[AnemicOak]

n Rule, the bestselling true-crime writer who once befriended serial killer Ted Bundy, has died. She was 83.

Rule, who gained national prominence for her book on Bundy, “The Stranger Beside Me,” died Sunday at Highline Medical Center in Burien, Wash., according to Scott Thompson, a spokesman for CHI Franciscan Health. Rule suffered from congestive heart failure and other health problems, said her daughter, Leslie Rule.

A former police officer, Rule was virtually unknown in the publishing world in 1974, when she began researching a series of murders in the Seattle area. She later learned they had been committed by one of her close friends, Bundy. Rule published “The Stranger Beside Me” in 1980.

The book made her career, ultimately selling more than 2 million copies. Rule eventually penned dozens of true-crime works...

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituar...727-story.html