People are fascinated by true crime. Look at the enormous volume of  books the late great true crime writer Ann Rule sold. The writer Joyce Carol Oates once said in the New York Times Review of Books that true crime is a genre “enormously popular with readers.”

Ann Rule wrote ‘The Stranger Beside Me.' It is a compelling and disturbing portrait of the handsome man who terrorized and murdered women in a lengthy serial killing spree.

I had the pleasure of taking a writing class from novelist Leslie Rule, who is Ann Rule’s daughter. I got the impression that her mother was haunted by the fact she sat next to Bundy as a volunteer in a Seattle Crisis Center and could not see the red flags. He was articulate, polite, clean cut and ‘strikingly handsome,’ as she described him in ‘The Stranger Beside Me.’

The pathology of sociopaths is that they can mask their true selves. Although Ann Rule had been a police officer and later detective in Seattle, even she could not see how dangerous the man sitting next to her was—and this was not her fault.

Which brings me to this--- Marcia Clark’s criticism of the release of director Joe Berlinger’s docuseries 'Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,' on Neflix.

Clark, as you remember, was the charismatic prosecutor on the OJ Simpson murder trial who failed to get a conviction. What I admired about Clark was her tenacity and dedication to her work.  She stated she would not be watching the series because ‘it glorifies and celebrates the hideous monster that Ted Bundy was.’

Violence is, unfortunately, glamorized in this society—through video games, television, film and literature. Remember 'The Godfather' and 'Goodfellas?' How could you not be impressed by the streetwise antics of Al Pacino or the come hither glare of Ray Liotta?

As much as I like Marcia Clark, I disagree with her. I think it’s important to educate children and young women, who are particularly vulnerable to predators, plus everyone else, about danger signals. If there is any possibility that watching the signs of deviant behavior can alert people to avoid certain situations, then it serves a positive purpose to air shows about true crime and even the horrific acts of serial killers.

Ted Bundy lured his victims by pretending to have a cast on his arm or leg. He was prolific-- luring and killing over 30 women in the 70s. If a total stranger approaches you and says he needs help, offer to call the police and walk, or better run, the other way. You can’t take the slightest chance of becoming a victim. Rule said she wanted to warn readers that evil sometimes comes in handsome packages.”

And this is why I think it’s important to keep stories alive like “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.” Bundy was executed in 1989 but evil sadly lives on.