Theodore robert Cowell was born in Burlington, Vermont on November 24th of 1946. His mother was not married and his father had left his mother. During this time period it was considered wrong to have a baby out of wedlock. Ted believed his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his sister. His grandfather had a dark side and physically abused animals. His dark side trickled on to Ted at a very young age. For instance, Ted had sudden personality changes and often weird behavior like putting knives around his grandmother while she slept. His mother decided to change her surname to Nelson because she was going to live with her Uncle Jack in Washington who also had the surname of Cowell so she wanted to save him the ridicule. His mother soon after married waf veteran and cook John Bundy who adopted Ted. They settled in Tacoma, Washington and his mother had 3 more children, 2 daughters and one son. Bundy was closest to his youngest brother Richard. His relationship with his stepfather was fracturas, and his intelligence clashed with his stepfather sometimes resulting in physical violence.
This friction intensified when Bundy learned the truth about his mother having him out of wedlock. This sudden discovery made Bundy very resentful throughout the rest of his life. His unhealthy interest in sex continued from a young age into High School causing Bundy to be somewhat of a loner who had very little friends. Bundy felt out of place in the society he lived in and had no female relationships. He was intelligent, attractive, and charming but he often viewed himself as a loser. He had some talents of being an accomplished skier but he also started to become a master at stealing. He often stole his ski equipment. In 1965, Bundy graduated from high school and enrolled at University of Puget Sound. Not long after he transferred to the University of Washington because he was lonely. Bundy met the girl of his dreams there.
Her name was Stephanie Brooks and she was slightly older than him and higher on a social status, but when she ended things this is when Bundy soon went off the rails due to his already fractured state of mind. The breakup invoked Bundy’s extremely disturbed character. He had many jobs and started working for a city councilman, but the city councilman (Art Fletcher) lost the race and Bundy’s dreams of becoming politically involved we shattered. He began to become a pepping tom, creeping and spying on women. Bundy went back to school and enrolled at Temple University in Philadelphia. This is where it is believed he started to kidnap women.
He settled back in Seattle and worked at a sawmill and as a messenger. Liz KLoepfer was Bundy’s girlfriend for many years but their relationship was very unnatural and Bundy often cheated. She helped him in school where he got his degree in phycology and drove medical supplies around, in which he stole and later used on his victims. Bundy became a confident and academically successful man, enrolling in Law school in 1973, attending different universities, and working for politicians. His first known victim was a University student 9 years younger than him, 18 years old Karen Sparks. He broke into her apartment in January of 1974, and beat and raped her. Miracuralsy she survived but that was not Bundy’s intention. Bundy soon went on to a killing spree at the age of 27 years old. The time period of his killings revolved around the growing of women’s rights, gay rights, and environmental movements. Fashion and music were popular and caused many women to become extremely independent and easily targeted by Bundy. In six months, he had kidnapped six women across the Washington and Oregon area. Bundy would gain the trust of his victims by wearing a cast and asking them to help put something in his car or go with him to his car. Police were given a description about Bundy but they dismissed him as a suspect because he was an attractive young law student with no criminal record. Bundy escaped capture for another 15 months and moved from state to state killings more and more women.
Not long after his victims sparked an investigation, he moved to Utah, and the bodies of victims Denise Nesland and Janice Ott were found. Police then knew that there was a serial madman on the loose. Carole Daronch was kidnapped but escaped from Bundy and soon became an important victim to the investigation of the killer. Investigators found a key outside a High school auditorium (where he caught 2 victims) that unlocked the handcuffs removed from Carol DaRonch wrists . Liz tipped off police frequently concerned by Bundy’s behavior. Soon Bundy was put on a list of 100 suspects for the case. Bundy was pulled over August 16 of 1975 and arrested for evading an officer and being in possession of murderous weapons including a ski mask, gloves, panti hose, an ice pic, rope, and handcuffs. Bundy was put on the top of the suspect list and was arrested again on August 21st of 1975 and questioned about the contents of the bag.
They let him go unconvinced this nice man would commit these murders. Soon after he sold his car but police obtained it finding the hairs of many of his victims. He was also identified by DaRonch as the man who tried to kidnap her. He was arrested and charged for the kidnapping of DaRonch and was sentenced with a maximum of 1 to 15 year prison sentence. In October of 1976, Bundy was charged for the murder Carolyn Campbell’s murdered. He was transported from colorado to Utah in January of 1977 to withstand the trial. Bundy used his charm to be in favor of the prison guards and decided to be his own lawyer for the trial. During his trip to the courthouse library he escaped by jumping out a window. He was caught back. Bundy intended on pounds and got love bring him a hacksaw and Bunday climbed out of a ceiling of his cell. He escaped and it wasn’t discovered until 15 hours later. He made his way all the way to Tallahassee, Florida.
There he invaded the Chi Omega sorority house at FSU. there he attacked four young women and killed two. He continued to kill until he was pulled over by police in February of 1978. He was caught as another identity but soon discovered as the one of the most wantedBmen in America at the time. Bundy had been charged for the Chi Omega murders and his trial was the first trial to be nationally televised in the U.S. Bundy was convicted of the murders and many more and was sentenced to death because of his unmerciful attitude. In Orlando in 1980, Bundy was charged again for the murder of Kimberly Leach. Bundy married Boone and tried to used Boone to testify for him. Fortunately Bundy was sentenced to death for the 3rd time. Throughout his times to be executed he would obtain himself from a stay of execution by revealing details of his murders. He gave details and confessed to killing 36 women, although it is believed he had killed 100 victims. He was accused of killing 36 women in the 6 states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and Florida. Bundy was executed at 7:16 a.m. on January the 24th of 1989. Eight days later and brought escaping again, so he lost 35 interest Carole Boone to $500. In December of 1977, whole he carved in the
Citation
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- ”The Very Definition Of Heartless Evil’: The Story Of Ted Bundy’. All That’s Interesting, 2018, https://allthatsinteresting.com/ted-bundy. Accessed 2 Dec 2018.
- ‘Ted Bundy’. Biography, 2018, https://www.biography.com/people/ted-bundy-9231165. Accessed 2 Dec 2018.
- Crime, True, and How Facts!. ‘How Many People Did Ted Bundy Kill? Here’s The Facts!’. Serial Killer Shop, 2018,https://serialkillershop.com/blogs/true-crime/how-many-people-did-ted-bundy-kill. Accessed 2 Dec 2018.
- ‘Ted Bundy | Serial Killers | Crime Library – Crime Museum’. Crime Museum, 2018, https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/ted-bundy/. Accessed 3 Dec 2018.
