313 P1Vanishing Act. P1-------------- P7He had an unlimited supply of young college girls who were easily charmed by his wit and good looks. He crossed America to escape the police, but he could never escape his urge to kill.Nobody knows the true death toll-Bundy took that secret with him to the electric chair.P7 P7Seattle is a pleasant city on the west coast of America. It has tree-lined avenues, vast expanses of water, and a relax- ed and easy-going atmosphere. In relation to most cities of comparable size in the USA, it's crime rate is small. One of the major problems facing its police force, however, is the high incidence of sexual assault.P7 P7Seattle is full of pretty university students, many living tpgether in old fashioned clapboard houses with minimal security. But a sex crime that took place on 4 January 1974 struck the investigating officers as bizarre. Sharon Clarke shared a house with a number of other students. When she failed to appear by mid-afternoon on 5 January, friends went down to her bedroom in the basement to see if she had over- slept. They found Sharon unconsious, her face covered with blood. She had been hit over the head with a blunt instru- ment-a metal bar that had been wrenched from the bed-frame. She had not been raped, but the metal bar had been thrust into her vagina, causing lacerations. After more than a week in a coma, Sharon recovered, but she was unable to provide the police with any useful information. The attack had left her with brain damage.P7 P1Peeping Tom.P1 P7The police reckoned that the attackerhad watched Sharon undressing through her bedroom window,then found an unlocked door and made his way into her bed-room. Four weeks later, a flatmate of 21 year-old Lynda Ann Healy went into Lynda's bedroom to see why the alarm was still buzzing at 8.30 in the morning. Lynda was a psychology stu- dent at the University of Washington. She had a job at the local radio station reading the ski report on the early show and had to get up at 5.30 a.m. When her flatmate saw that the bed had been neatly made up, she assumed that Lynda had gone out.It was not until that evening, when Lynda's parents arrived for dinner, that someone pulled back the bed-clothes and found that the sheets and pillowcases were stained with blood. In the wardrobe, Lynda's nightdress also stained with blood, hung on a peg. But there was no trace of Lynda.P7 P1Pleasure seekers.P1 P7It looked like the attacker had entered the basement and knocked her unconscious. He had then removed her nightdress- probably to put her clothes on-and remade the bed. If the intention had simply beem rape, it could have been accompli- shed there and then. The inference seemed to be that this man wanted to take his time, to enjoy the pleasure of pos- session. A few days later, an unknown man rang the police, and told them that Sharon Clarke's attacker was the same person who had abducted Lynda Ann Healey. According to the caller, the man had been seen out side both houses. The police never traced the caller.P7 P7Two weeks later, 19 year-old Donna Manson left her dormitory on the Evergreen campus, southwest of Olympia, on her way to a jazz concert. She never returned. Neither did Susan Ran- court, Roberta Kathleen Parks, Brenda Ball, or Georgann Haw- kins. By mid june 1974, six girls had vanished. Georgann had disappeared during the short 100-yard walk from her boy- friend's student residence to her own.As July started police in Seattle were wondering who the seventh victim would be?.P7 P7The answer came in a manner that would cause nationwide head lines. On 14 July 1974, two girls disappeared from the Lake Sammamish State Park. But this time, the abductor had been seen by several witnesses.The park,12 miles east of Seattle, was a favourite picnic spot. It was a hot day and the park was crowded. At about midday a girl named Doris Grayling was approached by a wavy-haired man with his arm in a sling. He asked her if she would help him lift his boat onto his car. She accompanied him to the car - a brown Volkswagen (VW) - but he then told her the boat was further up the hill. Un- willing to go further with a stranger, she excused herself and left.P7 P1Noted Accent.P1 P7Within an hour he had approached a pretty blonde named Janice Ott, who was lying alone by the lake. When he asked her to help him with his boat, she invited him to sit down and talk. People sitting only a few yards away heard him in- troduce himself as Ted, and noted that he had an accent that might have been Canadian or even British. They talked for 10 minutes about sailing and, in response to her saying, "sail- ing must be fun. I've never learned how." He offered to teach her. They set off together. She never returned to her place on the beach.P7 P7Only a couple of hours later. 18 year-old Denise Naslund left a group of friends, which included her boyfriend. and went to the ladies lavatory. When she failed to return, they assumed she had met a friend for a chat. When she still had not returned after four hours, they reported her disappear- ance to a park ranger.Police investigating the case the next day learned that the young man with his arm in a sling had approached several girls with the same story about needing help with his boat, One girl was approached, and had refused only minutes before Denise Naslund had disappeared.P7 P7Because Ted had been seen - and heard - by so many people, the Seattle newspapers were able to publish descriptions and artists impressions of the suspect. The police received many calls informing them that the man sounded like a University of Washington student, Ted Bundy.One of these calls was from an old friend of Bundy, crime reporter Ann Rule, another one was from Meg Andrews, his girlfriend of four years.P7 P7But Bundy was only one of hundreds of suspects-the number swelled to 3,500 - and at first he seemed perhaps one of the least likely. He was apparently a decent, friendly young man who had been a political canvasser and had worked for the Crime Commission and also the Department of Justice PlanningP7 P7On top of this, it seemed highly unlikely that a man who was about to abduct his victim would use his real name in the hearing of other people. Consequently, the Bundy file soon sank close to the bottom of the long list of suspects.P7 P1Human Bones.P1 P7On 6 September 1974, grouse hunters two miles east of Lake Samm-amish Park found some human bones in the undergrowth. Dental charts identified them as those of janice Ott and Denise Naslund. There was also a thigh bone belonging to a third body, but this one defied identification.P7 P7As the months went by, it began to look as if the Seattle murders had come to an end. By an odd coincidece, a similar series was about to begin in Salt Lake City. Ted Bundy had moved here to become a Law student at the University of Utah.P7 P1Key Dates. Jan - Sept 74.P1 P7 4.1.74 Sharon Clarke attacked in her bedroom. 31.1.74 Lynda Ann Healy abducted. 12.3.74 Donna Gail Manson disappeared. 17.4.74 Susan Rancourt missing. 6.5.74 Roberta Kathleen Parks disappeared. 1.6.74 Brenda Ball missing. 10.6.74 Georgann Hawkins disappeared. 14.7.74 Janice Ott and Denise Naslund vanished from Lake Sammamish Park. 6.9.74 Bodies of Ott and Naslund discovered.P7 P1Friend and Biographer.P1 P7In 1974, Ann Rule, a 42 year-old divorcee, was commissioned to write a book about a series of unsolved murders that had taken place in Seattle. She was an ex-policewoman who had become a crime reporter working on the cases of Sharon Clarke and Lynda Healy. She had met Ted Bundy in 1971, when both worked in the Crisis Clinic (an American version of the Samaritans), and had developed a motherly affection for him.P7 P7In her book The Stranger Beside Me, Ann Rule describes her first meeting with Bundy. "He looked up and grinned. He was twenty four then, but seemed younger...I liked him immediat- ly. It would have been hard not to... " We had callers who became unconscious from overdoses many times, but we always managed to keep the lines open. " If as many people believe today, Ted Bundy took lives, he also saved lives. I know he did because i was with him when he did it."P7 P7It was only after the double-disappearance from Lake Samm- amish Park in July 1074, that Ann Rule was struck with the suspicion that the suspect sounded oddly like her old friend Ted Bundy. The suspect, however, had driven a VW and, as far as she knew, Bundy did not even possess a car. She decided to ask a policeman friend to check it out for her. He did.It seemed that Ted Bundy drove a bronze VW. Suddenly, Ann Rule realized that her suspicions about Bundy had been correct.P7 P1Charmed To Death/The Victims.P1 P7After the attack on his first two victims, the killer need- ed to find a safer and easier method of trapping his victims than entering their homes. The first victim, Sharon Clarke remarlably survived the attack that occurred in her bedroom. Having made the first assault, he was driven by a desire to commit another. His next victim, Lynda Healy, he killed. It was probably after his first murder that he realized that killing was an essential part of the sexual act he craved.P7 P7Donna Mason vanished on a rainy Tuesday night in March. It was six days before the police were notified and by then the trail was cold, there were no clues. The assailants new method of attack had succeeded, and he quickly put it into practise again. The police were given their first clue when a female student reported a peculiar incident which had acc- urred five days before Susan Rancourt had disappeared.A tall good looking man, with his arm in a sling, had dropped some books, and had asked the girl if she would help him carry them to his car-a tan-coloured VW, parked 100 yards away.P7 P7He asked her to unlock the door and get in, but she refused and hurried away. Three days later he tried the same techn- ique on another student. She also refused to get in the car. Moments later, Susan Rancourt, a Biology student, left a meeting and was heading to meet a friend at the cinema. He must have intercepted her, and used the same ruse to persu- ade her to get in the car. He cracked her skull with a metal bar, then kidnapped, raped and killed her before dumping her body in the woods.P7 P7Less than three weeks later, on 6 may 1974, Roberta Kath- leen Parks, a student of world religions, disappeared on her way to meet friends at the student union of Oregan State Un- iversity. The killer had undoubtedly travelled the 260 miles from Seattle in an attempt to commit a crime thet would not be linked to the others. Friends of Brenda Ball said that they had last seen her talking to a handsome man with his arm in a sling outside a bar near Seattle airport. His meth- od of abduction - having proved successful - was used time and time again, sometimes with subtle variations on the theme.P7 P7A number of students reported a stranger on crutches, carry- ing a briefcase, in the area around the Beta House Hall of Residence where Georgann Hawkins had vanished. One girl had seen this man dropping his briefcase several times and had offered her help. But first she had to make a call at one of the residences. When she came out, the man had gone. Two months later, the helpless man with his arm in a sling had abducted two girls - Janice Ott and Denise Naslund - from Lake Sammamish State Park. The assailant was choosey when he selected his prey. The victims were all of a similar type- in their late teens or early twenties, slim and attractive with long, and usually dark hair, parted in the middle.P7 P7Most had been students, and all were of above average intel- ligence. It was as if the killer, with his good looks and charming manner wanted to prove that he could lure the brightest and most attractive woman to their deaths. In Sep- tember 1974, the remains of Janice Ott, Denise Naslund and a third unidentified body were found two miles east of Lake Sammamish Park. Six months later and ten miles away, a forestry student found Brenda Balls skull. A search of the area yielded the remains of Susan Rancourt, Roberta Parks, and Lynda healy. The bodies of Manson and Hawkins are still missing.P7 P7Lynda Ann Healy aged 21. Donna Gail Manson aged 19. Susan Rancourt aged 18. Roberta Parks aged 22. Brenda Ball aged 22. Georgann Hawkins aged 18. Janice Ott aged 23. Denise Naslund aged 19.P7 P1"I want to master life and death...What's one less person on the face of the earth, anyway?" (Theodore Bundy).P1 P1BP1y P3BP3uP3lP3lP3yP3BP3eP3eP3fP1/P3SP3DP3TP1/P3NP3FP3AP7.