AMERICAN SERIAL KILLER: TED BUNDY

On November 24, 1946, a child was born that would shock the world forever and stand as one of the most prolific serial killers of America. This was Ted Bundy, born Theodore Robert Cowell to Louise Cowell in Vermont.

Ted’s biological father was said to be an air force veteran who was not around for his birth or the extent of Ted’s life, however some speculate that his real father was his grandfather through an atrocious act of incest with Louise. Regardless of the truth, at the time Ted’s mother found it best to move back to Philadelphia, where Ted would be under the impression that his mother was actually his older sister. It is uncertain to say that Ted understood the troubles that were involved with his existence at such a young age, but we do know that it was as young as 3 years old that Ted acted rather strangely. It was at around this age that his aunt recalls incidents of taking naps in her home and waking up “surrounded by knives”, Ted smiling at her side.

Furthermore it is possible that as Ted was heavily exposed to his grandfather, under a more fatherly influence from him, he was able to absorb the violent acts that were said to have taken place around him. His grandfather Samuel apparently was an animal abuser, beating the family dog, and swinging neighborhood cats around by their tails.

Interestingly enough, Ted himself had admitted to torturing animals with knives, and such habits could have been imbedded from earlier on.

After moving to Washington, Louise initiated a relationship with a military cook named Johnnie Culpepper Bundy. This would be how Ted accumulated his infamous last name, after the marriage of the two in May of 1951.

As more additions were made to the family, Ted’s stepfather felt that Ted was becoming antisocial and pulling away from the people around him. To remedy this he decided to put in effort to spend more time with Ted, but these attempts were unsuccessful and Ted’s desire to be alone led to issues with his social abilities. Despite this growing problem and it’s part in Ted’s negative youth dealing with his shyness and those who did not accept him, he retained high grades throughout high school and into college. His studies being the focus of his life, he devoted a lot into interests such as politics and psychology, and even when he began to gain in popularity – did not seek out the regularity that others his age were involved with. It would seem at this point that Ted led a rather manageable life in his teen years, despite of the small instances plaguing him. However, this was not exactly the case. As noted by many later on from what had been detailed of his early life, many eerie occurrences began at this time.

This would include his fascination with pornography at age 13, discovering dirty magazines at a dump near his home. Bundy noted later on that he felt this was the primary cause of his descent into murder, and that his general pornographic interests developed into more violent and bloodthirsty needs of torture inflicted to women. Of course when he had gone that far, he reasoned there wasn’t much further he could go in his fantasies, having a craving to bring his morbid desires into reality. This would lead to voyeurism, peeping into windows and fantasizing about the possibilities. It was also during these years that Ted began to involve himself with other criminal activities, he was a habitual liar, and compulsively stole and shoplifted. He was arrested twice as a juvenile. Ann Rule brings up a chilling idea in her book The Stranger Beside Me that perhaps he had acted out on his more murderous impulses at this age as well, noting that a little girl on Bundy’s paper route vanished, never to be found. This girl would usually try to follow Ted around, and so it is not too farfetched to consider that he may have had a role in her disappearance.

Luckily for Ted, nobody had made any major connections in his behavior at this point, and so he continued on with his life – his next change of scenery being his move into college, he attended the University of Puget Sound and the University of Washington. Bundy led a typical schedule, taking small jobs to get him by. These would be short lived as he was considered unreliable by employers and others around him. School was his first priority, right up until the spring of 1967 when he became involved with a sophisticated young woman who, although was different from Ted in many ways, enjoyed skiing as much as him and through this mutual interest was able to get to know him well.

Unfortunately this was not a love that was reciprocated in the way that Bundy would have hoped - this woman being Ted’s first love and possibly his first sexual relationship as well, but the woman being less interested than he was – believing he had no direction in life, and so seeing him as someone who was not husband material. He would continue to make attempts at impressing her, but failing hopelessly and just allowing her to realize moreso that she was not interested. Ted had gone as far as to win a scholarship to Stanford University in California just to show her what he was capable of, but in aiming out of his league, his immaturity was revealed and in 1968 his girlfriend moved on.
Ted did not recover from the breakup, and it had a very negative toll on everything he was involved in. He began to drop all efforts in school and became increasingly depressed. His obsession with her is one of the major factors that played into his future crimes – his victims having a resemblance to this woman.

It seems this was the beginning of an emotional downfall for Bundy, soon after in 1969 he discovered his true parentage, which increased his distaste for his stepfather amongst other things. In some of his weakest times, his psychopathic nature seemed to be exposed more than ever, however the people who saw this were not able to realize it for what it truly was. It is unclear as to whether it would have helped much at this point though, as Ted Bundy was truly immersed in his problematic subconscious, perhaps in too deep to find a way out. It seems that at this time Ted had learned to hide such things and use this ability to his advantage, being capable of putting forth a newfound dominant character about himself and finding appreciation amongst his peers and professors. He was becoming increasingly likeable, and decreasingly suspect of the things he engaged with in secret. Bundy had the façade of putting everything from the past behind him, looking as though he had moved on just like his former lover – and finding a new one in Elizabeth Kendall, whom he would be involved with for nearly five years. Not everything was as it seemed, and this was very apparent to Elizabeth who did indeed love Ted Bundy. It was now that a little role reversal was going on, and Bundy could not provide the affection or appreciation to Elizabeth that he had made such an effort to give to his first love. Ted continued to put off marriage plans and was found to have been visiting his ex girlfriend from California, perhaps in a new attempt to impress her… which seemed to be working this time, much to Elizabeth’s dismay.

Ted had high hopes for the future, he had applied to various law schools and became more involved with politics, working on campaigns and forming powerful bonds with his choice of Republicans. He had been volunteering at the crisis clinic with Ann Rule, and was commended on a particular instance of saving a young boy from drowning. In all areas he seemed to be an amazing individual. This all might have been very true of Bundy’s personality, but does not excuse the sadistic tendencies he had in private, which were hiding underneath the surface waiting to emerge.

In the early 70’s Ted met with his ex girlfriend, which would be the definitive point in showing off his changes to her. She was impressed by his maturity and now sought to get involved with him once again. The meetings they would have would continue to be unknown to Elizabeth. However, in February of 1974, Bundy would get his revenge on his old girlfriend for how she had treated him years prior. After many indications of marriage with her, he suddenly cut off all communication, leaving the woman confused and heartbroken. There would never be an explanation for her. It was closely surrounding this focal point in Ted’s life that he committed his first documented murder.

Very many people later on would remark how, although Ted had his troubles, he was not unlike the average person going through similar life difficulties. In fact Ted seemed to rise above it all, a talented and intelligent man, turning his situation from struggle and disappointment to hope and success. If he could have controlled himself and confronted his issues, sought help at this point... the negative acts he allowed himself to indulge in would have been unnecessary, what would be left for the world was the Ted everyone thought they knew. Someone with a future, contributing to the world in a positive manner. Bundy did contribute to the world in many ways, unfortunately his primary addition being pain and suffering. It is difficult to pinpoint when this man started killing, as he himself has stated that his murderous tendencies came to life earlier on in comparison to the crimes he is known for, as early as 1972 or ‘73. Although we cannot state conclusively who suffered first, such cruelty is often identified to have began in 1974, with 18 year old Joni Lentz. Joni shared a house in Seattle with some roommates, who did not suspect anything out of the ordinary when she didn’t come downstairs in the morning. What they discovered after becoming worried would horrify them. Upon finding her in bed, it seemed she was sleeping, but closer inspection revealed blood. The details were shocking, Joni had been brutally murdered, a bed rod had been broken off and plunged into her vagina, but although the situation seemed fatal – Lentz was still breathing. She managed to survive the attack, but with permanent brain damage.
21 year old Lynda Ann Healy came next, but did not meet the fate of her predecessor. She too shared a house with some schoolmates, and went out with them on January 31st, 1974 for a few drinks. She made it home that night, but the following morning reportedly did not wake up at her usual 5:30 wakeup call, and furthermore was not seen or heard from that day. When the police were called to the scene, it was discovered that Lynda’s bed was not made the way that she would have left it, and some objects such as a pillowcase and sheets were missing, as well as one of her outfits. Blood was found on several items in her room.

In the following months, several similar cases were reported. All of the girls targeted were white, single, slender, and had long straight hair. At this time witnesses also spoke of a strange man they had seen in the areas of focus, he usually wore a cast on his arm or leg and asked for help with his car, a VW Bug. He was seen where two of the girls had disappeared. The police were forming a solid description of the man who had been continuously taking girls, and such a thing was needed in order for them to catch him before he struck again. It seemed unbelievable how easily he had abducted the women up until this point, it was everyone’s hope that he was getting sloppy enough to have himself caught.

In August of 1974, the remains of some of the missing girls were found and some even identified, those being the bodies of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund who had disappeared at the same time in the month prior. The last people to have seen these girls also identified the same description of a man named Ted asking for their help. At this time his description was posted everywhere and was enough to catch the attention of Ted’s girlfriend, who reported him as a possible suspect – this tip was overlooked at the time as the police did not see how someone like Ted Bundy could have committed these crimes.

Just as the authorities had caught on to the pattern of Bundy, he traveled to a different state to claim his next victims. It was mid October in Midvale, Utah when Melissa Smith had been strangled and raped, her body found a little over a week after. It was not very long following this before Laura Aime went missing on Halloween. She had also been raped and sodomized, then beaten with a crowbar. Utah soon caught onto the profile that police in Washington State were assembling, and were eager to consult with them in an effort to make their investigation stronger. Meanwhile Ted had come to the conclusion that by operating in different states, he might elude investigators. His behavior set him at a loss however, as he became too confident in his plans and acted in a bold manner – often having his would-be victims get away from his grasp and later provide the police with even more information.

On November 8th, 1974, Bundy approached Carol DaRonch posing as an officer for the Murray police department of Utah. He had told her that someone attempted to break into her car, and asked that she come with him. They drove for a while until DaRonch became suspicious, at which time Bundy struggled to put handcuffs on her but did not succeed in properly securing her in them. As Bundy was about to strike with his crowbar, DaRonch blocked it from hitting her and then tumbled out into the highway, escaping. A couple driving past stopped for Carol and took her to the police department where she explained the situation and provided a detailed description of the man who tried to kill her, his car, and other aspects of his attempt. Nearly an hour after this incident, Bundy had lurked around the grounds of Viewmont High School where he used a similar gimmick in an attempt to lead drama students out into the parking lot with him. One student, Debby Kent, had disappeared at that location – where the police found a small key which coincidentally unlocked the handcuffs that Carol DaRonch had presented to them as evidence.

While attending law school at the University of Utah, the location of Bundy’s crimes yet again shifted, this time to Colorado. Over a span of four months from January to April, three more women went missing in the area. In early May another girl, Lynette Culver, went missing in Idaho – taken from her Junior High School. Returning to Utah, another girl disappeared in late June. None of these bodies were able to be recovered, and police were still struggling with the enormous list of suspects, but in the process of cross checking – Ted Bundy’s name was now placed in focus. Little did investigators know that they were closer than they had ever been.

The crime that caught Ted Bundy was merely the failure to stop his car for a police officer, this allowed the contents of Bundy’s car to be discovered which included what were thought to be “burglary tools”, crowbars and handcuffs amongst other items. It was soon realized that these tools were the ones described by the victims who had escaped Bundy, and after police had compared all of the details available, they were certain that they had more than a burglar on their hands. They needed further proof to pin Bundy to these crimes, this is when the many witnesses along with Carol DaRonch were brought in to look at a lineup. All of them positively identified Ted Bundy as the kidnapper and the lurker around many of the crime scenes before girls had gone missing. It was also around this time that statements were being taken from Bundy’s girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall, who told of her suspicions due to the way Bundy was acting towards her and the things he would do in his spare time. He would leave during the nights and usually sleep during the day. He had also pressured her into bondage acts during sex which she expressed her disinterest for. These things along with facts on Ted’s whereabouts would prove to be invaluable evidence against Bundy. A week long trial soon surfaced and had Bundy doing 15 years in prison for the kidnapping of DaRonch, meanwhile he was extradited to stand trial for murder charges which were being formed. Having developed such a separate personality and life from that of his title as a serial killer, Bundy continued to deny having committed any of these crimes and also encouraged people he knew to believe him during this time. Psychological evaluations were done on Bundy to reveal that apparently he was neither “psychotic, neurotic, the victim of an organic brain disease, alcoholic, addicted to drugs”, “and was not a sexual deviate”. The last conclusion conflicting with what Bundy would tell later on of his progression to murder. Aside from these things it was concluded that Ted had a sort of dependency on women, and hated to be humiliated in his relationships.

Ted was adamant about his innocence and in preparation for one of his murder trials he would be taken to Pitkin County courthouse in Aspen, where he was allowed access to the library to look up information to assist himself. Instead of doing this, he jumped from the second-story window and escaped – injuring his ankle in the process. He had made it to the top of Aspen Mountain without being detected by locals, and soon found shelter in a hunting cabin. When later attempting to make his way to another town, he found it difficult to direct himself and had a few close encounters with people who had been searching for him, talking his way out of danger. On June 13th, 1977, Bundy stole a car thinking that he would be able to make it out of the area – but was caught and brought back to prison. Being back under the watchful eye of countless officers did not prevent Bundy from making new plans to escape. His next would include dieting to fit through a hole he had created in the ceiling with an acquired hacksaw. He put this route to use when he was told that he would soon be transferred to another jail for the trial he was to appear for. He had crawled to an area above the absent jailer’s apartment, and had no trouble from that point, simply walking out the door. Bundy’s escape did not go detected until the next afternoon, and by now he had taken a flight to Chicago, planning for his final destination to be Florida. On his way there he certainly allowed himself to relax and enjoy the sights, finally arriving in Tallahassee where he took on a new alias, “Chris Hagen” in January of 1978. Under this new persona in a place where he was not known, he committed petty crimes such as theft and enjoyed time wandering around Florida State University listening to lectures and admiring the intelligence of the youth. He had also been able to develop a new persona that would change his appearance under the name of student Kenneth Misner, now getting a fake mustache. Even attempting to get a job in his newfound comfortable position, he did not have the driver’s license to prove himself at the time and so lost that opportunity. During this time he had enough to keep him content in the midst of what he had been able to steal, but he was out of his murdering habits which had become so natural to him prior to this. He sought the companion of a female, and this is what he targeted.

Ted entered the Chi Omega Sorority house of FSU at around 3 AM where he murdered Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman in their sleep, bludgeoning and strangling both of them, as was regular of Bundy’s killing technique. He then killed Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler to follow up, all of this in a half hour span. This did not end his fix, needing even more to sate himself, he also broke into a home fairly close to the other murder site and severely injured Cheryl Thomas, also a student of FSU. The police had arrived quickly to the scene and discovered her sitting on her bed, her face beginning to swell. A mask had been discovered near her bed which would have been known as one found in Bundy’s car earlier on in his murder spree.

In early February he had moved on to Lake City, where 12 year old Kimberly Leach had been raped and murdered. She had been taken from school grounds. Bundy had abducted her and brought her to a pig shed, throwing her lifeless body underneath it.
About three days later, Ted, with his apparent love of Volkswagen Beetles, stole yet another one and fled. In the early hours of February 15th, 1978, Bundy was stopped by officer David Lee. Finding that the vehicle was stolen, there was a struggle as the officer subdued Bundy and brought him in, not realizing just who he was. Bundy clearly told the officer “I wish you had killed me”.

Florida law enforcement identified him as Ted Bundy the next day, and he was charged with the recent murders.

The trials were now rapidly commencing as more and more facts were coming to the surface to weigh the odds against Bundy and unfold the crimes. Ted had been appointed five different lawyers but still insisted on representing himself, feeling that court appointed assistance was ignorant and also perhaps taking the chance to show off his vibrant personality, and win over the jury.

In June of 1979, the court assessed the Chi Omega murders with Assistant State Attorney Larry Simpson prosecuting. Although he was set to go through more than one trial in the next few years, this case would be the one that determined his ultimate fate – as these murders proved to be his sloppiest and perhaps leave the most incriminating evidence. Ted had now been suspected of over thirty murders in four states, making this trial an obvious attraction to the media who were on it at all costs. Despite Ted’s optimism in acting as his own defense, it became clear early on in the trial that it was hopeless for him. There were simply too many factors convincing the jury of his guilt, one of these being a primary witness testimony of a girl who had very clearly seen Ted during the night of the murders, and the other being that of Dr. Richard Souviron who would reveal the shocking comparisons of teeth indentations discovered on a victim with Bundy’s actual dental photos.

On July 23rd, Bundy was found guilty on all counts of murder. Shortly after on July 30th, Ted was to appear at a sentencing trial where it would be decided how he was to receive his punishment. Along with his mother pleading for her son’s mercy, Ted had refuted the decision for the death penalty, stating that the media had acted in prejudice representing his character and he would not “ask for mercy for something he did not do”. However the presiding Judge over the trials, Judge Cowart, did impose the death penalty upon Ted Bundy as his final verdict. The Judge left him with words rarely, if ever, honestly spoken from the right side of the law previously on a murderer such as Bundy, revealing just what a shame it really was that Ted took on this path for his life; “Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity as I've experienced in this courtroom. You're a bright young man. You'd have made a good lawyer, and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don't feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself.”

In January of 1980 his second trial commenced, which was that of Kimberly Leach’s. He did not defend himself during this time, giving the responsibility to two other lawyers who would use a very different edge than Bundy had. Their plea would stand as their client not being guilty, by reason of insanity – which, although might have been difficult to pull off originally, held some potential now that people were witnessing Bundy continuously lash out. Ted had been using all of his energy to control himself, but quite often would lose control and had even yelled at a witness. It was obvious at this point that Ted had little composure to keep him going, and was beginning to realize it would be wisest to simply accept his grim fate.

During this trial, fiber evidence had proven a key aspect to making the case against Bundy. It had linked Ted’s clothing to the crime scene and the victim herself. It seemed now that this verdict had been sealed, and it would be announced in early February. During the sentencing trial things took a turn when Ted regained some of his charm and outgoing personality whilst deciding to propose to defense witness Carol Anne Boone. Exchanging vows, the oath made in the Florida courtroom had meant they were now legally married. It would be a short-lived romance, Bundy was now being moved back to Raiford Penitentiary to await his death. Conjugal visits allowed to Bundy’s new wife had led to a pregnancy, and Ted Bundy’s daughter would be born in October of 1982. Despite the family he had so quickly created, he was usually more pre-occupied with figuring out ways he could help himself, fighting the courtroom decisions with a new lawyer and appealing as much as he possibly could which did at least manage to lead to the postponing of his death, originally scheduled for March of 1986. He would offer up all he could from his experiences in jail, conversing with other inmates, and at a time even inquiring of what could be done for him if he revealed where some of the missing victims’ bodies were hidden.

His Stark Prison antics were shocking and informative, becoming a gateway to his true nature and other murderers awaiting their death alongside him. His cell was next to the cell of serial killer Ottis Toole, and he was quickly becoming an object of interest to those looking for insight on certain killers. FBI profiler Robert Ressler interviewed Bundy, but Ted was found to be “uncooperative and manipulative”, going to such lengths as speaking in third person and strictly hypothetical terms. He was unable to come to terms with his criminal history, but regardless it was easy for Ressler to come to the conclusion that Bundy was more animalistic than many other serial killers he had studied.

Ted did not remain uncooperative for too long, soon forming a significant bond with Special Agent William Hagmaier from the FBI’s Behavioral Science unit. Hagmaier had much of Bundy’s trust, and this opened a door to confessions made on Ted’s part of murders he had committed, including many details that had not been confirmed during the trials or in the media. He had also made a connection with Homicide Detective Bob Keppel, confessing more of his crimes and even assisting with the search for the Green River Killer. Bundy did provide his own insight on the case, although it did not prove to be any specific help to the task force after the killer. It did manage to end up assisting people in seeing further into Bundy’s mind and determining how his thoughts functioned. The conversations had with Keppel, and the trust that had been formed, led to even more information regarding the whereabouts of bodies in the case of Bundy’s victims. It also led to disturbing finds which nobody would have guessed could be applied to Ted, such as the fact that he sometimes kept the heads of his victims as “trophies”, or that he would engage in necrophilia with some of the remains. Revelations of Ted Bundy’s personality clearly showed that Ted was still very much in the mode of a killer, he was purely evil and made it seem very apparent to those speaking with him at the end of his days that he was aware of his crimes down to the grittiest detail, and took a certain amount of enjoyment in what he had done. Whether insanity truly factored into his actions, or pure animalism spun out of control, was an interesting and difficult thing to determine. The many sides to Bundy were no longer so separate, it was becoming easy to see how even admirable traits found in him could be utilized for horrifying and psychopathic acts. All of him was of one frame which simply shifted depending on if he was being condemned or praised.

Ultimately, keen researchers of Bundy’s nature such as Keppel and also Ann Rule, would come to the conclusion that such compulsions found in Bundy could not have been dormant for long. It was very likely that Ted Bundy was responsible for the deaths of at least one hundred women, but with this speculation in mind, we will never be certain of the true count.

Before his death he was involved in a unique interview, as referred to earlier on in the article. In it he spoke of his addiction to pornography, and the fact that despite efforts to protect society from him, there were many more people with the same issues in the world that were not being taken care of – and perhaps it would soon be out of the authorities’ control. It cannot be verified whether this was simply all out of a pornography addiction, it is possible that his actions were provoked by this, but one can consider that regardless of how it began it did escalate into something much more vicious. This does however still remain an intriguing point to note, as Bundy directed us to the idea of there being a “root” to evils such as the ones he had committed.

Although Bundy contemplated suicide many times before his date of execution, he ended up having his verdict come to life. Something he was not able to escape. His last words asking for his love to be given to his family and friends, he was executed in the electric chair at 7:06 AM on January 24th, 1989.