Ted Bundy (research Paper)

Ted Bundy was a sadistic, notorious American serial killer who was known for his unethical murderous acts in the 1970s. Bundy was a kidnapper, rapist, burglar, and necrophile. Bundy went after innocent women and girls, many times faking injuries to capture his victims. Many acquaintances of Bundy said he appeared to be a nice-looking man, which made many have a hard time believing he was a cold-blooded murderer. Ted Bundy had a troubled childhood and an obsession with pornography and macabre, which led to his torturous serial killings and final execution in 1989.

Ted Bundy’s childhood could be traced back as one element of who he would become. According to Biography, Ted Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont, on November 24, 1946, as Theodore Robert Cowell to an unwed mother. Ted’s grandparents tried to hide their daughter’s shamefulness because it was unacceptable. Soon after being born, his grandmother and abusive grandfather adopted Ted. For many years they made Ted think his mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell, was his sister (“Ted Bundy”). Ted and his mother were constantly beaten until his mother moved them away to Tacoma, Washington, at five-years-old (Paoletti), where she married Johnnie Bundy and gave him his last name. “Bundy displayed disturbing behavior early on in his childhood; stories emerged about animal mutilation, violence, and incidents of sexual deviancy” (Pasqualini).

As Bundy grew to his teenage years, he became more interested in pornography, which led him to spy on girls through windows. His compulsion to control women and a mind consumed with pornography led him to kidnap. As a fourteen-year-old, Ted Bundy could successfully abduct an eight-year-old with golden blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a beautiful smile in 1961 who was never found again (Pasqualini).

Soon after, Ted began his tortuous killing sprees, making him an official serial killer. In Seattle, Washington, he attacked a twenty-one-year-old woman named Lynda Ann Healy on February 1, 1974. Healy was a brunette who was getting ready to graduate that semester in psychology, a class she had in common with Bundy at Washington State University. Healy’s roommates notified the police the day she went missing. As Healy’s room was being inspected by officials, they found her neatly made bed hiding bloodstained sheets and discovered her clothes folded and placed in the closet (“Linda Ann Healy”). Healy was not found until March 3, 1976, where officials found her skull at “Bundy’s graveyard” — known as Taylor Mountain (“Ted Bundy - Identified victims”). According to Biography, there were victims who were able to describe their assaulter as a “young, dark-haired man” who they knew as Ted. One of Ted’s techniques was to lure women by faking an injury and attacking them after the women tried to help. In the fall of 1975, Bundy was accepted into a law school in Utah where several girls began to be reported as missing as soon as Bundy arrived, leaving suspicion to arise (“Ted Bundy”). Women often reported complaints to officials about Ted Bundy. Bundy got pulled over one day for loitering and a police officer Robert Hayward found burglary tools such as a crowbar, a face mask, rope, and handcuffs which led to his arrest and soon linked him to other crimes (Carlisle). In 1975, they arrested Bundy for kidnapping Carol DeRonch, one of the few to escape from Bundy. Two years after Bundy’s arrest, Bundy escaped out a window on a field trip to the courthouse library but was caught after eight days. In December 1977 Bundy escaped again out of a hole he made in the ceiling of his cell making his way to Tallahassee, Florida (“Ted Bundy”). “On Saturday, Jan. 14, 1978, Bundy broke into Florida State University’s Chi Omega sorority house and bludgeoned and strangled to death two women, raping one of them and brutally biting her on her buttocks and one nipple. He beat two others over the head with a log. They survived which investigators attributed to their roommate Nita Neary, who came home and interrupted Bundy before he could kill the other two victims” (Montaldo).

The tragic ending of his story was his capture and eventual execution. “On February 9, 1978, Bundy killed again. This time it was 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, who he kidnapped and then mutilated. Within a week of the disappearance of Kimberly, Bundy was arrested in Pensacola for driving a stolen vehicle. Investigators had eyewitnesses who identified Bundy at the dorm and Kimberly’s school. They also had physical evidence that linked him to the three murders, including a mold of the bite marks found on in the flesh of the sorority house victim” (Pasqualini). “Although he would ultimately confess to 28 murders, some estimated that he was responsible for hundreds of deaths.” (Jenkins) As trials arose for Ted Bundy, he was given many interviews to get an inside look at his motivation for his murderous acts. On January 23, 1989, the day before his execution at the Florida State Prison, Bundy admitted that he believed he and others were “motivated to commit violence.” He also believed that “...every one of them was deeply involved in pornography without question” (“Ted Bundy’s Last Interview). Hours later on January 24, 1989, Bundy was executed in an electric chair, without expressing any remorse for his victims.

Ted Bundy was one of the most feared serial killers America has ever seen. Bundy was a murderer from the 70s until his execution in 1989. He was also a man that went unnoticed many times for his cruel acts because he seemed normal, but he had a secret addiction to pornography which made him enter the world of murder. Because his demeanor seemed normal, many times the police officers overlooked the possibility of his guilt. His outward appearance failed to convey his inner demon. His secret addiction to pornography led him to a life of “being born evil, just plain evil” (“Devil’s Defender: Lawyer’s Autobiography Reveals New Details on Ted Bundy - Crime Watch Daily”).

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