When I was still quite a young child, my parents made sure I was scared.

Of strangers.

This warning was repeated on a regular basis. I learned that a ’stranger‘ was anyone outside my immediate family, and that whatever one might tell me, I was never to go anywhere with them.

Never mind if they wanted help with searching for their cute  little puppy dog; never mind if they said my own parents had sent them; never mind what they told me, I was to beware, and be scared. And be safe.

Maybe I just had a vivid imagination, but there was never any doubt in my mind, growing up, that a ’stranger’ equalled danger. 

Why is this on my mind just now? Probably because I’ve just finished reading a book by Ann Rule,  a writer who personally knew Ted Bundy, the American serial killer who murdered in excess of 30 young girls and women back in the early 70s.

This particular case was notorious because Bundy, when he wasn’t enjoying his ‘hobby’ of murdering, raping and mutilating women, was an attractive, charismatic, articulate and popular man.  Nobody had any inkling that he was a psychopath, devoid of conscience or empathy.

Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy

The other striking thing about the Bundy case is how many of his victims willingly accompanied him. He approached girls in public places: in parks; on college campuses; in bars and nightclubs.  He even persuaded 12 yr old Kimberley Leach to leave the safety of her school in order to follow him.

Then he bashed their skulls in, raped them, mutilated them, and left their remains on lonely hill tops. Oh, he also decapitated some of them.

Bundy didn’t snatch these women, for the most part. No, he approached them, smiling, confident, plausible. He had a number of ruses that worked like a charm; I won’t detail them here but suffice to say they involved appealing to the women for help. And these women, clearly not defining Bundy as a ’stranger’, followed him.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not remotely suggesting that the victims were to blame for what happened. Only Bundy, their murderer, was culpable.

But what does occur to me is that back then – and indeed now – parents don’t always define ‘stranger’ in the best way.  The Bundy case stunned America: never before had a serial killer appeared so ‘normal’. 

 But really, isn’t that the point? Strangers are not always strange.  Children should be taught, surely, that those who may harm them will not seem outwardly different to the other adults they interact with on a daily basis.

Sometimes, strangers seem nice.

Yet many parents that I know seem almost negligent in their duty to teach children this simple yet vital lesson.  They let their 11 year olds set up Facebook accounts – complete with photographs. And never mind that paedophiles prowl cyberspace searching for victims to approach.

When one mentions this to said parents, their response is often: ‘Oh, but I don’t want Sasha/Michael/Rachel to be scared’.

And that’s what I find absurd. Because there are some things that children should damn well be scared of.   Ted Bundy may be one of the most infamous serial killers in recent history, but he wasn’t the last one to appear normal and attractive and appealing.  Perhaps some parents should bear that in mind when they decide not to ’scare‘ their children.

 Recommended Reading: ‘The Stranger Beside Me’ by Ann Rule

Some of the victims of Ted Bundy: most were college students.  It’s estimated that Bundy murdered a minium of 35 women – some investigators think he may have killed up to 100.

Debby Kent - snatched while on her way to the car to go and collect her brother, during the interval for a school play

Kimberly Leach - aged 12

Caryn Campbell: was with her boyfriend at a hotel in Colorado; she went back to their room for a magazine, and somewhere between the life and that room, she was approached by Bundy.

Denise Naslund: was with her boyfriend and another couple at Sammamish Park; she left them to go to the cloakroom and was never seen alive again. That same day, Bundy also lured Janice Ott from the park.

Lisa Levy & Margaret Bowman: both girls were asleep in their rooms at the Chi Omega sorority house when Bundy attacked and killed them both.

Janice Ott: was relaxing at Lake Sammamish when witnesses saw Ted Bundy approach her; he persuaded Janice Ott to follow him to the parking lot to help him with his 'sailboat'. Her remains were found a long time later. Ott was lured away from the same place, on the same day, as Denise Naslund

Brenda Ball

Linda Healy

Laura Aime

Donna Manson

Roberta Kathleen Parks

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