Ted Bundy — College Years Theodore Robert Bundy, better known as "Ted Bundy" (November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989), was a notorious American serial killer who kidnapped, raped, and murdered numerous young women in the 1970s or earlier. After nearly a decade of denial, before his execution in 1989, he confessed to thirty murders in seven states from 1974 to 1978. The actual number of victims, however, may be much higher. After graduating high school in 1965, Bundy attended the University of Puget Sound (UPS). In 1966, he transferred to the University of Washington (UW) specifically to enroll in an intensive Chinese language program. Reports suggest he believed China would become a dominant global power and wanted to be politically prepared for it. In 1967, he became romantically involved with a fellow UW student, Diane Edwards. "He saw a woman who was the epitome of his dreams," wrote Ann Rule. "[Edwards] was unlike any girl he had ever seen before, and he considered her the most sophisticated and beautiful creature in the world." Bundy later described Edwards as "the only woman I ever truly loved." Considered the "Queen of True Crime," Ann Rule (1931–2015) was a prolific American writer who revolutionized the genre by focusing on the psychology of criminals and the humanization of victims. Edwards graduated from the University of Washington (UW) in 1968. She broke up with Bundy shortly after graduation, considering him immature and lacking clear professional goals. In 1968, Bundy won a scholarship to continue his Chinese studies at Stanford University. However, devastated by the breakup, Bundy dropped out of college and worked a series of odd jobs. He then traveled to Colorado and then east, visiting relatives in Arkansas and Philadelphia and enrolling for a semester at Temple University. It was also around this time, in early 1969, Rule believed, that Bundy visited the birth registration office in Burlington and confirmed his true ancestry. Bundy volunteered in the Seattle office of the presidential campaign of Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st Vice President of the United States from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. A member of the Republican Party and the wealthy Rockefeller family, he previously served as the 49th Governor of New York, elected in 1959 and re-elected in three subsequent elections, in 1962, 1966, and 1970. Bundy returned to Washington in the fall of 1969, where he met Elizabeth Kloepfer, a single mother from Ogden, Utah, who worked as a secretary at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Their tumultuous relationship would continue long after his initial arrest in Utah in 1976. Bundy became a father figure to Kloepfer's daughter, Molly, who was three years old when he began dating her mother; he remained in her life until she turned 10, after which he was imprisoned. As an adult, Molly wrote about incidents beginning at age 7 in which Bundy was abusive or sexually inappropriate toward her. Her accounts include Bundy hitting her in the face, knocking her down, putting her at risk of drowning, indecent exposure, and sexual touching disguised as accidents or "play." In mid-1970, Bundy, now focused and oriented, re-enrolled at UW, this time as a psychology student. He became a well-liked student among his professors. In 1971, he landed a job at the Seattle Suicide Hotline Crisis Center. There, he met and worked alongside Ann Rule, a former Seattle police officer and aspiring crime novelist who would later write one of the definitive biographies of Bundy, *The Stranger Beside Me*. Rule saw nothing disturbing in Bundy's personality at the time; she described him as "gentle, solicitous, and empathetic." After graduating from UW in 1972, Bundy joined Governor Daniel J. Evans' reelection campaign. Pretending to be a college student, he accompanied Evans' opponent, former Governor Albert Rosellini, and recorded his campaign speeches for analysis by Evans' staff. Evans subsequently appointed Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee. Following Evans' reelection, Bundy was hired as an assistant to Ross Davis, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. Davis deeply admired Bundy and described him as "intelligent and a believer in the system." In early 1973, despite average scores on the Law School Entrance Exam, Bundy was accepted into the University of Utah law school thanks to letters of recommendation from Evans, Davis, and several UW psychology professors. During a Republican Party business trip to California in the summer of 1973, Bundy rekindled his relationship with Edwards. She marveled at his transformation into a serious and dedicated professional, seemingly poised to embark on a significant legal and political career. Bundy continued dating Kloepfer as well; neither was aware of the other's existence. In the fall of 1973, Bundy enrolled at Seattle Law School and continued dating Edwards, who flew to Seattle several times to be with him. They discussed marriage; at one point, he introduced her to Davis as his fiancée. In January 1974, Bundy abruptly cut off all contact with Edwards; his calls and letters went unanswered. When she finally managed to speak to him on the phone a month later, she demanded to know why he had unilaterally ended the relationship without explanation. In a calm, monotone voice, he replied, "Diane, I have no idea what you mean," and hung up. She never heard from him again. Bundy later explained, "I just wanted to prove to myself that I could have married her"; but Edwards concluded in retrospect that "Ted had deliberately planned it, that he had waited all those years to be in a position where he could make her fall in love with him, so that he could discard her, reject her, as she had rejected him." By this time, Bundy had already begun skipping classes at law school. In April, he stopped attending altogether, as young women began disappearing in the Pacific Northwest. Alex