Katie Ring
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Ted thought that having a loving girlfriend would stop him from fantasizing about violence.
But now he was afraid that those thoughts would never truly go away.
Things only got worse when Diane dumped Ted after about a year of dating.
The breakup confirmed his worst insecurities.
And instead of proving them wrong, he gave into them.
The next year in 1968, Ted dropped out of college.
He spent the next few months traveling aimlessly around the country, not doing much of anything.
But Ted hadn't completely given up on making something of himself.
So when an old friend suggested getting involved in politics, he gave it a chance.
Just like his dream of working for the State Department, being in politics would give Ted some of the authority and control he was so desperate for by giving him something to be in charge of.
He started out by volunteering for Arthur Fletcher's campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Washington.
Fletcher didn't win, but Ted loved the experience anyways.
It gave him the sense of purpose he'd been missing ever since his breakup with Diane.
So he decided to give a career in politics a real shot.
In 1969, when Ted was 22, he enrolled at Temple University in Philadelphia to pursue a degree in urban planning.
But even with his renewed sense of purpose, he still struggled with the darkness inside of him.
He went back to his old habit of peeping, wearing a fake mustache and a wig while he stalked the campus at night.
By this point, his sexual fantasies had become even more disturbing.
Now, he wasn't just thinking about abducting the women he stalked.
He wanted to sexually abuse them and kill them too.