Joseph Neilan “Nick” Mackie (1934-2019) was a longtime Washington law enforcement officer known for his role in the investigation of serial killer Ted Bundy during the 1970s. Born on Whidbey Island, Nick Mackie attended Lincoln High School and University of Washington, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps before joining the King County Sheriff’s Department, where he rose to the rank of major and commander of the Detective Division.

In March 1975, Captain Mackie headed the joint King County and Seattle police task force to review the evidence in the investigation of the abductions and murders of young women in the Seattle area since July 1974. The task force was reduced to two detectives in May 1975 after most of over 2,500 leads were exhausted. Mackie continued to be involved with the investigation, coordinating efforts with law enforcement on similar cases in Utah and Colorado.

Here, Captain Mackie stands besides a tall stack of printouts from a massive (at the time) computer run that analyzed data from the investigation, including information on friends, classmates and acquaintances of the victims, a list of all of the suspects in the case, a list of Volkswagen owners, and convicted sex offenders who were free at the time of the July 1974 disappearances. In July 1975, Mackie noted that the computer run, involving 14,000 names, had turned up "interesting coincidences" which would be investigated by the three detectives assigned full-time to the case.

Caption information source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "King County Trims its 'Ted' Detectives" by Paul Boyd, June 1, 1975, p. A9; "Probe continues in 'Ted" cases," July 12, 1975; “Police had Bundy’s Name in ‘74” by Stephen Green, October 4, 1975, p. 12
Caption information source: Nick Mackie obituary, retrieved at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/seattletimes/name/joseph-mackie-obituary?id=13224240