This is a terrifying yet well-written read. Trying to understand Ted just brings up more unanswerable questions. How he got away with so many murders is truly puzzling. Was he really that good at what he did or do we as a society have some fault as well? How could his girlfriend not have known? Was she afraid to know? I'm feeling quite unsettled by this story.
I wouldn't call it puzzling. The reason is very obvious, in the subtext of police and society's treatment of the victims of rape. Ted Bundy exists, flourishes, and proliferates because men hate women beyond all reason and will always fall into lock step in defense of men's right to rape women.
I don't believe it's because men hate women beyond all reason. Many men don't hate us but were raised under the patriarchy who wants to retain power. So yes, women don't get treated well and aren't believed when they are raped. Women have big problems in our society. You touched on it but I believe it's a bit more complex than they hate us.
I would like to believe they don't, but I would have to ignore literally all the evidence.
If the abuse of women were not an active choice the average man makes every single day, day in and day out, I might be more open to the idea. Men treat women like dogshit and men rape women and then men refuse to believe women and remember how men used to burn women alive? The Burning Times? Men hate women consistently, violently, and history is written by men in the blood of women. It is what it is.
Spellbinding account and essay. Thank you. That was the era of my youth. I chose to go to Western Mich. Univ. in Kalamazoo, instead of Univ. of Mich. in Ann Arbor. There was a serial killer of college coeds running around UoM campus at the time. None of my friends picked UoM, either. We were too spooked by that bad omen. Don’t remember many details now, over 50 years later. That story finally ended, thank goodness.
I never heard about the UofM predator, but then we didn't hear much news in those days - more word of mouth and whatever the big city papers put up - the full front pages of "mug shots" of the young women. In this region, we had subsequent serial predators/killers, and I taught college classes to some of the survivors. Thanks for the feedback on the essay, Kristin.
What a chilling account. It’s terrifying to think you can be so close to becoming a victim. I’m glad you and your sisters were safe but I weep for the women who weren’t so fortunate.
Amazing read. Chilling. I grew up in Portland and had cousins who lived in Burien so I spent a lot of time up there in my youth. I well remember the Bundy years. You bring them--and the brutality women faced from indifferent cops and other men--so well. Painful to remember, but important.
Quite the story and well told. You speak for so many, thank you. I really appreciate what your sister Liz said near the end. Japan and so many others are simply smarter and care more for their people than the U.S.A.
Predators of all kinds are enabled in our society! Part of it is, I think, people just don’t want to think a predator might be around. So, they don’t take the necessary precautions! It amazes me that some actually go shopping in a shopping center by themselves at midnight!!!!!
I think it was near Saltwater State Park. I think she went to schools in Federal Way, Sacajawea middle school for sure. She moved around for high school as she was an ice skater and stayed with a friend in Edmonds for a while, then Colorado.
My wife, also named Brenda, grew up just down the road from you, mostly in De Moines, while her father worked at Boeing. Ted Bundy was active while she and her sisters were growing up. He cast a shadow over a generation. Thanks so much for this, and for answering my comment elsewhere so that I would find you.
Thank you, John, for commenting. I'm glad you found me! Where exactly did your wife grow up in Des Moines? We lived on 24th Avenue South, about a mile from Mt Rainier High School. Did she attend that cluster of schools thrown up for the Boeing generation, Midway, Pacific, and Mt Rainier? When I revisited this essay, which I worked on for years, what shocked me was how much danger we young women and girls were in, and still we tried to live our lives. Later, when my daughter attended Annie Wright in Tacoma (as I did my junior year), the school gave a workshop for parents and kids about how to survive an assault: Don't get taken from Point A to Point B was the essence. Fight as hard as you can not to be grabbed. One of the only women to survive Bundy did that, and her action and testimony helped break the case. Yet it chills me that young girls and women needed to learn these lessons then or ever.
Oh, so compelling. So chilling. I usually stay away from stories like these but I couldn't stop reading once I'd started.
I'm truly at a loss for more words. Wow.
Thanks for reading, Ramona.
This is a terrifying yet well-written read. Trying to understand Ted just brings up more unanswerable questions. How he got away with so many murders is truly puzzling. Was he really that good at what he did or do we as a society have some fault as well? How could his girlfriend not have known? Was she afraid to know? I'm feeling quite unsettled by this story.
It is unsettling, Ilona. I would say that our society does enable predators. Thanks for your feedback and for reading!
I wouldn't call it puzzling. The reason is very obvious, in the subtext of police and society's treatment of the victims of rape. Ted Bundy exists, flourishes, and proliferates because men hate women beyond all reason and will always fall into lock step in defense of men's right to rape women.
I don't believe it's because men hate women beyond all reason. Many men don't hate us but were raised under the patriarchy who wants to retain power. So yes, women don't get treated well and aren't believed when they are raped. Women have big problems in our society. You touched on it but I believe it's a bit more complex than they hate us.
I would like to believe they don't, but I would have to ignore literally all the evidence.
If the abuse of women were not an active choice the average man makes every single day, day in and day out, I might be more open to the idea. Men treat women like dogshit and men rape women and then men refuse to believe women and remember how men used to burn women alive? The Burning Times? Men hate women consistently, violently, and history is written by men in the blood of women. It is what it is.
Spellbinding account and essay. Thank you. That was the era of my youth. I chose to go to Western Mich. Univ. in Kalamazoo, instead of Univ. of Mich. in Ann Arbor. There was a serial killer of college coeds running around UoM campus at the time. None of my friends picked UoM, either. We were too spooked by that bad omen. Don’t remember many details now, over 50 years later. That story finally ended, thank goodness.
I never heard about the UofM predator, but then we didn't hear much news in those days - more word of mouth and whatever the big city papers put up - the full front pages of "mug shots" of the young women. In this region, we had subsequent serial predators/killers, and I taught college classes to some of the survivors. Thanks for the feedback on the essay, Kristin.
What a chilling account. It’s terrifying to think you can be so close to becoming a victim. I’m glad you and your sisters were safe but I weep for the women who weren’t so fortunate.
And for their families, and for the communities where these events take place. Thanks for your empathy, Sandy.
Amazing read. Chilling. I grew up in Portland and had cousins who lived in Burien so I spent a lot of time up there in my youth. I well remember the Bundy years. You bring them--and the brutality women faced from indifferent cops and other men--so well. Painful to remember, but important.
Thanks, Charlotte. I agree. "Painful to remember, but important."
Quite the story and well told. You speak for so many, thank you. I really appreciate what your sister Liz said near the end. Japan and so many others are simply smarter and care more for their people than the U.S.A.
Predators of all kinds are enabled in our society! Part of it is, I think, people just don’t want to think a predator might be around. So, they don’t take the necessary precautions! It amazes me that some actually go shopping in a shopping center by themselves at midnight!!!!!
I think it was near Saltwater State Park. I think she went to schools in Federal Way, Sacajawea middle school for sure. She moved around for high school as she was an ice skater and stayed with a friend in Edmonds for a while, then Colorado.
My wife, also named Brenda, grew up just down the road from you, mostly in De Moines, while her father worked at Boeing. Ted Bundy was active while she and her sisters were growing up. He cast a shadow over a generation. Thanks so much for this, and for answering my comment elsewhere so that I would find you.
Thank you, John, for commenting. I'm glad you found me! Where exactly did your wife grow up in Des Moines? We lived on 24th Avenue South, about a mile from Mt Rainier High School. Did she attend that cluster of schools thrown up for the Boeing generation, Midway, Pacific, and Mt Rainier? When I revisited this essay, which I worked on for years, what shocked me was how much danger we young women and girls were in, and still we tried to live our lives. Later, when my daughter attended Annie Wright in Tacoma (as I did my junior year), the school gave a workshop for parents and kids about how to survive an assault: Don't get taken from Point A to Point B was the essence. Fight as hard as you can not to be grabbed. One of the only women to survive Bundy did that, and her action and testimony helped break the case. Yet it chills me that young girls and women needed to learn these lessons then or ever.