allegedly altered its internal systems in a way that reduced the number of orders that would be flagged as suspicious. And even up to the orders that AmerisourceBergen identified as suspicious, the company routinely failed to report those suspicious orders,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said during a call with members of the media on Thursday. “In short, the government’s complaint alleges that for years AmerisourceBergen prioritized profits over its legal obligations and over Americans’ well-being.”

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Malta, the Mafia’s paradise

The EU’s smallest member state, Malta, has become the Mafia’s El Dorado. This was the shocking conclusion of a study commissioned by the European Parliament’s Martin Schirdewan.

The report shows how Italian mafia clans laundered billions of euros through online gaming platforms in Malta between 2015 and 2022.

Four billion euros of assets were confiscated through investigations into online gaming related to Malta. The study found that “criminals, including those from Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta and Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, have become part of the Maltese gaming sector through companies they set up and which they used to launder huge sums of money”.

Why is Malta so attractive to criminal organisations? Why are Mafia bosses so keen on Malta? What makes Malta such a haven for some of the most feared tough guys in the criminal world?

The answer was spelt out by Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri.  He was compelled to admit that there wasn’t a single applicant for the vacant post of Deputy Police Commissioner.

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With A Little Help From My Friends: Former Kansas City Crime Lord Whitey Cox Aided K.C. Mob Figure John Mandacina’s Bid For Freedom

January 7, 2023 — One-time Kansas City Black mob boss Eddie (Whitey) Cox gets an assist in the freeing of K.C. mafia soldier John Mandacina this week. Cox, who is the only Caucasian to ever lead an African-American criminal organization and known as an expert amateur jurist, helped attorneys for Manadcina draft legal briefs that earned him a sentence commutation and sprung him from a life sentence he was serving for a Civella crime family murder that occurred back in 1990.

The 88-year old Cox got himself a compassionate release for medical reasons in the summer of 2021. He pointed Mandacina in the same direction. U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs let Mandacina, 76. out of the Big House Friday because he is battling lung cancer. While Mandacina did 30 years as a guest of the government, Whitey Cox did almost 32 before seeing freedom 18 months ago.

Cox co-founded the Kansas City’s Black Mafia on the city’s eastside in 1968 along with James (Doc) Dearborn and Eugene (Jimmy the Seal) Richardson, overseeing a vast empire of gambling, drugs, loan sharking, extortion and prostitution. Known for his sharp mind, gangland political savvy and innovative crimes, Cox was Dearborn’s main adviser and a diplomat in the area’s crime scene. Dearborn was killed mob-style in 1985, gunned down in a motel by the airport.

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