Ted Bundy’s girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer fell in love with the serial killer in 1969 not long after she moved to Seattle.
A turbulent relationship followed - one in which Bundy regularly cheated on the young mum-of-one.
In her book The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, Kloepfer writes how the charming and handsome Bundy seduced her when the couple met in a bar, sleeping together that first night.
But his continual petty theft, lies and serial unfaithfulness drove her to drink.
However she remained loyal to him, even after she told police in 1974 of her suspicions that he might be the ‘Ted’ they were looking for in connection with unsolved abductions and murders.
Lily Collins believes Ted Bundy's victims' ghosts visited her while filming Extremely Wicked
He drove a car which matched the description given by police and a sketch looked eerily similar to him.
Yet, for years afterwards, Kloepfer continued to see Bundy, slept with him and even thought about marriage together.
He vehemently denied any involvement in the murders despite the growing circumstantial evidence which pointed directly at him.
In 1975 Bundy was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault.
He swiftly became a suspect in a number of other missing people cases.
Ted Bundy's girlfriend met with Lily Collins to help her with Extremely Wicked character
But Kloepfer continued to exchange letters with him and visit him behind bars.
When Bundy escaped custody for the second time she knew he would get in touch.
And when he called her with reverse charges on Thursday February 16 1978 he finally admitted to his heinous crimes – although spared his one-time fiancée the gory details.
As Kloepfer writes in The Phantom Prince: “’You shouldn’t be calling me,’ I told him. ‘There’s a trap on the phone,’ I lied.
“He was crying: ‘It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m in custody. It’s all over.’
Zac Efron nearly had "mental breakdown" filming Ted Bundy film
“‘Where?’ I asked.
“’Well, I made a deal with the police. They aren’t going to announce my arrest until tomorrow morning so that I can take with you and my family. It’s going to be bad when it breaks.
“’I’m not going to call up Channel 7,’ I told him. ‘Where are you?’
“Florida – Penascola.’
“Oh no! I was hoping you’d be picked up anywhere but Florida.
"I saw this picture in the paper last month – those sorority women were murdered. I told the FBI that I hoped you weren’t there'.
Ted Bundy's girlfriend reveals the one thing the serial killer was ashamed of
“’It’s going to be bad', he said, ‘real bad when it breaks tomorrow. I want you to be prepared. It could be really ugly.’
“’Are you a suspect in those murders?’ I asked.
“’I wish we could sit down… alone… and talk about things… with nobody listening… about why I am the way I am.’
“There was a long pause. I didn’t want to know but I asked anyway. ‘Are you telling me… that you’re sick?’
After barking at her Bundy then says he wanted to call Kloepfer on Valentine’s Day but ‘didn’t quite make it’.
He asked her about her love life and, Kloepfer writes in the 1981 book, “Soon we were talking as freely as we ever had.”
Kloepfer told Bundy she was surprised he was back in custody, that she thought he’d rather be dead than a prisoner again.
Bundy replied: “I thought so, too. I’m really disappointed in myself. I just didn’t have what it takes to die.”
In a later phone call Bundy told Kloepfer: “There is something the matter with me
“It wasn’t you. It was me. I just couldn’t contain it.
“I’ve fought it for a long, long time… it got too strong.
“I tried, believe me, I tried to suppress it. It was taking more and more of my time.
“That’s why I didn’t do well in school. My time was being used trying to make my life look normal.
“But it wasn’t normal. All the time I could feel that force building inside me….”
Kloepfer ends the chapter: “I didn’t understand Ted Bundy and I never will.”
Bundy was executed on January 24 1989. He is thought to have killed more than 30 people, mostly young women.
- Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy and Lily Collins as Elizabeth Kloepfer, based on The Phantom Prince, is out on Sky Cinema and in cinemas on May 3.
