The Stranger Beside Me Read Free Page B

A.M. to 2 P.M.-they would hurry out to the fields and pick during the heat of the afternoon. If he worked a late shift, he would get up early anyway and help Ted with his paper route. Ted had seventy-eight customers along his early morning route and it took him a long time to work it alone. Johnnie Bundy became a Boy Scout leader, and he frequently organized camping trips. More often than not, however, it was other peoples' sons who went on the outings; Ted always seemed to have some excuse to beg off.
    Oddly, Ixniise had never directly confirmed to Ted that she was, in fact, his mother and not his older sister. Sometimes he called her Mother, and sometimes just Louise.
    Still, it was clear to everyone who knew them that this was the child she felt had the most potential. She felt he was special, that he was college material, and urged him on to start saving for college when he was only thirteen or fourteen.
    Although Ted was growing like a weed, he was very slender-too light for football in junior high. He attended Hunt Junior High, and did turn out for track where he had some minor successes in the low hurdles. Scholastically, he did much better. He usually managed to maintain a B average, and would stay up all night to finish a project if need be. It was in junior high that Ted endured some merciless teasing from other boys. Some who attended Hunt Junior High recall that Ted invariably insisted on showering in privacy in a stall, shunning the open showers where the rest of his gym class whooped and hollered. Scornful of his shyness, the other boys delighted in creeping up the single shower stall and pouring cold water down on him. Humiliated and furious, he chased them away.
    Ted attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma and became a member of the largest graduating class of that school to date; the class of 1965 had 740 members. Any search of records on Ted Bundy at Woodrow Wilson is fruit-

THE STRANGER BESIDE ME
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    less; they have disappeared, but many of his friends remember him. A young woman, now an attorney, recalls Ted at seventeen. "He was well known, popular, but not in the top crowd-but then neither was I. He was attractive, and well dressed, exceptionally well mannered. I know he must have dated, but I can't ever remember seeing him with a date. I think I remember seeing him at the dances-especially the TOLOS, when the girls asked the boys to dance-but I can't be sure. He was kind of shy-almost introverted."
    Ted's best friends in high school were Jim Paulus, a short, compact young man with dark hair and horn-rimmed glasses who was active in student politics, and Kent Michaels, vicepresident of the student council, a reserve football team member, and now an attorney in Tacoma. Ted often skied with them, but, despite his awakening interest in politics himself, he did not hold a student body office. In a class with almost 800 members, he was a mediumsized fish in a large pond; if not among the most popular, he at least moved near those at the top and he was well liked.
    Scholastically, he was getting better. He consistently drew a B plus average. At graduation, he was awarded a scholarship to the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.
    Ted wrote an unusual note in a classmate's copy of "The Nova," Wilson High's yearbook:
    Dearest V.,
    The sweetness of the spring time rain runs down the window pain (sic.) (I can't help it. It just flows out) Theodore Robert Bundy Peot(sic)
    The only fact that might mar the picture of the clean-cut young graduate in the spring of 1965 was that Ted had been picked up at least twice by juvenile authorities in Pierce County for suspicion of auto theft and burglary. There is no indication that he was ever confined, but his name was known to juvenile caseworkers. The records outlining the details of the incidents have long been shredded-procedure when a juvenile reaches eighteen. Only a card remains with his name and the offenses listed.
    Ted spent the summer of 1965 working for