Disguise

A summary on the case of Ted Bundy

As humans, we like to pin things specific reasons and will look for causation whether it exists or not. We are wired for simplicity and like it when things follow a logical flow of reasoning. For decades, criminal behavior has been studied to better understand what makes people different. Ted Bundy threw everything we thought we knew right out the window.

SUMMARY OF THE OFFENSES

Bundy confessed to the killings of over 30 young women between 1973 and 1978. He was extremely difficult to catch because he paid close attention to detail, covered lots of ground, and worked alone. In the 1970s, the term “serial killer” did not exist, and police lacked the resources, like DNA profiling and shared databases of information, that would have been key in linking his crimes together. When Bundy’s name and face began popping up in newspapers and appearing on TV screens, no one believed that a law student with a handsome, mild-mannered face was capable of committing multiple murders and lying about it.

Bundy craved power and control, but he was also intelligent and knew how to fit in. He, like many serial killers, had an M.O. and always chose to asphyxiate his victims. Additionally, Bundy had a specific target: thin, white women with long, dark hair parted down the middle. His attacks were carefully planned out and almost always involved some level of psychological manipulation. He would first get his victims to sympathize with him, often by carrying an empty gas can or wearing his arm in a sling, then isolate and attack. Bundy escaped from police custody twice and was one of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Men in America until he was caught for good in February 1978. It would be over a decade before his death sentence was carried out in 1989.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

There is no one, specific thing in Bundy’s background that can explain his behavior, but there are many factors that may have played a role. First, Bundy’s birth and childhood were extremely confusing and unsettling. Ted’s mother, Eleanor Cowell-Bundy had him when she was just twenty-two years old and was living in a home where her father abused her and her mother was depressed. Initially, Eleanor did not want to keep Ted, but her father insisted. To this day, Ted’s father, largely, remains a mystery. The Cowell family did not take keenly to the idea of having a daughter with a child out of wedlock, and they decided early on to have Ted believe that Eleanor was his sister, and his grandparents were his biological parents. Then, before Ted’s fifth birthday, he and Eleanor left their broken home in Philadelphia to go and live with extended family in Tacoma, Washington. This tumultuous upbringing was further compounded upon when Eleanor fell in love with a man named John Bundy in Tacoma. The two of them got married, adopted Ted, and Ted took the surname “Bundy”.

Around the time he was fourteen, Ted found his birth certificate, revealing his true identity to him for the first time. At this moment, Ted learned that the sister he had grown up with was actually his mother, but also, he did not know his father. This, undoubtedly, would have been a traumatic experience.

At the University of Washington, Bundy met the love of his life, Diane Edwards. In Joe Berlinger’s “Conversations With a Killer,” Bundy described his relationship with her as having “a lasting impact on him” and said that he felt angst and resentment towards her for rejecting him and making him feel inadequate (Berlinger, 2019, E1 @ 25:50). It is well known that Bundy’s victims resembled her. Following their split, Bundy was declined from multiple law schools and, in the following months, he would commit his first provable murder. Bundy’s self-doubt and anxiety fueled his aggression and violence.

Bundy then began dating Elizabeth Kloepfer. Although he did have very strong feelings for her, Bundy continued to write back and forth with Edwards throughout this relationship. Bundy is especially interesting because he committed violent, unimaginable acts but was also described as loving and compassionate. The fact that he cared greatly for Edwards and Kloepfer likely created even more animosity in his mind. Maybe he did not understand himself, and maybe his relationships just added aggravation, remorse, and sadness to his life. Either way, it’s important to discuss Bundy’s relationships because they affected him so greatly.

Bundy & Edwards (Taylor, 2019)

ANALYSIS

During his escape in the winter of 1977, Bundy broke into the Chi Omega Sorority House at Florida State University, where he used a wooden log to beat and strangle Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy. He attacked three other women that same night. Less than a month later, Bundy abducted and murdered twelve-year-old Kimberly Leach. He had departed from his signature crime; Bundy did not typically use weapons, attack children, or assault more than one victim at the same location. In the weeks leading up to his final arrest, Bundy was more dangerous and violent than ever.

When Florida prosecutors took Bundy to trial for the Chi Omega murders, the most compelling piece of evidence came from the bite marks left on the bodies of Bowman and Levy. Forensic dentists took molds of Bundy’s bite, matched them to the impressions left behind at the scene, and proved that they could have only come from Bundy’s teeth. This was one wrinkle that Bundy could not have accounted for.

Although Bundy did use the not guilty by reason of insanity defense, he would not have qualified for it anyway. In 1979, a defendant in Florida was considered legally insane under the M’Naughten Rule; was the individual either not in control of their actions or unable to appreciate the consequences of their actions at the time of the offense?

Bundy’s awareness and control were exactly what allowed him to remain undetected for so long. In 1975, he was found with a mask in his car, indicating that he intended to hide his face and was fully aware of his wrongdoings. Furthermore, Bundy was able to escape from prison in Colorado, get to Florida, and resume his killing spree in just two weeks! A person without control would have rushed the Chi Omega house, gone straight through the front door, and killed as many women as possible. Instead, Bundy snuck in through an unlocked door, was thoughtful enough to only enter bedrooms with a single occupant, and got away undetected by anyone else in the house. Besides, why would someone who is really innocent go to the trouble of escaping jail twice?

Evidence photo of what was found in Ted Bundy’s trunk, after his arrest in Utah (Kuroski, 2021)

OPINION

It is my opinion that Bundy had a disease that cannot be diagnosed and, in the end, he got what he wanted. He expressed traits consistent with both anti-social and narcissistic personality disorders; he was conceited, manipulative, and did not express guilt or remorse. He did not believe anything he did was wrong, and, from beginning to end, his goal was to be remembered. During the Chi Omega trial, Bundy, acting as his own defense, cross-examined one of the first responders and asked them to recall specific details from the scene that night. He wanted to expose the horror that happened there that night, get all his secrets out, and further add to his infamous name. Bundy then proposed to his #1 supporter, Carol Boone, during the trial of Kimberly Leach. You cannot find a truer example of narcissism than someone celebrating a marriage during a trial for the murder of a twelve-year old, in which they are the accused.

Bundy was iconic because he was unique and the first of his kind. He blended into society, enlisted fear in America, and had people thinking twice about the capabilities of their own neighbors. In addition, Bundy was a superstar. Thanks to the media, he gripped people in a way that both sparked rage and made people question how, and if, he really was guilty! His case spanned fourteen years from the date of his first crime to his death date. The true impact Bundy had on society is the thousands of lives he ruined. He tragically ended the lives of over thirty young women before they had a chance to get started. He will forever be remembered as what most perceive as a true psychopath. I wonder how someone of Bundy’s nature would have behaved in today’s society. Even more so, I wonder if they are simply all around us.