Keppel's files from the early 80's and the mysterious (and phony) "Ted B"-signed postcard

 

Awhile ago I received from the King County archivists a pdf file with Robert Keppel's notes, Bundy-related. The notes in this pdf file basically contain Keppel's 80's correspondence with people about Bundy, also notes from experts who claimed they might help Keppel decipher Ted's personality based on his handwriting (bogus claim, in my opinion), and also a postcard that was signed "Ted B". The postcard also spelled "Raiford" wrongly, and it had a taunting tone, very different from the tone Bundy was using with Keppel at the time, and it was signed "Ted B", whereas Bundy would usually sign his name "ted" (lower case), and the handwriting on the postcard wasn't Bundy's either. I dare say I'm 100% persuaded that the postcard was a phony one, not sent by Ted himself. I'll share a screenshot of the postcard in a comment. In his 80's correspondence with Keppel, Bundy tried his best to show Keppel that he had a grasp of the challenges in the Green River case.

The link to Keppel's notes: https://archive.org/details/953-32-10-bundy-notes-keppel-redacted

About that mysterious “Ted B” postcard, and about Ted’s correspondence with Keppel

Here is the text on the phony postcard included among a batch of early 80's files on Bundy that Keppel kept:

 

 

Bundy's genuine correspondence with Keppel

Bundy did correspond with Keppel and transcripts of all of Bundy's handwritten letters to Keppel have been published in the book "Reflections on Green River: The Letters of, and Conversations with, Ted Bundy" by "Sara: A Survivor". The tone in those letters was professional, sober, never taunting.

Bundy sent the Green River Task Force a first letter on October 2, 1984, offering his help in solving the Green River serial murders. He sent it via Tom Swayze, a Republican superior court judge in Tacoma whom Bundy knew from his campaigning days. The letter arrived in the detectives’ hands late so they didn’t answer Bundy right away. Dave Reichert and Robert Keppel were the lead task force investigators, but Bundy didn't know that and he addressed his first letter to "Dear Task Force Members". Bundy signed this letter "Sincerely, Ted Bundy". 

On October 15, 1984, Bundy sent the Green River Task Force a second letter, this time via his former attorney John Henry Browne, again offering his help in solving the Green River serial murders. He signed this second letter, "Sincerely, Ted Bundy".

On October 18, 1984, Dave Reichert went to see Bundy at Florida State Prison.

On October 19, 1984, Bundy sent Reichert a letter via the FBI office in Jacksonville, Florida, thanking him for coming to see him the previous day. He also asked to see material that could serve as the basis for a new and valuable look into what made the Green River Killer(s) tick, and most of his correspondence with Reichert and then Keppel dealt with those matters. He signed this letter "Sincerely, Ted Bundy". 

Subsequent letters to the investigators were signed "Best Regards, ted", or "Sincerely, ted", or "peace, ted" (lower case), and his letters to Keppel were addressed to "Dear Bob".

Bundy also met with Keppel a few times. On November 17, 1984, Keppel and Reichert visited Bundy at Florida State Prison.

Bundy corresponded and met with Reichert and Keppel as a consultant in the "Green River" murders until November 2, 1988.

On June 5, 1986, Keppel sent Bundy a letter, probing him about his own unsolved cases from the mid-70's. This letter was answered by Bundy on August 3, 1986, and that may have been Bundy's most serious-sounding letter sent to Keppel: Bundy told Keppel firmly that although he invited him to talk to him, this initiative on his part was not some subtle or subconscious way of easing into a discussion about his mid-70s cases or any other cases except Green River. In his August 3, 1986 letter he told Keppel he was only interested in helping him with the state-wide, unsolved homicides project and with the Task Force.

When he had a clash with Keppel over Keppel's insistence on asking him about his own cases, and he firmly wrote Keppel that he wouldn't be willing to discuss his own cases and let Keppel know he was disappointed with his insistence, Bundy however didn't end his correspondence with Keppel. He wasn't trenchantly "final" so to speak. He simply let Keppel know that he wasn't going to talk about his cases while his appeals were being filed in courts... And then he and Keppel picked up from there and Keppel compromised and stopped prodding him about his cases.

Overall Bundy seemed mild-mannered in his correspondence with Keppel.

And he did make some humorous remarks on one or two occasions, but he sounded respectful. For instance in his March 4, 1986 letter to Keppel, he wrote: "The Green River murder investigation has taken on mythical proportions. We're talking about 56 investigators, including 10 FBI persons, two million dollars in computer stuff, the recent find of a two year old pile of bones, and a wise old head named [name redacted]. It's certainly more than I'm capable of comprehending. All the Task Force needs is an acupuncturist and a nutritionist and it could go on tour. Seriously, I wonder if it is too big for its own good"...

I am sharing the entire correspondence between Bundy and the King County Sheriff’s Office throughout the 1980s here: https://archive.org/details/bundy-king-county-correspondence

Among the files gathered by Keppel there is also a sample of Bundy's own, genuine handwriting, with a handwritten commentary from someone pretending that they could guess Bundy's personality just by studying his handwriting: