Ted Bundy: Inside The Mind Of A Monster
The man, the monster, the serial killer.
Along with Jeffrey Dahmer, they have become two of the most notorious serial killers of all time. But while Dahmer was famous for his separation anxiety and his appetite for his victims, Ted Bundy was characterized as a sex addict and a sadistic pervert who killed for his pleasure.
Before you read: This article is mainly based on my own observation and research, information from various sources will be used for reference but it might contain holes and shortcomings.
The article might contain graphic and disturbed images. Read at your own discretion.
1. Ted Bundy, “The Lady Killer” (literally)
A fairly good looking man who reportedly had an IQ of 136. However, his innocent appearance was his best weapon yet.
Born Theodore Robert Bundy on November 24th 1946 in Burlington, Vermont, his birth brought shame to his mother and his religious grandparents. Eleanor Louise Cowell, or Louise, gave birth to Ted when she was 22 years old in a home for unwed mothers. Ted then was brought up as an adopted child by his grandparents in Philadelphia without knowing who his biological father was, meanwhile he was told that his mother was his sister [1]. In 1951, his mother/sister met Johnny Culpepper Bundy, a cook, at an adult singles night at Tacoma's First Methodist Church. They got married shortly after and Ted became Johnny’s adopted son and got his last name, Bundy [2].
Ted spent his elementary years at a local school in Tacoma before he started at Woodrow Wilson High School. Despite having chosen an “isolated” life from his peers at school, which he claimed to, most of the people who went to high school with him would describe him as “reasonably well-known and well-liked” [3].
“I didn’t know what made people want to be friends,” he told true crime writer Ann Rule. “I didn’t know what underlay social interactions.” [4]
Ted led quite a troubled life when he was in high school where he would steal skiing tickets to have his way up the slopes. Later on, he became prolific with his stealing that he was arrested for suspicion of committing burglary and auto theft [4]. Luckily, his record was expunged and so he managed to apply to university.
After graduating from high school in 1965, he enrolled at the University of Puget Sound, a liberal arts college located in Tacoma, where he spent a year. Subsequently, he transferred to the University of Washington (UW) in 1966 with the intention of pursuing Chinese studies, but allegedly discontinued his studies two years later [5]. However, during his time in UW, he dated a rich brunette named from California, Diane Edwards, a girl of his dreams.
“He referred to her as “S” in his writings, but biographers commonly dub her Stephanie Brooks.” [4]
She had everything that he ever wanted: money, class, and influence. She was beautiful as well, however, their love seems to be one-sided as Diane didn’t love Ted like the way he did, and boy was he deeply in love with her.
"They began a brief but — for Bundy, at least — very intense romance. They went on trips to the mountains, dinner dates in Seattle, and made love in their dorm rooms.” [4]
In The Ted Bundy Tapes, Ted admitted that “The relationship I had with Diane had a lasting impact on me.” After Diane broke up with him, supposedly due to his lack of motivation, he was believed to have picked up a tendency to kill those who resembled his first love, according to many criminologists who have studied his pathology [6].
In 1968, heartbroken Bundy, after a brief drop-out, returned to school as a psychology major, with the aim of being the ideal man that Diane wanted. He worked as a driver and bodyguard for Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Art Fletcher; became deeply involved in a gubernatorial campaign for Republican governor Dan Evans later in 1972, surrounded himself with influential Republicans. He somehow won her back, the pair started discussing about marriage but all he wanted was revenge - to make her fall in love and dumb her the way she dumbed him.
Ted had his revenge and entered into a relationship with Elizabeth Kloepfer, a young single mother who worked as a secretary at the university’s medical school. His killing spree started during this time.
“Young, pretty women with long straight hair parted down the middle and bright futures seemed to be his exclusive interest in all the murders committed in Washington, Oregon, Utah, and Colorado.” [6]
a. The First Kill
There are arguments over who was the first victim whose life was claimed by Ted Bundy. While most believe his first victim was a young girl named Ann Marie Burr who vanished in 1961 (when he was 14), some others asserted that his first victim was Lynda Ann Healy, a Washington college student who mysteriously vanished in the night from her bed in 1974 [7].
“Though the serial killer outright denied it when asked by the Burr family, he also implied during interviews with investigators and academics that he had once kidnapped a young girl from her home, assaulted her in a nearby orchard, and disposed of her body in a ditch.” [8]
It was actually 18-year-old Karen Sparks that became the first victim of Ted Bundy. He managed to get inside her home through the basement, assaulting her with a metal rod from her bed frame. She was sexually abused with the same object, which penetrated so deep that it had caused her severe internal damage, along with brain damage from the hit. She was left to bleed as Ted escaped from the scene, he believed he was seen. Karen luckily survived the attack.
During his time of recovery from his relationship with Diane, he immersed himself in violent pornographic literature as he claimed it had a “crystallizing effect” on his violent tendencies and helped fuel his fantasies into actions [9]. And unfortunately, Lynda never knew one day she would cross path with America’s most prolific murderer.
Healy grew up in a pleasant suburb near Seattle with her parents and two siblings. In 1974, as her senior year of college began, the 21-year-old resided in a green house near the campus with four other women. She was a diligent student and gained recognition for her morning weather and ski reports on a local radio station.
In February 1st 1974, the day of her missing, she was still seen by her roommates the day before, one even claimed to have spoken with her at 12 A.M. before she went to bed. Just hours later, at 5:30 A.M., Healy's alarm rang as usual for her early morning session at the radio station. However, when her roommate Barbara Little entered her room upon hearing the alarm, she found Healy missing. Despite the thin partition separating their rooms, Little hadn't heard any disturbances during the night [10].
The police was called, apart from the blood drops found on her pillow and head area of the sheets on her bed, there were no signs of foul play. The police then found her nightgown in her closet, its collar was soaked with blood. They concluded that the abductor might have dressed her up with another outfit before taking her away.
After interviewing the roommates, the police believed that several items were missing from the room: the clothing Lynda wore the night before, a pink satin pillowcase, her backpack, and her house keys. The girls also noticed the backdoor was widely opened, which alarmed them as Healy would usually enter the house through the side door.
Bob Keppel, a detective with King County Police, said the unique crime scene stood out in his memory. It appeared someone had broken into the house, attacked Lynda, redressed her, made the bed (unbelievable!), and carried her off into the chilly night [11].
It was reported that Healy’s skull and her mandible was found and identified through dental records. The police overlooked Ted Bundy as the main suspect, and so, he successfully got away.
Note that, victims of Ted Bundy were lured, kidnapped, sexually and physically assaulted before he mutilated their bodies. Some victims were never found.
b. The Spree
Donna Gail Manson
Just a month later, March 1974, another 19-year-old college student at Evergreen State College in Olympia went missing. The police received a call from her roommate named Deanna Ray, stating that she had not seen her friend for 1900 hours and couldn’t contact Donna or her parents [12].
Her disappearance had not been reported for six days due to her habit of hitch-hiked travelling without prior notice. Therefore, her friends simply thought she was travelling elsewhere for a few days. It was believed that Ted abducted her around 7 P.M. on March 12th 1974 as she was on her way to attend a jazz concert on campus [13]. Unfortunately, her body was never recovered.
Susan Elaine Rancourt
Rancourt, originally from La Conner, enrolled at what is now CWU with the intention of pursuing biology as part of the premed curriculum. During her high school years, she was recognized as a cheerleader and homecoming queen. She was admired for her sensible demeanor and purity, earning her the nickname "Prudence Pureheart" from her family [14]. Susan crossed her path with Ted when she left a meeting for prospective dorm counselors at Central Washington State College.
Later, it was revealed that Ted had used to same tactics to lure Susan, as well as other students, by showing up with an arm in a sling and asking for help [15].
Her skull was then found on Taylor Mountain in King County, along with four other victims’.
Roberta “Kathy” Parks
Roberta was a student from Oregon State University in Corvallis. She disappeared on May 6th 1974 on her way to have a coffee with her friends in at the Memorial Union [16].
Her skull was also recovered on Taylor Mountain, along with Susan Elaine Rancourt’s.
At Least 30 Women Killed
1974 witnessed the disappearances of multiple college students as well as teenage girls in Utah, Colorado, And Idaho. Ted Bundy was believed to use the same tactics, where he would pretend to be an injured man and ask the victims to help him move heavy things from his Volkswagen. Once they got inside, he would bludgeon or cuff them and then drove off, pretty much like the Buffalo Bill from the The Silence of The Lamb if you ask me. His innocent looks was what caught them off-guard.
“Once he had the victims he would proceed in kidnapping, sodomizing, raping, and killing them in a brutal manner.” [17]
There were witnesses said that there was a strange man in a sling, often asking for help with a stack of books or a briefcase near the campus where the victims were last seen. It took some time for the police to actually make the connection between this handicapped man and the disappearance of the girls.
“[…] witnesses reported that a man with his left arm in a sling had approached them, introduced himself as Ted, and asked for help rigging his sailboat to his car. One young woman initially obliged, but grew hesitant when she approached his brown Volkswagen Beetle with no sailboat in sight.
“Oh. I forgot to tell you. It’s at my folks’ house — just a jump up the hill,” he said in a slight British accent. When he motioned to the passenger door, she bolted. A little while later, she saw another woman walking beside the man toward the parking lot, deep in conversation.” [18]
So now the police finally got to know the mysterious man they were looking for: sandy blond hair, 5’10”, 160 pounds driving a tan Volkswagen Bug. Even with that information, they wouldn’t think Ted was right under their noses: an active Republican that “worked for the Washington State Department of Emergency Services” and even got nominated “by the Seattle Police Department to become the director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission.” [19]
Despite knowing Ted had a brown Volkswagen, there was no follow-up on the lead.
He must’ve felt so invincible that he continued his hunting, ended up killing more than 30 young women and teenagers in a span of four years, from 1974 to 1978.
c. Why Ted Bundy became Ted Bundy?
Victims are young women and children: The first thing to bear in mind is that Ted Bundy didn’t just aim at young women only, his victims were children as well, such as Kimberly Leach and Lynette Dawn Culver. Both of them were 12 years old at the time when he abducted and sexually abused both.
Ted Bundy is a necrophile, which means that he found arousal in decapitated corpses and often spent the night with them. He admitted keeping the heads of victims as his mementos.
Bit marks are often seen on victims’ bodies: He had a tendency of biting his victims on their breasts, butts and everywhere.
He had multiple tactics to gain women’s trust and sympathy, such as posing as an authority figure or pretending to be injured or handicapped.
It would be reasonable to categorize Ted Bundy as a “lust killer” who killed for his sexual pleasure. However, Bundy was an interesting case, especially how he managed to evade law enforcement and contained himself when he was arrested. Ted Bundy would meticulously plan his next moves and never acted out of haste. He learned from his past mistakes and improved his plans, and most importantly, he knew how to use his charisma and intelligence to display a facade of normalcy.
It is believed to a trait often seen in psychopaths that enables them to keeping themselves emotionally stable while telling lies, also called a “mask of sanity”. Some of them even managed to pass a polygraph test. Ted Bundy showed no signs of remorse or regret, he even sane enough to plan his escape from prisons twice. According to Hervey Cleckley, who is considered to be the "father of psychopathy," he diagnosed Bundy as a psychopath.
One thing that shaped the mentality of a serial killer is the environment in which they were brought up. Ted Bundy was given birth by a 22-year-old single mother, he was lied to about his family, which partially drove him insane when he found out. Ted was also believed to be traumatized when he was young. According to Bundy himself, his grandfather/father was "an extremely violent and frightening individual” who kicked dogs, swung cats by their tails and beat people who angered him. It is safe to say that Ted Bundy was somewhat influenced by his grandfather as they possessed the same interests: pronounced interest in pornography (Bundy was exposed to porno at a young age); a tendency toward violent behavior (his grandfather tortured the family’s pet in front of him).
And it has been proved that serial killers who have experienced childhood mistreatment often sexually assault their victims before murdering them, which matched Ted Bundy’s acts when he abducted his victims. According to psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis, Bundy's family background might have worsened his violent behavior and "altered states," suggesting the possibility of a "psychomotor seizure disorder" and “brain changes”. But not everyone who experienced childhood trauma act out the way Bundy did.
After an evaluation session with Dr. Al Carlisle, it was determined that Ted Bundy was a narcissistic psychopath. It was his narcissistic nature that made him believe he could get away with his acts and that the fates of his victims depended on him. This is why he chose to lure his victims into his traps, as it was the only time when he had ultimate control. Meanwhile, his psychopathic side contributed to his lack of empathy, either towards the victims or their families, which made him feel that killing them was not a big deal, serving as motivation for repetition.
So what can be deduced about Ted Bundy? A narcissistic psychopath who turned his family resentment into his motive to kill, of which the “rewards” was sexual satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
There is one more thing to add, which is really interesting to me, is that almost every serial killer would have a “cooling-off period” in there relentless hunt. It could be a few days of peace between each murder, some might take a break of few months or years before unleashing the terror again. It seems like except for the time when Ted was arrested, he was active for most of the time and only took some days off before hunting his next prey. From a social-psychological perspective, the emotional cooling-off period between murders stands out as a crucial behavioral trait that sets serial killers apart from other types of murderers. It’s practically how you define a serial killer.
2. The Monster And Its Arrest
In the summer of 1974, despite being in a relationship with Elizabeth Kloepfer, Ted somehow met Carole Ann Boone and they both fell in love. However, the women never actually know about one another.
Ted started to bring nightmare to Utah by the time he moved to Salt Lake City to enroll at the University of Utah Law School. He would drive in his Volkswagen, and hunt for those unlucky young women. However, on October 11 was a horrible yet lucky day for Rhonda Stapley. Rhonda, the freshman in pharmacy, was waiting for a bus heading back to the University of Utah when she met a strange man, offering her a ride in his Volkswagen.
After the young girl had climbed onto his car, he immediately drove off to Big Cottonwood Canyon, where he repeatedly garroted and abused her sexually. In one brief moment, he turned his back on Rhonda, she grasped the chance and ran for her life. She only made it back in one piece after jumping into a nearby river. However, instead of reporting the incident, Rhonda chose to stay silent for fear of being blamed and ridiculed.
Fast forward to November 8th, 1974 - the day that marked a pivotal moment in the eventual apprehension and prosecution of the infamous Ted Bundy.
It was a late night, Carol DaRonch was at the Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah when a strange man approached her. Unbeknownst to her, this strange man was Ted Bundy. He was polite enough to introduce himself, flashing his badge and stating that he was a police officer named “Roseland” and that he was investigating a break-in of Carol’s vehicle.
The young lady accepted the offer to come with him as she just “wanted to be helpful to an authority figure” [20]. She agreed to get on his car to the police station. There was no police station, apparently, and Carol was able to tell something was off about this “police officer”:
“"I thought he was kind of creepy … I thought he was a lot older than he was," she said, noting that she smelled alcohol on his breath. (From behind bars, Bundy later said he usually drank heavily before killing.)” [20]
His friendly demeanor quickly dissipated as he drove her to elsewhere other than the police station. He struck, Carol fought for her life. He forced her wrist into a pair of handcuffs and threatened her at gun point. Since she had rejected his suggestion to fasten her seatbelt as they drove approximately half a mile from the mall, so she managed to break free and ran off.
"I was able to open the door on my side and get out, and he came out after me over the seat, and we just fought outside of the car," DaRonch recalled. [20]
As Ted was about to bludgeon her into submission, there was an old couple who happened to drive by, Wilbur and Mary Walsh. Feeling like this was the only chance to survive the ordeal, Carol quickly got into their car to escape from Ted.
“When she jumped up in front of the lights in the night like that, because it is very dark—it was very dark—naturally, we got frightened. […] So as she come to the side, the thought in my mind was lock the door. And she had opened the door before I could. And I can remember very plainly of looking beyond her to see if there was anybody, you know, down low, because the vision was kind of bad. When I could see this child was so, in such a state, then I realized that it wasn’t anything too harmful to me, it was harmful to her. And when we let her in the car, she jumped right in the car with us.
[…]Terrible. She was absolutely– well, I have never seen a human being that frightened in my life. She was trembling and crying, and almost weak like she was going to faint, and she was just in a terrible state. [21] - Mr. and Mrs. Walsh’s testimony.
The thing about serial killers is that when they fail to catch one prey, they do not call it a day. Failure is not acceptable, so they would find another. As Carol DaRonch was taken to the police station, Ted Bundy immediately approached another victim, Debi Kent, a 17-year-old high school student. Unfortunately, Debi wasn’t as lucky as Carol.
Meanwhile, growing suspicious of her boyfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer decided to report him to the police. Though she couldn't confirm anything, she believed that young women were disappearing wherever he went. As a sketch of the killer and a description of his car were distributed nationwide, Elizabeth noticed and reported Ted's tan Volkswagen [22].
Ted Bundy continued his hunt until August 16th, 1975, a patrol officer observed a suspicious Volkswagen within his patrol zone. Upon stopping the vehicle, he discovered handcuffs in the back of the car and subsequently apprehended the driver, Ted Bundy. But he was released shortly after, since they had no substantial evidence to hold him.
The police started to keep an eye on Ted. They believed this man was behind the disappearances across the midwest, so they looked at the evidence they had, ultimately piecing together that Bundy was undeniably the one they were looking for.
Ted then sold his Volkswagen in September 1975, the very vehicle he attempted to abduct Carol DaRonch with, which authorities confiscated from the new owner. Upon inspection, they discovered hair samples that could be linked to multiple women. And so, October 1975, Ted was put in a lineup and Carol eventually identified him as “Officer Roseland”.
He was arrested. But if you think this is the end for him, you’re wrong.
Escaping Prisons
You did not read it wrong, Ted Bundy escaped the prisons that held him, not once but twice.
On February 23rd 1976, Ted Bundy was found guilty in the trial for DaRonch’s kidnapping and was sentenced from one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison. Meanwhile, investigators discovered evidence connecting Bundy to the murder of Caryn Campbell in Colorado. During a search of his vehicle, authorities found hairs, one of which was identified as belonging to Caryn Campbell, a 23-year-old nurse who was found dead near Snowmass, Colorado, in February 1975. Campbell had disappeared a month earlier while on vacation with her fiancé at a ski resort. And so, Ted Bundy was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Campbell and was extradited from Utah to a jail in Aspen, Colorado, to face trial.
However, he found his opportunity to escape:
“Bundy was allowed to assist in his own defense, so he had the right to use the law library, which was located on the second floor of the same building as the Pitkin County Courthouse. […] he was allowed to walk freely into the courtroom and to the law library.
"Over the months, I had noticed a number of opportunities to just walk right out," Bundy is heard later saying in a recording of a phone call with prison psychologist Dr. Al Carlisle. "I'd thought a great deal about escape, and I don't know if I had the guts to do it, quite frankly." [23]
On June 7th 1977, Ted jumped out of a window from the second-story window of the building, sprained his ankle, but still managed to break into a cabin on the mountain and stayed low for a few days. After six days, he was brought back to custody for driving a stolen car.
He didn’t give up that easily. Just several months later after he was moved to Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Ted Bundy escaped from his jail again, almost like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption.
Realizing that his previous attempt failed due to lack of planning, Bundy began saving money, amassing around $500 in cash over the next six months, most of which was smuggled in by his girlfriend, Carole Ann Boone. Bundy also obtained a floor plan of the jail and a hacksaw from fellow inmates.
Inside his cell was an unsecured grate in the ceiling. Bundy planned to cut a hole around it and squeeze through the small one-foot square gap before navigating through the crawl spaces above to reach one of the jailer’s rooms. To fit into the narrow hole he intended to cut into the ceiling, Bundy needed to lose weight.
"When I visited him in Glenwood, I noticed that he had lost a lot of weight," John Henry Browne, Bundy's former defense attorney, told "20/20." "I'd say he'd lost 20 or 25 pounds. I would think this would've come to the attention of the jailers perhaps. Why is he doing this?" [23]
For the second time, Ted Bundy escaped from his prison, squeezing himself through the ducting and made it to the jailer’s apartment on December 30th, 1977. No one was there to witness, he just casually put on civilian clothes and went to his freedom.
The first thing he did was to book a flight out of Chicago, hop on a train to Ann Arbor, Michigan, then get a southbound drive to Atlanta, and finally, travel by bus to Tallahassee, Florida. While spending his time in Florida in 1978, he killed several more young women, including 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, before finally got caught again.
He stood trial again for the murder at The Chi Omega House [24] which became the first high-profile court case broadcast on TV. He was found guilty of two murders, three attempted first-degree murders, and two burglaries. He was given the death penalty for the murder convictions. In the second trial took place in Florida, Ted Bundy got married to Carole Ann Boone while she was testifying on his behalf.
On February 10th 1980, he was sentenced again for the death of Kimberly Leach and received the death penalty by electrocution. Ted and Carole had a daughter in 1982 [25].
And finally, putting an end to his terror, Ted Bundy was executed by electric chair at 7 a.m. on January 24, 1989 at Florida State Prison.
Reference:
[1] https://www.biography.com/crime/ted-bundy
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy#Early_life_and_education
[3] https://allthatsinteresting.com/ted-bundy
[4] https://allthatsinteresting.com/ted-bundy-education
[5] https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a27288400/ted-bundy-education/
[6] https://www.distractify.com/fyi/2019/01/28/TVCfIFB-u/ted-bundy-girlfriend-diane-now
[7] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/did-ted-bundys-murder-spree-000003837.html
[8] https://allthatsinteresting.com/ann-marie-burr
[9] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-02-08-me-1969-story.html
[10] https://www.oxygen.com/martinis-murder/who-was-lynda-ann-healy-ted-bundy-first-known-victim
[11] https://thecrimewire.com/multifarious/Ted-Bundys-Victims-Part-One
[12] https://killerinthearchives.blog/case-file-donna-gail-manson-1974/
[13] https://www.classcreator.com/Auburn-WA-Auburn-Senior-1972/class_profile.cfm?member_id=5452811
[14] https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/happened/it-happened-here-missing-cwu-student-a-victim-of-ted-bundy/article_6bda4c42-e02f-5edd-8902-79c0bba28c7e.html
[15] https://www.dailyrecordnews.com/news/years-ago-today-ted-bundy-struck-herecwu-student-susan-rancourt/article_e3c298e3-cdb3-553b-9b59-c723245574ca.html
[16] https://killersamongus10.wixsite.com/tedbundy/roberta-kathleen-parks
[17] https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Ted-Bundy-Tactics-PC25JQYPYDV#:~:text=Looking%20helpless%20and%20using%20his,them%20in%20a%20brutal%20manner.
[18] https://allthatsinteresting.com/ted-bundy-victims
[19] https://www.thestranger.com/features/2018/10/24/34376418/does-ted-bundy-still-haunt-the-northgate-mall
[20] https://people.com/crime/true-story-carol-daronch-now-ted-bundy-movie/#:~:text=Bundy%20approached%20the%20teenage%20DaRonch,to%20flash%20to%20reassure%20her.
[21] https://killerinthearchives.blog/trial-transcript-mary-and-wilbur-walsh-1976/
[22] https://www.ranker.com/list/elizabeth-kleopfer-facts/hugh-landman
[23] https://abcnews.go.com/US/notorious-serial-killer-ted-bundy-escape-custody/story?id=61032623
[24] https://abcnews.go.com/US/chi-omega-survivor-ted-bundy-murders-asleep-evil/story?id=60894306
[25] https://www.oxygen.com/snapped/crime-time/what-happened-ted-bundys-daughter
Fascinating read. On this subject, there's one bit that has always intrigued me: the majority of serial killers are in America. I wonder if it's just the function of the media reporting or if other countries just don't recognise the phenomenon of serial killers.
Great article! I've never heard the story explained in such detail.