Shakespeare References in The Stranger Beside Me

Yes, Shakespeare references continue to pop up in nearly every book I read. Ann Rule’s book about Ted Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me, contains a few Shakespeare references. The first is a mention of Romeo And Juliet. Ann Rule quotes a letter that Ted Bundy had written to her, this portion regarding Gary Gilmore: “The Gilmore situation grows curiouser and curiouser. Have seen him on occasion in the visiting room with Nicole. I’ll never forget the deep love and anguish in her eyes. Gilmore, however, is misguided, unstable and selfish… The media preys on this Romeo and Juliet saga. Tragic. Irreconcilable” (p. 222). The second reference is to Hamlet. Rule says that Bundy is handicapped, writing, “Ted has no conscience.” She then adds, “‘Conscience doth make cowards of us all,’ but conscience is what gives us our humanity, the factor that separates us from animals” (p. 397). The line is from Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy. The third reference is also to Hamlet. Rule writes, “Ted was hoist on his own petard” (p. 452), a reference to Hamlet’s lines from Act III Scene iv, “For 'tis the sport to have the engineer/Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard.”

The Stranger Beside Me was originally published in 1980. The edition I read is the updated version that includes an afterword by Ann Rule. This edition was published in 1989, after Ted Bundy was executed.