When Kathy Kleiner survived Ted Bundy’s attack to testify against him, the news media swarmed the courthouse. Young women sat in the courtroom and fawned at him from a distance, staring Kathy down. Within a year, one of the serial killer’s friends published a book about him, describing him as intelligent and crafty. She made his victims seem naive and stupid, as if they could have prevented their murders. But, several, like Kathy, were attacked in their beds as they slept soundly. Others were startled or attacked from behind. And many witnesses, particularly those who saw him in the hours before he killed, found him alarming and odd. And yet, the legend of the charming serial killer persisted.
The truth is, Ted Bundy wasn’t a charming serial killer. He was a nightmare. The truth is, the victims weren’t seduced to their deaths. We’ve been missing the full story all this time. The book ends with brief biographies of the women and girls murdered by this monster. Their stories have always been reduced to an afterthought that lingers behind the Bundy legend. In telling her story, Kathy Kleiner Rubin hopes to shine a light on their stories too.
