Creepy: This story about Ted Bundy before anyone knew he was killing women

Ted Bundy is one of the most notorious serial killers of all time.

He raped and murdered at least 30 women and girls, often luring them into his Volkswagen Beetle.

And he's a Northwest guy, having grown up mostly in the Tacoma area and lived in Seattle. The Northwest is where police believe he began his killing sprees. When he was caught, at age 28, he was known in Seattle as a genial guy, assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission.

We here at KUOW were fact-checking Bundy’s history when we came across an article about him from before anyone knew about his crimes. It starts like this: “Ted Bundy, 26 … caught a man who had snatched a woman’s purse in the Northgate Mall Parking area Monday night.

“Police said Bundy chased the man on foot in First Avenue Northeast and caught him as he was stuffing the purse into a garbage can.”

(Police did not, apparently, wonder what Bundy was doing lurking in the Northgate Mall parking lot at night. We do know that Bundy's first documented killing spree started several weeks later, in early January 1974. Bundy approached some of his victims in parking lots.)

Bundy, the hero, “recovered from the suspect the $34 that had been taken from the purse.”

The victim was a mother with her two children.

The article concludes: “The Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission as of Thursday has been refunded by 1973, a spokesman said, and Bundy is one of the candidates being considered to serve as its director.”