Ted Bundy: This is what happened to his ex-girlfriend Liz Kendall

TW: mentions of murder, violence, sexual assault

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Between 1974 and 1978, Ted Bundy assaulted, killed and raped between 20 and 30 young women, making him one of the worst serial killers in history. And while for many, the image of him is that of a bloodthirsty monster, this is not the case for everyone, including Liz Kendall, real name Elizabeth Kloepfer, his girlfriend between 1969 and 1975. She is one of the lucky women to have survived the man nicknamed the Lady Killer. What became of her?

Elizabeth Kloepfer, life before Bundy

Elizabeth 'Liz' Kloepfer was born in 1945 in Utah, USA. Little is known about her mother, while her father was a remarkable doctor who was well known in his community. Long before she met Ted Bundy, Liz was married to a man with whom she had a daughter, Molly, born in 1966, when Liz was 21. However, she didn't stay with him for long, learning just after their marriage that he was a criminal. So she divorced him and moved, with her daughter, to Seattle, Washington. There, she worked as a secretary at a university.

Elizabeth Kloepfer, her encounter with Ted Bundy

The young woman was 24 when she met Ted Bundy in a Seattle bar in September 1969. It didn't take long for the two to hit it off. In her book The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, a memoir of her relationship with the Lady Killer, Liz describes Ted as a loving man and a good cook. She said she had even started planning the wedding and naming the children early on in the relationship. In her book, she said she had put all her trust in him and relied heavily on him to take care of her and her daughter Molly. In 1972, three years after their relationship began, Elizabeth Kloepfer became pregnant with Ted Bundy's child. However, for some unknown reason, she had an abortion. Perhaps at her boyfriend's request.

Elizabeth Kloepfer, from her suspicions to Ted Bundy's trial

Long before the FBI, the police in several states and all the media were on his case because of his murderous rampage, Ted Bundy had aroused Elizabeth's suspicions. Several times she tried to warn the proper authorities that her boyfriend might be the man wanted for the murder of several women. But she wasn't always taken seriously, and we have to wonder if it might have been different for her victims if the police had done their job a little sooner.

She had begun to observe strange behaviour in Bundy. He would take long car rides at night, keep a meat cleaver in his desk or surgical gloves in his pockets. However, she became genuinely suspicious when she discovered a bowl full of women's underwear in their apartment. Her suspicions were further aroused when she saw the sketch of an individual wanted for kidnapping women in 1974. The spitting image of her boyfriend.

Ted Bundy's killing spree lasted another 4 years before he was arrested. In 1978, he told Elizabeth that he had tried to kill her. However, he didn't have the same fate in store for her as for his victims. He planned to asphyxiate her through smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide by lighting a fire in their fireplace and closing the apartment's air vents.

Although their relationship ended while he was on a murderous rampage, the two remained very close. In fact, she stayed by his side until 1980, during his trial, when he decided to marry Carole Ann Boone.

Elizabeth Kloepfer becomes Liz Kendall, her life after Bundy

What we can learn from Elizabeth Kloepfer is that she was lucky that Ted Bundy didn't choose her as his victim, and that he didn't succeed in carrying out his plan to kill her. However, anyone who went through an experience like that would be changed for life. This was her case. In 1981, a year after her ex-boyfriend had been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of between 20 and 30 women, she published the memoir mentioned above. However, she changed her name to Liz Kendall. A name by which she is better known today, even if she seems to have disappeared from the public eye. Quite understandable after such a traumatic experience.

Learn more about Ted Bundy from Liz Kendall

In addition to The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, Liz Kendall has also worked on several films and documentaries tracing the life of America's most notorious serial killer.

Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) with Zac Efron and Lily Collins

She also helped write the 2019 film Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile, in which Zac Efron plays a convincing Ted Bundy alongside Lily Collins as Liz. The critically-acclaimed film is based on Kendall's memoirs, which she wrote in order to portray Bundy as close to reality as possible, i.e. as she herself remembered him, rather than the distorted image portrayed in the media.

Here's the trailer.

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019)

In addition to the film, Liz Kendall also took part in the making of the documentary series Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, where she helped director Joe Berlinger gather together certain testimonies and archives concerning the Lady Killer. Elizabeth Kendall is also one of the on-screen witnesses. The 4-part series can be found on Netflix.

We leave you with the trailer.

Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer (2020)

Finally, she also took part in writing the Amazon Prime Video documentary series Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer. The seriesretraces the murders, hunt down, trial and execution of the Lady Killer, bringing to life this dark period in American history through the testimonies of contemporaries, surviving victims and archival footage. This time, you'll have to go to Amazon to discover it.

Here's the trailer.

The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy (1981)

Finally, what better way to get to know the man who terrorized America between 1974 and 1978 than through Liz Kendall's own memoir. A closer look at Ted Bundy's life than any other series, film or documentary about him.

This article has been translated from Gentside FR.