...When the hunger came he would cruise the dark channel, eyes searching left and right, thirsting, hunting. Then he would attack. And when he was done, he would dump the body of yet another young woman, lured from that black strip of highway out near the airport, or plucked from one of his dark killing pools on a downtown street corner, and leave it- to rot in the soft silt of the Green River or in a shallow grave in the mossy, wet woods. There are at least 48 victims...

Source:Calgary Herald”-31 August 1989 

Meeker Bridge Kent , Washington 

Source:GoogleMaps

16 year old Wendy Lee Coffield was the Riverman’s first victim found July 15 1982 when two teenage boys crossing over Meeker Bridge (Named as Peck Bridge in Rule’s book) saw her body tethered in the water below. She had been strangled. (Debra Lynn Bonner, Marcia Faye Chapman, Opal Charmaine Mills and Cynthia Jean Hinds were found in the months that followed.) 

Source: “Green River Running Red” - Ann Rule 

The killer's...blood must have really boiled in the months leading up to the summer of 1982, when the first five bodies were pulled from the Green River. He killed in a frenzy. By the time the Green River Task Force was formed in 1984, 43 of his victims were dead. All but a few of the dead were under 21; 18 were 17 or younger; three were just 15. Shortly after the task force was formed, the murders stopped...Officials said he was either dead, in jail or moved along and was killing somewhere else...

Source:Calgary Herald”-31 August 1989 

16 year old Wendy Lee Coffield’s body is pulled out of the river 15 July 1982

Maj. Frank Adamson, former commander of the Green River Task Force recalls the decision to involve TB in the Green River Task Force :

“...He wanted to give his opinion. I sent Keppel and Reichert to Starke to interview Bundy. I thought he might give something to Keppel that would allow us to charge Bundy here in Washington. I didn’t think he could help on our cases...”

Captain Frank Adamson of the King County Police Department stands in front of a skeleton which is used to train officers the difference between animal and human bones. Adamson heads the Green River Task Force, which is searching for the killer of perhaps dozens of women in the Seattle area.

Source:”The Daily News” - 15 April 1984 

“...Ted Bundy and his guys on death row in Starke Florida taught me how serial killers think and what will encourage them to give up their secrets. It's all a waiting game unless you catch them with their hands dripping red with the blood of their victims...”

Former King County Homicde Detective Robert Keppel

Robert Keppel Photo Source: “Terrible Secrets” Robert Keppel

Later Keppel would recall how shocked he was at the haunted persona of the Bundy he knew back in the seventies :

“...I watched Ted closely, his face was deeply lined, he sweated and he frowned almost constantly. His eyes were bloodshot. Obviously, he was in deep pain, and I thought I knew why. There was really only one dimension to his being - Murder - and it trumped everything . Once he’d fallen into the black hole and began killing, he became the black hole, a human figure occupying a void, inadequate cipher - total personal worthlessness which he recognised as well in the Green River Killer. There cannot be a more consummate loser than that, which I could see was horrible for Ted to contemplate...”

Mug shot taken at Florida’s Death Row on December 31 1984, the same year TB contacted The Green River Task Force 

Source:Mugshot sent direct from Florida Dept Of Corrections 

In 1982 Robert Keppel, former Detective of King County Police Dept and previous head of the Ted Task Force in Seattle, Washington during the seventies, became Chief Criminal Investigator for Washington State Attorney General’s Office. 1982 was also the year the body of 16-year-old Wendy Lee Coffield was found on 15 July in the Green River in Kent, Washington. Wendy Lee Coffield became the first known victim of the Green River Killer, but she would not be the last. In quick succession, more bodies began showing up, and eventually The Green River Task Force was set up to track down this vicious killer. By 1984 word had made its way back to someone who knew a lot about Serial Murder, someone who had a lot of time on his hands, and who wanted to offer his assistance and knowledge on a subject close to his heart. In a 5-page letter sent first via a Supreme  Court Judge back in Seattle, Washington, Theodore Robert Bundy wrote to the Task Force offering to help. He was, as always,  meticulous not to incriminate himself to the Task Force, yet hinted that this was a subject he himself had intimate knowledge of, cited as telling the Task Force this was a past “avocation” some 10–20 years in his own past. Intrigued as to how such a meeting might be, Keppel and colleague Dave Reichert travel to Raiford, Fla and Ted becomes a consultant for the task force, offering insightful thoughts on both the Green River Murderer and also unknowingly on his own murderous past.

Bundy letter which was sent to a Supreme Court Judge from Starke, Florida 10-02-1984

Dear (Name Redacted), Would you please see that the enclosed letter to the Green River Task Force is delivered to someone in that organization who can be trusted to treat it with the utmost in confidentiality? I ask you not to allow knowledge of the existence of the enclosed letter to go beyond the Task Force and me. I ask you to forward the enclosed letter because it would be unwise to write the Task Force directly from where I am, and because you are the only person I know and can trust to handle it properly.

Thanks for helping out. Take care of yourself.

Peace, ted

PS – Please feel free to read the enclosed letter before you give it to the Task Force.

PPS – Please drop me a line, if it is nothing more than a postcard, to let me know that this got out of here and got to you. Thanks.

Source:”Reflections On Green River-The Letters And Conversations Of Ted Bundy”

Snippet from a letter sent from King County LE to the Director of the FBI informing the BSU of Bundy’s offer of acting as a consultant on the Green River Task Force.

...In this letter he (TB) indicated that he felt he could be helpful in the (Green River) investigation...he had no personal knowledge of who committed these crimes, but felt a “very close relationship” with that individual. He started that he had an intuitive feeling and believed that he knew what that individual was thinking...He stated that he would be looking at it from the viewpoint of his “avocation” for the past ten to twenty years. He would not elaborate at this time as to what he meant by that and he was not pressed on that issue...”

Aerial view of Taylor Mountain one of Ted’s dump site’s in PNW 

Source: “Terrible Secrets” Robert Keppel

In Ted’s characteristic style, he describes his definition of Serial Murder in an interview with Robert Keppel which took place in February 1988 :

“...Serial murder is another form of behavior. I mean, it’s another form of behavior. And yet it utilizes ….That behavior is, was spawned and developed and used as the same neurological circuit as any other behavior. I believe. I’m not trying to trivialize it, but I do think people need to see it in the context of what it really is. And there are all sorts of abhorrent behaviors out there. Well, all sorts of normal behaviors. And they all, and cruel and terrible as serial murder is, it is another form, it is acquired just like any other behavior is acquired. Now, I’m not trying to reduce this just to behavioral as terms, but that’s one way of explaining it. It certainly is maintained by a mental component, as it were. It has its origin. But nevertheless, I …so, if I were to define the whole nature of serial murder, I’d try to bring in those kind of aspects to say that do you want to understand what goes on in the mind of somebody who commits this kind, the kind of behavior we call serial murder. Then, first of all, look at yourself. Look at anything you’ve done repeatedly over the years that has not been good for you or somebody else. Drinking, smoking, shoplifting, stealing flowers, taking too many newspapers from the newspaper stand. Again, not trying to trivialize, but trying to personalize it. Because it’s unique. But every behavior is unique...”

The following is an archived news article covering The Green River Killer, Bob Keppel and Bundy :

Detective Robert D. Keppel stares blankly into the eyes of a monster. Even with a long history in criminal justice, he is not prepared for this tryst with evil. The man who stares back is the same man that Keppel helped apprehend for deflowering the innocence of American college campuses years before in the 1970s. And now, years later, he has to trust this man to help put another rapist and murderer behind bars – the notorious Green River Killer.

      Ted Bundy squirms – he likes the attention Keppel offers him.

     This is the reason he volunteered: to get aroused from the vicious crimes of his innovative counterpart, to relive his days of glory through a serial killer still on the loose.

        Keppel looks beyond Bundy’s smarmy smile and begins seeking information that will help the Green River Killer case. Irony has not left him; he is using the modern-day Jack the Ripper to help catch another fiend.

While this may seem like just fiction out of the mind of an illustrative novelist, Sam Houston State University associate professor, Dr Robert D. Keppel, knows all too well that this is far from an imaginary tale. It is the tactic he used in 1982 to help launch the infamous Green River Killer case, the inspiration for Thomas Harris’ book and movie, “The Silence of the Lambs,” and an experience that he uses day after day to educate new generations of criminal justice students.

     Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer were two of the worst serial killers in American history. College campuses were plagued with fear as they left a trail of bodies in their psychopathic frenzy. Twenty-three women died at the hands of Bundy from 1974 to 1978. The Green River Killer was responsible for another 42 brutal murders and evaded police for 20 years. With years of education in Police Science in hand, Robert Keppel took on the Ted Bundy case in the hopes of stopping a violent murderer but ended up creating a new investigative technique when he used Bundy to help catch the Green River Killer.

        Even though Keppel has obtained a veteran level of expertise with almost four decades of experience in criminal investigations, he was only a rookie detective when he began working on the Ted Bundy case in 1974. The disappearance of two girls at Lake Sammamish State Park in Washington is what sparked the investigation and several King County detectives were assigned to the case to assist the Issaquah Police — one of those detectives was 30-year-old Robert Keppel.

     After piecing together facts from related homicides in the area, Keppel and a major task force formed between the Seattle and King County police were able to identify Ted Bundy as the main suspect in the murders. Bundy was convicted but escaped while on trial by jumping out of the courthouse library. He was caught a week later but escaped again by walking out of the jail’s front door after sawing a hole through the ceiling of his cell. After raping, torturing and murdering a slew of women across the country, Bundy’s nationwide killing spree was finally brought to an end again with his arrest in Florida in 1978.

Bundy was sentenced to death for the slaughter of 12-year-old Kimberly Diane Leach who he abducted from her High School in Lake City on February 9 1978. He approached Kim after she left her classroom crossing the courtyard to fetch her purse. 

America was shocked by the Green River killings, in which the bodies of women were found sexually assaulted, strangled and then dumped in isolated areas.

When publicity escalated about the murders around the Green River, police began finding bodies with similar inflictions farther away from the river. After piecing together facts from the homicides, they concluded it was the same killer. Investigators never found bodies near the river again, but the nickname the Green River Killer was already burned into the hearts and minds of Americans.

      In 1984, an enhanced task force had been assembled to work on the case and Keppel started working full-time. While compiling a criminal profile for the Green River killer, in a move similar to the Silence of the Lambs storyline, he was contacted by the same man he helped to incarcerate years before – renowned serial killer Ted Bundy – who offered to aid him in his efforts.

      “He volunteered by writing us a letter,”

said Keppel of how Bundy came to work with police to establish a criminal profile for the Green River Killer case.

    “Of course, it came into my desk. I wrote him back and asked him how he could be of use to the investigation. He replied and explained that he knew a lot about murder. We ended up paying him a visit later and he confirmed everything we were already doing.”

     When Keppel interviewed Bundy, it was one of the first times a detective utilized the ‘professional’ opinion of a serial killer to aid an investigation. The interviews resulted in several useful insights. Bundy was only piecing together the details of the investigation with newspaper clippings, but he still conjured theories that were consistent with those of the detectives.

“...I’m the only Ph.D. in serial murder. Over the years I’ve read everything I can get my hands on about it. The subject fascinates me...”

                                                   Ted Bundy 

“There were a few things, details he knew and suggestions on how to catch the killer,”

said Keppel.

     “He suggested that we have a sex-slasher film festival and set up video surveillance. You know, have it to where they have to park in the theatre and then put cameras on all of the cars and the people. We couldn’t do that, but he said we would probably get video of all the future serial murders.”

    Bundy also provided details that detectives knew only a murderer could know. Keppel said that he suggested that police stake out recovery sites where fresh bodies were found. According to Bundy, the killer usually returns to the scene of the crime because that is what he did.

     “He turned out to be right,” said Keppel, “but there was no way we could have done that because we never found any fresh bodies.”

     Even though the detectives on the Green River Killer case utilized new tactics, such as using computers to help compile the information on suspects and using a known serial killer as a consultant for profiling efforts, the case failed to produce a viable suspect. The killings stopped in 1983 and there were no solid leads regarding the identity of the killer until 2001.

Keppel went on to author and co-author several books about criminal investigations and the interviews with Bundy.

     The interviews also inspired Thomas Harris, who Keppel said was in consultations with the FBI, to write the book “Silence of the Lambs” in 1988. The book was later created into the 1991 film starring Anthony Hopkins as Dr Hannibal Lector and Jodie Foster as Detective Clarice Sterling. Dr Robert D. Keppel recalls how his investigations went from real life to an Academy Award-winning Jonathan Demme film:

     “ It is an interesting story,”

             he said.

    “ At the time, in late 1984, I sent a transcript of the Bundy interview to the FBI Behavioral Science department. I expected them to read it and give it back with suggestions for the next interview. Instead, Thomas Harris, the writer of the book, “The Silence of the Lambs,” was convinced it would make a good storyline, so he copied the idea from my work with Bundy. In “ The Silence of the Lambs” movie credits, the FBI was credited with giving him the idea when it was really from my work with Bundy. In my movie which came out on A&E called “The Riverman,” if you slow the credits at the end, the idea was credited to my interviews with Bundy.”

   Although Keppel still resides (Keppel, unfortunately, passed away June ‘21’) in Washington, he teaches at Sam Houston State through the use of teleconference. He came to work at SHSU four years ago and lived in Texas in 2003 for two years teaching at the University. He now uses the latest live teleconference technology to teach criminal justice students. With experience teaching at universities for over 35 years, he instructs classes a Sam such as Criminal Investigation, Serial Murder, Criminal Profiling and Crime Scene Investigation. All of his experience and knowledge about criminal investigations continues to aid him in his teaching efforts.

    “The experiences help because from one crime scene, [the students] can learn about all of the forensic science disciplines,” said Keppel. “The errors made in the investigation and all the good things that happened help the students understand. That and Ted Bundy was the poster child of serial killers.”

Ted Bundy was executed on January 24, 1989, in the Florida electric chair for the murder of Kimberly Leach. By 7:16 a.m., Bundy’s reign of terror on the American public had officially ceased, but the Green River Killer was still on the loose.

Gary Leon Ridgeway was arrested in 1982 on a prostitution charge and quickly became a suspect in the Green River Killings. He was released after successfully passing a polygraph test. 

Finally On November 20 2001, 52-year-old Gary Leon Ridgeway was arrested while leaving his work in Renton, Washington. He is suspected of seven of the Green River killings with DNA evidence linking him to four. He has pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated murder. Ironically, he was one of the first suspects in the case in 1983. Ridgeway was sentenced to 48 life sentences without a possibility of parole.

    With the help of Dr Robert D. Keppel, these two serial killers will never murder again, but America will always be plagued with sociopaths wreaking havoc on society. With all of the work he has done in criminal investigations, one thing he is passing on to the next generation of Sam Houston State criminal justice students is that no matter how good they are at imitating actual events, real life is never like the movies.

“Students don’t know a lot about things,” said Keppel, “they only know what they see on TV. What I’ve done [in the Ted Bundy and Green River Killer investigations] helps to spell out the myths they see in movies and TV.”

Source: “Houstonian News” - September 19 2006

Dave Reichert spent twenty years trying to hunt down the Green River Killer. Going so far as to visit Bundy as he consulted on the case.  In a letter to Reichert Bundy offers his expert wisdom on Serial Murder

“...Don't ask me why I believe I'm an expert in this area, just accept that I am and we'll start from there...”

Dave had his suspicions TB was feeling slightly green eyed with jealousy at The Rivermans kill count : 

“...I think he was jealous that the Green River Killer was grabbing all the headlines at the time. Ted Bundy was in prison, so he was sort of a forgotten entity...”

The breakthrough with the Green River case happened in 2001, thanks to advances in DNA matching genetic material from victims bodies with a local truck painter named Gary Ridgway. Ridgway was convicted of 49 murders. And as TB had predicted he was every bit as nondescript and unassuming 

Suggested reading on the Green River Case