Research Paper

Name

Instructors’ Name

Course Title and Code

Date

Research Paper: Ted Bundy

Introduction

Ted Bundy has to be one of the most infamous serial killers of all time. The fear that is associated with his name still scares people. He raped and killed many women towards the end of the 20th century. Before his death, Bundy admitted to killing around 36 women, but experts believe that the number of innocent victims could be in 100s. Today many psychologists pin his behavior on the dysfunctional family he was brought up in. However, this is one of many speculations that experts have made so far. Nonetheless, Bundy was a very clever man who had mastered the art of psychology and used it generously to avoid and delay his inevitable death sentence. The notorious murderer of the 1970s was finally executed in an electric chair in 1989. The disturbing case and personality of Bundy have since stimulated many movies and novels regarding serial killers. This paper will look into the criminal life of Ted Bundy in detail.

Discussion

Early life

The infamous killer was born on the 24th of November 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Bundy did not have the best start of life, as he came into the world bearing the weight of being an illegitimate child. Bundy’s mother Louise delivered him at a home for unwed mothers in Vermont. To cover the fact that Bundy was an illegal youngster, he was brought up as the adopted son of his grandparents. Bundy grew up with his mother thinking of her as his sister. Later, his mother (grandmother) married Johnnie who became Bundy’s stepfather (Ramsland, 18-26). From an overall perspective, Bundy was brought up in a comfortable working-class home. When Bundy was only 3 years old he became interested in gruesome and grizzly activities. He gained interest in things like knives. When it comes to school, Bundy was a brilliant student who did well in all subjects. However, he never came around making friends in school. Things started to take a turn when Bundy turned into a teenager. He started doing disturbing things like peeking in stranger's windows and stealing. Bundy also got interested in pornographic material that included disturbing content of women being treated sadistically. That explains a lot about the way he raped and murdered his victims.

Education

Bundy did his graduation from the University of Washington. He got his degree in psychology from the university in the year 1972. He got admission in a law school in Utah, however, he never got to attend it. When Bundy was in university he met a beautiful girl named Stephanie Brooks. Stephanie had everything that Bundy ever wanted. She was pretty, rich and influential. Many people claim Stephanie to be the only girl he ever loved. Some people suggest that when things ended between them, a monster that was always inside Bundy was unleashed. The breakup with Stephanie left him devastated. Later on, it was said that many of Bundy’s victims resembled Stephanie. He usually targeted women who were beautiful and had long dark hair parted from the center. Towards the mid-1970s Bundy had gone through a complete transformation. He was no longer the shy guy. Bundy became very confident and started participating in social and particular matters. He even ended up receiving a letter of recommendation from the Republic Governor of Washington. It all happened after Bundy worked on the governor’s campaign.

Victims

In the 1970s, Bundy ended up confessing to 36 murders. He admitted that he killed around 36 young females in various states of America. As mentioned above, many specialists believe that he killed around a hundred or above innocent women. It is unfortunate and frightening that the exact number of killings done by Bundy is still unidentified to this day. The pattern of Bundy's killings was mostly gruesome and downright inhumane. In most of the cases, he raped his victims prior to thrashing them to their death. Although there is no set date given as to when Bundy started killing, most sources believe that he started his deadly spree around 1974. This was the year when many women vanished from the Seattle and Oregon area. There were many stories that the victims were last seen with a handsome guy with dark hair (Bundy). Often Bundy would trap his victims by pretending to have car trouble, and kill them later.

How Bundy Finally Got Caught

Bundy went to Utah to attend law school in the fall of 1974. The same time around, women started to vanish (Browne). After a year, he was stopped by a police car due to suspicion. After searching Bundy's car, the police found objects like a crowbar, face mask, ropes and so on. That is when the police took him into custody and started connecting him to sinister and gruesome crimes. Later that year Bundy got arrested for kidnapping a young girl named Carol DaRonch. She was one of the very few victims who were able to survive Bundy’s sinister clutches. After the allegation, Bundy was sent to a 1-15 year sentence in jail.

Although, Bundy got jail time but he was able to escape twice in the year 1977. The first time he escaped was when he was charged with murder in the Colorado woman case. Interestingly, he made the decision to be his own lawyer in the case. Later, Bundy went to the courtyard library and jumped out the window to escape. However, he got caught 8 days post his escape. Then later in December, Bundy managed to escape once again. He created a hole in the ceiling of his jail cell and reduced 30 pounds to fit through it (Scott-Snyder). It was unfortunate that the authorities could not find out about Bundy’s escape on time as it led to brutal murders.

When Bundy escaped for the second time he went to Tallahassee, Florida. Bundy ended up breaking in the Chi Omega sorority house, on the 14th of January 1978. Four female residents of the sorority house became his victim. He ended up killing two of the girls while the other two were left injured. Later on the 9th of February, Bundy hit again, but this time he abducted and killed a 12-year-old girl. This was luckily the last crime that Bundy was able to pull off. He was arrested by the police again later in February, which put an end to his murderous riot. The most promising evidence that pinned Bundy for good was the bite marks that were found on the body of one of the victim’s from Chi Omega Sorority.

Elizabeth Kloepfer and Carle Ann Boone

Bundy started a relation that lasted six-years with a single mother Elizabeth Kloepfer in 1969. He met Elizabeth in a bar that was located in Seattle. Surprisingly, Elizabeth claims that Bundy took care of her and her daughter. She described him as someone "warm and loving." Elizabeth was a single mother and she was battling with alcoholism. By the year 1974, Elizabeth started to become very suspicious of Bundy's behavior and activities. To the point, she suspected him of being the notorious murder. She would confront him often but he would charm her with his charisma. However, Elizabeth ended up going to the police but they did not believe that Bundy was a killer. As time passed by, Bundy moved to Olympia and the couple grew distant. Later, Elizabeth went to the police department one more time, but this time with proof that assisted in arresting the killer. Elizabeth also talked about the conversation she had with Bundy when he was in jail. Bundy confessed to her that he had tried to kill her and he could no longer resist his urges. He deemed his sickness to be the cause of it. After this disturbing conversation, Elizabeth broke all ties with Bundy.

Bundy ended up marrying Carole Ann Boone on February 1980 in the courtroom during one of his trials. Boone was a mother of two already and accepted Bundy's proposal in the courtroom in front of the judge (Worthen, 145-163). The marriage was legitimate as per Florida’s law. Boone first met Bundy six years earlier when they both worked together at the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia, Washington. In 1982, Boone had Bundy’s child, a baby girl named Rose. Not a lot of information is known regarding the daughter currently. However, Boone came to the realization that Bundy was guilty of all the murders that he was held accountable for. She gave Bundy a divorce three years before he was executed.

Ted Bundy’s Trial and Death

The fact that Bundy was good looking and charismatic, gave him celebrity status. Many women came to his trial and it was unfortunate that most of them were young girls. Bundy fought a lot but ended up spending 9 years on the death row trying to plea for his death sentence. Bundy even worked on taking his case to the Supreme Court, but he was rejected. He tried to do whatever he could to avoid the electric chair but it was inevitable (Wattis, 43-68). On the 24th of January 1989, the nymphomaniac rapist and murderer was executed around 7 am, at the Florida State Prison. He was executed in an electric chair. Many individuals celebrated Bundy's execution and cheered on his death. Bundy's dead body was incinerated in Gainseville. However, there was no public ceremony on account of his death. Another disturbing fact is that Bundy requested that his remains be spread in the Cascade Mountains of Washington States. It is said that he murdered at least four women there.

Work Cited

Ramsland, Katherine. "The many sides of Ted Bundy." The Forensic Examiner 22.3 (2013): 18-26.

Scott-Snyder, Stephanie. Introduction to forensic psychology: Essentials for law enforcement. CRC Press, 2017.

Browne, John. Devil's Defender: My Odyssey Through American Criminal Justice from Ted Bundy to the Kandahar Massacre. Chicago Review Press, 2016.

Worthen, Meredith GF. "Defining sexual deviance." Sexual Deviance and Society. Routledge, 2016. 145-163.

Wattis, Louise. "Structural and Cultural Perspectives on Serial Murder." Revisiting the Yorkshire Ripper Murders. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 43-68.