“What!!? You’re going to Seattle? By yourself!!? Without Charlie!? Jessica, I just don’t get you. Your Father did EVERYTHING with me…”
This had been heavy on my heart these last few weeks. It’s not that she didn’t ‘trust’ me to go by myself… I’m a petite girl from the country that’s never really done much on her own. A part of me I understood her concern: what if something *did* happen? Like, a car accident? Or a Crohns flare so bad that I had to be hospitalized? I didn’t go across the state, I went across the COUNTRY (for those of you who don’t know, I live in New York). And I get it, she loves me and was worried something could happen. After I was there for a few days she did share with me that she always wanted to take a trip by herself (maybe not to the extent that I did). I want to do everything on my bucket list. I want to live a life that would make her proud of me. Work hard. Travel. Finish nursing school. Buy a home. Give my Dad a Grandchild. Nothing is going to stop me from fulfilling my dreams. That woman believed in me when I didnt believe in myself. She pushed me. Thanks Mom.
A Washington state institution for well over a century, the Seattle Yacht Club is located at 1807 East Hamlin Street in the Montlake neighborhood of Seattle, WA. Where it was technically established in 1879, the club remained slow-growing and mostly uneventful until 1909, when it joined forces with the Elliott Bay Yacht Club. Like most businesses, it has experienced both high and low points over the years, including the Great Depression, both world wars, and societal/economical changes.
The yacht club really came into its own after WW I when the Lake Washington Ship Canal was completed and it was relocated to a beautiful new location on the eastern shore of Portage Bay, where it remains to this day (as of August 2024). Founded by the city’s social and financial elite, it now has over 2,500 members and is constantly evolving and striving to get better as time goes by. I will say that its absolutely beautiful, and luckily when I visited in April 2022 it was on a lovely day and I was able to walk around a bit while I took my pictures.
Ted Bundy was (briefly) employed at the yacht club beginning in the fall of 1967, however nobody seems to be exactly sure of when he was there: per the ‘TB Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992,’ he started there as a busboy sometime in September (that part appears to be universally agreed on) but was fired after a brief period for stealing food. Now, the discrepancy mostly lies in when he was let go: his friend (and the clubs ‘elderly’ pastry chef) Sibyl Ferris said that he was fired after only six weeks, however true crime author Ann Rule said that the position lasted for six months. Additionally, in Robert A. Dielenberg’s ‘TB: A Visual Timeline,’ the author states that Bundy parked cars at the establishment until January 1968, and police files report that he left on January 13, 1968, which means he worked there for anywhere from four to five months.
Ted’s one-time coworker Mrs. Ferris described him as a ‘peculiar boy’ that always seemed to be ‘sneaking around.’ After he was let go the two maintained their ‘friendship,’ although she suspected that he only did this so that he could ‘borrow’ things from her: on multiple occasions she let him borrow her car, and despite him promising to return it by midnight, he often wouldn’t get back until 3 or 4 AM.
The following are excerpts from the Seattle Police Department archives (courtesy of archives.org) with information related to Bundys ‘relationship’ with the Seattle Yacht Club. For whatever reason there are a TON of spelling errors, and I tried to clean it up the best I could but despite my best efforts there are still parts that are unclear. Remember that’s not my fault, and please be gentle. I’m a sensitive snowflake.
‘Mrs. Ferris is 69 years old but has a good memory of her dealings with Ted Bundy. She advised that she met him about 5 years ago when he was working as a bus boy at the Seattle Yacht Club. Another person that knew him well there is Kenny Gilman, who is now the chef at the Moose Club by the Seattle Center. Mrs. Ferris recalled Bundy taking men home who were drunk and other employees suspected him of trying to ‘roll’ the customers after hours. She also remembered a young secretary whom Bundy took up into the ‘Crow’s nest’ for sexual purposes, Bundy is a schemer and a sneak according to Mrs. Ferris, and would befriend older people like herself and live with or off of them. He had little or no money and would borrow moneyand fail to repay it. He would often borrow Mrs. Ferris’ car and be gone into the night, Mrs. Ferris later thought Bundy might be robbing but was afraid of him at the time and still is and requests her name not be used.She got Bundy a job at the Olympic Hotel as a busboy and he worked there for a few months as he did at the Yacht Club. Persons at the Olympic suspected Bundy of brewing into the employees lockers and on one occasion Bundy showed Mrs. Ferris a waiter’s uniform (new) that he said he had taken from the Olympic, It was around this time Bundy borrowed some of Mrs. Ferris’s China and silver to put on some special sort of dinner for his girlfriend who was a high class girl from San Francisco, Bundy had showed Mrs. Ferris how he planned to prepare and serve an excellent dinner to the girl and put on a British accent for Mrs. Perris, During this time Bundy had borrowed a car from someone but later got a VW in Tacoma which needed a good deal of work, Bundy also had a job at a Safeway store on Queen Anne Hill, stocking.’
‘Ted had a friend who lived on Sunnyside Ave. Pi. who owned an antique.. whose in his home and also worked in a prison. Bundy lived with this man for a while, Bundy had a black wig that he showed Mrs. Ferris and Mrs. Ferris also saw a picture of him during the Rosellini-Evans campaign wearing a wig. On it one occasion Mrs. Ferris drove Ted to Diane’s (the girlfriend’s) house of Greenlake, and another time she. went to the ocean on business and Ted went with her. They also made a trip to Mossyrock, and at other times Bundy would take the car to “visit his parents”. He borrowed’ Mrs. Ferris’s, phone to make a lot of calls… ‘The last time Mrs. Ferris saw Bundy was in the Post Office on the Ave. before he left for Salt Lake. They had small talk at that time.’
‘Earing the time she knew him best he never talked about going, to law school. She also vaguely remembers seeing Ted at the Albertson’s store in Greenlake with a cast on his arm. Mrs. Ferris remembers Ted going to Ellensburg frequently and to meet friends from there to go skiing. He would ski at Snoqualmie Pass or Crystal Mountain, When he went to Aspen Ted had new, imported ski equipment – something he could not well afford. She has no idea where he got his money and recalls him mentioning he had a strict home life. Mrs. Ferris took r/0 to locates the places she knew Ted lived in. She was unable to locate, the address on 17th but will look again and call this office. She also showed K/O Bundy’s residence by the Seattle Yacht Club.’
Kathy McChesney from the King County Sheriff’s Department also commented that: ‘Mrs. Ferris recalls about four years ago Bundy coming to her house on a rainy day in a grey VW, He had a 6-10 year old boy with him and said they were going horseback riding in Issaquah and borrowed an umbrella. Bundy told Mrs. Ferris his father was a chef.’
The following are excerpts from Ann Rule’s controversial true crime classic, ‘The Stranger Beside Me’ regarding his time at the Seattle Yacht Club (Beatrice Sloan is a pseudonym for Sibyl Ferris, in an attempt to protect her identity):
‘Ted worked a series of menial, low-paying jobs to pay his way through college: in a posh Seattle yacht club as a busboy, at Seattle’s venerable Olympic Hotel as a busboy, at a Safeway store stocking shelves, in a surgical supply house as a stockboy, as a legal messenger, as a shoe clerk. He left most of these jobs of his own accord — usually after only a few months. Safeway personnel files evaluated him as “only fair,” and noted that he had simply failed to come to work one day. Both the surgical supply house and the messenger service hired him twice, however, and termed him a pleasant, dependable employee (Rule, 13).’
‘Ted became friends in August of 1967 with sixty-year- old Beatrice Sloan, who worked at the yacht club. Mrs. Sloan, a widow, found the young college student a lovable rascal, and Ted could talk her into almost anything when they worked at the yacht club together for the next six months and then for many years after. She arranged for his job at the Olympic Hotel, a job that lasted only a month; other employees reported they suspected he was rifling lockers. Mrs. Sloan was somewhat shocked when Ted showed her a uniform that he had stolen from the hotel, but she put it down as a boyish prank, as she would rationalize so many of his actions (Rule,13-14).’
‘Several years ago when Ted was out of the University of Washington he took a trip to Philadelphia to visit an uncle in politics. Mrs. Ferris took him to the plane and gave him $100 which she later tried to get back and called Mrs. Bundy looking for Ted, Mrs. Bundy said that Mrs. Ferris was a fool to give Ted that money, and she’d never get it back and Ted was a stranger around there.’
‘When Ted returned from Philadelphia Mrs. Ferris took him to the airport again: he was going to Aspen, Colorado to be a ski instructor. Mrs. Ferris was going to knit Ted a ski hat but he already had one, possibly white, that fit over the face. She also recalled mention of his seeing his girlfriend from San Francisco at Aspen, Bundy had a key to McMahon Kali and sometimes would go inside and sleep when he had no other place to sleep. He went for some time with this girl who attended Stanford and had a desire to go to Taiwan to get out of the army.’
‘Ted also called Beatrice Sloan, his old friend from the Seattle yacht club. She found him the same as he’d always been, full of plans and adventures. He told her he’d been to Philadelphia, where he’d seen his rich uncle, and that he was on his way to Aspen, Colorado, to become a ski instructor (Rule, 18).’
While editing this article in August 2024 I did some digging (just a little bit) into Ted’s friend, Mrs. Ferris, and the first thing that jumped out to me is that her first name is frequently spelled wrong: it’s spelled Sibyl and not Sybil. Born Sibyl Templeton on February 6, 1906 (which means when Bundy befriended her in September of 1967 she would have been sixty-one years old), she was a widow at the time that she met Ted at the Yacht Club (her husband Steve died on November 8, 1961). She passed away on August 2,1980 from cardiac arrest, and interestingly enough, on her death certificate physical therapist is listed as her occupation, which is a far cry from being a pastry chef (this isn’t meant to be judgmental, I admire people who are talented at multiple things).
The Seattle Yacht Club in 1926.An older picture of the Seattle Yacht Club courtesy of The Seattle Yacht Club.A second older picture of the Seattle Yacht Club courtesy of The Seattle Yacht Club.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.Taken by a drain in front of the Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.The Seattle Yacht Club in April, 2022.A blurb from a line in a newspaper mentioning that Little Sibyl Templeton broke her right wrist published in The Daily Herald on July 11, 1916.A newspaper clipping about the death of Sibyl Ferris’s husband published in The Daily Herald on November 8, 1961. The couple had a son together named William.The residence of Sybli Ferris, located at 736 NE 56th St in Seattle (I learned this from Detective Kathy McChesney’s case file notes). A portion of Kathy McChesney’s 1972-73 case file notes related to Bundy mentioning Sybil Ferris.A second portion of Kathy McChesney’s 1972-73 case file notes related to Bundy mentioning Sybil Ferris.A third portion of Kathy McChesney’s 1972-73 case file notes related to Bundy mentioning Sybil Ferris.The death certificate of Sibyl Ferris.
Oh Mindhunter: the Netflix show based off a book (written by genius profiler John Douglas) that I logically should adore because I love all things true crime but I just CANNOT get into. The main character (Bill Tench) is based on FBI profiler Robert Ressler. In 1955, Mr. Ressler graduated from Schurz High School in Chicago, Illinois then attended two years at a community college before joining the US Army. After two years in the Army he enrolled at Michigan State University, focusing on Criminology and Police Administration. He earned a Bachelors of Science and attempted graduate school before eventually dropping out after a single semester. He then rejoined the Army, this time as an officer (thanks to the ROTC program at MSU). In 1970, Ressler joined the FBI and was quickly recruited into the newly formed Behavioral Science Unit, whose purpose was to come up with the psychological profiles of violent offenders that usually select their victims at random.
After Ted Bundy escaped through the light fixture of his Colorado prison cell on December 30, 1977 while awaiting trial for the murder of Caryn Campbell, Ressler helped to develop a profile of the serial killer in February 1978. In addition to putting the killer on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List they also released the profile to law enforcement. This was to help educate all policing agencies where the killer was most likely to gravitate to and who he was most likely to target. Only five days later on February 15, 1978 he was apprehended in Florida.
I live 1.2 miles away from Attica Prison where Ressler interviewed infamous Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz in 1979. Yes, THE Attica prison you hear about all the time in Law and Order and other procedural cop shows. In addition to Berkowitz, Attica Prison has been home to many other infamous murders over the years, including Mark David Chapman (he killed John Lennon) and Willie Sutton (famous bank robber).
Ressler and Douglas interviewed Berkowitz at the Attica Correctional Facility in 1979. When meeting the killer for the first time, Douglas was struck by how “his very blue eyes kept dodging between Bob and me.” … “He was trying to read our faces and gauge whether we were being sincere.” After he told the killer they were there for an interview to “help law enforcement solve future cases, and possibly help intervene with children who displayed violent tendencies,” he then pulled out a newspaper with a Son of Sam related headline. Ressler said, “David, in Wichita, Kansas, there is a killer who calls himself the BTK Strangler and he mentions you in his letters to the media and police.” … “He wants to be powerful like you.”
This flattery worked like a charm, and Berkowitz immediately was at ease with the profilers. He leaned back in his chair, allowed himself to get into a more comfortable position, and inquired: ‘what do you want to know?’” One of the more interesting insights Douglas gained from Berkowitz is that “he was always thinking about these murders, to the point that on a night when no victims of opportunity were available, he would return to the sites where he had successfully killed to masturbate and relive the sensation of power and sexual energy he derived from the crime itself.”
Berkowitz confessed to killing six people and wounding several others in New York City during the late 1970’s and has since become a born again Christian. He said because of this he should pay for the sins he has committed and will not seek parole. The killer is currently housed at Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County, NY.
Ressler became the first serial killer profiler in history and went on to interview some of histories most infamous and depraved murderers. Between 1976 and 1979, he interviewed thirty-six killers to help find commonalities between a criminals’ backgrounds and their motives, including Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Kemper, and John Jobert. He was also crucial in the formation of Vi-CAP, also known as the ‘Violent Criminal Apprehension Program’. In 1990 Ressler retired from the FBI and published four books about serial murder. In addition to writing, he worked as a guest lecturer and often would speak on college campuses and to police agencies. On May 5, 2013, Robert Ressler passed away at his home in Spotsylvania County, Virginia from Parkinson’s disease. He was 76 years old.
In 2015 when I first moved to Attica I was curious as to what the prison looked like… so I hopped in my powder blue Dodge Dart, drove to the massive compound and just sat in front of it, staring… then all of the sudden out of nowhere I have very 4 official looking vehicles on top of me and I got the heck out of there. It’s a maximum security prison, the CO’s do NOT fuck around. They wanted to know who I was and what I was doing, and I completely get that. Now.
Inmates in Attica’s D yard shortly after state troopers regained control of the prison on September 13, 1971. Photo courtesy of Bettmann Archive.“Prisoners Solidarity Committee: A Report From Inside Attica.” Taken July 27, 2022 from https://www.workers.org/2020/08/50465/Attica Correctional Facility.Attica Correctional Facility, 2022.Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — Minneapolis Field Office. Photo courtesy of Tony Webster.David Berkowitz, the serial killer known as the Son of Sam, being taken into a Brooklyn precinct station in August 1977. Photo courtesy of The New York Times.A photo of ‘Son of Sam’ killer taken from the article, “David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, Continues to Claim He Acted Alone.” Written by Josh St. Clair and published on May 7, 2021. Robert K. Ressler with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.Robert K. Ressler with serial killer John Wayne Gacy.Robert K. Ressler (left) and John E. Douglas (right) with serial killer Ed Kemper.Ted Bundy’s booking photo after his arrest by the Leon County Sheriff’s Department in Tallahassee, Florida on February 27, 1978.A wanted poster of serial killer Ted Bundy, who was added to the FBI’s Top 10 Fugitives list on February 10, 1978. On February 15, 1978 he was arrested in Pensacola, Florida by local police after he was stopped for speeding while driving a stolen vehicle.Ted Bundy Wanted Poster.
“In a will signed the night before his execution, Ted Bundy asked that his body be cremated and the ashes spread over Washington state’s Cascade Mountains, where at least four of his victims’ bodies were found, a newspaper reported. The will prepared by Bundy’s civil attorney, Diana Weiner, was released by Florida State Prison officials Wednesday at the request of The Florida Times- Union in Jacksonville, which reported the story in Thursday’s editions. ‘Diana A. Weiner will contact family and friends as to any services. The ashes are to be spread over the Washington Cascade Mountains,’ Bundy stated in the will. The will did not give a specific location for the ashes, and attempts by The Associated Press to reach Ms. Weiner by telephone were unsuccessful. Sandy Williams, co-owner of the Williams-Thomas Funeral Home in Gainesville where Bundy’s body was sent, would not give details about the final disposition of the body because of an agreement with Ms. Weiner. ‘There will be no public funeral as of right now,’ Williams said. ‘We do not believe there will be a public funeral in the future.’ Bundy was executed Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke for the February 1978 murder of Kimberly Leach, 12, of Lake City. He also was convicted of two other Florida deaths and is suspected in at least 50 deaths nationwide. He was suspected in as many as 15 rapes and murders of young women in Washington while he lived in the Seattle area in the mid-1970s. Four of his victims’ bodies were found on Taylor Mountain in the foothills of the Cascades. In the typewritten will, Bundy gave Ms. Weiner control over his remains, personal property and assets, including mail sent to him at the prison. Prison records show Bundy’s personal property included a radio with a headphone, a gold-tone chain with a cross, a religious book, stationery, a gold wedding band and a bottle of suntan lotion. He also had $709.66 in cash, money donated by family and friends for snacks and other items from the prison canteen. The items were inventoried Tuesday and picked up at the prison by Ms. Weiner, said Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Macmaster. Volusia County State Attorney John Tanner, a friend of Bundy’s who visited him often in recent years, was designated to handle the arrangements if Ms. Weiner was unable to do so.”
‘Bundy Wanted Cremation, Ashes Spread Over Cascades.’ Published January 25, 1989. Taken July 27, 2022 from AP News.com.”
“After Bundy’s death, celebrants cheered at the departure of the van carrying his remains to Gainesville, where he would be cremated. But the party ended there. Bundy was dead, and the evil he had carried was apparently gone from the world. Vendors packed up their souvenirs and counted their earnings. Spectators rolled up their signs, piled into their cars, and drove back home. Camera crews dismantled the equipment and left in search of the next story. And Ted Bundy’s ashes, along with all his other earthly possessions, were given to his attorney, with the instructions that they be scattered at an undisclosed location in Washington’s Cascade Range, in lieu of a public funeral. In many ways, he’d already had one. Bundy had disposed of two of his victims in Lake Sammamish State Park, and of another two on Taylor Mountain, both locations west of Seattle and not far from the Washington Cascades. It was in these secluded, wooded areas that he revisited his victims for hours at a time, possessing them as fully as one human being can ever possess another. (In his interviews with Aynesworth and Michaud, Bundy described his fondness for theft, and how the joy of ownership was, for him, far superior to the thrill of the crime.) It is not so far-fetched to guess that there may be other, undiscovered bodies somewhere in the Washington Cascades—perhaps one, perhaps a dozen, perhaps all of them clustered in the undisclosed location where Bundy’s ashes were laid to rest. The truly remarkable thing about the disposal of Bundy’s remains, however, is how little anyone seemed to care what happened to them. Anyone who followed the Bundy case with even the vaguest interest can piece together the likelihood of his remains mingling with those of his victims. Yet the fate of his body became a nonissue once it became just that—the fate of a body, and not of a man. If we are to believe in evil—evil as a substance, as nonhuman dark matter that sometimes comes to rest in human bodies, as something as intangible yet identifiable as a soul—then what happens when the person who possesses it dies? The people who clustered outside Florida State Prison on the morning of Bundy’s execution seemed to believe that it would simply dissipate, and would perhaps descend to hell just as a soul ascends to heaven. Yet this is a fiction that perpetuates the same blind spot that allowed Bundy to seem above suspicion for so long. If “evil” is an unknown quantity, a supernatural presence in an otherwise normal human body, then we will fail to suspect the seemingly normal humans surrounding us—let alone a handsome, successful, intelligent young man—of harboring “evil” impulses. Bundy, unable to acknowledge the enormity of his crimes until it was clear that doing so was his only hope at survival, comforted himself with the same fiction by describing “the entity” and “the personality”—two separate beings coexisting within the same body. But there was no entity. There was no pure evil or “special kind of malevolence.” Bundy wasn’t possessed, nor was he a larger-than-life monster. Though psychologically atypical, he was in all other ways a normal, flesh-and-blood member of the human race, and his death was the same as anyone else’s. No great evil departed the world at the moment he died. No one was safer. No one’s life was measurably improved. The human capacity for evil actions remained unaltered: greater in some, but present in every man, woman, and child on earth. Ultimately, the scattering of Bundy’s ashes in the Cascades is a testament to his humanity, and a crucial reminder to us that he was human after all. He may have committed brutal crimes in Washington’s parks and woods, but they were also areas that he loved the same way the rest of us do: the way we love the beauty of an area that will live long after us; the way we love a place that affords us peace; the way we love our home. And Bundy himself, though no longer able to cause us harm, is still present in our world, his earthly remains at rest in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. They have no magic qualities. They pose no threat to the area they inhabit. They are, in the end, the remains of a human being—no more, no less.”
An old shot of The Cascade Mountains.An old shot of The Cascade Mountains.The Cascade Mountains.The Cascade Mountains.The Cascade Mountains.The Cascade Mountains.The Cascade Mountains.The Cascade Mountains.The entrance to Taylor Mountain, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.Taylor Mountain, April 2022.Taylor Mountain, April 2022.
When I went to Seattle my schedule was jam packed: I was there for EIGHT DAYS and barely had enough time to do everything (no wonder why I came home exhausted). I briefly considered taking a day trip to Oregon so I could retrace the last steps of Roberta Kathleen Parks and take some snapshots of Oregon State… but I couldn’t find the time. I’ll probably do a deep dive on her eventually and tie it into Taylor Mountain somehow but for now here’s a short piece from Kevin Sullivan about Ms. Parks along with some pictures.
“In 1974, Kathy Parks (1954-1974), originally from California, was a student at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. And it would be here, a little before 11:00 PM on May 6, 1974, that she would encounter Ted Bundy in the Memorial Union Commons cafeteria. And because it was closing at 11:00, besides a worker or two milling about, Bundy and Parks may have been the only two people still there. It seems certain no one noticed them. And her disappearance would remain a bit of a mystery for a number of years until Bundy conveyed to a writer in the third-person that Parks may have encountered her abductor in the cafeteria. He then spoke of convincing her to leave with him, and once the opportunity presented itself, he took control of her.
Later, investigators would interview Lorraine Fargo who stopped to speak with Kathy on the corner that is just across the narrow side street that runs beside the Memorial Union Commons. Lorraine was aware of the issues Kathy was having with her boyfriend (he wanted to settle down, she didn’t), and she asked her to come back to her room in Sackett Hall, but Kathy didn’t want to just yet. She wanted to walk around the campus, she told Lorraine, but promised to come over in a little while. As Lorraine watched Kathy cross the narrow street, she dropped a letter in the mailbox. That letter, postmarked May 7, 1974, was addressed to her boyfriend, Christy McPhee, telling him that she loved him and was looking forward to seeing him. She ended it by saying:
I’m feeling down right now, due to a combination of things, I suppose. To tell you the truth, I don’t even feel like finishing this letter. I think I’ll go for a walk outside a while. I’m sorry this is such a bum letter. I really am. But, after all, everyone has their ups and downs. This day has especially had its share of bad news. Well- I’m looking forward to seeing you – very much. When you come, please put your arms around me and make me feel like everything is OK. I really miss you. I’m needing the comfort of your presence now. I love you, Kathy
Bundy most likely kept Parks alive, tied up and gagged, for the 250-mile trip back to Washington State, where he soon killed her and dumped her remains on Taylor Mountain.”
An except from Kevin Sullivans, “The Encyclopedia of the Ted Bundy Murder” published in 2020.
Roberta is on second on the left, photo courtesy of ‘Ted Bundy: I was Trying to Think Like an Elk.’A picture of a young Kathy Parks, courtesy of ‘Ted Bundy: I was Trying to Think Like an Elk.’A picture of a young Kathy Parks.Kathy Parks in her school yearbook.Kathy Parks. Roberta Kathleen Parks. Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks yearbook.Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks. Roberta Kathy Parks.Kathy Parks and her boyfriend.Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks. Kathy Parks father.A picture of Kathy’s Mom in her youth.Mrs. Parks before she passed away. An article about the disappearance of Kathy Parks.
The wake and funeral are over. I mailed out the last of the thank you cards over the weekend. My Mom now rests in her favorite spot: the living room with my Dad. And her little bird, Peanut. This is the part I worried about the most: the weeks after her death. When everyone else’s life moves on except ours. When people stop reaching out. Stop checking in. If anyone reading this knows my Dad. Or Sister. Or Niece… (but, mostly my Dad), please just say ‘hey.’ When my Uncle died last year my cousin told me at his wake that ‘she was holding up ok but her heart hurt for her Mom.’ I understand that now. My Dad is my rock. He was the one person I ‘never had to worry about.’ And now, he’s the one I lie awake in bed at night worrying about.
The following is a quick blurb from Elizabeth Kloepfer’s book ‘The Phantom Prince,’ published in 1981:
‘Coming so close to losing Ted made me realize how very, very much I loved him. I found the idea of working and putting him through law school appealing, but I could understand that taking on family responsibilities before he even started law school might be a real drag for him. Ted planned to start law school the winter quarter of 1970, but Temple University did not get his transcripts out in time, so he was held up for another quarter. I kept reminding him to check up on his application to be sure everything was in order, but he regarded my reminders as nagging, and whenever I tried to talk about law school, he changed the subject or brushed my questions aside with vague answers. When I began to realize the futility of nagging, I made the decision to shut up about it. Spring quarter of 1970 started and still no word about law school. ‘There seems to be some problem with my transcripts from Temple,’ Ted told me. ‘Why didn’t you call them?’ I asked. ‘I guess there are other problems,’ he said. ‘It’s too late to do anything about it now.’ I couldn’t figure it out. What other problems? I couldn’t keep from brooding about it. One day I dialed the law school telephone number a couple of times but hung up each time before anyone answered. What could I say? Finally, I called the admissions office. I began to explain about my friend who was supposed to start law school winter quarter, when I was interrupted by the woman I was speaking to. ‘All law school students start at the beginning of fall quarter,’ she said. ‘There are no exceptions.’ There must be some mistake, I told myself. Then it dawned on me whose mistake it was. I was livid by the time Ted showed up at my office to take me home. ‘How could you lie to me?’ I asked him. ‘I am going to start school for sure this summer,’ he said, ‘but I still have two years of undergraduate work left. I can understand if you can’t live with it.’
His calmness made me feel like a raving maniac. He’d lied to me, but hadn’t I lied to him the night we met in the tavern and I told him about making heart valves? But this lie about law school had gone on for six months. I had told everyone I now about my law student boyfriend. Maybe I had made such a big deal out of it that it was impossible for Ted to tell me the truth. I could understand his wanting to be something he wasn’t. I had those feelings, too. Maybe I made him feel that he wasn’t good enough as he was. There was no doubt in my mind that he would be a successful lawyer someday; it would just take a little longer than I’d counted on. I wasn’t about to give him up over this.’
An older picture of Temple University.An older picture of Temple University.An older picture of Temple University.A photo of John F. Kennedy in 1960 at Temple University. Temple University campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2022. Temple University campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2022. Temple University campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2022. Temple University campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2022. Temple University campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2022. A picture of Ted Bundy and Elizabeth Kloepfer in front of the fireplace at her apartment.An older picture of Molly Kendall, Liz’s daughter.
A more up-to-date snapshot of Molly Kendall, Liz’s daughter.
The newly updated cover of ‘The Phantom Prince’ written by Ted Bundy’s former flame Elizabeth Kendall/Kloepfer.
This is the house at 4143 12th Avenue in Seattle where Ted Bundy lived while he was living in the University District of Seattle. Bundy moved in September of 1969 after only recently returning to Washington after a six month stay in Philadelphia (where he attended Temple University). The house at the time was a rooming house, meaning it has multiple tenants that shared the same facilities. Back during the time of the murders it was known as the “Rogers’ Rooming House” and was owned by Ernst and Frieda Rogers. This house is located in the heart of the University District, and Bundy would have blended in with the other students beautifully. The fence that is currently around the outside is there to prevent “true crime tourists” from trespassing on the property. I had to hold my phone above the fence and was just waiting for someone to shoo me away. There was construction right in front of the house, and the workers had no idea what I was looking for. Bundy lived on the second floor for four years until he left for Utah on September 2nd, 1974. We think Bundy started his crime spree while he was living here in January of 1974. He attacked his first known victim, Karen Sparks, in a house that was less than half a mile away. That site was in visual distance to The Sandpiper, where Bundy met his longtime girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer. While he was giving one of his third-person “pseudo-confessions”, Bundy tip toed around the concept that he may have picked Brenda Carol Ball up at a bar and brought her back to his rooming house. Once there, they had “consensual sex” before he strangled her to death in her sleep. If he was telling the truth (and that is a big IF), then it means that Bundy murdered at least one of his victims at this location.
On January 4th, 1974, Ted Bundy brutally assaulted college student Karen Sparks at 4325 8th Avenue NE in the University District of Seattle. Sparks was Bundy’s first known victim. He didn’t kill her, but left her with a number of serious long-term injuries she still struggles with to this day.
The house no longer exists: it was torn down at some point in 1985 to make way for a new four-story apartment block called Westwood Apartments.
Karen Sparks in high school. Karen Sparks. Karen Sparks.Karen Sparks.Karen Sparks.Karen Sparks. Karen Sparks.Karen Sparks.Karen Sparks. Karen Sparks bedroom after she was attacked.Karen Sparks bedroom after she was attacked.Karen Sparks bedroom after she was attacked.Karen Sparks bedroom after she was attacked. Karen Sparks bedroom after she was attacked. The original apartment Karen Sparks was assaulted, photo courtesy of Tiffany Jean.A photo of where Karen Sparks old apartment was, April 2022.A photo of where Karen Sparks old apartment was, April 2022.A photo of where Karen Sparks old apartment was, April 2022.A photo of where Karen Sparks old apartment was, April 2022.
On July 14th, 1974, Ted Bundy abducted two women from Lake Sammamish state park in Issaquah, Washington. That bright and cheerful afternoon, Bundy approached Janice Ann Ott and Denise Marie Naslund in broad daylight and asked them to assist him unload a sailboat at his parent’s house. Bundy donned a fake sling and explained that his arm was injured and that he was unable to unload it by himself. He also claimed that his parent’s house was ‘just up the hill.’
The abductions of Ott and Naslund occurred separately, just four hours apart. On both of these occasions, he convinced his victim to get into his Volkswagen Bug and accompany him to his sailboat, which in reality did not exist. Once his victims got into his car, it is likely that he immediately drove them to a secluded dump site in Issaquah known as Tiger Mountain and murdered them. This is the same site where Ott and Naslund’s skeletal remains were discovered roughly two months later.
Janice Ann Ott was abducted at around 12.30 PM; three and a half hours after her abduction Bundy returned to look for a second victim, Denise Naslund. At roughly 4:30 PM, he approached Denise Naslund by the restrooms and, using the same technique he used with Ott, was able to convince her to help him as well.
During the investigation into the disappearance of Ott and Naslund, it emerged that a man calling himself “Ted” had approached multiple women at Lake Sammamish that afternoon in 1974. Bundy’s decision to kidnap two women within four hours of each other was a brazen deviation from the norm. Because of this, many Bundy Scholars have speculated that he was attempting to “increase his high” by attacking two women at the same time. In other words, it is speculated that he may have incapacitated Janice Ott, gagged her (not killing her) and then returned to the park to search for a second victim. Although Bundy did insinuate that one had to watch the other die, this “confessin” was during one of his third-person pseudo-confessions to Stephen Michaud. We also know that Ted was a narcissist and a habitual liar who loved to paint himself as a bold and highly-intelligent serial killer. Therefore, we need to be extremely careful about taking his word as fact.
It has been hypothesized that Bundy tied Ott to a tree and then left her there. The area in question was pretty secluded and it is fairly unlikely that someone would have stumbled upon her, especially if she was gagged. Another plausible theory is that Bundy murdered Ott before he returned to Lake Sammamish with his second victim. There is a noticeable gap between the abduction of Ott at 12.30 PM and Bundy’s return to the park at around 4 PM and if we take into account the length of the journey between the park and the dump site, then it means that he was with Ott for 2-3 hours. That seems like a lot of time if the original plan was to kidnap two women and then attack them at the same time. His decision to hunt for a second victim may have also been driven by other factors. For example, an event may have occurred during the murder of Janice Ott which prevented Bundy from achieving sexual gratification. At this point in time we’ll most likely never really know.
Janice Blackburn-OttJanice Blackburn-OttJanice Ott and her husband Jim.1974 was an eventful time for 23 year old Janice: she not only graduated from Eastern Washington State College, but she also had to come to terms with her husband moving away to California for school. She remained in Issaquah and worked as a probation case worker at the King County Youth Service Center in Seattle.Denise Marie Naslund.An old, aerial photograph of Lake Sammamish State Park, photo courtesy of King County Archives.This aerial map of Lake Sammamish state park shows the exact locations where Bundy approached Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. It also pinpoints the general area where Bundy’s VW Beetle was parked. Bundy approached Ott at 12.30 PM while she was sunbathing on the beach. Then, four hours later, he lured Naslund away from the restrooms by the parking lot. In 2022, the restroom in question no longer exists, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.The afternoon of the abduction Bundy parked his VW Beetle in the middle of the car park, photo courtesy of thisinterestsme.com.This aerial image of Lake Sam shows where Denise and her friends were sitting. Additionally it highlights the location of the restrooms, photo courtesy of thisinterestsme.com.On July 14th, 1974, Ted Bundy abducted two women from Lake Sammamish state park in Issaquah, Washington, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.An aerial photograph of the park from 1977; not much about it has changed, photo courtesy of oddstops.com/USGS.This map from the King County Sheriff’s Office shows the exact locations where Bundy approached several women, photo courtesy of oddstops.com. A Google Maps Street View image of the parking lot at the park; during the abduction of Ott, Bundy’s VW was parked beyond the cars that are circled in red, photo courtesy of thisinterestsme.com.It would have taken roughly 10-15 minutes to drive between Lake Sam and the dump site at Issaquah. The route in question is about four miles long. Driving this exact same route yesterday it was eerily close, he truly was fearless.A newspaper article about the disappearance of Ott and Naslund.Following Ott and Naslund’s disappearance, the police released a composite sketch of the suspect. After Liz saw it in the newspaper along with the name “Ted” she immediately began to suspect that it was him, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.An off-duty DEA agent named Kelly Snyder was at Lake Samammish that day. He was close enough to witness Bundy approaching Janice Ott. “I noticed a guy that was walking down the beach. A young man. Probably in his mid-to-late twenties. He was wearing white shorts and they had a red stripe, which immediately caught my eye. When he got close, I noticed he had really curly hair and his left arm was in a sling. It piqued my interest because every time he approached a woman, or a group of two or three women, he was getting turned down. And I just kept watching him and he eventually ended up being right in front of me, where he approached a young girl. She was a young and attractive blonde girl. And he asked her… words to the effect of… ‘I need some help.’ She’s saying that she just got here… So obviously, going through her mind is ‘I’d like to help you out, but I’m here to relax.’ He kept on and on and on, and he talks her into whatever he talked her into. He said something about a catamaran. And ultimately, she gets up… reluctantly… because her head is down and she is like ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this.’ And then she started walking back past me. She had this frown on her face, like, ‘I’m helping this guy when I should be enjoying myself on the beach.’ And the end the result is she’s no longer with us because she was a nice person.” Photo courtesy of oddstops.com.A picture of a younger Eleanor Rose, Denise’s Mother.Mrs. Eleanor Rose, Mother of Denise Naslund taken on July 28, 1974. Denise was studying to become a computer programmer and worked part time to help pay her way through night school. Mrs. Rose said Denise had the kind of helpful nature that could place her in danger with the man who called himself “Ted.”This is Eleanor Rose, the mother of Denise Naslund. Ms. Rose left her daughters bedroom the same as it was in 1974 for many years after her abduction. Regarding her daughters abduction Ms. Rose has said, ‘I don’t think anything will ever been the same again or anywhere near it. Part of me is gone and I don’t know what I’m going to do.’ Denise was the last of the known eight ‘Ted’ victims in Washington state.Dr. DE Blackburn and his wife while in Seattle looking for their daughter, taken on July 28, 1974.James Ott is showed here on August 18, 1974 posting the first of hundreds of missing posters asking for information about Janice, who had been missing for five weeks at that point. He posted this it in front of the King County Juvenile Court, which had offered office space as well as the part time help of a probation officer, Carol Hasman, to the ‘Janice Ott Committee to find the Missing Woman.’Police arrive at Lake Sam, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.A still image from a video taken at Lake Sam the day Ott and Naslund were abducted from. Just about 40,000 people visited the state park the afternoon of Ott and Naslunds disappearance. It was sunny and the temperature ranged between 80 to 90 degrees, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.At around 4:30 PM, Denise Naslund went to the bathroom by the parking lot and never came back. It wasn’t long before her boyfriend and friends realized that something was wrong. Don’t forget that only four hours earlier Janice Ott went missing at the same park. Due to the fact that a few other women had recently gone missing in the Seattle area, everyone was well aware that a predator was on the loose, so the authorities immediately responded to the scene, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.A Picture of a VW parked in the front row of cars at Lake Sammamish on Sunday, July 14, 1974. Behind it is a line of police vehicles blocking it, as they dealt with a problem pertaining to a biker gang that was taking place close to where the car was parked. The photo appears to have been taken in the afternoon, obviously before Denise Naslund was led away by Bundy. Years later, when Bob Keppel questioned Bundy about the photo (Keppel believed it was Bundy’s Bug), Bundy recognized the scene and said “law-breakers,” insinuating that he knew what was happening there. What follows is from the record: Keppel: “Is that you? It’s Lake Sammamish State Park, 1974. The tree, cops roll in and take care of the …” Bundy: “Law breakers.” Keppel: “Ya?” Bundy: “Well, I mean, we’re in the ballpark.” By saying “law breakers” and telling Keppel he was in the ballpark, Bundy was admitting he had personal knowledge concerning what was taking place. When Keppel asked him about the car, believing it was his and wanting him to admit it, Bundy responded “Well, I—is it?” Bundy knew that wasn’t his car, but he was telling the investigator he was in the ballpark, meaning hid own Beetle was nearby. Photo courtesy of oddstops.com.One picture taken at the park that day Ott and Naslund vanished that shows a light colored VW Bug in the background, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.The police showed up at the park to deal with a group of bikers, photo courtesy of oddstops.com.A sign at the entrance of Lake Sammamish Park, April 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Concession stand at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.A sign at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Beach at Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.Lake Sammamish Park, 2022.
Another Bundy Blog. 