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Outlook: Surviving a serial killer

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Kathy Kleiner

20/02/2024 GMT

Surviving a serial killer

BBC World Service - Outlook, Surviving a serial killer

How Kathy Kleiner Rubin lived and thrived after a horrific attack by Ted Bundy in 1978

How Kathy Kleiner Rubin lived and thrived after a horrific attack by Ted Bundy in 1978. It wasn’t her first brush with death or her last, but she refuses to be held back.

Warning: This episode contains details about a serial killer's actions, which are distressing.

Kathy Kleiner Rubin is one of life's survivors. Her first brush with death was at the age of 12 when she was diagnosed with lupus and had to face chemotherapy to treat it. After recovering from that, she was enjoying life at Florida State University in 1978, when one night a stranger broke into her sorority house. It was serial killer Ted Bundy. What followed was a horrific attack in which two of her housemates died, and Kathy and her room-mate were very badly injured. In the aftermath Kathy was so determined to live a normal life that her son didn't even know she'd been attacked by Bundy until he was 37.  

Kathy has written a book about her life, co-authored with Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, called A Light in the Dark: Surviving More than Ted Bundy.   

Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: June Christie 

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707

(Photo: Kathy Kleiner Rubin now & back in 1977. Credit: Red Door Studio, Florida, USA & Kathy Kleiner Rubin)

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