Customer Reviews

Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger: Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger

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I read this book after Bob Keppel's excellent 1995 work THE RIVERMAN (a never-dull glimpse into Ted's twisted psyche). I must confess this was better than I expected, but I was disappointed to some extent. While Larsen tells about the Ted he met and the experiences he covered as a reporter during the investigation, it has the feel of a TV Tie-In, as this is. It just seems like a summary of everything else written about Ted. I was impressed by the amount of detail in this book about the Chi Omega murders and Ken Katsaris' publicity stunts with Bundy exploding in Katsaris' face. Good for people just becoming aquainted with Ted.

This book is a vivid description of what happened in the murders and crimes of Ted Bundy. He was too much of a sociopath to actually know what made him do it. Only the crimes could be adequately explained and the psyche of this fouled-up human examined. The characters and the settings make for a Dean Koontz novel, but are made much more interesting because they are real people.

After reading that he killed 5 girls in one house with a block of wood, it rang true that its not the weapon but the person's intent that will kill. Its especially frightening when the homocidal maniac happens to be clever enough to cover it up as long as he did. Its a quick and easy read - email me if you know of any similar books.

This was the second Bundy book. The first was the paperback "Ted Bundy: All American Stranger" rushed into print right after the verdict in the Chi Omega murders. Larsen waited until after the Leach verdict to publish, and Ann Rule's "Stranger Beside Me," followed shortly on the heels of "Deliberate Stranger." Each of these books sought to capitalize on the glamor associated with the handsome, well spoken, intelligent psychopath. There's really nothing strange at all about Bundy. He was a recreational killer no different than many other "serial killers" except that he was handsome and well-spoken. He richly deserved to die in "Old Sparky." The book itself is about as accurate as any of the other Bundy tomes, and it does have the virtue of spending more time on the Leach case, the murder for which Bundy was eventually executed, than the other books, which tend to focus on the more "glamorous" aspects of Bundy's career--the Western killings and the Chi Omega Murders.