In Part 17 I talked about the 1972 election, and it got me to remembering another sideshow of that campaign season which, in hindsight, was chilling.

Dan Evans was running for his third term for Governor. His challenger was none other than the man he had defeated in 1964, former two-term Gov. Al Rosellini. When Evans made that first run, part of his campaign was that no one should serve three terms as Governor, a point Rosellini liked to bring up in 1972. But Washington being Washington, the political alliances were very twisted. It was not uncommon to see Evans and McGovern bumper stickers side by side. Although Rosellini had been a progressive governor, particularly in the area of social services, he had become quite conservative by the early 1970s. When McGovern appeared in Seattle with Washington State Democrats, Sen. Magnuson was cheered, but Rosellini and Scoop Jackson were actually booed.

Anyway, a Dan Evans campaign worker had apparently infiltrated a Rosellini meeting, or something like that, and was caught in the act. The press hyped this episode, and I'm not joking, as "The Watergate of the West." I remember the young man who was accused of wrongdoing making frantic denials to the TV news people. His hair was longish and his eyes were intense and wild. His name was Ted Bundy. If only his 15 minutes of fame had ended there. Among his many victims, according to Bundy's confession shortly before his execution, was Evergreen student Donna Manson, killed in early 1974.