#7

Theodore Robert Bundy

aka Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy is an American serial killer who committed his crimes from 1974 until 1978 in Washington State, Utah, California, Florida, Idaho, Colorado, and Oregon. He claimed the lives of at least 30 victims.

Theodore Robert Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont.  He was born to Eleanor Louise Cowell who gave birth at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. Paternity was never definitively established; his birth certificate stated that Lloyd Marshall was his father but Eleanor (who went by Louise) later claimed that a sailor named Jack Worthington was Ted's father. Some family members have claimed that Louise's father (aka Ted's grandfather) had raped her and fathered her child. No evidence has been found to refute or support this claim. Because Louise was an unwed mother in the 1940s, her parents raised Ted as their child. Friends and family, including little Ted, were told that Louise was his sister, not his mother. There have been allegations that his grandfather/father was abusive and suffered from a mental illness. This was perhaps not the best environment for young Ted to be raised in. Proof of this came about when his aunt Julia woke up from a nap to find herself surrounded by knives and Ted standing over her smiling. Creepy AF and should have been an immediate red flag.
One day in 1950, Louise suddenly changes her name to Eleanor Louise Nelson and fled to Tacoma, Washington with Ted. They lived with cousins and settled in. In 1951, Louise met Johnny Bundy and they married that year. Johnny formally adopted Ted as his son as well. Louise and Johnny eventually had 4 other children together, whom Ted had to babysit frequently. Ted later stated that he never felt a connection with his adopted father and thought that he "wasn't very bright." (source: Rule, Ann (2009). The Stranger Beside Me (Paperback; updated 2009 ed.)

Ted enters high school at Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma. He was academically bright and generally liked by his peers. Bundy later stated that he "chose to be alone" and had no idea how to maintain friendships. Bundy did not participate in high school sports but was a gifted snow skier. He would steal equipment and lift tickets in order to ski. Bundy stated that he would scour his neighborhood trash cans, looking for pictures of naked women and other sexual material. He would read stories in various books and magazines about sexual violence and especially liked the ones about maimed bodies. He also confessed to peeping in windows in the neighborhood to look at women undressing and naked. He was arrested twice during his high school years on suspicion of burglary and auto theft. Upon turning 18, his record was expunged per State policy.

Ted graduates high school in 1965 and eventually attends the University of Washington to study Chinese. He begins a romantic relationship in 1967 with a young woman named Stephanie Brooks (who has also gone by other pseudonyms such as Leslie Holland, Susan Phillips, or Marjorie Russell in later writings); Brooks broke up with Bundy in 1968 due to his lack of ambition and immaturity. This was totally devastating to Bundy. Bundy also dropped out of school in 1968 and works several menial jobs.  He traveled to Colorado after leaving the University of Washington and then headed back to Philadelphia, where he enrolled for 1 semester at Temple University. In early 1969, Ted travels to Burlington, VT and learns about his true parentage. To say he was pissed was an understatement but he manages to hold it together for a little while.

Ted ends up back in Washington State in 1969. He meets Elizabeth Kloepfer (who has also gone by other pseudonyms such as Meg Anders, Liz Kendall, or Beth Archer in later writings) and they entered into a tumultuous relationship for several years.

Ted finally gets his mojo back & re-enrolls at the University of Washington in fall 1970, this time as a psychology major. Ted excels during this go-round and is well-liked by his professors. He took a job at Seattle's Suicide Hotline Crisis Center in 1971 where worked alongside (future biographer) Ann Rule. Rule liked Ted and described him as "kind, solicitous, and empathetic." (source: Rule, 2009)

Ted graduated in 1972 and went to work on a gubernatorial campaign. Excelling in that role, Bundy was then hired on as an assistant to Ross Davis who was the Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. Davis liked Bundy's drive and intelligence. In 1973, Bundy was accepted into 2 law schools: University of Puget Sound and the University of Utah. He had mediocre LSAT scores but excellent letters of recommendations.

In 1973, Bundy re-kindles his relationship with Stephanie Brooks who is now thoroughly impressed with Bundy's accomplishments and goals. And yes, he's still dating Elizabeth Kloepfer but neither woman knew about the other. Bundy begins law school at University of Puget Sound the same year and begins to discuss marriage with Stephanie, even introducing her as his fiancee. Things change around January of 1974, however, and he abruptly breaks off all contact with Stephanie. She wrote him several times and attempted phone contact hundreds of times to no avail. When Bundy finally answers the phone a month later, Brooks has a lot of questions for him as to why he had broken up with her with no explanation. Bundy's answer? "Stephanie, I have no idea what you mean" and then he hung up. Later on, Bundy reports that he just wanted to prove that he could date her and marry her. Brooks believes that Ted staged the whole relationship and breakup as payback for her breaking up with him back in 1968. Around this same time, Bundy has been skipping classes and by April 1974 has stopped attending entirely. Coincidentally (or not), young women start disappearing around the PNW (Pacific Northwest). Bundy begins a job working as the assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission. He writes a brochure on rape prevention...eek.

If ya'll follow the blog, you know I usually don't spend a lot of time on background but Bundy's is fascinating. I think that his background information gives us a lot of clues as to why he did what he did and where some of his issues come from. With all of that out of the way now, let's dive into his crimes.

Bundy himself won't give a specific date or time frame as to when his first murder occurred. Bundy has hinted that he attempted his first murder in 1969 while in Jersey City, New Jersey but it failed. He has also hinted that he killed 2 women in Atlantic City, NJ in 1969 but provided no other information. Some believe that he even killed in 1961 but Bundy has repeatedly denied this. He has also denied attacks in 1962 and 1966 on young women. The general consensus seems to be 1974 in Seattle.

January 4, 1974. Bundy has recently broken up with Stephanie Brooks and is feeling some type of way. He breaks into the apartment of 18 year old Karen Sparks (aka Joni Lenz, Mary Adams, or Terri Caldwell) and bludgeons sleeping Karen with a metal rod that he got from her bed frame. It is believed that he then sexually assaults her with the same rod, causing massive internal damage. He flees the scene but Karen is unconscious by that time. She miraculously survives but with permanent debilitating injuries.

Early morning on February 1, 1974. Bundy breaks into the home of 21 year old Lynda Ann Healy. He beats her unconscious and then dresses her in boots, blue jeans, and a white blouse & carries her away. Her roommates and parents later discover that she is missing and see that her sheets have blood stains on them. They are also able to identify what she was dressed in. No evidence from the attacker is found at the scene and it takes 1 year to find her body in what will be later be known as Bundy's Graveyard. Bundy did confess to her murder.

Lynda Ann Healy

March 12, 1974. 19 year old Donna Manson is reported missing by her roommate after being gone for 6 days. Donna was known for taking off on whims so the first few days of her missing weren't alarming. She was last seen walking to a jazz concert on her college campus on March 12, 1974. Bundy later confessed to her murder but her remains were not found. Bundy claims that her remains were among those unidentified in his Graveyard.

Donna Gail Manson

April 17, 1974. 19 year old Susan Rancourt attends a meeting with her adviser at school and then planned to meet a friend to see a film. Susan leaves her adviser's office around 9 pm but never makes it to the theater. Bundy's previous victims all had long, dark hair. Susan was an exception as she had blonde hair. Her remains were also discovered in Bundy's Graveyard and there was evidence that she had been brutally beaten to death.

Susan Rancourt

May 25, 1974. 20 year old Roberta Parks disappeared from Oregon State University while on her way to meet friends for coffee. She was never seen again alive. Her remains were found in Bundy's Graveyards along with the others.

Roberta (Kathy) Parks

May 31, 1974. 22 year old Brenda Ball is at a local bar in Burien, WA. She stays until 2 am and tries to catch a ride home with one of the bar's musicians. The musician is going the opposite way and Brenda isn't worried, she'll find another way home. Brenda is last seen talking to a man with his arm in a sling in the parking lot. Brenda is missing for 19 days before her friends report her disappearance. Her remains were the first located in Bundy's Graveyard.

Brenda Ball

June 10, 1974. 18 year old Georgeann Hawkins was just like any other typical college student at the University of Washington & cramming for upcoming final exams. She went out for drinks with friends that night and left around 12:30 am. She stops by her boyfriend's house, borrowed some notes from him, and then left to head back to her room to study. The way back to her room was about 40 feet down a brightly lit alley. A friend recalls seeing her walk about 30 feet down and then they stopped watching. Georgeann never made it back to her dorm. Her roommate became concerned when Georgeann had still not come back nearly 2 hours after she said she would. The roommate and housemother notified the police early the next morning. The housemother remembers being awakened to a scream in the middle of the night but thought nothing of it at the time, being on a busy college campus. Bundy later confessed to her murder and although he claimed that he could not remember all of the details, he did remember that he had lured her to his car under the pretense of his "broken arm" and needing help carrying books. He remembers that Georgeann was very trusting and immediately fell for his ruse. He knocked her out, put her in the car, and drove away. He stopped a little while later and Georgeann became conscious. He then strangled her, killing her. Her remains were later discovered near Lake Sammamish State Park.

Georgeann Hawkins


Bundy was working at the Washington State Department of Emergency Services during this time frame. Coincidentally (or not), this agency was helping to attempt to locate all of the missing women from around the area. He also began dating Carole Boone around this time.

Law enforcement was panicking a little bit by this point. There were a lot of missing women and no leads to go on. There were several similarities/links noted between the missing women: their disappearances all occurred at night, the victims were all wearing pants, it was usually around the times of college exam week, a man wearing a cast/arm sling was spotted several times, and a tan VW Beetle was also spotted at several scenes.


July 14, 1974. 23 year old Janice Ott went for a bike ride at Lake Sammamish State Park, leaving a note for her roommate telling her where she was going. Janice was last seen helping a man in a cast in a parking lot of the State Park. Bundy killed her & dumped her remains near the park.

Janice Ott

July 14, 1974. 18 year old Denise Naslund was on a lovely picnic at Lake Sammamish State Park with her boyfriend and another couple. After eating, her friends fell asleep and Denise went to find the restroom. She never returned and her friends became worried. Denise had brought her dog with her so they thought maybe the dog had run away and Denise had gone looking for it but alas, they found the dog without Denise. Bundy later confesses to her murder and her remains are found near the park along with the remains of Janice Ott.

Denise Naslund



The two latest murders broke Bundy's mold by occurring in broad daylight. However, witnesses remember seeing the same tan VW and a man in a cast. Several witnesses also recall hearing the man say that his name was Ted and that he spoke with a British accent. Based on their memories, law enforcement was able to come up with a sketch of the suspect and a description of the tan VW. These fliers were spread throughout the PNW as well as being put on local TV.

Bundy's girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, former colleague Ann Rule, a DES coworker, and a former college psychology professor all recognize the sketches and report their suspicions of Ted Bundy to law enforcement. Law enforcement brushed off their reports, believing that a young, clean-cut law student could not possibly be capable of such acts.

If you remember, Bundy was no longer attending law school classes the University of Puget Sound...probably because he was too busy murdering innocent women. But that's just my opinion. Well Ted still wants to pursue a law degree so he transfers to the University of Utah Law School in Salt Lake City, UT in August 1974. His girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, remains in Seattle but the relationship continues. He was a good looking young man, however, and dated several other women while still engaged in a relationship with Elizabeth. Bundy soon realizes that he's just not cut out for law school--the classes are too hard and his peers are more advanced than he is.

And then a month later, beginning in September 1974, a string of murders occurs in Salt Lake City.

September 2, 1974. Bundy later confesses to strangling and raping a hitchhiker in Idaho. The identity of this woman is still unknown to this day. Bundy cannot remember exactly what happened: he either immediately dumped her body in a nearby river or he left the body, came back the next day to take pictures of it, then dismembered it and threw it in the river. Details are a little fuzzy for him.

Meanwhile, back in Seattle on September 6, 1974, two hunters stumble across the remains of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund while in Lake Sammamish State Park. There was also an extra femur and vertebrata that Bundy later claimed were that of Georgeann Hawkins.

October 2, 1974. 16 year old Nancy Wilcox is kidnapped in a suburb of Salt Lake City. Bundy later recounts dragging her into the woods and intends to rape her, then release her because he's trying to "de-escalate" his urges. Things don't go as planned for Bundy and he ends up strangling her "accidentally" while he was trying to silence her screams. Bundy claims that her remains were buried near Capital Reef National Park but they have never been located.

Nancy Wilcox

October 18, 1974. 17 year old Melissa Smith disappeared after leaving a pizza parlor in Midvale, UT. She was found 9 days later, completely nude. Based on evidence found, it was determined that Melissa was most likely alive for 7 days after her disappearance. She was strangled, raped, and sodomized.

Melissa Smith

October 31, 1974. 17 year old Laura Ann Aime disappears after leaving a cafe in Lehi, UT. She was discovered 9 miles away by hikers. Evidence suggests that she was strangled, raped, and sodomized.

Laura Aime

If you haven't picked up on it by now, Bundy is a sicko creep with a fetish for girls with dark hair. He ups the ick factor in his later confessions about the murders. Bundy freely admits that he performed ritualistic patterns postmortem with the corpses of Melissa Smith and Laura Aime; he carefully washes their hair and puts on their makeup. He would also admit to visiting the women's decomposing remains after killing them and doing seriously gross, sexual acts on them until they were so badly decomposed that he no longer could. He's literally the worst.

November 8, 1974. Bundy approaches 18 year old Carol DaRonch in a mall in Murray, UT. He identifies himself as a police officer to Carol and tells her that someone has broken into her car, he needs her to come with him to the police station to make a report. Carol complies and goes with them. Carol soon realizes that they are not on their way to a police station and in fact are going down some pretty desolate roads. When Carol points this out, Bundy immediately pulls over and attempts to restrain her. A struggle ensues and Carol is able to escape.

With this plan foiled, Bundy wastes no time going back on the prowl. This same evening, 17 year old Debra Kent is abducted after leaving a school play in Bountiful, UT. Witnesses report seeing a man walking around the back of the auditorium during the play. A small key was also found and this key just so happened to unlock the handcuffs on Carol DaRonch. Debra's remains have never been located.

Carol DaRonch and Debra Kent

Remember Elizabeth Kloepfer, Bundy's girlfriend? Well, she's still in the picture and still in a relationship with him. After seeing the news from Salt Lake City and realizing that more young women have gone missing, Elizabeth once again calls law enforcement in November 1974 and reports her suspicions about Ted Bundy. Local police were beginning to suspect Bundy but witnesses to one of his abductions failed to select him from a photo line-up so they believed that their suspicions were unfounded. Completely blown away and still very concerned, Elizabeth calls for a third time in December 1974 to report her suspicions. Law enforcement puts him on their suspect list but no evidence has been found to link Bundy to anything at this point. Elizabeth (smart girl but also really dumb) doesn't tell Ted her suspicions and doesn't let him know about her multiple police reports about him. He visits her in Seattle in January 1975 and she makes plans to see him in Salt Lake City in August 1975.

Elizabeth Kloepfer and Ted Bundy

January 12, 1975. Bundy shifts his focus away from the suburbs around Salt Lake City and moves his attention to Colorado. On this day, 23 year old registered nurse Caryn Campbell is murdered walking down a hallway to her hotel room in Snowmass Village, CO. Her body is found a month later near the hotel. Evidence suggests that she was bludgeoned to death with a blunt object to her skull and also had deep stab wounds to her body.

Caryn Campbell

March 1975 was a pivotal point in the PNW investigation regarding the missing girls. Forestry students from a local community college were surveying Taylor Mountain in Washington State on March 3, 1975. They stumbled across human remains in a densely wooded area. The remains were identified as those of Lynda Healy, Susan Rancourt, Roberta Parks, and Brenda Ball. This site earns the moniker of "The Graveyard".

March 15, 1975. 26 year old ski instructor Julie Cunningham disappears from her apartment in Vail, CO. She was on her way to meet a friend for dinner but never arrived. Bundy later confesses to approaching Julie on crutches and pretending to need help loading equipment into his car. Julie falls for his ruse and goes to help him. He clubs her, handcuffs her, sexually assaults her, then kills her by strangulation. Her remains were dumped in Rifle, CO.

Julie Cunningham

April 6, 1975. 25 year old Denise Oliverson has a fight with her husband and takes off for her parent’s house to cool down. Her parents weren’t expecting her and her husband was giving her time to cool down so no one was alarmed when she didn’t come home that night. When her husband calls her parent’s home the next morning to check on her, her parents report that she never made it to their home last night. They immediately contact the police and a search is started. Her bike and sandals were found along the route that she would have taken. Bundy later confesses to murdering her.

Denise Oliverson

Elizabeth Kloepfer and three former co-workers visit Bundy in Salt Lake City in mid-May of 1975. They all stay in his apartment and no one reports anything alarming from their time spent there. Kloepfer once again doesn't talk to Ted about her suspicions or the police reports that she has made about him...in fact, they discuss getting married around Christmas of that year. (side note: what would you have done if you were in Kloepfer's position? The same thing or something totally different?) If you can remember, Bundy has been dating Kloepfer this entire time. He is also now dating a law student named Kim Andrews (or Sharon Auer) and has had an ongoing relationship with Carol Boone since his time with DES in Seattle. Klopefer remains ignorant of these side pieces.


June 28, 1975. 15 year old Susan Curtis disappeared from the campus of Brigham Young University. She was attending a conference on the campus and was last seen going back to her room to brush her teeth. She has never been found but Bundy later confesses to killing her & burying her in Price, UT.

Susan Curtis


In fall 1975, Bundy is baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints even though he was not very participatory in services and didn't follow the rules. Fun fact, he would later be excommunicated by the Church when he was arrested. Bundy obviously wasn't too mad about this because he listed "Methodist" as his religious preference.

By this time, law enforcement in the PNW were seriously confused about what to make about all of the evidence and witness testimony that they had. It was a deadly killing spree that suddenly ended & law enforcement didn't know if/when it would begin again. This is 1975 so technology is almost non-existent. But someone has the idea to plug all of the information that they do have about the crimes into a computer designated to do payroll with phrases such as Ted, tan VW, known sex offenders, friends of the victims, etc. They were soon able to compile thousands of names that fit the criteria. With some narrowing down, Ted Bundy was found on 4 lists. He was soon put on a list of 100 people and was at the top of the list for suspects.

Here begins the beginning of the end for Ted Bundy.

Ted Bundy was cruising a residential neighborhood in a Salt Lake City suburb in the early morning hours. A Utah Highway Patrol officer notices Bundy and thinks that he is acting shady. He goes to pull Bundy over and a high speed chase ensues. Bundy is finally stopped and that's when the officer realizes that he has stumbled into something weird. The VW's front passenger seat had been removed. A ski mask, a crowbar, an ice pick, rope, trash bags, handcuffs, and pantyhose were also found in the car. Bundy, being a master manipulator, tells the officer that the ski mask is for skiing (like duh), he found the handcuffs in a dumpster, and the rest of the (weird, creepy) items were just common household items.


Ted Bundy's VW Beetle
Now housed at the Alcatraz East Crime Museum


Items found in Bundy's Car

A detective happened to remember that a tan VW had been spotted near a prior crime and that someone (aka Kloepfer) had called in a report about Ted Bundy and his tan VW. They arrest Bundy and take him to the station. They then execute a search warrant on his car and apartment. Law enforcement finds a brochure for the play where Debra Kent was abducted, a map to ski resorts in Colorado with a check mark by the Wildwood Inn where Caryn Campbell was murdered. Prosecutors feel that all of the evidence gathered is circumstantial and Bundy is released on his own recognizance. Bundy later reports that law enforcement missed a collection of Polaroid photos in his car of his victims while they were searching. He destroys these photos after his arrest.


Bundy's 1975 Mugshot

Even though they didn't have enough evidence to detain Bundy, law enforcement is now more convinced than ever that Bundy has definitely been doing something shady. They place him under 24 hour surveillance and send detectives to Seattle to interview girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer. Kloepfer tells them about Bundy's move from Seattle to Salt Lake City (which just so happened to coincide with the stop/start dates of the murders in both places) and about her suspicions. Kloepfer reports at that time that she has found several unusual items belonging to Bundy in her home and in his apartment. She found surgical gloves, a bag of plaster of Paris, crutches, a meat cleaver (not in the kitchen for cooking), a sack full of women's clothes, and a knife in an ornate box. She also reports that Bundy is perpetually in debt & she believes that he has stolen nearly everything that he possesses. She recounts confronting him about a stolen TV and stereo and he threatened to kill her if she said anything. Kloepfer also tells detectives that he refused to allow her to cut her long, brown hair and would frequently examine her body in the middle of the night. She was also aware that he kept a lug wrench in the trunk of car, which also happened to be a VW Beetle. Kloepfer was able to confirm that Bundy was not with her on any of the nights that the PNW murders occurred, eliminating her as his alibi. She also found out from law enforcement about Bundy's other women.

Bundy panics in September 1975 and sells his VW to a local teenager. Law enforcement learns of this & impounds the vehicle; the FBI sends technicians to examine the car. They find strands of hair matching that of Caryn Campbell, Melissa Smith, & Carol DaRonch. Finding 3 separate victims' hair in 1 vehicle is super unlikely, especially when the victims had no other connections to one another.

On October 2, 1975, Carol DaRonch identifies Bundy in a police line-up as her assailant. She claims that in her attack, he was dressed up as a police officer & identified himself as Officer Roseland. On the same day, witnesses from the Debra Kent abduction identify Bundy as the suspicious man hanging around the auditorium. As Debra Kent's body was yet  not found (and continues to be), police could not definitively link Bundy to her disappearance but were able to charge Bundy with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault in Carol DaRonch's case. Law enforcement did not yet have sufficient evidence to link him to the PNW murders either. He was let out on $15,000 bond (paid by his dumbass parents) and went to live with Elizabeth Kloepfer in Seattle. Knowing this, law enforcement started 24 hour surveillance on Bundy again in an attempt to gather evidence to indict him in the PNW murders.


October 1975 Mugshot

In November 1975, law enforcement from Utah, Washington, and Colorado met up to exchange information on their respective cases with Bundy as the prime suspect; this meeting would be called the Aspen Summit. Everyone agrees that more evidence is needed to bring Bundy down and they all went back to digging in their respective states.

February 23, 1976: Bundy stands trial for the kidnapping and attempted assault on Carol DaRonch. Bundy waives his right to a jury based on fear of bias. He is found guilty of all charges & is sentenced to serve 1 to 15 years at the Utah State Prison.

To say that Bundy was not cut out for prison life was an understatement. He is caught in October 1976 attempting to escape with road maps, an airline schedule, and a new social security card. Because of this, he spends several months in solitary confinement.

At the end of 1976/beginning of 1977, Bundy is charged by Colorado authorities with the murder of Caryn Campbell. He eventually waives extradition and is transferred to Aspen, Colorado in January of 1977.
On June 7, 1977, Bundy is transferred from Glenwood Springs, CO to the Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen, CO for a preliminary hearing on the murder charges regarding Caryn Campbell. Bundy waives counsel and chooses to represent himself. The Judge allows Bundy to be unshackled because of this. During a break in the hearing, Bundy asks to visit the law library in order to research his defense and he is allowed to do so. This was a terrible idea. Bundy jumps out of a second story window and sprains his right ankle as he lands. This doesn't deter him though and he manages to walk through roadblocks, escaping Aspen. He heads into the surrounding mountains and finds a hunting cabin to hide out in. He finds food, clothing, and a rifle & stays there for 1 day. He decides to keep moving but eventually becomes lost. He finally comes across another hunting lodge 2 days later and steals more food. He keeps walking and wanders around the woods for another 3 days, eluding law enforcement and search parties the entire time. He eventually finds his way back into Aspen and steals a car. Police notice the vehicle driving erratically in traffic & he is pulled over. Police find several maps in the car that prosecutors were planning to use to detail the location of Caryn Campbell's murder site and disposal. He was a fugitive for 6 days but was taken back into custody at this time.


Bundy's 1977 Mugshot & FBI Most Wanted Poster


He's placed back in jail in Glenwood Springs, CO after his escape in Aspen. Bundy is a moron and seals his own fate on the Campbell murder charges. He only had about a year and a half left to serve on the DaRonch kidnapping/assault charges & is told by many people to just bide his time and finish serving his sentence. Instead, Bundy comes up with yet another escape plan. He manages to obtain a detailed floor plan of the jail and realizes that there is a crawl space above his cell ceiling. He gets a hacksaw and some cash in order to fulfill his escape plan. Some believe that he worked on this plan for about 6 months and had help from outside visitors, namely his girlfriend Carol Boone. While the other inmates were showering at night, he would stay in his cell and work on sawing a hole in the ceiling. Eventually, he was able to carve a small hole and wiggle through it into the ceiling above. He made several "practice" escape attempts in order to perfect his plan. Other prisoners reported hearing movement in the crawl space at night but their claims were never investigated.
On December 30, 1977, Bundy makes his move. Most of the staff & even other inmates were out on furlough and the prison was very minimally staffed. He piled up books in his bed to make it look like he was sleeping & slides up into the crawlspace. He breaks through the ceiling of the warden's apartment (who was out to dinner with his wife) and steals clothes. From there, he simply walks out the front door of the prison & is a free man.
He steals a car outside of the prison but it soon breaks down. He hitchhikes into Vail, CO and then catches a bus to Denver, CO. He takes a flight from Denver to Chicago, IL.
Meanwhile, prison staff did not notice Bundy's escape until 17 hours later.
From Chicago, Bundy takes a train to Ann Arbor, Michigan. He watches the Rose Bowl football game & then steals a car and heads to Atlanta, GA. When he arrives in Atlanta, he catches a bus to Tallahassee, FL on January 8, 1978.

Map of Bundy's Escape from CO

Once in Tallahassee, he rents a room near Florida State University. He decides to leave his murderous ways behind and start fresh. He applies for a construction job but is unable to be hired since he doesn't have a legitimate ID. Bundy decides soon after to go back to his old ways and begins stealing money and shoplifting again.

January 15, 1978. Bundy sneaks into the sorority house of Chi Omega on the campus of FSU. A rear door wasn't locking right & that's where he found his point of entry. It was around 2:45 am and he enters into the bedroom of sleeping 21 year old Margaret Bowman. He beats her with a piece of firewood and then strangled her with a pantyhose.


Margaret Bowman

After strangling Margaret, he moves to the bedroom of 20 year old Lisa Levy. He beats her unconscious and strangles her. He also bit her left butt check, sexually assaulted her with a hairspray can, and tore off one of her nipples.

Lisa Levy

He moves next door to the bedroom of 20 year old Kathy Kleiner--he breaks her jaw and deeply cuts her shoulder.
21 year old Karen Chandler is attacked next; her jaw was broken and multiple teeth knocked out. He also crushed her finger and gave her a concussion.
Bundy's attack on the Chi Omega house took place in less than 15 minutes. All of this took place with about 30 potential witnesses in the home & no one reports hearing anything.

After wreaking havoc on the sorority house, Bundy flees and breaks into an apartment 8 blocks away. There he finds Cheryl Thomas, an FSU student. He breaks her jaw and skull as well as dislocating her shoulder. She survives but is left with permanent injuries. Law enforcement later finds a semen stain and pantyhose in her bed with hair evidence that is determined to be from Bundy.

Bundy hides out in Tallahassee from January 15, 1978 until February 8, 1978.
On February 8, 1978, Bundy steals a van from FSU and drives to Jacksonville, FL.
Once in Jacksonville, he approaches 14 year old Leslie Parmenter in a parking lot and identifies himself as a firefighter. Leslie's older brother approaches him and Bundy flees. He then travels to Lake City, FL.
On February 9, 1978, Bundy abducts 12 year old Kimberly Leach from her school. Her partially mummified remains are found 7 weeks later in a state park.

Kimberly Leach

It's now February 12, 1978. Bundy's rent is overdue and he's feeling a little paranoid that the police are going to come bust in on him at any second. He decides to leave Tallahassee and drives westward across the Florida panhandle.
On February 15, 1978, Bundy is stopped in his car near the Alabama state line by a Pensacola police officer. The officer runs the car's plates and realizes that there are warrants out for this stolen car. The officer goes to arrest Bundy and Bundy attempts to flee. The officer eventually wrangles Bundy under control and goes to investigate the stolen car. There were 3 sets of stolen IDs found in the car belonging to FSU students, a stolen TV, and multiple stolen credit cards. The arresting officer has absolutely no idea that he has just arrested Ted Bundy, who has been placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list since his escape in Colorado. On his way to the police station, Bundy tells the officer that he wished that the officer had just killed him.

Bundy is transferred to a jail in Miami, FL. He stands trial for the Chi Omega murders and attacks in June 1979. This trial was widely popular and was the first televised trial in the United States. As we already know, Bundy is an idiot and decides to represent himself even though he was appointed a 5 person legal team. Bundy was facing the death penalty but couldn't bring himself to render control to his defense team.

A plea bargain was offered to Bundy which took the death penalty away and gave him 75 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to the deaths of Lisa Levy, Margaret Bowman, and Kimberly Leach. Bundy declines the plea bargain because he doesn't want to admit guilt. The case proceeds to trial.



At trial, several key witnesses came forward and identified Bundy as the assailant on the Chi Omega house. A forensic odontologist was also able to match Bundy's teeth impression to the marks found on Lisa Levy's buttock.
The jury deliberated for a little over 6 hours and found Bundy guilty of the murders of Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman as well as 2 counts of burglary and 3 counts of attempted murder on July 24, 1979. He receives death sentences for his murder convictions.


1979 Mugshot

Bundy stands trial in January 1980 for the abduction and murder of Kimberly Leach. He was convicted of these charges as well.
Bundy (as we've learned) will try to find a way to get out of everything. He learns that Florida has a law that if a marriage declaration is said in Court before a Judge, the marriage is legal. He asks Carol Boone to marry him while he was questioning her during the trial and she accepts, making it a legal marriage in light of the Florida law. Carol Boone Bundy can now no longer be made to testify against Ted.
None of his shenanigans amount to much & he was sentenced to a third death sentence by electrocution on February 10, 1980. After the sentence is read, he stands up and exclaims "Tell the jury they were wrong!" (source: Nelson, Polly (1994). Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer)


1980 Mugshot

In October 1982, Carol Boone Bundy gives birth to a daughter and names Ted Bundy as the father. There is a lot of speculation to this claim as conjugal visits were not allowed at the prison that he was being held at. He might have bribed a guard to allow him a conjugal visit but it has never been definitively proven.

After his convictions, Bundy begins doing interviews with several people. He always speaks in third person to avoid admitting guilt or incriminating himself further. Bundy, in a roundabout way, admits to killing far before the 1974 murder of Lynda Healy and categorizes himself as an amateur first but then blossoming into a prime predator. The rape aspect of his crimes was to exercise total control over his victims; at first, the murder aspect was to prevent witnesses but it soon became part of the thrill for him. Murder soon became the ultimate control that he desired as well as raping the corpses long after death.

He attempts to escape twice more in 1984 but his plans were found out before he was able to execute them.

Bundy learns that an investigator is trying to solve the murders and identify the Green River Killer. Bundy offers his unique expertise as a serial killer to try to help the investigator identify patterns and motives for the killings--spoiler alert, it didn't really help as the GRK remained at large for another 17 years.

March 4, 1986 was set as Ted Bundy's execution date for the sentencing on the Chi Omega murders. The Supreme Court of the United States offered a stay of execution and he was not killed on the set date. A new date of July 2, 1986 was soon set. In the interim, Bundy confesses to interviewers most of the murders and his actions with the bodies after their murders.

Once again, his execution is stayed on an appeal (less than 15 hours before the scheduled time) and execution was delayed indefinitely.

It was stayed for many different reasons: Bundy's competency to stand trial and a judicial error regarding instructions to the jury in the sentencing phase were the main issues.

November 18, 1986 was set as the date to carry out the execution for Kimberly Leach's murder. Bundy must have a horseshoe up his butt because this execution was stayed by an appellate court on November 17. The execution date was rescheduled to January 24, 1989 and was declared to be a firm date as all appeals had been exhausted.

With this new and final ruling, Bundy explicitly confesses to investigators about all of his crimes. He also confessed to several crimes previously unbeknownst to investigators and provided locations of bodies that had not yet been located.

Bundy has one last ditch effort: executive clemency. He begs the victim's families to petition the governor to pardon him and stay his upcoming execution. All of the families refused. Duh.

Theodore Robert Bundy was executed via electric chair in Raiford, FL at 7:16 am on January 24, 1989. Reports claim that hundreds of people took to the streets to celebrate his death with dancing, singing, and fireworks. Bundy was cremated in Gainesville, FL and then had his ashes scattered in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. As if he deserved to have his wishes carried out.

What stands out about Ted Bundy? Several things. Most of which have to do with his method of murder. He deliberately avoided guns, thinking them too loud and messy. He liked to be silent and used methods like strangulation and bludgeoning to reach his goal. He was also very methodical and calculating. He very rarely went into a situation "blind" and thought carefully about how/when he would strike. He was also skilled at avoiding leaving DNA evidence at scenes and never once left a fingerprint. He also was able to change his appearance and could very easily blend in to his surroundings as a good looking, fairly intelligent guy. He was a charmer and easily manipulated his victims into falling into his plans. Even after his death, hundreds (maybe thousands) of women nationwide mourned for Ted Bundy because he had charmed them into believing that he was in love with them and cared only for them. During his time in prison, he received thousands of letters from "girlfriends" claiming to be in love with him.

While in prison, Bundy underwent several psychological evaluations. Throughout the years, he was diagnosed as bipolar but this diagnosis was later changed to Antisocial Personality Disorder aka psychopathy. It's also been theorized that he had Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

He seemed to truly feel no remorse for his actions. Although he eventually confessed to 30 murders, he never took responsibility for any of them. The true total number of victims still remains unknown. He blamed his actions on his abusive childhood, the police, the media, alcohol, societal violence, true crime magazines, and pornography.

One writer wrote the following quote about Bundy's frame of mind:

"Bundy was always surprised when anyone noticed that one of his victims was missing, because he imagined America to be a place where everyone is invisible except to themselves. And he was always astounded when people testified that they had seen him in incriminating places, because Bundy did not believe people noticed each other." (source: Von Drehle, David (1995). Among the Lowest of the Dead: The Culture on Death Row)

Below is a list taken/adapted from Wikipedia outlining all of Ted Bundy's victims:

On the evening before his execution, Bundy reviewed his victim tally with Bill Hagmaier [interviewer] on a state-by-state basis:

• in Washington, 11 (including Parks, abducted in Oregon but killed in Washington; and including 3 unidentified)
• in Utah, 8 (3 unidentified)
• in Colorado, 3
• in Florida, 3
• in Oregon, 2 (both unidentified)
• in Idaho, 2 (1 unidentified)
• in California, 1 (unidentified)

The following is a chronological summary of the 20 identified victims and 5 identified survivors:

1974

Washington, Oregon

• January 4: Karen Sparks (often identified as Joni Lenz in Bundy literature) (age 18): Bludgeoned and sexually assaulted in her bed as she slept; survived.
• February 1: Lynda Ann Healy (21): Bludgeoned while asleep and abducted; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site.
• March 12: Donna Gail Manson (19): Abducted while walking to a concert at The Evergreen State College; body left (according to Bundy) at Taylor Mountain site, but never found.
• April 17: Susan Elaine Rancourt (18): Disappeared after attending an evening advisors' meeting at Central Washington State College; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site.
• May 6: Roberta Kathleen Parks (22): Vanished from Oregon State University in Corvallis; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site.
• June 1: Brenda Carol Ball (22): Disappeared after leaving the Flame Tavern in Burien; skull and mandible recovered at Taylor Mountain site.
• June 11: Georgann Hawkins (18): Abducted from an alley behind her sorority house, UW; skeletal remains identified by Bundy as those of Hawkins recovered at Issaquah site.
• July 14: Janice Ann Ott (23): Abducted from Lake Sammamish State Park in broad daylight; skeletal remains recovered at Issaquah site.
• July 14: Denise Marie Naslund (19): Abducted four hours after Ott from the same park; skeletal remains recovered at Issaquah site.

Utah, Colorado, Idaho

• October 2: Nancy Wilcox (16): Ambushed, assaulted, and strangled in Holladay, Utah; body buried (according to Bundy) near Capitol Reef National Park, 200 miles (320 km) south of Salt Lake City, but never found.
• October 18: Melissa Anne Smith (17): Vanished from Midvale, Utah; body found in nearby mountainous area.
• October 31: Laura Ann Aime (17): Disappeared from Lehi, Utah; body discovered by hikers in American Fork Canyon.
• November 8: Carol DaRonch (18): Attempted abduction in Murray, Utah; escaped from Bundy's car and survived.
• November 8: Debra Jean Kent (17): Vanished after leaving a school play in Bountiful, Utah; body left (according to Bundy) near Fairview, Utah, 100 miles (160 km) south of Bountiful; minimal skeletal remains (one patella) found, but never positively identified as Kent's.

1975

• January 12: Caryn Eileen Campbell (23): Disappeared from a hotel hallway in Snowmass, Colorado; body discovered on a dirt road near the hotel.
• March 15: Julie Cunningham (26): Disappeared on the way to a tavern in Vail, Colorado; body buried (according to Bundy) near Rifle, 90 miles (140 km) west of Vail, but never found.
• April 6: Denise Lynn Oliverson (25): Abducted while bicycling to her parents' house in Grand Junction, Colorado; body thrown (according to Bundy) into the Colorado River 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Grand Junction, but never found.
• May 6: Lynette Dawn Culver (12): Abducted from Alameda Junior High School in Pocatello, Idaho; body thrown (according to Bundy) into what authorities believe to be the Snake River, but never found.
• June 28: Susan Curtis (15): Disappeared during a youth conference at Brigham Young University; body buried (according to Bundy) near Price, Utah, 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Provo, but never found.

1978

Florida

• January 15: Margaret Elizabeth Bowman (21): Bludgeoned and then strangled as she slept, Chi Omega sorority, FSU (no secondary crime scene)
• January 15: Lisa Levy (20): Bludgeoned, strangled and sexually assaulted as she slept, Chi Omega sorority, FSU (no secondary crime scene)
• January 15: Karen Chandler (21): Bludgeoned as she slept, Chi Omega sorority, FSU; survived.
• January 15: Kathy Kleiner (21): Bludgeoned as she slept, Chi Omega sorority, FSU; survived.
• January 15: Cheryl Thomas (21): Bludgeoned as she slept, eight blocks from Chi Omega; survived.
• February 9: Kimberly Diane Leach (12): Abducted from her junior high school in Lake City, Florida; skeletal remains found near Suwannee River State Park, 43 miles (69 km) west of Lake City.

Other possible victims

Bundy remains a suspect in several unsolved homicides, and is likely responsible for others that may never be identified; in 1987 he confided to Keppel [an interviewer] that there were "some murders" that he would "never talk about", because they were committed "too close to home", "too close to family", or involved "victims who were very young".

• Ann Marie Burr, age 8, vanished from her Tacoma home on August 31, 1961, when Bundy was 14. The Burr house was on Bundy's newspaper delivery route. The victim's father was certain that he saw Bundy in a ditch at a construction site on the nearby University of Puget Sound campus the morning his daughter disappeared. Other circumstantial evidence implicates him as well, but detectives familiar with the case have never agreed on the likelihood of his involvement. Bundy repeatedly denied culpability and wrote a letter of denial to the Burr family in 1986; but Keppel has observed that Burr fits all three of Bundy's "no discussion" categories of "too close to home", "too close to family", and "very young". Forensic testing of material evidence from the Burr crime scene, in 2011, yielded insufficient intact DNA sequences for comparison with Bundy's.
• Flight attendants Lisa E. Wick and Lonnie Trumbull, both 20, were bludgeoned with a piece of lumber as they slept in their basement apartment in Seattle's Queen Anne Hill district on June 23, 1966 near the Safeway store where Bundy worked at the time, and where the women regularly shopped. Trumbull died. In retrospect, Keppel noted many similarities to the Chi Omega crime scene. Wick, who suffered permanent memory loss as a result of the attack, later contacted Ann Rule: "I know that it was Ted Bundy who did that to us," she wrote, "but I can't tell you how I know." In the absence of incriminating evidence, Bundy's involvement remains speculative.
• Vacationing college friends Susan Davis and Elizabeth Perry, both 19, were stabbed to death on May 30, 1969. Their car was found that day abandoned beside the Garden State Parkway outside Somers Point, New Jersey, near Atlantic City, 60 miles (97 km) south of Philadelphia; and their bodies—one nude, one fully clothed—were found in nearby woods three days later. Bundy attended Temple University from January through May 1969 and apparently did not move west until after Memorial Day weekend. While Bundy's accounts of his earliest crimes varied considerably between interviews, he told forensic psychologist Art Norman that his first murder victims were two women in the Philadelphia area. Biographer Richard Larsen believed that Bundy committed the murders using his feigned-injury ruse, based on an investigator's interview with Julia, Bundy's aunt: Ted, she said, was wearing a leg cast due to an automobile accident on the weekend of the homicides, and therefore could not have traveled from Philadelphia to the Jersey Shore; there is no official record of any such accident. Bundy is considered a "strong suspect", but the case remains open.
• Rita Curran, a 24-year-old elementary school teacher and part-time motel maid, was murdered in her basement apartment on July 19, 1971, in Burlington, Vermont; she had been strangled, bludgeoned and raped. The location of the motel where she worked (adjacent to Bundy's birthplace, the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers) and similarities to known Bundy crime scenes led retired FBI agent John Bassett to propose him as a suspect. No evidence firmly places Bundy in Burlington on that date, but municipal records note that a person named "Bundy" was bitten by a dog that week and long stretches of Bundy's time—including the summer of 1971—remain unaccounted for. Curran's murder officially remains unsolved.
• Joyce LePage, 21, was last seen on July 22, 1971, on the campus of Washington State University, where she was an undergraduate. Nine months later, her skeletal remains were found wrapped in carpeting and military blankets, bound with rope, in a deep ravine south of Pullman, Washington. Multiple suspects—including Bundy—have "never been cleared", according to investigators. Whitman County authorities have said that Bundy remains a suspect.
• Rita Lorraine Jolly, 17, disappeared from West Linn, Oregon, on June 29, 1973; Vicki Lynn Hollar, 24, disappeared from Eugene, Oregon, on August 20, 1973. Bundy confessed to two homicides in Oregon without identifying the victims. Oregon detectives suspected that they were Jolly and Hollar, but were unable to obtain interview time with Bundy to confirm it. Both women remain classified as missing.
• Katherine Merry Devine, 14, was abducted on November 25, 1973, and her body was found the next month in the Capitol State Forest near Olympia, Washington. Brenda Joy Baker, 14, was seen hitchhiking near Puyallup, Washington, on May 27, 1974; her body was found in Millersylvania State Park a month later. Though Bundy was widely believed responsible for both murders, he told Keppel that he had no knowledge of either case. DNA analysis led to the arrest and conviction of William E. Cosden for Devine's murder in 2002. The Baker homicide remains unsolved.
• Sandra Jean Weaver, 19, a Wisconsin native who had been living in Tooele, Utah, was last seen in Salt Lake City on July 1, 1974; her nude body was discovered the following day near Grand Junction, Colorado.Sources conflict on whether Bundy mentioned Weaver's name during the death row interviews. Her murder remains unsolved.
• Carol L. Valenzuela, 20, was last seen hitchhiking near Vancouver, Washington, on August 2, 1974. Her remains were discovered two months later in a shallow grave south of Olympia, along with those of another female later identified as Martha Morrison, 17 (last seen in Eugene, Oregon on September 1, 1974). Both victims had long hair parted in the middle. In August 1974 Bundy drove from Seattle to Salt Lake City and could have passed through Vancouver and Eugene en route, but there is no evidence that he did. Warren Leslie Forrest is now believed to have killed both victims, as Morrison's blood was found on one of his guns.
• Melanie Suzanne "Suzy" Cooley, 18, disappeared on April 15, 1975, after leaving Nederland High School in Nederland, Colorado, 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Denver. Her bludgeoned and strangled corpse was discovered by road maintenance workers two weeks later in Coal Creek Canyon, 20 miles (32 km) away. While gas receipts place Bundy in nearby Golden on the day Cooley disappeared and Cooley is included on the list of Bundy victims in most Bundy literature, Jefferson County authorities say the evidence is inconclusive and continue to treat her homicide as a cold case.
• Shelly (or Shelley) Kay Robertson, 24, failed to show up for work in Golden, Colorado, on July 1, 1975. Her nude, decomposed body was found in August, 500 feet (150 m) inside a mine on Berthoud Pass near Winter Park Resort by two mining students. Gas station receipts place Bundy in the area at the time, but there is no direct evidence of his involvement; the case remains open.
• Nancy Perry Baird, 23, disappeared from the service station where she worked in Farmington, Utah, 20 miles (32 km) north of Salt Lake City, on July 4, 1975, and remains classified as a missing person. Bundy specifically denied involvement in this case during the death row interviews.
• Debbie Smith, 17, was last seen in Salt Lake City in early February 1976, shortly before the DaRonch trial began; her body was found near the Salt Lake City International Airport on April 1, 1976. Though listed as a Bundy victim by some sources, her murder remains officially unsolved.

Minutes before his execution, Hagmaier queried Bundy about unsolved homicides in New Jersey, Illinois, Vermont (the Curran case), Texas, and Miami, Florida. Bundy provided directions—later proven inaccurate—to Susan Curtis's burial site in Utah, but denied involvement in any of the open cases.