Serial Killer Sunday (#3)

Well-spoken, mild-mannered, good-looking and educated Ted Bundy is often seen as the archetypical psychopath -- and along with his total inability to relate to other people these qualities made him extremely dangerous.

Responsible for more than 30 murders in the mid- to late- 1970s, Bundy was introverted and shy, although academically gifted, and was generally well-liked by the people around him. He was also the first mass murderer to be referred to as a "serial killer".

Born Theodore Robert Cowell to the unwed Eleanor Cowell in 1946, Bundy spent the first years of his life living with his grandparents, believing they were his parents, and his Mother to be his sister. Bundy never knew his biological Father, although he took the name of Johnnie Bundy, whom his Mother married when he was 4 years old.

As a young teenager Bundy already had a history of shoplifting, theft and was an aspiring con artist, he also claimed to have spied on girls dressing through their windows.

Bundy's first recognised (there is speculation he may have killed or attacked women earlier) victim on January 4, 1974 barely survived, after he attacked her with a crowbar while she was asleep. The pattern was repeated with an attack on another young woman, also a student the University of Washington, but this time Bundy kidnapped her.

Growing more bold, Bundy went from attacking women in their apartments at night to stalking and killing them in the park -- he claimed at least eight victims between January and July, reaching a climax when he kidnapped two young women in broad daylight from the Lake Sammamish State Park, near Seattle. Around this time Bundy was also volunteering for the Seattle suicide crisis center, a role that seems both out of character and coldly manipulative.

It has been said that Bundy's crimes are particularly abhorrent because he often preyed on the good nature of people -- he was remembered as a charming young man with his arm in a sling, who approached people asking for their help with his boat. It was like he punished people for being willing to help him out, and it's this behaviour, an almost total lack of empathy or conscience that seems to identify him as a psychopath.

Moving to Utah to attend law school in the Autumn of 1974, Bundy brutally killed two young girls in October, before just over a week later attacking and attempting to kidnap a woman, who managed to escape. Bundy had approached her, claiming to be a police officer, and lured her to his car -- she escaped when he tried to handcuff her, despite being concussed after he hit her with a blunt object he'd hidden in the car.

Bundy was arrested in the summer of 1975 after his car was identified as stolen, and in 1976 he was sentenced to 15 years for kidnapping. In 1977, Bundy was taken to Colorado to stand trial for murder. However, he escaped by jumping from a second floor window after he was allowed to visit the courthouse's law library during a recess. With an injured ankle, Bundy wasn't able to make it very far and was arrested again a week later.

While awaiting trial in December, Bundy managed to escape again -- this time by cutting a hole in the ceiling of his cell, walking out the front door and stealing a car. By January, Bundy had made it to Florida -- via Denver, Chicago, Ann Arbor and Atlanta. He promptly began killing again, fatally attacking two young women asleep in their sorority house and injuring two others. He abducted and killed a young girl in early February before he was again caught driving a stolen car.

Despite being on trial for murder, Bundy remained popular, receiving fan letters from young women, and even marrying a coworker in the courtroom, during the trial. In a display of over-confidence or arrogance, Bundy refused the five court-appointed lawyers and chose instead to represent himself. He was sentenced to death in 1982, but his influence even seemed to appeal to the Judge, who made a point of telling Bundy:
"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" -- and to take care of himself.

It's ironic perhaps to tell someone to look after themselves right after you sentence them to death.

While on death row, Bundy confessed to further murders and later offered to help detectives working on the case of the Green River Killer. Bundy's insights were largely unhelpful, and perhaps motivated more out of arrogance and a desire for attention -- apparently the detectives hadn't expected him to be much help, but had instead hoped to get details of unsolved murders Bundy was expected of. Bundy later confessed to a further eight unsolved murders, and is believed to have been trying to manipulate his confessions into a stay of execution by promising more details "later".

Along with offering more confessions, Bundy also later started referring to other selves and a part of himself he called "the entity" -- but not until he was appealing his death sentence. In a final television interview blamed his actions on violent pornography warping his mind, and warned against sexualised violence in the media. This is worth mentioning only because Bundy hadn't ever mentioned pornography before, and none was ever found on searches of his home. Instead it seems he was manipulative and unrepentant to the end, when he had to be forcibly dragged from his cell. On January 24, 1989, Bundy was executed in the electric chair. Crowds outside with banners reading "Burn, Bundy, Burn" cheered the news of his death.