The Untold Truth Of Ann Rule

Publish date: 2024-05-06

As documented on her now defunct website, Ann Rule was born in Lowell, Michigan to parents Chaster R. Stackhouse and Sophie Hansen Stackhouse. Known to his friends as "Stack," Rule's father coached football, basketball, and track. Her mother was a devoted school teacher who worked with developmentally disabled children.

Rule's career path, however, was shaped by her maternal grandfather, a Stanton, Michigan sheriff. An uncle who was also a sheriff, another who was a medical examiner, and a cousin who worked as a district attorney were equally influential to the future crime author.

Young Ann spent her vacations helping out at her grandfather's jail in Stanton. "My Grandpa Hansen was the sheriff of Montcalm County. So, if I wanted to go visit grandma and grandpa, I had to literally go to jail," Rule explained to Seattle PBS affiliate KCTS-TV's Enrique Cerna. "My grandma would cook for the prisoners, and I would push the meals through a slot in the pantry wall ... I would always ask my grandpa, 'Well, why are they locked up? ... Why do they want to grow up to be criminals?' I was about 7 ... and I didn't know yet about kids who had unhappy childhoods and all kinds of things that predestined them sometimes for a life of crime." That one innocent childhood question became a guiding obsession for Rule, and, at an early age, she knew she was destined for a career in law enforcement. Nevertheless, fate had a very different future in store for Ann Rule.

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