Ex-wife says she’s ‘lucky to be alive’

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, July 30, 2003 | 11:30 a.m.

A California woman who says she is William Rundle's former wife said on Tuesday that she felt "lucky to be alive" when she learned Rundle had killed his fourth wife and his 87-year-old mother.

Colleen Hamilton, of Van Nuys, Calif., said she was married to Rundle for about a year in 1972. The couple had the marriage annulled decades before Rundle met and married Shirley Rundle, the woman he was convicted of beating to death with a baseball bat.

Rundle was also convicted of killing his 87-year-old mother, Willa Rundle, who has been missing since 1997. Her body has not been found.

"It was very scary to know that I could love someone who could do something like that," Hamilton said.

Hamilton had traveled to Las Vegas to attend Rundle's sentencing, which was scheduled to take place on Tuesday before District Judge Michael Cherry. But the hearing was postponed because the Department of Parole and Probation had not submitted a mandatory pre-sentencing report.

Hamilton said Rundle was using the name William Randau when she met and married him. She described Rundle as a "pathological liar" who constantly deceived her during their brief marriage.

She said the couple moved to Las Vegas after they were married but that Rundle abandoned her while the two were on a trip to California visiting family.

Hamilton had just learned she was pregnant at the time, she said, and she later put the child up for adoption.

"He left to get gas at 7 a.m. and he never came back," she said. "Then he high-tailed it here to Las Vegas and cleaned out everything he could get his hands on."

Hamilton said she soon discovered that Rundle had been dishonest about most things during their relationship. She said he claimed to have sold insurance but she later learned he was unemployed.

She said Rundle had also lied about his parents, who he said lived in Austria. She later discovered they lived in an apartment in North Hollywood and they didn't know their son was married, she said.

Hamilton said her family was surprised to learn that Rundle was suspected in Shirley Rundle's death. But when Rundle's mother also came up missing, she said, she knew something was wrong.

"We immediately thought he did something bad," she said.

Hamilton, who is now remarried with two children, said she was disappointed that the sentencing didn't take place, but that she thinks she can finally move on with her life.

"I think I have closure now," she said. "I don't think I'll come back."