True-crime writer Ann Rule, who wrote more than 30 books, including a profile of her former co-worker, serial killer Ted Bundy, has died.
Rule, 83, died in Seattle, Washington, on Sunday. Her daughter, Leslie Rule, said her mother had many health issues, including congestive heart failure.
Ann Rule’s first book, The Stranger Beside Me, profiled Bundy, whom she got to know while sharing the late shift at a Seattle suicide hotline. She has said she had a contract to write about an unknown serial killer before her co-worker was charged with the crimes.
Rule, who went to work briefly at the Seattle Police Department when she was 21, began writing for magazines like True Detective in 1969. A biography on her author website said she published more than 1,400 articles, mostly on criminal cases.
She said she was fascinated by killers’ lives, going back to their childhood to find clues about why they did what they did. But her books focused on victims and she became an advocate for their rights.
“By deciding to focus her books on the victim, Ann Rule reinvented the true crime genre and earned the trust of millions of readers who wanted a new and empathetic perspective on the tragic stories at the heart of her works,” Carolyn Reidy, president and chief executive of Simon & Schuster, said.