‘A Good Marriage’ Husband Inspired By Real Life Serial Killer

Stephen King photo: Pinguino [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Lifetime’s LMN channel is celebrating Super Bowl LI by airing the movie A Good Marriage which is about a wife who discovers that her husband is a serial killer. The film is based on the Stephen King short story of the same title (in his collection Full Dark, No Stars). In the afterword of the book, King wrote that the husband character Bob Anderson (played by Anthony LaPaglia) was inspired by real life serial killer, Dennis Rader.

[LEFT: Stephen King’s creepy ‘A Good Marriage’ — watch it now]

Rader, who like Bob was well liked and highly regarded in his community of Wichita, Kansas, tortured and killed his victims (7 women, 2 children, 1 man) and then taunted police by sending them letters, detailing the murders. He signed them BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill). King said he was moved to the write A Good Marriage after reading about Rader’s wife Paula who claimed not to have any knowledge of her husband’s gruesome crimes over the years. Dennis Rader is serving 10 consecutive life sentences in prison. A Good Marriage premieres on LMN on Super Bowl Sunday at 8pm.