According to Ann Rule, in an updated edition of her nonfiction bestseller "The Stranger Beside Me," the real Ted Bundy started to receive hundreds more love letters per day after The Deliberate Stranger (1986) first aired on NBC. Rule concluded that many of the women were actually writing to Mark Harmon, or imagining that Bundy looked and acted more like Harmon than Bundy did in reality.
The movie premiered on TV when Ted Bundy was still on death row, appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Bundy refused to watch the movie.
In real life, Ted Bundy continued to claim he was innocent until shortly before his execution in 1989. Bundy provided details of the murders even as he was walked to the electric chair.
Robert Hays was the first choice for the lead role. Hays rejected the role due to moral issues with the script, and out of respect for the victims' families.
Martha Chambers, who sticks by Ted Bundy's side till the end, even after his long-time girlfriend severs ties, is very loosely based on Bundy's later wife, Carole Ann Boone, who worked at the Crisis Center. Although it's false that she knew and/or hung around with Ann Rule, who is also fictionalized here.