Handsome, well-educated and overflowing with charm, Ted Bundy seemed like the unlikeliest of serial killers to the general public, which made his decade-long killing spree all the more surprising.
Although Bundy appeared to be prim and proper, he had always displayed signs of his vicious tendencies from a young age. In interviews, he recalled being quite conniving and antisocial as a kid, always wandering the streets for some discarded pornography or open windows that allowed him to spy on unsuspecting women. However, these misdemeanors, alongside an extensive juvenile record that included theft, were dismissed when Ted turned 18. The elimination of these first acts of misconduct allowed Bundy to slip under the radar for an even longer period of time since no one had any reason to suspect the decent young man he had become.
After graduating from the University of Washington in 1972 and showing great promise in the law department, Bundy began his murderous spree.
Many believe Ted used his charm to get the young college women he preyed on to drop their guard down. However, that was not the case.
Bundy was extremely smart and knew that being attractive wasn’t enough to make someone vulnerable and defenseless, so he would often sport a fake cast on his leg or wear his arm in a sling to appeal to his victim’s naturing and caring side. Thus, making them more prone to accept his requests, such as carrying books or unloading objects from his car, without a second thought. Besides faking an injury, Ted was also known to impersonate authority figures to gain the victim’s trust before he attacked.
Once they got to his car, he would strike them over the head with a crowbar or a pipe, immobilizing them immediately after with handcuffs and forcing them into the vehicle so they couldn’t run away.
With this method, he was able to kill countless women from all across the Pacific Northwest before moving on to Utah and Colorado. His final victim was a 12-year-old girl who he raped and murdered after fleeing from police custody for the second time and moving to Florida.
However, Bundy was not apprehended for this murder but rather for driving a stolen car a week after the event.
Ted Bundy’s trial was the first murder trial to be fully televised and featured our new rising star acting as one of his defense attorneys.
Soon enough, Bundy became a celebrity, and he received this newfound fame with a smile as he welcomed journalists to his cell and received letters of admiration from fans.
After being sentenced to the death penalty, Bundy began to provide the police with an endless list of clues about additional murders he might have committed, in a desperate attempt to delay his execution. Nevertheless, his plan went down the drain as investigators began to catch on to what he was doing.
Ted Bundy died in 1989 after being executed in the electric chair. To this day, the number of young women he killed is still unknown.
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