One beautiful day in the summer of 1974, Ted Bundy accompanied by a date named Becky joined friendly acquaintance Larry Voschall and his date Susan for rafting down the Yakima River. Larry talked to psychologist Al Carlisle about what happened that day:
“The thing about this raft trip is I had always seen Ted as a gentleman’s gentleman, rather suave, the type of person that would never step out of line. As this raft trip progressed his personality went from that to a type of personality that none of us really wanted anything to do with. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve seen Ted since. That was about two years ago this summer. At any rate, there was one incident where Becky was in an inner tube tied on to the raft and he untied her halter top and let it fall away. It was an embarrassment to her. It clearly was out of character with his personality.
But more than that, we got in a couple of really tight situations which were very unpleasant. He put his head under a waterfall and almost overturned the raft. Becky almost went under. He just seemed to enjoy seeing people frightened. As the trip progressed we went over a waterfall. [At one point Ted let Becky drift in the inner tube over to the waterfall knowing she couldn’t swim]. Then he got in the inner tube and cut himself loose and floated by himself for a while. He decided he was tired of us and went down ahead of us in the river. When we got down to where the car was he went up to pick up the other car. It was only about seven miles and it took him a long time to come back.
His personality went from a very pleasant person to someone who was practically unbearable to be with. I don’t know whether he was tired of his amateur partners or what, but it was one of the most unusual personality transformations I’ve seen. I’ve been a reporter for about ten years and it’s one of the strangest things I’ve seen. I believe he’s got a split personality, a dual personality.
It was so strange because he was the kind of person who would come to a party and he was so intelligent and he could easily carry on a conversation and he was so polite. Then to see the other side of him was so shocking. His two personalities were so different that after that the three of us really didn’t want anything to do with him.
Was there any other time when you saw this change in his personality?
I really didn’t. I had been to a few parties with him. I had the impression that he had a lot of money. He was always well groomed, good clothes, and very well-mannered. And that was what impressed me, to see a really different side to him. So, when all of this other stuff started coming up I thought I needed to talk to the authorities so I gave them a call.
I don’t know. It was a fascinating encounter, I’ll tell you that. It was just that personality change. In spite of all our objections he really put us in a couple of tight spots where somebody could have got hurt. Going through the turbulence where the waterfall came out into the river, we almost lost the raft. There was no reason to go over to that part at all. We had a half mile wide river and much of it was very smooth.
Do you have any idea why he untied Becky’s halter?
No, that has always seemed to be a real strange thing. I don’t think I was initially looking in that direction. Then I turned and I saw the halter fall. She was a very proper gal. That surprised me. I’ve taken other trips where that happened and we didn’t think anything of it, but with his personality and with Becky it seemed very strange.
I don’t think more than a couple times. That night after he finally came back we headed back to Seattle, about a two-hour trip. We wanted to stop to get something to eat. He didn’t want to and he wasn’t talking to anybody. Becky said it probably was because he didn’t have any money with him.
Becky said she’d buy. God, he didn’t say a word! When he’s talkative he’s very talkative. I always thought that something happened in that hour and a half when he was gone. He was a completely different person.“
–Al Carlisle, Violent Mind
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