Celebrated true crime writer Ann Rule, who rose to prominence through her early association with Ted Bundy before he was outed as a serial killer and prosecuted, has died.
The 84-year-old author passed away this weekend following a steady decline in her health, according to her daughter’s Facebook announcement:
“My mom died peacefully last night,” Leslie Rule posted online. “She had congestive heart failure and many other health issues.”
Rule was born in 1931, earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Washington, and minored there as well in criminology, penology and psychology.
Early in her professional life, Rule worked with the Seattle Police Department, before devoting her talents full time to crime writing in the late 1960s.
Her breakthrough work “The Stranger Beside Me” details an unwitting friendship with the charismatic and good-looking coed slayer Ted Bundy -- a student of law himself when he embarked on a cross-country kill spree that would earn him infamy and the electric chair.
Rule’s Bundy exposé was hugely successful and paved the way for two dozen more bestsellers, making the name Ann Rule a household word and Rule herself the industry standard-bearer for true crime coverage and analysis.
Among many cases where law enforcement consulted Rule’s criminal expertise (particularly when serial killers were involved) she was instrumental in the Green River murders investigation, and wrote a book about that case as well.
In recent years, the world’s preeminent true crime author was less active, however, having experienced debilitating bouts of illness which, on Sunday night, ultimately claimed her life.
Daughter Leslie said her mother was also dedicated to animal welfare causes and recommended that those wishing to commemorate the deceased author donate to nonprofit rescue groups.
RIP Ann Rule. Born October 22, 1931 in Lowell, Michigan and dead July 26, 2015 in Burien Washington.
