The Phantom Prince, Ted Bundy, by Elizabeth Kendall.
I'm pretty sure I've now read everything available about the late Theodore Bundy and his predilection for sadistic sexual murder and necrophilia, so resorting to a book by one of his girlfriends, in truth a living victim, was a bit of a last resort in my attempts to 'see' Bundy more clearly. The book is short and very simple to read; I demolished it in a couple of hours, and there was nothing in it that was revelatory EXCEPT that Bundy clearly had unhealthy designs on the author's young daughter and acted upon those desires, sadly. I did wonder if Bundy had been able to fully separate his normal persona from the brutal sadistic killer side, but he really didn't. He acted out many times with the girlfriend and her little girl, to the point where it was apparent that both were lucky to have survived him. He likely only refrained from indulging himself with them simply because every trail would lead to him, and incarceration is THE scenario most feared by any rogue mass killer and hunter of humans. Kendall put up with just about every indignity from Bundy, a damaged and vulnerable person herself and targeted cynically by Bundy because of that. He never loved her, although she still seems to believe he did. He couldn't love, he could only ACT out the emotion and who better to believe in that than a needy, vulnerable and desperate young woman? He knew exactly what he was doing, he always did. His only mistake was to believe he would never meet his rendezvous with Old Sparky.... Realistically, he still had much to tell us and we had much to learn FROM him; so many poor girls still remain undiscovered out there, but the desire to destroy him once and for all as revenge for the known victims took precedence. I get that. Still, until the system understands that IF they want to find the bodies, they do have to bargain with these monsters; to know you will be destroyed is to keep your secrets in death, and that is what Bundy did. I don't regret buying this book, simply because it answered my questions about his ability to compartmentalise between Good Ted and 'The Hunchback', Bad Ted (he couldn't, bottom line). He was cruel and indifferent to the author & her child too. His love letters to her particularly amused me - the obvious play-acting, the PRETENCE of knowing what love & passion means, the use of ridiculously flowery prose in those letters... she fell for it time and again, exactly as he planned it. Ted manipulated EVERYONE around him, absolutely everyone; he was never himself simply because kind, thoughtful and loving Theodore never existed, child or man; he was Never Born. He was The Hunchback from womb to tomb. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
