1989 "Final" Interview with Bundy Raises Questions About its Authenticity

Background:   In 1989, shortly before his execution, Ted Bundy met with Robert Keppel in what would be his final confession to the events that had occurred some years prior in Washington State. Although much of this confession has been published in other forms and through various media outlets, "In Defense of Denial" book is the original version of that confession as provided by an FOIA request made in June of 2015. It was released to me in transcribed form by the King County Sheriff Office. This transcript as it was originally transcribed in full by the WA State King County Sheriff Office raises questions about whether this "interview" was rehearsed.  

Arguments it may have been rehearsed:

Skeletal remains were found at Taylor Mountain...this is proven by the original records which were sealed away from the public.  These remains were logged in and noted by several people on site at the time the kill site of Taylor Mountain was discovered. I say "kill site" because it wasn't a "dumping ground".  It was an active site with evidence of the killer, skeletons of multiple young girls including one girl who was not known at the time [i.e. in addition to the four found there], clothing, weapons, evidence of drugging or plying with alcohol and evidence of animal activity and shallow graves.

These were not "kids" on site at each location of Issaquah and Taylor Mountain; but professional search and rescue personnel from several jurisdictions.  There were over 150 pieces of evidence.  In the 1989 interview, Keppel never asks a single question related to the evidence present at Taylor Mountain.  Not once.  Never asks about the unknown young girl found there.  Never asks about how long that site had been developed by Bundy.   Never asks Bundy how long he kept his victims there alive or whether he had used the abandoned home nearby.  [There was one at Issaquah also].

Keppel does ask Bundy about a porno book which was not referred to in Keppel's public discussions about the final interview ....Keppel talks to Bundy about it in this interview [published in its entirety in "In Defense of Denial"]  After Bundy's execution, a group of law enforcement met behind the scenes .  In this meeting the subject of a sex book came up as it had been part of a witness statement.  Keppel states that the witness statement about a sex book was "coerced" by Utah.  But in that original transcript of the witness statement which I have, there was no coercion that I could see on the part of the Utah detectives and this seems to be supported by the fact that in the original detective street notes of that era it is noted that two sex books were taken into custody by King County police referenced to be belongings of Bundy. One of these books was described in detail.  These were never noted as put into evidence and do not appear to be in the remaining evidence lists. But Keppel's questions to Bundy in the 1989 interview confirm he knew of it and enough so that he asked about it?  But why?  Who cares?  Why was a sex book so important to Keppel?  Keppel also makes a comment in the 1984 interview with Bundy in prison that there are "powerful people" in the porn industry who wouldn't like Bundy talking about pornography being an influence.  Really?  So who were the people Keppel was referencing; why was he bringing it up; was there influence by these powerful people behind the scenes on how this case played out in WA State?   So where are these sex books Bundy had now? I requested my memories be compared to one of those books numerous times over the past decade because I remember him giving me such a book when I was hospitalized and I was met with silence. 

There is a discussion, quite lengthy in this interview about Ott's bike. Considering the large amount of evidence found at the original site in Issaquah, such as clothing, possible graves, skeletons of Ott and Naslund as well as at least 1-2 other girls by multiple skeletons found, and a bicycle shift cable it makes you wonder why Keppel spends so much time on Ott’s bike when there are other important pieces of evidence that were collected and when a bicycle shift cable was found on site. What about the skeletons of the unknown girls found there in addition to Ott and Naslund? Why not ask Bundy how long this site had been developed?  Why not be specific on evidence that Keppel knew existed as he was there on site at both Taylor Mountain and at Issaquah?

Bundy talks of "throwing" items out of the window in a panic while he drove but is that really possible to do? This scenario has been put forward by Keppel and others for years until its nearly become "fact."  But is it really?  No one saw Bundy do that and nothing at Issaquah or Taylor Mountain suggests that Bundy threw anything away.  Clothing and weapons and items and a lean to were all found on site at these locations.

It is implied clothing and things tossed by Bundy were then somehow in the side areas of the road or road shoulders and not immediately visible. How would one do that while driving? For one thing, it would take tremendous effort to toss items of clothing, weapons and a briefcase and possibly crutches out of a window [how do you toss crutches?] and for another in the United States the driver is on or near the center line of the road - that is quite a distance from the side of the road and tossing items out of the driver's side would wind up in the middle of the street.   You’d have to drive to the other side of the road into oncoming traffic which would call attention to you….he was left handed so he’d have to use his primary hand for throwing and if he drove to the side of the road on the correct side he’d have to slow way down and try to toss things out the passenger window of the volkswagen and hope they didn’t drop on the road.  Or he'd have to stop multiple times to avoid all items being found in one location like a dumping ground of evidence. It just doesn't make sense.

After such a careful selection of kill sites, why would Bundy then carelessly toss items out of a window where they'd land in the street and how would he drive the speed limit and accomplish it? If on a side street or back road why again would he do it when police were supposedly actively looking for the missing girls? It would be like leaving a trail of bread crumbs. No, the evidence [clothing] was there on site.  It is noted, logged in, and recovered on site originally by many professionals.

There were multiple clothing items found and documented at Issaquah and at Taylor Mountain. Most important, some of these by description matched the missing girls and also were sent forward to Superior Court as evidence.  If they weren’t important why send them forward?   The girls were missing and you have girls clothing and even some bras and earrings?  That's evidence.  There was a lot of it at both Issaquah and Taylor Mountain and those sites were very well developed by the amount of girls found at each one and the tremendous amount of evidence at each location.  How do you “lose” so much evidence?  How do you “forget” so much evidence was collected?  Together these sites contained over 300 pieces of evidence noted by ESAR teams and assigned numbers on evidence lists of the original search days.

Nothing about the final interview in 1989 with Ted Bundy lines up to scrutiny including the fact that there was no decapitation at Taylor Mountain or at Issaquah but rather evidence of animal activity, possible graves,  and skeletal remains. Hawkins was never found – her body never located -  so there is absolutely no proof of decapitation so why did this scenario ever see the light of day and why wasn't it questioned and why wasn't more attention paid to the actual evidence in these sites and the tremendous size and scope of these sites. You had multiple bodies at both locations. Bundy has been described as a necrophiliac but how does dismembering bodies and moving heads and parts around figure in to that scenario?  It doesn't.  Nothing of  what Keppel puts forward as "fact" matches the actual original records of the crimes scenes at Taylor Mountain and at Issaquah.  If Bundy returned to check on the sites it was because he wanted to see the girls, not pieces of them, not heads or skeletons, but the girls...just like Ridgeway had done. To me, granted a lay person, that would be what necrophilia is - not running around looking for body parts and heads in multiple locations.  There is nothing to support decapitation at all - DNA confirmed skeletal remains were found initially on site at Taylor Mountain.  Clothing was there...evidence of possible shallow graves...evidence of animal activity on remains....evidence of the killer on site....it was all there.  Yet today, the AG Office still only shows one or two cars at the Taylor Mountain site. In reality there were many people there every day of the searches and there was air support and Civil Air patrol at the location.  Their reports also confirm skeletal remains [human] found on site.  These were all sealed away from the public and per internal memo supposed to be held there for 75 years.  Meanwhile this 1989 "confession" played out as "fact" for decades.  Why?

It makes no sense. Very little of the public scenario in 1989 lines up to the evidence.  Yet this is what has been put forward nearly immediately after his execution to the press….where it has been repeated as “fact” for decades.  It raises questions about why Bundy makes the comment in this interview...."we talked"....as well as references to his killing starting sooner than 1974. Those parts of the final interview were edited out in publications originally released as the "official" statements but these are now contained in the full interview in "In Defense of Denial."