Ted Bundy’s Murder Kit, May 2005
True Crime author Kevin Sullivan Reflects On His Connection To A Serial Killer
This piece was previously published with a typo that mis-dated the below picture of Ted Bundy at 1984, when he would have been in prison in Florida. According to Kevin Sullivan, the picture below was taken in 1975 or 1976 in Utah.
Ted Bundy was never supposed to be a part of my life. I’d first heard about the guy after his escape from Colorado, and I remember thinking at the time just how does a law student end up being accused of such terrible things? Hearing the name of this man on the news was no different than any other news report about someone I don’t know and would absolutely not be meeting. In other words, it had very little meaning to me. Unbeknownst to me, however, postmortem Ted Bundy and I were destined to meet. And this meeting would set the course on my literary life far into the future.
After Bundy’s apprehension in Florida, I would occasionally see an article about him in the newspapers, or catch something on a national broadcast as he worked his way through the appellate courts on that long march towards execution. And then, on January 24, 1989, Bundy, who had caused so many young women and girls to die the most horrendous of deaths, had his own life taken by the state of Florida. And I remember thinking at the time “well, they finally got him.” Ted Bundy had now joined the ranks of all dead killers and would soon be forgotten. Or so I thought.
Sullivan’s book will feature several rarely seen photos of Bundy and people associated with his murderous spree, including the photograph while in custody in Utah between 1975 and 1976. Photo courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune
At the time of his death I was fairly newly married –three years – and going about my life as a Christian minister. I was not a writer of true crime, or of anything really, and I wouldn’t put pen to paper for my first book (about George Armstrong Custer) for several years. At the time, true crime wasn’t even on my radar.
Most of you, if you’re familiar with my book, The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History, published in August 2009 by McFarland & Company, know the story of how I met retired Salt Lake County Sheriff’s homicide detective, Jerry Thompson. You will also remember that it was through Thompson that I was introduced to the actual murder kit of Theodore Robert Bundy. And believe me, having that murder kit come in my hands, and having it in my home where I closely examined it while taking photographs, created one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Indeed, I wouldn’t have been any more surprised had someone knocked on my door with the actual murder implements of Jack the Ripper, telling me they wanted to bring it into my home! And as if this wasn’t enough, before Jerry Thompson returned with his wife to Utah, he gave me one of the large green Glad trash bags from Bundy’s murder bag.
To be completely honest, I found the interview with Jerry Thompson fascinating. But what propelled me to write an article for the weekly crime newspaper, Snitch, and follow it up with an in-depth full length biography of Ted Bundy, happened only because I’d handled Bundy’s murder kit and had been given that Glad green trash bag! And so, it was the strange objects of Bundy’s murder kit that placed me on the road to write The Bundy Murders, and ultimately my second book which is due out later this year from WildBlue Press.
To be sure, when I mentioned to a few of my true crime friends that I was beginning a book about Bundy, I was warned against it. Bundy’s been done to death, they said; it’s a story that’s been told numerous times, they reminded me. And it was at that exact moment, while I stood at that proverbial fork in the road that I decided to go with what I already knew on the inside: I would write a book about Ted Bundy and his life as a killer. As to what I would ultimately find during my research, I didn’t know. But thankfully, as I reached the midpoint in the book, I was discovering many things about the case that had remained hidden from other writers; and this included new, never-before published information about four of the murders. And from my perspective, as I watched all of this unfold, I was again met with that strange sense of the surreal, as I watched the book come to life in ways I never believed possible…
In my next blog, I’ll be discussing why I felt the need to immerse myself once again in the life of serial killer Ted Bundy and write a second book on the case. It was an unexpected journey I never anticipated taking. But like my first venture into the world of America’s most infamous serial killer, writing this second book unearthed many new things about the case that had me shaking my head in amazement. I was again digging up truth that had remained hidden for many years, and as a historian, I was pleased beyond words.
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I found both your Bundy books to be outstanding, head and shoulders above the other contributions to the topic. Your commitment to detail places these books in a league of there own.
Kind regard
Richard
Hi Richard!
Thanks so much for your kind words. It’s always nice when writers hear from folks who appreciate the work they’ve put into a book. Researching and writing books is a mammoth experience, and as I’ve said many times before: When writing a book, I’m always thinking like a reader (which I am), and I endeavor to include everything I believe the readers will find interesting. It’s just the right way to write a book.
Thanks again,
Kevin
I can’t get past the duality of Crime Author, Minister. Here are two seemingly disparate activities that somehow must be related to each other. Have you ever thought about it? Can you explain it? I can’t make it make sense. I do like your books and that’s the wavelength I’m on, although I understand morality and religion.
You’re not alone, C.V. lol! At first glance, it appears that the two (the world of murder and carnage vs God, the Bible, and our relationship to Him) can’t mix or be intertwined, but this is not so. Now, a word of explanation: When I write true crime, I’m giving the reader actual facts that have happened to people not unlike themselves, where horrible events have culminated into murder. Sometimes people unwittingly contribute to their deaths through such things as not locking their doors at night, or living their lives in what detectives refer to as “high risk” situations. And sometimes, the innocent have been caught up in violence and lost their lives through no fault of their own. They were taken by surprise, and the result was death. So when I write true crime, you could say that I write redemptively, as it were, showing the reader to be careful in life, etc. Now, if you look at the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, you’ll find all these same horrendous situations throughout, and much more. The lives we live now are quite similar to the lives they lived then, and as the old saying goes, there’s nothing new under the sun. But this alone does not answer your question about me. So let me continue to the final section: I started reading true crime when I was 10 years old. I learned then that folks can leave this life far too early and that interested me. Soon after this I began reading about war as well, as my family has both seen war but has lost people to combat as well. And the fact that we live and at some point will die, very much interested me as a child. And then, at the age of 19, I became a Christian by asking Jesus to forgive me and to come into my life. From that moment forward, I knew He was absolutely real. And as I learned the scriptures, I discovered the same world as I had been reading about in war and true crime! There was, at least for me, little to no difference between the two – and again, my interest to learn about what happens after death sharpened after becoming a Christian, and I just didn’t see any schism between the two worlds, as it were. And when I started writing books in middle age (I was 40 when my first was published), I found absolutely no difference when I was writing about God and the Bible, or what Ted Bundy or some other killer. It’s all one to me. 🙂