!CRIME!TIME!

!CRIME!TIME! October

Ted Bundy: America’s most renowned serial killer

Charming, intelligent, and sadistic. Theodore Robert Bundy was born on November 24, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont, and executed on January 24, 1989, in an electric chair named “Old Sparky”. 

Ted Bundy reached out for the door knob. He had seen this girl a couple of times while at the University of Washington and decided that he was going to follow her home. He walked around the perimeter of Lynda Healy’s home and tried the side door that led into the basement, which happened to be her bedroom. On Friday, February 1, 1974, Lynda Healy went missing for good. Authorities concluded that Bundy broke into his first victim’s house, attacked Lynda, redressed her, and made the bed before carrying her off into the night to join a pile of bodies in the Taylor Mountain Forest.

Lynda Healy wasn’t the only victim. Ted Bundy murdered, raped, and mutilated more than 30 women between 1974 and 1978 (although some suspect up to 100). He moved across the country in his notorious 1968 tan Volkswagen Beetle preying on young women.

Using his self-given “ph.D in serial murder,” Bundy would use means of trickery to capture his victims. He would put his arm in a sling or a leg in a fake cast and walk with crutches to take advantage of his victims sympathy. He’d use his dashing looks and charm to then convince his victims to help him carry books or unload objects from his car. Other times he would impersonate a police officer or a firefighter to earn the trust of his quarry. As soon as he’d convinced them to get in his Beetle, Bundy would hit them in the head with a metal pipe or crowbar, restrain them with handcuffs and shove them in the empty space on the floor he made to keep the victim out of sight while he drove away. After, Bundy would typically strangle or bludgeon his victims, then mutilate the corpses after death. Sometimes he would shockingly display their heads in his apartment or sleep with their corpses until petrification made it unbearable. 

Ted Bundy was arrested for the first time in 1975 on August 16th after attempting to evade a patrol car. Although ropes, handcuffs, and masks were found in his vehicle, there was nothing substantial linking Bundy to any of his crimes. He was released but kept under heavy surveillance. Several months later however, he was arrested for the kidnapping and assault of one of his victims. A year later, however, he was able to escape while being transferred from Utah to Colorado for a trial. He was recaptured a week later, though, before escaping a second time on December 30, 1977. He was able to flee to Florida before resuming his slaughter spree. He raped and murdered at least six more victims before he was once again apprehended for a traffic violation. 

Ted Bundy was sentenced to death three separate times and was finally executed on January 24th, 1989 via electric chair. With his charming good looks and outstanding intelligence, Ted Bundy was named the one of the world's most handsome serial killers and will likely remain the most famous one for the rest of time.