Book Description About the Author Elizabeth Kendall’s memoir, The Phantom Prince, was originally published in 1981. Molly Kendall, her daughter, considered Bundy a father figure between the ages of three and ten. Read more Customers Review: $500.00 for a book. Disgusting
Years ago I was trying to find this book ( it was out of print) and the only place I could find it was my university library. I poured over the pages and as Liz mentions in the new forward, I could tell that she was still in the midst of processing her feelings about Ted ( I work with DV offenders). I was blessed in 2017-2018 to work with Dr. Al Carlisle and he frequently told me how much insight Liz was able to give him as he was evaluating Ted. As I read Liz and Molly’s updates and looked at the photos I wished more than anything that Al could have had the chance as well. There are so many things available to read and watch about Ted but none show his humanity the way that Liz and Molly can. They were groomed by Ted, fooled as anyone would be by his charm and intellect. Thank you both for this book and for not changing the original section, it shows the evolution of emotions that women coming from abuse experience.
This book is okay.I always wondered why Ann Rule’s book was a NYT Bestseller and so popular, while this book basically was collecting dust and relatively unheard of. Ann Rule was definitely NOT the definite source on Ted Bundy. Although she inflated her relationship to sell her book, logic tells the commonsense reader that she really did not have the sort of relationship with Bundy that she tries to portray in her book. For example, they only really had any interaction while he worked at the crisis center for one semester, and it was really only once a week that they even worked together, and she was 10 years older too and hardly attractive at all… yet, her novel portrays herself as something of a BFF to Bundy. She’s clearly not. As a matter of fact, she actually got sued because of one of her novels (Heart Full of Lies), and she basically admitted that she hadn’t interviewed anyone or did any actual research for that novel. Yet, she’s a great writer though, and is a great storyteller.The same can’t be said about Kendall/Kloepfer. I feel like she’s really trying to milk it, you know. First, the Netflix movie based on the book, which basically bought this book back into print (the original version was out of print for years before this second edition came out), and now the Prime series documentary to compete with the Netflix docu-series. I mean, really.See, in Bundy’s death-row interviews with journalists Michaud and Aynesworth, they didn’t write a novel, they basically transcribed their tape recordings and made it into a book. Then Netflix made a docu-series based on those recordings. With Rule, they also made a 2003 movie on her book (it’s available on Prime to stream), but there was a first movie based on her book, The Deliberate Stranger (starring Mark Harmon, in 1986).That’s why I feel like Kendall/Kloepfer is trying to milk it. I don’t know, maybe she’s got money problems or something, who knows?The book is hardcover with a jacket and thread binding. The jacket is made out of quality paper. The book itself is a short read, you can finish it in one afternoon if you really want to. Print is a good size font, I’d said it’s a standard 12-size Times New Roman font (or something similar to it). Chapters are really short though. She’s just not a good storyteller. There’s lots of colored pictures though, and it’s printed on glossy brochure-type paper. The back flap of the jacket has a recent picture of her and her daughter… they’re both matching peroxide blondes, and Molly (the daughter) looks like she’s gotten quite a lot of facial surgeries done (she could be on one of the Bravo shows, The Real Housewives of LA or something).She gives like a few short paragraphs about how she ended up as a single mother. I got the feeling she wasn’t being completely honest and was trying to present herself in the best light. I mean, we all do that though, so it’s understandable. Also, she seemed like a very neglectful mother too. I’m sure if it was today’s era, she’d have Child Services called on her. For example, she wrote she often had Molly’s grandmothers babysat. She had her young daughter sleeping on the couch instead of in the bedroom with her… my daughter is ten and she occasionally still sleeps in bed with me. So I can’t understand why she’d make her very young child sleep on a couch.Within the second chapter she invited a man (Bundy) home from the bar, but instead of just owning up to her promiscuity and admitting she didn’t have the best parenting skills or motherly affection, she tries way too hard to convince the reader that was something she’s never done. Yet she ends the chapter with worrying if Bundy saw her birth control pills. OK, this is the early 70’s, BC was prescribed back then just for contraception. I know that now doctors prescribe it for other hormonal reasons, but they didn’t do that back in the 70’s. Really, it was only in the 90’s that BC started being used for other reasons beside contraception… so why can’t she just say that she was young, still in her 20s, and wanted to be a bit risque. I mean, we’ve all felt that way at one time or another, but her trying to adjust the narrative in her favor makes me regard the whole book with skepticism like I did with Rule’s.Also, within the first few chapters, she basically dumps her young daughter at “daycare”. She says daycare, but I’m doubtful. She goes drinking at a bar (the night she met Bundy), and some guy at her friend Angie’s suggests a babysitter for Molly so they can go drinking! Who’s this babysitter at nighttime?! I mean, you can excuse Bundy going with her to pick up Molly at the sitter’s, her driving drunk, and letting Bundy stay overnight because she was intoxicated… but that other part happened BEFORE they went to the bar.Forward to the following chapter, she states that Angie wouldn’t be able to watch Molly for the weekend so she could go to Vancouver with Bundy, but that Angie said her roommates would be able to. Like, WTF!?BTW, Diane Edwards (AKA Stephanie Brooks) was the woman that everyone thought Bundy was targeting his victims after… NOT Kendall/Kloepfer. Edwards was the woman who broke his heart, and who made Bundy basically excel in life to win her back so he can dump her (Google her if you need to). He was also engaged to Edwards while he was dating Kendall/Kloepfer (although the engagement was probably a sham to just eventually break up with her)… and by all accounts, it was after Edwards dumped him that the attacks and murders started happening.I’m waiting for either Bundy’s ex-wife, daughter, or Diane Edwards to finally get a piece of the pie and write their own book about Bundy. Those three are the ones I’m most interested in, especially Edwards. She knew him before he became a serial killer, and most journalists and law enforcement agents, and Bundy-fans all agree that she’s the reason he targeted the women that he did.It’s an okay read. I liked Rule’s book better, and this is definitely no Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood either. Three stars… something I would borrow from the library and enjoy, but am regretful that I spent the money to buy.
Sometimes the monster isn’t under your bed, it is IN your bed, and in your daughter’s bed reading her a bedtime story.I bought this for the added material (I own a copy from the original printing already), and it was well worth it for that alone.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this book. I’d preordered my copy a month or two ago. This book is amazing. I received it yesterday evening and I’m still up right now at 1:26 am. I can’t put the thing down! Very well written. Like anotherereader had mentioned, this book shows the humanity in Ted. This is something that is not shown in other movies, documentaries, or books. I’m fascinated at the process that the author had to go through in order to piece together the puzzle that was Ted Bundy. I can’t even begin to imagine the level of turmoil she must have felt that whole time and to this day. Keep in mind that these types of cases weren’t well known back in those days. I’m pretty sure that what she was going through at that time was unchartered territory.
I was 17 in 1974. Like all the victims, I was age appropriate and wore my long brown hair parted in the middle. I led a carefree life as a teenage. I shudder to think he roamed the Northwest at this time, that he killed many more women and for much longer than the span of 1969-1978. All his victims will never be found and that is the sadness of this.I believe I have read all the books available (and worth reading) on the tragic story of Ted Bundy. This is my favorite, told from the unique perspective of his ex-girlfriend and includes detail no one else would know. She writes from a history of meeting Ted, falling in love, taking the wild ride of her life with him and living thru the heartache he caused her, Including her indecision in talking or not talking to the police. I never read her original, so this version, including 1981 and her updates is very nicely written. The passage by her daughter and the horrific acts Bundy showed that young girl were an eye opener. He really did not have the ability to truly love anyone and he failed to honor these two very special people. I am happy they moved on with their lives, although I am sure the scars will never fade. I wish his life could fade away and we would only sing the praises of his victims, their families, his mother and family and the many others who were dedicated to telling their stories. Kudos to law enforcement in Florida for finally putting an end to this demon. |
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