The Stranger Beside Me

by Ann Rule · 1980

In the early 1970s Ann Rule was a young crisis‑line worker in Seattle, drawn to the quiet charm of a new coworker, Ted Bundy. Their friendship deepened as they exchanged letters and confidences, while a string of disappearances and murders began to terrorize the nation. When the police identified a serial killer whose portrait matched the man she knew, Rule found herself torn between journalist and friend, piecing together evidence that revealed Bundy’s chilling double life. Blending personal memoir with meticulous reporting, the book follows Rule’s relentless pursuit of the truth and the shocking realization that the monster she was hunting had been sitting beside her all along. A landmark true‑crime narrative, it offers an intimate, harrowing look at charisma, deception, and the darkness that can hide in plain sight.