Ted Bundy

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Warning: This article contains disturbing and possibly offensive details about Ted Bundy's murders.

Ted Bundy, born Theodore Robert Cowell, (November 24, 1946 - January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who between 1974 and 1979 killed numerous young women in Washington, Utah, Colorado and Florida. His total number of victims is unknown. Bundy confessed to 30 murders; however, estimates run above 100.

Bundy is believed to have been a sociopath. He was intelligent, educated, personable, handsome, and charming, but nevertheless regularly brutally murdered women and girls, usually with a blunt instrument, sometimes by strangulation. He would also often savagely sexually assault his victims.

Table of contents

1 Birth and childhood
2 First trial and Bundy's escape
3 Bundy goes to Florida
4 Conviction and execution
5 Further Reading
6 External links

Birth and childhood

Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on 24 November 1946, the illegitimate child of Louise Cowell and an unknown man. The 21-year-old Cowell contemplated putting her newborn son up for adoption, as it was scandalous at the time to have a child out of wedlock. She eventually reconsidered, however, and eventually changed her and Ted's last name to Nelson, hoping that she would pass as either a divorcee or a widow.

Before long, however, young Theodore would acquire the surname that he would eventually make infamous. On 19 May 1951, his mother Louise married John Culpepper Bundy, whom she had met at church.

In his adolescence, Bundy seemed to be a happy, normal child. He kept his grades up throughout his schooling and was active in church and Boy Scouts. However, Bundy's criminal impulses soon manifested when he began peeping into women's windows and shoplifting. He kept up his impeccable outward appearance, however, and graduated from high school in 1965, earning a scholarship to the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.

First trial and Bundy's escape

In Murray, Utah on November 8, 1974, Carol DaRonch narrowly escaped abduction by Bundy. Bundy posed as a police officer and lured DaRonch into her car. She escaped after he began attacking her. Bundy was later captured and convicted of DaRonch's kidnapping on 30 June 1976. He was sentenced to one to 15 years in Utah State Prison. Colorado authorities, however, had discovered Bundy's numerous murders up to this point, and were already preparing to press murder charges against Bundy.

On 7 June 1977, in preparation for a hearing in his murder trial, Bundy was transported to the Pitkin County, Colorado courthouse. During a court recess, Bundy was allowed to visit the courthouse's law library. Bundy then jumped out of the bulding from a second story window and escaped. He wandered around the area for a week before being recaptured a week later. However, while in jail awaiting the start of his trial, Bundy escaped again. He somehow acquired a hacksaw and, over time, sawed a square hole in the ceiling of his cell. On the night of 30 December 1977, Bundy climbed out the hole, managed to reach the main hallway, and (because the jailer was out for the evening) was able to walk right out the jail's front door. Bundy stole a car in the parking lot, and drove off into the night.

Bundy goes to Florida

After stopovers in Michigan, Chicago, and Atlanta, Georgia, Bundy made his way to Tallahassee, Florida, home of the Florida State University campus. Bundy, over the next month, would proceed to commit some of the most horrible murders in American history. He murdered two college students and seriously wounded two others at their Chi Omega sorority house. The two murdered women, Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy had both been savagely bludgeoned. Levy had also been grotesquely raped and sodomised with an aerosol hairspray can, and bitten fiercely on various parts of her body. Her right nipple had been bitten almost completely off and was only connected to her breast by a thin strand of tissue.

On 9 February 1978, Bundy traveled to Lake City, Florida. While there, he abducted and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. She would be Bundy's final victim. Shortly after 1 AM on 15 February, Bundy was stopped by a police officer in Pensacola, Florida. When the officer called in a check of Bundy's license plate, the car came up as stolen, and Bundy was taken into custody. Before long, Bundy was identified and taken to Miami to stand trial for murder.

Conviction and execution

After being convicted, Bundy was sentenced to death by judge Edward Cowart. While under sentence of death, he was tried again and handed another death sentence by Judge Wallace Jopling. During this second trial, he married Carole Ann Boone, a former coworker and admirer.

Judge Edward Cowart said, when sentencing Bundy to death:

"It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that that current be passed through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself. It's a 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'd have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went the wrong way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don't have any animosity to you. I want you to know that. Take care of yourself."

In October 1982, his wife gave birth to their only child.

In the years Bundy was on Death Row, he was often visited by Special Agent William Hagmaier of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit. Bundy would come to confide in Hagmaier, going so far as to call him his best friend. Eventually, Bundy would confess to Hagmaier many details of the murders that had until then been unknown or unconfirmed.

The night before Bundy was executed, he gave a television interview to Dr. James Dobson, head of the Christian organisation Focus on the Family. Ted Bundy explained how his consumption of violent pornography helped "shape and mold" his violence into "behaviour too terrible to describe". Ted Bundy explained that he felt that violence in the media, "particularly sexualised violence", sent boys "down the road to being Ted Bundys". According to Special Agent Hagmaier, Bundy also contemplated suicide in the days leading up to his execution, but eventually decided against it.

At 7:06 AM on 24 January 1989, Theodore Robert Bundy was put to death by the State of Florida, by method of electrocution. His last words were, "I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends." Then, an electric voltage of over 2,000 volts was applied across his body for ten minutes. He was pronounced dead at 7:16 AM.

A film about Ted Bundy's life, directed by Matthew Bright, entitled The Story of Ted Bundy, was released in 2002. It starred Michael Reilly Burke as Bundy.