Ann Rae Rule (née Stackhouse; October 22, 1931 – July 26, 2015) was an American author of true crime books and articles.

Rule wrote over 30 true crime books, including 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.

[4] She graduated from Coatesville High School in Chester County, Pennsylvania and later earned an associate degree from Highline Community College in Des Moines, Washington.

[4][5][6] 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.

[4][7] 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.

In April 2012, 48 Hours Mystery covered Rule's successful effort to help a mother prove her daughter's 1998 death was actually a murder.

On the island for the launch of a book tour, Rule fell in the hotel and broke her hip, forcing the cancellation of the event.

I'm looking for an 'antihero' whose eventual arrest shocks those who knew him (or her): attractive, brilliant, charming, popular, wealthy, talented, and much admired in their communities — but really hiding behind masks.

[16] "Rule's role shifts from being inadvertently involved with a serial killer to an author considering how lucrative her access could be," Beale writes.

King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amanda Froh wrote to the court, "Given the recent death of victim Ann Rule on July 26, 2015, the interests of justice are best served by dismissal of this case.