Searching for Answers to a Serial Killer, Ted Bundy Essay

Crime occurs every day, all over the world. Most crime is unreported or is unknown to the vast majority of the populations. Over time, crime has grown to become a normal part of society and typically people are not surprised to hear that a crime has been committed. Most crimes are dealt with and forgotten, however a few crimes grab the media’s attention and are highly publicized, ultimately giving the criminal their 15 minutes of infamy. Ted Bundy was one of these criminals. Bundy was a law student in Utah and during the 1970’s, he assaulted, raped and murdered at least 30 known women with some criminologists suspecting as high as nearly 100 victims. The tactics he used along with the extent of his killings is how Bundy acquired his long lasting infamy and notoriety as one of America’s top 10 most wanted during his time. Our true focus here is explaining why these murders occurred; truly understanding the motivation behind Bundy’s actions and finding the roots of causation which could lead a person to commit such serious crimes.

Theodore Bundy was an infamous American serial killer who preyed upon numerous young women during the 1970s and possibly earlier. He was associated with at least 30 counts of homicide and suspected of an estimated one hundred or more. Beyond homicide, he also made it apparent that he was capable of other sinister crimes such as rape, kidnapping, and necrophilia. His most frequent method of killing was an attack with a blunt weapon to the head. However, he did not merely kill his victims; evidence concludes that each were also sexually assaulted and sodomized. It is reported that he even revisited his crime scenes to further engage in sexual acts with the decomposing corpses. Moreover, at least 12 of his victims had been decapitated .

Throughout the year 1968, Ted became obsessed with winning Stephanie back. He changed his whole outer appearance and was more determined than ever to impress her. Transforming himself into a totally different man, he was becoming someone who Brooks would want. Bundy chose politics as his chosen road towards status; he was active in the Washington State Republican party (Serial Killers 15). Toward the end of 1968, he was unemployed after the Republican

Ted Bundy's life changed forever in the spring of 1967, when he met and fell in love with the woman of his dreams. She was beautiful, sophisticated and from a wealthy family. She was Ted's first love and possibly his first sexual encounter. She liked him a lot, but did not have the same deep feelings towards him. This didn't discourage Ted Bundy since he would ask her to marry him on several occasions. She was very reluctant to make a serious commitment, because she felt that Ted had no future goals or real direction in his life. Ted began to try to impress her by lying and even winning a summer scholarship from Stanford to try to influence her feelings for him. But the mask of

Ted met his first girlfriend in college and eventually falls in love. His girlfriend did not see Ted as someone who would be successful and eventually broke up with him and this broke his heart. This was about the time he learned the truth about his family too. He developed

Eventually, Bundy would figure out the truth because one of his cousins would show Ted a copy of his birth certificate after calling him a “bastard” (Ramsland, K. 2013, p. 2). This resulted in Bundy expressing a lifelong resistant toward his mother forever because she hid this fact from him leaving him to have to find out for himself. Evidently, this ties quite well with attachment theory because the relationship between his mother and him would never be the same after that unfortunate day.

Ted Bundy was one of the most vicious and notorious serial killers in United States history. His success in finding and slaughtering his prey was often due to his meticulous planning and preparation. In other moments he simply seized upon the opportunity to charm a woman he met without any prior planning and lured her to a place where he could kill her. He killed as many as 36 women, although authorities suggest that there may have been more victims than that. Was Bundy a classic case of a criminal whose activities can be linked to the "Rational Choice" theory? Do the principles of "Trait" theories explain his behaviors? This paper looks into those theories as they may or may not apply to the murderous life of Ted Bundy. This paper finds that Rational Choice theory fits the facts of Ted Bundy's serial killing more appropriately than Trait theories.

Ted Bundy was an American born rapist, a necrophile; a serial killer and a kidnapper who assaulted and murdered several young women during the 1970’s. The criminal kept on denying the charges for more than ten years and later confessed of having committed the thirty homicide crimes in seven different states before his execution (Rule, 2009). Bundy’s handsome and charismatic appearance made it possible for him to easily win the confidence of young women who were always his targets. He broke into the dwellings of his victims at night and bludgeoned them as they slept. He also approached young women in public places where he impersonated as an authority figure or feigned injury on his victim before empowering and assaulting at a

During a psychological evaluation of Ted Kaczynski by Dr. Sally C. Johnson it is discovered that Ted seemed to grow up in a “normal” household. Ted’s father was a working class man who held a variety of employment. He reportedly provided adequately for the family, from a financial standpoint. His mother stayed at home despite two years of college. When the family moved to Iowa Ted’s mother finished her degree and became a teacher. Neither parents had any history of mental illness, despite his father committing suicide. Due to Ted’s inability to socialize, he was prevented from having any type of social support outside of the family. During his childhood years it was noted by Dr. Johnson, that

It is speculated that a violent relationship with his mother may have lead to his apparent hatred of women.

“Serial killers are human black holes; they scare us because they mirror us,” spoke Shirley Lynn Scott, known author and psychologist. This stands true throughout history, as most serial killers blend in with society. Serial killing is formally defined by the FBI as “a series of three or more killings, having common characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes were committed by the same actor or actors.” But what exactly drives someone to kill another human being? What plays as a more drastic motivator for their actions, nature or nurture?

In today’s world, murderers aren’t a surprising thing, as long as they are fictional. Plenty of TV shows and movies have plot lines around murder, but what about real life? As Scott Bonn states in his writing, of the approximate 15,000 murders in the United States, only 1 percent are serial killings, amounting to about 150 victims per year, with between 25 and 50 serial killers active at any given time. There are plenty of statistics on serial killers. 1 in 20 had the same three characteristics as a child: bedwetting, fire setting, and torturing animals. Animal torture is a common indicator that the child will be violent in the future. Also, over 30 percent of murderers use killing as a way for their sexual arousal (Stone). A murderer

Children who fail to form a secure and loving relationship with their caregivers are believed to experience a range of issues including emotional, behavioral and social problems, which contribute to the antisocial personality disorder (Levy at al, 2004). In addition, Ted’s cousin usually teased him and called him a bastard. His cousin even cruelly showed his birth certificate (Crime Feed Staff, 2015). Ted Bundy had said that: “ 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 (Biography,2017).” Even until he was a adult, he could still not have close relationship and he still failed to understand what interpersonal relationships were about (Michaud et al, 1999). The disability to form close relationships may resulted as the failure relationship between he and his mom. In one of the interview with Ted Bundy, he said: “ We didn’t talk about real personal matters. Certainly never about sex or any of those things. My mom has trouble talking on inmate, personal terms. There’s this logjam things in her that she doesn’t open up and explain (Crime Feed Staff, 2015).” It may not be the total reason for it but it can be the reason of causing unhealthy adult relationship.

Ted has a special meaning to me because he helps me get to sleep. Even though I may be too old for a stuffed animal, I sometimes need him. He is shockingly still super soft and loveable. I am sometimes too worried to go to sleep, there’s Ted. I had an emotional day, Ted. Say I am in a fight with my best friend, once again there’s Ted. I rely on Ted to get me to sleep when I can’t do it myself. As you can see any bad day or feeling comes back to Ted. Mr. Ted has and will always help me get to sleep when I don’t feel great, and I kind of hope that doesn’t change.

In addition to his early patterns of violence, there was also a history of mental illness in the family. This can usually mean that family members down the line are far more likely to exhibit some of these same attributes. More than likely, these mental problems found their way through heredity into Bundy’s personality as well. An example of mental instability within the family can be seen with his grandmother. Late in her life, she expressed symptoms of psychosis. In order to treat this, she underwent shock therapy. It is likely that the abuse she endured through her marriage and that which Bundy was exposed to contributed to these problems.