Interview 1988

"By the time Ted and I had settled in for the 1988 interviews, the Green River case was six years old and Bundy and I had become something more than pen pals. I was down here at his request because the last of his appeals was running out and his life was being measured in months, if not weeks. I believed that the topic matter of our interview in 1988 was impromptu, but it wasn’t. Ted wanted to teach me how to interview serial killers so I could master the techniques to get his own confessions. It was part of a master plan that Ted had to keep face while getting me to learn how to interview him with respect and not disdain. This would be his ultimate attempt at control.

Getting Ted Bundy to talk about interviewing serial killers was a prearranged strategy on my part as well as his. My plan was to talk with him at length about how he would interview serial killers and eventually inquire about the preferred circumstances under which a convicted murderer, like himself, would talk about his crimes. How would he interview the Riverman? But it was also an act. Previous experience dictated that Bundy would talk around the various elements of murder and its investigation, but he would carefully avoid any references to his own murders. This very method was also his way of developing rapport and confidence with the interviewer. Bundy’s suggestions about interviewing serial killers were pieces of valuable information for homicide investigators to consider in future cases."

--Bob Keppel in his book The Riverman

On Feb. 22, 1988, Bob Keppel traveled to Florida to interview Bundy. The topic was ostensibly Washington's new Homicide Investigation Tracking System (HITS)- a major crime database similar to the FBI's VICAP. Keppel was seeking Ted's advice on the types of questions to ask criminals, with the goal of studying "solvability" factors in homicide cases. Ted, of course, gives his typically long-winded advice.

Unfortunately, I only have the first tape, but I've attached the entire conversation transcript.