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Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy (November 24, 1946 ? January 24, 1989) was one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history. Bundy raped and murdered scores of young women across the United States between 1974 and 1978. His total number of victims remains unknown to this day. After more than a decade of vigorous denials, Bundy eventually confessed to over 30 murders.
Bundy is believed to have been a sociopath. He is usually described as an educated and charming young man despite the brutality of his crimes. Typically, he raped then murdered, or murdered then raped, young women and girls by bludgeoning them, and sometimes by strangulation.
[edit] Early life
For the first few years of his life, Bundy and his mother lived in Philadelphia with his maternal grandparents, believing them to be his parents and Eleanor to be his much older sister. Eleanor's mother was a semi-invalid, and according to some family members, Ted's grandfather was mentally unstable and often violent. In 1950, Ted and his "sister" moved to live with relatives in Tacoma, Washington. Along with this transition, Ted's name was inexplicably changed to "Theodore Robert Nelson", while Eleanor changed hers to her middle name, "Louise". Employed as a secretary, Louise was being encouraged by friends to meet someone. In 1951, one year after their relocation, Louise met Johnny Culpepper Bundy at an adult single's night held at Tacoma's First Methodist Church. A Navy veteran and cook at a local Veteran's Administration hospital, Bundy was eligible and lonely much like single mother Louise. In May of that year, Johnny and Louise were married and soon thereafter Johnny willingly adopted Ted, legally changing his last name to "Bundy".
In time, the Bundy family grew to add four more children, whom Ted spent much of his time babysitting after school. Attempting to form a bond between himself and Ted, Johnny Bundy tried to include him in camping trips and other father-son activities, much to Ted's dismay. Ted showed his disinterest by remaining emotionally detached from his stepfather. In Ted's mind, he felt more like a Cowell than a Bundy and saw Johnny and the rest of the Bundy clan as beneath him. Ted became increasingly uncomfortable around his stepfather and made it clear that he preferred to be alone. Much speculation has been placed on Bundy's early formative years, though little is definitively known. It is known that Ted was a good student at Woodrow Wilson High School, and was active in a local Methodist Church serving as vice president of the Methodist Youth Fellowship. He was involved with a local chapter of the Boy Scouts. Socially active as young Bundy appeared on the outside, however, he had no natural sense of how to get along with other people, as he told Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, authors of The Only Living Witness. "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."
While socially Ted remained shy and introverted throughout most of his high school and early college years, his criminal activities began at an early age. Before he was even out of high school Ted was a compulsive thief, a shoplifter, and on his way to becoming an amateur con artist. He was arrested twice as a juvenile, though these records were later expunged.
Bundy described the part of himself that, from a young age, was fascinated by images of sex and violence as "the entity," and kept it very well hidden. Later, friends and acquaintances would remember a handsome, articulate young man. While a college student, he worked as a volunteer at a Seattle suicide crisis center, alongside fledgling crime reporter Ann Rule. Ironically, while a co-worker of Ted's, Rule was writing articles on the "Ted" murders that, unbeknownst to her, Bundy was committing. Rule would go on to write the most famous biography of Bundy and his crimes, The Stranger Beside Me.
Bundy had one serious relationship with a fellow college student named "Stephanie Brooks" (pseudonym). Following her 1968 graduation from the University of Washington and return to her family home in California, Stephanie ended the relationship. Fed up with what she described as Bundy's immaturity and lack of ambition, they separated, although Ted obsessively stayed in touch with her through letters. It was at this time that Ted decided to make a trip to Burlington, Vermont, the place of his birth. Making a visit to the local records clerk in Burlington, Ted finally discovered the truth of his parentage in 1969. Although it is unclear what impact this discovery had on Ted emotionally, it is clear that following his return from Vermont he began to treat Johnny Bundy with more obvious disdain.
After his "discovery", Ted became a more focused and dominant character. He re-enrolled at the University of Washington, this time with a major in psychology, a subject he proved to excel in. Bundy became an honors student and was well liked by his professors at the university. He also started dating "Elizabeth Kendall" (pseudonym), a quiet and shy divorced secretary who fell deeply in love with Bundy. Elizabeth was unaware that Ted was keeping in contact with his old flame, Stephanie Brooks.
Bundy graduated in 1972 from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology and soon afterward, he began working for the state Republican Party. While on a business trip to California in 1973, Bundy came back into Stephanie's life with a new look and attitude; this time as a serious, dedicated professional who had been accepted to law school. Bundy courted her once more throughout the rest of the year, and she happily accepted his proposal of marriage. Two weeks later, however, he unceremoniously dumped her, refusing to return her phone calls. He would later dismiss the proposal and break-up as part of a challenge he undertook, saying "I just wanted to prove to myself that I could have her." It was shortly after this final breakup that Bundy began a homicidal rampage lasting three years. In her book, Ann Rule notes that most of Bundy's victims had long straight hair parted in the middle ? just like Stephanie. Rule speculates that Bundy's resentment towards his first girlfriend was a motivating factor in his string of murders.
[edit] First wave of murders
Many Bundy experts, including Rule and former King County detective Robert D. Keppel, believe Bundy may have started killing as far back as his early teens: an eight-year-old girl from Tacoma, Ann Marie Burr, vanished from her home one summer night in 1961, when Bundy was 14. Shortly before his execution, however, Bundy denied killing Burr. His earliest confirmed murders were committed in 1974, when he was 27.
Shortly after midnight on January 4, 1974, Bundy entered the basement bedroom of 18-year-old Joni Lenz, a dancer and student at the University of Washington. Bundy bludgeoned her with a metal rod from her bedframe while she slept, and then symbolically raped her with it. Lenz was found the next morning by her roommates in a coma and lying in a pool of her own blood. She survived the attack, but suffered permanent brain damage, rendering her unable to continue in her aspirations as a dancer.
Bundy's next victim was Lynda Ann Healy, another University of Washington student. On January 31, 1974, Bundy broke into Healy's room, knocked her unconscious, dressed her in jeans and a shirt, wrapped her in a bed sheet, and carried her away. A year would pass before her decapitated remains were found in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle. On March 12, 1974, Bundy kidnapped and murdered 19-year old Evergreen State College student Donna Gail Manson on her way to a jazz concert held on campus. On April 17, Susan Rancourt disappeared from the campus of Central Washington State College in Ellensburg. Later, two different CWSC co-eds would recount meeting a man with his arm in a cast ? one that night, one three nights earlier ? who asked for their help to carry a load of books to his Volkswagen. Next was Kathy Parks, last seen on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis on May 6. (Oregon State is approximately 250 miles away from the scene of the Washington murders. Consequently, detectives for some time were unsure if they should class Parks with the other disappearances.) Brenda Ball was never seen again after leaving The Flame Tavern in Burien, Washington on June 1. Bundy then murdered Georgeann Hawkins, a student at the University of Washington and a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, an on-campus sorority. In the early morning hours of June 11, 1974, she walked through an alley from her boyfriend's dormitory residence to her sorority house. Hawkins was never seen again. Bundy confessed to her murder shortly before he was executed.
Bundy's Washington killing spree culminated on July 14 with the abduction in broad daylight of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington. King County detectives were able to get a description both of the suspect and his tan Volkswagen Beetle. Five different women would later testify that a man in an arm cast and sling calling himself "Ted" approached each of them asking for help unloading a sailboat from his car. Some witnesses told investigators that the "Ted" they encountered spoke with a clipped, Canadian-like accent. One went with him as far as his Volkswagen, where there was no sailboat, before refusing to accompany him further. Two more witnesses testified to seeing him approach Janice Ott with the story about the sailboat, and to seeing Ott walk away from the beach, with her bicycle, and in his company. She was never seen alive again. After seeing the police sketch and description of the Lake Sammamish suspect in both of the local newspapers and on television news reports, Bundy's girlfriend Liz Kendall and former co-worker Ann Rule reported him as a possible suspect.
The fragmented remains of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund were discovered on September 7, off Intersate 90 near Issaquah. Along with the women's remains was found an extra femur bone and vertebrae believed to be that of Georgeann Hawkins. On March 2, 1975, the skulls of Healy, Rancourt, Parks and Ball were found on Taylor Mountain just east of Issaquah. Years later Bundy claimed that he had also dumped the body of Donna Manson there, but no trace of her has ever been found.
Second wave of murders
Bundy smiles for the cameras and pleads "Not Guilty" during a press conference announcing his indictment on first degree murder chargesThat autumn, Bundy moved to Utah to attend law school in Salt Lake City, where he resumed killing in October. Nancy Wilcox disappeared from Holladay, near Salt Lake City, Utah on October 2. Wilcox was last seen riding in a Volkswagen bug similar to Bundy's. On October 18, Bundy murdered Melissa Smith, the 17-year-old daughter of Midvale police chief Louis Smith. Bundy raped, sodomized, and strangled her. Her body was found nine days later. Next was Laura Aime, also 17, who disappeared when she left a Halloween party in Lehi, Utah on October 31, 1974. Her remains were found nearly a month later by hikers on Thanksgiving Day, on the banks of a river in American Fork Canyon. She was found naked, beaten beyond recognition, sodomized, and strangled with her own sock. While in prison awaiting execution, Bundy confessed that he murdered an anonymous hitchiker whom he had picked up outside of Boise, Idaho, in the autumn of 1974, noting that he later dumped her body in a river. Prior to his confession, this murder had never been linked to him.
Bundy smiles for the cameras and pleads "Not Guilty" during a press conference announcing his indictment on first degree murder charges
In Murray, Utah, on November 8, 1974, Carol DaRonch narrowly escaped with her life. Claiming to be Officer Roseland of the Murray Police Department, Bundy lured DaRonch into his car where he then attempted to slap a pair of handcuffs on her. Fortunately for DaRonch, only one wrist was secured. As with his other victims, Bundy had planned hit DaRonch over the head with a blunt instrument he had pulled out from underneath the car seat. Bundy failed in this attempt, however when DaRonch was able to grab the instrument from him. It was at this point that she wrenched her door open with the uncuffed hand, rolling out of the car onto the highway and escaping from her would-be killer.
Perhaps frustrated by the failed abduction of DaRonch, Bundy next snatched Debby Kent, who was attending a school play in Bountiful, Utah, just a few hours later. Kent, 17, had left the play early and alone to pick her brother up, but her car never left the parking lot. Residents nearby reported hearing screams from the area of the lot, and a handcuff key that fit the cuffs left on DaRonch's wrist was later found on the ground nearby. Bundy had been seen in the back of the auditorium where the play was held and had boldly appeared backstage, confronting drama teacher Raelynn Shepard, with the demand that she accompany him to the parking lot with him to allegedly identify a vehicle. Kent's body has never been found.
In 1975, while still attending law school at the University of Utah, Bundy shifted his crimes to Colorado. Caryn Campbell disappeared from the Wildwood Inn at Snowmass, Colorado, on January 12 where she had been vacationing with her fianc?e and his children. Her body was found on February 17. Next, Vail ski instructor Julie Cunningham disappeared on March 15, and Denise Oliverson on April 6. While in prison, Bundy confessed to Colorado investigators that he used crutches to approach Cunningham, after asking her to help him carry some ski boots to his car. At the car, Bundy clubbed her with his crowbar and incapacitated her with handcuffs, later strangling her in a crime highly similar to the Georgeann Hawkins murder. (see Keppel, The Riverman).
Lynette Culver went missing in Pocatello, Idaho on May 6 from the grounds of her junior high school. While on Death Row, Bundy later confessed that he kidnapped Culver and had taken the girl to a room he had rented at a nearby Holiday Inn. After raping her, he stated that he had drowned her in the motel room bathtub and later dumped her body in a river. After his return to Utah, Susan Curtis vanished on June 28. The bodies of Cunningham, Culver, Curtis and Oliverson have never been recovered.
Arrest, first trial, and escapes
Bundy was arrested on August 16, 1975, in Salt Lake City, for failure to stop for a police officer. A search of his car revealed a ski mask, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, and other items that were thought by the police to be burglary tools. Bundy remained cool during questioning, explaining that he needed the mask for skiing and had found the handcuffs in a dumpster. Utah detective Jerry Thompson connected Bundy and his Volkswagen to the DaRonch kidnapping and the missing girls, and obtained a search warrant for his apartment. The search uncovered a brochure of Colorado ski resorts, with a check mark by the Wildwood Inn, where Caryn Campbell had disappeared. After searching his apartment, the police brought Bundy in for a lineup. Carol DaRonch and two witnesses. Following a week-long trial, Bundy was convicted of DaRonch's kidnapping on March 1, 1976 and was sentenced to 15 years in Utah State Prison. Colorado authorities were pursuing murder charges, however, and Bundy was extradited to Utah.
On June 7, 1977, in preparation for a hearing in the Caryn Campbell murder trial, Bundy was taken to the Pitkin County courthouse in Aspen. During a court recess, he was allowed to visit the courthouse's law library, where he jumped out of the building from a second-story window and escaped. In the minutes following his escape, Bundy at first strolled casually and then ran through the small town toward Aspen Mountain. As Bundy was walking back to the cabin from Aspen after attempting to hotwire a vehicle, he was confronted by a man carrying a .44 Magnum. After being asked where he was going, Bundy said, "I'm going up to my cabin." Ironically, he was told to stay on the lookout for a man who'd escaped from jail.
Bundy stole a car, but was stopped at a roadblock checkpoint and was eventually arrested. The arresting officer would later say that Bundy had told him he was "going home after skiing all day." When the officer asked where Bundy's skis and gear were, Bundy did not respond and was unable to respond when asked where and why he was skiing in the middle of June. He was caught on the last day the roadblocks were to be up.[citation needed]
Upon arrest, Bundy was placed in the smaller Glenwood Springs jail, rather than being taken back to Aspen. With some law education under his belt, Ted decided to act as his own counsel against the advice of his court appointed attorney. At the beginning of his stay at Gelnwood Springs, Bundy had noticed that his cell had a 12" x 12" opening in the roof with welded bars over the opening. An adjoining cell, however, had an equally sized opening but no bars covering it. Seeing this as an opportunity, Bundy calculatedly let the guards know that he would require better light at night (which the new cell offered) since he had so much reading to do in preparing for his case. His request to move to the other cell was granted. Having spent the past few months starving himself in order to fit through the opening, Bundy climbed out of the hole in the ceiling above his cell on the night of December 30, 1977. Prisoners told guards that they heard someone climbing around in the air shaft, but their reports went uninvestigated[citation needed]. Now through the hole, Bundy moved between the attic and ceiling and down into the jailor's bedroom closet. With the jailer safely out for the evening with his wife at an early New Years Eve party, Bundy then changed his clothes and walked out the front door. Walking around Glenwood Springs using the side streets, he went from car to car searching for one with keys in it. After nearly an hour, he found a small European import car that was being kept at a repair shop. Bundy found the keys and immediately drove east on I-70, nursing the car along until reaching Vail Pass east of the town of Vail. From there, Bundy hitchhiked to Stapleton Airport in Denver after a local rancher picked him up. Bundy took the first available flight (to Chicago) and was in the air when guards finally discovered he was missing. By the time his plane landed at O'Hare International Airport, Glenwood Springs police officers were just starting to put roadblocks up.
Arrest, first trial, and escapes
Bundy was arrested on August 16, 1975, in Salt Lake City, for failure to stop for a police officer. A search of his car revealed a ski mask, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, and other items that were thought by the police to be burglary tools. Bundy remained cool during questioning, explaining that he needed the mask for skiing and had found the handcuffs in a dumpster. Utah detective Jerry Thompson connected Bundy and his Volkswagen to the DaRonch kidnapping and the missing girls, and obtained a search warrant for his apartment. The search uncovered a brochure of Colorado ski resorts, with a check mark by the Wildwood Inn, where Caryn Campbell had disappeared. After searching his apartment, the police brought Bundy in for a lineup. Carol DaRonch and two witnesses. Following a week-long trial, Bundy was convicted of DaRonch's kidnapping on March 1, 1976 and was sentenced to 15 years in Utah State Prison. Colorado authorities were pursuing murder charges, however, and Bundy was extradited to Utah.
On June 7, 1977, in preparation for a hearing in the Caryn Campbell murder trial, Bundy was taken to the Pitkin County courthouse in Aspen. During a court recess, he was allowed to visit the courthouse's law library, where he jumped out of the building from a second-story window and escaped. In the minutes following his escape, Bundy at first strolled casually and then ran through the small town toward Aspen Mountain. As Bundy was walking back to the cabin from Aspen after attempting to hotwire a vehicle, he was confronted by a man carrying a .44 Magnum. After being asked where he was going, Bundy said, "I'm going up to my cabin." Ironically, he was told to stay on the lookout for a man who'd escaped from jail.
Bundy stole a car, but was stopped at a roadblock checkpoint and was eventually arrested. The arresting officer would later say that Bundy had told him he was "going home after skiing all day." When the officer asked where Bundy's skis and gear were, Bundy did not respond and was unable to respond when asked where and why he was skiing in the middle of June. He was caught on the last day the roadblocks were to be up.[citation needed]
Upon arrest, Bundy was placed in the smaller Glenwood Springs jail, rather than being taken back to Aspen. With some law education under his belt, Ted decided to act as his own counsel against the advice of his court appointed attorney. At the beginning of his stay at Gelnwood Springs, Bundy had noticed that his cell had a 12" x 12" opening in the roof with welded bars over the opening. An adjoining cell, however, had an equally sized opening but no bars covering it. Seeing this as an opportunity, Bundy calculatedly let the guards know that he would require better light at night (which the new cell offered) since he had so much reading to do in preparing for his case. His request to move to the other cell was granted. Having spent the past few months starving himself in order to fit through the opening, Bundy climbed out of the hole in the ceiling above his cell on the night of December 30, 1977. Prisoners told guards that they heard someone climbing around in the air shaft, but their reports went uninvestigated[citation needed]. Now through the hole, Bundy moved between the attic and ceiling and down into the jailor's bedroom closet. With the jailer safely out for the evening with his wife at an early New Years Eve party, Bundy then changed his clothes and walked out the front door. Walking around Glenwood Springs using the side streets, he went from car to car searching for one with keys in it. After nearly an hour, he found a small European import car that was being kept at a repair shop. Bundy found the keys and immediately drove east on I-70, nursing the car along until reaching Vail Pass east of the town of Vail. From there, Bundy hitchhiked to Stapleton Airport in Denver after a local rancher picked him up. Bundy took the first available flight (to Chicago) and was in the air when guards finally discovered he was missing. By the time his plane landed at O'Hare International Airport, Glenwood Springs police officers were just starting to put roadblocks up.
Bundy's final rampage: Florida
then caught an Amtrak train to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he spent New Year's Day in a bar watching his beloved University of Washington Huskies play Michigan in the Rose Bowl. He later stole a car in Ann Arbor that he abandoned in Atlanta, Georgia before boarding a bus for Tallahassee, Florida. There, he rented a room at a boarding house under the alias of "Chris Hagen" and committed numerous petty crimes including shoplifting, purse snatching, and auto theft. Just one week after Bundy's arrival in Tallahassee, in the early hours of Super Bowl Sunday on January 15, 1978, two and a half years of repressed homicidal violence erupted. Bundy entered the Florida State University Chi Omega sorority house at approximately 3 a.m. and killed two sleeping women, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. Levy and Bowman were bludgeoned, strangled, and sexually assaulted. Two other Chi Omegas, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, were bludgeoned and severely injured. After leaving the Chi Omega house, Bundy broke into another home a few blocks away, clubbing and severly injuring FSU student Cheryl Thomas.
On February 9, 1978, Bundy traveled to Lake City, Florida. While there he abducted, raped and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, throwing her body under a small pig shed. She would be his final victim. On February 15, Bundy stole an orange VW Bug belonging to Rick Garzaniti of Tallahassee and was stopped shortly after 1 a.m. by Pensacola police officer David Lee. When the officer called in a check of the license plate, the vehicle came up as stolen. When Lee went to apprehend Bundy, Ted then scuffled with the officer before he was finally subdued. Lee later reported that on the way to the jail, Bundy had told him that he wished that Lee had just killed him.[citation needed] Before long, Bundy was identified and taken to Miami to stand trial for the FSU murders.
Conviction and execution
Bundy went to trial for the Chi Omega murders in June of 1979. Despite having five court-appointed lawyers, he insisted on acting as his own attorney and even cross-examined witnesses, including the police officer who had discovered the body of Margaret Bowman.
Two pieces of evidence proved crucial. First, Chi-O Nita Neary, getting back to the house very late after a date, saw Bundy as he left, and identified him in court. Second, during his homicidal frenzy, Bundy bit Lisa Levy in her left buttock, leaving obvious bite marks. Police took plaster casts of Bundy's teeth and a forensics expert matched them to the photographs of Levy's wound. Bundy was convicted on all counts and sentenced to death. After confirming the sentence, Judge Edward Cowart bid him goodbye:
"It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that current be passed through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity as I've experienced in this courtroom. You're an intelligent young man. You'd have made a good lawyer, and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don't feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself." (Postsentencing remarks of Dade County Circuit Court Judge Edward D. Cowart to Ted Bundy)
After the Chi Omega trial, Bundy was tried for the Kimberly Leach murder in 1980. He was again convicted on all counts, principally due to fibers found in his van that matched Leach's clothing, and sentenced to death. During the Kimberly Leach trial, Bundy married former coworker Carole Ann Boone in the courtroom while questioning her on the stand. The marriage took place in such a way that prosecutors were caught off-guard and unable to object in time. Boone was but one of a flurry of female "admirers" who communicated with Bundy during his incarceration in Florida. While on death row, Bundy would receive approximately 200 fan letters each day from various women. Following numerous conjugal visits between Bundy and his new wife, Boone gave birth to a girl she named "Tina" in October 1982[1]. Eventually, however, Boone moved away, divorced Bundy, and changed her last name and that of her daughter. Their current whereabouts are unknown.
In the years Bundy was on death row at Florida State Prison, he was often visited by Special Agent William Hagmaier of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Behavioral Sciences Unit. Bundy would come to confide in Hagmaier, going so far as to call him his best friend. Eventually, Bundy confessed to Hagmaier many details of the murders that had until then been unknown or unconfirmed. In 1984, Bundy contacted former King County homicide detective Robert D. Keppel and offered to assist in the ongoing search for the Green River Killer by providing his own insights and analysis. Keppel and Green River Task Force detective Dave Reichert traveled to Florida's death row to interview Bundy. Both detectives later stated that these interviews were of little actual help in the investigation; they provided far greater insight into Bundy's own mind, and were primarily pursued in the hope of learning the details of unsolved murders that Bundy was suspected of committing but had never been charged with.
Bundy contacted Keppel again in 1988. With his appeals exhausted and execution imminent, Bundy confessed to eight official unsolved murders in Washington State, for which he was the prime suspect. Bundy told Keppel that there were actually five bodies left on Taylor Mountain, and not four as they had originally thought. Bundy said that the fifth body was that of Donna Manson, the Evergreen State College student missing since 1974. Bundy also admitted that the extra femur bone and vertebrae discovered beside the road two miles from Lake Sammamish State Park was all that was left of Georgeann Hawkins. After the interview, Keppel reported that he had been shocked in speaking with Bundy, and that he was the kind of man who was "born to kill". Keppel stated:
"He described the Issaquah crime scene (where Janice Ott, Denise Naslund, and Georgeann Hawkins had been left) and it was almost like he was just there. 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."
Bundy had hoped that he could use the revelations and partial confessions to get another stay of execution or possibly commute his sentence to life imprisonment. At one point, a legal advocate working for Bundy, Linda Barker, had asked many of the families of the victims to fax letters to Florida Governor Robert Martinez and ask mercy for Bundy in order to find out where the remains of their loved ones were. To a person, all the families refused. Keppel and others reported that Bundy gave scant detail about his crimes during his confessions, and promised to reveal more and other body dump sites if he were given "more time". The ploy failed and Bundy was executed on schedule.
The night before Bundy was executed, he gave a television interview to Dr. James Dobson, head of the evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family. During the interview, Bundy made repeated claims as to the pornographic "roots" of his sexually driven violence. He stated that, while pornography didn't cause him to commit his crimes, the consumption of violent pornography helped "shape and mold" his violence into "behavior too terrible to describe." He alleged that he felt that violence in the media, "particularly sexualized violence," sent boys "down the road to being Ted Bundy's". After the interview was made public, many who knew Bundy as a sociopath had their doubts as to the validity of his "the pornography made me do it" claims. In the same interview, hours before his execution, Bundy stated:[1]
"You are going to kill me, and that will protect society from me. But out there are many, many more people who are addicted to pornography, and you are doing nothing about that."
According to Hagmaier, Bundy contemplated suicide in the days leading up to his execution, but eventually decided against it.
At 7:06 a.m. on January 24, 1989, Ted Bundy was executed in the electric chair. His last words were, "I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends." Then, more than 2,000 volts were sent through his body for less than two minutes. He was pronounced dead at 7:16 a.m.
Victims
The following is a chronological list of the victims of Ted Bundy. Bundy never made a comprehensive confession of his crimes and the true toll of his victims will never be known, but the names listed below are victims whom most authorities attribute to Bundy. All the victims listed were killed, unless otherwise noted.
[edit] 1974
Jan. 4: Joni Lenz (survived). Bludgeoned in her bed as she slept.
Jan. 31: Lynda Ann Healy (19). Beaten & bludgeoned unconscious while asleep and abducted from the house she shared with other University of Washington co-eds.
Mar. 12: Donna Gail Manson (19). Abducted while walking to a jazz concert on The Evergreen College campus, Olympia, Washington. Body never recovered.
Apr. 17: Susan Rancourt (18). Disappeared as she walked across Ellensburg's Central Washington State College campus at night.
May 6: Roberta Kathleen Parks (22). Vanished from Oregon State University in Corvallis while walking to another dorm hall to have coffee with friends.
Jun. 1: Brenda Ball (22). Disappeared from the Flame Tavern in Burien, Washington.
Jun. 11: Georgeann Hawkins (18). Disappeared from behind her sorority house, Kappa Alpha Theta, at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Jul. 14: Janice Ott (23) and Denise Naslund (19), both from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington.
Aug. 2: Carol Valenzuela (20). Last seen at a welfare office in Vancouver, Washington.
Sep. 2: Unknown hitchhiker (17-23). Abducted from Boise, Idaho.
Oct. 2: Nancy Wilcox (16). Disappeared in Holladay, Utah.
Oct. 18: Melissa Smith (17). Vanished from Midvale, Utah on her way to a friend's house.
Oct. 31: Laura Aime (17). Disappeared from a Halloween party at Lehi, Utah.
Nov. 8: Carol DaRonch (18, survived). Escaped from Bundy by jumping out from his car in Murray, Utah.
Nov. 8: Debra (Debby) Kent (17). Vanished from the parking lot of a school in Bountiful, Utah, hours after DaRonch escaped from Bundy. Body never recovered.
[edit] 1975
Jan. 12: Caryn Campbell (23). While on a ski trip with her fianc?e in Aspen, Colorado, Campbell vanished between the hotel lounge and her room.
Mar. 15: Julie Cunningham (26). Disappeared while on her way to a nearby tavern in Vail, Colorado. Body never recovered.
Apr. 6: Denise Oliverson (25). Abducted while visiting her parents in Grand Junction, Colorado.
May 6: Lynette Culver (13). Snatched from a school playground at Alameda Junior High School, Pocatello, Idaho. Body never recovered.
June. 28: Susan Curtis (15). Abducted from the campus of Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Body never recovered.
[edit] 1978
Jan. 15: Lisa Levy (20), Margaret Bowman (21), Karen Chandler (survived), Kathy Kleiner (survived). The Chi Omega killings, Tallahassee, Florida.
Jan. 15: Cheryl Thomas (survived). Bludgeoned in her bed, eight blocks away from the Chi Omega house.
Feb. 9: Kimberly Leach (12), kidnapped from her junior high school and raped, Lake City, Florida.
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