Ted Bundy

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Biography

Family and early life

Political involvement

Pacific Northwest crimes

Move to Utah

Utah prosecution

Colorado prosecution

Eastward getaway

Chi Omega prosecution

Kimberly Leach prosecution

Death row and execution

Controversies

Others involved

1975 Grand Junction murders

Political connections

Republican Party

See also

References

External links

  • True crime overviews
    • The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule (1980) - PDF here
    • The Only Living Witness by Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth (1983)
  • People, "The Enigma of Ted Bundy: Did He Kill 18 Women? Or Has He Been Framed?", 1980/01/07
    • "Previously, while researching a five-part series on Bundy, Walsh discovered that seven other men could be linked circumstantially with some or all of Bundy’s alleged crimes. “There are five possible ‘Teds’ in the Seattle area alone,” she says. The list includes a convicted sex offender who was living in Seattle at the time of the murders there. He then moved to Aspen, where he took a job at Snowmass, the resort where victim Caryn Campbell was staying. His co-workers remember him as violent, especially toward women. He didn’t show up for work on the day Campbell was murdered; the next day he picked up his paycheck and left town. (Subsequently he was given a lie detector test and passed.)"
    • "Walsh also learned that another suspect in the Seattle slayings was living in Salt Lake City at the time of the DaRonch kidnapping. Later convicted of shooting a woman to death, the suspect owned a gun and handcuffs and matched DaRonch’s description of her abductor—dark, slicked-down hair and a mustache. “The thing that makes me want solid proof against Bundy is that we have uncovered these other people,” says Walsh. “They fit the pattern of evidence and description in an almost uncanny way.”"
    • "Ted Bundy : the mystery / KOMO Teklevision News ; executive producer, Jim Harriott ; producer, writer, reporter, Ruth Walsh ; cameraman and editor, Rich Crew": "A five-part report on mass-murder suspect, Ted Bundy. Reproduced from the archival original, housed in the Peabody Collection of the University of Georgia Libraries, by the Peabody Recording Center, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga., 1981. An entry in the 1979 Peabody Awards competition for television, no. 79118 NWT. Recorded from broadcasts of the program KOMO-TV news 4 during July and August, 1979 by KOMO-TV, Seattle, Wash."
  • Law enforcement documents
    • Seattle Police Department, case 74-031075 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) (archive)
      • installment 1: on p.30 has the 1974/07/03 statement of former Medford OR policewoman Sylvia Wahl mentioning a cult in Kirkland WA involving college-aged girls; she was approached by a girl driving a beige or yellow Volkswagen, which had two other girls as passengers, and asked to come to a meeting with them; when asked what kind of meeting, the driver said words that sounded like a chant, and inside the car, there was a wooden box which one of the passengers said contained an altar; the conversation led Wahl to believe that this group was a cult; the meeting was going to be on 13 Lake Street or 31 Lake Street; for whatever reason this document ended up in the Missing Girl File; on p.181 introduces a former roommate and good friend of Bundy's named John Muller; on p.182 says that Muller was partners in a diving venture with someone named Stan, who drowned a month ago and whose possessions subsequently ended up in a garage used by Bundy; notes that Muller went to Australia shortly after Stan's death; on p.185 says that Muller's wallet had a "private guard license" inside; on p.186-187 interviews James Doros who knew Bundy through his friend Muller; quotes Doros as saying that he and Stan Nielsen took over Northwest Marine Collectors from Jim Styres and John Muller in May 1975; puts the diving accident with Nielsen in August 1975 and says that his body had not been found; has Doros say that Muller had gone to Australia to work security for the State Department, and he did not know whether or not it was a CIA assignment; on p.190 has Val O'Donald of McChord AFB say that Muller was stationed at Alice Springs in Australia to provide support for Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica; on p.192 names Muller as John Edward Muller, who claims that he met Bundy in August 1973, didn't associate much with him, and last saw him in September 1974 when Bundy left for Utah
      • installment 2: on p.5 it is mentioned that as of 1975/10/06 Bundy knew Ann Rule was writing a book; on p.158 there is a Seattle police interview with Michael Leach a.k.a. Kelly in October 1975 about his knowledge of cult activity and possible connections to the missing girls: "Officers brought KELLY into homicide office on information they received that Homicide wanted to talk to him about the missing girls in the U district and info he may have about the Cults. This started about a year ago when KELLY was somehow involved in narcotics, and two Det who he believes were a Frank & Dan Stokey, at this time Kelly states he went to the two Det and told them that he Met a man who he learned to know but had ill feelings about, and did not trust, they met at a bar and this man told him about persons who were involved in the cult activity and were looking for organic Mescaline. A short time later he met another person who told him the same story, and told him that they wanted approx 500 hits. This last person was a black guy by the name of Alex, Andrew who later raped a girl in U dist and has not been seen since. A few days later he was with his friend in a tavern who pointed out two of the persons wanting the drugs, they went and talked to them and talked about the price. A appointment was arranged to meet them at a later date to give them a sample of the drugs, and to see if he could find out anything about the missing girls. The meeting place was the Eastlake zoo tavern, he went there but the people did not show. Kelly cannot remember names, stated he has been in Seattle the last year, that about every day he is in LEE'S BAR in the U District drinking."
      • installment 3: on p.22-23 there is a mention of case 74-138 about a woman accusing a Seattle police officer of raping her, which the department denies
      • installment 4: on p.13 a woman being interviewed about Bundy refers to "two separate Teds or schizophrenic personality"; on p.20 in the interview transcript of her it mentions that Ann Rule had already, as of 1975 when the interview happened, "written a whole book on the missing girls"; on p.34 a Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office homicide investigator mentions collaborating with Mike Fisher of the Pitkin County District Attorney's Office, Sgt. Bill Baldridge from the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office, and Milo Vig of Grand Junction CO from the Mesa County Sheriff's Office; on p.61 mentions Det. Dave Reichert of the King County Sheriff's Office being involved in a 1989 search for remains of Bundy's victims; on p.86 details an informant on 1974/06/26 giving information to Det. F.L. Roesler about the missing girls: the bodies of the girls were "all hacked up" at an unknown location, the girls were killed during the cult's religious rites, the cult purchased hallucinogenic drugs from the informant to use during their rites, they had a house on Capitol Hill and one in the Fremont area, a woman named Joanne with a history of mental illness who lived on 12th Avenue N.E. near the University District was taken by the cult but made so much noise that they let her go, the informant was planning to meet a cult member at Fat Albert's Tavern on Eastlake Ave. E. at 8 PM on that date to arrange the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the informant believed another girl would be kidnapped soon; Roesler believed the informant's information was good; on p.142 William Hugh Parry (born in Chicago IL in 1947), a former US Army serviceman and University of Washington philosophy major who lived near Lake Sammamish, was mentioned as offering several Capitol Hill women escort jobs to persuade them to get into the car with him; on p.145 mentions a request to the Los Angeles authorities for more information on William Hugh Parry
      • installment 5: on p.135-136 there is a 1976/02/04 letter from Dodie Etlinger of Boise ID: in late February 1975 she was approached by two girls trying to lure her to a house while a car with three man pulled up to oversee, her husband was a journalist who worked with Ken Matthews on the Thomas Creech case and she remembered him discussing similar tactics, as a Post Intelligencer journalist her husband also received a call from a University Hospital security guard in 1974 claiming that a young man there who worked as a janitor and had a friend in the cast room would go by the name Ted "when he wanted to make time with the girls" and later quit and "went east of the Cascades to work in the wheat harvest"
      • installment 6: on p.73-81 there is the Murray City Police Department report about the Carol DaRonch abduction: report was taken at 8:30 PM, on p.76 she says she arrived at the mall around 7:00 PM and was inside 10 to 15 minutes before meeting her abductor outside, on p.80 she says she spent 20 to 30 minutes with her abductor in total, and on p.80 she says she was picked up by witnesses who took her to the police station after getting free, allowing us to conclude that DaRonch likely escaped her captor closer to 7:45 PM which would give him about 15 minutes to reach the high school in Bountiful
      • installment 7: on p.6 is a letter from Susan Roller to the Seattle police chief on 2017/07/18 claiming that there was "a cover up of the Ted Bundy cases in general and in particular relative to the findings at Taylor Mountain", asserting that crime scenes were unprotected and evidence was ignored or destroyed while people "were allowed to profit from the case"; on p.7 Roller asserts that Robert Keppel, whose book Riverman shaped public opinion on the Bundy case, spread misinformation about the Bundy dump sites which hid the fact that he was already an "experienced serial killer" in 1974; on p.12 Roller claims that "law enforcement agencies in WA" ("from the Attorney General Office to the Seattle and King County police") "acted in concert" to hide this misinformation; also claims that in Issaquah where the remains of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund were located, other unidentified remains were also found; on p.16-20 it is noted that the Taylor Mountain site, which Keppel (whose name is on all the investigative reports) claimed was just a dumping ground, had items like chemical bottles and a proximity to abandoned houses indicating that Bundy took refuge there to plan his crimes; on p.23 the case number for the Taylor Mountain investigation is given as 75-29267; on p.54-55 there are documents mentioning "VORTMAN, MARLIN L" and linking him to the addresses "3510 W. ELMORE 201 SEATTLE, WA. 98199", "1220 IBM BLDG SEATTLE, WA. 98101", and "3814 NE. LATONA SEA, WA." as well as "LINCOLN NATIONAL LIFE"; on p.85 is a circled article about three men kidnapping two girls in Bang Saen, Thailand for Chinese millionaire "Sia Klueng"
  • Political connections of Bundy
    • From p.163 of The Only Living Witness: "Outwardly, however, Ted was still the young Republican. He wrote friends that he could not believe what had happened (which was true) and how he looked forward to the system working to correct its error. This was the Ted that they all remembered, the one for whom a “Ted Bundy Defense Fund” was immediately established. Something over $4,000 was almost immediately raised, and major contributors included Marlin and Sheila Vortman as well as Ralph Munro [the Washington Secretary of State involved in the VoteHere company]."
    • Marlin Vortman background
      • Attorney bios for Vortman & Feinstein: "Marlin L. Vortman began his professional career with the systems engineering division of the Boeing Company’s Developmental Center. He later worked for a local mechanical engineering firm before accepting a commission in the US Army in 1966. In the early 70’s, Marlin worked with Washington Governor Daniel J. Evans to revise the state’s tax structure. He advised the Washington State Legislature’s House Republican Caucus and was later assistant legal counsel to the Senate Republican Caucus. Marlin began his legal career defending small businesses who were being sued because of a product they manufactured or a service they provided. Marlin then worked for ten years with one of Seattle’s foremost real estate attorneys, representing local real estate professionals and their Multiple Listing Service. Marlin went on to develop his own general business practice serving closely held business, trade associations, medical and other professionals."
      • 1981/03/17 letter by Vortman concerning an annual report while working at Keller, Rohrback, Waldo, Hiscock, Butterworth & Fardal
    • Aspen Times Weekly, "Evidence represents Ted Bundy’s time in the Roaring Fork Valley", 2019/03/28: "Among the items in storage at the DA’s Office in Glenwood Springs [...] in the boxes of documents is a detailed report about Bundy’s escape from the jail in Glenwood Springs. Included is a lengthy inventory of the stuff he left behind in his cell after he broke out. Among the legal documents and texts, food items like vegetable protein powder and clothing was a large collection of books. They included “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72” by Hunter S. Thompson, the Woody Creek writer who lost the 1970 Pitkin County sheriff’s race to Carroll Whitmire, the man who occupied the Sheriff’s Office when Bundy committed the Snowmass Village murder. [...] Bundy apparently received several Christmas cards during the winter of 1977, including one, oddly enough, from Sheriff Dick Kienast and the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office. The cards were saved as evidence in a manila envelope and tucked in among the boxes of evidence."

Life background

  • From p.184 of Programmed to Kill:

        Theodore Robert Bundy was yet another serial killer whose parentage remains obscured. He entered this world in 1946 at the Elizabeth Lund Home for unwed mothers and he was promptly abandoned there for three months by his mother, Eleanor Cowell. He was raised to believe that his mother’s father, Sam Cowell, was his father as well, which he may in fact have been. Chronicler Ann Rule has written that the identity of Ted’s real father was unknown outside of the family, and that he was a “shadowy man whose real identity grows more blurred with every year that passes…” Throughout his life, Bundy described his church deacon father/grandfather in glowing terms, while other family members have characterized him as a horrendously violent and abusive man who terrorized his family and was sadistic to animals. Sam Cowell’s own brothers reportedly stated on numerous occasions that somebody should kill him to spare others further misery.
        In October 1950, Ted’s mother began calling herself Louise and legally changed her son’s name from Theodore Robert Cowell to Theodore Robert Nelson—for no discernable reason. The next year, she married Johnnie Culpepper Bundy and changed Ted’s name once again. Johnnie, a former Navy man and a member of a large clan of Tacoma Bundys, was employed at—of all places—a military hospital at a joint Army/Air Force complex. Ted attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington—at least according to his former classmates he did. That cannot be verified, however, since all records of Bundy’s enrollment there have strangely disappeared. After graduation, he worked for a municipal electric utility.
     
  • Allegation that Thomas Dowling Carr / Thomas D. Carr / Thomas Carr was Bundy's father
    • Part 3 of the FBI vault files on Bundy - allegations were made by Thomas's daughter Janla N. Carr in 1991; after noting that Bundy's mother Louise claimed Bundy's biological father was known to her by the name Jack Worthington, it relates Janla's claim that her father told Louise his name was either Lloyd Nelson or Jack Worthington; Janla accuses Bundy of multiple crimes: pushing a little girl into the path of a train at West Park in Pittsburgh PA during the mid 1950s, stealing a car in Tacoma WA and driving i to Pittsburgh at age 14 or 15, having him confess in 1970 at a party in Pittsburgh to a Tacoma murder and a 1969 New Jersey turnpike murder, and being in Pittsburgh in 1970 when a coed turned up stabbed to death; it is noted that the photograph of Thomas "bears a resemblance to published photographs of Ted Bundy"; elsewhere calls Janla by the name Janla D. Carr; notes that Janla claims her father once introduced Louise as "Aunt Eleanor"; on p.40-41 has Janla Carr claim that both her father and Bundy himself had "hypnotized" her to forget about the family connection
    • Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Grieving father, fatal obsessions", 1998/01/30 (pages 1, 10): "Thomas Carr gave Pittsburgh homicide detectives a torn piece of newspaper, 19 years old, with his daughter's troubled scrawling on it. The mostly indecipherable note written by Janla Carr told of some unidentified man looking at her strangely. That proved his daughter had been murdered, the Squirrel Hill man first told detectives nearly a year ago and many times since. Patiently, repeatedly, detectives told Carr that such was not the case. Janla, who had a lengthy history of mental illness, had probably committed suicide eight days after her 45th birthday by putting herself in the path of a train in Oakland. If not a suicide, they told him, it had been an accident. [...] On Wednesday, inside the Wal-Mart in Cranberry, Carr, 84, told his tale to a cellular telephone salesman throughout the day. Shortly thereafter, he took off a tassel cap, walked near the cash registers, drew a handgun, pointed it to his chest and pulled the trigger. [...] Wounded, he fired two more shots into his chest. [...] Janla Carr and her father had what friends characterized for police as a "love-hate" relationship. Janla Carr would tell her friends that her father had abused both her and her mother, who died of cancer about five years ago. Yet Thomas Carr, who told police he was a retired U.S. Postal Service supervisor, paid for the apartment Janla Carr kept in a former mansion in the 5100 block of Fifth Avenue, Oakland. [...] Janla Carr, who had suffered with mental illness for years and had numerous stays in Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, graduated from college but held no job. [...] Late on the night of Jan. 31, 1997 [...] The woman had been killed instantly. It was Janla Carr. [...] "He would point his anger in different directions, one tirfie.at'his neighbors, another time he would be angry at us and other times he would be angry at some nebulous government agency," Freeman said. [...] On Tuesday, Carr went to the Butler Eagle newspaper office and told an employee that he wanted to talk about his daughter's death, that he tried to get Pittsburgh police interested in it but he no longer trusted them. He said her murder involved a top political aide of a gubernatorial candidate. Carr, who said he was on the run, was referred to Post-Gazette reporter Dennis B. Roddy. The next day, Wednesday, [...] Carr walked about 20 yards away, out of Hengelsberg's line of vision. And then the first shot was fired."
    • North Hills News Record, "Suicide comes year after daughter's death", 1998/01/30: "The Pittsburgh man who shot himself Wednesday in front of employees and customers at the Wal-Mart in Cranberry did so just short of the first anniversary of his daughter's death. Thomas D. Carr talked to several people in the store, including a cellular telephone salesman claiming that his daughter was murdered and the same people were after him. [...] Although Janla Carr had a home, Marraway described her as eccentric. "I believe she had some psychological problems," Marraway said. "She had been in the hospital for psychological problems." There was no indication that Carr. 84, had psychological problems, according to Cranberry police Cpl. David Lewis. "When talking to the family, they were shocked at the occurrence," Lewis said. He said Carr has a sister who lives out of state. [...] Lewis added that police do not know where Carr got the gun he used to shoot himself and it is not registered. [...] Carr claimed he was the victim of FBI and police conspiracies, according to Hengelsberg. "It sounded like something on 'Miami Vice,'" Hengelsberg said Wednesday after the shooting."
  • Ann Rule - a potential handler of Bundy
    • From p.37 of The Stranger Beside Me: "We might never have met at all. Logically, statistically, demographically, the chance that Ted Bundy and I should meet and become fast friends is almost too obscure to contemplate. We have lived in the same states at the same time—not once but many times—but the ten years between our ages precluded our meeting for many years."

Occult connections

  • Connection to the Seattle murders
    • From p.186-187 of Programmed to Kill: "Along with the proliferation of missing girls, the Pacific Northwest was grappling with another emerging problem in the spring of 1974: an abundance of what are referred to as ‘cattle mutilations.’ While conspiracy theories attempting to explain this phenomenon abound, such theories frequently involving UFOs and alien experimentation, many police investigators and independent researchers have linked these occurrences to local satanic cult activity."
    • Spokane Daily Chronicle (from Associated Press), "Police File Hints at Ties With Occult", 1976/02/03 (also called "POLICE FILE HINTS AT THE OCCULT" in a Henry Makow article): "A Satanic cannibal murder in Montana [possibly Stanley Baker], animals found skinned and missing their vital organs, and disappearances of Northwest women all play a part in the mystery of Seattle Police File 1004. Police interest in the occult, witchcraft and satanism has been stimulated by the mysterious slayings of several Washington and Oregon women and by the ravings of a murderer in Idaho. That plus the Charles Manson legend and a new wave of animal mutilations have caused a host of hysterical tipsters, officers say. The disappearance of the women—one of them in the company of the mysterious "Ted"—has filled File 1004 with citizen suspicions of a deadly occult connection, police say. Several tipsters said they'd seen men who looked like "Ted" and had held cult meetings, talked of the occult, talked about devil worship, worshipped rattlesnakes or set up strange shrines in the forest. With hindsight, some of the tips turned out to be laughable. The shrine in the forest was the work of a backwood sculptor. A "devil mask" was a piece of model airplane wing. A strange red and orange symbol on a tree turned out to be a forestry sign. But file 1004 continued to grow. A witch involved in "white magic" was said to know of a black magic group on the east side which had used the missing women in a sex ritual. Another advanced a theory that "Ted" was a Jesus freak who traveled to South America, studied Inca religions in which an ancient god returned to earth with a wounded wing, Ted's broken arm, and was forced to sacrifice victims on a high altar. None of the tips panned out, police say. There was a haunting resemblance between several of the missing women, whose photos revealed them as having long hair, parted in the middle. Some said they looked like sisters. Could they have been hand-picked for ritual death? And why, when the remains of four of them were discovered on Taylor Mountain last March, were there only skulls and skull bones found, officials wonder. Within weeks of the skull discoveries, an Idaho murder suspect, 24-year-old Thomas Creech, began talking to authorities from his jail cell. He said he had witnessed the ritualistic slaying of several women in King County by a motorcycle gang of Satan worshippers. At least the innocuous portions of his bloody story were true. There was a house in South King Couty like the one he described as the site of cult killings, and several of the individuals he named did exist. And human blood was found in one of the rooms in the house, although Seattle Police Homicide Capt. Herb Swindler said the room was too small for the kind of hideous ceremonies Creech described. But the bizarre events continue, and File 1004 continues to grow. Is the occult involved? "I've never known," said Swindler. "I don't know now.""
    • The Daily Chronicle (Centralia WA), "Seattle police investigating witchcraft", 1976/02/03: "[...] and missing their vital organs, to disappearances of Northwest women all play a part in the mystery of Seattle Police File 1004. Police interest in the occult, witchcraft and satanism has been stimulated by the mysterious slayings of several Washington and Oregon women and by the ravings of a murderer in Idaho. That plus the Charles Mansco [Manson?] legend and a new wave of animal mutilations have caused a host of hysterical tipsters, officers say." plus "[...] of them in the company of the mysterious "Ted" filled file 1004 with citizen suspicions of a deadly occult connection, police say. Several tipsters said they'd seen men who looked like "Ted" and had held cult meetings, talked of the occult, talked about devil worship, worshipped rattlesnakes or set op strange shrines in the forest. With hindsight, some of the tips turned out to be laughable. The shrine in the forest was the work of a bickwood [?] sculptor. A "devil mask" was a piece of forestry sign. But file 1004 continued to grow."
    • From p.48-49 of The Only Living Witness:

          In the absence of any concrete leads as to "Ted's" identity, many north westerners thought the answer would be found in occultism or Satan worship, which enjoy small but ardent followings around Seattle. One rumor given broad currency was that “Ted” had been a Jesus freak gone insane after a trip to South America. The theory was that “Ted” believed himself to be the reincarnation of a broken-winged Inca bird god.
          Herb Swindler wasn't buying anything so outrageous, but neither was the frustrated investigator above checking out the occult angle. Working quietly and, for the most part, alone, he put together what became File 1004, a dossier on area occultism. In the end, the effort led him no closer to “Ted”, but in the absence of anything more substantive to go on, he felt obliged to try.
       
    • p.189 of Programmed to Kill has a slightly different quote from Michaud: "Chronicler Michaud, however, offered a different take: “occultism or Satan worship [are] creeds that local police say have long found a small but ardent following of practitioners around Seattle.”"
    • From p.198 of The Stranger Beside Me: "Seattle Police had a file on occult happenings, File 1004. Reports came in to the beleaguered Task Force—reports from people who thought they'd seen “Ted” at cult gatherings. In any case with such widespread publicity, a number of “kooks” will surface, advancing theories that make an ordinary person's hair stand up on the back of his neck. There were totally unsubstantiated rumors that the missing and murdered girls had been sacrificed and their headless bodies dumped, weighted, into the almost bottomless waters of Lake Washington."
    • From p.111 of The Only Living Witness: "An odd-shaped piece of paper was found near the Issaquah hillside, and promptly there was speculation that it was a ceremonial mask. The “mask” turned out to be a wing cover for a model airplane. Many people were convinced that a virulent offshoot of the Charles Manson family had moved to the Seattle area and had begun a new reign of terror led by “Ted.”"
    • The Oregonian, "SATANISM AT ROOTS OF INMATE'S ELABORATE ESCAPE PLOT? SYMBOLS OF DEVIL WORSHIP RAISE UMATILLA SUSPICIONS", 1988/04/01: "The suggestion of satanism caught Donald D. Yokom of Pendleton, Bernson's court-appointed attorney on the escape charges, by surprise. ``I haven't heard anything of that,'' he said Wednesday. ``This is the first time anybody suggested that to me.'' But Carey said satanism crops up occasionally in criminal cases around the Northwest. ``We have definitely seen it in some homicides,'' the sheriff said. ``I think we're underestimating it. . . . I think it plays a far bigger role than we've understood in the past.'' Bernson is a former Tri-Cities, Wash., produce salesman who once bragged of traveling with Seattle serial killer Theodore Bundy, who is on death row in Florida. Bernson has been in jail for nearly 2 years, awaiting trial for the Dec. 22, 1978, murder of 15-year-old Sharon Weber at Cold Springs Reservoir near Hermiston. [...] According to testimony last year by former cellmates, Bernson bragged that he and Ted Bundy traveled together. Bundy was investigated, though never charged, in a string of murders in Washington state of college-age women in the mid-1970s. Six bodies eventually were found. Bundy has steadfastly denied any involvement in those killings."
    • "Programmed To Kill/Satanic Cover-Up Part 92 (Ted Bundy - Serial Killer - Occult & Satanism)", 2018/02/05 - has "Mad Dog" McKenna, a purported Hand of Death member, being interviewed by Gerald John Schaefer about how he taught Bundy about Satanism in 1973 and how Bundy sent a map to a cave where he tortured women; discusses how Bundy incinerated victims' bodies, raising the possibility that others were involved; points out the resignation of Ben Meyers after Bundy escaped from his Colorado prison
    • Fatal Visions No. 17, "AMERICA'S CULT OF DEATH: THE HAND OF DEATH" by G.J. Schaefer - claims that Bundy was driven to commit his crimes due to his involvement in Satanism; says that "South African adventuress" Molly von Heydreich was researching the Hand of Death, contacted Kenneth McKenna, and learned from him about Ted Bundy's cave where he tortured his victims; claims that practitioners of Palo Mayombe had stolen the remains of Denise Naslund from a police morgue and brought them to the mountains of northern Mexico; also claims that Bundy's hair was taken by Pauli Valentino, a member of the squad that prepared Bundy for execution who realized its value to the Satanic underground, and that Bundy's ashes were hidden in the Gainesville FL home of University of Florida employee Michael Radelet; says that in 1993 von Heydreich learned from McKenna that Bundy followed a branch of Satanism associated with some of Charles Manson's followers; claims that McKenna ordered the murder of von Heydreich through the satanic underground after she betrayed his confidence by publishing what he told her; mentions two books on Bundy links to Satanism: Ted Bundy's Butchered Beauties by Molly von Heydreich circulated by Justice Now in Columbus GA and the upcoming The Horrors of Bundy's Cave by G.J. Schaefer
    • Criminology Australia Vol. 6 No. 3, "Social control and the violation of human rights: the relationship between sociological variables and serial murder", 1995/02: "A further important influence on Bundy in a subcultural context was Satanism. After murdering several hitch-hikers during 1973, Bundy believed his own arrest was inevitable unless he could secure the protection of metaphysical forces. Through his contacts in the pornography underworld he met Kenneth "Mad Dog" McKenna whom he believed could help him through an organisation known as the Church of the Process, established in 1963. Initially, followers of the cult were offered a choice of deities, including Jehovah and Christ, but progressively the organisers insisted on homage to Satan. McKenna allowed Bundy to visit him at his home in Manasota, Florida. McKenna was able to cite details and provide evidence from his own criminal history which convinced Bundy that he could indeed kill with impunity provided certain guidelines were followed. He offered' Bundy a contract to sign which would enable him to commit murder and avoid detection as long as he acted as a representative of Satan and not simply indulge his own desires. A ritual was enacted, with Bundy becoming a practitioner of Satanism (K. McKenna 1994, pers. comm.). Apparently, Bundy was convinced of the validity of Satanism, and his subsequent behaviour was influenced accordingly."
    • Interesting note: Bundy attended Stanford University back in the 1960s, and purportedly starting killing in 1974, the same year that Arlis Perry was murdered at Stanford by Four P cult members. The accounts of File 1004 (see above) suggest a connection between Four P member Stanley Baker and a Satanic cult led by "Ted", and the weapon used on Perry was an ice pick, something that was found in Bundy's trunk at one point.
    • From Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger by Richard Larsen: "For years [Captain Edwin "Butch"] Carlstadt had been at the frustrating task of tracking California's so-called Zodiac killer. One after another, Carlstadt had investigated murders of girls and young women in northern California—fourteen or more between December 1969 and December 1973—in which the victims, often hitchhikers, were found nude, without clothing or other belongings. Near the bodies was found an elaborate witchcraft symbol of twigs and rocks."
    • From p.203 of Programmed to Kill, there is the possibility of overlap between Bundy's murders and those committed by Thomas Creech or his associates: "Ted Bundy, calmed by tranquilizers, was put to death by the state of Florida on January 24, 1989. In his final hours, he allegedly confessed on tape to an array of murders, including some in the state of Idaho that he had never been accused of. Many of the details given in these confessions were either wrong or unverifiable, and the tape is difficult to hear—due purportedly to yet another tape-recorder malfunction."
  • Above Top Secret comment about Bundy alluding to a larger network: "Toward the end of Stephen G. Michaud's book, The Only Living Witness: The True Story of Serial Sex Killer Ted Bundy, the author stated that Bundy said there was a secret network wherein people like himself were able to communicate, & to help each other in their efforts. Nobody was ever sure whether there might be some truth to this claim, or whether this was just one more ploy on Bundy's part to inspire the postponement of his scheduled execution so he could give information on this subject. Bundy attempted to offer several incentives to persuade the authorities to let him live a bit longer (including hints about more murders & an offer to lead authorities to bodies), but society had apparently had enough of Mr Bundy, & it was decided to allow his departure from this life to proceed on schedule."

Victim information

  • Melissa Smith - 1974/10/27 in Midvale UT
    • Find A Grave memorial for Melissa Smith: "Murder Victim. Daughter of Police Chief Louis Smith. Chief Louis had warned his seventeen year old daughter about the dangers of the world. On October 18, 1974, Melissa left a pizza parlor where she had been visiting with friends, but she would never make it home. Her body was found October 27, 1974 in Summit Park, she had been strangled. A murder victim of Ted Bundy, who confessed to her murder just before his execution on January 24, 1989."
    • From p.180 of The Stranger Beside Me: "Meg looked through the newspaper clippings that Lynn had brought back with her, and she drew a sigh of relief when she read that Melissa Smith had disappeared on the night of October 18. “There, see? October 18. I talked to Ted that night about eleven o'clock. He was looking forward to going hunting with my dad the next day. He was in a good mood.”"
  • Carol DaRonch - 1974/11/08 in Murray UT
  • Debra Kent - 1974/11/08 in Bountiful UT
    • From p.95 of The Only Living Witness (also on this Tumblr blog):

          Meanwhile, another incident was unfolding twenty miles to the north in Bountiful.
          That night, the Viewmont High School drama club was presenting The Redhead before an audience of 1500 in the school auditorium. The play was to begin at eight, but the opening curtain was delayed about twenty minutes. Just before eight, drama teacher Raelynne Shepard, an attractive twenty-four-year old, was approached in the hallway by a young man she later described as “very good-looking.” Not only was he handsome, Shepard thought, but he was impeccably dressed. She noticed his patent leather shoes.
       
    • From p.188 of The Stranger Beside Me: "A man who had arrived at Viewmont High School to pick up his daughter after the play reported that he had seen an old, beat-up Volkswagen—a light-colored Bug—racing from the parking lot just after 10:30 on the night of November 8."
    • Drug dealer suspect Ronald Dennis Auth - pseudonym John Badway
      • ...
  • Caryn Campbell - 1975/01/12 in Aspen CO
    • Detroit Free Press, "Nurse's Death a Homicide, Colo. Investigators Believe", 1975/02/20: "Pending autopsy results expected later this week, investigators for Colorado district attorney Frank Tucker are working on the assumption that 23-year-old Dearborn nurse Caryn Campbell was murdered. Her naked, frozen body was found Monday two miles from an Aspen, Colo., ski resort from which she disappeared Jan. 12. She had been vacationing there with her fiance, Dr. Raymond Gadowski of Farmington Hills. [...] The sheriff's office earlier told reporters that marks on the woman's wrists showed she had been tied and probably thrown from a car. The sheriff's office also said the slaying might be connected with 12 others reported in the West. [...] Tucker said there are no suspects yet. His staff, he said, had interviewed practically all the guests at the lodge the night of Miss Campbell's disappearance. Miss Campbell's body was to be flown to Detroit for burial. Robert R. Campbell, Miss Campbell's brother and a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., policeman, flew to Dearborn Wednesday to be with his family."
    • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Bundy questioned by Pitkin County investigators", 1976/03/23: "A Salt Lake County sheriffs office said Monday that two officials from Pitkin County, Colo. questioned Bundy a week ago in connection with the slaying of Caryn Campbell, 24, a Michigan nurse, near Aspen, Colo. early last year. She disappeared while on a skiing vacation. Her body was found Feb. 18, 1975. The officer said Bundy's lawyer, John D. O'Connell, was present during the jail questioning by Pitkin County Sheriff's Lt. William Baldridge and Michael Fisher, an investigator for that county's district attorney. The session also was tape recorded."
    • Greeley Daily Tribune, "Convicted Utah kidnapper is charged with murder", 1976/10/23: "Bundy, 29, a former University of Utah law student from Tacoma, Wash., now serving a one-to-15-year sentence in Utah State Prison, was served a warrant accusing him of the 1975 killing of a nurse at the Aspen, Colo. ski resort. "I will prosecute Mr. Bundy for murder in the first degree," said Pitkin County District Attorney Frank Tucker in Glenwood Springs, Colo. [...] Michael Fisher, an investigator from Tucker's office, carried the first degree murder warrant to the Utah prison and served it on Bundy."
    • Alternate Seattle suspect Joe Temos a.k.a. Hugh Joe Temos a.k.a. Hugh Joseph Michael Temos a.k.a. Hugh Michael Joseph Temos - pseudonym Manny Treff
      • People, "The Enigma of Ted Bundy: Did He Kill 18 Women? Or Has He Been Framed?", 1980/01/07: "Previously, while researching a five-part series on Bundy, Walsh discovered that seven other men could be linked circumstantially with some or all of Bundy’s alleged crimes. “There are five possible ‘Teds’ in the Seattle area alone,” she says. The list includes a convicted sex offender who was living in Seattle at the time of the murders there. He then moved to Aspen, where he took a job at Snowmass, the resort where victim Caryn Campbell was staying. His co-workers remember him as violent, especially toward women. He didn’t show up for work on the day Campbell was murdered; the next day he picked up his paycheck and left town. (Subsequently he was given a lie detector test and passed.)"
    • Culpability of Pitkin County Undersheriff Ben Meyers
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Aspen court action for Bundy opens", 1977/04/05: "One of the key prosecution witnesses in the Caryn Campbell murder case identified the wrong man Monday during a preliminary hearing for Theodore R. Bundy, charged with the slaying. Instead of identifying Bundy, she singled out Pitkin County undersheriff Ben Meyers as the man she saw standing near an elevator where Miss Campbell was last seen. [...] Bundy was sitting at the defense table when Lizabeth Harter of Chico, Calif., was called to the stand Monday in district court. Prosecutor Milton Blakey asked if one of the men she had seen outside the elevator at the Snowmass lodge, where she and Miss Campbell were staying, was in the courtroom. "I cant be sure," she said, then asked to have one man stand up and singled him out. That man was the undersheriff, who wasnt in uniform. Another witness, who according to a prosecution affidavit had spoken to Miss Campbell as she got off the elevator, was called to testify. Ida Yoder, wife of a Littleton physician, promptly said that she did not speak to Miss Campbell and could not remember at what floor Miss Campbell got off the elevator."
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Bundy to stand trial for murder", 1977/04/07: "District Court Judge George E. Lohr ruled Wednesday that there is probable cause to bind Theodore R. Bundy over for trial on a first-degree murder charge in the death two years ago of a Michigan nurse. Lohr had no comment on the case, except to say that he had reviewed the evidence presented at a preliminary hearing Monday and Tuesday and found that Bundy should stand trial. A hearing on motions is set for May 6. No trial date has been set. [...] An FBI agent testified Tuesday that hair substances found in Bundys car were of the same type as those of Miss Campbell. Gasoline credit cards were introduced to show that Bundy was in the Aspen area at the time Miss Campbell was slain. Bundy's public defender, however, contended that insufficient evidence was presented to indicate Bundy should be tried. He noted that one of the key prosecution witnesses, when asked to identify Bundy in court Monday, singled out Pitkin County Undersheriff Ben Meyers as the man she saw standing near an elevator in the Snowmass Lodge where Miss Campbell was last seen."
      • From p.315 of The Stranger Beside Me: "This time, the eyewitness was the woman tourist who had seen the stranger in the corridor of the Wildwood Inn on the night of January 12, 1975. Aspen Investigator Mike Fisher had shown her a lay-down of mug shots a year after that night and she'd picked Ted Bundy's. Now, during the preliminary hearing in April of 1977, she was asked to look around the courtroom and point out anyone who resembled the man she'd seen. Ted suppressed a smile as she pointed, not to him, but to Pitkin County Undersheriff Ben Meyers." (a play calls the witness Sandra Quilling) (true crime author Kevin M. Sullivan names her as Elizabeth Harter)
      • Archive Aspen photograph of Ben Meyers: "One b/w image of Ben Meyers, new Pitkin Co. undersheriff, in the Aspen Times on May 20, 1976, pg. 11B."
      • The Capital Journal (Salem OR), "Meyers seeks Colorado job", 1973/12/05: "Salem Police Chief Ben Meyers has been on the road this week looking for a new job. Meyers, 42, was interviewed by officials in Grand Junction, Colo., as one of three finalists for chief of the department in that Western Colorado city."
      • Salem Statesman Journal, "Meyers Finalist for Colorado Job", 1973/12/05: "Ben Meyers, Salem's police chief since May 1967, is one of three finalists to apply for police chief at Grand Junction, Colo. Meyers, 42, was in the Eastern Colorado city of 23,000 population this week for an interview for the job, The Statesman learned Tuesday. He is scheduled to return here today."
      • The Capital Journal (Salem OR), "Salem police chief takes Colorado position", 1973/12/10: "Salem Police Chief Ben Meyers will resign Dec. 31 to become chief of police in Grand Junction, Colo. City Manager Robert Moore said Meyers, 43, informed him of the resignation this morning. [...] Meyers, who came here in 1967, cited the new challenge and the climate as the two main reasons he accepted the Grand Junction job. [...] Meyers said he began looking for a job early this year when the Salem Civil Service Commission rejected his bid to demote Captain Walter Esplin to lieutenant. He noted that the Grand Junction police force does not have civil service. Meyers, who makes $21,000 a year, will take a base salary cut to $16,000. But certain fringe benefits including a paid life insurance policy, exemption from social security payments, and vacation and sick leave benefits partially offset the cut. [...] "Don't get me wrong," he said. "I like this community, They've paid me well, and I've tried to serve them well. I just never liked the climate.""
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Bar incident revealed after police chief resigns", 1976/01/20: "The resignation of Grand Junction Police Chief Ben Meyers, announced Monday, follows a New Years Eve confrontation with the local state liquor Inspector at a Grand Junction bar. During the argument Meyers threatened to get" the job of James Gilliam, local state liquor inspector, according to a report filed by Gilliam with the state revenue department. Also during the argument, Meyers told Gilliam he would dismiss a police officer who had made allegations that the chief was illegally buying alcoholic drinks for a 19-year-old girl friend, according to Gilliam's report. The confrontation occurred during the new year's celebration at The Timbers bar and restaurant, 1810 North Ave. The Sentinel learned of the details of Gilliams report this morning from Roland Brumbaugh, deputy director of the state revenue department. [...] Gilliam also reported that a young woman he later verified as being 19 years old was sitting at Meyers table on the night of the confrontation. Gilliam reported the woman had a drink in front of her but that he did not check to see if it was an alcoholic beverage, Brumbaugh said. Brumbaugh added that Gilliam later told his superiors at the revenue office that a few days after the bar incident, Meyers apologized to him and assured him his woman companion was drinking only Coca-Cola. [...] For the past month in interviews with The Sentinel Meyers said he was considering other job opportunities and as early as last October spoke of the consultant position with the Public Administration Service. Meyers often cited press criticismas one reason causing him to seek another job."
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Interim police chief to be named Jan. 30", 1976/01/20
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Meyers says confrontation didn't lead to resignation", 1976/01/27: "Grand Junction Police Chief Ben Meyers said today the New Years Eve confrontation with the local state liquor inspector had nothing to do with his resignation announcement last week. In his first interview with The Sentinel on the subject, Meyers also said he might not take an offer to become a consultant for a law enforcement evaluation agency, Public Administration Service. He originally said that job was why he is resigning, effective Friday. He said today that in addition to the Chicago-based firms offer, he is considering three other jobs. One would be a management position with a local business, which he declined to identify. Meyers said that he also has tenative interviews scheduled with two larger cities, one in California and one in Minnesota, for police chief."
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Ex-police chief must testify at former policeman's trial", 1976/02/18: "Grand Junction's former police chief, Ben Meyers, will have to testify at the marijuana possession trial of Richard Deavens and Bobby Wilson on March 4, Mesa County Judge Harold Moss ruled Tuesday afternoon. [...] On the witness stand, Meyers said he expects to be in Rochester, Minn., as a police consultant for Public Administration Services for five weeks, beginning in the next few days. Meyers told Defense Lawyer Harold Flowers of Denver, who had subpoenaed him as a witness, that he was "unemployed - between jobs," and that his address is 2837 Mesa. He also testified that he had decided to resign as police chief "to seek better employment" and that he had three job offers at the time he resigned. One was with the Chicago firm, one was in a management position with a Grand Junction business, and one was a police chief interview, he testified. [...] Meyers told the court that, as police chief, he had heard rumors that Deavens, a Grand Junction policeman, was involved in narcotics deals. Meyers said there were more rumors than usual about Deavens, and Flowers asked if he felt there was some reason. "Because he's black," Meyers replied. "Does that concern you?" Flowers asked. "Yes, it does," Meyers replied."
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Mayor calls resignations 'normal turnover'", 1976/03/06: "Kozisek, backed by city council members Jane Quimby, Larry Brown and Bob VanHouten, maintained the four resignations are coincidental. The string of resignations began last October when police Capt. Robert Burnett, the number two man in the department, resigned. Police Chief Ben Meyers announced, his resignation, effective Jan. 30, on Jan. 19. City Manager Harvey Rose held a news conference Feb. 19 to announce that he plans to resign but declined to give a date. On Feb. 23, Public Works Director Gus Byrom said he would resign on April 2 and then City Engineer Rodger Young announced last Monday that he would resign on March 19."
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Meyers has caretaker Aspen role", 1976/08/10: "Former Grand Junction Police Chief Ben Meyers has become head of the Pitkin County Sheriffs Office following the resignation Monday of the county's elected sheriff whose performance was the subject of an outside investigation. Meyers, 46, became Pitkin County undersheriff this spring after resigning his Grand Junction post in January. He will temporarily replace Carroll Whitmire as Pitkin County sheriff. Whitmires performance was criticized Tuesday by Dist. Atty. Frank Tucker, whose staff recently conducted an investigation of the sheriffs office. Pitkin County Commissioner Dwight Shell man told The Sentinel today it is unlikely Meyers will be formally appointed acting sheriff an election will be held for the job in November."
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "City bank files lawsuit against former Junction police chief", 1976/12/22: "A lawsuit has been filed against former Grand Junction Police Chief Ben H. Meyers involving money he borrowed from the First National Bank in Grand Junction. The lawsuit alleges that Meyers, now employed as undersheriff for Pitkin County, and living in Aspen, has not repaid loans of $1,700 and $1,400 he received from the bank in November, 1975, and January, 1976. [...] Meyers, contacted in Aspen this morning, said he has not repaid the loans. But he blamed his financial troubles on a divorce settlement his ex-wife obtained from a Mesa County District Court judge this November, and said he intends to repay First National Bank as soon as possible. The divorce settlement was rendered against Meyers a few months after his repayment of the bank loans was due. Meyers, 46, resigned as Grand Junctions police chief last Jan. 19 and was named to his current law enforcement job in April. [...] Meyers became Grand Junction's police chief In February, 1974, after serving in the same capacity in Salem, Ore. His resignation last January came in the wake of criticisms about his performance as police chief and his personal lifestyle. Upon his resignation Meyers received $3,364 in severance pay from the city."
      • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Meyers leaves Pitkin County law position", 1977/07/01: "While Meyers' resignation follows immediately a pair of resignations directly related to the recent escape of Theodore Bundy, Kienast said Meyers departure is not connected to that incident. Kienast said he and Meyers differed over law enforcement philosophy. Meyers said he will vacation at Aspen, and possibly at Lake Powell, before considering new job opportunities. His resignation took effect Thursday."
      • In his previous job as police chief of Grand Junction CO, Meyers faced controversy during the murder trial of Ken Botham over Botham's apparent framing, the string of murdered women in 1975, and police involvement in organized crime that Meyers himself likely partook in: "The public would like to believe lawmen are on their side, but with a turnover rate far in excess of the state average, sexual involvement of nearly a dozen officers (that can be proven) with some of the victims, when the same officers being assigned to investigate their murders when they admittedly alter and destroy evidence, and when the police chief of that time, partied with the victims before their deaths, a feeling of uneasiness tends to develop.

        The police chief Ben Meyers was forced to resign shortly after the Tomlinson murder, and was allegedly extensively involved in drug traffic. Botham's investigators found numerous large deposits in account in two banks, but the D.A. objected to a court order for all Meyers bank records and Judge Ela denied it, saying it was irrelevant. Immediately, the chief resigned, clearing all accounts. This man took an undersherrif position in Aspen, Colorado, resigning after Ted Bundy escaped from the Aspen jail. During the Bundy trial, a witness identified Myers as the man she saw leaving the dead nurse's apartment at the time of her murder . . . the nurse Bundy was accused of killing and leaving frozen in the countryside."

        As the Ken Botham website's overview of people describes him: "Was found to have several "extra" bank accounts with untraceable money. Cleared bank accounts and left Grand Junction in December, 1976. Went to Telluride as Chief of Police. Alleged connections to the drug/traffic/prostitution community."
      • Denver Post, "Former Grand Junction cop still haunted by bizarre rash of homicides in 1975", 2012/05/19 (pages 1, 2, 3, 4): "On April 6, serial killer Ted Bundy bought fuel at a gas station where Rushing’s brother worked, Rushing said. Coincidentally, a girl resembling many of Bundy’s victims, Denise Oliverson, disappeared while riding a bike. The next day her bike and shoes were found but not her, according to a Grand Junction Sentinel article. Three months later in July a “ghost” murdered Linda Benson, 24, and Kelley Ketchum, 5, Rushing said. It would take decades before DNA would identify the mysterious killer, who had never been on the radar for Rushing and two detectives while they tirelessly investigated the case in 1975 and the years to come. The man was suspected serial killer Jerry Nemnich . Authorities arrested Nemnich in 2009. Nemnich became a person of interest in the murder of June Kowaloff, a 20-year-old mathematics major at the University of Denver On Aug. 22, Patricia Botham and neighbor Linda Miracle and her two sons Chad and Troy were murdered. Patricia’s husband Kenneth was later convicted of their murders and sentenced to life in prison. Before the terrifying year was up there would be one more shocking homicide in the bucolic city of Grand Junction. It would prove to be the most difficult to solve. Shortly before 6 p.m. on Dec. 27, 1975, a Saturday, the partially clothed body of Deborah Kathleen Tomlinson, 19, was discovered in the bathroom of an apartment at 1029 Belford Ave. She had lived alone in the ground-floor apartment a block south of Mesa College, where she attended school. Tomlinson’s hands were tied behind her back, according to an article that appeared in The Denver Post two days later. Evidence indicated she had also had been sexually assaulted, according to a Grand Junction Sentinel article. [...] Grand Junction spokeswoman Kate Portas said currently there are no suspects in the Tomlinson case. But despite all the years that have passed she holds out hope the case will be solved some day."
      • The Killing Season by Alex French (2016) - preview
      • From l.900 of The Killing Season: "There were rumors Chief Meyers took cash for looking the other way on prostitution and drugs. When it became too much to ignore, the city council president (a former police chief) asked Fromm to investigate in secret. That's the way Fromm tells it, at least. He says he stole the key to the chief's file cabinet. Slipped into the office late one weekend night when he imagined Meyers would be out with his buddies. But then Chief caught him snooping. The next day the brass kept Fromm in interrogation for four hours. Worked him over good."
      • Linda Miracle and Pat Botham murders - on August 23
        • Junction podcast episodes (show notes) - says that Butch Goad and wife Arlene Goad were "told by Patricia that her and Linda were going to come forward with some news that was going to shock the whole town"
        • Reddit comment about another Colorado murder suspect who brought up the Botham and Miracle murders: "Incidentally, this case was referred to briefly by one of the witnesses to a murder case currently in the courts, the retrial of Lester Jones, who is accused of murdering Paige Birgfeld. One of the other suspects in that case, Steven Heald, who took the stand a couple days ago, was said by another witness to have mentioned the case "out of the blue" when they had met to discuss business several years ago, at the Bridgeport road where it intersects US 50. The witness found it alarming that Mr. Heald had mentioned the discovery of the bodies that were "thrown off the abandoned bridge" up the road, for no apparent reason in the midst of their business discussion. As it happens, the victim's remains in this case were found in this vicinity as well, near Wells Gulch adjacent to the Gunnison River, a few miles away from the Bridgeport Road."
          • Denver Post, "Mesa County: arrest made in death of soccer mom turned escort", 2014/11/22 (pages ..., 5, ...): "They investigated Steven Heald, 44, then the manager of Blue Star Industries. He had written checks to Paige. When Sgt. Josh Warner interviewed Heald, he said he once asked Paige if she was ever afraid of the johns she met and she replied, “no more than I’m afraid of my ex-husband.” He said that Paige offered a deal in which Paige would give the construction company Pampered Chef products to new home buyers. She also did odd cleaning jobs for Blue Star for money. Two days before her disappearance he had lunch with her and she said she was trying to refinance her home."
          • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Witness: Birgfeld blackmail story was a lie", 2016/08/25: "A former client of slain Grand Junction call girl and single mother Paige Birgfeld said Thursday that early in the investigation he fabricated a story to law enforcement that she was blackmailing him in order to avoid coming under scrutiny himself. Steven Heald, a former Delta resident, testified Thursday that, even though he seemingly gave himself a motive in Birgfeld’s 2007 disappearance by claiming she was demanding hush money to hide their sexual relationship from Heald’s wife, that story was a lie, and he had nothing to do with her death. “She never blackmailed me,” Heald said on the witness stand. “(At the time) I am trying to protect myself and trashing someone who did not deserve to be trashed.” Defense attorneys have presented Heald as one of several alternate suspects they say could have kidnapped and killed Birgfeld instead of Lester Ralph Jones, who is standing trial for the crime. Law enforcement briefly investigated Heald as a suspect, but ultimately cleared him after his alibi was verified, according to testimony Thursday."
          • Dateline NBC, episode on the Paige Birgfeld murder with reporter Keith Morrison, 2017/04/01: "reporter: so they let him go too, for the moment. the other clients? hautzinger knew one of them very well, a prominent real estate investor named steven heald. he was almost as well known in town as rob dixon and, like dixon, for the wrong reasons. investigator: the first major case i handled when i came to this jurisdiction was his multi-million dollar fraud case. i mean, i had prosecuted him and sent him to prison back in the early '90s for that. so when he came up again as a suspect in the birgfeld matter it was interesting. reporter: when detectives questioned him, heald admitted he embezzled money from his company to pay for dates with paige. but then, he claimed, paige turned the tables on him. investigator: he made allegations that she was essentially blackmailing him asking for extra money. reporter: what a motive. except heald's wife supplied an alibi -- they were home that night, reading, watching tv. so heald seemed to be in the clear -- which made it all the more shocking when -- after being questioned by detectives -- heald attempted suicide. that, d.a. hautzinger assumed, was not guilt but shame."
      • Denise Oliverson disappearance - on April 8
      • Linda Benson murder - on July 25
        • Her murder is the focal point of The Killing Season
        • Denver Post, "Rapist held in 1975 murders", 2009/04/10: "According to a July 27, 1975, Denver Post article, the bodies of Benson and her daughter were discovered on a Friday afternoon in their apartment. [...] Neither victim was raped."
        • From l.376 of The Killing Season: "A cross was carved into her sternum, between her breasts."
        • From l.558 of The Killing Season: "Word around Junction was that the stab wounds suffered by Linda and Kelley formed a particular pattern that linked them to cult killings in California."
        • From l.710 of The Killing Season: "There were rumors around town (none of them substantiated) that Steve Benson was running stolen guns and drugs—marijuana packed into hollowed-out bullet casings. There were murmurs that he'd been behind on a narcotics payment. A member of Lawrence Himmerite's church group told the police, I'll tell you what, though. Linda was into the drug scene. I believe she had knowledge of the numerous heavy pushers around the Valley and that put her into considerable danger. Once she said to me, "If you only knew who the dealers are . . . big shots.""
        • From l.913 of The Killing Season: "STEVE GOAD, A race car enthusiast who lived in the Chateau Apartments, saw Ted Bundy on TV and said, Oh my God. That's my boy! He remembered so clearly seeing that face in the parking lot out back on the night Linda and Kelley were murdered. The police brought the hypnotist in to work with Goad. It was around 2 a.m. He looked like he was nursing something that was hurt. Ribs maybe. I looked him dead in the eyes. Cold black eyes that I'll never forget. He was real close. I thought he was going to rumble."
        • Death of sister in 1974
          • From the Botham website overview: "The previous year (July 1974) Linda Benson's older sister, Judith Ketchum, is found dead at a campground just outside of Aspen (Pitkin County). Authorities ruled it a drug-overdose. The head sheriff, however, was investigating a plane crash and Judith's body was suspiciously whisked away and embalmed before family members could request an autopsy."
          • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, "Young Junction woman's death attributed to natural causes", 1974/07/09: "The death of a Grand Junction woman, discovered Monday at an eastern Pitkin County campground, is being attributed to natural causes, according to a district attorneys investigator here. Investigator Michael Fisher told The Sentinel today the death of Judee Ketchum, 22, appeared to be from natural causes. He said circumstances surrounding Miss Ketchum's death indicated little possibility of foul play or suicide. He said an autospy would be performed in Denver to determine the exact cause of death."
          • Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, obituary for Judee Ketchum Lake, 1974/07/10: "Mrs. Judee Ketchum Lake, 22, of 3347 Road G, who died unexpectedly Monday at Chapman Reservoir campground while vacationing in the Ruedi area, had lived in Grand Junction since 1961. She was employed at Delta Products. The Ketchum family came here from North Platte, Neb., where she was born Feb. 6, 1952. Surviving are her husband, Phil Lake; her mother, Mrs Barbara Himmerite; two brothers, Mark and Danny Ketchum, and two sisters, Linda and Tammy Ketchum all of Grand Junction."
          • Fort Collins Coloradoan, "Body of young woman identified", 1974/07/11: "The body of a young woman found in the Chapman Reservoir Campground near here Monday has been identified as that of a 22-year-old Grand Junction woman, Judy Ketchum, authorities reported Tuesday. Assistant Dist. Atty. Mike Fisher of Aspen said the woman apparently died of natural causes. Her death was first reported as a possible homicide when the body was found. Fisher said the woman had a history of poor health and had seen a Glenwood Springs doctor [...]"
      • Jerry Nemnich as a serial killer
        • Denver Post, "Rapist held in 1975 murders", 2009/04/10: "Nemnich has an extensive sexual-assault history. His first case was in Nebraska when he was 16 in 1960. In 1961, at 17, he was convicted of rape with a weapon and served a prison term in Colorado, said Katherine Sanguinetti, Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman. In 1968, he was imprisoned for assault with intent to rape, according to CBI records. In 1974, he was arrested in Boulder for rape using a weapon, kidnapping and assault, according to CBI records. The disposition of the case is not known. Between 1978 and 1992, he served a prison sentence for a Denver rape."
        • Boulder Daily Camera, "Longmont man arrested in 1975 Grand Junction killings", 2009/04/10
        • Boulder Daily Camera, "Longmont suspect investigated in '73 DU killing", 2009/09/02: "Two years earlier, June Kowaloff, a 20-year-old mathematics major, was fatally stabbed outside her apartment at 2301 S. Race St. in Denver early on a Saturday morning. Denver cold-case detectives are investigating whether Nemnich killed Kowaloff, according to Sgt. Anthony Parisi. "We have reopened the case," Parisi said. "We are reinterviewing witnesses." Investigators are going to compare semen found on the woman to Nemnich's DNA, according to sources."
        • Denver Post, "DU student raped, stabbed after accident" by Kirk Mitchell, 2009/09/05: pages 1, 2, 3 - has this weird detail: "In the early 1990s, New York City attorney Arthur Kowaloff got a call from the same Denver detective who had worked on the investigation of his sister’s murder 19 years earlier. The detective told him he was going to seek a DNA test of a man who had been a suspect in June’s death all along. Arthur Kowaloff said he couldn’t recall the suspect’s name. The detective wanted to test the man to determine whether he was the killer before his release from prison. Arthur Kowaloff never heard from the detective again."
        • ABC7 Denver, "Longmont Trucker Explains DNA In Mother-Daughter Slayings", 2010/10/26
        • GJPD Patrol, "Past and Present Come Together for a Conviction", 2010/10/29: "In 1960 Nemnich raped a 15-year-old girl at knifepoint."
        • From l.1133 of The Killing Season: "Bullard called up Nemnich’s rap sheet. He found an arrest in late August of 1960 for rape, assault, and car theft in North Platte, Nebraska. (North Platte was Where Barbara Himmerite was from, Bullard remembered.) Nemnich was just fifteen years old the first time he got put away. He stayed fourteen months in a Lincoln, Nebraska, reformatory. The day he was released, police from Boulder County picked him up and brought him back to Colorado on rape charges. Nemnich negotiated a plea agreement and served as a guest of the state until 1963; he was nineteen. When he was released. Six months later he was picked up again, this time in Grand Junction, for passing bad checks. He served four years. In May of 1968, Nemnich was arrested just hours after entering a home in Pueblo through an unlocked front door and sexually assaulting a woman. He threatened her with a cleaver. Witnesses spotted him casing the neighborhood before the attack. He was just about to turn thirty when he was released in 1973. Once free, Nemnich landed in Denver. He got caught trying to shoplift a carton of cigarettes in 1975 but otherwise managed to avoid serious trouble until 1978, when he kidnapped a woman at gunpoint, forced her into a vacant apartment, and raped her. The Department of Corrections (DOC) sent over booking photos. In 1968, Nemnich had been bookish and prim, with thick, black-framed glasses and a hairline in prompt retreat. In the photos from ’75 and ’78, he had long, shaggy hair, a thick beard, and dark-tinted prescription glasses. His facial features were hardly visible behind the hair and the spectacles, but there was no hiding the menace."
      • Other potential victims in Grand Junction
        • From l.888 of The Killing Season: "GRAND JUNCTION, IT seemed, was overrun by evil. At a motel on Horizon Drive in Grand Junction, Detective Montgomery busted a drifter for using hot credit cards. When Montgomery went through the man's wallet, he found IDs for two young Oregon women who'd mysteriously disappeared weeks earlier. Out on the interstate, sheriff's deputies and state troopers arrested three men from the FBI's most-wanted list."
      • UFO cult in Grand Junction at the time - later infamous as Heaven's Gate
        • Washington Post, "KEEPER OF HEAVEN'S GATE WAS AN EARTHLING NAMED MARSHALL APPLEWHITE", 1997/03/28: "For more than two decades, they had been known as "The Two." They were soft-spoken and secretive, a nurse and one of her former patients. They called themselves Bo and Peep, or sometimes Tiddly and Wink, or even Winnie and Pooh. Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Trousdale Nettles had a knack for winning publicity. In 1975, they made it onto Walter Cronkite's newscast, "a group of earthlings who believe they're on their way to a rendezvous" with a rocket ship from outer space. According to academic studies and news accounts, he was a music professor who had sung 15 roles with the Houston Grand Opera and was said to resemble Mister Rogers in manner and voice. She had left medicine to become an astrologer, and left her family to join Applewhite in a spiritual journey. Both were once dedicated Christians. And both came to believe that they were aliens from the "next level," sent to Earth to find converts who would join them in a return to outer space."
        • Baltimore Sun, "Cult leader seduced 20 people from town on Ore. coast in '75 Most returned, wonder what impulse drew them", 1997/03/30: "WALDPORT, Ore. -- This seaside village, a pastiche of lighthouses, tidal pools, and cedar-shingled bed and breakfasts, does not look like a source for new members in a UFO cult. But Aaron Greenberg remembers the day when he and about 150 people -- one quarter of the town's population -- eagerly packed a motel hall to hear Marshall Herff Applewhite, who was called Bo at the time, lecture on the topic "UFOs -- why they are here, who they have come for, when they will leave." "There was this compulsion," Greenberg recalled of the standing-room-only crowd that attended the September 1975 lecture. . "It was like Richard Dreyfuss in 'Close Encounters' when he was making that tower of mashed potatoes." Within days after the lecture, about 20 people, including Greenberg, had left town to join the cult, going first to Grand Junction, Colo., for a gathering of more than 400 people seeking an eventual rendezvous with a UFO."
        • Denver Post, "Rapist held in 1975 murders", 2009/04/10: "The Bensons’ murders occurred during a year when 15 women and children died violently in western Colorado and eastern Utah: [...] There were rumors in the shaken community at the time that some of the murders were cult killings. A UFO cult, led by a couple who called themselves “The Two,” had stayed at Colorado National Monument around the time of the murders."
        • From l.794 of The Killing Season: "For years the Two had been recruiting members across the country. In Spokane, Washington, and the Bay Area and Los Angeles and Ojai and Sedona, Arizona, and Boise, Idaho, and Longmont, Colorado, and western Nebraska. The Two instructed their followers fast. They recommended that, after surrendering all money and material objects, their followers relied on the kindness of church organizations for fuel and sustenance. Sex, drugs, alcohol were forbidden. A young woman from West Allis, Wisconsin, showed authorities a note from her boyfriend, a twenty-two-year-old surveyor: "I've seen the light, and I'm going to follow it. There's so little time left." Police in Fox Lake, Illinois, linked the group to a string of cattle mutilations and murders plaguing Midwestern farmers." - note that West Allis WI is where Jeffrey Dahmer's grandmother lived
    • Brother and Fort Lauderdale FL police officer Bob Campbell
      • Fort Lauderdale News, "Machete-Wielding Man Sets House On Fire, Fends Off Policemen", 1975/01/31: "A machete-wielding arsonist possibly aggitated by marital problems set fire to an empty house this morning and tried to cut police officers who arrested him minutes later, police said. Police arrested Wilmer Vassor, 25, of 915 NW Third Ave., and charged him with arson and aggravated assault against a police officer. Police later today said Vassor was a mentally disturbed person and that they will place him in a state hospital under the Baker Act. Officers Dave Ecklund and Robert Campbell said they were directed to the fire at 3:45 a.m. by witnesses who said they saw a man torching a house at 909 NW Third Ave."
      • Fort Lauderdale News, "The Truglia Jury — 10 Hours Of Anger", 1976/08/15 (pages 1, 17, 18): "But, the four holdouts would not give in. They asked to hear again the testimony of Officer Robert R. Campbell, of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, who was one of the first policemen to arrive in the bloodstained room on NW 15th Street and talk to Truglia. It was read back to them by the court clerk. They heard again Campbell's words, how he saw Mary Lou Truglia lying on the floor, her mouth smeared with blood and her tooth chipped off. She was hysterical, the young officer said. They heard him relate Truglia's admission at the scene. It hardly varied from the defendant's later statements, and he was "highly upset" at the time. They heard again how Truglia called his .22 a .38 revolver. Most of the jurors thought that a natural mistake to make in the turmoil of the moment. But the four wondered and held out."
      • Fort Lauderdale News, "Woman Shot In Apartment Robbery", 1979/02/09 (pages 6, 8): "While staying at the Las Olas home. Miss Deiss met 26-year-old Kevin Buckley in the neighborhood several days ago. He lives less than a block away in a second floor apartment at 321 Sunset Drive. Buckley, described by police as a yacht broker, was returning to his apartment late last night with a friend, Laurie Doornbosch, 26, of 1520 SE Third Ave. [...] [Susan] Ruhl said she heard one of the men say, "DA" or "DEA," as he met one of the victims at the door. "I thought he meant district attorney," Miss Ruhl said. Detectives, however, believe the intruders were trying to pass themselves off as agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. While rifling through drawers and personal belongings, the two men kept demanding of Buckley, "Where is it? Where is it?" the victims told police. Detectives said Buckley told them he did not know what the men were looking for. The victims added that they could hear the men using walkie-talkies or some other type of radio to communicate with a third person. Finally, according to Miss Ruhl, the intruders received a radio message: "Get out the back door, quick." The two men fled immediately. [...] [Linda Deiss] ran to the Las Olas home where she had been staying and telephoned police. Patrolman Robert Campbell, first to arrive at the Las Olas home and first at the apartment, found the other victims."
      • Fort Lauderdale News, "Out of luck: Annual influx of destitutes begins when fall winds blow", 1980/10/19: "The paramedics and police try to decide what to do with Florice. "Come on, dear. We're going to give you a ride. You can't be sleeping on this bench," says Fort Lauderdale patrolman Robert Campbell. "You're not playing games, are you?" challenges Florice. "Do I look like I'm playing games?" responds Campbell. He piles Florice into the back of a patrol car and heads for the Broward Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center. It's a nightly assignment."
      • Fort Lauderdale News, "Witness in Williams' trial says car on bridge at murder site", 1982/01/08 - unsure if same Robert Campbell: "The police recruit who was under the Jackson Parkway bridge the night Wayne Williams became a suspect in the Atlanta child murders testified today he saw a car turn on its lights on the bridge seconds after he heard a loud splash in the river. Robert Campbell told the jury in the third day of testimony in Williams' trial for the murder of two of the 28 black victims that he used his flashlight to follow the waves of the splash in the Chattahoochee River to a point below the concrete bridge. "I looked up, I looked down, looked up again and I was about to look down again when I saw lights come on right there above where the splash originated," he testified. "Then what did you see?" asked prosecutor Jack Mallard. "The car went on across the bridge very slowly," Campbell said. It was the first revelation that Campbell had seen a car as well as heard a splash early in the morning of May 22, 1981, and the first testimony that Williams, who was driving the car that another recruit saw coming off the bridge, had been running with its lights off."
  • Chi Omega sorority house murders - 1978/01/15 in Tallahassee FL
    • From p.237 of The Only Living Witness:

          It had been nearly three and a half years since Dr. Daris Swindler, the forensic anthropologist from the University of Washington, had examined the remains of Denise Naslund, Janice Ott, and the nameless third victim found on the Issaquah hillside. Those murders had never been far from his mind, not with the indelible memory of cradling Jan Ott's peculiarly elongated skull in one hand while he compared it with the photograph of her that he held in his other hand.
          On Sunday morning, January 15, 1978, Swindler awoke in Tallahassee, Florida. He and his wife, Cathy, were on their way to a Caribbean vacation and had stopped in Florida capital to visit a favored ex-student, then teaching at FSU.
          When they heard the gruesome news of the Chi Omega slaughter that morning, Cathy Swindler felt “this shudder of recognition.” She remembered the horror of 1974 in Seattle. Their host in Tallahassee also remembered the “Ted” killings and his former professor's involvement in the case. “What are you doing?” he asked jocularly. “Bringing more dead girls along with you from Seattle?”
          Daris Swindler laughed uneasily.
       
    • Bite mark evidence
      • Tallahassee Magazine, "An Extra-Ordinary Joe", 2012/07/20: "Yet while prosecutors used the bite marks to put Bundy at the scene of the murders, Aloi says he personally knew the evidence was faulty. That’s because before the trial, when Aloi told Bundy that investigators were going to make an impression of his teeth, “he broke his tooth off right in front of me” using the metal return bar from the typewriter. Bundy told him, “Now let them figure that out.” During his testimony, Souviron matched that gap in Bundy’s teeth to the photograph. But, says Aloi, “Of course it couldn’t be, because I saw him make the gap.”"
    • Dr. Emil Spillman - a "jury expert" for Bundy's defense
      • Associated Press, "Ted Bundy Trial Miami 1979", 1979/06/28: "Ted Bundy, left, accused in the Chi Omega sorority sister murders, leans over the table to offer an opinion to defense counsel Dr. Emil Spillman during jury selection for his murder trial, Wednesday, June 28, 1979, Miami, Fla. Bundy is participating in his own defense, along with a team of public defenders. Spillman is an analytical hypnotist."
      • From p.457 of The Stranger Beside Me: "Dr. Emil Spillman, the Atlanta hypnotist who had been Ted's jury expert, told the press that Ted had truly chosen his own jury. They had to go through seventy-seven potential jurors before they reached a final selection on June 30."
      • Obituary of Emil V. Spillman III who died 2005/08/26 - served in the US Marines during the Korean War; opened medical practices in the Marietta and Mableton areas (near Atlanta)
    • New York Times, "Bundy Guilty of Murders Of Two Florida Women", 1979/07/25
  • Kimberly Leach - 1978/02/09 in Lake City FL
    • Involvement of alleged CIA mind control scientist Dr. Milton Kline
      • High Times, "Ex-CIA Doc Leads Fight to Limit Hypnosis", 1980/01: "Hypnotherapist Dr. Milton V. Kline, former consultant to the CIA's supersecret behavior-modification project Bluebird, is currently campaigning for strict legal constraints on hypnosis, limiting its use to trained members of the health professions. During the early '60s, when the CIA was covertly funneling millions of tax dollars into a variety of brainwashing experiments involving LSD, other hallucinogens and electroshock, Kline provided expertise on hypnosis."
      • Palm Beach Post, "Testimony in Bundy Case Challenged", 1980/02/05: "A defense expert testified yesterday that hypnosis-induced testimony by the state's only eyewitness in the Theodore Bundy kidnap-murder trial lacked any value or credibility. Dr. Milton V. Kline, a New York City clinical psychologist and specialist in hypnosis, told a Circuit Court jury that former fireman C.L. Anderson "was extremely compliant to suggestions" by what he called domineering and "omnipotent hypnotists" on what he saw during 12-year-old murder victim Kimberly Diane Leach's alleged kidnaping two years ago."
      • Tampa Tribune, "Bundy Case Psychologist May Be Fraud", 1981/10/08: "A psychologist who examined convicted murderer Theodore Bundy and John Lennon's admitted killer, Mark David Chapman, has been charged with lying about his professional credentials. Milton Kline of Chappaqua, N.Y., was indicted Friday on a charge of committing perjury during a Nov. 14, 1979 hearing in Manhattan state Supreme Court, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said at a news conference Tuesday."
      • Tampa Tribune, "Bundy Case Witness Subject Of Florida Perjury Investigation", 1982/02/04: "The investigation of Milton Kline centers on whether he misrepresented his academic credentials on two occasions during Bundy's 1980 trial in the death of a 12-year-old Lake City girl, according to Lake City State Attorney Jerry Blair, who prosecuted the case."
      • Orlando Sentinel, "Psychologist in Bundy case faces charges", 1982/03/06
      • Orlando Sentinel, "Psychologist gets 1-year sentence", 1983/02/18: "Milton Kline, 58, had pleaded no contest to perjury after prosecutors said he lied when he said he had degrees from Columbia and Penn State universities. He made the plea with understanding that he could appeal Columbia County Judge Arthur Lawrence's ruling that the testimony was material to the case."
      • Orlando Sentinel, "Court upholds conviction of Bundy witness", 1984/01/31: "Kline testified as a defense witness at Bundy's trial for the 1978 rape and slaying of 12-year-old Knberly Leach of Lake City. He claimed to hold a doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Pennsylvania State University. Kline later admitted this was not true and pleaded no contest to a perjury charge. [...] Bundy was convicted of murdering the Leach girl and sentenced to death in the electric chair. He also received death sentences for killing two women at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Appeals in both cases are pending before the Florida Supreme Court. Victor Africano, a lawyer for Bundy and Kline, said he was "fairly confident" Kline would seek a rehearing and, if that is denied, appeal to the Florida Supreme Court."
  • Raiford prison term and 1989 execution

Other curiosities

  • According to Denver Post, "Bigfoot believers", 2003/01/05 (excerpted here), anthropology professor Daris Swindler, who examined the skulls of the Seattle victims, is an adherent of Bigfoot's existence. This is reminiscent of how multiple Bigfoot believers were linked to the Yosemite murders: Michael Larwick was the son of Leroy Larwick, who produced a controversial videotape purportedly showing Bigfoot, and Cary Stayner was known to be fascinated with Bigfoot, claiming to others he met that he had seen one of those creatures.
  • Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "DNA match leads to arrest in girl's 1973 slaying", 2002/03/08: "For most of the past 28 years, Katherine Merry Devine's parents were convinced their 14-year-old daughter had been murdered by notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. The Seattle girl looked like many of his victims and had died under similar circumstances. Yesterday, Thurston County authorities revealed a startling twist: DNA testing had identified a different man with a history of rape and murder as the likely killer. The suspect, William E. Cosden Jr., was already in prison in Washington, serving a lengthy sentence for rape."
  • Court of Appeals of Washington, no. 2332-2: STATE v. COSDEN, 1977/07/20
  • Reddit post arguing that there was a substantial amount of reasonable doubt for Ted Bundy's guilt: "Copious amounts of evidence? Most people described someone that didn't even fit Ted's description. The person who picked him out of a line up was shown his picture three times before, and said it wasn't him. There are other people who were in the same places at the same time for some of the murders, but ruled out because they passed a lie detector. The fact that the jury in the first trial convicted him, not because of any evidence, but because he ran from the cops (they didn't know he was on the run). He was tedious in his case, and learned every fact from every murder. Is it unreasonable to think he falsely confessed to the crimes because he loved the attention? Did his confessions come before or after his prison rape? There are crimes he admitted to where the facts didn't line up, the last ones before he was executed. If you read a lot of the cases, you'll find that most of the evidence points to different perpetrators. The killings when he escaped prison, the only evidence was a bite mark. The descriptions of him were all wrong (a short guy). And the semen was from a "secretor" and bundy was a "non-secretor". I'm not saying the guy is innocent, because I haven't gone into any depth in the case. But when you see all the stuff that the books leave out, all the reasonable doubt, it makes you wonder. But the fact that someone can kill 30+ people, and the only evidence is a bite mark, that seems really suspect. And they should still have all the blood and semen evidence. But of course they'll never run DNA on any of it, because imagine if Ted Bundy was innocent!"
  • Bonnie Kernene, "Brittany Phillips murder 9/30/2004 Tulsa, OK *Still unsolved, 9 years later", 2006/10/23 - a 2007/04/03 comment by Steven Costello refers to "Clark Dawson, Ted Bundy’s accomplice (no! He did not work alone!)" whose nickname is "Silent"
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