The Story Of Ted Bundy – The Most Notorious Serial Killer Of The 20th Century

“The very definition of heartless evil” (​Paoletti). ​Ted Bundy did not have the normal childhood that every other child has in the United States. His childhood is what triggered him to become the monster he was. He targeted women in particular, he would kidnap them, rape them, and eventualy kill them. He committed these crimes over a four year period. Ted said to the media that “I am the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you will ever meet”. After he was sentenced to death he wanted the entire world to know about him and to fear him. ​His nickname was the Lady Killer, he was a very smart, evil, and heartless guy, but yet no one suspected him to be the most notorious serial killer of the 20th century.

In his early years, Ted Bundy’s childhood is the reason he was a serial killer, rapist, and kidnapper. Theodore Robert Bundy was born on November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. When he was born his mother ​Eleanor Louise Cowell wanted to put him up for adoption, but Eleanor’s father wanted Ted to join the family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father wanted him to join the family because one night Eleanor was raped by her own father and he didn’t want anyone to know that Ted was his kid and he raped his daughter. ​Ted grew up thinking that his mother Eleanor was his sister because he was raised by his grandparents for the first three years of his life. At first glance it looks like Ted was raised in a good environment, but his grandmother suffered from depression and agoraphobia, and his grandfather had major anger issue problems, he would often get very mad and take his anger out on the rest of the family. Ted experienced a lot pain from his grandfather both physical and psychological. His grandfather is what experts believe to be what triggered Ted to grow up and be a psychopath. On one occasion Ted’s aunt was sleeping in her room and woke up in the middle of the night to a knife that had fallen on the floor, to her surprise it was Ted in her room with multiple big kitchen knives laid out on her bed and he had one in his hand very close to her throat. After living in Philadelphia for three years Eleanor and Ted moved to Tacoma, Washington. When Ted was in grade school he did not fit in with the rest of his classmates, he had a speech impediment that his classmates would make fun of him for, he didn’t make the basketball, or baseball team in high school. Due to him getting bullied and not making the basketball team he was very angry about it all and turned to taking his anger out on women. Previews classmates of his sais that he was a loner and didn’t socialize with anyone, but did very well academically. While he was a teenager is when the psycho Ted really started to emerge. Ted would watch people through their windows of their house and would steal many items from people thinking that he was doing nothing wrong.

Therefore, his actions lead to his first attack and then progressively got worse. Ted commited his first murder in 1961 at the age of 14. A girl named Ann Burr disappeared from her room in the middle of the night. Ted was the mail delivery boy for Ann’s house so Ted was the number one suspect. The authorities did not have enough evidence to convict Ted for the disappearing and murder of Ann, but they knew Ted comminted the crime, and up to the day Ted died he still denied that he had nothing to do the dissapearance and murder of Ann. In January of 1974, Ted broke into an apartment that belonged to a girl named Karen Sparks that was a student at The University of Washington. Once he was in the apartment he then beat her with only using his hands. After ted knocked her out with his hands he then sexually assaulted her. Ann was then found by a neighbor and was rushed to the hospital where she was in a coma for ten days and had permanent disabilities from the attack. A month later Ted committed his first confirmed murder. The victim was another girl and her name was Lynda Healy, she was a student at the University of Washington. He broke into her apartment, beat her until she was unconscious and then abducted her. The athories don’t know how long Ted kept her captive before he killed her. After he killed her, he put her remains at a Taylor Mountain site where he would later put the remains of many more victims that he killed.

The killing spree continues, Ted would later stop breaking into girls houses, and instead draw his victims in with his good looks and intelligence. While Ted was going to school at the University of Washington he committed at least seven murders, that he has confessed to. Ranging from Washington to Colorado. In 1974 Ted met a girl named Carole Boone while working. The two then started dating, and while he was dating Carole he was also dating Elizabeth Kloepfer ​at the same time. The two women had no idea that Ted was dating two girls at once. ​Ted than moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and attended the University of Utah Law School. Within a month he already killed two girls one being the Utah police chief's daughter. Ted would usually lure the women in with his good looks, intelligence, being nice to the women, and wearing his arm in a sling asking for help. He lured two girls in at the same time using that tactic, their names were Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. He made one mistake though, their were witnesses that saw the girls get into his car. The witnesses described him as a handsome young man, wearing a sling asking for help, and called himself Ted. The police has confirmed that Ted had killed at least 36 women, but the number is more than that and we will never know how many women he actually killed and sexualy assulted. The authorities believe that he killed at least a 100 or more woman, that he did not confess to. Most of the bodies of his victims have never been found. Ted later told the police that he would rape his victims after he had beaten them to death. Ted killed only women and in specific good looking, brunette women. He did that because he said that he was angry about his first love breaking up with him and all of his victims resembled the appearance of his first love. His first love was Diane Edwards and she said she dumped him because “He was pitifully weak”. She believes that she is the reason that he started his killing spree on women. The average age of the women he targeted was 18 years old. He would usually kidnap the women, beat them to death, rape them, than discard their remains where they usually were never found again.

The one mistake that cost Ted his life. Ted started to get very relaxed while he abducted his victims. On November 8, 1974 Ted lured Carol DaRonch into his car and when he handcuffed her in his car, he realized that he put both of the cuffs on one of her wrists and she was able to escape from him and go to the police. The police then started to look for him and Ted thought nothing of it that Carol is one of the people responsible for putting Ted behind bars. Eventually his own girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer started to piece together all of the missing women together and figured out that all of the women were disappearing wherever Ted would go. She then reported him to the police. In August of 1975, Ted was pulled over for a traffic violation and the police searched his car and found handcuffs and a ski mask, but the police had no reason the arrest him so he was released. Ted than knew that the police were after him and were going to look for any reason to arrest him. He then sold his car, but then the police took the car from the new owner of his car and found a piece of hair in it that traced back to Carol. In ​Buhr 5 October of 1975, Ted was put in a lineup and was identified by Carol. He was then put in jail but later released on bail. Then a year later in February or 1976 Ted was put on trial for the kidnapping of Carol and he was found guilty, sentenced to 15 years and while he in jail he was convicted of the murder of Caryn Campbell, he was then transfered to a prison in Aspen, Colorado. In June of 1977 Ted was at the courthouse for a hearing. He was serving as his own attorney because he had gone to college for law, and while he was at the courthouse before his hearing he asked the guard if he could go to the library in the courthouse to research his case. While he was in the library he caught the guard off guard and jumped out of the window and escaped. He broke his ankle from the fall and hid in the woods for six days, gathering supplies from stolen cars and breaking into campers. The police eventually found him and put him back behind bars. Then in December of 1977 Ted escaped again through a hole he dug in the ceiling of his cell. He somehow got a map of the prison found himself to the front door of the prison, changed into civilian clothes, and literally walked out of the front door of the prison and the guards thought nothing of it. They did not realize that he had escaped until the next day when he was not in his cell. Ted than caught a bus to Denver, Colorado, then flew to Chicago, Illinois, then stole a car and drove to Atlanta, Georgia, then at last he took another bus to Tallahassee, Tennessee. He did all of that traveling to try and through the police off and give them no clues to where he was. While he was in Tennessee he tried to get a job but he couldn’t get a job, so then he went back to killing women. Ted than had a feeling that the police were close to him so he fled Tennessee, when he was later pulled over for driving a stolen car and was arrested again in February of 1978. His trial was the first ever broadcasted live to the public. He was found guilty in the state of Florida with only two counts of murder, three counts of attemted first degree murder, and two counts of burglury. He was sentenced to death by electicution, under the law of Flordia for the two counts of murder. Before his death he asked his girlfriend to marry him and she actually said yes, they then got married while Ted was still in prison sentenced to death. In 1982 Carol gave birth to Ted’s daughter. On January 24, 1989 at 7:16 A.M. Ted was executed by the electric chair at the Florida State prison in Raiford, Florida. The entire nation celebrated his death and people actually through parties for his death and the public was very relieved that he was finally dead.

Ted is one of the most notorious serial killers of the 20th century, experts claim that his childhood and the break up with his first love is what triggered him to go on a killing spree, leaving the authorities with no choice, but to execute him to keep the public safe from him. Ted grew up in a poor environment, while his grandparents had many mental issues and his grandfather actually raped his own daughter and produced Ted. The authorities were so close to catching him the whole time during his crimes, but never put the pieces together quick enough to put a stop to his actions. After Ted was killed the police really emphasized to the public not to trust any stranger and report any suspicious activity of any body to the police. Some say that Ted is the most evil person to ever live in the United States. The police couldn’t get all of their questions answered about the crimes and the victims of Ted because the police and the public wanted him dead, to relieve the entire United States that the most notorious serial killer of the 20th century was dead and couldn’t harm anyone anymore. The victims that escaped are scarred for life from what Ted put them through but they now feel the comfort that there is no way he can harm them anymore, besides the damaged he already cause on their lives. If the authorities could’ve stopped Ted earlier, many lives would’ve been saved. ​

Works Cited

1. Biography Editors. 'Ted Bundy Biography.' ​Biography​, 18 Jan. 2018, www.biography.com/crime-figure/ ted-bundy. Accessed 20 Sept. 2019.
2. Kettler, Sara. 'Inside Ted Bundy's Troubled and Disturbing Childhood.' ​Biography​, 30 July 2019,www.biography.com/news/ted-bundy-childhood. Accessed 20 Sept. 2019.
3. Paget, Antonia. 'Ted Bundy's first love says she dumped him because he was 'pitifully weak.'' Mirror​, 4 May 2019,www.mirror.co.uk/film/ted-bundys-first-love-says-14995860. Accessed 20 Sept. 2019.
4. Paoletti, Gabe. ''The Very Definition Of Heartless Evil': The Story Of Ted Bundy.' ​ATI​, 21 Dec. 2017, allthatsinteresting.com/ted-bundy. Accessed 20 Sept. 2019.
5. Reinhardt, Meghan. 'From troubled childhood to electric chair: The full timeline of Ted Bundy's life and murder spree.' ​
6. Insider​, 1 Feb. 2019, www.insider.com/ the-full-timeline-of-ted-bundys-murders-2019-2. Accessed 20 Sept. 2019.
7. Yang, Allie, et al. Timeline of many of Ted Bundy's brutal crimes. ​ABC NEWS​, 15 Feb. 2019,abcnews.go.com/US/timeline-ted-bundys-brutal-crimes/story?id=61077236. Accessed 20 Sept. 2019.