The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
Revisit to the murderous world of Ted Bundy through the eyes of his former coworker and friend, Ann Rule.
Pros: This book sent me. I am pretty sure I read it in 1-2 days. I couldn’t put it down.
Cons: it is a true (devastating) story.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
DISCLAIMER AND A TRIGGER WARNING: Ted Bundy was an American serial killer who kidnapped, tortured, murdered and raped over 30 victims in the 1970’s. Naturally, this blog post will get into some of those details so please, proceed with caution.
It is weird and tricky to try and review a nonfiction book. Surely, you already know the details of the case so what else can I bring to the table except my opinion? NOTHING so get ready. :)
So my fascination with true crime knows no limits but I try to be respectful and move through it in earnest. Now, while I am not the kind of true crime addict who like… purchases their old clothes and shit on the internet, I am the kind who absorbs this topic often.
I don’t remember exactly when I heard about Ted Bundy for the first time, but I was young. Maybe 12? I had already been introduced to the world of true crime by means of my grandfather and I watching Unsolved Mysteries nearly every night after he got home from work. The real life horrors that filled up the television screen fascinated me, terrified me and sometimes, even made me cry. Ted Bundy of course is a big name in all of this so it was probably one of the first ones I was exposed to.
Ted was just a seemingly normal guy, as they almost always are. Objectively handsome, charismatic, intelligent, etc. Kinda like the boy next door… if they boy next door was a raging sociopath who liked to murder coeds.
While this did provide a more intimate look at Ted, his life, his crimes and his personality… the “how” and “why” questions still remain. This book is absolutely worth a read, it is well written and provides a lot of closer looks into life in the 70’s during the terrifying reign of Ted and Ann Rule is a true crime legend.
SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
If you don’t know much about Ted Bundy, here is my summarized version of Ted Bundy’s life and crimes, feel free to skip to the next section if you don’t need it retold.
Theodore Robert Cowell was born to his young unwed mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell. He was initially raised under the guise of his grandparents being his parents and his actual mother playing the role of his sister. Weird and confusing times for the little dude, I’m sure. Years later, when his mom moved with him to Washington state, she met the man who would eventually adopt and attempt to father Ted: Johnnie Culpepper Bundy. So she switched back to being his mother then I guess and not his sister? Still super weird. He was a weird, kinda withdrawn but mostly normal kid but perhaps the family musical chairs had him all fucked up. My family tree is also a bit crooked and dying and somehow, I haven’t started to murder people so this is no excuse.
When he finally started murdering folks, his standard M.O. was to feign like he was injured in some way (an arm brace, a set of crutches, etc) and prey on their caring nature by asking for their help with a menial task. He manipulated them to let their guards down which is so sick. This is also why I operate under the rule of NEVER. HELP. ANY. MAN. EVER. (kidding, kind of)
It should also be mentioned that he was in a LONG TERM MONOGAMOUS RELATIONSHIP the entire time of his first string of murders and off and on over the duration of the rest of his life. Is it a monogamous relationship if after you have a fight, he leaves the house, murders a girl and then has sex with her corpse in the woods? Just one of the many insane questions that flow through my mind at 2 in the morning when I can’t sleep and need answers.
Anyway, he lived with his girlfriend and her young daughter ::shudders:: while he carried out these horrible brutal crimes. She suspected him but only slightly, after the first composite sketch was released and it was known the killer drove a VW Bug. Ted also drove a VW Bug (I wonder if he enjoyed a good Volkswagen more than he enjoyed murdering women. It was probably a tie.) The police low key suspected him as well but thought there was NO WAY a clean-cut, handsome, well dressed white man and pseudo intelligent pre law student could even fathom such atrocities!! So he wasn’t watched as closely as he should’ve been and a lot of women and families had to pay for that.
At one point, he was arrested and charged for an earlier kidnapping but escaped by JUMPING out of a SECOND STORY WINDOW at the courthouse because the guards LEFT HIM ALONE. I cannot even with these fools. This is just a testament to how lenient and unbothered law enforcement is when it comes to a white man. They clearly did not see him as a threat at all until 30+ women were dead. The negligence makes me nauseous.
Anyway, he murdered over 30 women in 3 different states. He did dumbass shit like jumping from windows and starving himself in prison and then ESCAPING AGAIN by crawling his malnourished ass through a vent and just frolicking off into the night. He opted to represent himself in his trials which is just a show of how brazen and cocky he was. He was completely out of touch with any genuine sense of humanity, was deeply disturbed. He walked the line just well enough to fool those closest to him for extended periods of time. He even got married DURING his murder trial in Florida because he is a literal lunatic with zero chill. For more in depth accounts of his crimes I suggest scouring the internet for content. There are so many takes on Ted, I will list a few of my other favorites at the end. For now though, let’s discuss this book.
THE BOOK; ANN RULE AND HER PERSPECTIVE
So this book is extremely well written. She weaves the details of Ted Bundy’s life and crimes together so well and makes it look effortless. I am not sure how long it took her to write it, but just 20 minutes on the section above this one has me ready for a nap and I didn’t even know the guy. Ann was an older lady who worked alongside Ted at a local Suicide Hotline in the 1970’s in Seattle. I wish I was making that up. They developed a friendship of sorts that spanned from their years of being coworkers to the letters he wrote her from prison after his conviction. I shudder to think of how I would feel knowing that Ted Bundy knew where I lived, especially since he likes to escape from prison so much.
Moving on, before I need a break for a self induced panic attack.
She lays out the case in extreme detail but also tells the tale from her perspective which I think was smart. The timeline she created had me walking along those dark streets with Ted, searching Taylor Mountain for bodies with the police, feeling frustrated each time he slipped through the cracks of our justice system (and prison ductwork) but at the same time, the story she tells had me going through the emotional rollercoaster of trying to make sense of the man you knew being the man on the wanted posters. The man who walked you to your car after your shifts ended to ensure your safety being the same man who led women to his car and ended their lives.
Ann did such a good job that at times, her evocative, emotional story had me thinking that he didn’t do these crimes. In the year of our lord, 2022, I was conflicted… HE IS 1000% GUILTY! 🤡
I know he is guilty and I knew it going into this book, we all know this. Imagine my surprise when halfway through the book I caught myself thinking, “What if he didn’t do it? What if it was just wrong place, wrong time?” To say I was rattled at those thoughts is an understatement. However, the fact that those thoughts found me through Ann’s writings and recollections of her own personal thoughts and feelings regarding Ted just shows how good of a job she did on this.
I felt for Ann while reading it, I felt even more for his live in girlfriend Elizabeth, but more than anything I felt for the victims. All I did was read a paperback. They faced him, he smiled at them, he interacted with them and they bought his facade too. Their lives were stolen from them because they were kind, they trusted him, he made them feel safe. What an incredible liar and piece of SHIT! However the details of his M.O. are not lost on me.
Reading about his tactics, the way he disarmed them by being charming and feigning injury, I began to feel angry. I always feel angry when I think about this case to be fair, but I felt angry that he got away with it for so long. This tale speaks to a gap in the legal system that still exists today. However, I will not ramble on about it here. This is about the book. THE BOOK, NATALIE, THE BOOK.
All in all, this book was great in a horrible sense. It made me feel, it made me think, it made me really look at and examine the world and the systems that allow for things like this to slip by them. It hurt my heart to think of the people he destroyed just by knowing them and being in their lives. His friend Ann, his girlfriend Liz, Liz’s daughter. It made me ache for the women whose lives were lost to this maniac. From the very first girl, Lynda, to the last one, Kimberly, and all the others in between. They didn’t deserve such deaths.
The book is amazing, from start to finish. I have the recently released updated copy with more pictures, a new chapter and a letter from Ann herself. I recommend this book to anyone who loves true crime. Also, as promised, here are a few other books, shows, movies, etc. that cover the terrifying case of Theodore Robert Bundy.
The Phantom Prince; My Life with Ted Bundy - this book was written by Liz (his long time girlfriend) and originally published in 1981. I downloaded a copy somehow a few years ago because they had initially stopped publication and pulled the book from shelves because of the amount of negativity that Liz received. Talk about absolute bullshit and another form of victim blaming for the crimes that men commit. I am not here for that bullshit ever. Anyway, they recently released a new version with new chapters and even a section from Liz’s daughter Molly who Liz had from a previous relationship but she spent a lot of time with Ted when she was growing up. It is worth a read. I remember when I read it the first time and Liz talked about how sometimes when they had a fight, Ted would storm out of the house, come back hours later and apologize to her. She had no idea that in those hours he was gone, he was murdering someone. How could she have? She was another one of his victims, she just wasn’t murdered.
The Last Podcast on the Left; Bundy (episode 99 and episode 100) - I listen to this podcast every day, which I honestly don’t know what to think of at this point. The hosts’ have very dark senses of humor so if you aren’t into that, you won’t like this show. I find that their humor provides a bit of levity to an otherwise horrific situation but this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea though and I get that.
Violent Mind; The 1976 Psychological Assessment of Ted Bundy - now if you are into psychological non fiction, this book is great. Along with the doctor’s observations, you get to see some of the tests that Ted Bundy filled out and how he answered them. It is illuminating for anyone who likes to dig into the psychology of it all.
Conversations with a Killer; The Ted Bundy Tapes - this fool loved to hear himself talk, especially from death row and in attempt to put off his inevitable execution. This docuseries is interesting though and streams on Netflix.
People Article Featuring Carol DaRonch - Carol was one of the only surviving victims of Ted Bundy and this article tells her story.