UBC: Rule, Kiss Me, Kill Me

Kiss Me, Kill Me and Other True Cases by Ann Rule

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"Kiss Me, Kill Me"
This is a wide ranging piece, more of an essay about cold cases than Rule's usual detailed examination of a single crime. She starts and ends with Sandra Bowman, who was brutally murdered in her own apartment just before Christmas 1968, and whose murderer wasn't identified until 2004. Along the way she examines the 1966 murder of Lonnie Trumbull (who Rule is convinced was murdered by Ted Bundy, although so far as I know there's only circumstantial evidence against him); Mary Annabelle Bjornson and Lynne Tuski (1969), murdered by John Canaday (who shares his name, ironically, with an art critic who wrote several crime novels); Eileen Condit (1970); Heidi Peterson (1974); Katherine Merry Devine (1973)--who Rule also thought had been killed by Bundy, but in 2002 DNA proved her killer was William E. Cosden, Jr., who was then already serving time for a 1976 rape (and had been found not guilty by reason of insanity in another rape/murder case in 1967); Hallie Ann Seaman (1975); Sylvia Durante (1979), murdered by William Bergen Greene, who claimed not guilty by reason of Disassociative Identity Disorder, although the evidence strongly suggests that he was a psychopath who happened to be a very talented actor--that was the jury's conclusion, anyway; Kristen Sumstad (1982), a thirteen-year-old raped and murdered by a fourteen-year-old, John Athan, who was convicted in 2004 because the police were able to get a saliva sample from a licked stamp; Mia Zapata (1993), murdered by Jesus Mezquia; and finally circles back to Sandy Bowman, who was murdered--DNA showed in 2004--by John Canaday. This is an excellent essay, maybe the best of Rule's shorter pieces that I've read."The Postman Only Killed Once": Walla Walla WA [she doesn't give a year and I can't find the case online]
Man murders his 16 year old wife with a--fortunately poorly-thought-out and unconsummated--plan to stage more murders to make it look like there was a serial killer at work. He also made--poorly-thought-out and unconsummated--plans to bomb the lead detective's house when he realized police were getting close."What's Love Got to Do with It?": Seattle WA 1969
Audrey Ruud and Patrick Fullen lured Karsten Knutsen to their apartment, where they robbed and murdered him, then fled from Seattle to Sanibel Island, where they were caught. Fullen died in prison; Ruud was released after 22 years."Old Flames Can Burn": Seattle WA 1968
Man strangles one of his female friends and almost stabs another to death because . . . ?"The Lonely Hearts Killer": Los Angeles CA 1957
This essay is at least half a homage to Pierce Brooks, the detective who first put together the idea of a serial killer--a killer who targets strangers who (mostly) fit a certain profile. Brooks' archetype was Harvey Glatman, who posed as a photographer for true crime magazines in order to get his victims to willingly submit to being tied up. And he took pictures. Shirley Bridgeford, Judy Ann Dull, Ruth Mercado, and very nearly Lorraine Vigil are his known victims. (Dorothy Gay Howard , the Jane Doe of Someone's Daughter, may be another Glatman victim; she wasn't identified until 2009, five years after Kiss Me, Kill Me was published.)"The Captive Bride": Seattle WA 1978
twenty-year-old woman murdered (shot nine times in the back) by the crazy abusive stalker husband she was trying to divorce; he served fourteen years, was paroled, and--hey--got married again, despite having insisted to the woman he murdered that he literally couldn't live without her. Rule ends this case with an impassioned plea to people trapped in abusive relationships to get out and get help."Bad Blind Date": Seattle 1970
Victoria Legg made a bad decision. She accepted a date with a man she didn't really know, because he looked like an ex-boyfriend whom she trusted. Turns out, her date was a guy out on the far end of the mentally disturbed spectrum--who may genuinely NOT have been able to tell right from wrong when he raped her and beat her to death. (M'Naughten is a lousy rubric for sanity, honestly.)"The Highway Accident" (reprint from A Fever in the Heart and Other True Cases)
"You Kill Me---Or I'll Kill You": Silverton OR 1975
Rule is apologetic for including this case because it's both so gruesome and so grotesque. "Kent Whiteside" had a masochistic sexual fantasy about being gutted by a "naked beautiful slut." He picked a young woman (more or less at random as far as anyone can tell) and decided to force her to kill him by threatening to kill her. Problem was, as it turns out, he wasn't bluffing. He literally disemboweled her and a friend who had the bad luck to be sleeping on the couch. Almost unbelievably, the friend survived. Despite pleading guilty to murder, "Kent Whiteside" was pardoned a few years later. Rule suggests that there was bribery or undue influence involved, which seems like a not unreasonable conclusion."'Where Is Julie?'": Bonneville WA 1987: Julie Weflen's disappearance is still unsolved.



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