Ted Bundy – Biography – IMDb

Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Theodore Robert Bundy, more commonly known as “Ted”, was one of the most prolific serial killers in the USA. He confessed to 36 murders, but nobody really knows how many had been committed or when he began his legacy of horror; the true total could be higher.

Ted was born to Eleanor Louise Cowell (Louise Bundy) and a father that had taken off when Eleanor discovered she was pregnant. In 1946, faced with limited options, she gave birth to him in an “unwed mother” facility and began a hopeless charade: as Ted grew up, she told him that her parents were his parents and that she was his sister. It wasn’t until 1974 when he realized that his mother had lied to him for so many years. He grew to be a handsome, educated and intelligent man who appeared to be well-adjusted and affable. Bundy even volunteered for a crisis telephone hot-line (where he met famed author Ann Rule who was also a volunteer) and had a steady relationship with Diane Edwards (a.k.a. Stephanie Brooks), a girlfriend that would fuel his maniacal rage after she left him.

Ted was studying psychology at the University of Washington on January 31, 1974 when an attractive female student suddenly disappeared. Over the coming months and years, more disappearances followed. Ted’s victims were generally young attractive women with dark hair parted in the middle. His modus operandi was to approach his potential victim feigning injury (for example, by wearing an arm-sling or a cast) ask them to help him carry his books or packages. He led them to a secluded area and when they were alone he would knock them on the head with a crowbar, stuff their bodies into his car, strangle them while they were unconscious and then rape the dead bodies (necrophilia). He would then leave the naked body in a wooded area, mostly Taylor Mountain in Washington State, where many of his victims were found.

Along with countless other suspects he was questioned by the police but he initially came out clean because he just didn’t seem to ‘fit the mold’ of a maniacal serial killer. Bundy then went to law school at Salt Lake City, Utah where he murdered a police chief’s daughter on October 21, 1974. Another murder followed, and another young woman went missing in Bountiful, Utah. In January 12, 1975, killings eerily similar to the Utah murders began popping up in Colorado. On August 16, 1975 he was arrested for being in possession of burglary tools by Salt Lake City police. When his bronze Volkwagen beetle was searched they found handcuffs, stockings and a home-made mask. Bundy was identified from a police lineup by a woman who had narrowly escaped his clutches in November 1974. In January 1977 he was extradited to Colorado to be tried for murder. In June 1977 he fled the Pitkin County Jail by jumping out of an open window. He was captured 8 days later.

He managed to escape again from the Garfield County Jail by sawing a hole in the ceiling of his cell on December 30, 1977. This time he traveled all the way to Tallahassee, Florida where he lived under pseudonyms including Christopher Hagen and Kenneth Misner. On January 15, 1978 he invaded the Chi Omega sorority on the Florida State University campus where he bludgeoned four girls and killed two. After he fled the Chi Omega sorority, he broke into the house of another woman and beat her severely before her worried roommates next door phoned the police. The young woman survived the attack. She would be his last living victim. On February 9, 1978 he kidnapped 12 year old Kimberly Leach, raped her and sliced her throat. Her body was found eight weeks later in a state park.

On February 15, 1978 he was arrested by Pensacola police when they did a check on his license plates and realized his car was stolen. Teeth impressions were made to compare to bite wounds found on one of the Chi Omega victims and the impressions matched the teeth marks on the victim. Bundy conducted his own defense with the help of several attorneys but, of course, it was all for naught; he was found guilty and sentenced to death by electrocution in 1979. A decade later, when death was finally looking down on him, he began confessing to a staggering amount of murders, 36 in total, but some investigators believe that the real total could be higher. He was executed on January 24, 1989 at the Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida. Many spectators cheered and celebrated his death with champagne.

– IMDb Mini Biography By:

Christina Marie

Family (2)

Trade Mark (6)

Slender frame

Sinister grin

Cold blue eyes

Distinctive nasally voice and New England accent

Wavy dark brown hair

Unibrow

Trivia (34)

Serial killer who murdered at least 28 women.

Had a measured IQ of about 124, signifying superior intelligence (but not quite on the genius level).

The term “Serial Killer” was invented and first used for him as a description of his character.

Although he was only proven to be responsible for the deaths of 28 women, it is it widely believed that he killed at least 33. According to Bundy himself in a taped confession, he killed more than 100.

Had a daughter (Rose) with Carole Ann Boone in 1982, during his years on death row. This was highly unusual, as death row inmates are not permitted conjugal visits.

Married Carole Ann Boone during his second trial, in which he was condemned to death row. Acting as his own attorney, he called her as a witness. He phrased a question such that an affirmative answer in front of a judge and recorded by the court would legally bind marriage.

When told that he was believed to have killed 36 women in six different states, he suggested that they “add a digit, then you’ll have it”.

Towards the end of his trial, he began to cooperate with the authorities by giving invaluable insights into the psychology of serial killers. He tried to help in the capture of the Green River Killer ( Gary Ridgway ) as in the 1995 book: “The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt For the Green River Killer” by Bob Keppel with Bill Birnes

In his final day, he claimed that pornography was to blame for his desire to murder women.

He and Ann Rule worked together as volunteers at a suicide prevention hot line. Rule later wrote “The Stranger Beside Me” about Bundy.

The only survivor, whom he attacked, but was fortunate enough to escape physically unharmed was Carol Daronch. The remaining 5 or 6 victims that were fortunate to survive; were either bludgeoned or strangled; but ultimately survived.

Escaped twice from prison.

Following his execution, in an unusual twist his remains were cremated at the request of his family and spread over the mountains in Washington, where the bodies of several of his victims had been discovered.

Was an honors student. Attended the University of Puget Sound (WA) by way of scholarship. He took courses in psychology, law, and Asian studies, but after attending just two semesters, he transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in psychology.

One of the most feared and prolific serial killers in US history.

Biography in: “The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives”. Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 139-141. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999.

Son of Louise Bundy . he grew up believing that Louise’s parents were his parents, and that she was his sister.

His last interview was with Dr. James Dobson in which he discussed the events that led him to the murders.

Was often able to evade capture due to a remarkable ability to change his appearance with minor alterations such as growing a beard or cutting his hair.

His father has never been definitively identified. While his birth certificate lists an Air Force veteran named Lloyd Marshall as the father, his mother later claimed that she was impregnated by a sailor whose name may have been Jack Worthington.

Years after his execution, guards reported seeing a figure sitting in the electric chair, smiling. Many have said they believe it to be Bundy’s ghost.

He decapitated at least four victims and kept the severed heads as shrines and mementos.

Declined a last meal.

Was sentenced to death three times in two separate trials; twice for two Chi Omega sorority sisters killed in Tallahassee, FL, on 1/15/78 and once again for the brutal kidnapping, rape and murder of a 12-year-old middle school student on 2/9/78 in Lake City, FL.

Was to have been executed in February 1986 but was granted a stay of execution.

When his murders and attacks started surfacing in 1974, true-crime author Ann Rule began writing the first chapters of ” The Stranger Beside Me”, the book that would be about her good friend and co-worker, Bundy. According to Rule, when he was first suspected of the killings, she offered him the opportunity to write his own chapter. He refused.

Was considered a strong suspect in the 1961 kidnapping of eight-year-old Ann Marie Burr, who vanished from her Tacoma, WA, home one stormy night and was never seen or heard from again. Many experts believed that this was his first abduction and murder. However, recent DNA analysts was unable to link him to the girl’s disappearance. As of April 2015, the case remains unsolved.

According to Bob Hayward, the police officer who approached Bundy during the early-morning hours of 8/6/75, he was positioning his gun on Bundy. Years later, when Bundy was being tried for murder in a Florida courtroom, Hayward expressed guilt and remorse for not killing him. “I didn’t want to shoot the guy,” he said. “[Now] I wish I did.”.

Fathered a child while incarcerated in Florid’a death row. Shortly before his execution his wife divorced him and secretly moved away with his daughter. It’s uncertain to this day where they reside, and the identity of his daughter remains unknown.

Subject of the song “The Ted Bundy Song” by the band Macabre.

Was a Republican delegate from Washington state at the 1968 convention for Nelson Rockefeller

Grandson of Samuel Cowell and Eleanor Cowell.

Nephew of Virginia “Ginny” Bristol.

Personal Quotes (12)

We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.

I’m not an animal, and I’m not crazy and I’m not a split personality. That’s all there is to it. People refuse to believe that. That’s their problem. There’s nothing in my background, I swear to God, and I know it: I’ve analyzed my own background and I know there’s no doubt in my mind that there’s nothing in my background, no one factor or collection of factors that would explain or would otherwise lead one to believe that I was capable of murder.

I’m the most cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch you’ll ever meet.

I’m as cold a motherfucker as you’ve ever put your fucking eyes on. I don’t give a shit about those people.

Okay, you’ve got the indictment, that’s all you’re gonna get . . . I’ll plead not guilty right now.

I’m not looking for anything. I understand now a lot of stuff about myself that I didn’t understand then. It makes me realize what was going on. The senselessness of it appalls me, although I’m sure not so much as those who were so close to it.

I just said that the Hawkins girl’s head was severed and taken up the road about 25 to 50 yards and buried in a location about ten yard west of the road. Did you hear that?

When you feel the last bit of breath leaving their body, you’re looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!

I’m not gonna be in this room when that jury walks in. I’m not going through this and you knew that, your honor. You know how far you can push me. . . . You wanna make a circus? You got a circus. [points to prosecutor] I’ll rain on your parade Jack. You’ll see a thunderstorm. This will not be the pat little drama you’ve arranged.

Guilt. It’s this mechanism we use to control people. It’s an illusion. It’s a kind of social control mechanism and it’s very unhealthy. It does terrible things to our body.

I didn’t know what made things tick. I didn’t know what made people want to be friends. I didn’t know what made people attractive to one another. I didn’t know what underlay social interactions.

Tell the jury they’re wrong!