Serial Killer Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy, or formally known as Theodore Robert Bundy was an American serial killer, necrophiliac, and rapist. Bundy admitted to murdering and sexually assaulting 36 women across the United States. But, the exact number of women that Bundy has killed will never be known. It is estimated by experts, that the final tally may be 100 or more. When Bundy’s mother gave birth to him she was ashamed because he had him out of wedlock, so Bundy grew up believing a lie that he had been told; that his grandparents were his adoptive parents and his mother was his sister. He discovered the truth later in life which researches say may be the lead reason Bundy had so many mental health issues.

To add on to the lies, his grandfather was reported to have had aggressive rages and his grandmother was often a victim of those rages which makes researchers believe that this led to his aggressive actions. Bundy was showing psychological problems very young starting at the age of just three years old, he was fascinated with knives and very sharp objects. By his teenage years he had been peering into windows of other people’s homes and committing theft crimes. Then in college, he had met a girl named Stephanie who later on broke his heart leading Bundy to drop out of the University because of his emotional hardships after the break up.

Ted Bundy was born on November 24, 1946 in the city of Burlington, Vermont. Ted was raised in Philadelphia by his Grandparents, then later his mother moved him with her to Tacoma, Washington. It is said that Bundy was raised in a very nice, working class family but physical altercations did occur.

Ted was a very smart man who graduated with a degree in Psychology from the University of Washington in 1972. He was very active in the community with social and political matters. Bundy was so into politics that he was working on the campaign with the republican governor of Washington, who later even gave Bundy a nice letter of recommendation. Researchers say it is almost baffling how involved and social he was left an imprint on anyone who interacted with him, which probably benefited his charm when he was looking for women to kill.

Throughout college Bundy had developed very good social skills and grew to become a very intelligent man. He was a normal young man who would have regular relationships

The first known attack was in 1961 when Bundy was just 14 years old when he kidnapped and killed an 8-year-old Ann Marie Burr in Tacoma but the allegations were denied. In 1966 two college students were found in bed and severely beaten one died and the other survived. Bundy was accused but did not confess to the crime. The first documented homicide that Bundy committed and admitted to was in 1974 at 27 years old.

Ted Bundy was known for brutally beating, killing, and sexually assaulting women who resembled his ex-girlfriend. The killings started in 1974, fourteen were dead by the end of the year. Bundy was also known for severing the heads of multiple women and keeping their heads as a “trophy.” He would also keep their bodies and have sexual intercourse with the heads or headless bodies. Despite this apparent normality, he sexually assaulted and killed several young women Washington, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, and Florida between 1974 and 1978.

Despite the crimes he had committed he became somewhat of a celebrity, after escaping being in custody in Colorado in 1977, It is known that his intelligence and charm transformed the media to believe he was a romantic figure. Ted was 42 years old when he was put to death in 1989 in the electric chair at the Florida State Prison for admitting to murdering women.

My initial impressions and thoughts on Ted Bundy were much like others, I knew he was an intelligent attractive man, but on the other hand a serial killer, rapist, necrophiliac who has murdered possibly over 100 women. After reading into his past and discovering that most of his childhood was a lie, his sister was actually his mother and his parents were actually his grandparents it was hard to believe that any child would come out of that situation without psychological problems. Besides that fact he was also fascinated by strange things like knives in his younger years which should have been closely monitored by the family but they turned a blind eye.

I have learned that Ted Bundy’s success really had blinded those around him. He seemed like such a normal person but after looking through interviews with him he still maintained that tranquil, charming attitude. It was easy to see how women could misconceive this man’s intentions because he went to church and had normal dates and relationships like a young man would. I had a feeling of evil and deception coming from Ted which sends me believing that all of the murders Bundy did not confess to, were still gruesome actions taken on by him as the serial killer that he was.

I was not challenged by any assumptions that I had made about Ted Bundy, because they were not far off from the research that I had done. I had some preconceived knowledge about the man classified as one of the most notorious serial killers. His crimes certainly prove that statement is true. Although I did not know much about his past, with further research I came to find out that it was pretty dark and heartless.

The unsettling feeling really started to come over me at the fact that Bundy did not admit to more than half of the murders that he was accused of when there signs all pointing to him. This affects me in an emotional way because of the family members out there of the victims that will never receive closure for what had happened to their loved ones. The feeling of remorse should have over come Bundy into telling the truth even after he was put on death row, but he still never admitted to the murders; which is chilling. Also in one interview Bundy blames not himself, but pornography, for leading him down a dark path. He also stated that possession is what made him want to kill, and by that he means having ownership over something that is his for example keeping a dead body and assaulting them for days until the bodies became putrefied.

Bundy was diagnosed with multiple mental health disorders. Ranging from Psychopathy, Bipolar disorder, Multiple personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder, but it is still not known which disorder exactly drove Bundy to do what he did. This impacted the way that I thought about Ted Bundy. If he had all of these Psychological issues and they stem from back when he was just three years old, maybe something could have been done to give the right help to someone so mentally unstable. In my opinion he had sign of sociopathy. I believe he does not have any care for people and they were just objects to him, but the leading sign of a sociopath is lack of emotion, and that is misconstrewed because he was in a very passionate relationship. This leads me to think that his sociopathy always existed but didn’t come forward until he went through a mental break during the breakup.

I believe the only thing Bundy has done to better his life is go to school, get a degree and work for the state. After the murders started happening he only did damage to his life from there. One thing that was beneficial to making him a “better person” which almost seems impossible, was admitting to some of the crimes he had committed and told them gory details on how they were done and who they were done to. The story of Ted Bundy and the gruesome murders and assaults on multiple women will carry on forever, and he will always be known as America’s most evil serial killer.

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