“...I was never much for waiting for someone to catch up when I skied..When it came to me and the Ski slopes, nothing would stand in my way, I was absolutely without fear, precocious beyond reason...”

The above passage was taken from a letter which was printed in “The Seattle Times” dated May 20, 1984. Ted wrote the letter whilst he was on Death Row and sent it to an acquaintance of his wife’s.

“...I first met Ted Bundy in Junior high school. He stood out as far as his intelligence...He’d help me study in difficult subjects. I don’t remember him as being an extremely social type of person. I think if he had friends, he had a few select friends...”

For six years, from seventh grade at Hunt Junior High School until they graduated from Wilson High School, class of ’65, Ted sat behind Bullat in homeroom. Since they were thrown together alphabetically in class and in yearbooks, the two boys formed a friendship based on their shared love of skiing, especially night skiing at Snoqualmie Pass, 65 miles east of Tacoma.

Source Excerpt taken from : “ Ted and Ann “ by Rebecca Morris

Jerry Bullat & Ted Bundy School Yearbook Photograph 

Source: Ancestry. Com 

A classmate Of Ted’s whom I presume is Jerry Bullat, who also attended Wilson High School and graduated in the same class as Bundy, details In the following archived news article which was published in “The News Tribune” how one snowy, winters evening the two friends had a drive up to Snoqualmie Pass to night ski. The car, caught in the heavy snowfall, lost control and there was an accident which resulted in Ted’s head striking the dashboard. This accident appears to have been a traumatic occurrence for both Ted and his buddy which left a lasting memory for the classmate at least. So much so, he ends his story by saying that he sometimes blames himself in some small way for Bundy's terrible crimes and we are left to ponder if this winter’s calamity could have any bearing on Ted’s later murderous compulsions. And lastly, a further jewel to be found in this story is that which comes from Dr Lance Canon, who taught Bundy psychology at UW, and who introduced an experiment to the class that would later become a ruse Ted would use to lure young ladies to their death!

What saddens me most about this article, is these two men blamed themselves in some way for the atrocities which occurred. Yet the man responsible for so much suffering was incapable of understanding in totality the enormity of his crimes and the devastation he would leave long after he was gone!

Ted loved to night ski at Snoqualmie Pass 

Archived News Article

“The death sentence is a power no society should exercise” - by C.R. Roberts.

My late good friend Dr Lance Canon once taught psychology at the University of Washington and he once had Ted Bundy as a student. Several times I heard him tell the story of a research project, whose results he presented to his classes. The project concerned a researcher who fitted himself with a false plaster cast to calculate the role of sympathy in human interaction. The researcher was wondering to what degree people might offer to help a stranger with a broken arm. Lance would end his story by saying that he blamed himself in some small way for Bundy’s terrible crimes.

  Another friend, now living in Idaho went to Wilson High School and graduated in the same class as Ted Bundy. Several times I have heard him tell the story of a drive he took with Bundy up to Snoqualmie Pass.  It was snowing. They were going skiing. My friend’s car went out of control and there was a collision, Bundy’s head struck the dashboard. My friend ends his story by saying that he sometimes blames himself in some small way for Bundy's terrible crimes.

     The one person who for many has not suffered responsibility for those crimes is Bundy himself. The governor of Florida calls Ted Bundy “the flagship of why capital punishment is needed”. The governor of Florida is wrong. Societies have been executing criminals for at least 4274 years since the time of King Hammurabi back in Babylon. But criminals continue to commit heinous and terrible crimes. If Bundy suffers the death penalty on Tuesday, he will be the first prisoner executed during the centenary year of electrocution.

     Only since 1889 — when such a law took effect in New York — have we been killing people with electric chairs. Before that — and in some states still — there is the hangman and the rope. Killing people with ropes however and electricity and more recently poison has not stopped people from killing people. And that's why we kill people — to stop other people from killing people. Or at least that's what we say. But it does not work. And I'm not so sure that deterrence is the real reason capital punishment is and has always been so popular. By punishing people by killing them we all get to become murderers in some small way. On Tuesday we will all get to kill Ted Bundy, whether we like it or not. We will get our revenge. We will wreak our vengeance upon him. We will teach him a lesson, once and for all. And it won't do a damn bit of good. No other serial murderer will pause Tuesday’s news. No gun-wielding assassin or knife-brandishing psychotic will find the error of those ways, thanks to the example we set with Ted.

Will the people of Florida feel safer on Wednesday morning with Bundy dead?

      Will you?

Will you feel better when he’s gone?

      In what way?

  We have not come so very far in 4274 years. I believe that society has no right to deliberately take a person’s life. I am familiar with the opposing arguments.

   Would I kill if my own life were threatened?

Yes …If the life of a loved one were threatened? Yes…War? …Yes….

   In the heat of battle to prevent killing to protect life — I could kill. I could risk my own life to kill. But we risk nothing killing Ted Bundy. We gain nothing By murdering Ted Bundy … by allowing the legal sanction of his death we are each of us diminished In a small and very cold-blooded way, we admit defeat. We throw up our hands as we throw the switch. He dies …So then how are our lives improved? Where’s the lesson?

     I am not addressing so grand and so Christian a thing as forgiveness … In discussing the plans that Florida has for Tuesday, I may not even be talking about Ted Bundy … I am talking about the rest of us …After witnessing a hanging in London in 1849, Charles Dickens began writing letters to The Times, complaining that public executions were barbaric, that they appealed only to our lowest and most depraved curiosities … His letters led to an 1868 British law that made hanging a more private affair. All of England's legal murders were henceforth conducted behind prison walls. The new law had little effect on the number of capital crimes either reported or punished. The only effect the law had I think was to disappoint the curious … Dickens was offended not by acts of execution but by the emotions they incited … Executions were unseemly and messy … They lacked dignity … there is no dignity in execution even behind prison walls. There is only death …There is only revenge — deliberate cunning, brutal revenge …

There are certain powers that a civilized society should not exercise …By now we should know better…Chances are we never will…

Source: “Morning News Tribune “ - January 22 1989

Teenager Ted