The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History (48 page)

An interesting footnote to the conclusion of the Leach trial occurred on February 9, just three days after Bundy's conviction. That morning, Bundy, acting as his own attorney, exchanged vows with Carol Boone while she sat on the witness stand. Before anyone knew what they were doing, the two were married. This occurred at 10:31 A.M. No one in the courtroom probably even noticed, but they became husband and wife two years to the day (indeed) almost to the very hour) after he raced away from Lake City with the stillliving Kimberly Ann Leach.

Was it mere coincidence that Bundy chose that particular date, or was it his way of casting derision at the court for its verdict against him? No one will ever know for sure. More likely, it was simply Bundy's way of commemorating an event (the Leach killing) he so thoroughly and utterly enjoyed, and by marrying Carol on what was for him a fond second anniversary, he was certain he'd never forget it.

AFTERWORD

Time was running out for the killer, and he knew it. Staring at a final appeal that was likely to be rejected, Bundy was entering a vortex of judgment and retribution that was unthinkable when he whisked Lynda Ann Healy from her basement apartment in January of 1974. And so, in a feeble attempt to buy more time, Bundy offered to reveal some of his dark secrets, secrets he considered "his" (as he told investigators) and never had any intention of revealing had things gone differently. But the state of Florida had done an excellent job in presenting their case in his two murder trials, and very soon it would do to him what he had done to so many others. He was finding it difficult to deal with. He, who thought nothing of taking life, would now fight to save his own, and to do so, he would spend his last days immersed in a whirlwind of questions from the very investigators who had dogged his trail for many years. In the end, a series of meetings with Bob Keppel out of Seattle, Russ Reneau from Idaho, detectives from Utah, and the relentless detective from Colorado, Mike Fisher, would do nothing to add even minutes to his life.

Speaking of this recently, Mike Fisher explained what he observed from a Bundy who had heretofore shown little more than disdain for the Colorado lawman: "Theodore's appeals had been exhausted. Now there were no other avenues of escape (and) Theodore could clearly see the Grim Reaper waiting for him." When Bundy contacted Mike Fisher by phone, it was quite clear this was a different man than the investigator was used to dealing with: "Theodore called me personally sometime later that day. He told me he wanted to put the families and the responsible jurisdictions to rest regarding those cases he was responsible for, and some of his reasoning was his newly discovered religious beliefs. He did not use the word murders. I told him I was not going to travel to Florida to listen to any B. S. and before going to Florida I was going to have something more than his `inference' that he might supply details right then and there. Further, I wasn't interested in just listening to him talk in the third person, without any specifics. He assured me he would supply details, and that he was doing this to relieve the families and possibly gain some benefit out of this for himself. He stammered and his voice quavered [and he kept reminding me that] we're talking about his life. Theodore was afraid, very afraid."

When Fisher met with Bundy for the last time, he made good on his promise of giving details concerning the Colorado murders, including information on the Caryn Campbell and Julie Cunningham homicides. However, he refused to speak of Denise Oliverson, the pretty young woman he nabbed in Grand Junction, as she bicycled to her parents' home on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. "He told me again," Fisher related, "of his tiredness and his wanting to get back to his cell for rest. I explained simply that he had promised to resolve all the questioned murder cases and now at the last minute he wasn't keeping his side of the deal." Although clearly frustrated at Bundy's refusal to talk about Grand Junction, Bundy did have this parting shot as the investigator was preparing to leave: "I'll get back to you about that, I promise." And Bundy would not disappoint him. As he was being escorted to the execution chamber, and now only minutes from being strapped into the electric chair, Bundy would ask for a tape recorder. Sitting in a waiting room, his head already shaved, he admitted to two additional murders, including the killing of Denise Oliverson: "At the state of Florida's request, I stayed on in Florida until after Theodore was executed. I flew home just after I heard the news of his execution on the television in my hotel room. When I got back to the office the following morning, I returned a call to the warden of the penitentiary. He asked if I was the Colorado investigator for Aspen, and I told him I was, and he said he had something for me." The warden then told of Bundy's final confession, how it came about, and that he specifically said that it was for "that Colorado investigator." Fisher immediately called the Grand Junction chief of police and told him the news. Bundy's denial of the information was just as he said it would be, only temporary.

On the night prior to his execution, Bundy was nearing the end of the fight, as he knew his last minute attempt to stave off death with the admissions of murder was not going to work. At this point, resignation began to take over, and coupled with his mental and physical exhaustion from his round-the-clock meetings with investigators, the killer was a mere shell of his former self. Although Carol Boone and her son had departed never to return (the news of his confessions apparently to difficult to deal with), he was able to speak with his mother by phone, and at least make an attempt to explain as well as apologize for what he had done to his family, telling her that a part of himself "was hidden all the time."

Although Mike Fisher didn't witness Bundy's execution on the morning of January 24, 1989, Don Patchen did. In recounting the event, Patchen said that when he came into the room for the observers, Bundy spotted him and greeted him with a small wave of his hand. Apparently, Bundy was free of any feelings of animosity towards those who helped put him there as he had conciliatory body gestures (head nods, etc.) for others entering the room. But when it came to his last statement, he spoke only of giving his "love to my family and friends," leaving the living victims of Bundy's homicidal rage little more than a final slap in the face.

Bundy's death did not lesson the need others felt to understand, if possible, this diabolical sociopath. The mystery of what Ted Bundy was, and all that he did, troubles all observers who deem themselves to be normal. Using all information presently available, I have tried to bring us closer to seeing the madman for what he was. We feel the need to understand the malignancy we have come to know as Theodore Robert Bundy.

CHAPTER NOTES

Chapter 1

1. King County Archives, hereafter referred to as KCA.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Winn and Merrill, Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door, 6.

5. KCA.

6. Michaud and Aynesworth, Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer, 83.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Thurston County Sheriff's Office report, KCA.

10. Ibid.

it. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Kathy D'Olivo interview, KCA.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid.

19. Jane Curtis interview, KCA.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Kathy Parks reports, KCA.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Kendall, The Phantom Prince, 99.

28. Detective Robert Keppel interview of Liz Kendall, KCA.

29. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer, 414.

30. Ibid., 416.

31. Jerry Snyder interview, KCA.

32. James Ott interview, KCA.

33. David McKibben interview, KCA.

34. Jerry Snyder interview, KCA.

35. Ibid.

36. Janice Graham interview, KCA.

37. Theresa Marie Sharpe interview, KCA.

38. Sylvia Valint interview, KCA.

39. Michaud and Aynesworth, Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer, 129.

40. Jacqueline Plischke interview, KCA.

41. Sindi Siebenbaum interview, KCA.

42. Patricia Ann Turner interview, KCA.

43. Robin Woods interview, KCA.

44. Robert Sargent interview, KCA.

45. Eleanore Rose interview, KCA.

Chapter 2

1. Nelson, Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer, 154.

2. Pre-sentence Investigation Report, hereafter referred to as P.I. Report, State of Utah.

3. Ibid.

4. Michaud and Aynesworth, The Only Living Witness, 63.

5. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

6. Michaud and Aynesworth, The Only Living Witness, 62.

7. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Michaud and Aynesworth, The Only Living Witness, 66.

11. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

15. Cleckley. The Mask of Sanity. An in-depth study of sociopaths and how they adapt to the world around them, this work by Dr. Hervey Cleckley, first published in 1941, is considered by many as the definitive work on the subject. For educational purposes, Cleckley's book is available free online in PDF format.

16. Dr. Al Carlisle correspondence, used with permission.

17. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. KCA.

23. Nelson, Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer, 283.

24. Philadelphia Daily News, January 24, 1989.

25. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

26. Kendall, The Phantom Prince,12.

27. Ibid, 12.

28. Detective Roger Dunn Report, King County PD, KCA.

29. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

30. Ibid.

31. Kendall, The Phantom Prince, 44.

32. King County Police Department report, KCA.

33. Liz Kendall interview, KCA.

34. Michaud and Aynesworth, The Only Living Witness, 139.

35. Keppel, The Riverman, 454.

36. Thomas Sampson interview, KCA.

37. Detective Roger Dunn Report, King County PD, KCA.

38. Ibid.

Chapter 3

1. Thomas Sampson Interview, KCA.

2. The Seattle Times, July 19, 1974.

3. Kendall, The Phantom Prince, 50.

4. Detective Roger Dunn report, King County PD, KCA.

5. Larry Voshall interview, KCA.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Kendall, The Phantom Prince, 65.

9. Ibid, 52.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Michaud and Aynesworth, The Only Living Witness, 326.

14. The Phantom Prince, 56, 57.

15. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

16. Keppel, The Riverman, 69.

17. Kendall, The Phantom Prince, 69.

Chapter 4

1. Russell Reneau report, Idaho Attorney General's Office.

2. Ibid.

3. Keppel, The Riverman, 454.

4. The Seattle Times, September 8, 1974.

5. Ibid.

6. Keppel, The Riverman, 16.

7. Ibid, 15.

8. Winn and Merrill, Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door, 26.

9. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

10. Michaud and Aynesworth, Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer, 140-143.

11. Winn and Merrill, Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door, 40.

12. Ibid.

13. The type and model of pry bar confiscated from Bundy's Volkswagen during his August 16, 1975, arrest in Granger, Utah.

14. Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, hereafter referred to as SLCSO.

15. Ibid.

16. Michaud and Aynesworth, Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer, 84.

17. Winn and Merrill, Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door, 43.

18. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. Michaud and Aynesworth, The Only Living Witness, 96.

24. Ibid.

25. Winn and Merrill, Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door, 52.

26. Deseret Morning News, August 20, 2000.

27. Ibid, December 27, 1989.

28. Winn and Merrill, Ted Bundy: The Killer Next Door, 58.

29. James Massie to Dr. Ronald M. Holmes, Sex Crimes, 103.

30. Fisher, Killer Among Us, 16.

31. Deseret Morning News, December 10, 1974.

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. Kendall, The Phantom Prince, 70.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid.

Chapter 5

1. The Seattle Times, November 26, 1975.

2. Affidavit for arrest warrant, State of Colorado, County of Pitkin.

3. Mike Fisher's e-mails to author.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Affidavit for arrest warrant, State of Colorado, County of Pitkin.

10. Ibid.

11. Deseret Morning News, January 24, 1989.

12. Ibid.

13. Kendall, The Phantom Prince, 87.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid, 88.

16. "Evidence at Taylor Mountain Crime Scene Relating to Ted Bundy," KCA.

17. Keppel, The Riverman, 27.

18. Ibid, 30.

19. "Evidence at Taylor Mountain Crime Scene Relating to Ted Bundy," KCA.

20. Mike Fisher e-mails to author.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

Chapter 6

1. P.I. Report, State of Utah.

2. Mike Fisher e-mail to author.

3. Compendium of Lynette Culver homicide investigation, Idaho Attorney General's Office.

4. Ibid.

5. Telephone interview with Randy Everitt.

6. Compendium of Lynette Culver homicide investigation, Idaho Attorney General's Office.

7. Case file on the disap pearance of Susan Curtis, Brigham Young University Police.

Chapter 7

1. Initial Report, SLCSO.