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This is Later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you hear

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weekday afternoons on the Drive. Kathy
Kleiner Ruben is a very sought after motivational

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speaker specializing in survivor impact. May
have seen her on CBS News forty eight

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Hours, twenty twenty, USA Today, or Newsweek many more. She's put

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her memoir into a book called A
Light in the Dark. Surviving More than

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Ted Bunny Bundy. Kathy Kleiner Ruben, let's hear your story. Thank you

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very much for inviting me. On
the morning of January fifteenth, I lived

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in the sorority house at Kylemego University
in nineteen seventy eight on FSU campus.

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It was early in the morning,
and at first I thought I heard a

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noise, so I kind of woke
up a little bit. Our bedroom was

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on the second floor authority looking out
the back door where the parking lot was,

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so I heard this noise, which
I ended up being the door swishing

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over the carpet. The next thing
I heard was someone stumbling over something and

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made a little and made a noise. And I opened my eyes and the

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room was dark, but all I
could do was see a silhouette of somebody

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something standing right next to my bed, And as I was looking, I

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saw his arm raise up over his
head and he had something in it and

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I couldn't tell what it was.
It was an oak clog that he had

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picked up from the back door with
our firewood pile. So when he walked

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in the house carrying his log,
he came in my room and hit me

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so hard on my face that it
felt it felt actually, it felt like

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a hitting a sack of potatoes.
It didn't hurt at first, but it

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tore my cheek open, and tore
my cheek open so that I couldn't couldn't

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open my mouth. It broke my
jaw in three places, and it shattered

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my chin, and my mouth was
open and my tongue was almost bit off.

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So I had these injuries. Now
at hurt. Now it felt like

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pins and needles in my back and
stomach and face, because that's what hurt

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the most. So I was hurting, and my roommate next bed opened up

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her eyes and saw the same thing, a man standing there. So he

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went over and killed attacked her.
He beat her with the same oak blog

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that he was beating me with I
was in my bed now, and I

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thought I was screaming and yelling,
but all I was doing was making gurgling

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sounds because of all the blood in
my mouth. And I was in the

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bed, and I made myself really
really small as little as I could,

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because I thought whoever hit me would
not see me again if he came over

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to my side of the bed.
And as I looked through clenched eyes,

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I saw him at my bed,
raising his arm up over his head again.

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And from the blackness in our room
it became very, very bright.

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A long car had come in the
back parking lot and was shining up to

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our room, and it was so
bright, and I could see this person,

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this man, standing next to me, still with his arm up,

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and before he could hit me,
the light shone on him, showed up

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the room, and he ran.
He got spooked and he ran out of

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our bedroom door. At that point, I think I passed out for a

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while. But when I woke up
again, I'm sitting in my bed,

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yelling and screaming and holding my face
and feeling the warm stickiness of my blood

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on my face. I heard my
roommate and then I went out again.

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I passed out. The next thing
I remember, my roommate got up and

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went out into the hallway to get
some help, and they called nine one

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one in the police came. So
did your roommate survive? Yes, okay,

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she was hitting the face and she
had a broken arm from trying to

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stop the meeting. This turned out
to be Ted Bundy and Kathleen Kleiner Reuben

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has written all about it in a
Light in the Dark. And how long

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was it after this attack that Bundy
was actually captured. It was a couple

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of weeks later. He was actually
stopped for a traffic violation in Pensacola.

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But other sisters in your sorority didn't
fare as well, did they. No.

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When he walked through the sorority house, he went to the first on

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the second floor, He went to
the first room, which was Margaret Bowman's

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room. He attacked her and killed
her and then drew the sheets right up

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over under her chin. Then he
went across the hall and attacked my other

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sorority sister, Lisa Levi. He
attacked her, he bit her and with

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the same oak log that he was
carrying at that point. Those bite marks

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actually help in the identification of him, knowing he was in the sorority house

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after he left, and I was
in my bed and it was dark again.

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I remember the paramedics and the police
attending to me and saying that I

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would be okay, that no one
else was going to come in, and

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I felt such a piece. I
looked up and I saw the police officer

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and I had a piece in my
heart saying, no one's going to hit

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me again, because he's here to
take care of me. This is Kathy

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Kleiner Rubin, and she is a
written named memoir called A Light in the

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Dark, surviving more than Ted Bundy. So I imagine your testimony at his

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trial was a given. Yes,
I actually saw him three times after the

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attack. The first time was at
the deposition. I came into the conference

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room and sat down at a long
table, said down at the head and

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at the other end was Ted Bundy, and he was sitting there looking at

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me, and I was looking at
him. And I was asked questions both

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by the defense and the prosecution,
although I don't even remember what the questions

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were. And when it was time
to leave, I stood up and he

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stayed sitting down, just staring at
me and I thought, you know,

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this was the process and he was
going to pay for what he did.

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So I left the room and almost
threw up because it was so emotionally taxing

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for me. The next time I
got to see him was at the grand

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jury again. I walked into the
room and he was sitting there at the

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table at the other end, and
he had a blue jacket on, I

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remember that distinctly, and he was
looking at me with his hand holding his

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chin, and he looked and I
looked, and once again the questions came

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from both sides, defense and the
prosecution, and I don't remember what those

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were either. It's just a blur
in my mind what they asked. So

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I left that room. Now it
was the grand jury, and I left,

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and they decided that there was enough
evidence to bring him to trial.

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So that was the third time I
saw him. Because I had to testify.

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I sat in the witness box and
I looked across the court and across

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the room and there was Ted Bundy
sitting at the defence table and he was

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looking at me. And the prosecution
questions were, where you attacked in the

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room, Did you remember anything?
Did you know anything? And of course

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they said no to everything. And
then the prosecution stood up, I mean

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sorry, the defense stood up and
asked me one question, and I wanted

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whatever that question was going to be
to help convict Ted Bundy. And they

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asked me, is this the room? I mean, is this a person

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he saw in your room that night
that attacked you? And I took a

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deep breath and said, I don't
know, because I never saw his face.

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And that still haunts me today that
I couldn't do anything to help put

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him away. Well more than that
haunts you, Kathy Kleiner Reuben. Like

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many victims of violent crime, there
was some post traumatic stress. I imagine

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that you write about in a light
in the dark. Yes, there was.

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Right after the attack, I left
Tallahassee and moved back home to Miami

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with my family to recuperate. And
though it was a long recuperation, my

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mouth was wired shut for nine weeks. I could only drink what was through

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a straw that could go through my
teeth. That he had shattered and moved

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in my mouth with the blow.
And as I was laying there and thinking,

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I became that I needed to leave. I didn't want to stay in

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a room and not venture out in
the world again, And by doing this,

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I did a mental image. I
had an island way off in the

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distance, and I could see this
island, but before me, before that,

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behind me was this black mass,
this terrible thing that was putting its

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arms around me. And I wanted
to get out of this. So I

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took baby steps and I walked toward
my island. And as I took baby

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steps, I looked behind me and
this black mass with baby steps behind me,

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and before I knew it, I
got to my island. It took

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forever baby steps. I got there. I sat on the beach. There

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was one palm tree, one beach
sand, and I sat and put my

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toes in the sand, and there
it was gone. I looked in front

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of me and there was nothing there
to be afraid of. It's an inspirational

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memoir, A light in the dark, surviving more than Ted Bundy, Kathy

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Kleiner, Reuben, thank you for
sharing your story with us and joining us

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today. Thank you for inviting,
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews,

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the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember
the lit Listen to The Drive Live

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