As is obvious to anyone who reads my blog, I am a huge fan of true crime stories. Some of the cases that fascinate and interest me the most are: Charles Manson, Gary Ridgway (The Green River Killer), Ed Gein, David Berkowitz (Son of Sam), John Wayne Gacy, Leopold and Loeb, and of course the classic unsolved cases like Jack the Ripper and The Black Dahlia. Of course I knew who Ted Bundy was but I never delved into the details of his case...until I read Green River Running Red by Ann Rule. The book deals with the case of Gary Ridgway but Ted Bundy figures into it as well. That interested me enough to prompt me to read Rule's Stranger Beside Me which completely focused on Ted Bundy. And I found it absolutely fascinating and stunning, it was a real page turner and got me interested enough to dig deeper and read more about the Bundy case. So I subsequently ended up reading 6 more books about him: The Only Living Witness, Conversations with a Killer, The Riverman, Defending the Devil, Bundy: The Killer Next Door, and Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger. I think I've become something of a “Bundyphile” as they say. Seriously I think the case is so fascinating, the more I find out about it, the more I want to know.



BUT while I was finding and reading all those books, I knew that there was one particular book that I needed to get, possibly the best book ever written about Ted Bundy - The Phantom Prince. What makes this book so interesting is that it was written by Bundy's ex-fiancee and what it shares with Ann Rule's book is that it is a personal account rather than a retelling of Bundy's crimes. This book shows you the man behind the crimes, it takes you up close and personal to one of the most infamous figures in the annals of true crime. But the problem is that the book is out of print and hard to get. I did manage to find copies on the internet at places like Alibris and AbeBooks but since this is an in-demand book they sell for upwards of $100 and there's no way that I could afford to pay that for a book right now. At one point I scoured the internet and came across someone selling a copy for $40 at a website that sells college textooks – OMG great I can afford that! Happily I was going to place my order in 2 days when I got my money but by the next day of course someone else had found it and snatched it up. I had also seen it being sold in that price range another time at Amazon but again I had to wait and that copy was snatched up within a couple of hours. Ok so I grudgingly resigned myself to never ever getting this book and it was becoming all the more frustrating because I kept reading about how it is THE book to get if you're interested in the Ted Bundy case, as I mentioned, it is often referred to as the best book ever written about him. Grrr...

But then one day I unexpectedly came across a copy being sold on Ebay ( Continued Here... )

If you are interested in true crime, Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me is a must read. Even if you are not a true crime fan it is still a riveting and absorbing book. The person at the center of this book is infamous, his name is synonymous with “serial killer”, as a matter of fact his is the name that is most likely to pop into your head when you hear the phrase “serial killer” - Ted Bundy. Even 20 years after his death in Florida's electric chair, Ted Bundy remains a fascinating and intriguing figure. Bearing the responsibility of shockingly ferocious crimes, the intelligent, charming, and impossibly good-looking Bundy became a captivating personality as he handled his own defense at his famous court trials. All at once he was charismatic, handsome, manipulative, sneaky, brainy, sharp, creepy, and mysterious. The Stranger Beside Me adds another layer of complexity to the person of Ted Bundy.

First of all I want to say that The Stranger Beside Me scared me to pieces, so much so that I actually took to making sure my doors and windows were locked and secured every night and I even booby trapped them should anyone attempt to break in. The only other book that scared me that much was Helter Skelter by Charles Manson's prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi.



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