Ted Bundy's Murderous Mysteries

by Kevin Sullivan

  Always on the lookout for a pretty young woman for his outer self (at one point he dated the daughter of a Utah Supreme Court judge who would actually have to recuse himself from one of his future appeals due to the killer’s relationship with his daughter), Bundy had recently met yet another one. Her name was Leslie Knutson, recently divorced and with a seven-year-old son. They met at a party in June hosted by Paul Van Dam, the Salt Lake County prosecutor, and began dating soon afterwards. According to statements she would later make, they would spend time together in the mountains, at the drive-in, and in her apartment.

  He never attempted to discourage Leslie from adding her son Joshua to the mix. Indeed, Bundy, who for a time that summer lived at Knutson’s Redondo Street address, took Josh and a group of his friends to the local swimming pool on more than one occasion. In essence, Bundy was acting (as he had with Tina) as a surrogate father to Knutson’s son. This may have seemed quite natural to him. But as with all relationships in which Bundy was involved, this one would die. Nothing he told Leslie or Josh was true, or had any real foundation to it.

  Coming forward to 2018, I was recently contacted by Francine Bardole, and soon I was hearing the heretofore unpublished tales of Leslie Knutson and her son, Josh, and their connection with Francine Bardole and her son, Larry. And what is so great about Francine and Larry coming forward and, in fact, whenever anyone comes forward who has valid connections to this case, is that many holes and gaps are often filled in by the testimony of those coming forward. And so it was in the case of Francine and Larry Bardole.

  I remember when writing about Leslie Knutson and Bundy’s interactions with her and Josh, often including her son in their activities and even taking Josh and his friends places, I kept thinking, I wish I could locate these kids (now adults) to find out more about these experiences. And ten years down the road, I would, at least in part, finally get my wish.

  Both Francine and Larry remember Ted Bundy as being exceedingly friendly. Francine told this writer that their first conversation consisted of small talk, and one aspect of it was Bundy talking about his time at the University of Utah School of Law. Bundy spoke of how difficult the work was for law school, and Francine said Bundy mentioned he was encouraging Leslie to go to law school too.

  Leslie Knutson lived in a duplex at 1460 Redondo Avenue. Looking at the structure from the sidewalk, their door is on the left. Down the street (and on the opposite side) was 1409 Redondo, the home of Francine Bardole. Apparently, the connection with Bundy (and pretty much with Leslie) came from the friendship between Josh and Larry, which included those times when Ted took the boys places, and those occasions when Francine would agree to watch Josh for them so they could have some time of their own. As such, this information comes out of numerous interactions Francine and her son had with them, and, given what we now know about Bundy, they highlight and expand, if you will, an interesting picture of Bundy’s dark and secretive world.

  On at least two occasions, Bundy took the boys to the Redwood Drive-In, located at 3688 Redwood Road, and Larry freely admits it was fun, having gone with him. He also remembered the time when Ted told the boys to wait in the car, while he headed in the direction of the concession stand and restrooms. All of that seemed quite normal to them, of course. However, when he failed to return in what the boys believed was a reasonable amount of time, they went looking for him. Oddly, they found him standing close to the women’s restroom, and he was watching the women who, one after another, were entering or exiting the restroom. This, of course, brings Denise Naslund to mind, and how Bundy stopped her as she was leaving the restroom at Lake Sammamish and he convinced her to go with him. What would Bundy have been thinking about at that moment? Killing one of them, perhaps, regretful that he had two kids with him. Bundy was not in control as to when that genie of murder began to rise, and what the boys saw that evening was most likely the beginning of that rising. The longer he stood at the restroom entrance watching his “prey” coming and going, the more forceful the desire and inclination became. However, the arrival of the boys brought any chance for him to act out on his murderous salivating to an abrupt end. One thing we don’t know is, did Bundy take the boys home and then go back out into the night seeking a victim?

  One of the things Leslie also mentioned to authorities is how Ted would take Josh and his friends to the pool, and while I had no knowledge as to what pool they frequented, Larry Bardole explained the pool was (and perhaps is) located within the grounds of old Fort Douglas. As such, it may well have been a private pool, and Larry believes one needed a special pass to get into it. If this is the case, Larry believed, Bundy’s U of Utah student ID was probably all that was needed to gain entrance. And, as can be expected whenever Bundy was involved in something, it had its negative aspect as well.

  One day after returning from swimming, Larry told his mother that he didn’t want to go back to the pool with Ted. When she inquired as to why he would say this, Larry said Bundy liked playing a game called “shark” and that he didn’t like it at all. Not only would Ted swim around the pool and pull them under (keep in mind, these were very young kids of eight or ten), but he would also “bite” them. Whatever emotion Bundy meant to elicit with the pulling of the kids under the water, and the mimicking of a shark bite, it’s clear that he found it funny to frighten them; much like he had done with his girlfriend (and other women, as well) when he’d suddenly jump out from behind a bush and startle them. Whatever Bundy’s true motivations might have been in playing “shark,” Larry didn’t like it at all.

  Larry also related the story of a time when Josh asked Larry to come to his house one morning, and when he arrived, a very tired Bundy answered the door to let him in. With that, Bundy retreated back into the bedroom and shut the door. For the rest of the day, Bundy stayed in the room, and Larry noticed a food tray outside the bedroom door where Leslie had obviously brought him something to eat, and once he was finished, he simply placed the tray outside the door. Apparently, Bundy had been up all night, and then spent that day catching up on some much-needed sleep. This, of course, was nothing unusual, as Bundy the killer was a very nocturnal hunter of women. Sleeping during the day was very routine for him, and it was something that had been noticed by many others, including his girlfriend Liz.

  One aspect that goes along with this has to do with the effects this sleeping pattern may have been having on Leslie and their relationship together. When I discussed this with Francine, she said the following:

  “There were occasions where Leslie had arranged for me to care for Josh so she could do something with Ted. It was not unusual for her to cancel at the last minute because Ted did not want to or could not go. I could hear the frustration in her voice when she called to tell me the event was off. I highly doubt Leslie did not address the issue when she did see Ted. Ted would “hole up” in the dark during the day on occasion and like Larry said, want to be left alone. I can only imagine Leslie feeling like she was walking on eggshells during these moments.”

  Another interesting story is one that came from Leslie’s duplex neighbor, Laurie Hulse. Hulse’s son, Tom, was a friend of Josh’s, and it’s clear they all got along well together. However, Laurie remembers playing badminton in the backyard with her son one day, and Bundy, coming out into the backyard, angrily started complaining that her dog wouldn’t stop barking and it was clear the pooch was really annoying him. Laurie said Bundy also blurted out that she needed to feed her dog more often. Perhaps he believed stuffing the animal with food would finally shut it up. Of course, no one who witnessed this rude behavior in the backyard that day had any idea what Bundy was really angry about, which was that his nocturnal hunting cycle of women was being interrupted by a dog, and that if he couldn’t sleep in during the day, how could he effectively hunt at night? Laurie also mentioned there were times when Bundy was rude to Leslie, and overall, she just didn’t like the way he treated her.

  Despite the terr
ible things they would later learn about Ted Bundy, it’s clear just how much Larry and Francine liked him. Larry still has good memories of Ted fixing his bike when the chain slipped. He told of the time when Bundy came and picked him up from the Kmart some seventeen blocks from his house, and after sticking his bicycle in the trunk of the VW, gave him a ride home. It was clear Bundy actually found time to be good to Josh and Larry, and it was no doubt the same type of kindness Bundy extended to Liz Kendall’s daughter, Mollie. Even though he was without question a despicable, diabolical human, he still managed to show, at least to some degree, a genuine kindness to certain people. It may have been rare, and it may have been partly an act. But it was on display with Larry Bardole and Josh Knutson.

  For many years now, Francine has been employed by the West Jordan, Utah Police Department as a forensic investigator. That she has spent a good portion of her life fighting crime and bringing criminals to justice, one has to wonder what Bundy would have thought of her profession.

  III. “Maggie” of Tallahassee, Florida

  Being a writer of books about Ted Bundy, I’ve grown quite comfortable with folks contacting me to tell me their stories about how remotely or closely they’re connected to the Ted Bundy murders and, obviously, about what kind of impact it has had on their lives. Indeed, there is a passage in The Bundy Murders where I speak of the terrible effects Bundy’s reign of terror caused the state of Washington. The ongoing fear experienced by many of its citizens was very real, and their reaction to the slaughter of a segment of its female citizens was nothing short of feeling terrorized. So, when Maggie (a pseudonym) contacted me and began telling me about her experiences and what it was like living in a city where a killer had boldly and viciously attacked four sleeping coeds in the Chi Omega sorority, killing two, and then almost immediately violently assaulting (and attempting to kill) another woman five or six blocks away, I was all ears.

  What follows is the communication I’ve received from her, and I’ll be presenting most of it verbatim. I will however (as I promised) edit out certain bits of information that will assure her desire to remain anonymous is fulfilled. You’ll also notice two things: one, her very helpful guidance in sharing where Bundy roamed the city to either shop, or eat, or even steal; and two, how closely she might have been to the killer as he moved around Tallahassee. At the time of the Chi Omega attacks, Maggie was only thirteen years old. But unknown to her at that time, being thirteen was no guarantee of safety, as Bundy was both a killer of young women and young girls.

  I was a thirteen-year-old resident of Tallahassee when Ted visited the Chi Omega house, and from the moment my family heard the announcement in church the morning after, the town was seized with terror and paranoia.

  Back then the public only knew what the press decided to tell us, and they did not tell the public much back then about what Ted really did to the women he killed. It was only years later that I learned about the necrophilia, the choking, and other gory details.

  When reading this book (Author’s note: she’s referring to my book, The Bundy Murders), I had to put it down in horror quite a few times. For example, the credit card charges that Ted made fraudulently. The J. Byron’s department store was in Northwood Mall, as was the Eckerd’s he shopped at. That mall was right next door to the middle school I attended (Raa Middle School). I was in the 8th grade at that time, and after school my best friend and I would always walk to the mall to hang out for a few hours before our parents got off work to pick us up. That privilege was something we “earned” for being in our last year of middle school. It is terrifying to think that Ted might have been there when we were, both of us sporting our dark hair, parted in the middle, ambling through the large mall parking lot like we had all the time in the world.

  And the Tasty Pastry Bakery was in a shopping center adjacent to my old elementary school. It was called Timberline Elementary when I attended, but the name was later changed to Gilchrest Elementary after Principal Gilchrest retired (I think). The date of Ted’s cookie-shopping visit to Tasty Pastry isn’t in the book, but there is an exit/entrance to I-10 a few blocks away, so maybe Ted got the munchies while he was driving to or from Jacksonville. That area is right on the edge of the upscale suburbs, so the fact that he was trolling around in there is truly chilling. Back then there wasn’t much development, but now you can barely find a tree within a mile radius, there are so many shopping centers and places to eat. There is a McDonald’s nearby that used to be the first sign of civilization as we made our way into town from where we lived.

  Some of the other places Ted frequented were rather upscale, such as Andrew’s 2nd Act and Clydes & Costellos, both places commonly frequented by politicians when legislature was in session, as they were just blocks away from the State Capitol.

  And as an FSU student a few years later, I regularly visited The Phyrst, which was a campus bar that used to be Sherrod’s, next door to the Chi Omega house. The description that Carla Jean Black gave of how Ted was staring at her in Sherrod’s gave me chills, because the floor plan (and dark places) were easy to imagine as familiar locations inside The Phyrst. (The bar no longer exists after campus renovations.)

  One of my friends was a member of Chi Omega, and during one holiday break when the sorority house was virtually empty, we went inside the house after leaving The Phyrst one night so she could give me a tour. I remember reading in the Tallahassee Democrat that on the night of Ted’s murder spree, the club that he used to bludgeon the girls had been used to prop open the back door, so it was super eerie for me to walk in through that same door, which had been reinforced with a bolted-on metal strip to prevent someone from kicking it in.

  The bedroom doors were all closed, but I remember the terror of walking past the rooms upstairs, before walking down the main staircase to the foyer. My friend didn’t grow up in Tallahassee, so she wasn’t that aware of the murders. She said the sorority never discussed it. She seemed more nervous about pointing out the door to some sort of secret sorority room that they used in their meeting rituals, saying she could never let me even peek inside that room since I wasn’t a member of the sorority. The house has been extensively renovated now, but it is still located just outside of the main gates of the university and Westcott fountain, a prime position for any Greek organization.

  I don’t think you discussed it in your books, but the FSU track club used to practice on campus, with bleachers next to the track where friends or onlookers would sit in the shade to study or eat lunch. That is where Ted did a bit of his thievery, because the track team would just leave their bookbags and belongings on the bleachers while they trained. When Ted was arrested in Pensacola, he was carrying the ID of a rather prominent track star who was about to graduate and start his career. When it was erroneously announced that he had been arrested for the Chi Omega murders, it ruined his life for quite some time.

  As you know, it’s not easy to find this information, since it happened before we even dreamed of the internet or cellphone cameras. Some people would think it is weird for me to say I enjoyed reading your books, but because it is a link to an experience I grew up with, I feel connected to the story and appreciate the information. I have had a few nightmares while reading this one, not gonna lie.

  I remember reading in one of your books about Ted going to Chez Pierre with one of his neighbors a few times. That was also kind of a swanky place to eat. It’s closed now. Tallahassee has changed so much, particularly the FSU campus. Roads that ran through campus have been closed or rerouted as the university grew.

  IV. Andrew Valdez

  I first came across the name, Andrew Valdez, when I was doing research for my book, The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History. At the time, I did not seek out Mr. Valdez for an interview, but I did quote some of his words from a Utah newspaper article. Here’s that portion of my book that details Valdez’s reaction upon seeing Bundy in class in January 1975. It is important to note as well,
that Bundy started law school in Salt Lake City, Utah, in September of 1974, but because he was out committing murder, he attended classes only three times during that first semester, and this is what caused Valdez to believe Bundy was a transfer student:

  Now that he was actually listening to the lectures, taking notes, and participating in class, his classmates weren’t sure what to make of him. Andrew Valdez, also a beginning freshman law student in the fall of 1974, had this to say about him: “He first introduced himself to me in a contracts class. I thought he was a transfer student because I’d never seen him before.” Valdez, who clearly liked Bundy (there were few who didn’t), also gave Bundy high marks for whatever academic success he was able to maintain. “I remember him for his ability to pass tough classes when he rarely went to school.”

  For this book, my fourth in the Bundy series, I decided I wanted to reach out to Andrew Valdez to see what it was like for him dealing with Ted Bundy on a daily basis in that winter of 1975 during that second semester (as I mentioned above, Bundy actually began school there in September, but because he was out hunting women, he attended class only three times during that first semester), and I’m very glad that I did. When I first contacted Valdez, he was very agreeable to talking with me, which is always a good starting point. I must also give a word of thanks to Shirl Sipperley DiGugno, who has been helping me locate certain people, including Andrew Valdez.