On Sunday, January 24th, the twenty-first anniversary will mark the execution of Ted Bundy. For those of you old enough to remember, Bundy was one of the worst serial killers in modern American history.

Bundy confessed to murdering over 30 women in Idaho, Washington, Florida, Utah, Colorado, and Oregon. Investigators suspected that Bundy might have killed anywhere between 36 and 100 women between the late 1960s to 1980. While I cannot recall if he confessed to these crimes specifically, Bundy was sentenced (thrice) to death for the vicious murders of two Florida State University students and also convicted in the death of 12 year old Kimberly Leach.

Bundy’s case was as fascinating as it was tragic. When his name first was revealed as a suspect, he was a law school student in Utah. Many friends and former co-workers stepped up to defend what appeared to be the All-American male: athletic, smart, and good-looking. He had earned a BA in Psychology and was an up-and-coming member of the Republican Party who had worked in a campaign to get Dan Evans elected as Governor of Washington. Evans had once wrote a letter of recommendation to help Bundy gain admission to law school.

Ted’s legal troubles began when he was convicted of attempted kidnapping a young woman, who was one of the few fortunate enough to escape. While in a moving vehicle, this woman jumped from the car and flagged down another car while Bundy sped away. She later identified Bundy in a police lineup after Bundy was arrested while prowling a neighborhood late at night. Bundy was convicted of her kidnapping and began serving a 1 to 15 year sentence in Utah. Bundy abducted the girl by posing as a police officer, complete with a phony badge.

During his prison confinement is when the rest of the country began to learn about Ted Bundy.
Ted escaped from prison by leaping out of an Aspen, Colorado courtroom window in June of 1977. Shortly after leaping from a 2nd story window, a witness wandered into the courthouse asking whether it was common for people to jumping from windows at this building. Bundy spent several days on the run in the mountains. Ultimately, he was recaptured due to a) his poor sense of direction and b) his inferior driving skills. Bundy was picked up approximately one week after his escape while weaving in a car that he had stolen. The officer who stopped the car recognized its infamous driver.

Ted incredibly escaped another prison later in the same year! With lax security, he had cut a whole in the ceiling and escaped on December 30, 1977. Bundy left in the middle of a blizzard, hitched a ride to the airport and then took a train to Michigan. From Michigan, Bundy wanted to find a warmer climate and be in an area in which he would not be as easily recognized. He selected Tallahassee, Florida. The 2nd escape was better planned by Bundy as he had obtained false identification and some money. Sadly, this escape also lead Bundy to Florida, where he killed 2 women, bludgeoned 2 others, and killed young Kim Leach in the middle of January 1978.

Ted was blessed with an appearance that changed often. His FBI most-wanted poster had six photos, all of which could easily pass for six different people. Before attending law school in Utah, a criminal case developed where Bundy was the prime suspect in Washington. There were a half dozen murdered women in the Washington area between January and July of 1974. The most famous of these was the murder of two separate women from Lake Sammamish Park on July 14, 1974. These women were both lured by Bundy, one at 12:30 and another four hours later, to a nearby hideaway. What was even more horrifying to the public was that the women were abducted in broad daylight in a heavy populated state park.

Bundy preyed on women by securing their trust. Often, he used crutches or wore a sling or cast to feign an injury. Once he had these women alone, he would bludgeon the unsuspecting person with a heavy object such as a tire iron or even his fake cast. Ted went so far as to pose as a police officer in the failed abduction which lead to his kidnapping conviction.

Bundy actively followed the police investigations of his victims. The remains of many of his murdered victims were left in mountainous and wooded areas. When Bundy went to check on the remains, he discovered the bodies were usually gone – having been carried away by coyotes and other wild animals. This was particularly true in Washington, as police found very few of his victims and was the reason why the police could not tie Bundy to those particular crimes. He once arrogantly told a friend "They're not going to find anything in Washington because there's nothing to find." The friend thought this was an odd statement since it would have been much easier for Bundy to say "I had nothing to do with these missing women."

The women who were abducted from Lake Sammamish caused a major panic from the public and a push to bring their killer to justice. Some hikers stumbled upon some decaying bones weeks later that turned out to be the missing women. The police investigated further and found human remains of several other missing women, one as far away as Oregon. Years later, Bundy confessed to killing this woman and driving her back to Washington in what was a 400 mile trip. When asked why he did this, Ted replied that he did not want the police to focus exclusively on the area he was residing. By killing an out-of-state woman, he was trying to divert the local police’s attention.

Obviously, Ted Bundy was a sick freak. He was manipulative and had two very different personalities. While on death row in Florida during the early 1980s, Bundy volunteered to help investigators find another serial killer dubbed “The Green River Killer” (who was not brought to justice until 2003). The Bundy arrangement was very similar to what moviegoerssaw years later in Silence of the Lambs. There has been some speculation that Bundy’s role was part of the inspiration used for the fictional character of Hannibal Lecter.

This anniversary does not bring joy to any of the victims or their loved ones. Bundy tore so many lives apart and I, for one, am glad he is no longer on this earth. During his sentencing, the judge made a brief but genuine statement to Bundy that best describes the bizarre life of Ted Bundy:
“''You'd have made a good lawyer. I'd have loved to have you practice in front of me. But you went the wrong way, partner.''


Excellent books were written about the Bundy tragedy including the following:
Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

This story was written by a true crime writer who was investigating the Washington missing women case. She worked with and was close to Ted Bundy. Rule submitted Bundy’s name to investigators after the police composite of the Lake Sammamish abductor closely resembled Ted.

The Deliberate Stranger by Richard Larsen
Larsen was a political newspaper reporter who knew Bundy through Republican candidates

Phantom Prince by Liz Kendall (pseudonym written by Bundy’s ex-girlfriend)

Liz Kendall dated Bundy during the period in which most of the murders occurred. Her suspicions were based upon Bundy’s absences when women were disappearing in Washington, Bundy’s radical mood swings, and after discovering Bundy had bags of women’s clothing, knives, handcuffs, and plaster of paris (used to make casts).

Kendall reluctantly gave the police Ted’s name after she could no longer ignore so many unanswered questions.

The Only Living Witness by Steven Mischaud and Hugh Aynesworth

Investigators who were approached by Ted from death row after he promised to provide a first-hand account into the Florida murders. While never fully confessing to the authors, Bundy did agree to speak in the 3rd person by “speculating” what he had thought happened. It is quite evident by reading Bundy’s statements that he was discussing many of the murders, but without saying “I did it.”

I do remember Bundy. They had a movie of, "The Deliberate Stranger", with Mark Harmon playing the title role. He was quite a charmer and like you say, an "all American" type guy, or so they thought. Women seemed to trust him because he didn't come off like anyone dangerous. What a scary time for sure.


TIS

I first read "The Stranger Beside Me" many years ago. Ann Rule is an excellent true crime writer. As a former police officer, and a crime writer who had no idea that the man she knew was a serial killer, she wasn't surprised that Ted Bundy was able to lure so many young women away. He had such a different exterior than the one his victims saw. After the sketch of "Ted" (he used his actual first name when talking to the women at Lake Sam) appeared in the local paper, he was teased by coworkers about his resemblance to the killer. Even though it was reported that the kidnapper drove the same kind of car as Bundy, people STILL didn't make the connection!

For years, Ted thought his mother was actually his big sister and that his grandparents were his parents. Unlike most serial killers, other than that twist, he had a fairly "normal" upbringing and I've never heard allegations of abuse.

As an alum of Florida State, I have some personal connection to him. My roommate's younger sister was in the same sorrority house the night of the murder (she was unhurt). He was a real piece of work.

In fairness to the police, this was 1974 and the access to information (particularly with what now expect with computers) was simply not there. A tip on a suspect was most often written down on a slip of paper. In other words, it was as only as good as the person writing down the information. The computers could not do instanteous searches and there were multiple jurisdictions in the "Ted" investigation.

Most of the material I have read about him agree with your statement that there was nothing abnormal about his upbringing that would have pointed to the path he chose. But almost all who studied Bundy or dealt with him also agreed that he was a sociopath, which is defined as someone "who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience." His actions and words clearly demonstrated this classification to be accurate. When once asked to give the location of a body so that the victim's family could have some closure, Bundy responded "I'm the most cold-hearted SOB you'll ever meet."

I remember the miniseries "Deliberate Stranger" to which TIS referred. To this day, I will always equate Mark Harmon (who most now think of with the CSI character) as Ted Bundy.

His sociopathic personality made it very difficult to detect his true nature. I mean, imagine you work with a guy named "Ted". Two women disappear from a local park over the weekend. It's reported in the paper that a guy who identified himself as "Ted" was last seen with the women. The sketch of "Ted" in the paper looks exactly like your coworker. Also, the women were seen getting into a light-colored VW, which is exactly what your coworker drives! And yet you look at this handsome, intelligent and charming guy and think, "Nope, can't be him." You are so SURE that it's not him that you tease him about it, saying, "Hey, Ted! Kidnap and murder any women this weekend?" How GOOD was he??

SB,

I never read the book, but that's EXACTLY how I remember the movie,VW and all. So charming, and women so gullible. Even then I thought, how can you be so blind? Yet, something in his personality made them totally trust him.


TIS

TIS, some of the stuff was downright scary. The girls were all so young and so pretty. One was a college student who was at her boyfriend's dorm. Hers was the building next door. He watched her walk almost all the way home from his window. She was only a few feet from her door, but she never made it home.

Can you imagine how bold he was? Her boyfriend was watching from the window, and yet he snatched her anyway! Some of the girls disappeared while hitch-hiking, so that's an obvious target for a serial killer, but imagine those girls who disappeared right under other people's noses??

I agree with SB - The Stranger Beside Me is an excellent book. Ann Rule not only lays out the facts, but also her own feelings as things were occuring, her growing uneasiness of Bundy, and the fear she held as a mother.

The victims were all so young with bright futures. Bundy was bold - he kidnapped and killed one girl who was in the parking lot of a crowded high school concert being held in the evening. There were dozens of people he saw, yet no one could tie him to the crime. In Colorado, he took a 24 year old woman who had only moments before left her boyfriend in a sky lodge while she was supposed to go up to their hotel room for a magazine. Witnesses saw the woman get out of the elevator but nobody saw the abduction in a crowded ski resort.

He was just diabolically sick, but whose luck was often ungodly when it came to leaving no evidence and there being no witnesses.