Author: annrule

Utterly unique in its astonishing intimacy, as jarringly frightening as when it first appeared, Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me defies our expectation that we would surely know if a monster lived among us, worked alongside of us, appeared as one of us. With a slow chill that intensifies with each heart-pounding page, Rule describes her dawning awareness that Ted Bundy, her sensitive coworker on … on a crisis hotline, was one of the most prolific serial killers in America. He would confess to killing at least thirty-six young women from coast to coast, and was eventually executed for three…

When Diane Downs and her three children were shot on a quiet, country road, residents of Springfield, Oregon, were frightened. A bushy haired stranger had flagged down their car, Diane told police, as she described how the man had coldly opened fire on her sleeping children. Despite the fact she was shot, too, the young mother managed to drive to the hospital in time to save all but one … child. But something about her story was fishy, and detectives began to suspect Diane was lying. Was it possible that she was the shooter? Absolutely not, her supporters insisted. Diane,…