In the autumn of 1984 a detective in King County, Washington opened a letter from Florida State Prison. Ted Bundy had been on death row for five years and had read that the police outside Seattle were hunting a man who had killed at least forty women along the Green River, and he was writing to offer his help. Not a confession — an analysis. He proposed to tell Robert Keppel and Dave Reichert what sort of man they were looking for, on the basis that he had been one.
The correspondence ran for two years. Bundy wrote in longhand on lined paper, numbering his pages, sometimes thirty or forty at a time; the detectives typed back on King County Department of Public Safety letterhead. What is remarkable about the replies is how ordinary they are. They acknowledge receipt of three letters at a time. They enclose newspaper clippings and an updated victim list. They answer his questions about a list of names he had been sent, explain why a printout of mental patients could no longer be obtained under the privacy laws, and tell him, with the flatness of men who do this for a living, that his reasoning about the killer's likely psychiatric history "is about as well stated as anyone could" put it.
Keppel went back to Florida to see Bundy days before the execution in January 1989. The Green River Killer was arrested in 2001 and turned out to be Gary Ridgway, a truck painter who had been interviewed by the task force in 1984, the same year this correspondence began.
Bundy's own letters are not on this page. They are 196 pages of cursive in pen on lined paper, and optical character recognition cannot read cursive - it returns broken punctuation and stray marks rather than words. What you are reading is the other side of the exchange: 83 typed pages, almost all of them the detectives' replies, which are clean and complete. Every handwritten page is accounted for in the file at its right position, so nothing is hidden and nothing has moved.
Those 196 pages are the largest piece of unread material this archive has identified, and the most valuable. It is a man under sentence of death writing at length, unprompted and at his own initiative, about an active serial murder investigation - and it exists nowhere in transcription. Doing it means reading the page images by eye, one page at a time, marking every uncertain word. It is a job measured in weeks rather than hours and it is on the list.
A public record of King County, Washington, released by the Department of Public Safety and free to reproduce. The letterhead names Vernon Thomas as Sheriff-Director and Randy Revelle as County Executive, which dates most of the file precisely. Bundy wrote from P.O. Box 747, Starke, Florida.
Read the detectives' side for what it is: working correspondence, not analysis of Bundy and not a record of what he told them. Where they summarize one of his arguments back to him - the lists of names, the mental-patient printout, his view of the killer's psychiatric history - that summary is theirs, written to keep an exchange moving, and it is not a substitute for the letter it answers. The letters they are answering are the handwritten pages.
One enclosure has been left out. A detective sent Bundy a Seattle Times article about Ron Holmes of the University of Louisville, who had interviewed him and was describing him at seminars as the ultimate power-control killer, and asked for his reaction - "I have enclosed a recent news clipping and am interested in your reaction to it." The article is the newspaper's, not King County's, and it does not become a public record by being folded into one. It is also, scanned, two columns woven into each other and unreadable. What the detectives themselves thought of Holmes is in their own letters further down, and they were not impressed.
The typed pages are the cleanest scan in this category: 95.7 per cent of words in the file's typed portion are dictionary words, and almost nothing needed repair. 144 passages are printed, 8,422 words.
Please confirm that you have received my letters dated November 30, 1984 and December 14, 1984. I have still not received your letter of October 22 that you sent through FBI channels.
You'll find enclosed an updated list of current victims and an article about possible Portland linkages.
Dave and I have received your letters dated January 28, February 3, and February 5, 1985. Since our last correspondence, we have been quite busy.
As you can see by the newspaper enclosures of Gail Mathews and Carrie Rois, the Task Force is not lacking for things to do.
You mentioned in your February 5 letter that you are puzzled about the Healy list, that it appears in part at least to have been compiled after your arrest in October, 1975. The entire li st of codes were compiled prior to July, 1975. I would be interested in your thoughts or what puzzled you about the list.
Among your 1is ts of names, you started out with persons who had been arrested for assault, rape, kidnapping and etc., throughout King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Thurston Counties; these lists have been compiled in the Green River Case, and they were noticeable absent in the Healy list for several reasons. The number one reason was that our 3,500 suspects that we had accumulated had all been checked out as far as their backgrounds go and we felt that the name of the suspect was in our files already, but we didn't know where. In addition, most of the experts at the time admittedly, they were few and far between and probably didn't know too much about what they were saying) said that they didn't think the guy had any criminal record. A third and probably most obvious reason was to attempt to collect a list like that from all police departments would have been next to impossible because of the time involved. The information available today is all computerized.
Concerning your tenth list of mental patients printout, this list would be next to impossible to attain today because of the privacy laws. It was not as difficult to obtain back in 1974. As you are well aware, many theories of what the killer was like in 1974 were expl ored One of the theories was that he must have been a mental patient getting out of the hospital. As ludicrous as that sounds, people really believed that could be possible and therefore, we should divert our energies to that, so we made an attempt to determine who had been released from a mental hospital. The list we received was 1964 through 1974 of all persons released from a mental institution in the State of Washington. The problem with the list was, it was over 5,000 names long, and so the best we could do was to determine on a hand search basis if any of our suspects who had come up during the investigation were on the mental patients list. I agree with you that he probably does not have a recorded history of mental problems and that this list may be useless for us, but back in 1974 even though the administrator wanted the list obtained, the detectives never did feel that the person was a candidate for a mental patients list. If anything, we used the mental patients list as an eliminating factor and a prioritization in determining if a person was on that li st he probably was not the killer.
Your analysis of why you believe that the Green River killer doesn't have a recorded mental history of problems is about as well stated as anyone could.
Mr. Theodore Bundy March 19, 1985 Page Three Your suggestion of comparing lists of people from the Portland area to the Seattle area is well taken and has been implemented prior to your letter.
Regarding your of the lists and inquiry of deaths in 1981, strange as it may sound, this list is not comprehensive and the reporting factors from other police departments frankly at times are abominable Every day we find out new deaths that occur in other jurisdictions that we were not aware of in the past. This is frustrating especially when we think our list is somewhat complete and then there's just another one to be added to it. British Columbia is a different problem in that they have identified numerous deaths. We have explored several prostitute murders committed in Canada One of our problems is that they do not have group dumpsites like King County does, and frankly, it is very difficult to determine whether or not they are linked to the Green River killings. It is our feeling that the problem in British Columbia is very similar and that we have explored leads in the cases from British Columbia.
Dave and I appreciate your correspondence with us. It gives us a necessary and refreshing look at this problem from a different perspective. I have included 10 postage stamps for your return letters.
Robert Keppel Chief Criminal Investigator Washington State Attorney General's Office Consu tant, Green River Task Force Enclosures King Counly Randy Revelle Department of Public Safety Vernon Thomas, Sheriff-Director August 12, 1985 Mr. Ted Bundy
Thought you would be interested in the recent developments in the Green River cases. I have not received correspondence from you since I mailed a letter dated May 29, 1985. I hope everything is well with you and you have the time to address the questions in that letter.
As you can see by the enclosures, the Task Force has been quite busy investigating the implications of the bone finds in the Portland area. If these cases prove out to be linked, your assessment of the river man's range is right
There have been two separate bone finds in the Portland area: (1) about one mile west of I-5 near Tualatin, two unidentified sets of bones were found in April, 1985 and, (2) about five miles from I-5 near Tigard, Bush and Sherrill were found. Both finds are in Washington County jurisdiction. The identification of Bush and Sherrill on the missing lists sent to you provides a dynamic and interesting dimension to the Green River cases.
There is not much doubt that Bush was last seen on Pacific Highway South, but we are still investigating the possibility that Sherrill made it to the Portland area of her own accord. With this additional information, are you still protecting that the river man lived in the area?
Bush was dumped 220 miles from where she was missing in King County. What does this remind you of?
The obvious question facing us now is, "Is the killer still here?" December 23, 1983 is our last known victim. We seem no more effective today than we were in 1974 to determine if the suspect has moved on. Your feelings on this matter would be appreciate. I realize there are the traditional theories of he's dead, hospitalized, jailed, disposing bodies better, and moved on. But what is going through this guy's mind after If he is still alive, what do you think his behavior is like now?
family. Also, the political climate at the time and departmental I' influences the police follow-up of the potential series murder victim's disappearance. ft The Seattle papers of May 9 and 10 carried articles about your appeal in the I Leach case. It is unclear to me about your current status. You probably know Florida law far better than could you please clarify what remaining legal steps you have? Is there a probable timetable of the future I should be concerned with?
Your proposal, ideas, and hypothesis in the Green River case are highly valued by the Task Force. So when it appears to you to offer nothing of value, you should keep in mind that whatever you say about the case is evaluate based upon what you are supplied with and is greatly appreciate.
Your logic in a dynamic murder investigation is invaluable. You have definite original ideas which bear consideration for their futility.
program emphasizing homicide investigations. I would like to correspond with you some time about my proposal. It appears to be quite unique at the and I had to jump through numerous hooks to gain admittance. A couple of familiar names to you are on my supervising committee, Ezra Stotland and Elizabeth Loftus. I have been at it for about three years. At first, I was in the Higher Education Doctoral Program and then after 30 graduate hours, I was "qualified" to apply for the Special Program. If you are interested, I will be glad to correspond with you about my course of study.
We are extremely interested in hearing from you about the questions posed.
In this letter I've included some articles which indicate most of the Green River Task Force activity since I last wrote.
In addition, two other skeletons were recently discovered near where skull was found back in 1983. About 100 yards down the hillside from where that skull was found some skeletal remains were located that were positively identified as those of The original search for some reason in 1983 had not covered that particular area. Along the Mount View Cemetery Road, east of the location of Pitsor, the two other skeletons were found. To date these skeletons remain unidentified and are aged back in the era.
In your last letter you indicated it would be useful if we talked on the and then. If you could provide me with the proper procedure for accomplishing this: who should clear the call, and when the most appropriate time to call would be. We might be able to arrange a conversation now and then.
You asked in your last letter, have we given any thought to a serial murder movie festival?" The more I think of it the better i sounds. The logistics of pulling i off would be insurmountable. The current way most movie theater are set up today is not an ideal situation for accomplishing such a task.
Most are six theater in one building, usually in a major shopping center where the individual movie goers park anywhere. Most of the cops that I've talked to would be excited about doing it although there would be some problems with individual rights.
I'm beginning to organized the collection of data on homicide cases in Washington State. You and I had talked in the past about some of the limitations of the VICAP Program. I would be extremely interested in your thoughts about how we could most precisely accumulated data on homicide cases so we might be able to more accurately trace cases that would be associated with one another.
Several forms have been utilized by various states and I would be interested in your impressions of a way to accomplish this task.
At the present time if someone were to call a police agency in the area, or anywhere in this state for that matter, and claim that they would have killed somebody back in, say 1969, there would be absolutely no way to retrieve that information short of calling every police agency in the state. You can see the dilemma that exists. Agencies have not traditionally kept statistics on a statewide basis. Your input on this matter would be deeply appreciate.
I have included in the materials I've sent you a Homicide Report Form from the state of Oregon. It appears on the one hand Page 2
I be waiting to hear from you. Thank you for your cooperation. Take care.
One question you have not addressed in any of your previous letters is What is the killer doing when he returns to the place where he dumped a body? How long is he there? What are his reasons for returning?"
I will address the questions you had in your letter. You inquired if the Attorney General's Office had the legal authority to compel agencies to comply. No. What I've done is gather together a committee of five agencies Spokane, Seattle, King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties). This committee is responsible for policy formulation and strategies for cooperation. These five agencies have of the known and recovered unsolved homicides that have occurred in the state in the past 20 years. Much to my surprise, the committee wanted to go back 20 years historically to get a data base that would be usable.
The software program was constructed using the new, reduced version of the VICAP form. The former 64 page form has been reduced to 16. THe State program in no way subverts VICAP but is supplement to VICAP. We decided to use the same form as VICAP instead of producing another form. Asking detectives to fill out more than one form on the same case is a bit much.
Also, we felt the suspect killed prior to January 1974.
Now, we ran into problems compiling this list. Some police agencies did not want to get involved and tell us about homicides in their jurisdiction. And you re right, it is a patchwork list which is not all inclusive. Your point that a uniform state-wide system of reporting could take the guesswork out of such lists is well taken.
the process of accumulating the photos and maps you requested. I will probably have to show these to you when I visit you next.
Your proposal that you and I sit down together and go over unsolved homicides in Washington for the past ten years or so and try to link similar cases sounds interesting. You state that you could guarantee it would be worth my while. I agree, however, I'm not sure at this point even though you say you're serious, how serious you really are I do want to take you up on this opportunity.
Somewhere along the line, personally, I have to verify your integrity. We have been building this trust over the last year and a half. You and I have kind of a mutual understanding of your expertise, but I don't think that I can take the chance on the eventual revealing of information on another jurisdictions homicide unless there is something in it for them. I'm sure you understand this concept.
I was quite surprised to find out you have been telling other people that you have been corresponding with me. I've been trying to keep it as quiet as possible and so far, have had no press inquiries. Bill Hagmeyer of the FBI forwarded your page manuscript to me. I dont' think I learned anything new.
try to get a better perspective from your side to the time and under what conditions you want to talk about 1975 and before. I know when you choose to talk, you'll talk to whomever you please.
I apologize for not writing to you sooner. Several interesting things are happening here that I thought would interest you.
First of all, the Green River Task Force is fully operational despite any news reports to the contrary. We are not any closer to a suspect than our last correspondence. No other victims have been discovered missing since March, 1984. The total are now 36 homicides and 10 missing. Four victims remain unidentified.
The Homicide Assistance program within the Attorney General's Office has now accumulated over 210 unsolved homicide cases that historically go back 20 years. Local detectives fill out the revised VICAP form and submit it to this office before it is forwarded to the National Center. I expect by the end of 1987 there will be well over 400 cases in the state system. The information fields on the form are entered into a state computer.
We can search any of the fields in any order or combination. Thus far, over 150 of the cases are female.
Agencies, like Snohomish County and Pierce County have submitted to date. Others, like Seattle and King County, have submitted many, but they have many more to go. The city of Seattle has the most cases unsolved, so it will take them longer. At one time you proposed that you go over the unsolved lists with me in an effort to link related cases. The data base is finally getting large enough where this analysis could be very useful.
another black prostitute was found strangled. On the surface it would appear that the deaths are very similar but the 10 month gap has the Spokane authorities perplexed.
Tacoma Police has been in contact with us regarding the investigation into the deaths of two 12-year-old females, both riding bicycles, and both found in local parks. Thurston County and Kitsap County have arrested two suspects in female murders and are believed to have killed in the past. It would be interesting to discuss these recent cases with you, especially as they may relate to other cases in the data base.
My Ph.D. study is slowly progressing. This quarter I'm into the law section and Charles Smith is the supervisor. I'm doing a comparative analysis of the issues brought on appeal as they relate to solvability factors in serial murder cases. I've just reviewed the issues you brought in the Chi Omega and Leach cases.
I would be very interested in your thoughts on how the police can improve their investigative techniques in the handling of eyewitnesses", the uses of hypnosis, interviewing alleged suspects, and the search for physical evidence.
Another curious issue is the inclusion of extrinsic offenses with the regular charges. In some cases, they appear to be included arbitrarily, even though there is evidence to the contrary, especially in the Wayne Williams cases.
I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirits. I think about you every time I hear the news media creating the circus atmosphere around your situation. I find the entire display repulsive. There is some solace in knowing that you are one smart, tough "cookie" and that the state of Florida has a on their hands.
I hope the timing of my visit does not interfere with any appellate business that you would be preoccupied
Additionally, we can examine the unsolved female murders that occurred prior to Green River to determine if they should be included in the series These discussions will not be used by me as an opportunity to press you about cases where you are a suspect.
I received your letter of January 14 and am looking forward to our meeting on February 27. I have already made the necessary arrangements with the corrections officials for Friday the 27th and Saturday the 28th.
In your letter you requested that I elaborate on the "solvability factors in serial murder cases." Quite frequently the successful completion of serial murder investigations is dependent upon the quality of police interviews, the circumstances which led to the initial stop and arrest of a particular suspect,
The important thing for the police is to determine what element or combination of elements will solve the cases. The methods that detectives use to accomplish this come under review at various times throughout the investigation process For instance, the police may obtain through investigation a partial suspect description, an incomplete license number a possible first name or a unique vehicle description. The manner in which they go about turning this clue information into the solvability of the case is what I refer to. The fact that there's an eyewitness to any of these events proves valuable to the solution of the case The existance of an eyewitness is what I would cons i der to be a probable solvability factor in the case. Naturally, more prominent solvability factors would be being stopped with a murder victim in the car, leaving one driver license at the scene of the crime, Ken Eikenbeny Attorney General Dexter Horton Buildif.>%.g alhington 98104-1749
leaving one's finger print at the scene of the crime, a suspect's confession, and so on. These solvability factors would tie a particular crime scene or murder directly to the criminal. As you know, in most serial cases, by the time the police find the victim, there is little or no physical evidence directly leading to a suspect.
Using your appeal in the Chi Omega cases as an example, you brought four issues, of many, which specifically relate to the solvability factors. Your separate points on appeal which deal with this were that the eyewitness identification of Nita Neary should have been excluded because prior to trial she was hypnotized for the purpose of improving the quality and detail of her recollection of the man she saw leaving the sorority house, that your right to due process of law was violated because an impermissibly suggestive photographic selection procedure was used which affected Ms. Neary's testimony to your prejudice, that the trial court erred in denying your motion to sever counts six and seven which pertained to the crimes that occurred at the Cheryl Thomas apartment from the remaining counts, and that the trial court erred in permitting the state to present testimony of dental experts who analyzed the bite mark inflicted on the murder victim, Lisa Levy, as it compared to the models of your teeth. These, in my way of thinking, are specific solvability factors that you attacked.
In a different example, John Gacy specifically attacked the methods in which the police used to obtain his confession and the fact that the probable cause for the search warrant affidavit is home was factually defective. I hope this gives you a better idea of what I was referring to as "solvability factors" and how they relate to the police conduct in investigating them.
Additionally, you mentioned my referral to "extrinsic offenses." As an example, Wayne Williams was charged with two of the series of twenty-nine murders. Ten others were introduced as extrinsic offenses to the original two where the evidence in those cases were used in court against him. The problem, as I see it, is that the police had linked the offenses by MO. and physical Page 2
evidence. But if you look at the factors which were expressed by the Supreme Court to link cases, one of which was cause of death, two of the cases specifically were unrelated to the others.
There is nothing new to report from the cases in Tacoma, Spokane and Vancouver, BC. at this time. We can talk more in detail about these relationships on February 27.
With respect to the Green River cases, you and I had mentioned in the past about how a suspect may appear various lists of names that were accumulated during a police investigation. These names could then be cross checked on a computer to see if any one name appeared on mo re than one 1 i st. If you could brainstorm on what lists a suspect's name could appear on with respect to the Riverman, we could discuss these various list sources at our meeting. Examples of lists accumulated from body dumpsites and victim contact areas so far would be: traffic citations, field interrogation cards submitted by patrol officers, rape reports, assault reports, kidnapping reports, lists of vendors, motel register, registered owners of vehicles, and "Johns" that have been arrested by the police. If you can think of more creative sources for various lists to help us in our search, it would be appreciate.
The week of February 22nd, I am going to be in Jacksonville for a computer seminar. I thought if you would be available, I could stop by and visit you on the 22nd, 23rd or both. Please let me know soon, if this is possible.
There are several things we could discuss at our meeting.
First of all, I would like to know your thoughts concerning the rough draft of the form we have developed for the Homicide Assistance Program. The form is intended to record data from homicide files for the homicide information system and the solvability study. I have enclosed this form for your edification.
We could discuss the merits of each item in addition to any suggestions you have about more items that should be included.
We could also address the information in your July 6th letter, namely, what it would take to have the Riverman give himself up and other suspects who have been arrested in other jurisdictions recently.
Your request that any communications we may have be kept in "strictest of confidence" is absolutely honored. I, too, am concerned that any comments made by you could be detrimental to the Green River investigation
You may hear from them. The sensitivity of this matter was emphasized.
We real i ze the necessity for a special kind of trust between us that will have to be built over time. As this trust solidifies, more information wi ll become available to ou
Reames Rule and Anderson disappeared during our list times and could also be related. But as we discussed, confirmed victims are very difficult to determine These named victims are all The third list is female deaths 1973 through 1983. It is unknown how many of these are Green River related.
Police communications being what they are, you can imagine the difficulty experienced in 1975 at accumla ting th is 1 is Perhaps some day you may be able to shert some light on this list
Basically the what, where and when of prediction are more i important than the why.
Kelly Ware was in the same area as Mary Meehan and Connie Naon. was a Star Lake Road discovery. You can appreciate our previously discussed problems of identifying victims. These were bone finds of the past and were just id entified recently.
The remainder of this letter will be a response to your letter of Oct. 27th and the question you posed.
Bundy Specifically, how dow you think the victims are selected? Do you feel the riverman has stereotyped women as the only good one is a dead one?"
Your question Is it possible to determine in the case of any one or more of the victims what lapse of time was between the disappearance and the time the body was dumped or buried, has been discussed when we met with you. But our evidence to his point would not indicate that we would tell one thing from another about this question.
3 Bundy decomposition process; does he masturbate around or on the bodies; what do you think he is actually doing while there?
In your letter you mention methods for site surveillance and refer to protection of the body as a high priority. You state that the body be protected from degradation by several means. Could you go into more detail on how this could be accomplished rather than surruptiously removing the
I have a meeting with the FBI tomorrow and will discuss the whereabouts of your remaining letter.
Thank you for your time to consider these questions. Take Care.
I appreciate your letter of February 16. The last thing I want i confrontation with your attorneys. The postponment of the February 27th visit is no problem Any future date when you will feel more comfortable is fine with me. I sure we can work out a mutually appropriate date for a visit. Just let me know when you think it would be best.
In the meantime, in my January 28th letter, I mentioned your brainstorming for possible lists that you believe could contain the suspect's This computer comparison technique is an on-going process and your input would be invaluable. Please give this some serious thought and discuss this in your next letter.
Several recent cases are currently under investigation in Victoria, BC When I receive more information on these cases, I'll relate the facts to you.
I realized that I had not heard from you since I received your February 16th letter postponing our meeting. I am still interested in visiting you when you think the time is right. You have an upcoming hearing that probably consumes most of your thoughts.
I have enclosed a recent news flipping and am interested in your reaction to it. I mentioned in a previous letter what I thought of Dr. Holmes and the fact that you revealed to him that we were corresponding. Apparently, he chose this particular occasion to exploit his conversations with you. No doubt this garbage has caused strain on the family, but I don't think Holmes thought about that. It appears Holmes is turning you into Henry Lucas' rival. I wonder if there is any correlation between 365 murders and the number of days there are in a year. No telling what he will say about you if you are executed. I hope some day you will chose the proper forum for the truth.
You have not answered my last letter. I'm really interested in the computer list project and your thoughts and input to it.
Even though you have not answered my previous two letters, I remain patient that you will. For your information, I have enclosed a recent article about the discovery of the skeletal remains of was missing on 3-24-84 at about 5 PM from the location of 200 and Pacific Highway South. At the same time the task force was recovering the remains of a still unidentified female just north of the airport about 4 miles from the disappearance of What do you think is the significance of the discovery of the remains? Do you believe that the "riverman" drove by the discovery site that day, 3-24-84, to see what we were doing? body was recovered just off Highway 18 on SE. 312 Way, just 1/2 mile from the Antosh site. SE. 312 Way leads up to Green River Community College.
Two other interesting cases have occurred in Spokane. In January, 1986 a black prostitute was found strangled and dumped within eight blocks of a vice area, and as recently as November 4, Ken Eikenbeny Attorney General Dexter Horton Building. Seattle, Wihington 98104-1749 3
Months have passed since we last corresponded. The past several weeks have been very busy for both the Attorney General's Office and the Green River Task Force. I've included a newspaper article about the San Juan Island Murder Case where Ruth Neslund was charged with murdering her 80-year-old husband, Rolf. It was a difficult case to investigate and even more troublesome to prosecute since the body of Rolf Neslund was never found. It was an emotional case for the residents of Lopez Island and left them virtually drained. My boss, Greg Canova, did an outstanding job of prosecuting the case. I'm sure that you would find his legal abilities outstanding.
Soon we will begin another case in Yakima County. This prosecution was initially an alleged horse-kick to the head from 1975. In 1984 I arrested the husband for murder. It should also be quite an interesting trial due to the fact there are many experts on cranial fractured which will testify in the case.
As you can see by the newspaper articles, the panacea has arrived. Your last letter indicated your thoughts on the influence of the FBI involvement and I must say that to date your specific thoughts are very accurate.
Since your last letter there have been several victims discovered, one of which is who was found in September of 1985. She's the first victim to have been found within the city limits of Seattle. As you might expect, the Seattle Police Department was quick to hand over this particular case to the Green River Task Force.
to have a lot of information that is just nice to know instead of information that is useful in accumulating data on linking cases together. What I'd like for you to do is to look the form over and make marks on it, make additions to it, or edit it in any way that you want to. Identify what would be most beneficial for our own project. Not only will this project ultimately help the entire state in understanding the homicide problem more, it will also have a short term effect in assisting the Green River Task Force in accumulating information about deaths throughout the state. As soon as I hear from you about how to properly call you on the telephone we can speak on the phone about the various blocks that exist on he form and discuss their merits. At that time you can tell me your thoughts as to additions or deletions to the form that would be most beneficial. In the event you are unable to make a phone call, the mail will have to suffice for now.
Sorry it has taken so long to respond to your letter of April 17. I have enclosed articles on Delise Plager and Yes, we are very busy this time of year. We have been out on several bone finds but they were not connected to the Green River cases. I was a little apprehensive you had not received my March 19 letter since your address requirements had changed.
In your letter you said you could elaborate on the possible explanation for the phenomenon of unknown and missing victims in series murders, of bodies disposed of and never found." What are your thoughts in this area? The unbound body of a missing person causes the most heat from the concerned family. Also, the political climate at the time and departmental policy influences the police follow-up of the potential series murder victim's disappearance.
I do understand how hard i is for you to write when you are provided with so few facts about Green River. Our current forum of supplying you with the latest victims' news articles plus the lists I have sent is a poor methodology for analysis. Your degree of confidentiality is respected by all of us. I was a little surprised to get a call from Or. Holmes of the Criminal lnvcsligatlon Division King County Courthouse 516 Th ircl Aven ue Scatth,, Washington 98104 Mr. Ted Bundy May 29, 1985 Page Two University of Louisville. He said he had talked with you and you told him you had spoken to me about Green River. I was relieved when he said you had not told him what we were talking about. Frankly, I am pleasantly surprised our correspondence has not reached news media hands. Your name generates instant curiosity in the Seattle area.
Your constructive criticism of the list in that it did not include some of the things that you would include on a computer analysis for this case are well taken, and I will elaborate on their usefulness in 1974. I agree with you that thinning of a list of numerous suspects may be dangerous, pushed too far, and possibly could exclude the suspect. When we use lists, we are making several assumption and maybe some of those assumption are not to your liking, but we have to get a commitment for priorities of investigation. For instance, if we establish the priority right away that we will investigate suspects that appear on various lists, then the colTITiitment must be narrow, and it must be based upon the criteria of interest What's important now with the resources we have available). So if we are interested in the fact that a person in the same class roster with Linda Healy has been turned in as a suspect, is also registered to a Volkswagon Bug, and his first name happens to be Ted, then we would investigate that person prior to any other suspects.
I agree that if we could pare our list down to 200 or 300 or so, we would be able to interview them all. We made three specific computer runs back in 1975, all in the month of July. The first run was to tell us how many suspects appear on lists at least three times. That list totalled about 1,800 individuals and was totally unmanageable for a three person task force. The second list was to determine how many people appeared four times, which was a list of about 600. Then the final computer run was a list of how many appeared five times on various lists and we came up with a list of 25. Whether it was a law of average or luck, your name appeared in that list of 25. We surely did something right. In my research of other task, Criminal Investigation Division King County Courthouse 516 Third Avenue Sea Ille, Washington 98104 Mr. Theodore Bundy March 19, 1985 Page Two forces throughout the United States investigating serial cases, there has been no similar use of the computer. I would like sometime to explain why we had every code on that Healy list, so you would have a better idea of its uses for the Green River Case.
In the past, it was all hand searching and would have been very difficult to accumulated. I would still agree with you that there is a chance that the Green River killer has been arrested for a crime of violence sometime in his career and so we must accumulated that data. The following eight items on your list are well taken and have been accumulated by pre-Task Force detectives and Task Force detectives all along in the investigation, so those names are available to us.
As of this writing I am as yet to receive your letter of Oct You'll find enclosed recent newspaper articles regarding the identification of two Green River victims who were previously classified as Bones 6 and 11.
Your first question was what kind of scene were the victims into?" You make reference to the fact that they are characterized as teenage prostitutes and ask is this really true. Most of the victims are definitely prostitutes and have arrest records for prostitution. The last 4 Authorlee, Ware, and that were identified have kept this pattern. We have very few girls who were what you would classify as having had reputation, that is, party girls, school dropouts, runaways, and delinquents. It is clear that the prostitute is also a runaway, school dropout, etc. We have about two victims where their prostitute background is uncertain.
I like your idea about the killer being very much apart of the scene or the fringe of the scene. This is as you would state elementary but is a very plausible theory that has previously been considered.
From your description of the riverman's behavior, I get the feeling that you believe how the riverman classified his victims is not necessarily how we would classify them.
You mention the victims are women who are in some respects bolder, harder to intimidate, control and more mobile than most people as well as being inclined to adopt the 11 i can't happen to me attitude. Does this statement mean that the Green River killer thinks these types of women are more provocative, therefore, his main challenge?
The riverman has continued to work in his own territory, and, as you state, in part because he is confident of his abilities and he knows the police aren't close. How does he really blend in? And what kind of friends do you thin the killer has?
Your question what kind of people, especially men, were the victims most associated with? 11 I believe we have discussed this when we spoke in Florida. Your suggestion of pursuing a profile of the people who are in the scene with the victims has been accomplished in the past
Your question 11 did any of the victims know each other or know of each other? 11 The answer is yes depending on your defnintion of know. I think i is most closely stated that some knew each other but not to the ex of knowing phone numbers addresses, etc. They probably had come across each other near 1st and Pike or on Pacific Hwy.South. Your comments about the victims address books are well taken and have been pursued.
How are the disappearances of the victims distributed over time?" Initially, you can see by the lists provided to you, some of the first gaps in time have been filled with more subsequent identifications and discoveries.
You state that the sites are much less a mystery and give us the best chance to catch the killer redhanded. I almost get the impression that you have some specific ideas on what the killer does when he goes back to the body or site. If you could focus on the specifics of when he goes back; at what stages; how often; under what conditions; does he return on foot or by car;
why does he come back; would he come back to bones or fresh bodies; does he have some kind of morbid need to watch
Thank you for your letter of November 18. After talking with you, both Dave and I realize that your particular knowledge of these types of cases is unique and enlightening. Naturally, we cannot expose you to all the investigative details. As we correspond, more information about the cases well come to you.
Per your request, you will find enclosed additional information. the first is a newspaper article about our latest victim, Martina Authorlee. The second is a list of victims indicating the significance of missing dates vs. found dates. It gives a slightly different perspective to victim lists. Wilcox, Taylor, Reed, and Kline are not "official" victims but could be.
The fourth list is a summary of victims since 1969. This list is incomplete and was developed in 1975 after months of contacts.
Due to your interest in lists of names and using a computer to manage the lists, I have included the list of codes we used in June 1975. As I recall, the name Ted Bundy had 2 3 and 1 AD. You also indirectly had a AB that I discuss with you at Ken Eikenberry Attorney General Dexter Horton Building, Seattle, Washington 98104-1749
Naturally, through fibers and other evidence these cases were included. It would appear on the surface that there might be some question as to whether or not those two cases should have been included in his original trial.
Due to other commitment, the earliest I could come to Florida is February 27th. Please let me know if the date is satisfactory with you. Have any of the prison requirements to visit you changed? If not, I just contact the warden for arrangements similar to November 1984
An appropriate agenda would be for us to discuss the Spokane Prostitute murders, the Tacoma Park murders and the newly discovered remains in Vancouver, BC. two articles enclosed as they compare to the previous Green River Murders for similarities
some appropriate time. With your insight and creativity, you could assist us in the Green River case with potential lists you think the "Riverman" might appear in so we could do a similar computer matching of names.
As of this writing, I am as yet to receive your two mentioned letters. I have been informed of their existance and have been assured they are on their way. Others priorities conflict at times.
The letters you mail to me are not opened by anyone else. My secretary receives our mail and she is trustworthy. She is currently transcribing the tapes of our talk. When she is finished, I intend to go over our discussions and come up with more questions for you that didn't come up at the time of our interview.
Currently, I would ask that you consider your profile of the Riverman Be as detailed as you can about his actions at the pick up points; transportation to dump sites and dump site activity. What he doing while he's there? Post mortum behavior?
Ante mortum behavior? Employment activities? How does he treat his vehicle? Souvenir Evidence etc.
I, too, feel good about our discussions. The suspicions we may have had initially have been eliminated by your sincerity and openness.
I am interested in what information you have that could prove useful in apprehending the person(s) responsible for the Green River murders. In order to assess the immediacy of your assistance, could you provide just some facts about the nature of your help? I could, tentatively, visit Florida in the middle of November in conjunction with other investigative duties. I have made inquiry to your local FBI to arrange a possible visit.
I respect your statement of playing no games," and, frankly, playing games with you is presumptuous on my part and a waste of my time. I am interested in what is useful in resolving the Green River killings and what your contribution Ken Eikenbeny Attorney General Dexter Horton Bulldlng, Seattle, Washington 98104-1749 Page 2/Bundy is. We will communicate at your request only about the Green River murders and nothing else."
Thank you for your tter of march 4, 1986. You' 11 find enclosed additional clippings from newspapers which offer more information the Task Force is pursuing.
In your letter you mentioned the sensational search of a potential suspect's house. I've included that article too. You and I have mentioned in past letters the suspect's familiarity with dump areas. This suspect would appear to be too familiar and not a likely suspect to dump bodies in his own back yard.
In an effort to identify what the software could produce, you mentioned several lists that I had sent you. They were constructed for various reasons by different people. One list that you received was homicides of young women in the Western United States and Canada from 1969 through 1975. This list was put together by my partner and myself in 1975 just to get an idea of what the extent might be of the female murder problem around our area. The list is very superficial. There was no apparatus in place that could have given us this information. We had to telephone each police agency between here and Tim-buck-too to see if they had a homicide and if they did, what was it about. It was our feeling at the time that the suspect left the Seattle area after July 1974, and this may have given us a lead towards another area.
You were thinking right along the committees minds when you wanted to assure that the list also include a provision for people missing under suspicious circumstances. Your point about a perpetrator consciously or unconsciously varying some critical variable and this affecting the entire premise or consistency of the serial is understood. In addition, the person who analyzes this data will be equally perplexed by the fact that when the eventually killer is found, other crimes may very well be solved through the apprehension of this killer and the M, O. characteristics will be totally different. This is one reason I want to talk to you specifically about 1975 and before. The analysis is probably me and I feel I could benefit from your input.
Lessons learned from the investigations of the "Ted Cases" have helped me tremendously in assisting other agencies in investigating these types of cases. The experience that I don't have is the knowledge and understanding of the other side; from the person that committed these acts. Understanding what the killer is going through can only benefit further investigations of this type.
Dr. Liebert is another, and, incidentially, I trust each of them implicitly. However, Dr. Holmes of the University of Louisville presents a different story. When I first heard from him, he was putting together a Ted Bundy seminar at Hilton Head, sc. He brought together Fisher, Thompson, some detective from Florida and the keynote speaker, Ann Rule. When I heard this, I refused to go.
I definitely wasn't going to learn anything and the entire affair sounded exploitive The recent movie based upon Dick Larson's book created numerous inquiries from police agencies. Several wanted to know where you were in 1967 through 1974. Several murders around Stanford over the years are close enough to keep contact with the agencies involved. I seem to be the perceived one with the major timeline of your activities. Your quarter at Stanford University, the visits you made to San Francisco in the late early and the citation you received in Marin County seems to attract most of the interest of California authorities.
I know that I cannot help you out of your situation in any way I cannot offer you anything but my trust and promise that the correct information will be passed on to other law enforcement agencies. I intend to do this with or without your assistance. Quite frankly if you don't wish to talk with someone who "partially understands," 10 years from now, anyone will be able to say anything about Ted Bundy they want, and worse yet, they probably will.
I've been thinking of a possible scenario for Ted Bundy to relate the facts and circumstances surrounding the murders he committed, especially those in the Northwest. Hopefully, any explanation on your part would be very thorough and not superficial. The Henry Lucas approach is definitely not appropriate.)
I would expect that any thoughts you had about any one particular murder would take considerable time, time for you to recall and reflect, and time for me to collect the necessary data photos, maps etc., that would be necessary for you case analysis
Spreading the explanations out over time would allow you to be assured of my integrity take two or three cases a visit so I could return and verify things you may say; then you could feel assured that I'm not going to exploit this opportunity; then visit again to reclarify some issues; then consider another case or two
I'm not sure how much you or I can remember about the cases.
A major point is I am not required to tell anyone that you re talking to me. I know your appeal process may be long, but I don see how your talking will hurt your appeal, especially if they don't know about it. And if you want to tell them, that's you business.
I feel that anyone who talks to you about this information is limited by as much a you care to relate about yourself I would hope that July 2nd is not the timetable we are on but we could begin before that. This proposal is more direct than yours, but I need to know how you feel on this matter Plans are diffic lt to make, especially dealing with the bureaucracies that are familiar to both of us.