Kiss Me, Kill Me

Crime Files #9

by Ann Rule

The dark side of love is no fairy tale…. And while we may like to believe that crimes of the heart only victimize those who aren't careful, this shocking collection of real-life accounts will convince you otherwise. America's #1 true-crime writer, Ann Rule reveals how lovers become predators, how sex and lust can push ordinary people to desperate acts, and how investigators and forensics experts work to unravel the most entangled crimes of passion. Extracting behind-the-scenes details, Rule makes these volatile relationships utterly real, and masterfully re-creates the ill-fated chains of events in such cases as the ex-Marine and martial arts master who seduced vulnerable women and then destroyed their lives…the killer whose calling card was a single bloodred rose…the faithless wife who manipulated and murdered without conscience…the blind date that set the stage for a killer's brutality…and more. In every case, the victim―young and innocent or older and experienced―unknowingly trusted a stranger with the sociopathic skill to hide their dark motives, until it was too late to escape a web of deadly lies, fatal promises, and homicidal possession.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, Audiobook, Mystery, History, Adult

Audio CD

First published November 30, 2004

About the author

Ann Rule was a popular American true crime writer. Raised in a law enforcement and criminal justice system environment, she grew up wanting to work in law enforcement herself. She was a former Seattle Policewoman and was well educated in psychology and criminology.

She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, 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.

Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.

Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Rule never disappoints as a true-crime author. Kiss Me, Kill Me is no exception. It focuses on cases where love relationships lead to deadly results. Some of the stories that are highlighted involve stranger to stranger encounters but the large majority deal with deaths by the hands of a loved one.

[Laur · Rating 3 out of 5]

True crime is what it is (a horrible true event that has already happened), but in selecting the accounts to write about, the author should take in just how much information or research they have or don’t have in any given case.

After listening to this on audio, it raised some confusion with what I felt were left out details, leading to unanswered questions.

In most cases of true crime accounts, the reader is taken from beginning to end of case. A disturbing fact presented herein, are at least 2 men who murder the woman they supposedly love, get caught, plead guilty, are subsequently released from prison in less than 15 yrs, then remarry, have kids and have a life.

1. I beg to argue that that is not true justice, and sucks for the victims families. I’m pretty certain, the victim wouldn’t be happy (if they could speak for themselves which of course, they no longer can do.)
2. And….What kind of women are SO delusional and desperate to seek a relationship with a convict, then marry the convicted murderer of such heinous violence towards the woman he claimed to love? Is their cerebrum bonkers, are is it just missing in general? (Note: Ladies you better hope he neither loves you, nor grows to hate you. PS…watch how you breathe and never piss him off).

Even so, it’s only the true account reported in this book in spite of how ridiculous this world is and how the justice system works. You can’t dock points on the author for that. Earns 3.5 Stars - will still most likely appeal to those who enjoy the true crime genre.

[Obsidian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great breakdown of a lot of cases and I think is a great showcase of Rule's writing style. The main reason why I gave this 4 stars though is that Rule at times does a bit of blaming for some of the victims that I don't think she meant to do, but it came across that way to me.

The first case, the murder of Sandra Bowman I thought was really well done and the way that this case and others are eventually solved due to a Cold Case unit was great. Some of the victims that Rule brings up were thought to be murdered by Bundy, but instead we find out that another man was responsible. Some of the cases she brings up, I already heard about and knew who the murderer was due to either Forensic Files or other true crime shows. There was one case that was very gruesome and I think that it was hard to read about.

I think the most interesting pieces for me was that some of the men who are shown in this book as being convicted murderers barely served any time it feels like and they went off to marry and have children with other women. Also, Rule brings up an investigator who was the first to start to use the word "serial" with regards to serial murders and was one of the people responsible for capturing Harvey Glatman. I honestly didn't know a lot about Glatman, but did look him up and his victims after this book.

[Terry Cornell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how many of Anne Rule's books I've read. They pretty much are of two formats--either covering a single true crime case, or as in this book a selection of several true crimes. Rule wrote from the perspective of not only a journalist but also as a person with a law enforcement background. She often had working relationships with detectives working the cases she covered.

In this particular selection of cases, the first I found a little confusing and convoluted. What on the surface appeared to be similar murders, with possibly the same killer ended up to be not related at all. But I suppose this shows how confusing crime investigation can be.

A chapter on the killer Harvey Glatman I found interesting--I have read of his case before, but not from the perspective of the actual investigating detective. Partly due to his experiences trying to solve these murders over multiple jurisdictions Detective Pierce Brook was instrumental in helping to develop the nationwide Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. This program serves as a database for law enforcement seeking similar crimes that could potentially have the same perpetrator.

The only criticism I have is her dramatized, somewhat goofy chapter titles. But, If you like the true crime genre, you usually can't go wrong with an Ann Rule book.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 5 out of 5]

*"Kiss Me, Kill Me": this is a wide ranging piece, more of an essay about cold cases than Rule's usual detailed examination of a single crime. She starts and ends with Sandra Bowman, who was brutally murdered in her own apartment just before Christmas 1968, and whose murderer wasn't identified until 2004. Along the way she examines the 1966 murder of Lonnie Trumbull (who Rule is convinced was murdered by Ted Bundy, although so far as I know there's only circumstantial evidence against him); Mary Annabelle Bjornson and Lynne Tuski (1969), murdered by John Canaday (who shares his name, ironically, with an art critic who wrote several crime novels); Eileen Condit (1970); Heidi Peterson (1974); Katherine Merry Devine (1973)--who Rule also thought had been killed by Bundy, but in 2002 DNA proved her killer was William E. Cosden, Jr., who was then already serving time for a 1976 rape (and had been found not guilty by reason of insanity in another rape/murder case in 1967); Hallie Ann Seaman (1975); Sylvia Durante (1979), murdered by William Bergen Greene, who claimed not guilty by reason of Disassociative Identity Disorder, although the evidence strongly suggests that he was a psychopath who happened to be a very talented actor--that was the jury's conclusion, anyway; Kristen Sumstad (1982), a thirteen-year-old raped and murdered by a fourteen-year-old, John Athan, who was convicted in 2004 because the police were able to get a saliva sample from a licked stamp; Mia Zapata (1993), murdered by Jesus Mezquia; and finally circles back to Sandy Bowman, who was murdered--DNA showed in 2004--by John Canaday. This is an excellent essay, maybe the best of Rule's shorter pieces that I've read.
*"The Postman Only Killed Once": Walla Walla WA [she doesn't give a year and I can't find the case online]: man murders his 16 year old wife with a--fortunately poorly-thought-out and unconsummated--plan to stage more murders to make it look like there was a serial killer at work. He also made--poorly-thought-out and unconsummated--plans to bomb the lead detective's house when he realized police were getting close.
*"What's Love Got to Do with It?": Seattle WA 1969: Audrey Ruud and Patrick Fullen lured Karsten Knutsen to their apartment, where they robbed and murdered him, then fled from Seattle to Sanibel Island, where they were caught. Fullen died in prison; Ruud was released after 22 years,
*"Old Flames Can Burn": Seattle WA 1968: man strangles one of his female friends and almost stabs another to death because . . . ?
*"The Lonely Hearts Killer": Los Angeles CA 1957: This essay is at least half a homage to Pierce Brooks, the detective who first put together the idea of a serial killer--a killer who targets strangers who (mostly) fit a certain profile. Brooks' archetype was Harvey Glatman, who posed as a photographer for true crime magazines in order to get his victims to willingly submit to being tied up. And he took pictures. Shirley Bridgeford, Judy Ann Dull, Ruth Mercado, and very nearly Lorraine Vigil are his known victims. (Dorothy Gay Howard , the Jane Doe of Someone's Daughter, may be another Glatman victim; she wasn't identified until 2009, five years after Kiss Me, Kill Me was published.)
*"The Captive Bride": Seattle WA 1978: twenty-year-old woman murdered (shot nine times in the back) by the crazy abusive stalker husband she was trying to divorce; he served fourteen years, was paroled, and--hey--got married again, despite having insisted to the woman he murdered that he literally couldn't live without her. Rule ends this case with an impassioned plea to people trapped in abusive relationships to get out and get help.
*"Bad Blind Date": Seattle 1970: Victoria Legg made a bad decision. She accepted a date with a man she didn't really know, because he looked like an ex-boyfriend whom she trusted. Turns out, her date was a guy out on the far end of the mentally disturbed spectrum--who may genuinely NOT have been able to tell right from wrong when he raped her and beat her to death. (M'Naughten is a lousy rubric for sanity, honestly.)
*"The Highway Accident" (reprint from A Fever in the Heart and Other True Cases)
*"You Kill Me---Or I'll Kill You": Silverton OR 1975: Rule is apologetic for including this case because it's both so gruesome and so grotesque. "Kent Whiteside" had a masochistic sexual fantasy about being gutted by a "naked beautiful slut." He picked a young woman (more or less at random as far as anyone can tell) and decided to force her to kill him by threatening to kill her. Problem was, as it turns out, he wasn't bluffing. He disemboweled her and a friend who had the bad luck to be sleeping on the couch. Almost unbelievably, the friend survived. Despite pleading guilty to murder, "Kent Whiteside" was pardoned a few years later. Rule suggests that there was bribery or undue influence involved, which seems like a not unreasonable conclusion.
*"'Where Is Julie?'": Bonneville WA 1987: Julie Weflen's disappearance is still unsolved.

[Mafalda Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audio version of the book. This book features 10 different essays. The first one, also called "Kiss Me, Kill Me" was very complex and sometimes I felt a little lost because the author mentioned so many cases and names, and was always jumping between different facts, that it made it a little hard to completely follow the narrative (especially because I was listening to the audio format instead of reading).
Almost all of these essays talk about violence against women and in some cases there is more information about the investigation, others about the trial and even others have more information about the victims or killers. I like Ann Rule's writing, and how vivid imagery she can create through her words. I wasn't excepting this book to have so many cases, maybe if I had known I would have read it in another format.

1) "Kiss Me, Kill Me"
2) "The Postman Only Killed Once"
3) "What's Love Got to Do with It?"
4) "Old Flames Can Burn"
5) "The Lonely Hearts Killer"
6) "The Captive Bride"
7) "Bad Blind Date"
8) "The Highway Accident"
9) "You Kill Me---Or I'll Kill You"
10) "Where Is Julie?"

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was not my favorite book of her's, although I am a huge Ann Rule fan. I really felt like her age was showing, as she seems to use this book more to pay homage to good cops she has knows, than to tell a cohesive story. There was a general "theme", at least to the main story: dna has made it possible to solve cold cases. Problem is, this isnt new news, and it wasnt made very interesting by Rule. And, Rule failed to discuss the huge range in sentences given to the offenders- from months on probation, to hundreds of years in jail, for similar crimes. I was left confused by the whole collection.

[Linds · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not one of Ann Rule’s better books. It covers ten murders and she reports the details of the cases.

[Katrina G · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are the lessons the cases in this book taught me:

1. Don't get married at the age of 16
2. Don't get involved with men 10+ years older than you that you meet at bars
3. Don't agree to pose for a detective magazine when strange men give you the opportunity
4. And maybe just to be generally thankful that I live in a time where forensic science is what it is.

A lot of the cases here were unsolved for a long time because the science just simply didn't exist in the 60s to be able to solve them. I can joke about those above lessons all I want, but the real take away I got from these cases (other than the fact that some people are just truly awful human beings) is how amazing and important forensic science truly is.

I think I like Anne Rule's writing better like this, where there's multiple cases to get through. The only other book of hers I read was If You Really Loved Me which was like 600 pages about one single case. I remember feeling dragged down by the amount of detail that felt unnecessary to the central story. But here, there's so many cases in one little bind up that every detail was important to the overall understanding of how the cases ended.

[Lorna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and fairly creepy. I'm amazed by the number of men who violently murdered their wives/girlfriends/etc., got out of jail 10-15 years later, and then got married again. WHO WOULD MARRY A MURDERER????!

The book mainly focused on the Pacific Northwest. I wish there had been more geographical diversity, although I understand that these are the cases Rule followed because that's where she's from. The serial killer from LA in the 1950's, Harvey Glatman, was really fascinating (and disturbing).

I would pick up another book by Rule.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

What stood out the most was the horrible men who killed their wife/lover/friend or acquaintance, who then pled guilty, and GOT OUT OF JAIL in 10-14 years. Two of them went on to MARRY, have kids and live their lives, while their victim never had that chance.
This begs the question what moronic woman marries a convicted murderer?
Absolutely mind boggling.
But what’s really unbelievable is the number of men in the USA (usually unwhite) who are in jail for much much less a crime and for much much longer.

[Ruth Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find any of these stories particularly interesting. Lots of typos.

Dull and boring.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Rule, but this book was pretty poorly written.

It is just a collection of Ann Rule's journalism and her running down of murders she has reported on. The book comes off feeling like a project that she rushed together just for the money.

The Introduction was overly sentimental, giving into Rule's worst tendencies.

After the Introduction, I read much of the book's first murder. That section started out interesting enough, with Rule developing the mystery more and more, and then winnowing it down to two suspects. And then, all of the sudden, in the middle of the story, she goes: oh yea, by the way, looking back from a 2004 perspective, it is clear this murder was done by Ted Bundy, but back then I could not have known that. Then she continues right on telling the story, as if she has not already spoiled the tension she was building up.

Again, this doesn't seem like a book she put that much thought into, so it is not surprising that she took this story she worked on in the 1960's and just randomly added a spoiler in the middle. Still, I was hoping for more from Rule.

Read 10%.

[McKayla]

this one made me so so angry. but I also cried when some of the women had out of this world strength, and became survivors despite all odds.
I am forever conscious of what I see and what I hear, and reading this book solidified that it is never a bad idea to continue to have heightened awareness if a situation or a person is causing you to ask if something is wrong

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great series for those who enjoy the topic of true crime and learning more about lower profile cases. The only thing I disliked about this book was that the cases seemed to be scattered without a smooth transition between each telling.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

why do these books have to make me so ANGRY - I like the multiple stories in one format of this - I believe I've read one other of the crime files - this one was much better perhaps it's the progress of her writing itself or just the stories, and we always know.. the husband did it

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how this was about multiple cases. Tad too long though. By the end they all seemed the same kind of story to me.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great crime book, every woman should read this! I love that there is a multitude of different crimes.

[Tabitha Michel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A couple of the stories in here blew my mind. There are just some things you'll never be able to look at the same again

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Awesome Book By Ann Rule. love Her Books.

[Debra Barstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 3.5 but I rounded down based on some of the information in the different cases seemed to be the authors personally opinions and not facts.

[ErikaShmerika Wine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will always read Ann Rule; but the wider the variety of true-crime authors I read, the more I chuckle at her commentary.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know Ann Rule is popular, and I have read some of her work before, but I was disappointed in the writing. It was repetitive and, at least in the first section, maddening. It seems as if she wanted to go off on tangents. She could have tightened up the prose considerably, or have used an editor with a firmer hand. I was reading it with a lady friend who agreed, and asked that we move on to a different book.

[Bettye McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Rule has never failed to provide me with absorbing reading material. This book is no exception. Sometimes the distance between the kiss and the kill becomes indistinct. Predators don't wear signs and we never know what is going through the minds of those with whom we come in contact.

"In every case, the victim . . . unknowingly trusted a stranger with the sociopathic skill to hide their dark motives, until it was too late to escape . . . ."

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ann Rule's number one rule ; never miss a deadline, even if you have to publish your first draft while giving your editor the day off, never miss a deadline. The original title of this book while searching for a murder entendre song title that had not yet been taken was "Contractually Obligated #9". This volume in particular is rife with a distracting misuse and misunderstanding of colloquialisms and very common figures of speech, not normal for experienced writers of the English language.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this compilation of true crime stories as I have all the others of hers that I've read. To me, she is one of the best true crime writers around. I don't know why but I do enjoy reading true crime as much if not more than fiction mysteries or police dramas, maybe I'm just weird! If you like true crime as I do you will enjoy this book.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really not sure which one of her books I read. I read a few in college but I had to stop because I started to get convinced that everyone's husband/boyfriend was out to kill them. These books totally terrify me.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fluff. It was alright. I like Ann Rule though.

[A.r. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of Rule's best. I was bored.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome Book By Ann Rule. She Never Fails With Her Books. 💙