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| What you don't know about Ted Bundy’s Ex-Girlfriend, Liz Kendall? |
Oh, and the film is told through her perspective, which makes Liz a pretty big deal. But wait, who is she-and where the heck is she now? Here's everything you need to know about Liz Kendall:
Her real name is Elizabeth Kloepfer.
Yup, the name that made Ted Bundy's girlfriend famous in her own right is actually a pseudonym she chose when she wrote her memoir, The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy. It's unknown why she chose to write under Elizabeth "Liz" Kendall, but if you had to guess, it was probably to keep her and her family safe from potential physical danger from anyone who, oh I don't know, might be seeking revenge for Bundy's crimes.
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| Elizabeth Kloepfer |
Speaking of family, she has a daughter.
And no, Ted Bundy is not the father. Kloepfer had her daughter Tina long before she met Bundy with her ex-husband who was also a convicted felon. Apparently, she only found out about his criminal record after they tied the knot, per Oxygen . The marriage didn't last long, and they were divorced by the time Tina turned three. Then, Kloepfer moved to Seattle for a fresh start and eventually met Bundy.
Though Bundy wasn't Tina's biological father, he did live with her and Koepfler for many years and reportedly was a father figure to her.
Kloepfer met Bundy at a bar on September 26, 1969.
The single mother first met the serial killer on a night out at Sandpiper Tavern with her friend, Marylynne Chino. "I've never forgotten this," Chino told KUTV . "I walked in, and across the room, I saw Ted [Bundy] for the first time. I will never forget the look on his face, it wasn't evil but he was staring, nursing a beer."
In Kloepfer's book, she writes that she was trying to get away from a creepy guy at the bar (been there) when she saw Bundy sitting alone. She decided to approach him and, thinking he looked sad, said, "You look like your best friend just died." The two had an instant connection, and the night ended with Bundy spending a platonic night at her house. That chance encounter set the foundation for the next six tumultuous years of their romantic relationship.
She was very dependent on Bundy.
When Liz met Ted (wow, what a twisted rom-com that would be), she was a divorced single mother who, despite working as a secretary at the University of Washington School of Medicine, wanted someone to take care of her. "I handed Ted my life and said, 'Here. Take care of me,'" she recalled in her memoir, per Biography . "He did in a lot of ways, but I became more and more dependent upon him. When I felt his love, I was on top of the world; when I felt nothing from Ted, I felt that I was nothing."
According to her book, the couple would be getting along, and then, before Kloepfer knew it, a door would slam. "I'd spend hours trying to figure out what I had done or said that was wrong. And then, suddenly, he would be warm and loving again and I would feel needed and cared for," she wrote. (And you thought the dude who ghosted you last week was bad.)
Wanna learn more about Elizabeth Kloepfer's role in the new Ted Bundy film? Check this out:
Kloepfer came from a wealthy and religious family.
She was the daughter of a prominent Utah doctor, and her parents were pretty conservative. So much so, that when they came to visit Kloepfer-who was living with Bundy-in 1970, she asked him to move all his stuff out so her parents wouldn't find out.
Ironically, the couple had just gone to the courthouse and bought a marriage license before Kloepfer's parents were scheduled to visit, and when she asked him to move his stuff out, Bundy got so angry, he tore up the license. "If you're that hung up on what your parents think, then you're not ready to get married," he said to her, according to book.
She eventually became suspicious of Bundy.
In 1974, about five years into their relationship, Kloepfer started to get suspicious of her boyfriend after seeing news reports on the murders and rapes of two women in the Seattle area. Apparently, witnesses mentioned the name "Ted" and a Volkswagen, not unlike the one Bundy drove. Still, love makes you do crazy things, so Kloepfer was reluctant to believe that her BF was, ya know, a cold-blooded killer.
According to Biography, Kloepfer questioned Bundy about some of his strange behaviors, like leaving a meat cleaver on his desk, having a surgical glove in his coat pocket, or driving hundreds of miles to Colorado one night to "de-stress from work," but every time, he used his intelligence and charm to convince her everything was normal.
Still, Kloepfer tried to turn Bundy into the police.
In Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, a docuseries also on Netflix, Kloepfer finally became so suspicious of Bundy that she went to the police and told them he was the murderer. Besides Bundy's strange behavior, Kloepfer was tipped off after finding a bowl of women's underwear, a bunch of bandages and casts that Ted would wear to pretend to be injured to lure in victims, and a knife in his car, according to Oxygen. Turns out, that wasn't enough evidence to connect Bundy to the crimes, so her tip didn't really matter in the end.
Despite her suspicions, Kloepfer stayed with Bundy and never told him she'd attempted to turn him in.
But not before almost becoming one of his victims.
Four years later, in 1978 and from a prison cell in Florida, Bundy called Koepfler and said he'd once tried to kill her by closing off the chimney in their home and lighting the fire so the smoke would slowly poison her.
"I remembered that night well," she later wrote in her book. "My eyes were running, and I was coughing. I jumped out of bed and threw open the nearest window and stuck my head out. After I had recovered some, I opened all the windows and the doors and broke up the fire the best I could. I had gotten on Ted the next day for not coming back with the fan." Just wow.
She kept dating him, tho.
Kloepfer continued dating Bundy after she tried to turn him into the police and he admitted to almost killing her. They even stayed in contact when he was on death row. Oh, and at some point, their sex life became disturbing, according to Cosmopolitan .
Kloepfer finally cut ties with Bundy in 1980.
Though their romantic relationship had ended some time before, Kloepfer officially cut off contact with Bundy that year. Soon after, he married Carole Ann Boone. (Two years later, she gave birth to a daughter, Rose, who is believed to be Bundy's only child.)
A year after their separation, Kloepfer published her book, chronicling her struggle to understand how the "warm and loving" man she knew could be the same man who committed so many vicious murders. I pray for Ted, but I am sickened by him," she said.
Since then, she's kept a pretty low profile.
Today, not much is known about Kloepfer besides her life with Bundy. But what is known about her is that she has battled alcoholism (which she also dealt with pre-Bundy), struggled to forge close relationships, and relied heavily on her faith. "My spiritual growth is extremely important to me now. I try to live my life according to God's will," she wrote in her book.
On all accounts, that was the last time she publicly addressed her relationship with Bundy or her life in general. She has not given any new interviews since the book was released and has retreated from public life. As far as anyone knows, she may have even legally changed her name to maintain her privacy and move on with her life permanently.
Still, that may change when Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile premieres on May 3. Since the film is told from her perspective, she and/or her family may speak out about it. Stranger things have certainly happened.
In This Story: #TedBundy #ExGirlfriend #LizKendall
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