Bethenny Frankel, the reality star who became a household name during her time on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City,” gives scripted drama a go in the Lifetime movie "Danger in the Dorm."
But the story she’s telling is very real.
Based on true events, “Danger in the Dorm” premieres June 16 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime. Traditional in its formula, the movie is a classic tale of women in peril, women empowering themselves and women solving a mystery surrounded by suspicious-seeming men.
But the movie’s origins are all their own. Inspired by one of true-crime author Ann Rule’s many books, the story chronicles the attacks and murder that terrorized a campus in 1972. According to the A&E Network, the project is one of several movies adapted from the works of the late author, who died in 2015 at the age of 83.
In the movie, Becky Swafford, a student at Oregon State University, is found stabbed to death in her dorm room. Rather than wait for police to investigate, Becky’s best friend, Kathleen, with help from fellow students and her anxious mother (played by Frankel), conduct their own probe — even as it presents personal danger.
By nature, movies based on truth take artistic license with some of the facts. But just how close does “Danger in the Dorm” stick to the real events Rule wrote about in her book? Below, we dive deeper into the incident and the people who inspired the Lifetime movie.
Who was Ann Rule?
Though Rule appeared in True Detective for more than a decade and began writing regularly for the magazine under male pseudonyms in 1969, her big break came in the 1970s.
As The New York Times reported in Rule’s obituary, the author was writing a book about a string of unsolved murders in the Seattle area, when authorities arrested Ted Bundy in connection with the killings. Turns out, Rule not only knew Bundy, but they were friends. They worked the night shift at a Seattle crisis center together, answering the suicide hotline.
At first, Rule insisted on Bundy’s innocence.
“For a long time I was holding out hope that he was innocent, that somehow this all was a terrible mistake,” she told The Houston Chronicle in 2003. “And it wasn’t just me, it was all the people who worked with him.”
She changed her mind when he escaped custody and began killing again in Florida. In 1980, she detailed her experience in “The Stranger Beside Me.” The true-crime book became a bestseller and in 2003 was adapted for the small screen on the USA Network.
Rule’s interest in the criminal world started early on. The Times reported that her maternal grandparents lived in the building that housed the county jail in Stanton, Michigan, and she would help her grandmother pass food to the inmates.
After the success of her book about Bundy, she published three more books about serial killers. “Danger in the Dorm,” however, is one of the author’s earliest short stories; it can be found in the reissued “True Crime Archives: Vol. 1.”
What is the real story behind ‘Danger in the Dorm’?
While the Lifetime movie takes place in the 1990s (note the retro Macintosh computers and lack of cellphones), the events that inspired Rule’s tale occurred in the 1970s, when female college students were routinely referred to as “co-eds,” as in “co-educational.”
In February 1972, Oregon State University, based in Corvallis, Oregon, was the scene of three attacks on female students. The first two were similar in nature, with each woman surviving blows to the head by someone wielding heavy objects, The New York Times reported.
But 18-year-old Nancy Wyckoff was killed in the campus's third attack in five days.
“It really was a terrible, terrible thing, and it was a loss of innocence,” Jim Edmunson, a former OSU student, said during an interview for the Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Project in 2014. As a student, Edmunson also reported on the attacks for the school newspaper, The Daily Barometer (in the Lifetime movie, the newspaper also plays a key role).
He added, “It was an unimaginable crime, and it created sheer terror on campus. I think it’s fair to say that up until that moment, we all felt safe, and in a heartbeat, we didn’t feel safe, at all. We were terrified that — who would die next?”
For the next several days, Edmunson said everyone felt terrorized. Patrols were formed with women and men carrying baseball bats and golf clubs. Women were escorted to and from events day and night. Hoaxes were even reported.
Edmunson also recalled that students would stand on the lawn outside Wyckoff’s dorm window “in sort of a vigil.” To cover the story for the Barometer, he said that he and fellow journalists got to work immediately.
“We had reporters out talking to people, and tracking down leads,” he said. “It was very thrilling from a journalist’s point of view, but always with this huge sense of responsibility.”
Who killed Nancy Wyckoff?
When Wyckoff was first killed, District Attorney Frank Knight said there wasn’t necessarily a connection between the attack on Wyckoff and the other two women, per the New York Times.
On March 15, 1972, police arrested Marlowe James Buchanan, the Desert Sun reported. A 17-year-old freshman at OSU, Buchanan was majoring in electronics and electrical engineering. According to another article published by the newspaper, he lived in the same dorm as Wyckoff.
In his 2014 interview, Edmunson said that Buchanan reportedly sneaked into Wyckoff’s dorm room with the knife.
At the time of the arrest, Buchanan was not considered a suspect in the previous two attacks.
Buchanan confessed to the killing of Wyckoff, state attorney Frank Knight said during the trial, per the Albany Democrat-Herald, but he pleaded innocent to a murder charge, per the L.A. Times. The defense aimed to show that his acts were the result of “mental disease or defect and that no crime was caused.
Recalling the trial, Edmunson said, “The courtroom was packed.” He added, “I remember (Buchanan) walking in, and he was just a kid. He was just a child. He could be your little brother. And to think that he had done this monstrous thing! I interviewed many murderers in my career as a journalist, subsequently, but nothing ever impressed me the way that case did.”
He was ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter. Judge Richard Mengler said, during his sentencing, “I believe you are a bright young man and have high potential.” He gave him the highest sentence, though, because of the “potential danger to society” he posed.
When he was released from prison, Buchanan remained in Oregon. He carved out a career (details of the profession or industry are scarce) and was credited with several patents, Vickers told TODAY.com in an email.
How is Nancy Wyckoff remembered today?
A memorial tree was planted on the north side of OSU’s Library Quad in honor of Wyckoff, along with a plaque that reads, “Nancy Diane Wyckoff, 1954 - 1972.” The date is followed by a Henry David Thoreau quote: “In wildness is the preservation of the world.”
In 2016, the Barometer published a column written by Jackie Keating about landmarks, with the writer sharing the story behind the “huge tree” she’d walked by “a hundred times.”
Internet research revealed to Keating the details of Wyckoff’s murder, the other two attacks and Buchanan’s arrest, but little else. And though she might be one of just a few OSU students who know about Nancy Wyckoff, Edmunson said, “None of us who lived through it have ever forgotten.”
Today, Buchanan’s whereabouts and details pertaining to the other unsolved campus attacks remain a mystery.
Randee Dawn (she/her) is an entertainment journalist and author based in Brooklyn. In addition to writing for TODAY.com, Variety and The Los Angeles Times, her debut novel, Tune in Tomorrow, about a reality TV show run by mythic creatures, published in 2022. She's also the co-author of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion. When not interviewing the stars or dabbling in speculative fiction, she dreams of the next place she can travel to, or cuddles her Westie. More at RandeeDawn.com.
