Ann Rule

From Free net encyclopedia

Ann Rule is a popular true crime writer. Born October 22 1935 in Lowell, MI, she came to prominence with her first book The Stranger Beside Me, a book about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers. She has also met and interviewed - in less intimate circumstances - a number of other serial killers in the course of researching her books.

She got her start writing for the magazine True Detectives under the male nom de plume Andy Stack. When she started writing the magazine in 1969, the editor suggested she write under a male name in order to be taken seriously as a crime writer. After proving her ability in several magazines, including Master Detective, Inside Detective, Front Page Detective, and Office Detective she was invited to start writing under her own name, but decided to keep the pen name at that time in the interest of protection for herself and her family from her subjects.

Her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, was written under her own name about Ted Bundy, a serial killer who actually turned out to be her co-worker. However, her next three books (The Lust Killer, The Want-Ad Killer, and The I-5 Killer) were written as Andy Stack at her agent's advice since she had been offered very little advance for them. Once she had established popularity under her own name, later editions of the book listed her as the author and sold much better.

Rule has been writing full-time since 1969 and has published over 20 books and 1400 articles, and also teaches seminars to law enforcement groups. She was also part of the task force that created Vi-CAP, a computer tracking system designed to identify serial killers. Although some of her cases have been high profile, she says she prefers the "sleeper" cases, not wanting the reader to know the ending before picking up the book. She also tries to keep in touch with the families of the victims, and sometimes will add an update to a later edition of a book to include new information.

[edit]