“ Murder is not about lust and it's not about violence. It's about possession. When you feel the last breath of life coming out of the woman, you look into her eyes. At the point, it's being God. „
Biography[]
Theodore Robert Bundy (born Cowell; November 24, 1946 — January 24, 1989) was a European-American serial killer.
Childhood[]
Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946, to Eleanor Louise Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington, Vermont. His biological father's identity has never been confirmed; his original birth certificate apparently assigns paternity to a salesman and United States Air Force veteran named Lloyd Marshall, though a copy of it listed his father as unknown. Louise claimed she met a war veteran named Jack Worthington, who abandoned her soon after she became pregnant. Census records reveal that several men by the name of John Worthington and Lloyd Marshall lived near Louise when Bundy was conceived. Some family members expressed suspicions that Bundy was sired by Louise's own father, Samuel Cowell. However, in the 2020 documentary film Crazy, Not Insane, psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis claimed she received a sample of Bundy's blood and that a DNA test had confirmed that he was not the product of incest.
For the first three years of his life, Bundy lived in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia with his maternal grandparents, Samuel Knecht Cowell (1898–1983) and Eleanor Miriam Longstreet (1895–1971). The couple raised him as their son to avoid the social stigma that accompanied childbirth outside of wedlock at that time. Family, friends and even young Bundy were told that his grandparents were his parents and that his mother was his older sister. Bundy eventually discovered the truth, although his recollections of the circumstances varied; he told a girlfriend that a cousin showed him a copy of his birth certificate after calling him a "bastard", but he told biographers Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth that he had found the certificate himself. Biographer and true crime writer Ann Rule, who knew Bundy personally, wrote that he did not find out about his true parentage until 1969, when he located his original birth record in Vermont. Bundy expressed a lifelong resentment toward his mother for never telling him about his real father, and for leaving him to discover the truth about his paternity for himself.
In some interviews, Bundy spoke warmly of his grandparents and told Rule that he "identified with", "respected" and "clung to" his grandfather Samuel. In 1987, however, he and other family members told attorneys that Samuel was a tyrannical bully who beat his wife and dog, swung neighborhood cats by their tails and expressed racist and xenophobic attitudes. In one instance, Samuel reportedly threw his daughter Julia down a flight of stairs for oversleeping. He would sometimes speak aloud to unseen presences, and at least once flew into a violent rage when the question of Bundy's paternity was raised. Bundy described his grandmother as a timid and obedient woman who periodically underwent electroconvulsive therapy for depression and was afraid to leave their house toward the end of her life.
These descriptions of Bundy's grandparents have been questioned in more recent investigations. Some locals in Roxborough remembered Samuel as a "fine man" and expressed bewilderment at the reports of him being violent. "The characterization that [Sam] was a raging alcoholic and animal abuser was a convenient characterization used to make people justify why Ted was the way he was", said one of Bundy's cousins. "From my limited exposure to him, nothing could be farther from the truth. His daughters loved him dearly and had nothing but fond memories of him." In addition, Louise's younger sister Audrey Cowell stated that their mother could not leave her home because she suffered a stroke due to being overweight and was not mentally ill.
In 1950, Louise changed her surname from Cowell to Nelson and, at the urging of multiple family members, left Philadelphia with her son to live with cousins Alan and Jane Scott in Tacoma, Washington. The following year she met Johnny Culpepper Bundy (1921–2007), a hospital cook, at an adult singles night at Tacoma's First Methodist Church. They married later that year and Johnny formally adopted Bundy. Johnny and Louise conceived four children together, and though Johnny tried to include his adopted son in camping trips and other family activities, Bundy remained distant from him. Bundy would later complain to a girlfriend that Johnny "was not his real father", "wasn't very bright" and "didn't make much money"
Bundy exhibited disturbing behavior at an early age. Louise's youngest sister, Julia Cowell, recalled awakening from a nap to find herself surrounded by knives from the kitchen, and three-year-old Bundy standing by the bed, smiling. Sandi Holt, a childhood neighbor in Tacoma, recalled Bundy as a "mean-spirited kid" who "liked to inflict pain and suffering and fear". According to Holt, Bundy once engaged in animal cruelty by hanging a stray cat from his backyard clothesline and setting it on fire with lighter fluid. She also claimed that Bundy would take younger children from the neighborhood into the woods, force them to strip and proceeded to terrorize them: "You'd hear them screaming for blocks, I mean no matter where we were here, we could hear them screaming." Bundy reportedly built makeshift punji traps around his Tacoma neighborhood, injuring at least one girl.
Bundy varied his recollections of Tacoma in later years. To Michaud and Aynesworth, he described picking through trash barrels in search of pictures of naked women. To attorney and author Polly Nelson, he said that he perused detective magazines and crime novels for stories that involved sexual violence, particularly when the stories were illustrated with pictures of dead or maimed women. In a letter to Rule, however, he asserted that he "never, ever read fact-detective magazines, and shuddered at the thought that anyone would". He once told Michaud that he would consume large quantities of alcohol and "canvass the community" late at night in search of undraped windows where he could observe women undressing, or "whatever [else] could be seen". Psychologist Al Carlisle claimed that Bundy "started fantasizing about women he saw while window peeping or elsewhere [and] mimicking the accents of some politicians he listened to on the radio. In essence, he was fantasizing about being someone else, someone important”.
Accounts of Bundy's social life also varied. He told Michaud and Aynesworth that he "chose to be alone" as an adolescent because he was unable to understand interpersonal relationships; he also claimed to have no natural sense of how to develop friendships. "I didn't know what made people want to be friends", Bundy claimed. "I didn't know what underlay social interactions." "Some people perceived me as being shy and introverted", he said. "I didn't go to dances. I didn't go on the beer drinking outings. I was a pretty, you might call me straight, but not a social outcast in any way." During his time at Hunt Junior High School, Bundy endured "merciless teasing" from his classmates, who poured cold water on him as he showered in privacy in a stall; shunning the open showers where the rest of his classmates showered. Classmates from Woodrow Wilson High School, however, told Rule that Bundy was "well known and well liked" there, "a medium-sized fish in a large pond". His only significant athletic avocation was downhill skiing, which he pursued enthusiastically with stolen equipment and forged lift tickets. During high school, Bundy was arrested at least twice on suspicion of burglary and motor vehicle theft. At age 18, the details of these incidents were expunged from his record, as is customary in Washington and many other states.
University years[]
After graduating from high school in 1965, Bundy attended the University of Puget Sound (UPS) for one year before transferring to the University of Washington (UW) to study Chinese.[45] In 1967, he became romantically involved with a UW classmate, Diane Edwards (identified in Bundy biographies by several pseudonyms, most commonly "Stephanie Brooks"). Bundy later described Edwards as "the only woman I ever really loved".
In early 1968, Bundy dropped out of college and worked a series of minimum-wage jobs. He also volunteered at the Seattle office of Nelson Rockefeller's presidential campaign and became Arthur Fletcher's driver and bodyguard during Fletcher's campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Washington State. Edwards graduated in the spring of 1968 and left Washington for San Francisco. Bundy visited her later that year after he earned a scholarship to study Chinese at Stanford University that summer.
In August, Bundy attended the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami. Shortly thereafter, Edwards ended their relationship and returned to her family home in California, frustrated by what she described as Bundy's immaturity and lack of ambition. Lewis would later pinpoint this crisis as "probably the pivotal time in his development". Devastated by the breakup, Bundy traveled to Colorado and then farther east, visiting relatives in Arkansas and Philadelphia and enrolling for one semester at Temple University. During his studies, he frequently visited New York City, where he was drawn to pornography. He immersed himself in violent pornographic literature while nursing his wounds from the breakup. It was also at this time, Rule believed, that Bundy discovered his true parentage in Vermont.
Bundy returned to Washington in the fall of 1969, when he met Elizabeth Kloepfer (identified in Bundy literature as "Meg Anders", "Beth Archer" or "Liz Kendall"), a single mother from Ogden, Utah, who worked as a secretary at the UW School of Medicine. Their tumultuous relationship would continue well past his initial incarceration in Utah in 1976. Bundy became a father figure to Kloepfer's daughter Molly, who was three years old when he started dating her mother; he remained in her life until she was aged 10, after he had been arrested. As an adult, Molly wrote of incidents beginning at age 7 in which Bundy was abusive or sexually inappropriate with her. Her accounts include Bundy hitting her in the face, knocking her down, putting her at risk of drowning, indecent exposure and sexual touching disguised as accidents or "games".
In mid-1970, Bundy, now focused and goal-oriented, re-enrolled at UW, this time as a psychology major. He became an honor student and was well regarded by his professors. In 1971, he took a job at Seattle's Suicide Hotline Crisis Center. There, he met and worked alongside Rule, a former Seattle police officer and aspiring crime writer who would later write one of the definitive Bundy biographies, The Stranger Beside Me. Rule saw nothing disturbing in Bundy's personality at the time; she described him as "kind, solicitous, and empathetic".
After graduating from UW in 1972, Bundy joined Governor Daniel J. Evans's re-election campaign. Posing as a college student, he shadowed Evans' opponent, former governor Albert Rosellini, and recorded his stump speeches for analysis by Evans's team. Evans subsequently appointed Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee. After Evans was re-elected, Bundy was hired as an assistant to Ross Davis, Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. Davis thought well of Bundy and described him as "smart, aggressive ... and a believer in the system". In early 1973, despite mediocre LSAT scores, Bundy was accepted into the law schools of UPS and the University of Utah (U of U) on the strength of letters of recommendation from Evans, Davis and several UW psychology professors.
During a trip to California on Republican Party business in the summer of 1973, Bundy rekindled his relationship with Edwards. She marveled at his transformation into a serious and dedicated professional, seemingly on the cusp of a significant legal and political career. Bundy continued to date Kloepfer as well; neither woman was aware of the other's existence. In the fall of 1973, Bundy matriculated at UPS Law School, and continued courting Edwards, who flew to Seattle several times to stay with him. They discussed marriage; at one point he introduced her to Davis as his fiancée.
In January 1974, Bundy abruptly broke off all contact with Edwards; her phone calls and letters went unreturned. When she finally reached him by phone a month later, she demanded to know why he had unilaterally ended their relationship without explanation. In a flat, calm voice, he replied, "Diane, I have no idea what you mean", and hung up. She never heard from him again. Bundy later explained, "I just wanted to prove to myself that I could have married her"; but Edwards concluded in retrospect that "Ted's high-power courtship in the latter part of 1973 had been deliberately planned, that he had waited all those years to be in a position of where he could make her fall in love with him, so that he could drop her, reject her, as she had rejected him.” By then, Bundy had begun skipping classes at law school. By April, he had stopped attending entirely, as young women began to disappear in the Pacific Northwest.
First murders[]
There is no consensus as to when or where Bundy began killing women. He told different stories to different people and refused to divulge the specifics of his earliest crimes, even as he confessed in graphic detail to dozens of later murders in the days preceding his execution. Bundy told Nelson that he attempted his first kidnapping in Ocean City, New Jersey, in 1969, but did not kill anyone until some time in 1971 in Seattle..He told psychologist Art Norman that he killed two women in Atlantic City while visiting family in Philadelphia in 1969. Bundy hinted to homicide detective Robert D. Keppel that he committed a murder in Seattle in 1972 and another murder in 1973 that involved a hitchhiker near Tumwater, but he refused to elaborate..Rule and Keppel both believed that he might have started killing as a teenager. Bundy's earliest documented homicides were committed in 1974, when he was 27. By his own admission, he had by then mastered the necessary skills – in the era before DNA profiling – to leave minimal incriminating forensic evidence at crime scenes.
Murder spree in the Western states[]
Washington, Oregon[]
Shortly after midnight on January 4, 1974, around the time that he terminated his relationship with Edwards, Bundy entered the basement apartment of 18-year-old Karen Sparks (often identified as "Joni Lenz", "Mary Adams" and "Terri Caldwell" in Bundy literature), a dancer and student at UW in Seattle's University District. After bludgeoning Sparks with a metal rod from her bed frame, he sexually assaulted her with the same rod causing extensive internal injuries and rupturing her bladder. Sparks remained unconscious in the hospital for ten days.and although she survived, she was left with permanent brain damage with significant loss to her vision and hearing. In the early morning hours of February 1, Bundy broke into the basement room of 21-year-old Lynda Ann Healy, a UW undergraduate who broadcast morning radio weather reports for skiers. He beat her unconscious, dressed her in blue jeans, a white blouse and boots, and carried her away. He later stated that he drove Healy to a secluded area, where he raped and murdered her before dumping her body.
During the first half of 1974, female college students disappeared at the rate of about one per month. On March 12, Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year-old student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, 60 miles (95 km) southwest of Seattle, left her dormitory to attend a jazz concert on campus but never arrived. Bundy claimed that he burned Manson's skull in his girlfriend's fireplace "down to the last ash" in "a fit of... paranoia and cleanliness". On April 17, 18-year-old Susan Elaine Rancourt disappeared while on her way to her dorm room after an evening advisors' meeting at Central Washington State College in Ellensburg, 110 miles (175 km) southeast of Seattle. Two female Central Washington students later came forward to report encounters—one on the night of Rancourt's disappearance, the other three nights earlier—with a man wearing a sling, who was asking for help carrying a load of books to his brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle.
On May 6, Roberta Kathleen Parks, aged 22, left her dormitory at Oregon State University in Corvallis, 260 miles (420 km) south of Seattle, to have coffee with friends at the Memorial Union, but never arrived. Bundy claimed that he spotted Parks in the cafeteria and persuaded her to go with him to a bar. After they got into his car, he tied and gagged Parks and drove her back to Washington to be killed, raping her twice on the way. On June 1, Brenda Carol Ball, aged 22, disappeared after leaving the Flame Tavern in Burien, near Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. She was last seen in the parking lot, talking to a brown-haired man with his arm in a sling. Bundy later stated he brought Ball back to his residence where they had a "consensual" sexual encounter before he strangled her while she was sleeping; although this failed to explain the damage done to her skull. Investigators from Seattle and King County grew increasingly concerned. There was no significant physical evidence, and the missing women had little in common apart from similar appearance: young, attractive, white college students with long hair parted in the middle.
In the early hours of June 11, 18-year-old UW student Georgann Hawkins vanished while walking down a brightly lit alley between her boyfriend's dormitory residence and her sorority house. The next morning, three Seattle homicide detectives and a criminalist combed the entire alleyway on their hands and knees, finding nothing.[103] Bundy later told Keppel that he lured Hawkins to his car and knocked her unconscious with a crowbar. After handcuffing her, he drove her to Issaquah, a suburb 20 miles (30 km) east of Seattle, where he strangled her and spent the entire night with her body. The next afternoon he returned to the UW alley and, in the very midst of a major crime scene investigation, located and gathered Hawkins' earrings and one of her shoes where he had left them in the adjoining parking lot and departed, unobserved. "It was a feat so brazen", wrote Keppel, "that it astonishes police even today". Bundy said he revisited Hawkins' corpse on three occasions.
After Hawkins' disappearance was publicized, witnesses came forward to report seeing a man on crutches, with a leg cast and carrying a briefcase, in an alley behind a nearby dormitory on the night of her disappearance. One woman recalled that the man asked her to help him carry the case to his car, a light brown Volkswagen Beetle. During this period, Bundy was working in Olympia as the assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee, where he wrote a pamphlet for women on rape prevention. Later, he worked at the Department of Emergency Services (DES), a state government agency involved in the search for the missing women. At the DES he met and began dating Carole Ann Boone (1947–2018), a twice-divorced mother of two who would play an important role in the final phase of his life six years later.
Reports of the brutal attack on Sparks and the six missing women appeared prominently in newspapers and on television throughout Washington and Oregon. Fear spread among the population; hitchhiking by young women dropped sharply. Pressure mounted on law enforcement agencies, but the scarcity of physical evidence severely hampered them. Police would not provide reporters with the little information that was available for fear of compromising the investigation. Further similarities between the victims were noted: the disappearances all took place at night, usually near ongoing construction work and were within a week of midterm or final exams. All of the victims were wearing slacks or blue jeans when they disappeared, and at many crime scenes there were sightings of a man wearing a cast or a sling and driving a brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle.
The Washington and Oregon murders culminated on July 14 with the abductions in broad daylight of two women from a crowded beach at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah. Four female witnesses described an attractive young man wearing a white tennis outfit with his left arm in a sling, speaking with a light accent, perhaps Canadian or British. Introducing himself as "Ted", he asked their help in unloading a sailboat from his tan or bronze-colored Volkswagen Beetle. Three refused; one accompanied him as far as his car, saw that there was no sailboat and fled. Three additional witnesses saw "Ted" approach 23-year-old Janice Ann Ott, a probation caseworker at the King County Juvenile Court, and watched her leave the beach in his company. About four hours later, Denise Marie Naslund, a 19-year-old woman who was studying to become a computer programmer, left a picnic to go to the restroom and never returned. Bundy told Michaud and FBI agent William Hagmaier that Ott was still alive when he returned with Naslund and that he forced one to watch as he assaulted and murdered the other, but he later denied this in an interview with Lewis on the eve of his execution
King County police, finally armed with a detailed description of their suspect and his car, posted fliers throughout the Seattle area. A composite sketch was printed in regional newspapers and broadcast on local television stations. Kloepfer, Rule, a DES employee and a UW psychology professor all recognized the profile, the sketch and the car, and reported Bundy as a possible suspect; but detectives—who were receiving up to 200 tips per day—thought it unlikely that a clean-cut law student with no adult criminal record could be the perpetrator. On September 6, two grouse hunters stumbled across the skeletal remains of Ott and Naslund near a service road in Issaquah, 2 miles (3 km) east of Lake Sammamish State Park. An extra femur and several vertebrae found at the site were later identified by Bundy as those of Hawkins. Six months later, forestry students from Green River Community College discovered the skulls and mandibles of Healy, Rancourt, Parks and Ball on Taylor Mountain, where Bundy frequently hiked, just east of Issaquah. Manson's remains were never recovered.
Idaho, Utah, Colorado[]
In August 1974, Bundy received a second acceptance from the U of U Law School and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, leaving Kloepfer in Seattle. While he called Kloepfer often, he dated "at least a dozen" other women. As he studied the first-year law curriculum a second time, Bundy was devastated to find out that the other students "had something, some intellectual capacity" that he did not. He found the classes completely incomprehensible. "It was a great disappointment to me", he said. A new string of homicides began the following month, including two that would remain undiscovered until Bundy confessed to them shortly before his execution.
On September 2, Bundy raped and strangled a still-unidentified hitchhiker in Idaho, then returned the next day to photograph and dismember the corpse before disposing of the remains in a nearby river. On October 2, he abducted 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox in Holladay, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Bundy confessed that Wilcox was walking on a poorly lit "main roadway" when he parked his car and forced her into an orchard at knifepoint. He then restrained her, put her into his vehicle and drove back to his apartment, where he allegedly kept her for 24 hours. Bundy informed investigators that her remains were buried near Capitol Reef National Park, some 200 miles (320 km) south of Holladay, but they were never found.
On October 18, Melissa Anne Smith—the 17-year-old daughter of the police chief of Midvale, another Salt Lake City suburb—disappeared after leaving a pizza parlor at around 9:30 p.m. Her nude body was found in a nearby mountainous area nine days later; post-mortem examination indicated that she may have remained alive for up to seven days following her disappearance. On October 31, Laura Ann Aime, also aged 17, disappeared 25 miles (40 km) south of Lehi after leaving a Halloween party by herself just after midnight; she was last seen trying to hitchhike. Her nude body was found by hikers 9 miles (14 km) to the northeast in American Fork Canyon on Thanksgiving Day. The medical examiner estimated that Aime had died on November 20; twenty days after her disappearance. Both Smith and Aime had been beaten, raped, sodomized and strangled with nylon stockings. Years later, Bundy described his post-mortem rituals with the corpses of Smith and Aime, including hair shampooing and application of makeup.
In the late afternoon of November 8, Bundy approached 18-year-old telephone operator Carol DaRonch at Fashion Place Mall in Murray, less than a mile from the Midvale restaurant where Smith was last seen. He identified himself as "Officer Roseland" of the Murray Police Department, told DaRonch that someone had attempted to break into her car and asked her to accompany him to the station to file a complaint. When DaRonch pointed out to Bundy that he was driving on a road that did not lead to the police station, he immediately pulled onto the shoulder and attempted to handcuff her. During their struggle, he inadvertently fastened both handcuffs to the same wrist, and DaRonch was able to open the car door and escape.
Later that evening, Debra Jean Kent, a 17-year-old student at Viewmont High School in Bountiful, 20 miles (30 km) north of Murray, disappeared after leaving a theater production at the school to pick up her brother. The school's drama teacher and a student told police that "a stranger" had asked each of them to come out to the parking lot to identify a car. Another student later saw the same man pacing in the rear of the auditorium, and the drama teacher spotted him again shortly before the end of the play. Outside the auditorium, investigators found a key that unlocked the handcuffs removed from DaRonch's wrist. Bundy eventually admitted to abducting Kent and keeping her at his apartment for a day, stating she was alive "during half of it".
In November, Kloepfer called King County police a second time after reading that young women were disappearing in towns surrounding Salt Lake City. Detective Randy Hergesheimer of the Major Crimes division interviewed her in detail. By then, Bundy had risen considerably on the King County hierarchy of suspicion, but the Lake Sammamish witness considered most reliable by detectives failed to identify him from a photo lineup. In December, Kloepfer called the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office and repeated her suspicions. Bundy's name was added to their list of suspects, but at that time no credible forensic evidence linked him to the Utah murders. In January 1975, Bundy returned to Seattle after his final exams and spent a week with Kloepfer, who did not tell him that she had reported him to police on three occasions. She made plans to visit him in Salt Lake City in August.
In 1975, Bundy shifted much of his criminal activity eastward, from his base in Utah to Colorado. On January 12, a 23-year-old registered nurse named Caryn Eileen Campbell disappeared while walking down a well-lit hallway between the elevator and her room at the Wildwood Inn (now the Wildwood Lodge) in Snowmass Village, 400 miles (640 km) southeast of Salt Lake City. Her nude body was found a month later next to a dirt road just outside the resort. According to the coroner's report, she had been killed by blows to her head from a blunt instrument that left distinctive linear grooved depressions on her skull; her assailant had slit her left earlobe and her body also bore deep cuts from a sharp weapon.
On March 15, 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Snowmass Village, Vail ski instructor Julie Lyle Cunningham, aged 26, disappeared while walking from her apartment to a dinner date with a friend. Bundy later told Colorado investigators that he approached Cunningham on crutches and asked her to help carry his ski boots to his car, where he clubbed and handcuffed her before sexually assaulting her at a secondary site near Rifle, 90 miles (140 km) west of Vail. Weeks later, he made the six-hour drive from Salt Lake City to revisit her remains.
Denise Lynn Oliverson, aged 25, disappeared near the Utah–Colorado border in Grand Junction on April 6 while riding her bicycle to her parents' house; her bike and sandals were found under a viaduct near a railroad bridge. Bundy stated he abducted Oliverson, killed her in his car near the Utah state line and dumped her body in the Colorado River. This admission was supported by gas receipts, which showed that he was in the city on the same day that Oliverson went missing. On May 6, Bundy parked outside of the Alameda Junior High School in Pocatello, Idaho, 160 miles (255 km) north of Salt Lake City, and after seeing 12-year-old Lynnette Dawn Culver walking alone, lured her into his vehicle before driving her to his Holiday Inn hotel room. There he raped Culver and drowned her in the bathtub. He disposed of her body in the Snake River north of Pocatello. Bundy reportedly provided intimate details about Lynette's personal life in his confession.
In mid-May, three of Bundy's Washington State DES co-workers, including Boone, visited him in Salt Lake City and stayed for a week in his apartment. He subsequently spent a week in Seattle with Kloepfer in early-June and they discussed getting married the following Christmas. Again, Kloepfer made no mention of her multiple discussions with authorities in King County and Salt Lake County. Bundy disclosed neither his ongoing relationship with Boone nor a concurrent romance with a U of U law student (known in various accounts as either "Kim Andrews" or "Sharon Auer").
On June 28, 15-year-old Susan Curtis vanished from the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, 45 miles (70 km) south of Salt Lake City. Her murder became Bundy's last confession, tape-recorded moments before he entered the execution chamber. The bodies of victims Wilcox, Kent, Cunningham, Oliverson, Culver and Curtis were never recovered. In August 1975, Bundy was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although he was not an active participant in services and ignored most church restrictions. He would later be excommunicated following his 1976 kidnapping conviction. When asked his religious preference after his arrest, Bundy answered "Methodist", the religion of his childhood.
In Washington State, investigators were still struggling to analyze the Pacific Northwest murder spree that had ended as abruptly as it had begun. In an effort to make sense of an overwhelming mass of data, they resorted to the then-innovative strategy of compiling a database. They employed the King County payroll computer, a "huge, primitive machine" by contemporary standards, but the only one available for their use. After inputting the many lists they had compiled—classmates and acquaintances of each victim, Volkswagen owners named "Ted", known sex offenders and so on—they queried the computer for coincidences. Out of thousands of names, 26 turned up on four lists; one was Bundy. Detectives also manually compiled a list of their 100 "best" suspects, and Bundy was on that list as well. He was "literally at the top of the pile" of suspects when word came from Utah of his arrest.
Arrest and first trial[]
On August 16, 1975, Bundy was arrested by Utah Highway Patrol officer Bob Hayward in Granger, another Salt Lake City suburb. Hayward observed Bundy cruising a residential area in his Volkswagen Beetle during the pre-dawn hours, and fleeing at high speed after seeing the patrol car. He also noticed that the Volkswagen's front passenger seat had been removed and placed on the rear seats. Searching the car, Hayward found a ski mask, a second mask fashioned from pantyhose, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, a coil of rope, an ice pick and other items initially assumed to be burglary tools. Bundy explained that the ski mask was for skiing, he had found the handcuffs in a dumpster and the rest were common household items. However, Detective Jerry Thompson remembered a similar suspect and car description from the DaRonch kidnapping in November 1974, and Bundy's name from Kloepfer's phone call a month later. In a search of Bundy's apartment, police found a guide to Colorado ski resorts with a checkmark by the Wildwood Inn, and a brochure that advertised the Viewmont High School play in Bountiful, where Kent had disappeared. Police did not have sufficient evidence to detain Bundy, so he was released on his own recognizance. Bundy later said that searchers missed a hidden collection of Polaroid photographs of his victims, which he destroyed after he was released.
Death[]
Ted Bundy was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989, at 7:00 AM. He was declared dead at 7:16 AM[1]. His crimes and the brutality of his acts shocked the nation. Although Bundy's intelligence, charisma, and ability to blend into society contributed to his notoriety as one of the most infamous serial killers erican history, these traits have often been exaggerated by the media, amplifying his infamy.
Bundy's case continues to be studied by criminal psychologists, and his life has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and films. His ability to manipulate and deceive has left an indelible mark on the public's perception of serial killers.
Victims[]
Confirmed victims[]
| # | Name | Age | Date of Death | Location of Death | Cause of Death |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lynda Ann Healy | 21 | February 1, 1974 | University of Washington, Washington | Bludgeoning |
| 2 | Donna Manson | 19 | March 12, 1974 | Evergreen St. College, Olympia, Washington | Never found |
| 3 | Susan Rancourt | 18 | April 17, 1974 | Central Washington St. College, Ellensbur, Washington | |
| 4 | Kathy Parks | 22 | May 6, 1974 | Corvallis, Oregon | |
| 5 | Brenda Ball | 22 | June 1, 1974 | Burien, Washington | |
| 6 | Georgann Hawkins[note 1] | 18 | June 11, 1974 | University of Washington, Seattle, Washington | |
| 7 | Janice Ott | 23 | July 14, 1974 (12:30 AM) | Lake Sammamish State Park, Washington | |
| 8 | Denise Naslund | 19 | July 14, 1974 (4:40 PM) | Lake Sammamish State Park, Washington | |
| 9 | Nancy Wilcox | 16 | October 2, 1974 | Holladay, Utah | Strangulation |
| 10 | Melissa Smith | 17 | October 18, 1974 | Midvale, Utah | Strangulation |
| 11 | Laura Aime | 17 | October 31, 1974 | Lehi, Utah | Bludgeoning |
| 12 | Debbie Kent | 17 | November 8, 1974 | Bountiful, Utah | |
| 13 | Caryn Campbell | 23 | January 12, 1975 | Snowmass, Colorado | Bludgeoning |
| 14 | Julie Cunningham | 26 | March 15, 1975 | Vail, Colorado | Never found |
| 15 | Denise Oliverson | 25 | April 6, 1975 | Grand Junction, Colorado | Never found |
| 16 | Lynette Culver | 12 | May 6, 1975 | Pocatello, Idaho | Drowning, Never found |
| 17 | Susan Curtis | 15 | June 28, 1975 | Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah | Never found |
| 18 | Margaret Bowman | 21 | January 15, 1978 | Tallahassee, Florida | Strangulation |
| 19 | Lisa Levy | 20 | January 15, 1978 | Tallahassee, Florida | Strangulation |
| 20 | Kimberly Leach | 12 | February 9, 1978 | Lake City, Florida |
Survivors[]
| # | Name | Age | Date of Attack | Location of Attack | Method of Attack |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karen Sparks[note 2] | 18 | January 4, 1974 | Seattle, Washington | Bludgeoning |
| 2 | Lisa E. Wick | 20 | June 23, 1966 | Seattle, Washington | Bludgeoning |
| 3 | Elizabeth "Liz" Kloepfer | 28 | July 4, 1974 | Yakima River, Washington | Drowning |
| 4 | Janice Graham | 22 | July 14, 1974 (12:20 AM) | Lake Sammamish State Park, Washington | Attempted abduction |
| 5 | Sindi Siebenbam | 16 | July 14, 1974 (4 PM) | Lake Sammamish State Park, Washington | Attempted abduction |
| 6 | Patricia Ann Turner | July 14, 1974 (4:15 PM) | Lake Sammamish State Park, Washington | Attempted abduction | |
| 7 | Jacqueline Plischke | July 14, 1974 (4:20 PM) | Lake Sammamish State Park, Washington | Attempted abduction | |
| 8 | Carol DaRonch | 18 | November 8, 1974 | Murray, Utah | Bludgeoning |
| 9 | Karen Chandler | 21 | January 15, 1978 | Tallahassee, Florida | Bludgeoning |
| 10 | Kathy Kleiner | 21 | January 15, 1978 | Tallahassee, Florida | Bludgeoning |
| 11 | Cheryl Thomas | 21 | January 15, 1978 | Tallahassee, Florida | Bludgeoning |
Suspected victims[]
| # | Name | Age | Date of Death | Location of Death | Cause of Death |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ann Marie Burr | 8 | August 31, 1961 | Tacoma, Washington | Disappeared; never found |
| 2 | Lonnie Trumbull | 20 | June 23, 1966 | Seattle, Washington | Bludgeoning |
| 3 | Susan Davis | 19 | May 30, 1969 | Somers Point, New Jersey | Stabbing |
| 4 | Elizabeth Perry | 19 | May 30, 1969 | Somers Point, New Jersey | Stabbing |
| 6 | Joyce LePage | 21 | July 22, 1971 | Pullman, Washington | |
| 7 | Rita Lorraine Jolly | 17 | June 29, 1973 | West Linn, Oregon | Disappeared; never found |
| 8 | Vicki Lynn Hollar | 24 | August 20, 1973 | Eugene, Oregon | Disappeared; never found |
| 9 | Brenda Baker | 14 | May 27, 1974 | Puyallup, Washington | |
| 10 | Sandra Jean Weaver | 19 | July 1, 1974 | Salt Lake City, Utah | |
| 11 | Carol Platt Valenzuela | 20 | August 2, 1974[note 3] | near Vancouver, Washington | |
| 12 | Unidentified teenage hitchhiker[note 4] | September 2, 1974 | Idaho | Never found | |
| 13 | Melanie "Suzy" Cooley | 18 | April 15, 1975 | Nederland, Colorado | Bludgeoning/Strangulation |
| 14 | Shelley Robertson | 24 | July 1, 1975 | Golden, Colorado | |
| 15 | Nancy Baird | 23 | July 4, 1975 | Farmington, Utah | Disappeared; never found |
| 16 | Debbie Smith | 17 | February 1976 | Salt Lake City, Utah |
Disproven victims[]
| # | Name | Age | Date of Death | Location of Death | Cause of Death | Real Killer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kathy Devine | 14 | November 25, 1973 | near Olympia, Washington | Disappeared; never found | William Cosden |
| 2 | Rita Curran | 24 | July 19, 1971 | Burlington, Vermont | Strangulation/Bludgeoning | William Richard DeRoos |
| 3 | Martha Morrison | 17 | September 1974[note 5] | near Vancouver, Washington | Unknown | Warren Forrest |
- Shortly re his execution, Bundy faced inquiries regarding unsolved murders in various states, including New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, and Miami, Florida. Despite his persistent denial of involvement in these cases, Bundy had previously hinted at undisclosed murders he committed, leaving these investigations unresolved.
- Following his capture, Bundy came under suspicion for the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, a series of at least seven homicides involving female hitchhikers in Sonoma County and Santa Rosa between 1972 and 1973. Despite Bundy spending time in neighboring Marin County, a Sonoma County detective ruled him out as a suspect. Furthermore, evidence confirmed his presence in Washington during some of the victims' disappearances.
- In the period leading up to his execution, Bundy confided in his lawyer, asserting that he was responsible for over 100 murders. He claimed that his first victim was, in fact, a man.
Timeline[]
| Date | Age | Event |
|---|---|---|
| November 24, 1946 | 0 | Theodore Robert Bundy is born in Burlington, Vermont. |
| January 4, 1974 | 27 | Bundy assaults and murders his first confirmed victim, Karen Sparks, in Seattle, Washington. |
| February 1, 1974 | Lynda Ann Healy disappears from the University District of Seattle. | |
| March 12, 1974 | Donna Gail Manson disappears. | |
| April 17, 1974 | Susan Rancourt disappears. | |
| June 1, 1974 | Brenda Ball disappears. | |
| June 11, 1974 | Georgann Hawkins disappears. | |
| July 14, 1974 | Janice Ott and Denise Naslund disappear from Lake Sammamish State Park. | |
| October 18, 1974 | Melissa Smith disappears. | |
| November 8, 1974 | Laura Aime disappears. | |
| November 21, 1974 | Carol DaRonch escapes Bundy's abduction attempt. | |
| January 12, 1975 | 28 | Caryn Campbell disappears. |
| March 15, 1975 | Julie Cunningham disappears. | |
| August 16, 1975 | Bundy is arrested in Utah for evading police. | |
| October 2, 1975 | Bundy is identified by Carol DaRonch in a police lineup. | |
| February 23, 1976 | 29 | Bundy is found guilty of the DaRonch kidnapping and sentenced to 15 years in prison. |
| January 15, 1978 | 31 | Bundy assaults and murders Chi Omega sorority members Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman at Florida State University. |
| February 9, 1978 | Kimberly Leach, Bundy's last known victim, disappears. | |
| February 15, 1978 | Bundy is apprehended by police in Pensacola, Florida. | |
| July 23, 1979 | 32 | Bundy is convicted of the Chi Omega murders. |
| January 24, 1989 | 42 | Bundy is executed by electric chair at Florida State Prison. |
Bibliography[]
Literature[]
- Rule, Ann (1980). The Stranger Beside Me, W.W. Norton and Company Inc. ISBN 978-1-938402-78-4
- Sullivan, Kevin M. (2009). The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History, McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN 978-0-786444-26-7
- Carlisle, Al (2017). Violent Mind: The 1976 Psychological Assessment of Ted Bundy, Genius Book Publishing.
- Michaud, Stephen G. (2012). The Only Living Witness: The True Story of Serial Sex Killer Ted Bundy, Authorlink. ISBN 978-1928704119
- Nelson, Polly (2019). Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer, Echo Point Books & Media. ISBN 978-1635617-91-7
- Kendall, Elizabeth (2020). The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy,. ISBN 978-1419744860
Articles[]
- "Ted Bundy". Biography (January 18, 2018).
- Charles Montaldo (September 8, 2021). "The Capture, Escape and Recapture of Serial Killer Ted Bundy". ThoughtCo.
- The Story Of Ted Bundy, ‘The Very Definition Of Heartless Evil’. All That's Interesting (August 21, 2022).
Documentaries[]
Television[]
- Born to Kill?: Ted Bundy (2010) on IMDb
- World's Most Evil Killers: Ted Bundy (April 2019) on IMDb
- Mind of a Monster: Ted Bundy (August 2019) on IMDb
- Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019) on IMDb, a Netflix released four-part documentary from January 24, 2019.[2]
- Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer (2020) on IMDb, longtime girlfriend of Ted Bundy Elizabeth Kendall tells the infamous story from her side in Falling For A Killer. In doing so, she centers the female perspective that's often overlooked in documentaries about the notorious serial killer and honors the memory of his victims.
YouTube Documentaries[]
- Ted Bundy and His Trail of Bodies, Biographics on YouTube
- Life with Bundy, ABC 20/20 on YouTube
- Ted Bundy — Murder Made me Famous, Beyond Crime on YouTube
- The Life & Crimes Of Ted Bundy (Born To Kill), Our Life on YouTube
- 1 Serial Killer From Every State, Pixels After Dark on YouTube
Podcasts[]
- Ted Bundy - Part 1. Serial Killers with Greg Polcyn & Vanessa Richardson.
- Ted Bundy - Part 2. Serial Killers with Greg Polcyn & Vanessa Richardson.
- Ted Bundy: Sexual Sadist and Psychopath, The Casual Criminalist on YouTube
In popular culture[]
Film adaptations[]
- The Deliberate Stranger (1986) on IMDb (Trailer on YouTube)
- Ted Bundy (2002) on IMDb (Trailer on YouTube)
- The Stranger Beside Me (2003) on IMDb
- The Riverman (2004) on IMDb
- Bundy: An American Icon (2009) on IMDb
- The Capture of the Green River Killer (2008) on IMDb
- Bundy: An American Icon (2009) on IMDb, also known as Bundy: A Legacy of Evil (Trailer on YouTube)
- Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) on IMDb (Trailer on YouTube)
- Bundy and the Green River Killer (2019) on IMDb
- Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman (2021) on IMDb (Trailer on YouTube)
- No Man of God (2021) on IMDb
Music[]
- "Ted, Just Admit it... " by Jane's Addiction
- "Lotta True Crime " by Penelope Scott references Ted Bundy
- "Video Crimes " by Tin Machine references Bundy
- "Ted Bundy " by Theory of a Deadman
Related Articles[]
See also[]
- Rod Alcala also represented himself during his trial.
- Jame Gumb, a fictional character from Silence of The Lambs , was partially based on Ted Bundy. Gumb and Bundy both pretended to be injured (using an arm-brace or crutches) as a ploy to ask their victims for help. When they were helped, they incapacitated their victims. Gumb kidnapped while Bundy killed on the spot.
Links[]
- Ted Bundy at Wikipedia
- Ted Bundy on IMDb
- Ted Bundy at Find a Grave
- Ted Bundy. Radford University.
- PSYCHO or Saved? TED BUNDY Behavior Analysis Hours Before Execution, The Behavior Panel on YouTube
- SERIAL KILLERS Walk Among Us: ft. Rex Heuermann, The Behavior Panel on YouTube
- Wanted by FBI – Theodore Robert Bundy. FBI. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013.
- FBI file on Ted Bundy. vault.fbi.gov.
- Audiotapes of Bundy's 1989 confessions. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012.
- Part 3: Ted Bundy's Campaign of Terror. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (November 15, 2013). Archived from the original on December 23, 2021.
- Appeals, briefs, and court ruling:
- Kimberly Leach appeals, briefs, and court ruling. Archived from the original on November 11, 2009.
- Chi Omega appeals, briefs, and court ruling. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014.
- 1986 ruling in Leach case. United States Supreme Court. Archived from the original on April 23, 2021.
- 1989 Leach appeal, brief and court ruling. Florida Supreme Court. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008.
Notes[]
References[]
- ↑ The Final 24 Hours of Ted Bundy, Crime Sight on YouTube
- ↑ Trailer. Netflix Youtube.