Ted Bundy: Bars in Relation to his Stalking

by Erin Banks

Bundy, a heavy drinker, frequented various Seattle bars, among them Dante’s, the Sandpiper, where, on September 26, 1969 Bundy met his future fiancée Elizabeth Kloepfer and which this blog is named after. He also regularly visited the Pipeline and O’Banions, which he went to with his neighbor John Neeler, as Kloepfer told law enforcement during one of her interviews.

Although Karen Lee Sparks states she was a rare guest at Dante’s, Lynda Ann Healy was more of a regular guest. Bundy, who also took a psychology class with Healy in 1972, appears to have stalked her as well as multiple other victims that he “kept on the back burner.”
Dante’s, located on 5300 Roosevelt Way NE, was remodeled about ten years ago, and for a while the bar vied for customers by putting up signs stating, “The Bundy Booth Is Back!”
O’Banions was a mere few feet away from Dante’s on 5220 Roosevelt Way NE and is now home to Laughs Comedy Club.

The Sandpiper was later renamed the Rainbow tavern, then The Fusion Ultra Lounge, until, after a shooting on the premises in March 2015, it was closed, then reopened as a brewery and taproom under the name Ladd & Lass Brewing. It is now called Blue Moon tavern, located on 712 NE 45th St.

Another bar Ted Bundy went to on at least one occasion, the night he abducted Brenda Carol Ball, is The Flame tavern on 5300 Roosevelt Way, and indeed, . Ball was last seen talking to a young man in the parking lot. He had his arm in a sling. The tavern was ultimately turned into a family restaurant by the name of Fiesta Del Mar.
When Stephen Michaud interviewed Bundy about the Flame tavern in relation to the Ball abduction, Bundy stated that the killer (he spoke in third person to avoid legal consequences) was interested in varying his modus operandi in such a way that would not “fan the flames” of the intensity of the police investigation. Bundy suggested that Ball had been trying to hitch a ride home, after which she and her killer got to talking casually – the killer’s ruse to make her feel at ease and exert an influence over her, which would have been especially effective as she was already intoxicated. Back at his place, he would then ply her with more alcohol and keep talking to “remove himself from the personal aspects of the encounter, the interchange. Chatting and flattering and entertaining, as if seen through a motion-picture screen.” Bundy was afraid that Ball might get second thoughts, but mostly that if he started thinking about what he was going to do to Ball, he’d grow more nervous during their chat, tipping her off in the process. When Michaud asked whether the balance between appearing cool and being excited was delicate, Bundy stated that it became almost like an acting role; it wasn’t difficult because he was a good actor, because he was comfortable enough to be spontaneous and adjust to any and all reactions.
It was “a dramatic departure from the Healy situation.” And the drinking had an effect on both parties, prompting him to repress his “normal codes of behavior” while she “would lend herself to stereotypes.”
Of the actual intimate encounter, Bundy suggested that it would have been “more or less a voluntary one.” Which could mean that Ball was too inebriated to fight back, that she was (half) unconscious or that the encounter began voluntary and then turned into something more volatile as he began strangling her after she’d passed out.
Now, although one of the eerier aspects of the event involves Bundy’s suggestion that there was no urgency to get Ball out of his place, since it was very private and he could have just left her in the bed or put her in a closet, what’s even more disturbing is the fact that Denise Marie Naslund was also a frequenter of the Flame tavern, which she apparently visited with her friend Robin, as Kevin M. Sullivan writes in his “Ted Bundy’s Murderous Mysteries.”

Does it then follow that Bundy knew Naslund and deliberately choose her? We have to take into account that Lake Sammamish State Park was packed with approximately 40k people that day. And yet, as remarked earlier, he was known to stalk victims, likely over years. Karen Lee Sparks Epley recalls seeing a man peer into her bedroom window two weeks before the actual attack, and Susan Elaine Rancourt was friends with Bundy-friend Terry Storwick and there was even a prior visit to Corvallis, Oregon during which Bundy may have seen and decided to target Kathy Parks. So while Bundy may not have originally targeted Naslund on July 14, 1974, he may have very well recognized her when he encountered her while she was on the way to the restrooms at the lake.

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Sources: The Only Living Witness/Conversations with a Killer by Stephen Michaud & Hugh Aynesworth; Ted Bundy’s Murderous Mysteries by Kevin M. Sullivan.
Photos sources: The Phantom Prince by Elizabeth Kendall, Falling for a Killer/Amazon Prime, Oddspots, Stalkingseattle blog, Seattle Vintage, KCA.