Comparative Analysis Of Serial Killers: Ted Bundy And Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy are two of America’s most famous serial killers. To better understand both of them it should be taken in to account their life before the killings, during the killings, and after they got caught. Serial killers all have a point in their life before they started to kill. This would be considered the life before the killings. Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy both had different childhoods and early lives, but there are some similarities among them. To better understand their early lives we need to take a look at each one of their lives before they started their killing sprees. First to start out is Jeffrey Dahmer. “Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer”. “ Both of his parents considered him to be a normal child”. A couple people, mostly his first grade teacher, didn’t think that though. Jeffrey was far from normal a normal 4 year old. While other 4 years old were playing with toys and learning to read and write their name, Jeffrey was doing more unusual things. “If there were any red flags that indicated future violence in young Jeffrey, it was his fascination with animal bones and how they “fit together”’. Jeffrey did far worse than fascinate over dead animal bones. “On one occasion, Jeffrey decapitated the corpse of a dog before nailing the body to a tree”. It is plain to see that Dahmer was far from the normal kid his parents thought he was. When Jeffrey was around 14 he started to realize that he found men attractive. This led to him drinking when he was a teen to supress his sexuality inside. He would bring his beer to school and drink in class which is far from a normal childhood that his parents thought he was living.
Ted Bundy is one of the most famous serial killers to live, but before he became a serial killer he had to of had a childhood like Jeffrey Dahmer is what most people believe. Theodore Robert Bundy is his whole name and he was born on November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Ted Bundy did not have an easy childhood. His relationship with his step father was rough and he was shy which made him a frequent target for bullies at school. “Although the family dynamics were stable, Ted was to grow up in an environment of untruths and uncertainty”. Ted always had food on the table and a roof over his head but he never knew whether or not to trust what anybody said to him. In high school Ted was very successful on the academics side. He kept good grades and took his homework and schoolwork very seriously. Ted didn’t have a reputation that most people want to have in high school though. He has been in trouble with the law before over minor things. It was mostly petty burglaries that got him in trouble. When he graduated high school and went to college is when his personality began to manifest itself. “Ted’s charm and good looks made people see beyond the emptiness that was at his core”. Ted and Dahmer shared only one similarity in childhood and that was being shy. Ted actually had a normal childhood while Dahmer was living a deranged one.
To understand a serial killer you have to look at the killing spree also. Among serial killers they usually follow the same pattern or they go about their killings methodically. According to John Philip Jenkins “Dahmer committed his first murder in Bath township, Ohio, in 1978”. This was only the beginning of many more murders that Dahmer was going to commit. Almost a whole ten years later Dahmer killed again. His second murder would occur in 1987 and would continue for the next five years. Most of his murders after 1987 happened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. John Philip Jenkins suggest that his victims “ were for the most part poor and African American, Asian or Latino boys”. Looking at this information it is easy to tell that Dahmer had a definite type. It is easy to tell he prayed on the minorities and didn’t go for high profiled type of people at the time. Many serial killers before Dahmer have claimed far more victims than Jeffrey’s 17 confirmed victims. John Philip Jenkins states that “Dahmer’s crimes were particularly gruesome, involving cannibalism and necrophilia”. In 1989 Dahmer got charged and incarcerated for sexual exploitation and second degree sexual assault. After Joffrey got out of incarceration it wasn’t long before he was back to killing. On his next victims he would perform crude lobotomies. “ He lured, drugged, strangled, sodomized, photographed, dismembered and disposed of Anthony Sears, an aspiring model”. This and 4 more murders would eventually lead to Dahmer's capture on July 22, 1991.
Ted Bundy’s killing spree is the most famous because he killed over 100 people. In an article on biography.com they claim that Ted Bundy started his murderous rampage in about 1974. “He often lured his victims into his car by pretending to be injured and asking for their help”. Being so kind to Ted would most likely end up being the last thing many of his victims ever did. Within the first 6 months of 1974 eight women had gone missing from college campuses in Washington, Oregon, and utah. From this information you can see Ted had a spread out circle of victims. These victims al looked very similar too. “They all had small frames, long hair that was parted in the middle and were good looking”. All these girls in comparison look like one woman who broke Ted’s heart, Stephanie Brooks. The cases piled up but still there was no trace that Ted did any of these crimes. “Investigators were surprised immensely surprised and immensely frustrated that a man could commit such brazen and leave absolutely no trace evidence in his wake”. The killings would not stop with those girls though. Ted would go on to kill many more times even after being caught then escaping. He would kill in states Including Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. Ted and Dahmer both had similarities in their killing spree. The main one is they both had a certain type they liked to kill. The methods were very different however. Ted was a very brutal killer who would bludgeon his victims to death while Dahmer was a disgusting man who ate his victims. They were both equally insane in any case though.
In the end most serial killers get caught and sentenced to life like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. After Dahmer's capture on July 22, 1991 his trial was held in January of 1992. There was major racial tension due to the fact that most of his victims were African American. They were very worried about there being riots in the courtroom or Dahmer getting assassinated during his trial. “Dahmer initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, despite having confessed to the killings during police investigation”. His defense did put up a argument though using evidence saying only a crazy man could do something like this. Dahmer Was found guilty but sane and he was sentenced to 15 life sentences. Eventually in May, a sixteenth sentence was tacked on to his already devastating conviction. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was assigned to work with two convicted murderers. They were left alone to clean and Sarver, one of the men who was left there to work, had brutally beaten Dahmer and the other man. Scarver alleged his reason for killing Dahmer was that “he was disturbed not only by Dahmer's crimes, but by a habit Dahmer had developed of fashioning severed limbs from prison food to antagonize other inmates”. He never gave a reason for killing the other man other than he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Scarver also claimed “the prison guards allowed the murders to happen by leaving them alone”. After it was announced Jeffrey was dead many people were happy and celebrated.
In August of 1975 Bundy was picked up on traffic violations. After the police pulled him over the realized he had menacing objects in his car like a crow bar, rope, and patyhose with eyes cut out. He was also had his passenger seat missing. According to Charles Montaldo “On Dec. 30, 1997, Bundy escaped prison and made his way to tallahassee…”. Ted Bundy managed to murder for a bit longer until he was caught again. He thought he could beat a guilty verdict but he was wrong. “Bundy was found guilty on both murder charges and given two death sentences…”. While Bundy was in prison he managed to get his second wife pregnant and she soon gave birth to his first and only daughter. Before ted died he said “Jim and Fred, I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends”. Ted Bundy, one of the most famous serial killers, was put to death by electric chair on January 24, 1989. What happened to Ted and Dahmer after they were caught were both very different. Ted tried to escape while Dahmer sat in sad contempt. Dahmer was brutally murdered and Ted was put to death by the law. Both famous for the same thing but their lives were ended in very different ways.
