Theodore Robert Bundy- known as Ted Bundy – was a somewhat well known serial killer who was active during the years 1974-1978. He kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and tortured what was believed to be 36 young women. He was also known as “The Campus Killer.”
EARLY LIFE:
Ted Bundy was born “Theodore Robert Cowell” on November 24th 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. He and his mom moved to Philadelphia with his grandparents but was raised to believe that his mom was his older sister and his grandparents were his parents. His last name was changed to “Bundy” when his mother remarried to a man named John Bundy, according to “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” Ted Bundy had actually been a former law student but he dropped out because he had lost interest.
ALL OF HIS MURDERS:
1974:
According to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes” February 1, 1974 Ted Bundy kidnapped Lynda Ann Healy from the main campus of the University of Washington and strangled her to death when she was 21 years old. He then kidnapped and murdered Donna Gail Manson when she was 19 years old on March 12, 1974 while she was a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia. Ted Bundy had also kidnapped and murdered Susan Elaine Rancourt on April 17th, 1974 when she was 18, who was attending college at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.
After this he kidnapped Roberta Kathleen Parks from Oregon State University and he claims to have sexually assaulted her and killed her at the Taylor Mountains on May 6th 1974 when she was 20 years old. After this he then kidnapped and killed Brenda Carol Ball on June 1st, 1974 when she was 22 years old in Burien and they found her skull at Taylor Mountain where he previously killed Roberta. Ten days later he kidnapped and killed Georgann Hawkins when she was 18 from the university district of Seattle. When Ted Bundy was interviewed by Robert Kepell (who was at the time the King’s County Sheriff’s Office Detective). He says he knocked Georgann unconscious and strangled her to death.
On July 14th, 1974 Ted Bundy kidnapped and killed Janice Ann Ott when she was 23, and Denise Naslund when she was 19. Kepell found out that on an old railroad trestle was where Ted Bundy would dump his bodies. Kepell found this out after a grouse hunter found the remains of Janice Ann Ott, Denise Naslund, and Georgann Hawkins. On October 18th, 1974 Ted Bundy kidnapped and sexually assaulted Melissa Smith when she was 17 years old in Midvale, Utah. Then on Halloween he kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and killed Laura Ann Aime. They then found her remains on Thanksgiving that same year in the mountains.
At the Fashion Place Mall in Utah he tried to kidnap Carol DaRonch when she was 18 on November 8th, 1974. That same day Debra Jean Kent was going to pick up her brothers from the skating rink at 10:15 p.m. Her parents let her use their car but she was never able to get to it because Bundy had kidnapped her and when he was interviewed he told Dennis Couch (the Salt Lake County sheriff at the time) that he left her body in a grave after she got killed but they never found Debra’s body.
1975:
On January 12th he kidnapped Caryn Eileen Campbell from the Wildwood Inn in Snowmass. On February 17th, 1975 police found Caryn’s body with damage to her head. Then on March 1st police found the remains of four of his victims on the Taylor Mountains. The remains were of Roberta Parks, Brenda Carol Ball, Susan Elaine Rancourt, and Lynda Ann Healy. Their remains showed that there was blunt force trauma. Then on March 15, 1975 he kidnapped and killed a ski instructor by the name of Julie Cunningham when she was 26, and her body was never found.
On April 6th, 1975, Ted Bundy killed Denise Lynn Oliverson when she was 24 years old. Bundy said he left her body in the Colorado River and they never found her body. Then on May 6th, 1975 he kidnapped Lynette Dawn Culver and drowned her in a bathtub when she was 12 years old.
He disposed of her body in the Snake River, but police didn’t find her body. So far in his murders she was the youngest to get killed by Ted Bundy. Bundy then killed and kidnapped Susan Curtis on June 28, 1975 when she was 15 years old. According to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes,”, “…She was attending the Bountiful Orchard Youth Conference at Brigham Young University.” Ted Bundy said that he buried her body close to a highway but the police never found her body.
1978:
On January 15th, 1978 he beat and strangled Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy at the Chi Omega Sorority House. Margaret was 21 and Lisa was 20 at the time. Then on February 9th, 1978 he kidnapped and murdered Kimberly Leach. She was 12 years old and he had kidnapped her in the middle of the school day. Kimberly was his last murder.
HIS ARREST AND TRIALS:
Ted Bundy was arrested on August 16th, 1975 in Granger, Utah at 2:35 a.m. He was chased by highway patrol officer Bob Hayward. The police found suspicious items in his car like handcuffs, gloves, a crowbar, masks, and rope. He got released on bail the day after he was arrested.
He was then arrested again after Carol DaRonch (who he tried to kidnap on November 8th, 1974) identified him in a line-up (where a witness of a crime identifies the person who committed a crime out of a line of people who police think the culprit is). According to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes,” “Bundy was arrested and charged with the aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault of Carol DaRonch. He was held in Salt Lake County Jail.” During February 1976, he had a jury trial. Then on March 1st he was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and was sentenced to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.
In the same year in October he was also charged with Caryn Campbell’s murder. Then in January he went back to Aspen Colorado so that he could get the charges from murdering Caryn back in 1975, he then pleaded not guilty for her murder. On February 15th, 1978 at 1:34 am he was arrested again when he was lingering outside of the Pensacola Police Department and he was driving unpredictably. The patrolman David Lee had seen this and he ran the plates and he found out that the car was stolen. He tried to arrest Ted Bundy but Bundy wouldn’t give him a name and he resisted arrest. Officer Lee eventually restrained Bundy and he arrested him. When Ted Bundy was being interrogated, he gave the officer a fake ID claiming that he went to Florida State University and that he was a student named Kenneth.
Then on February 17th, 1978 he told the police what his true identity was. Then in July of 1978 he was charged with the murders of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy. He was also charged with his attempted murder on Kathy Kleiner, Cheryl Thomas, and Karen Chandler. Then on July 24th 1979 Ted Bundy was found guilty for murdering Lisa and Margaret and he was also found guilty for the attempted murders of Kathy, Cheryl, and Karen. A week after he was sentenced to death. Then in February of 1980 Bundy was found guilty of killing and kidnapping Kimberly Leach and he was sentenced to death again.
HIS ESCAPES:
Ted Bundy has escaped from the authorities twice. According to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes,” “Bundy assisted in his own defense in the case, and was allowed to access the Pitkin County jailhouse law library. He escaped from the second story window of the library, 25 feet above the ground.” He had jumped out the window of the Pitkit County Courthouse on June 7th, 1977. After this the police had found him and arrested him five days later.
He was hiding in the mountains in Aspen and he was put in a facility in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Then on June 15, 1977 he was charged with burglary, felony theft, and escape. He then escaped from his jail cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado on December 30th, 1977. He escaped by going through an open light fixture and he stored books on his bed under a blanket to make it seem like he was sleeping in his cell.
Additional Information on Ted Bundy:
According to journalist Stephen Michaud, he interviewed Ted Bundy while he was on Death Row when Ted had agreed to an interview as long as there would be reexamination on his case to prove that he was innocent. Stephen Michaud says that Ted Bundy had thought of this as more of a celebrity bio than an interview.
According to witnesses, Ted Bundy would wear an arm sling and he would ask women for help. Also according to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes” witnesses also said that Ted dressed up as a police officer to lure victims. Also according to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes” “After flying to Chicago, then taking a train to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and driving a stolen car to Atlanta, Bundy arrived in Tallahassee, Florida, by bus. He signed a rental agreement at a building called ‘The Oaks.’” This event happened on January 15th, 1978.
According to “Ted Bundy Survivor Recalls Attack 35 Years After Execution,” Kathy Kleiner was at the Chi Omega Sorority House at the time when Margaret and Lisa were killed. She was attacked that night and in the video she explains why she didn’t go to Ted Bundy’s execution even though he attacked her. Kathy said “I had given him enough mental energy I was not gonna give him another time to face me or me face him and see him die, I know he killed so many women, I heard that he whimpered when it was time for him to die and he cried and he said ‘please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me’ and I imagine those were the words that the victim said just as he was about to kill them- all those beautiful women…”
Another woman, named Cheryl Thomas, had also been attacked that same night after Ted Bundy broke into her apartment but survived. According to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes” Cheryl’s neighbor had heard the commotion from her apartment and when they tried to call her she didn’t answer so they called the police. Ted Bundy had already escaped her apartment by the time the police came. Cheryl was lucky to survive the attack.
In April of 1978 they found 12 year old Kimberly Leach’s body near the Suwannee River State Park. Then in May of 1979 according to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes” “Bundy rejected a plea deal that would have allowed him to avoid the death penalty if he admitted to murdering Bowman, Levy and Leach.” Then in the Month of July in 1986 the Governor of Florida, Bob Graham, signed two death warrants (an official document that orders for someone to be executed for a punishment of their crime) for the Chi Omega murders. According to “Timeline of many of Ted Bundy’s Brutal Crimes” “the 11th Circuit Court signed a permanent stay of execution fifteen minutes before Bundy was scheduled to be executed.”
Then on January 17th, 1989 there was another death warrant signed for the Kimberly Leach case. It was signed by Governor Martinez. Three days before the execution Ted Bundy had confessed to law enforcement agents, and he confessed that he killed 30 people in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and Florida between the years 1973 and 1978. He confessed all of this to FBI Special Agent Bill Hagmaier.
CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, Ted Bundy was a serial killer who killed many innocent women. Nobody really knows why he did it. He died January 24th, 1989 at the Florida State Prison. He was strapped into the electric chair around 7 a.m and was later pronounced dead.
