Ted Bundy

American serial killer (1946–1989) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ted Bundy
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Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy (né Cowell, formerly Nelson; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989), also known as the Campus Killer or the Lady Killer, was an American former grocery clerk, former campaign manager, fugitive, convicted serial killer and kidnapper, burglar, sex offender, necrophile, and rapist who kidnapped, raped, assaulted, and murdered dozens of young women and girls between 1974 and 1978. His modus operandi typically consisted of convincing his target that he needed assistance or duping them into believing he was an authority figure. He would then lure his victim to his vehicle, at which point he would bludgeon them unconscious, then restrain them with handcuffs before driving them to a remote location to be sexually assaulted and killed.[4]

Quick facts Born, Died ...

Although he was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and schizoid personality disorder, Bundy was found to be legally sane and competent to stand trial.[5] Bundy was convicted of three murders in Florida. These convictions led to his execution in the electric chair in 1989.[6]

Bundy killed his first known victim in February 1974 in Washington, and his later crimes stretched to Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. He frequently revisited the bodies of his victims, grooming, and performing sex acts on the corpses until decomposition and destruction by wild animals made further interactions impossible. Along with the murders, Bundy was also a prolific burglar, and on a few occasions he broke into homes at night and bludgeoned, maimed, strangled, and sexually assaulted his victims in their sleep.[7]

In 1975, Bundy was arrested and charged in Utah with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. He then became a suspect in a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in several states. Facing murder charges in Colorado, Bundy engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults in Florida, including three murders, before being recaptured in 1978. For the Florida homicides, he received three death sentences in two trials and was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989.[8]

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Early life

Childhood

Theodore Robert Cowell was born on November 24, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont, to Eleanor Louise Cowell.[9] His father's identity remains unknown. For most of his life, Bundy was raised to believe that his grandparents, Samuel and Eleanor, were his actual parents and that Louise was his older sister.[10] He didn't find out that Louise was his mother until his college years. This was done to avoid any social stigma placed on Louise for being an unwed mother. He lived with Louise in a house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There, Louise had Bundy's surname changed from Cowell (at that time) to Nelson.[11] Later, when the two moved to Tacoma, Washington, Louise met a man named Johnny Culpepper Bundy at a local church function. They were soon married, and Johnny adopted him, thus changing his surname to Bundy. Johnny treated Bundy well, including him on the camping trips and other outdoor activities he often took with his and Louise's own children.[12] Despite this, Bundy remained distant from his step-father.

Adolescence and high school

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Bundy as a high school senior in 1965

During high school, Bundy was often isolated from other kids his age. He couldn't seem to understand teenage social behavior but was skilled in "faking it", indicating a propensity towards psychopathy. He stated once that, "I didn't know what made things tick. I didn't know what made people want to be friends. I didn't know what made people attractive to one another. I didn't know what underlay social interactions."[13]

It was during this time that Bundy developed a compulsion for thievery and shoplifting. He typically stole skiing equipment and forged ski lift tickets to support his interest in the sport. In college, Bundy studied Psychology and Asian studies. He worked at various jobs (never longer than a few months at a time), such as bagging groceries, stocking shelves, and working at a suicide hotline. During this time, he met writer Ann Rule, with whom he became friends. Ann would later write a defensive biography of Bundy entitled, The Stranger Beside Me, and also wrote more true crime books, one of which was about the Green River Killer case.[14] After a breakup with a fellow student, who cited immaturity and lack of ambition as her reasons, Bundy became depressed and dropped out of school. He returned to Burlington and, by doing a search of public records, discovered his true parentage. After this, he became more focused and dominant. Returning to Washington, Bundy volunteered for the presidential campaign of Nelson Rockefeller in 1968, even attending the Republican National Convention as a delegate for Rockefeller or Nelson Rockefeller. Bundy became campaign manager for Nelson Rockefeller's campaign for Presidency. He enrolled in the University of Washington as a psychology major and became an honour student who was well-liked by professors and students alike. Bundy's personality underwent a major paradigm shift; from shy and introverted, to confident and social. 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.

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Adult years and late-mid 20s: subsequent murders

Attempted murder of Karen Sparks

Shortly after midnight on January 4, 1974, Bundy made his first confirmed murder attempt. He broke into the basement bedroom of a female student at the University of Washington, bludgeoned her in her sleep and sexually assaulted her. She survived but suffered permanent brain damage.[15]

Murder of Lynda Ann Healy

On February 1, 1974, Lynda Ann Healy, a 21-year-old student, was abducted from her basement apartment in University District, Seattle.[16] Bundy broke into her room, beat her unconscious, dressed her in clothing, and carried her away. Healy's remains were found in 1975 on Taylor Mountain, near Issaquah, Washington, a known disposal site used by Bundy. Her mandible was among the remains found.

Murder of Donna Gail Manson

On March 12, 1974, Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year-old student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, was abducted while walking to a concert at the Evergreen State College; body left according to Bundy at Taylor Mountain site, but never found. However, there is speculation that the partial remains of an unidentified female discovered near Eatonville, Washington, on August 29, 1978, could have belonged to Manson. Remains and clothing were reportedly destroyed on May 10, 1985, before a positive forensic identification could be made.

Other murders

Susan Elaine Rancourt, a 18-year-old student at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, disappeared on April 17, 1974. Her remains were later found at Taylor Mountain.[17] Witnesses had reported a man with his arm in a sling asking for help on campus, fitting Bundy's typical ruse. Roberta Kathleen "Kathy" Parks, a 22-year-old student at Oregon State University, disappeared in May 1974. She was the first known Oregon victim of Bundy. Her skull was found at Taylor Mountain. Brenda Carol Ball, a 22-year-old student, last seen outside a tavern in Burien, Washington, on June 1, 1974. Her skull was later found at Taylor Mountain.

Georgann Hawkins, a 18-year-old college student, was abducted from an alley behind her sorority house; skeletal remains identified by Bundy as those of Hawkins recovered at Issaquah site. Hawkins remains listed as a missing person.[18] Janice Ott and Denise Naslund, two college students, had vanished from Lake Sammamish State Park near Seattle on July 14, 1974. Witnesses saw a man, whose description matched Bundy, with his arm in a sling asking for help carrying his boat. Their bodies were found two months later on a hillside near Issaquah. Melissa Ann Smith, the 17-year-old daughter of a Midvale, Utah police chief, disappeared in October 1974. Her body was found nine days later. Laura Ann Aime, a 17-year-old, disappeared on Halloween, October 31, 1974, in Lehi, Utah. Her body was found a month later in the mountains. Nancy Wilcox, a 16-year-old from Holladay, Utah, had disappeared in October 1974. Bundy admitted to her murder years later before his execution, but her body was never found. Debra Kent, a 17-year-old, had disappeared from Bountiful, Utah, on November 8, 1974. Bundy confessed to her murder years later, but her body was never found.[19]

Political involvement

Bundy was involved in politics, primarily in Washington, as a member of the Republican Party.[20] Following Evans' re-election, Bundy was hired as an assistant to Ross Davis, the chairman of the Washington State Republican Party.[21] Evans subsequently appointed Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee.[22] Davis thought well of Bundy and described him as "smart, aggressive ... and a believer in the system."

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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.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25] 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,[26] and a brochure that advertised the Viewmont High School play in Bountiful, where Kent had disappeared.[27] 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.[28]

Salt Lake City police placed Bundy on 24-hour surveillance, and Thompson flew to Seattle with two other detectives to interview Kloepfer. She told them that in the year prior to Bundy's move to Utah, she had discovered objects that she "couldn't understand" in her house and in Bundy's apartment. These items included crutches, a bag of plaster of Paris that he admitted stealing from a medical supply house and a meat cleaver that was never used for cooking. Additional objects included surgical gloves, an Oriental knife in a wooden case that he kept in his glove compartment and a sack full of women's clothing.[29] Bundy was perpetually in debt, and Kloepfer suspected that he had stolen almost everything of significant value that he possessed. When she confronted him over a new TV and stereo, he warned her, "If you tell anyone, I'll break your fucking neck."[30] She said Bundy became "very upset" whenever she considered cutting her hair, which was long and parted in the middle. She would sometimes awaken in the middle of the night to find him under the bed covers with a flashlight, examining her body. He kept a lug wrench, taped halfway up the handle, in the trunk of her car—another Volkswagen Beetle, which he often borrowed—"for protection." The detectives confirmed that Bundy had not been with Kloepfer on any of the nights during which the Pacific Northwest victims had vanished, nor on the day Ott and Naslund were abducted from Lake Sammamish State Park.[31] Shortly thereafter, Kloepfer was interviewed by Seattle homicide detective Kathy McChesney, and learned of the existence of Edwards and her brief engagement to Bundy around Christmas 1973.[32]

In September, Bundy sold his Volkswagen Beetle to a Midvale teenager.[33] Utah police immediately impounded the vehicle, and FBI technicians dismantled and searched it. Hairs were discovered matching samples obtained from Campbell's body.[34] Later, they also identified hair strands "microscopically indistinguishable" from those of Smith and DaRonch.[35] FBI lab specialist Robert Neill concluded that the presence of hair strands in one car matching three different victims who had never met one another would be "a coincidence of mind-boggling rarity."[36]

On October 2, detectives put Bundy into a lineup. DaRonch immediately identified him as "Officer Roseland," and witnesses from Bountiful recognized him as the stranger at the Viewmont High School auditorium.[37] There was insufficient evidence to link him to Kent, whose body had not yet been found,[38] but more than enough evidence to charge him with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault in the DaRonch case. Bundy denied knowing DaRonch but had no alibi, and was freed on $15,000 bail, paid by his parents,[39] and spent most of the time between indictment and trial in Seattle, living in Kloepfer's house. Seattle police had insufficient evidence to charge him in the Pacific Northwest murders but kept him under close surveillance. "When Ted and I stepped out on the porch to go somewhere," Kloepfer wrote, "so many unmarked police cars started up that it sounded like the beginning of the Indy 500."[40]

In November, the three principal Bundy investigators—Jerry Thompson from Utah, Robert Keppel from Washington and Michael Fisher from Colorado—met in Aspen, Colorado, and exchanged information with thirty detectives and prosecutors from five states.[41] While officials left the meeting (later referred to as the Aspen Summit) convinced that Bundy was the murderer they sought, they agreed that more hard evidence would be needed before he could be charged with any of the killings.[42]

In February 1976, Bundy stood trial for the DaRonch kidnapping. On the advice of his attorney, John O'Connell, he waived his right to a jury due to the negative publicity surrounding the case. After a four-day bench trial and a weekend of deliberation, Judge Stewart Hanson Jr. found Bundy guilty of kidnapping and assault.[43][44][45] In June, he was sentenced to one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.[39] In October, Bundy was found hiding in bushes in the prison yard carrying an "escape kit"—road maps, airline schedules and a Social Security card—and spent several weeks in solitary confinement.[46] Later that month, Colorado authorities charged him with Campbell's murder. After a period of resistance, he waived extradition proceedings and was transferred to Aspen in January 1977.[47][48]

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Escapes

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Pitkin County Courthouse, where Bundy jumped from the second window from the left, second story to escape.[49]

On June 7, 1977, Bundy was transported 40 miles (64 km) from the Garfield County jail in Glenwood Springs to Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen for a preliminary hearing. He had elected to serve as his own attorney, and as such was excused by the judge from wearing handcuffs or leg shackles.[50] During a recess, Bundy asked to visit the courthouse's law library to research his case. While shielded from his guards' view behind a bookcase, he opened a window and jumped to the ground from the second story, injuring his right ankle as he landed.

After shedding an outer layer of clothing, Bundy limped through Aspen as roadblocks were being set up on its outskirts, then hiked south onto Aspen Mountain. Near its summit he broke into a hunting cabin and stole food, clothing and a rifle.[51] The following day, Bundy left the cabin and continued south toward the town of Crested Butte, but became lost in the forest. For two days he wandered aimlessly on the mountain, missing two trails that led downward to his intended destination. On June 10, Bundy broke into a camping trailer on Maroon Lake, 10 miles (16 km) south of Aspen, taking food and a ski parka; however, instead of continuing southward, he walked back north toward Aspen, eluding roadblocks and search parties along the way.[52] Three days later, he stole a car at the edge of an Aspen golf course. Cold, sleep-deprived and in constant pain from his sprained ankle, Bundy drove back into Aspen, where two police officers noticed his car weaving in and out of its lane and pulled him over. He had been a fugitive for six days.[53] In the car were maps of the mountain area around Aspen that prosecutors were using to demonstrate the location of Campbell's body (as his own attorney, Bundy had rights of discovery), indicating that his escape had been planned.[54]

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1977 photograph—taken shortly after first escape and recapture[55]—from Bundy's FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives poster.

Back in jail in Glenwood Springs, Bundy ignored the advice of friends and legal advisors to stay put. The case against him, already weak at best, was deteriorating steadily as pretrial motions consistently resolved in Bundy's favor and significant pieces of evidence were ruled inadmissible.[56] "A more rational defendant might have realized that he stood a good chance of acquittal, and that beating the murder charge in Colorado would probably have dissuaded other prosecutors ... with as little as a year and a half to serve on the DaRonch conviction, had Ted persevered, he could have been a free man."[57] Instead, Bundy assembled a new escape plan. He acquired a detailed floor plan of the Garfield County jail and a hacksaw blade from other inmates. He accumulated $500 in cash, smuggled in over a six-month period by visitors, Boone in particular.[58] During the evenings, while other prisoners were showering, Bundy sawed a hole about one square foot (0.093 m2) between the steel reinforcing bars in his cell's ceiling. Having lost 35 pounds (16 kg), he was able to wriggle through and explore the crawl space above[59] in the weeks that followed. Multiple reports from an informant of movement within the ceiling during the night were not investigated.[60]

By late 1977, Bundy's impending trial had become a cause célèbre in the small town of Aspen, and Bundy filed a motion for a change of venue to Denver.[61] On December 23, the Aspen trial judge granted the request, but to Colorado Springs, where juries had historically been hostile to murder suspects.[62] On the night of December 30, with most of the jail staff on Christmas break and nonviolent prisoners on furlough with their families,[63] Bundy piled books and files in his bed, covered them with a blanket to simulate his sleeping body and climbed into the crawl space. He broke through the ceiling into the apartment of the chief jailer — who was out for the evening with his wife[64] — changed into street clothes from the jailer's closet and walked out the front door to freedom.[65]

After stealing a car, Bundy drove eastward out of Glenwood Springs, but the car soon broke down in the mountains on Interstate 70. A passing motorist gave him a ride into Vail, 60 miles (97 km) to the east. From there he caught a bus to Denver, where he boarded a morning flight to Chicago. Back in Glenwood Springs, the jail's skeleton crew did not discover the escape until noon on December 31, more than seventeen hours later. By then, Bundy was already in Chicago.[66]

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Florida murders and rearrest

From Chicago, Bundy traveled by train to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was present in a local tavern on January 2.[67] Five days later, he stole a car and drove south to Atlanta, where he boarded a bus and arrived in Tallahassee, Florida, on the morning of January 8. He stayed for one night at a hotel before renting a room under the alias "Chris Hagen" at a boarding house near the Florida State University (FSU) campus.[68] Bundy later said that he initially resolved to find legitimate employment and refrain from further criminal activity, knowing he could probably remain free and undetected in Florida indefinitely as long as he did not attract the attention of police;[69] but his lone job application, at a construction site, had to be abandoned when he was asked to produce identification.[70] He reverted to his old habits of shoplifting and stealing money and credit cards from women's wallets left in shopping carts at local grocery stores.[71]

In the early hours of January 15, 1978—one week after his arrival in Tallahassee—Bundy entered FSU's Chi Omega sorority house through a rear door with a faulty locking mechanism.[72] Beginning at about 2:45 a.m. he bludgeoned Margaret Elizabeth Bowman, aged 21, with a piece of oak firewood as she slept, then garroted her with a nylon stocking.[73] He then entered the bedroom of 20-year-old Lisa Janet Levy and beat her unconscious, strangled her, tore one of her nipples, bit deeply into her left buttock and sexually assaulted her with a hair mist bottle.[74] In an adjoining bedroom he attacked Kathy Kleiner, aged 21, breaking her jaw and deeply lacerating her shoulder; and Karen Chandler, aged 21, who suffered a concussion, broken jaw, loss of teeth and a crushed finger.[75] Chandler and Kleiner survived the attack; Kleiner attributed their survival to automobile headlights illuminating the interior of their room and frightening away the attacker.[76][77]

Tallahassee detectives determined that the four attacks took place in a total of less than 15 minutes, within earshot of more than 30 witnesses who heard nothing.[72] After leaving the sorority house, Bundy broke into a basement apartment eight blocks away and attacked 21-year-old FSU student Cheryl Thomas, dislocating her shoulder and fracturing her jaw and skull in five places. She was left with permanent deafness in her left ear and equilibrium damage that ended her dance career.[78] On Thomas' bed, police found a semen stain and a pantyhose "mask" containing two hairs "similar to Bundy's in class and characteristic."[79][80]

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Undated picture of Leach

On February 8, Bundy drove 150 miles (240 km) east to Jacksonville in a stolen FSU van. In a parking lot he approached 14-year-old Leslie Parmenter, the daughter of the Jacksonville Police Department's chief of detectives, identifying himself as "Richard Burton, Fire Department," but retreated when Parmenter's older brother arrived and confronted him.[81] That afternoon, he backtracked 60 miles (97 km) westward to Lake City. At Lake City Junior High School the following morning, 12-year-old Kimberly Dianne Leach was summoned to her homeroom by a teacher to retrieve a forgotten purse; she never returned to class. Seven weeks later, after an intensive search, her partially mummified remains were found in a pig farrowing shed near Suwannee River State Park, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Lake City.[82][83] Forensic experts surmised that Leach had been raped before having her throat cut and her genitals mutilated with a knife.[84][85]

On February 12, with insufficient cash to pay his overdue rent and a growing suspicion that police were closing in on him,[86] Bundy stole a car and fled Tallahassee, driving westward across the Florida Panhandle. Three days later, at around 1:00 a.m., he was stopped by Pensacola police officer David Lee near the Alabama state line after a "wants and warrants" check showed his Volkswagen Beetle was stolen.[87] When told he was under arrest, Bundy kicked Lee's legs out from under him and took off running. Lee fired two warning shots, then gave chase and tackled him. The two struggled over Lee's gun before the officer finally subdued and arrested Bundy.[88] In the stolen vehicle were three sets of IDs belonging to female FSU students, 21 stolen credit cards and a stolen television set.[89] Also found were a pair of dark-rimmed non-prescription glasses and a pair of plaid slacks, later identified as the disguise worn by "Richard Burton, Fire Department" in Jacksonville.[90] As Lee transported his suspect to jail, unaware that he had just arrested one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, he heard Bundy say, "I wish you had killed me."[91]

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Subsequent trials and marriage

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Bundy departing a preliminary hearing, Miami, 1979

In May 1978, a Florida grand jury indicted Bundy on charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and burglary for the Chi Omega killings and assaults. He stood trial in June 1979 in the Florida Circuit Court for Dade County, with judge Edward Cowart presiding.[92] The trial was covered by 250 reporters from five continents and was the first to be televised nationally in the United States.[93] Despite the presence of five court-appointed attorneys, Bundy again handled much of his own defense. From the beginning, he "sabotaged the entire defense effort out of spite, distrust, and grandiose delusion," Nelson later wrote. "Ted [was] facing murder charges, with a possible death sentence, and all that mattered to him apparently was that he be in charge."[94]

According to Mike Minerva, a Tallahassee public defender and member of the defense team, a pre-trial plea bargain was negotiated in which Bundy would plead guilty to killing Levy, Bowman and Leach in exchange for a firm 75-year prison sentence. Prosecutors were amenable to a deal, by one account, because "prospects of losing at trial were very good."[95] Bundy, on the other hand, saw the plea bargain not only as a means of avoiding the death penalty, but also as a "tactical move": he could enter his plea, then wait a few years for evidence to disintegrate or become lost and for witnesses to die, move on or retract their testimony. Once the case against him had deteriorated beyond repair, he could file a post-conviction motion to set aside the plea and secure an acquittal.[96][97] At the last minute, however, Bundy refused the deal. "It made him realize he was going to have to stand up in front of the whole world and say he was guilty," Minerva said. "He just couldn't do it."[98]

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Odontologist Richard Souviron explaining bite mark evidence at the Chi Omega trial in May 1979.

At trial, crucial testimony came from Chi Omega sorority members Connie Hastings, who placed Bundy in the vicinity of the sorority house that evening,[99] and Nita Neary, who saw him leaving the house clutching the murder weapon.[100][101] Incriminating physical evidence included impressions of the bite wounds Bundy had inflicted on Levy's left buttock, which forensic odontologists Richard Souviron and Lowell Levine matched to castings of Bundy's teeth.[102][103] The jury was also allowed to hear details of DaRonch's previous kidnapping, and finally deliberated for less than seven hours before convicting Bundy on July 24, 1979, of the Bowman and Levy murders, three counts of attempted first-degree murder for the assaults on Kleiner, Chandler and Thomas and two counts of burglary. Trial judge Edward Cowart imposed death sentences for the murder convictions.[104][105] Bundy appealed his conviction and death sentence to the Supreme Court of Florida, but it affirmed them.

Six months later, a second trial took place in Orlando for the abduction and murder of Leach.[106] Bundy was found guilty once again, after less than eight hours' deliberation, due principally to the testimony of an eyewitness who saw him leading Leach from the schoolyard to his stolen van.[107] Important material evidence included clothing fibers with an unusual manufacturing error, found in the van and on Leach's body, which matched fibers from the jacket Bundy was wearing when he was arrested.[108]

During the penalty phase of the Leach trial, Bundy took advantage of an obscure Florida law providing that a marriage declaration in court, in the presence of a judge, constituted a legal marriage. As he was questioning Boone—who had moved to Florida to be near Bundy, had testified on his behalf during both trials and was again testifying on his behalf as a character witness—he asked her to marry him. She accepted, and Bundy declared to the court that they were legally married.[109][110]

On February 10, 1980, Bundy was sentenced for a third time to death.[111] As the sentence was announced, he reportedly stood and shouted, "Tell the jury they were wrong!"[112] This third death sentence would be the one ultimately carried out nearly nine years later. Only Louise would appear before the court to beg for mercy.[113] On October 24, 1981, Boone gave birth to a daughter, Rose Bundy.[114][115][116] While conjugal visits were not allowed at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, where Bundy was incarcerated, inmates were known to pool their money in order to bribe guards to allow them intimate time alone with their female visitors.[115][117]

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Death row, confessions, and execution

Shortly after the conclusion of the Leach trial and the beginning of the long appeals process that followed, Bundy initiated a series of interviews with Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth. Speaking mostly in third person to avoid "the stigma of confession," he began for the first time to divulge details of his crimes and thought processes.[118] Bundy recounted his career as a thief, confirming Kloepfer's long-time suspicion that he had shoplifted virtually everything of substance that he owned.[119] "The big payoff for me," he said, "was actually possessing whatever it was I had stolen. I really enjoyed having something ... that I had wanted and gone out and taken." Possession proved to be an important motive for rape and murder as well.[120] Sexual assault, he said, fulfilled his need to "totally possess" his victims.[121] At first, Bundy killed his victims "as a matter of expediency ... to eliminate the possibility of [being] caught"; but later, murder became part of the "adventure." "The ultimate possession was, in fact, the taking of the life," he said. "And then ... the physical possession of the remains."[122]

Bundy also confided in Special Agent William Hagmaier of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. Hagmaier was struck by the "deep, almost mystical satisfaction" that Bundy took in murder. "He said that after a while, murder is not just a crime of lust or violence," Hagmaier related. "It becomes possession. They are part of you ... [the victim] becomes a part of you, and you [two] are forever one ... and the grounds where you kill them or leave them become sacred to you, and you will always be drawn back to them." Bundy told Hagmaier that he considered himself to be an "amateur," an "impulsive" killer in his early years, before moving into what he termed his "prime" or "predator" phase at about the time of Healy's murder in 1974. This implied that he began killing well before 1974—although he never explicitly admitted having done so.[123]

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Bundy mugshot after his sentencing for the murder of Leach, February 1980

In July 1984, prison guards found two hacksaw blades hidden in Bundy's cell. A steel bar in one of the cell's windows had been sawed completely through at the top and bottom and glued back into place with a homemade soap-based adhesive.[124][125] Several months later, Bundy was moved to a different cell after guards found an unauthorized mirror.[126] Shortly thereafter, he was charged with a disciplinary infraction for unauthorized correspondence with another high-profile criminal, John Hinckley Jr.[127]

In October 1984, Bundy contacted Keppel and offered to share his self-proclaimed expertise in serial killer psychology[126] in the ongoing hunt in Washington for the "Green River Killer," later identified as Gary Ridgway.[128] Keppel and Green River Task Force Detective Dave Reichert interviewed Bundy, but Ridgway remained at large for a further seventeen years.[129] Keppel published a detailed documentation of the Green River interviews,[130] and later collaborated with Michaud on another examination of the interview material.[131][132]

In early 1986, an execution date (March 4) was set on the Chi Omega convictions; the United States Supreme Court issued a brief stay, but the execution was quickly rescheduled.[133] In April, shortly after the new date (July 2) was announced, Bundy finally confessed to Hagmaier and Nelson what they believed was the full range of his depredations, including details of what he did to some of his victims after their deaths. He told them that he revisited Taylor Mountain, Issaquah and other secondary crime scenes, often several times, to lie with his victims and perform sexual acts with their bodies until putrefaction forced him to stop. In some cases, he drove for several hours each way and remained the entire night.[134] In Utah, he applied makeup to Smith's lifeless face and repeatedly washed Aime's hair. "If you've got time," he told Hagmaier, "they can be anything you want them to be."[135] Bundy decapitated approximately twelve of his victims with a hacksaw,[136][137] and kept at least one group of severed heads—probably the four later found on Taylor Mountain (Rancourt, Parks, Ball and Healy)—in his apartment for a period of time before disposing of them.[138]

Less than 15 hours before the scheduled July 2 execution, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit stayed it indefinitely and remanded the Chi Omega case back to the Southern District of Florida due to legal issues, including Bundy's mental competency to stand trial and an erroneous instruction by the trial judge during the penalty phase requiring the jury to break a 6–6 tie between life imprisonment and the death penalty[139]—which, ultimately, were never resolved.[140] A new date (November 18) was then set to carry out the Leach sentence; the Eleventh Circuit Court issued a stay on November 17.[140] In mid-1988, the Eleventh Circuit ruled against Bundy, and in December the Supreme Court denied a motion to review the ruling over the dissents of Justices Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan Jr.[141] Within hours of that final denial, a firm execution date of January 24, 1989, was announced.[142] Bundy's journey through the appeals courts had been unusually rapid for a capital murder case: "Contrary to popular belief, the courts moved Bundy as fast as they could ... Even the prosecutors acknowledged that Bundy's lawyers never employed delaying tactics. Though people everywhere seethed at the apparent delay in executing the archdemon, Ted Bundy was actually on the fast track."[143]

With all appeal avenues exhausted and no further motivation to deny his crimes, Bundy agreed to speak frankly with investigators. He confessed to Keppel that he had committed all eight of the Washington and Oregon homicides for which he was the prime suspect. He described three additional previously unknown victims in Washington and two in Oregon whom he declined to identify if indeed he ever knew their identities.[144] He said he left a fifth corpse—Manson's—on Taylor Mountain,[145] but incinerated her head in Kloepfer's fireplace.[146] "He described the Issaquah crime scene [where the bones of Ott, Naslund and Hawkins were found], and it was almost like he was just there," Keppel said. "Like he was seeing everything. He was infatuated with the idea because he spent so much time there. He is just totally consumed with murder all the time."[147] Nelson's impressions were similar: "It was the absolute misogyny of his crimes that stunned me," she wrote, "his manifest rage against women. He had no compassion at all ... he was totally engrossed in the details. His murders were his life's accomplishments."[28]

Bundy confessed to detectives from Idaho, Utah and Colorado that he had committed numerous additional homicides, including several that were unknown to the police. He explained that when he was in Utah he could bring his victims back to his apartment, "where he could reenact scenarios depicted on the covers of detective magazines."[136] A new ulterior strategy quickly became apparent: he withheld many details, hoping to parlay the incomplete information into yet another stay of execution. Despite warnings from his appellate attorneys that "the spectacle of peddling information for time would turn the courts against [Bundy]," Bundy began offering investigators piecemeal information regarding some of his murders. "There are other buried remains in Colorado," he admitted, but he refused to elaborate.[148][149] The new strategy—immediately dubbed "Ted's bones-for-time scheme"—served only to deepen the resolve of authorities to see Bundy executed on schedule and yielded little new detailed information.[150] In cases where he did give details, nothing was found.[151] Colorado Detective Matt Lindvall interpreted this as a conflict between his desire to postpone his execution by divulging information and his need to remain in "total possession—the only person who knew his victims' true resting places."[152]

When it became clear that no further stays would be forthcoming from the courts, Bundy supporters began lobbying for the only remaining option, executive clemency. Diana Weiner, a young Florida attorney and Bundy's last purported love interest,[153] asked the families of several Colorado and Utah victims to petition Florida Governor Bob Martinez for a postponement to give Bundy time to reveal more information.[154] All refused.[155] "The families already believed that the victims were dead and that Ted had killed them," wrote Nelson. "They didn't need his confession."[156] Martinez made it clear that he would not agree to further delays in any case. "We are not going to have the system manipulated," he told reporters. "For him to be negotiating for his life over the bodies of victims is despicable."[157]

Boone had championed Bundy's innocence throughout all of his trials and felt "deeply betrayed" by his admission that he was, in fact, guilty. She moved back to Washington with her daughter and refused to accept his phone call on the morning of his execution. "She was hurt by his relationship with Diana [Weiner]," Nelson wrote, "and devastated by his sudden wholesale confessions in his last days."[158] Hagmaier was present during Bundy's final interviews with investigators. On the eve of his execution, he talked of suicide. "He did not want to give the state the satisfaction of watching him die," Hagmaier said.[98]

Bundy rejected his last food[159] and was executed in the Raiford electric chair at 7:16 a.m. EST on Tuesday, January 24, 1989. His last words were directed at his attorney Jim Coleman and Methodist minister Fred Lawrence: "Jim and Fred, I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends."[160] Hundreds of revelers sang, danced, and set off fireworks in a pasture across from the prison as the execution was carried out,[161][162] then cheered as the white hearse containing Bundy's corpse departed the prison.[163] He was cremated in Gainesville,[164] and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location in the Cascade Range of Washington State, in accordance with his will.[165][166]

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Victims

Confirmed

The night before his execution, Bundy confessed to 30 homicides, but the true total remains unknown and Bundy occasionally made cryptic comments to encourage speculation.[167] He told Aynesworth in 1980 that for every murder "publicized," there "could be one that was not."[168] When FBI agents proposed a total tally of 36, Bundy responded, "Add one digit to that, and you'll have it."[169] Years later he told Nelson that the common estimate of 35 was accurate,[167] but Keppel wrote that "[Ted] and I both knew [the total] was much higher."[170] In an interview, Keppel stated his belief that Bundy had killed "at least 50, and maybe 75."[171]

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Georgann Hawkins

1974

  • January 4: Karen Sparks (18) – Bludgeoned and sexually assaulted in her bed as she slept in the University District of Seattle;[172] survived but the extent of her injuries resulted in permanent brain damage.[173][174]
  • February 1: Lynda Ann Healy (21) – Bludgeoned while asleep and abducted from her basement bedroom in Seattle and was then decapitated and dismembered post-mortem;[175] mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site in 1975.[176]
  • March 12: Donna Gail Manson (19) – Abducted while walking to a concert at Evergreen State College; body left according to Bundy at Taylor Mountain site, but never found.[145] However, there is speculation that the partial remains of an unidentified female discovered near Eatonville, Washington, on August 29, 1978, could have belonged to Manson. Remains and clothing were reportedly destroyed on May 10, 1985, before a positive forensic identification could be made.[177][178]
  • April 17: Susan Elaine Rancourt (18) – Disappeared after attending an evening advisors' meeting at Central Washington State College;[179][180] skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site in 1975. Both had been severely fractured.[176]
  • May 6: Roberta Kathleen "Kathy" Parks (22) – Vanished from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site in 1975. She had been bludgeoned to death.[176]
  • June 1: Brenda Carol Ball (22) – Disappeared after leaving the Flame Tavern in Burien, and was last seen in the parking lot, talking to a man with his arm in a sling;[181] skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site in 1975. Her skull had been fractured.[176]
  • June 11: Georgann Hawkins (18)[182] – Abducted from an alley behind her sorority house;[183] skeletal remains identified by Bundy as those of Hawkins recovered at Issaquah site. Hawkins remains listed as a missing person.[184][185]
  • July 14: Janice Ann Ott and Denise Marie Naslund (Janice; 23, Denise; 19) – Janice was abducted from Lake Sammamish State Park in broad daylight and was last seen leaving the park with Bundy who had asked her for assistance with putting his sailboat on his car;[186] skeletal remains recovered at Issaquah site in 1974.[187] Denise was abducted four hours after Ott from Lake Sammamish State Park and was last seen walking towards the restrooms;[188] skeletal remains recovered at Issaquah site in 1974.[187]
  • October 1: Nancy Wilcox (16) – Last seen leaving her home at 9:00 pm in Holladay, Utah, after getting into an argument with her father;[189] body buried according to Bundy near Capitol Reef National Park, 200 miles (320 km) south of Salt Lake City, but never found.[190]
  • October 18: Melissa Anne Smith (17) – Vanished from Midvale, Utah, after leaving a pizza parlor to walk back to her home; body found nine days later on a hillside in Summit Park, Utah. Her head had been severely beaten with a crowbar, and her body had been battered before death.[191]
  • October 31: Laura Ann Aime (17) – Disappeared from Lehi, Utah, on her way home from a Halloween party; body discovered by hikers in American Fork Canyon. Her face was beaten beyond recognition, and she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.[192]
  • November 8: Carol DaRonch and Debra Jean Kent (DaRonch; 18, Kent; 17) – Carol was picked up from the Fashion Place shopping mall in Murray, Utah, lured by Bundy's guise of claiming to be a police officer investigating vehicle break-ins in the parking lot; she escaped by jumping out of Bundy's vehicle after he inadvertently fastened a pair of handcuffs on the same wrist.[193] Debra had vanished after leaving a school play in Bountiful, Utah; body left according to Bundy near Fairview, 100 miles (160 km) south of Bountiful; one patella was found which was positively identified by DNA as Kent's in 2015.[38][194]

1975

  • January 12: Caryn Eileen Campbell (23) – Disappeared from a hotel hallway in Snowmass Village, Colorado;[195] body discovered on a dirt road near the hotel with skull fractures and knife wounds on February 17.[196]
  • March 15: Julie Lyle Cunningham (26) – Disappeared from Vail, Colorado, after she left her apartment in the Apollo Park neighborhood to visit a local tavern;[197] body buried according to Bundy near Rifle, 90 miles (140 km) west of Vail, but never found.[198]
  • April 6: Denise Lynn Oliverson (24) – Abducted while cycling to her parents' house in Grand Junction, Colorado;[199] body thrown according to Bundy into the Colorado River 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Grand Junction,[200] but never found.[201]
  • May 6: Lynette Dawn Culver (12) – Abducted from Pocatello, Idaho, after she left Alameda Junior High School for her lunch break;[202] body thrown according to Bundy into what authorities believe to be the Snake River, but never found.[203]
  • June 28: Susan Curtis (15) – Disappeared during a youth conference at Brigham Young University when she left her friends to walk back to her dormitory and brush her teeth;[204] body buried according to Bundy along a highway near Price, 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Provo, but never found.[205]
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Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman

1978

  • January 15: Multiple people (Bowman; 21, Levy; 20, Chandler; 21, Kleiner; 21, Thomas; 21) – Bundy broke into the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University in Tallahassee and beat four women with a club while they were sleeping, killing two of them and leaving the other two in critical condition. Before coming to the Chi Omega house, Bundy had attacked another student who lived off campus, three blocks away.[206]
  • February 9: Kimberly Dianne Leach (12) – Abducted from Lake City Junior High School in Lake City, Florida, and was last seen being led to a white van by a man who was later identified as Bundy;[207] mummified remains found near Suwannee River State Park, 43 miles (69 km) west of Lake City, with "homicidal violence about the neck region."[82]
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In media

Books

  • Rule, Ann (1980). The Stranger Beside Me. W.W. Norton and Company Inc. ISBN 978-1-938402-78-4
  • Kendall, Elizabeth (1981). The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy. Abrams & Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1419744853
  • Michaud, Stephen G., and Hugh Aynesworth (2000). Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer. Authorlink Press. ISBN 978-1928704-17-1
  • Sullivan, Kevin M (2009). The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History. McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN 978-0-786444-26-7
  • Michaud, Stephen G., and Hugh Aynesworth (2012). The Only Living Witness: The True Story of Serial Sex Killer Ted Bundy. Authorlink. ISBN 978-1928704119
  • Carlisle, Al (2017). Violent Mind: The 1976 Psychological Assessment of Ted Bundy. Genius Book Publishing. ISBN 978-0998297-37-8
  • Nelson, Polly (2019). Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer. Echo Point Books & Media. ISBN 978-1635617-91-7
  • Kleiner Rubin, Kathy, and Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi (2023), A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1641608-68-8
  • Knoll, Jessica. (2023). Bright Young Women. Marysue Rucci Books. ISBN 1501153226

Film

  • Ted Bundy (2002), played by Michael Reilly Burke
  • The Stranger Beside Me (2003), played by Billy Campbell
  • The Riverman (2004), played by Cary Elwes
  • Bundy: An American Icon (2008), played by Corin Nemec
  • Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019), played by Zac Efron
  • Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman (2021), played by Chad Michael Murray[208]
  • No Man of God (2021), played by Luke Kirby[209]

Music

  • The song "Ted, Just Admit it..." by Jane's Addiction[210]
  • The song "Lotta True Crime" by Penelope Scott references Bundy[211]
  • The song "Video Crimes" by Tin Machine references Bundy[212]

Television

  • The Deliberate Stranger (1986), played by Mark Harmon
  • The Capture of the Green River Killer (2008), played by James Marsters
  • Ted Bundy: Devil in Disguise (2017)[213]
  • Ted Bundy: An American Monster (2017)[214]
  • Ted Bundy: What Happened (2017)[215]
  • Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019)[216]
  • Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer (2020)[217]
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See also

  • Capital punishment in Florida
  • List of people executed in Florida
  • List of people executed in the United States in 1989
  • List of serial killers in the United States
  • List of people executed by electrocution

References

Other websites

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