Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was an American serial killer, born Theodore Cowell in 1946 in Vermont, who became notorious for his charm and manipulation. Raised in a complex family dynamic, he was led to believe his mother was his sister for much of his early life. Bundy exhibited early academic promise and engaged actively in political activities, presenting himself as a model citizen. His criminal activities began in the mid-1970s, marked by a series of abductions and murders of young women across several states, including Washington and Florida. He was known for his cunning methods, often luring victims and employing physical violence. After multiple arrests, trials, and escapes from custody, Bundy was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He spent nearly a decade on death row before being executed in 1989. Bundy's case continues to intrigue and horrify, leaving a lasting impact on discussions surrounding criminal psychology and law enforcement practices.
Ted Bundy
- Born: November 24, 1946
- Birthplace: Burlington, Vermont
- Died: January 24, 1989
- Place of death: Florida State Prison, Starke, Florida
American serial killer
Major offenses: Murder, kidnapping, and attempted kidnapping
Active: 1974–79
Locale: King County, Washington; Salt Lake City, Utah; Colorado; and Tallahassee, Florida
Sentence: Two death sentences and three ninety-year sentences
Early Life
Theodore (Ted) Robert Bundy was born Theodore Cowell to Eleanor Louise Cowell in a home for unwed mothers in 1946 in Vermont. He was raised for the first few years of his life with his grandparents and his mother in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, believing that his mother was his sister and his grandparents were his parents. Some believe that this early life influenced Bundy in later years and shaped his life course.
Ted and his mother moved to Tacoma, Washington, in 1950, and shortly thereafter Louise married and changed her son’s name to Theodore Robert Bundy. Bundy stayed in Washington throughout his schooling and was a proficient student, graduating from high school and continuing on to college in Washington.
Bundy appeared in his early adulthood to have a bright future despite some problems in college, including a failed relationship with a girlfriend, Stephanie Brooks. He was an honor student and active in the political scene in Washington, particularly with the Republican Party, and worked at the Seattle Crisis Clinic. He was a man with many accomplishments and a seemingly ideal citizen.
Criminal Career
Many believe Bundy’s first murder occurred in 1974, when a young woman was taken from her basement apartment in Seattle; only bloodstains were left behind. A wave of abductions of young women around the King County area in Washington followed. Skeletal remains of the missing women were found later in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Bundy often rendered his victims unconscious and took them to remote locations, where he strangled them. All his victims were young females, most in their college years.
After Bundy moved to Utah in 1974, disappearances of young women also began there. In 1978, Bundy entered the Chi Omega sorority house in Florida and beat five girls, killing two by strangulation and biting one of the deceased on her left buttock; the teeth imprints eventually helped to convict Bundy. A month after the sorority attacks, Bundy abducted, assaulted, and killed a twelve-year-old girl, Kimberly Leach.
Legal Action and Outcome
Bundy was first arrested in Utah in 1975 for suspicion of burglary. He was then identified in a lineup for an attempted kidnapping that had occurred in 1974 and sentenced to one to fifteen years in prison on the charge. In 1977, he was extradited to Colorado to stand trial for a 1975 murder. In June 1977, Bundy escaped from jail and was recaptured six days later. He escaped a second time in December 1977 and fled to Tallahassee, Florida. He was arrested there in February 1978, as he drove a stolen car.
After his arrest in Florida, Bundy was indicted on two counts of murder and three of attempted murder. He went on trial in June 1979 and was found guilty. Then, in 1980, Bundy was found guilty of the Leach murder and received a death sentence for that crime.
Ultimately, Bundy was given two death sentences and three ninety-year sentences. He spent the next ten years on death row, using legal tactics to delay his execution. In January 1989, the state of Florida executed Bundy for the death of Leach.
In Popular Culture
Public fascination with Bundy and his crimes continued long after his execution, resulting in retellings (both as fictionalized iterations and nonfiction accounts) of his story in a variety of media, including books, film, and television. Written even before Bundy's execution, the book Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger, (1980) by journalist Richard W. Larsen, chronicles what was known of his crimes at the time and was subsequently adapted for television as a film of the same name in 1986. At the same time, true-crime writer Ann Rule published her work The Stranger Beside Me (1980), which gives insider insight on Bundy and his crimes as she had been a personal friend of his. The book Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer, which was originally released in 1989, provides transcripts of more than one hundred hours of interviews conducted with Bundy by journalists Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth while he was on death row. In 2019, material from several of these tapes was used to make the Netflix docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, which was released to great media hype on the thirtieth anniversary of Bundy's execution. That same year, after films such as the made-for-television film The Riverman (2004), in which Cary Elwes played the notorious serial killer, and books such as Kevin M. Sullivan's The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History (2009) had further kept interest in Bundy alive, the Netflix film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring Zac Efron as Bundy, was released.
Impact
Although not the first serial murderer in American history, Ted Bundy was one of the most intriguing because of his charm and ability to manipulate his victims and the legal system. Bundy enjoyed taunting the police and baiting the media, reveling in the attention. Scholars are still unsure of the exact number of Bundy’s victims because of the fact that Bundy never fully confessed, although he had been connected to the deaths of at least thirty women. Even up until the last minute, Bundy tried to manipulate and con his way out of execution by offering to confess to his crimes; ultimately, his ploy did not work.
Bibliography
Catsoulis, Jeannette. "'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile' Review: Killing Me Softly." Review of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, directed by Joe Berlinger. The New York Times, 2 May 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/movies/extremely-wicked-shockingly-evil-and-vile-review.html?module=inline. Accessed 3 June 2019.
Michaud, Stephen, and Hugh Aynesworth. Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer. Signet, 1989. The authors were able to interview Bundy preceding his execution in 1989; this is a transcription of those interviews.
Nelson, Polly. Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy’s Last Lawyer. Wm. Morrow, 1994. Nelson provides insight into the litigation surrounding Bundy’s crimes.
Rao, Sonia. "'Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes': What to Know about the Netflix Docuseries." The Washington Post, 27 Jan. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/01/27/conversations-with-killer-ted-bundy-tapes-what-know-about-netflix-docuseries/. Accessed 3 June 2019.
Rule, Ann. The Stranger Beside Me. 4th ed., W. W. Norton, 2000. Written by a woman who had been friends with Bundy, the book describes Bundy’s life and criminal career. The fourth edition adds information about the impact Bundy had on society.