Terrible Secrets

by Robert D Keppel

  Maybe Ted also was right that there is a brotherhood of serial killers who recognize one another on instinct, as any predator might. He made it pretty clear to me that they were his tribe.

  Ted’s IQ was measured at 128 in a prison test. Gary Ridgway’s reportedly is 82. Bundy was caught just 3 ½ years after his first known murder; Ridgway, though he was first brought to police attention in 1983 and thereafter kept popping up as a Green River suspect, survived on the loose for at least 18 years.

  Ridgway was, by these indices, as well as his overall known body count, easily the more successful of the two, relative intelligence notwithstanding.

  On the other hand, Gary Ridgway could not have gotten himself hired as a janitor at the University of Washington, while Ted, had he wished to stalk streetwalkers and throwaway kids, would I’m sure have made himself just as invisible as Ridgway did along the Pacific Highway South strip. Certainly nobody at the low-rent joint where he picked up Brenda Ball thought he looked out of place, although much later one of the bar patrons would remember a guy with his arm in a sling.

  But I think what distinguishes Ted goes beyond total kills, or the relative sophistication of his murders, or even his high-end victim pool that so impressed the psychologist Art Norman back in the 1980s. Like the best detectives I’ve ever known, Ted was a thinker and a formidable force.

  Ridgway was a shoplifter, Ted was a jewel thief. Ridgway would not have sent me back to college. Ted did. A born killer, perverted, deluded, an offense to the soul, Bundy also rewrote my narrative of the criminal mind and transformed me as a cop. I’m not especially grateful for that, but it was an education I wouldn’t have missed.

  Epilog

  DNA

  DNA analysis did not exist as a forensic tool for law enforcement in the years that Ted Bundy was active as a killer. Had DNA screening been available to us, we certainly would have shortened Ted’s career. But now DNA just might give us a chance to solve some of those possible Bundy cases from long ago.

  In 2010, the cold case squad at the Tacoma, Washington, police department began a review of the Ann Marie Burr case. In the course of their work, the detectives turned up a tissue sample of unspecified type and origin that they hoped might yield a DNA print of the young girl’s abductor.

  When Tacoma PD discovered that Bundy’s DNA profile had never been entered in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, and, in fact, no one seemed to know if there was a preserved sample of Ted’s DNA in any form, the detectives hit the phones, calling all the old jurisdictions where Bundy had been detained or stood trial, hoping that somehow, somewhere, such a specimen was extant.

  They finally were told of an old vial of Ted’s blood that for some reason had been kept in a desk drawer for decades and was available for testing. It turned out that while much of the sample was spoiled, some flecks of dried blood near the mouth of the test tube were well preserved and yielded a complete profile, which has since been entered into the CODIS database and is now available to law enforcement agencies around the country.

  The questioned tissue in the Burr case was too old and corrupted to prove or disprove Bundy was her abductor. But because of the creativity and hard work of the Tacoma cops, the possibility now exists that someday we may shed further light on the enduring mystery of Ted Bundy and his murder career.

  BUNDY TIMELINE

  GC = Chevron Gas Card Purchase

  PC = Personal Check on Rainier Bank

  Crimes are highlighted. Bundy was convicted of, or confessed to, all of them.

  Note: Regular gas cost approximately 50-70 cents a gallon throughout this period. Bundy’s VW got about 25 mpg.

  1974

  Residence:

  4143 12th Avenue NE

  Seattle

  January:

  Second, Wednesday:

  Picks up unemployment check in Seattle. Wearing a beard.

  Third, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.75.

  Fourth, Friday:

  Between midnight and 1 a.m., Mary Adams (pseudonym), 18, is attacked with club and speculum in her basement bedroom, four blocks from Bundy’s rooming house.

  Seventh, Monday:

  PC – University of Puget Sound Law School. Also, UPS bookstore.

  Ninth, Wednesday:

  PC – Landlord. GC – Seattle - $4.15.

  Eleventh, Friday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Fourteenth, Monday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Fifteenth, Tuesday:

  GC – Seattle - $2.78.

  Sixteenth, Wednesday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Seventeenth, Thursday:

  PC – University of Washington bookstore. Picks up unemployment check in Seattle.

  Eighteenth, Friday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Twentieth, Sunday:

  Shaves off beard.

  Twenty-first, Monday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Twenty-second, Tuesday:

  GC – Seattle - $1.50 (parking).

  Twenty-third, Wednesday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.00.

  Twenty-fifth, Friday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Twenty-ninth, Tuesday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.46. Picks up unemployment check in Seattle.

  Thirtieth, Wednesday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  February:

  First, Friday:

  In the early morning hours Lynda Ann Healy, 21, disappears from her basement bedroom in the University District, 15 blocks from Bundy’s residence. He and Healy both cash checks at the local Safeway (49th and Brooklyn) on January 31st.

  GC – Seattle - $2.15. Ted attends evening classes at UPS.

  Fourth, Monday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Sixth, Wednesday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Seventh, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $2.35.

  Eleventh, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.50 (8.9 gals.).

  Thirteen, Wednesday:

  Picks up unemployment check in Seattle.

  Fifteenth, Friday:

  Uses credit card to buy a pair of shoes at the Nordstrom’s University Store in Seattle. Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Twenty-second, Friday

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Twenty-seventh, Wednesday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.35. Picks up unemployment check in Seattle.

  March:

  First, Friday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Fourth, Monday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Fifth, Tuesday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.00 (6 gals.).

  Sixth, Wednesday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Seventh, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.10.

  Eighth, Friday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Ninth, Saturday:

  Uses credit card to buy shoes Nordstrom’s Northgate. (Seattle)

  Eleventh, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.75. (Two purchases). Fails to pick up Unemployment check in Seattle.

  Eleventh or Twelfth:

  Helps Liz Kendall (pseudonym) move.

  Twelfth, Tuesday:

  Donna Gail Manson, 19, disappears from the campus of Evergreen State College in Olympia about 7 p.m.

  Fourteenth, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.11.

  Fifteenth, Friday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Eighteenth, Monday:

  Picks up unemployment check in Seattle.

  Nineteenth, Tuesday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.30.

  Twenty-second, Friday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Twenty-fifth, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.50.

  Twenty-sixth
, Tuesday:

  GC- Seattle – 80 cents (parking).

  Twenty-seventh, Wednesday:

  Picks up unemployment check in Seattle.

  Twenty-ninth, Friday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.55.

  April:

  First, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.55 (8.4 gallons).

  Third, Wednesday:

  Attends evening classes at UPS.

  Fifth, Friday:

  PC – Landlord.

  Ninth, Tuesday:

  Drops out of UPS law school.

  Tenth, Wednesday:

  Picks up unemployment check in Seattle.

  Eleventh, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $6.05 – (9.4 gallons. Two purchases).

  Twelfth, Friday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.56 – (6.5 gallons).

  Fifteenth, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.35.

  Sixteenth, Tuesday:

  Has new muffler put on his VW.

  Seventeenth, Wednesday:

  GC – Seattle - $1.32.

  Seventeenth, Wednesday:

  Shortly after 10 p.m., Susan Rancourt, 18, disappears from the campus of Central Washington State College in Ellensburg. Bundy is visiting an old boyhood friend in Ellensburg at the time.

  Eighteenth, Thursday:

  Deposits unemployment checks.

  Nineteenth, Friday:

  Liz’s birthday, buys her a bouquet at Ness Flowers.

  Twenty-second, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $5.12.

  Twenty-fourth, Wednesday:

  Picks up unemployment check in Seattle.

  Twenty-fifth, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.75 (7.4 gallons).

  Twenty-sixth, Friday:

  Mails application to University of Utah College of Law.

  Twenty-ninth, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.75 (7.4 gallons).

  May

  Second, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.62.

  Third, Friday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.25. Bundy’s first day at the State department of emergency services in Olympic National Park.

  Sixth, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $2.40 (4 gallons).

  Sixth, Monday:

  Roberta Kathy Parks, 22, vanishes from the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis.

  Ninth, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.95.

  Twelfth, Sunday:

  GC – Seattle - $8.30 (Two purchases).

  Thirteenth, Monday:

  Requests readmission to UPS law school. Readmitted, but doesn’t show up.

  Fourteenth, Tuesday:

  Buys Adidas tennis shoes at Northgate Nordstrom’s (Seattle). Buys gas in Seattle.

  Fifteenth, Wednesday:

  Buys gas in Tacoma.

  Twentieth, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.77.

  Twenty-second, Wednesday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.32.

  Twenty-fourth, Friday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.05.

  Twenty-seventh, Monday:

  Buys dress at Southcenter Mall (Seattle) with credit card.

  Twenty-eighth, Tuesday:

  Buys gas in Seattle.

  Twenty-ninth, Wednesday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.78 (9.1 gallons).

  Thirty-first, Friday:

  GC – Olympia - $3.32 (6.1 gallons). Receives acceptance from the University of Utah College of Law.

  June

  First, Saturday:

  Brenda Ball, 22, last seen at a tavern in Burien.

  Later in the day, Bundy attends baptism of Liz’s daughter.

  Third, Monday:

  GC – Olympia - $5.36.

  Fourth, Tuesday:

  GC – Seattle - 95 cents.

  Fifth, Wednesday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.66.

  Seventh, Friday:

  GC – Olympia - $5.03.

  Eighth, Saturday:

  PC – Landlord. Bundy visits relatives in Tacoma.

  Tenth, Monday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.45 (6.1 gallons).

  Eleventh, Tuesday:

  GC – Olympia - $5.25 (7.5 gallons).

  Eleventh, Tuesday:

  At approximately 1 a.m., Georgann Hawkins, 18, disappears from the alley behind her sorority at the University of Washington

  Twelfth, Wednesday:

  GC – Olympia - $3.33.

  Thirteenth, Thursday:

  GC – Olympia - $3.26 (5.7 gallons).

  Fourteenth, Friday:

  GC – Olympia - $3.20. (5.4 gallons).

  Seventeenth, Monday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.75 (8.3 gallons).

  Nineteenth, Wednesday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.15.

  Twenty-first, Friday:

  GC- Tumwater (near Olympia) - $5.00.

  Twenty-third, Sunday:

  Attends brunch and a daylong party. Spends night with girlfriend.

  Twenty-fourth, Monday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.69. Calls in sick to work.

  Twenty-eighth, Friday:

  GC – Olympia - $5.15.

  Twenty-ninth:Saturday:

  GC – Seattle - $1.35.

  July

  First, Monday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.52. (8.8 gallons).

  Second, Tuesday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.85.

  Third, Wednesday:

  Buys gas, Olympia.

  Fifth, Friday:

  GC – Tumwater - $5.82.

  Sixth, Saturday:

  Rafting trip with Liz. GC – Yakima and North Bend- $4.47.

  Seventh, Sunday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.20.

  Ninth, Tuesday:

  GC – Olympia - $3.40 (5.9 gallons).

  Tenth, Wednesday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.85.

  Eleventh, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $6.35 (Two purchases). Calls in sick to work.

  Twelfth, Friday:

  Calls in sick to work.

  Fourteenth, Sunday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.40. Has morning argument with Liz. They later have dinner together.

  Fourteenth, Sunday:

  “Ted” abducts Janice Ott, 23, and Denise Naslund, 19, from Lake Sammamish State Park.

  Fifteenth, Monday:

  Calls in sick to work.

  Sixteenth, Tuesday:

  Calls in sick to work.

  Seventeenth, Wednesday:

  GC – Olympia - $5.24.

  Eighteenth, Thursday:

  GC – Olympia - $3.50 (6.4 gallons).

  Twenty-first, Sunday:

  GC – Seattle - $4.49 (8.3 gallons).

  Twenty-fifth, Thursday:

  GC – Tacoma-$4.53.

  Twenty-seventh, Saturday:

  GC – Seattle - $3.88 (7.3 gallons).

  Thirty-first, Wednesday:

  Buys gas Seattle.

  August

  First, Thursday:

  Buys gas Olympia.

  Second, Friday:

  Buys gas Olympia.

  Sixth, Tuesday:

  GC – Olympia - $1.78.

  Seventh, Wednesday:

  GC – Olympia - $5.30.

  Eleventh, Sunday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.85.

  Fifteenth, Thursday:

  GC – Tacoma - $5.20.

  Eighteenth, Sunday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.10.

  Twenty-second, Thursday:

  GC – Olympia - $3.00.

  Twenty-fourth, Saturday:

  GC – Olympia - $3.87

  Twenty-fifth, Sunday:

  GC – Olympia - $4.22 (7.6 gallons).

  Twenty-eighth, Wednesday:

  Resigns from department of emergency services.

  Twenty-ninth, Thursday:

  GC – Seattle - $5.00.

  September

  Second, Monday:

  Departs Seattle for Salt Lake City and University of Utah College of Law.

  GC – Seattle
- $3.00 – Yakima, WA. - $2.85 –

  Pendleton, Ore., - $2.25 – Boise, Idaho - $4.08.

  Second, Monday:

  Bundy kills an unknown hitchhiker near Boise and throws her body in the Snake River.