Ann Rae Rule (née Stackhouse; October 22, 1931 – July 26, 2015) was an American author of true crime books and articles. She is best known for The Stranger Beside Me (1980), about the serial killer Ted Bundy, with whom Rule worked and whom she considered a friend, but was later revealed to be a murderer. Rule is also known for her book Small Sacrifices, about Oregon child murderer Diane Downs. Many of Rule's books center on murder cases that occurred in the Pacific Northwest and her adopted home state of Washington. Early life and education Ann Rae Stackhouse was born on October 22, 1931, in Lowell, Michigan. She was one of two children of Sophie Marie (Hansen) and Chester R. Stackhouse. Her mother was a teacher, specializing in developmentally disabled children, and her father was a football and track and field coach. As Rule did during young adulthood, her family members had careers in law enforcement. Rule's grandfather and uncle were sheriffs in Michigan. Another uncle was a medical examiner and a cousin was a prosecutor. Rule spent summers with her grandparents doing volunteer work at the local jail. She graduated from Coatesville High School in Chester County, Pennsylvania and later earned an associate degree from Highline Community College in Des Moines, Washington. Rule also attended the University of Washington, studying creative writing, criminology and psychology. Career Rule's career path included working as a law enforcement officer for the Seattle Police Department as well as writing for publications geared toward women. Beginning in 1969, she wrote for True Detective magazine under the pen name "Andy Stack". While volunteering at a suicide crisis hotline center in Seattle in 1971, Rule met Ted Bundy, a work-study student who was studying psychology at the University of Washington. After Bundy moved to Utah for law school, he was arrested in 1975 for kidnapping a young woman and later identified as a serial murderer with an unknown number of victims dating to at least 1974 if not earlier. During the time they worked together, Rule observed nothing disturbing in Bundy's personality, and saw him as "kind, solicitous, and empathetic". Her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, is considered one of the most definitive biographies of Bundy. First published in 1980, the year Bundy was convicted of murder, the book was written under her own name rather than the pen name she had previously used.