Ted Bundy: Dialogue with the Devil

As a profiler and as an investigator,

when talking with Gary Ridgway, I certainly identify with the difficulty

of Keppel trying to get specifics out of Ted.

Which is better for you?

Which is more arousing to you, more stimulating, more exciting?

I couldn't-- I couldn't, uh...

...l-look at her face or anything like that.

-When-- -Why?

-When I was killing her, I just-- -Why?

I didn't wanna know who I was killing.

And... I never wanted to see what they looked like.

We have almost two dozen young women dead, the victims of the Green River Killer.

The whole premise was using one killer

to catch another killer.

It had never been done before.

And that became The Silence of the Lambs.

Less than six hours from now,

accused mass murderer Ted Bundy is scheduled to be executed

in a Florida prison.

Time is running out for Ted Bundy.

He is scheduled to die in Florida's electric chair.

And now, he must hope for a last-minute reprieve.

I had seen Ted Bundy manipulate his way

out of the electric chair for 10 years,

but now his fate seemed sealed.

Only Florida's governor could save Ted's life,

and that didn't seem likely.

We are moving with anticipation of what might occur.

I was exhilarated that day.

Ted Bundy needed killing.

Ted Bundy, suspected in at least 36 murders

and mutilations of young women,

may finally be executed.

Just about everybody who was a witness to the execution

was somebody who worked on the case.

It was a full house.

And outside, there were maybe a thousand people out there

screaming and yelling.

It-- It's crazy.

And you see Old Sparky sitting there in the middle of the room.

Off to the right, is a phone hanging on the wall.

And the door opens and in comes Bundy,

and he is just white as a sheet.

And they sit him down, and they strap him in the chair.

There's a guy standing over here, and he's on the phone with the governor.

Our goal is to carry out the warrant as signed.

It's still set for seven o'clock.

Florida's governor fulfilled Ted Bundy's greatest fear:

that he would die in prison.

They dropped the hood.

Now Bundy, he had a, uh, habit of making fists like this

with his thumb between his fingers,

and a thought ran through my head at that point,

"I wonder how many necks those hands have tightened around?"

The superintendent gives a high sign to the executioner,

and they, uh, throw the switch.

You could see the body tense.

You could see the hand tightening,

tighter and tighter.

Two thousand volts of electricity raced through his body.

The power surge caused

lights outside the execution chamber to flicker.

It was the sign to the outside world that Bundy was dead.

Yahoo!

About damn time!

I got the phone call, and said it was over, he was dead.

And I started to cry.

And I cried. And I wailed.

And all my husband could do was hold me.

I wasn't crying for me.

I was crying for Margaret, and for Lisa...

...and all his victims,

and all their families,

and all the things that they wanted to do.

I waited for that day a long time,

and it came.

And then, the way I feel is today is today...

and I still don't have Denise.

We were so upset.

You know, it was very emotional for us.

One of the magazines rang our doorbell

and my husband went to answer.

And flash bulbs are flashing.

And he said, "How do you feel about the execution?"

Dale just slammed the door on him.

Let's not make a circus out of this, people's tragedies.

I don't believe in executions.

But in that case, I was happy that he...

was, um, executed,

because he was just a total monster.

I was bawling my eyes out.

Although, I knew that, you know, this person needed to go.

I wasn't just crying for my brother or for myself.

It was because of the situation.

You know, "Thanks a lot. You know, you ruined so many lives.

"And you're making me upset right now

and 'cause there's nothing I can do about it."

I've had mixed emotions about the death penalty.

For Bundy, I'm glad they executed him.

- -Now, with his death,

and his confession on Bob's tapes,

I think the victims' families have some solace at this point.

The last words I had said to Bundy were,

"You've just killed yourself."

I thought of those words as I flew home to Seattle.

It was the morning.

I was surprised to see dad already home.

I said, "Did you stay for execution?"

And he said, "No."

But then he kind of smiled and looked down,

and he was frying bacon.

In the kitchen.

So, we had a good laugh.

I had thought that he had wanted to see the execution,

but he said he didn't want to.

He was done with Bundy at that point.

Bundy was dead.

The Green River Killer wasn't.

Today, police identified the skeletal remains

found in a ravine over the weekend

as those of Cindy Anne Smith.

Today's announcement brings the number of known victims to 37.

By now, it was the longest unsolved serial murder case

in American history.

Bundy had put himself into the Riverman's mind.

Could he still help us from beyond the grave?

Bundy was brought down by a witness in Utah.

Could a witness also bring the Green River Killer to justice?

Is that the man that assaulted you in 1982?

That is the man.

There's no doubt in your mind about that?

No doubt.

He was right in my face when he was attacking me.

There is no way I would not be able to remember that.

Bundy had told me

that the Green River Killer was likely questioned by the police.

Maybe even arrested.

Back in 1984,

the task force had been sifting through 77,000 suspects,

and that's when investigators heard an alarming story.

The police had questioned a man about an attack on Rebecca Garde.

They actually showed me a bunch of photos,

and I... had picked out his photo.

During the interview, the suspect admitted choking Garde

because, he claimed, she'd bit him.

He admitted to it.

He said, "Oh, yeah, I strangled her,

or tried to because she bit me and assaulted me."

And was very forthcoming and candid about it,

which, I think, you would naturally assume that would not be the case

if he was trying to hide something.

Investigators track the man to his home.

His name? Gary Ridgway.

Detectives took a hard look at Ridgway,

and they realized

that the Green River Task Force had already investigated him.

Gary Ridgway first came to the attention of the task force

when Marie Malvar disappeared on April 30, 1983.

Marie Malvar disappeared off the strip.

She had a pimp, a boyfriend, who saw her get into a truck.

When she didn't return home,

they went out looking for the truck in the neighborhood.

They found it in Ridgway's driveway.

So they called the police.

The police went out to Ridgway's house.

You know, he admitted that he had sex with her,

but then said that he had dropped her off.

And again, she was just another missing person,

so there was not a whole lot they could do about it.

On May 7, 1984, Ridgway took a polygraph,

administered by the King County Sheriff's Office,

and passed.

My client has passed a polygraph examination

regarding whether or not he is the Green River Killer.

He passed it, that means he was telling the truth when he said he was not.

The polygraph operator that passed Ridgway--

even if this person is the best expert in the world,

always get a second opinion.