Customer Reviews

The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
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Liz Kendall's account of her seven year relationship with Ted Bundy, one of America's worst serial killers, is difficult to put down and offers a uniquely personal account of the man. Having read several books on Bundy that offered limited personal information, I was eager to read this book. I found the experience incredibly fulfilling. Kendall comes across as a highly sympathetic, flawed young woman. You truly get a feel for how agonizing her relationship with Bundy was. Bless her heart. Furthermore, you learn more about the nature of the man himself and it may surprise you. It's easy to paint a completely bleak, horrific picture of someone once they've committed such crimes and we forget that they are human beings themselves. We learn that Bundy was a tender lover, that he was great with children, that he was highly insecure, that he was a great cook, what his favorite beer was, that he was rarely ever violent with Kendall, and that he had a funny sense of humor. As you read about him, it's difficult to imagine that this person could have done what he did. It proves even now, years after his execution, that he still casts a spell over people. I have studied him extensively and cannot get a good grasp of what kind of person he truly was: a great murderous manipulator or a deeply flawed, tragic human being? What is genuine and what is not? I highly recommend this for anyone interested in Bundy.

Just as interesting to me as Kendall's look at Bundy is her recounting of her involvement of the police investigations into Bundy's crimes. I got some idea what a surprise suspect Bundy was (clean cut, law student, no record, etc.) from Ann Rule's "The Stranger Beside Me," but Kendall was even more involved in the investigations...and more often ignored. There were so many instances when it seemed that if the police had only taken her more seriously, Bundy would have been stopped much sooner. It's frightening how often and how strongly Kendall and Bundy were drawn back to each other. I admire her for pulling her life together in the midst of such chaos.

Ms. Kendall is not a professional mystery writer, and each of us knows how her story will end before we even pick the book up. Yet it's engrossing all the same, because her honest, unpolished prose puts us in her shoes. She's Everywoman, a flawed single mother with many insecurities, who falls in love with the Wrong Guy ("wrong" in an extraordinarily big way!) and we can all imagine ourselves in the same situation. The love, the guilt, the paranoia, the shame, the jealousy ... gulp. I just hope that wherever this lady is now, she and her daughter are happy and at peace.

While not much help academically, this book provides a first hand account of how serial killers operate and are able to keep at it for so long. We all knew Bundy was a master of manipulation but Kendall's stories bring it home. You can see just how thin the line is that keeps us from the people like Ted. As much as you want to be angry with Kendall, you can't help but feel sympathy for her plight (although I felt like it was her way of attoneing for 'sins'.) This book (if you can find it) is well worth it if you are interested in the daily lives of serial killers and how their 'problems' manifest themselves.

Great book: "Liz Kendall"'s story flows and flows, everything is natural and simple, the only thing is that her Prince was killing women. This is a story of a regular human life crossed by fate that it wasn't meant for. Author is emotional, engaging; she's causing compassion, she's not posing--she seems to tell the truth. I read this book overnight--I couldn't stop, so easily it reads. The book shows "ordinary" side of Bundy, it illustrates his perfect ability to comaprtmentalize and wear a mask. It talks about him as of a person just like you and me and it causes you to feel sorry for him. This is definitely written by a woman who was completely in love with him. Sincere and spontaneous girl, "Liz Kendall" had spent some of her best years waiting for Bundy to marry her, but she couldn't capture him. The book is a great life story, as much about "Liz" as about Bundy, and I think it gives a perfect slice of ONE of Bundy's personalities. You'll end up loving the charactes.

After reading several other books on the subject of Ted Bundy, this book really stands apart. Most books offer a history of his crimes and trials written by outsiders. The Phantom Prince is a first-hand account of Ted's behavior and whereabouts during his pre-Florida years. For those of us with a special interest in Ted Bundy this book is full of fascinating, intimate details which provide a rare glimpse of Ted's ordinary life. (Where else can you learn what his favorite beer was?) After all, he didn't spend ALL of his time killing or running from the law. This book offers a very unique perspective on an insanely interesting case. THIS may be the closest you will ever come to a serial killer

I just finished reading Phantom Prince also, and I was captivated by how "normal" their dysfunctional relationship was! Theirs actually sounds like a lot of relationships 20-something females have with aloof men.

One thing I am curious about is -- in the movie, The Deliberate Stranger, Liz (called Cas) mentions how once they were making love and he tried to strangle her. But this book makes no reference to that incident at all. Does anyone know if this was created to enhance the plot? Or do other Bundy books make a reference to this incident? I am leaning toward it being fabricated, since Liz was otherwise quite revealing in her story.

I knew Ted Bundy in SLC. I know the house Liz rented in the Avenues. I've read all the other books about him. I have to say, this book is more of an eye-opener than any of the others -- I have been trying to understand how my judgement was so poor in choosing TB as a friend. No one has been able to explain it. BUT LIZ HAS!!! Her insights are unique and raw, she had courage to see the truth and at the same time to know her own mixed responses -- very few people are able to know themselves that well, or have the courage to say it for all to read. I believe she has finally put to rest my obsession with finding out who TB was -- thank you, Liz. I hope you are well, and know what a good person you are!

This book tells you things about him that some other books about him don't like what he would do in his spair time (you know when he wasn't killing). This is the most detailed and mysterious book out their. If you have questions about Ted Bundy and his life then you should have most of them answered through this novel, but no guaranitees...as ted said no one but him knows what really happened.

While not much help academically, this book provides a first hand account of how serial killers operate and are able to keep at it for so long. We all knew Bundy was a master of manipulation but Kendall's stories bring it home. You can see just how thin the line is that keeps us from the people like Ted. As much as you want to be angry with Kendall, you can't help but feel sympathy for her plight (although I felt like it was her way of attoneing for 'sins'.) This book (if you can find it) is well worth it if you are interested in the daily lives of serial killers and how their 'problems' manifest themselves.