1989: Ted Bundy, psycho killer

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It was 20 years today that Ted Bundy, the signature sexual psychopath in a golden age of serial killers,* rode the lightning in Florida’s Starke Prison.

Executed Today is pleased to mark the occasion with a conversation with Louisville crime writer Kevin M. Sullivan, author of a forthcoming2009 book on Ted Bundy … and a man who knows how the world looks from inside Bundy’s ski mask.

Ted Bundy is obviously one of the most iconic, written-about serial killers in history. Why a book about Ted Bundy? What’s the untold story that you set out to uncover?

The desire, or drive, if you will, to write an article about Ted Bundy and then create a 120,000 plus word book about the murders, was born out of my crossing paths with his infamous murder kit. Had Jerry Thompson [a key detective on the Bundy case -ed.] left Bundy’s stuff in Utah that May of 2005, well, it would have been an enjoyable meeting with the former detective, but I’m certain it would have all ended quietly there. Indeed, I doubt if I’d even considered writing an article for Snitch [a now-defunct crime magazine -ed.], much less a book about the killings. But it was having all that stuff in my hands, and in my home, and then being given one of the Glad bags from Ted’s VW that made it very real (or surreal) to me, and from this, a hunger to find out more about the crimes led me forward.


Ted Bundy’s gear, right where you want it — image courtesy of Kevin M. Sullivan. (Check the 1975 police photo for confirmation.)

Believe me, in a thousand years, I never would have expected such a thing to ever come my way. I can’t think of anything more odd or surreal.

ET: You mentioned that you think you’ve been able to answer some longstanding questions about Bundy’s career. Can you give us some hints? What don’t people know about Ted Bundy that they ought to know?

I must admit, when I first decided to write a book about the crimes, I wasn’t sure what I’d find, so the first thing I had to do was read every book ever written about Bundy, which took the better portion of three or four months.

From this I took a trip to Utah to again meet with Thompson and check out the sites pertaining to Bundy and the murders in that state. Next came the acquisition of case files from the various states and the tracking down of those detectives who participated in the hunt for the elusive killer.

Now, no one could have been more surprised than me to begin discovering what I was discovering about some of these murders. But as I kept hunting down the right people and the right documents, I was able to confirm these “finds” at every turn. And while I cannot reveal everything here, It’s all in the book in great detail. Indeed, you could say that my book is not a biography in the truest sense, but rather an in-depth look at Bundy and the murders from a vantage point that is quite unique. I wish I could delve further into these things now , but I must wait until it’s published.

The Bundy story has a magnetic villain and a host of victims … was there a hero? Was there a lesson?

The real heroes in this story are the detectives who worked day and night for years to bring Ted Bundy to justice. And if there’s a lesson to be learned from all of this, it is this: It doesn’t matter how handsome or articulate a person might be, or how nicely they smile at you, for behind it all, there could reside the most diabolical person you’ll ever meet! We need to remember this.

But how can you act on that lesson without living in a continual state of terror? Bundy strikes me as so far outside our normal experience, even the normal experience of criminality, that I’m inclined to wonder how much can be generalized from him.

Actually, (and I might say, thank God here!) people as “successful” as Ted Bundy don’t come our way very often. I mean, the guy was a rising star in the Republican Party in Washington, had influential friends, a law student, and certainly appeared to be going places in life. Some were even quite envious of his ascension in life. However, it was all a well-placed mask that he wore to cover his true feelings and intentions. On the outside he was perfect, but on the inside a monster. He just didn’t fit the mold we’re used to when we think of a terrible killer, does he?

Now, there are those among us — sociopaths — who can kill or do all manner of terrible things in life and maintain the nicest smile upon their faces, but again, just beneath the surface ticks the heart of a monster, or predator, or what ever you might want to call them. Having said that, I’m not a suspicious person by nature, and so I personally judge people by their outward appearance until shown otherwise. Still, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to see the “real” individual behind the person they present to us on a daily basis.

You worked with case detectives in researching your book. How did the Ted Bundy case affect the way law enforcement has subsequently investigated serial killers? If they had it to do over again, what’s the thing you think they’d have done differently?

They all agree that today, DNA would play a part of the investigation that wasn’t available then. However, in the early portion of the murders, Bundy made few if any mistakes, as he had done his homework so as to avoid detection. As such, even this wouldn’t be a panacea when it came to a very mobile killer like Bundy who understood the very real limitations sometimes surrounding homicide investigations.

I can’t help but ask about these detectives as human beings, too. Clearly they’re in a position to deal with the heart of darkness in the human soul day in and day out and still lead normal lives … is a Ted Bundy the kind of killer that haunts or scars investigators years later, or is this something most can set aside as all in a day’s work?

They are, first of all, very nice people. And you can’t be around them (either in person, or through numerous phone calls or emails) for very long before you understand how dedicated they are (or were) in their careers as police officers. They are honorable people, with a clear sense of duty, and without such people, we, as a society, would be in dire circumstances indeed.

Even before Bundy came along, these men were veteran investigators who had seen many bad things in life, so they carried a toughness which allowed them to deal with the situations they came up against in a professional manner. That said, I remember Jerry Thompson telling me how he looked at Ted one day and thought how much he reminded him of a monster, or a vampire of sorts. And my book contains a number of exchanges between the two men (including a chilling telephone call) which demonstrate why he felt this way

How about for you, as a writer — was there a frightening, creepy, traumatic moment in your research that really shook you? Was there an emotional toll for you?

Absolutely. But the degree of “shock”, if you will, depends (at least for me) on what I know as I first delve into each murder. In the Bundy cases I had a general knowledge of how Bundy killed, so there wasn’t a great deal that caught me by surprise, as it were. Even so, as a writer, you tend to get to know the victims very well through the case files, their family members or friends, and so on. Hence, I’ll continue to carry with me many of the details of their lives and deaths for the remainder of my life. And so, lasting changes are a part of what we do.

However, I did a story a few years back about a 16 year old girl who was horribly murdered here in Kentucky, and this case did cause me to wake up in the night in a cold sweat. Perhaps it was because I have a daughter that was, at the time, only a few years younger than this girl, and that some of what transpired did catch me off guard, so to speak, as I began uncovering just what had happened to this very nice kid.

Watch for Kevin M. Sullivan’s forthcoming The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History from McFarland in summer or fall of 2009.

* In fact, the term “serial killer” was coined in the 1970’s by FBI profiler Robert Ressler, as an improvement on the sometimes inaccurate category of “stranger killer”.

Additional Bundy resources from the enormous comment thread:

On this day..

Possibly related executions:

8,544 thoughts on “1989: Ted Bundy, psycho killer”

  1. Sorry,got cut off.Anyway,speculation was that Bundy had a personal,albeit brief ,relationship with Laura before her murder.Larsen thought it a possible significant departure in TED’S known modus operandi. I wondering what you guys thought about this.

  2. It seems as if Bundy was decidedly single minded on that day,Nov 8,1974.Speaking of Utah,there was an anecdote concerning Laura Aime recounted in Larsens book.

  3. That’s true. And I wonder why he even bothered denying the obvious? Perhaps something in his brain just didn’t want to own up to it, as if his preferences for victims would cause society to think any differently about him; kind of like his unwillingness to admit to the enjoyment of killing young girls, but having no problem (towards the end) admitting to the killing of adult women. Strange thoughts, indeed.

  4. This is a valuable bit of info because it disproves Bundy’s assertion at one point that any similarity among his victims was mere coincidence.

  5. Vidor–

    No, I don’t go down that road in my book. I don’t fault others for considering it, or even believing it, but I see no evidence of it concerning Ted. And the Diane thing is bogus too, in my opinion. However, Ted liked killing a certain kind of girl: mostly dark-haired, parted in the middle. Sometimes blond, but never, in my estimation, his first choice.

    Now, I don’t want to open a can-of-worms here, but I will relate an interesting story I received from a certain lead detective in the Bundy case, which will show you Ted’s preference for the women he killed. Once I say this, I will try to answer any questions some may have, but because of the situation being “delicate”, as it were, I will not be able to answer as freely as I would like to under normal circumstances. Also, I left this out of the book for obvious reasons, even though I wanted to find a way to include it.

    There was a young woman at Viewmont High School, in Bountiful, Utah, on the night Debra Kent went missing, who actually came up to Bundy because she thought he was good looking. She told this detective that she was wanting to make herself available to Ted, with the hope, of course, he’d ask her to leave with him. Bundy, however, showed absolutely no interest in her, but kept scanning the crowd. She continued to make eye contact with him, letting him know of her interest in him, but he paid little to no attention to her. Now, this girl was either part, or a full-blooded Native American, and the investigator told me that this is the reason Bundy refused to pick her up. Of course, I agree with his statement. As I said earlier, if you look at the women Bundy murdered, they are very similar in hair color and/or style. And they are all Caucasian.

  6. “Killing the girl that dumped him” is Anne Rule hack psychology, and an idea that Bundy specifically dismisses in “Conversations With A Killer”, the collection of the M&A interview transcripts.

    Kevin’s book might or might not address this, but it’s almost certain that Bundy had killed before he swept back into Stephanie/Diane’s life. I don’t think it was a matter of him “killing the girl that dumped him” as it is that the same pathology that sent him off on a murderous rampage also led him to humiliate the girl that had humiliated him. His rage, as it were, seeking another outlet.

  7. Actually, this is the first time I’ve heard the “mother” thing advanced concerning Bundy. You hear it with Kemper and some others, but it doesn’t surprise me that this is out there. I guess it’s an honest attempt to explain the virtually unexplainable. But it just doesn’t “fly” with me.

  8. The “killing the girl who dumped him” theory has been tossed around quite a bit, but I never heard the “killing his mother” theory. While I agree neither can explain him, a discussion about it could open up new insights.

  9. I once heard the theory that the killing began due to Bundy’s girlfriend from San Francisco dumping him, and because she had dark hair parted in the middle, this sparked in him that homicidal course of murder. This, in my opinion, isn’t true either. Bundy was by then well on his way to the life he’d been planning and choosing through his violent fantasy life. As such, if the dumping of Diane Edwards caused it, then in turn, the acceptance of Liz Kendall and her love for him should have put an end to it as well. So the slaughter of all the women, as I see it, had little to nothing to do with any of the women Bundy had known, be they girlfriends or his mother. What Bundy became is so extremely vile and unusual, that to just call him a sociopath doesn’t fully explain it. His brain was wired in such a way that we’re never going to figure him out completely. But I do think it’s safe to say his mother and girlfriends were not the driving force behind any of this. I know some will disagree with me, and that’s fine, but that’s the way I see it.

  10. Bob’s idea is interesting nevertheless. There was a discussion on Compuserve a few years ago relating to that.

  11. You’re right, Richard, my book is only the second to be written by someone who didn’t know Ted. Very astute of you.

    BTW: I don’t know if Bob was joking, or not, but I don’t believe Bundy was killing because of some unresolved issues with his mother. Bundy had lots of issues, to be sure. But I don’t think “killing” his mother was one of them.

  12. I agree “The Killer Next Door” is a good read. It starts out as a classic serial killer mystery where one girl after another disappears. The villain doesn’t show until later, in this case Ted’s Utah arrest. It’s well researched with Ted’s letters to his friends being the real gems. The Aspen map was great as it visually clarified the path he claimed he took. Until Kevin’s upcoming book, it was the only one where the authors didn’t know Bundy personally.

    Bob fitz, if you’re still out there, can you further discuss the idea that Ted was in a sense killing his mother?

  13. I missed that about Rule in M&A; I’ll have to check it out! And yes, Nelson’s book is good, and it does give one a good sense of how it was for Ted during his last years as he approached his ride with ‘Old Sparky’.

  14. Oh, I forgot: Polly Nelson’s book. Out of print, but absolutely indispensable for the Bundy student. Reveals more about Carole Ann Boone than any other source. Goes into more detail about Ted’s life on Death Row. Describes the murder of the anonymous hitchhiker in Idaho. Offers further insight into Bundy’s early career. Also a good read for anybody who’s interested in death penalty law. His various lawyers were pretty clever in managing to keep him alive for almost nine years after the Leach trial, given how badly the state of Florida wanted to fry him.

  15. One of my favorite things about “The Only Living Witness” is the Ann Rule insults. “An older female acquaintance with an active imagination.” Ha.

  16. Oh, and you’re right, the M&A book is first-rate. I hope mine has the same “staying power” as theirs has had lo these many years!

  17. Vidor–

    You can pick up a copy of “The Killer Next Door” for a buck or two, and it’s a good read, as these guys really did their homework. And as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing superficial about it. Surprisingly, I don’t think the book ever had a press-run other than the mass-market paperback we see today. Keppel’s didn’t either, except in the UK where they brought it out in hardback (I purchased one of the UK editions just because I wanted one in HB). Like you, I didn’t care to much for the Green River Killer end of the book, except as it pertained to Ted’s reactions as Keppel was showing him a case file, or conversing with him, etc.

    I really enjoyed the Larsen book, and as I’ve stated before, I’m really sorry I never got to meet the guy. My friend who first introduced me to Jerry Thompson and some of my Utah contacts, had spoken to Larsen on several occasions and found him to be quite interesting.

    Yeah, poor Liz had her battles, didn’t she? I talk about these mind-battles in my book. Yet, as I mentioned above, I believe she always wanted to do the right thing here, even though the personal loss she’d suffer would be great if in fact Ted turned out to be the fiend. It must have been the most horrible experience of her life.

  18. I have never read “The Killer Next Door”. Had read elsewhere that it was superficial. Your recommendation tempts me to search used book sites.

    M&A’s book is first-rate. Rule’s book is hackwork, full of unsupported assumptions and crappy writing, really only worth reading for the accounts of her first-person meetings with Ted, and especially the story of the Crisis Clinic. Larsen’s book was OK. I liked the Keppel book a lot, although it is limited as a Bundy book, and I skimmed through a lot of the Green River Killer parts. Liz Kloepfer’s book reads like she’s more annoyed that he was a crappy boyfriend than the whole serial-killer business. (Honestly, I couldn’t help but feel that if he’d stayed in Seattle she’d never have gone to the cops.)

  19. Oh, I didn’t think you were implying anything negative. I just wanted to explain how all this came about as I’m so limited as to what I can say prior to publication. I really do grow weary hedging on my answers sometimes! I think it’ll be great, once the book is out and I can discuss OPENLY what I discovered, what I thought about it as I discovered it, and how the book literally took on a life of its own as I was writing it. I know once readers begin reading the “new stuff” it will no doubt spark new questions, and that’s fine with me.

    Say, what did you think of “Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door”?

  20. Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that your book wasn’t worth reading, and I hope it didn’t sound as such. It sounds like you’ve found a fresh perspective. All the Bundy books are about Bundy as much as the murders, so, you know, we’ll get three pages on Caryn Campbell because they need a couple of chapters to describe his death row appeals or the Chi Omega trial or whatnot. A book on the murders as MURDERS, crimes to be solved, is a welcome addition to the Bundy canon.

    M&A’s book is the best of the current Bundy books, IMO, because besides simply being written better than any others from a technical standpoint, they do better than anyone else at probing his psyche and getting to what made Ted Bundy tick. Rule’s book utterly fails at that. Larsen’s book doesn’t even try. It’s written from the POV of the police more than anything. And Keppel’s book, while indispensable, really only covers the investigation in Washington state, although he does include Bundy’s confession to the Julie Cunningham murder.

    But I’m very much looking forward to yours and looking forward to the extra information on the crimes.

  21. Vidor–

    Yes, M&A do an excellent job, not just with Florida, but the entire book!

    Every writer has a “voice”, as well as a different way of expressing information. And sometimes, information can be repeated throughout an on-going story so that that the reader gains a better understanding of whats happening with a person, (or a series of events) and why And you might say (without revealing a great deal here) that as narrator, I might be pointing out a thing or two they haven’t seen before; things to do with the murders, the victims. and Bundy himself. But again, this takes NOTHING away from previous works, but is merely born-out of the way I think, the way I conduct my research, and the way I approach a story from the beginning. In fact, remember in the beginning of the interview I mentioned that the first thing I had to do was read every book ever written about Bundy? Well, the reason for that is simple: Once I gain the entire picture of Ted (at least as it exists today) my mind, just like a computer, begins to see very clearly the obvious gaps in a story, as well as the numerous unanswered questions. That’s the starting point. And once I get into the research, I try to locate everything, and continue to locate that which pops up along the way. I’m saying all of this now, while we’re on the proverbial doorstep of publication, so that you and everybody will know how all of this came about in the first place. And this is how I obtain my “take on it.”

    Kevin

  22. I am interested to read Kevin’s take on it, of course, but Michaud and Aynesworth do a good job of recounting how Bundy simply came unglued in Florida. He just couldn’t keep it together. A rational man would have laid low at The Oaks until he could have stolen someone’s identity, as Ted was in the process of doing with Kenneth Misner. But he couldn’t do it. Dude was drunk all the time, slurring his words. “Regressed” as a serial killer from the smoothie that talked girls into his car into a wild animal. Drawing attention to himself by mouthing off about the murders to his fellow boarders at the Oaks. Murdering girls less than a mile from his house. I read in one of the books that when he was arrested he was wearing the same shirt he’d had on when he killed Kimberly Leach five days before. It must have been hard work to keep that mask on. In Florida he couldn’t do it.

  25. Catch my blog at http://www.theopencase.com featuring forensic case inspection of many sorts. I’m featured under ‘xgman’ and have contributed mostly psychological blogs of interest to all. Bob Fitz in RI

  26. Fascinating site with threads that are very interesting. I worked Bundy in the late seventies as a supervisory special agent in the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI Academy. My job was teaching death investigations with a specialty in sex crimes. The Unit collected enormous information. Anecdotally, we had a paste board with most of his suspected victims in the Unit bullpen. When Bundy’s ‘mother’ picture was added it became apparent that he was ‘killing her’ or a facsimile therof. I team taught with Bobbie Ressler who ultimately coined the phrase ‘serial killer’. We reached quite a few law enforcement students who furnished info on these unsolved (at the time) cases. I’ve also handled Whitey Bulger the serial informant killer out of Boston (The Departed) fame or infamy. I worked with people out of the U of Pa on psychopathology which was edifying in ‘understanding’ these people’s ‘masks’. Graet job to Kevin and I will buy the book! Bob Fitz in RI.

  27. Jason–

    I take a close look at Bundy’s life in Florida that goes beyond just committing the murders. And while I can’t go into everything now (I’m sure you all are tired of hearing that!) let me say that Bundy’s biggest problem was Bundy! And after reading the book, you’ll see what I mean.

    But as to the murders themselves, well, he reached the point that he couldn’t contain it any longer and now people were going to die. But even having said that, there are reasons WHY Bundy killed as he did in Tallahassee, and I explore these as well.

  28. Thanks everyone for the discussion. One point that you made kevin which i am really interested about in your book is the factors that played apart in compelling Bundy to kill in Florida in that one chapter. My guess is that While Bundy was living at the oaks, he began to drink heavily during the evenings and this coupled with the fact that he had this deep need to find someone to kill, is there any other factors either internall or external which provoked teds need to kill in florida? It seems strange that just after a week of escaping prison, he decides to kill knowing that he would draw attention to himself and hinder any chances of him staying a free man.

  29. Vidor–

    While I understand that Ted came to the “top” of their list at the exact same time that Utah authorities were contacting them, the truth is this: Had Bundy stopped killing after he left Washington State, or, had he not been caught by the Utah Highway Patrol, and subsequently could have avoided Jerry Thompson, his chance of being arrested for any of the Washington murders was very small. True, the Washington cops may have ended up feeling that Bundy was “their man”, but without any REAL EVIDENCE, it wouldn’t have gone very far, in my opinion. And I don’t think, even with those folks they could present to the court who in fact saw Ted at Lake Sam talking with various women (and victims!) it would be a slam-dunk, as they say; not once his attorneys became involved in the matter. So Washington State may never have gotten justice had Utah not blown the lid off of Ted’s secret world.

  30. Hi Claire–

    I believe Ted was on a course of no return. That is, he was going to keep committing murder until he was apprehended or killed. I talk about this in the book, and I also point out the various aspects of his personality which would come into play that explains why it all came to a sudden end in Florida. Another killer in the exact situation may have been able to evade the authorities for years, but many factors played a part in stopping it all there. It will be an illuminating chapter, indeed.

  31. I was meaning to ask about that. Mr. Sullivan, presumably you’ve read Keppel’s book? What do you think of the scenario he builds for the Washington police arresting Bundy even if he hadn’t been caught in Utah?

  32. I watched an interesting documenatry on Psychopathology. It said that there are lot of psychopaths in society who can function in every day jobs but whose relationships are messes.

    People hear the word psychopath and think of killers, it has negative connotations but just being egocentric is a pyschopathic trait. I would say that the nominally normal psychpathic individuals pose no physical threat but certainly an emotional threat to whoever they become involved with.

    Bundy was just not a normal pyschopath he was an extreme pyschopath.

    It’s interesting to think of what would have happened if he was never caught in Utah. In Keppel’s book he looks at the “what if”. He certainly may still be alive but would he still be murdering if he was never caught? Dennis Radar, the BTK killer, manager to go 10 years without klling so I suppose anything is possible. Mind you Radar did kill again, I guess murder really is like a drug to those people.

  33. Isn’t it odd how there are degrees to psychopathology? I mean, you have to have some degree of it (in my opinion) to function as a car salesman. The car sales crowd will be mad at me for saying this, but I know it to be true, as I sold cars at one time in my life. In that world, the sociopath can say all manner of things to customers, and it doesn’t matter that much (or most) of what they say are lies, it only matters that they soak the customer for as much money as possible. I’ve seen guys take advantage of old people in ways that are almost criminal, but they’d walk away from the deal laughing about how they “screwed them out of their money.” They never gave even one thought that what they might be doing will harm the old folks financially; none of that mattered.

    And of course, the sociopath can cheat on a spouse and think nothing about, or leave the children behind without the slightest thought for their well-being. Those who do such things DO have a form of this psychopathology. No, they may never commit actual murder like Bundy, but they can destroy lives emotionally and steal to their hearts content, and never miss a wink of sleep!

  34. Actually, now that I look at it, Ted might only get a 1 on question #12, “Early Behavior Problems”. AFAIK the only warning sign we know of in his early childhood is the notorious incident recounted in “The Stranger Beside Me” where he arranged a bunch of knives around his aunt in bed. So maybe that’s a 39 instead of the perfect 40.

    I’ve been reading Hervey Cleckley’s “The Mask of Sanity” (it’s available in PDF online for free) and all the case studies of psychopaths are people who were completely unable to integrate in society–constantly getting drunk, always getting arrested, etc. It’s impressive that Ted was able to wear his mask so well and get along in society as long as he did. If he hadn’t shown his face to witnesses at Lake Sammamish and gotten Liz suspicious he might never have come on the radar of the police.

    Of course, it was that kind of poor impulse control that did him in. He probably would have beaten the rap in the Campbell trial, and gone free in a couple of years if he’d resisted the escape impulse. If he had disposed of Kimberly Leach’s possessions like he’d always been so careful to do before they wouldn’t ever have been able to convict him of that murder, and probably ditto for Chi Omega if he’d been able to restrain from biting Lisa Levy or worn his ski mask as he went out the front door. For that matter if he’d been able to resist the impulse to kill people in Florida and successfully obtained a copy of Kenneth Misner’s birth certificate he probably could have remained free for years, like Sara Jane Olson did. But by then he was coming unglued and he couldn’t keep the mask up.

  35. I used the site Vidor provided and my friend’s ex came out with 32 points, which makes him a psychopath, and most of the zero answers were due to lack of knowlege about his childhood and teen behaviour. She and her children had a narrow escape. As it is, his daughter doesn’t trust men and his son, who never spoke till this man left the house (a fact I find very telling) doesn’t understand why his father broke so many promises to him as a 16-18 year old and now has no contact with him as he can see for himself what a peice of work his father is.

  36. I read Richard O’Hare’s book ” Without Conscience”when it came out as I was concerned about my best friend’s husband (long story) and he scored eight of of ten on O’Hare’s checklist! His GP later diagnosed him as such. He hasn’t killed anybody, but he has left a trail of misery in the shape of 4/5 broken marriages, countless affairs, several children for whom he has never paid a penny in support, a line of jobs gained and lost. I’ve seen him change from a monster to a gentleman when he saw he was being observed and I thank my lucky stars my friend is well shot of him.

  38. Here’s something interesting. It’s the PCL-R test for diagnosing psychopaths. Warning: the website hosting the test has a political agenda, however, I believe the test as presented is accurate.

    http://www.arkancide.com/psychopathy.htm

    Ted scores a perfect 40, doesn’t he?

  40. While I think you’ll very much enjoy the book for all that is new, how it is written, and the way I follow the story, I do not quote Bill Hagmaier to any great degree. What Bill did for me was give me a sense of what is was like dealing with Bundy at the end, and he was able to tie up some loose ends, as it were, having to do with that period. But because I don’t cover the period of Bundy’s end-of-life confessions (the facts of those confessions are scattered throughout the book) you won’t “see” a lot of Bill in there, yet I found his conversations with me to be invaluable. And I guess you can get a sense of it from my comments about Bill at this site.

  41. I think someone asked upthread about Bundy’s VW. While Jonathan Davis of the band Korn did in fact own the car, he wound up giving it to a business associate named Arthur Rosenblatt after plans for a serial killer museum fell through.

    http://tinyurl.com/pw9ue2

  42. Oh, I’ll buy it. As I said, if Mr. Sullivan had done nothing more than get Bill Hagmaier on the record for the very first time, his book would be worth it.

  43. Vidor, the publishers set the book cost, not the author! Ask them, not Kevin!

  44. 5th line from the bottom: What happened to my “t”? Oh well, make that “print” LOL!!

  45. Vidor–

    Yeah, I’ve heard about the Seattle tour, and I’d like to know if the folks who live there now know what kind of fiend once walked those floors?!!

    When I stopped at the 565 First Avenue address in Salt Lake City, I asked one of the college kids if he knew who once lived there (the place still serves students) and he had no idea. I told him about Bundy, and while he nodded his head in agreement as to understanding who he was, he looked at me rather oddly for telling him! Go figure.

    Concerning the price of the book let me say this: Those who purchase my book will very quickly see the difference in many of the true crime books currently “out there”; That is, it is meticulously researched and documented, and it isn’t one of the hurry-and-grind-one-out type of books you so often see on the market today. I have literally left no proverbial stone unturned in my search for the truth. I’ve also had the cooperation of all of the lead detectives on the case, and I’ve uncovered new information about some of these murders that has never before in prin. As I’ve said many times before, I follow Bundy’s trail of murder in a way that is quite unique. As such, I believe it is fair to say that the lasting value of having something like this far exceeds the cost of the original price. I’ve spent this much on books before, and I can assure you, when I did, they were worth every penny.

  47. I saw that too, that they have him buying something in Tacoma a day after he left for Utah. Not sure what the deal with that is.

    I read on the Internet that there’s a ‘haunted Seattle’ tour that stops by the Rogers rooming house where Ted kept all those severed heads. I wonder if his apartment complex is still there and, if it is, if the current resident is aware that a bunch of girls were murdered there. That would make for some conversation at a Friday night keg party.

  48. Hello Jason and everyone!

    I just checked out the time-line on Theodore, and it does look interesting. However, there are some errors: First, they give a date (the month of August ’74 only) when Ted moved to Utah. This is incorrect. They do have him departing Seattle for Utah on the 2nd of September of 1974, which is correct, but they have him purchasing an item from Nordstrom in Tacoma, WA on the 3rd, and this is impossible. Perhaps they meant to say Salt Lake City instead of Tacoma; or perhaps somebody other than Bundy used his card, which is unlikely. The fuel purchasing records I have from Jerry Thompson show the various stops Bundy made for gas along his route to Utah, and there is a gasoline purchase in Burley, Idaho on the 3rd, but this is probably after midnight while Bundy was on the last-leg, as they say, of his trip. So he was not in Tacoma on the 3rd of September. Still, it’s a very informative site.

  50. hi vidor.
    Sorry i am having trouble locating the report on the above site that you mentioned. Is the report actually on the tedbundy.com website or archive.org. Once i type in tedbundy.com, it comes up with a list of dates from each year. Would you know where abouts the ‘errata’ section would be
    many thanks
    Jason

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