This is Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you hear
weekday afternoons on the Drive. Kathy Kleiner Ruben is a very sought after motivational
speaker specializing in survivor impact. May have seen her on CBS News forty eight
Hours, twenty twenty, USA Today, or Newsweek many more. She's put
her memoir into a book called A Light in the Dark. Surviving More than
Ted Bunny Bundy. Kathy Kleiner Ruben, let's hear your story. Thank you
very much for inviting me. On the morning of January fifteenth, I lived
in the sorority house at Kylemego University in nineteen seventy eight on FSU campus.
It was early in the morning, and at first I thought I heard a
noise, so I kind of woke up a little bit. Our bedroom was
on the second floor authority looking out the back door where the parking lot was,
so I heard this noise, which I ended up being the door swishing
over the carpet. The next thing I heard was someone stumbling over something and
made a little and made a noise. And I opened my eyes and the
room was dark, but all I could do was see a silhouette of somebody
something standing right next to my bed, And as I was looking, I
saw his arm raise up over his head and he had something in it and
I couldn't tell what it was. It was an oak clog that he had
picked up from the back door with our firewood pile. So when he walked
in the house carrying his log, he came in my room and hit me
so hard on my face that it felt it felt actually, it felt like
a hitting a sack of potatoes. It didn't hurt at first, but it
tore my cheek open, and tore my cheek open so that I couldn't couldn't
open my mouth. It broke my jaw in three places, and it shattered
my chin, and my mouth was open and my tongue was almost bit off.
So I had these injuries. Now at hurt. Now it felt like
pins and needles in my back and stomach and face, because that's what hurt
the most. So I was hurting, and my roommate next bed opened up
her eyes and saw the same thing, a man standing there. So he
went over and killed attacked her. He beat her with the same oak blog
that he was beating me with I was in my bed now, and I
thought I was screaming and yelling, but all I was doing was making gurgling
sounds because of all the blood in my mouth. And I was in the
bed, and I made myself really really small as little as I could,
because I thought whoever hit me would not see me again if he came over
to my side of the bed. And as I looked through clenched eyes,
I saw him at my bed, raising his arm up over his head again.
And from the blackness in our room it became very, very bright.
A long car had come in the back parking lot and was shining up to
our room, and it was so bright, and I could see this person,
this man, standing next to me, still with his arm up,
and before he could hit me, the light shone on him, showed up
the room, and he ran. He got spooked and he ran out of
our bedroom door. At that point, I think I passed out for a
while. But when I woke up again, I'm sitting in my bed,
yelling and screaming and holding my face and feeling the warm stickiness of my blood
on my face. I heard my roommate and then I went out again.
I passed out. The next thing I remember, my roommate got up and
went out into the hallway to get some help, and they called nine one
one in the police came. So did your roommate survive? Yes, okay,
she was hitting the face and she had a broken arm from trying to
stop the meeting. This turned out to be Ted Bundy and Kathleen Kleiner Reuben
has written all about it in a Light in the Dark. And how long
was it after this attack that Bundy was actually captured. It was a couple
of weeks later. He was actually stopped for a traffic violation in Pensacola.
But other sisters in your sorority didn't fare as well, did they. No.
When he walked through the sorority house, he went to the first on
the second floor, He went to the first room, which was Margaret Bowman's
room. He attacked her and killed her and then drew the sheets right up
over under her chin. Then he went across the hall and attacked my other
sorority sister, Lisa Levi. He attacked her, he bit her and with
the same oak log that he was carrying at that point. Those bite marks
actually help in the identification of him, knowing he was in the sorority house
after he left, and I was in my bed and it was dark again.
I remember the paramedics and the police attending to me and saying that I
would be okay, that no one else was going to come in, and
I felt such a piece. I looked up and I saw the police officer
and I had a piece in my heart saying, no one's going to hit
me again, because he's here to take care of me. This is Kathy
Kleiner Rubin, and she is a written named memoir called A Light in the
Dark, surviving more than Ted Bundy. So I imagine your testimony at his
trial was a given. Yes, I actually saw him three times after the
attack. The first time was at the deposition. I came into the conference
room and sat down at a long table, said down at the head and
at the other end was Ted Bundy, and he was sitting there looking at
me, and I was looking at him. And I was asked questions both
by the defense and the prosecution, although I don't even remember what the questions
were. And when it was time to leave, I stood up and he
stayed sitting down, just staring at me and I thought, you know,
this was the process and he was going to pay for what he did.
So I left the room and almost threw up because it was so emotionally taxing
for me. The next time I got to see him was at the grand
jury again. I walked into the room and he was sitting there at the
table at the other end, and he had a blue jacket on, I
remember that distinctly, and he was looking at me with his hand holding his
chin, and he looked and I looked, and once again the questions came
from both sides, defense and the prosecution, and I don't remember what those
were either. It's just a blur in my mind what they asked. So
I left that room. Now it was the grand jury, and I left,
and they decided that there was enough evidence to bring him to trial.
So that was the third time I saw him. Because I had to testify.
I sat in the witness box and I looked across the court and across
the room and there was Ted Bundy sitting at the defence table and he was
looking at me. And the prosecution questions were, where you attacked in the
room, Did you remember anything? Did you know anything? And of course
they said no to everything. And then the prosecution stood up, I mean
sorry, the defense stood up and asked me one question, and I wanted
whatever that question was going to be to help convict Ted Bundy. And they
asked me, is this the room? I mean, is this a person
he saw in your room that night that attacked you? And I took a
deep breath and said, I don't know, because I never saw his face.
And that still haunts me today that I couldn't do anything to help put
him away. Well more than that haunts you, Kathy Kleiner Reuben. Like
many victims of violent crime, there was some post traumatic stress. I imagine
that you write about in a light in the dark. Yes, there was.
Right after the attack, I left Tallahassee and moved back home to Miami
with my family to recuperate. And though it was a long recuperation, my
mouth was wired shut for nine weeks. I could only drink what was through
a straw that could go through my teeth. That he had shattered and moved
in my mouth with the blow. And as I was laying there and thinking,
I became that I needed to leave. I didn't want to stay in
a room and not venture out in the world again, And by doing this,
I did a mental image. I had an island way off in the
distance, and I could see this island, but before me, before that,
behind me was this black mass, this terrible thing that was putting its
arms around me. And I wanted to get out of this. So I
took baby steps and I walked toward my island. And as I took baby
steps, I looked behind me and this black mass with baby steps behind me,
and before I knew it, I got to my island. It took
forever baby steps. I got there. I sat on the beach. There
was one palm tree, one beach sand, and I sat and put my
toes in the sand, and there it was gone. I looked in front
of me and there was nothing there to be afraid of. It's an inspirational
memoir, A light in the dark, surviving more than Ted Bundy, Kathy
Kleiner, Reuben, thank you for sharing your story with us and joining us
today. Thank you for inviting, Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember the lit Listen to The Drive Live
weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation