This Westside Story features several photos from my 12,000+ eclectic photo collection. By themselves, when arranged in a particular order, the selected photos tell a story. Some of the images may be familiar to you, and some are being shown for the first time. I structured this story by laying out the photos first, followed by creatively wrapping each photo with factual or imaginative text.
This column contains both fact and fiction.
My topic and story today might be considered, by some, to be edgy. If you wish to avoid an edgily written column, please push delete before reading the rest of today’s Westside Story.
A question I have asked myself for decades is, “How close may I have gotten to Ted Bundy, and not known it?” It seems to me I did get close, and yet I was fortunate enough to have been far enough away to not have been personally victimized by his evil.
CLOSE TO EVIL: When I worked in real estate, a woman employed in my front office had the painful life experience of having her young daughter disappear. The daughter was ultimately found murdered. This all happened years before I met my co-worker.
As a teenage boy growing up, Ted Bundy lived in the victim’s north Tacoma neighborhood. Although Ted Bundy never confessed to this crime, he is still considered a most likely suspect. The young girl may well have been his first victim.
While I was not involved in any way and did not know the victim, the evil of this act touched me by the very fact that I knew the victim’s mother. Even though I was only tinged by the darkness of Ted Bundy, I find that the impact of evil never goes away. I will suffer from the feeling I inherited from this sad, sad, experience for the rest of my life.
CLOSE TO EVIL: Ted Bundy’s family home, owned by his parents, was across the street from an old two-story house that had been converted into a duplex. I held the duplex in my portfolio during my real estate investment days. My duplex and the Bundy home were within walking distance of the University of Puget Sound where I spent four years studying in the School of Business during the early 1960s.
As you gaze upon the old black and white photo shown above, two questions might come to mind. Question #1: What is the digging all about? Question #2: Why is everyone smiling? Answer: #1: We are digging at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new University of Puget Sound School of Business building. Answer #2: We are smiling because we did not find any of Ted Bundy’s victims buried on campus.
CLOSE TO EVIL: A University of Puget Sound Law School student, who was a close friend of mine, commuted in the same car with Ted Bundy between Tacoma and Seattle. She sat in law classes with Ted Bundy. Her natural hair color may have saved her from Ted Bundy’s evil. She was a dark-haired brunette instead of blond. I am reminded of that old Hollywood saying, “Gentlemen prefer blonds.” Ted Bundy was no gentleman, but he did prefer blonds.
Following the court’s decision, the state of Florida sent Ted Bundy to a place where he could never hurt anyone with his evil again.
Ah, the memories.
I had a friend (an older woman friend, no longer with us), who had been Ted Bundy’s Sunday School teacher when he was a primary school student. She said that, even that early, she could see that something wasn’t right.
I was also going to mention that I knew somebody who carpooled to UPS law school with Bundy, after the law school had moved to Seattle. But since I can’t remember who my lucky friend was, it’s entirely possible that I only knew somebody who knew somebody who rode with Bundy — that first somebody being you, Joe. Let’s compare notes, offline, and see whether you can fill in the blanks in my story.
In the groundbreaking photo it looks like only Joe Boyle knows how to use a shovel. One foot on the shovel is required for digging. Well done Joe.
Also, my wife Sandy sat next to Ted Bundy in several classes at Wilson High School.
Who would have known…..