Several months ago, my third book on the life and murders of Ted Bundy was released. Having written a trilogy of books on the killer, consisting of some 600 pages, I stated that The Bundy Secrets: Hidden Files on America’s Worst Serial Killer, would be my last contribution to the Bundy saga in book form, and so it was. But I also started that periodically, as I learned new information about the Ted murders, I would be writing about it in something other than books; which is to say, I’ll be posting any new discoveries in a blog or an article, be it online or in print. Which brings us to today. However, before we get started, here’s a little background on how new information sometimes comes to me…
I think it was just about one year after my first Bundy book, The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History, was published in 2009, that Lorraine Fargo, contacted me after her son had been Googling her name in relation to the Ted Bundy case. She did in fact play an important, albeit brief role in it, inasmuch as she was the last person to talk with Kathy Parks only minutes before she encountered Ted Bundy and disappeared from Oregon State University in Corvallis. I had written about Lorraine in my book and was well aware of her role. But because I had no way of contacting her, I wrote only from the record. And you can read more about our encounter, and the fascinating story that came from it, in my second book, The Trail of Ted Bundy: Digging Up the Untold Stories.
And then, perhaps three years ago, I received a letter from a woman who also knew Kathy Parks, and was involved with the searches of her missing friend, and she, along with Lorraine Fargo and others, tacked up missing person flyers to telephone poles and anywhere else where folks might see them (she even mailed me one of the original flyers). And with that contact came additional information; personal information about how they all dealt with the intolerable situation of not knowing where Kathy had gone, and what transpired individually between them.
THE BUNDY SECRETS is now available from WildBlue Press! Order your copy today!
There are also times when a previous contact (with all of these, I’m talking about an actual, vetted Bundy contact), will give me a name of another bonified Bundy contact, and on occasion, it will reap great rewards because the information I receive is not only exceedingly pertinent to the case, but in most cases, the information has never before come to light or been in print. For an excellent example of this, see the results of my interview of Louise Cannon in The Bundy Secrets: Hidden Files on America’s Worst Serial Killer, published in January 2017.
And so, it was just the other day, after I had posted something on Facebook about the Ted Bundy case, a person began commenting and in so doing, mentioned that prior to Bundy being executed, the killer had written him a letter. And because it’s not my habit to ever let something like that roll by me, I asked him what connection he had to Ted Bundy, and the gentleman was kind enough to fill me in as to who he was and what part he played in this most infamous case. His name is Dr. John Liebert, and is well-versed in the subject of serial murder. Indeed, his experience in this area is extensive. In 1995, he co-authored a book with William J. Birnes, titled, Suicidal Mass Murderers: A Criminological Study of Why They Kill. What follows is just a portion of the information taken from Dr. Liebert’s Amazon books page:
Dr. Liebert is a Psychiatrist with over 30 years of experience in diagnosing and treating patients in hospital, forensic and outpatient settings. In most of these clinical sites – 50 in all, from Eastport, Maine to San Diego, he assessed and treated the seriously mentally ill and testified at hundreds of Involuntary Commitment hearings in numerous states with different commitment laws. At the Security Housing Unit (The SHU) at Pelican Bay Prison, he had the unique opportunity of performing in-depth interviews of cold-blooded psychopaths and sociopathic murderers. The latter were mostly hardened gangsters with various status of leadership in California gangs and drug wars.
As Dr. Liebert and I messaged each other, I soon learned that he first became involved with the Ted Bundy case in Seattle immediately following the abductions and murders of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund from Lake Sammamish State Park on Sunday, July 14, 1974. As he spoke, I realized that I have written about him without ever using his name, as he was one of the doctor’s comprising the psychological team that was brought together by lead detective, Bob Keppel, of the King County PD. The only information they had was that the individual they believed was responsible for the abductions of Ott and Naslund, was a guy named Ted who also drove a VW bug. They were right about this, of course, but all that would remain hidden until Bundy’s unmasking in Salt Lake City, Utah in late 1975.
Ted Bundy 1984 by the Salt Lake Tribune
Although the Bundy case was the first time Liebert and Keppel would work together, it would not be their last. According to the info sent to me by Dr. Liebert, their association continues until this day. One question I did remember to ask Liebert was if he had any personal exchanges with Bundy and what follows is taken from that response:
Because I was the consultant to KCPD I did not communicate with Bundy until the end, at which time I requested an interview, which he granted. I was interested in working him up both psychologically and neurologically – i.e. getting data on his neurocircuitry. He would likely have had a small and dysfunctional amygdala; That is a symptom of subtle brain disease, similar to what I found with Keller (the serial arsonist) Much else would have been found also, as technology improved – i.e. now the f MRI. He simply wrote back that he would see me, and then wrote back that he could not. I have the letters, but have not looked at them for a while. I just recall his ending them on a rather chilling note, “watch yourself, Ted”
So, what shall we assume from all of these encounters? You never know when you might encounter a valid Ted Bundy contact!
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What a fascinating exchange! Bit by bit, you are adding more information to the case.
Information does seem to keep coming my way, and as long as that continues, I’ll keep posting it. 🙂
Hey Mr. Sullivan,
I’m interested in writing a book Ted. I mainly wanna dig deep into his upbringing. Where should I start? Reading other biographies? I don’t know if I can do as good in telling Ted’s story as good as you did with your trilogy of books, the wealth of information that was covered in the new Joe Berlinger documentary, I don’t want it to be a “run of the mill” biography by wanna use already known information that’s been used in countless documentaries and biographies. What should I do?
Hi Andy,
I’m assuming you’ve read my books on Bundy? Well, if you’ll go back to my book, The Bundy Murders, you will see the institutions I dealt with to obtain many thousands of pages of original case files which formed the basis of my research material. You’ll also want to read the biographies of Bundy, including mine – The Bundy Murders -, so you know what’s already out there. And then it’s all up to you to do something with all the knowledge you’ve acquired over many, many months of intense research. And oh yes, find lots of folks who were involved with the case so that you can interview them – that would help a great deal! Good luck!
Kevin
This has absolutely nothing to do with Ted Bundy, an individual I find downright terrifying, but have you ever done any investigation into the disappearance of Melanie Flynn? Second question, have you ever investigated the red head murders or their connection to the Bluegrass?
Hi Lesley…
I don’t know who Melanie Flynn was/is, and I’ve never heard of the red head murders. Where have I been? lol! 🙂
Just a note to express gratitude for your in-depth coverage and revelations regarding this infamous killer known as “Ted.” I’ve now read all of your books (along with others by various authors) and as with a huge number of residents here in the Pacific NW, his murders touched many of our lives. I included my email address and would very much like to speak with you as I have some first-hand accounts that may be of interest to you. Thanks again, and in advance of your contact.
Hi Jack, and thanks so much for your contact and your good words about my books. Yes, many lives were touched in those areas where Bundy operated, and I have tried to convey in my books what an on-going effect it’s created. I’ll be emailing you shortly.
Hello…
I have been haunted for years by the memory of something that happened to me in 1967 that I strongly believe involved Ted Bundy.
I’m not crazy or seeking attention. I just want closure, and perhaps my experience will help fill in some of the blanks on the Bundy timeline.
I’m a school teacher.
Please contact me if you are interested in my story.
Hi Kathryn…
Would you like to tell your story here, and I can comment? Or would you rather I contact you by email?
Hello, im sorry to be a bother and this is probably a super late time to even comment. I have recently been really reading up on Bundy and i was wondering if you had any updated info? (as well as any links of where i can buy your books)? From what i have read of your writing so far, I am very impressed with your work.
Hi Amy…I don’t really have any updated info Bundy, but all three of my Bundy books contain new and never before published info on Bundy and the murders. All of my book can be purchased on Amazon, and here at WildBlue Press, there are links to Amazon and others who sell my books. Here’s a link to my author page on Amazon…
https://www.amazon.com/Bundy-Murders-Comprehensive-History-ebook/dp/B002XDQGXC/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=
I believe that my boyfriend and I picked up Ted Bundy in early January when we were returning to Tallahassee from a visit to New Orleans..we never picked up hitchhikers and i was so surprised when my boyfriend pulled over to pick him up..he was a good-looking preppy guy with nothing..he talked about Michigan ..we stopped at St. Georges Island to sleep- us in our truck ( a bread truck- )_- the guy outside on the beach…the next day on our way to Tallahassee we stopped at an ice cream store and i was eating an ice cream cone and i noticed him staring at me in a weird way…i was raped when i was 13, so i have always been super sensitive to threatening guys…i remember being very conscious of the way i presented myself for the rest of the ride- so that he wouldn’t find me attractive…also i didn’t want him to know where we lived and i didn’t want to be his friend when we arrived back in tallahassee…i had lived in a room at The Oak the year before, and I knew how easy it was to use the shared showers at the end of the halls…i suggested we drop him off there and we did…i didn’t think any more about him…i was working at Omni Express a block or two away from the Oak and the Sorority where the murders took place…it was scary and i remember i had to walk for a mile or so home from work so i kept my guard- NEVER considered the guy as any kind of suspect..i was saving money to buy an airline ticket back to alaska where my boyfriend and i had spent the previous summer…i remember shortly before i left town, a guy was arrested for the kidnapping of the little girl i think…anyway…i learned that the guy had been living in the same room that i had lived in at The Oak when i lived there! and that he had been seeing a girl who worked at the Omni Express- someone i didn’t know…but i heard that the night before he went to Lake County, he left flowers and chocolates outside her door before he left…i went to alaska and forgot about the whole thing until i picked up a book called “The Stranger Beside Me”…i started wondering if that guy could have been Ted Bundy….there have been strange coincidences..i was having lunch with an artist in the mid-80’s..i was telling her this story…well it turned out her sister was a room-mate of one of Ted Bundy’s victims in Colorado !! Recently i saw a timeline that showed him escaping from jail near the time i thought we picked him up…now i really think it was him….thank you for listening…
Hi Elisabeth, and thanks for the contact!
That could not have been Ted Bundy, and here’s why: after Bundy escaped from the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, CO, he took a flight from Denver to Chicago, and then traveled by Amtrak to Ann Arbor. After several days, he stole a Japanese sedan from an auto repair shop and made his way to Atlanta where he ditched the car. He then took a Trailways bus to Tallahassee and immediately rented a room at The Oak. Bundy did not hitchhike to any other part of the state of Florida, and remained in Tallahassee until he stole the FSU media van and traveled east to Jacksonville and then back to Lake City where he killed Kim Leach. He then returned to Tallahassee and did not again leave the city until he did so driving a stolen VW. So, your guy could not have been Ted. That said, it’s an interesting story! 🙂 Thanks again for the contact.
Just maybe he took the bus from Atlanta to Pensacola or Panama City…?
No. He went straight to Tallahassee, and he checked into The Oak shortly after. So the guy you dealt with couldn’t have been Ted. Not only does the timeline of these events add up, but Bundy actually told the investigators (and others) the where’s, how’s, and when’s of his escape to Tallahassee, and once he arrived in Atlanta, it was a straight ride on the bus to Tallahassee.
Kevin, is this your new blog where you discuss Bundy subjects? I hope so, I can’t get into the “Executed Today” site because my computer warns me that it is not safe to engage that site at this time. I still like to check-up on the Bundy “scene” and have some interesting info to share.
Does this blog have a safe link to the old one, there is so much info on it that I still go back and check it out as a refresher?
Bob
Hi Bob,
I do answer questions here, especially for those subjects I cover in articles posted here at WildBlue Press. But any questions I’ll answer on Bundy.
FYI: The Bundy page at ET is closed as to comments. We had about a ten year run, and the Headsman decided to it, which was fine with me as I’m so extremely busy. Also Bob, feel free to contact me through my email: kmsullivan12@yahoo.com
Thanks for the contact!
Kevin
In 1967 I was 12. I would be 13 in Sept. My friend Debbie was also 12, she would be 13 in I believe Nov. We wanted to get into Junior High early, by taking summer band. The school was Jeb Stuart JHS. We walked from home to school. I would take clarinet, Debbie would take flute. One afternoon in mid June we we’re walking home. Debbie wore a peasant yoke white top her hair was a brown Bob her real jeans were frayed. I had dish water blonde hair long shoulder length I wore slip on polyester jeans also frayed and a camo type shirt. Debbie sat down on the bleachers facing a baseball field. Lollygagging. I wanted to go home. I said I’ll pretend to hitch hike. In the front of school were pine trees and one or two basketball back boards, where boys played pick up games. Anyway several old cars went by, one wasike a fish tail impala olive or army green things like fairkanes, old black station wagons went by none stopped. The a Bright Red like new Volkswagen jumped the curb. The guy was shirtless I had yelled hey naked. Anyway Debbie leaned in and talked. Debbie lived with her mom and two okder sisters all pretty. Her father worked at NASA but they were divorced. She said get in.I said no it was just pretend. But she was so in loyality I got in. There were large text books on that seat. I said there’s books. He said Move the books. Ok so we rounded the road around the baseball fields to Lamoya, the it joined at Wessconnett. He pulled a silver revolver from the glove box and held it between the seats. The seats were black I could see his eyes and face in the rear mirror. The eyebrows went across his face unbroken. His eyes seemed black. I said what’s your name he said Theodore ( which sounded pretentious to me) I said what’s your last name he said Bundy. I said you name is Bundy like my ckaribet., And your gun is silver like Debbie’s flute. There was no Kmart back then. The Lamoya at Wesconnett faced a cow pasture is all. There was a sick like an unwashed hobo like the smell of crappy dirty ok’d clothes. The ceiling was like white but like a peg board. The dashboard seemed tan or white. In Jax FL 1967 VWs we’re somewhat rare. I started talking about how Debbie’s dad was at NASA and how pretty her sisters Vickie and Jeannie we’re. Nothing else happened to us. He drove down Wesconbet to Blanding and let us get out. Debbie got out I remember how I wanted her to pull the knob on the back seat I SO wanted out. Thank God she did. The guy had short dark hair almost military cut staricht across back, he was somewhat tan there were freckles on his back neck. He appeared to be 20 to 21.
Hi Mary!
Thanks so much for your comment. That story was definitely interesting, Mary, but it couldn’t have been THE Ted Bundy, the killer of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The serial killer, Ted Bundy, was only in Florida one time, and that was in 1978. His locations for 1967 are well-established, and all his activity was far away from Florida.
Take care,
Kevin
Hi. My aunt Sheri lives in Tallahassee Fl.. I have been told by my aunt and mom that my aunt got away from him. She was leaving the Tallahassee Mall and he tried to get her then. If you want i can tell you the whole story i was told or maybe i can get her to tell you.
Hi Shanna,
First, do you know if your aunt contacted the police and made a report? Did the police contact her (or she the police) after Bundy was arrested and his picture began to be seen on TV? Did they have her come down and ID him? All of these steps add to the credibility of the testimony. See what you can find out and get back with me.
Thanks,
Kevin
Kevin,
I know the Headsman shut down the “Executed Today” blog as far as “to-and-fro’ communication. However, is it still possible to access the blog to search for old posts that were “mailed” to the blog. “oh so long ago,”? There was a huge amount of information posted to your blog and I would like to go back and review its content. Would the information contained in the old blog be suitable for a small booklet?
Bob
Hi Bob,
I’m thinking you can go back to see it. Then again, it could be changed by now, I just don’t know. As to making a booklet: Are you talking about retrieving your comments only? If you are, I’m sure that would be okay. However, I’m certain the other comments, as well as the entire blog, is owned by the headsman. And that would be infringement if you retrieved anything other than your own comments, and I would advise you not to do that. But your comments should be fine, but not the answers or other comments.
I hope you’re doing well. 🙂
Kevin
Hi Kevin, I’d like to run a few ideas past you.
We know that Bundy whacked some of victims on the head, placed them in his VW then drove to a prepared area where he would continue assaulting them. How did he prevent the blood from the head wound from staining the VW’s interior? Did he wrap a plastic bag around the victim’s head, since no blood was found inside his car? Was a polaroid camera ever found with Ted’s belongings during any of the searches that were conducted of his car or rooms, as we suspect he took photos of the girls he attacked? Some of the girls were taken to an forested place at night, how did Bundy see what he was doing? He could not have used his car headlights because that would draw too much attention to his gross activities. Perhaps he used a small flashlight?
In a different direction, since you are interested in General Custer, I wondered if you have read Richard Allen Fox Jr.’s archaeology book on the last battle? It is very informative.
Have a Happy New Year and let me know your insights to my thoughts.
Bob
Hi Bob, and a Happy New Year to you as well!
They did find blood in Bundy’s VW. When Mike Fisher received permission from Utah detective, Jerry Thompson, to take the VW to the CBI in Denver (he placed it in the back of a truck and drove it there), the technicians removed the weather felt along the passenger door window, and down on the glass and inward part of the door, they found blood that had run down that Utah missed. Also, Bundy may have gotten blood on some of the seats or other material, prompting him to purchase new interior pieces for his car which we know he did.
Bundy did use a flashlight and it was a part of his murder kit. That said, he told Bill Hagmaier that he has used his headlights before in some rural areas to see what he was doing. And yes, that was VERY risky behavior.
Bundy told Hagmaier that he had taken Polaroid shots of his (or some of his) victims, but to my knowledge they never found a camera. He probably got rid of it (and all the pics) after their search of his apartment at 565 First Ave. in Salt Lake City. The reason they missed these pictures (and the camera) is because they were apparently in the utility room which they didn’t check. Only his apartment was checked that night.
Yes, I have Fox’s books, and they are great. Fox even wrote a blurb for my full biography of Custer, titled: Custer’s Road to Disaster: The Path to Little Bighorn, published in 2013.
I just published a book, titled Bundy; A Clinical Discussion of the Perfect Storm. After reading a number of books on Ted Bundy it occurred to me the important question had not been answered,. to wit: What combination of neurological, experiential, psychological and social factors could come together to create a savage compulsion to kill. All of us know people who have been rejected, been born out of wedlock, are narcissistic yet none of those people murdered dozens of women. I decided to use a clinical/developmental approach to discuss how an outwardly normal man could morph into a monster. Book is on Amazon and B&N but free sample chapters and E reads are available also. Bundy actions seem to have resulted from the assembly of just the right (or wrong) pieces of constitution an experience and I believe that absent a few of those factors he could have turned out quite differently.
Very interesting, Robert, and good luck with it.