Ted Bundy: Fatal Compulsion

He consistently fought for his life against the courts, giving confessions in an attempt to receive less of a penalty, or at least delay his death. He confessed to 8 killings in Washington that had taken place in 1974(“Bundy Details…”), and indicated that he had killed anywhere from 40 to 50 women(Tilstone). Although the actual number of his victims is unknown, it is believed that Ted Bundy could have killed up to 100 women, 36 of which he admitted to(Biography.com). In the book Serial Murder, by Ronald M. Holmes, it is stated that Ted was questioned about whether he had killed the 36 women, to which he replied “Add one digit to that and you’ll have it.” This could mean a number of things, like which digit do we have to add, and where? Did he murder 136 women? 361? We might not ever find out. His last minute confessions would help to close up to 23 pending cases of women that were either missing or had been found dead(Lamar). Of all of the open cases, there were three major investigators surrounding the killings of Ted Bundy. Bob Keppel of the King County Police Department in Seattle, Jerry Thompson of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, and Michael Fisher of the Glenwood Springs District Attorney’s Office in Colorado. Fisher and Thompson noticed similarities in the disappearances and murders that they both had in their areas, and connected them to the same suspect(Holmes). After all of his arrests and all of the evidence piling up against him, Ted Bundy was sure to lose the many cases against

As stated before, Bundy had killed over 30 women. This vast number of killings would qualify him to be considered a “serial killer”. Although serial killers are not common among society, the act of killing another person intentionally, or homicide, is fairly common. Homicide is a crime that usually always shocks the public when they hear of it because it is not

Looking helpless and using his good looks and charms Bundy was able to lure in his victims and would knock them out with a foreign object or would handcuff them in his car. Once he had the victims he would proceed in kidnapping, sodomizing, raping, and killing them in a brutal manner. In Ted Bundy case agencies from different states worked together in the apprehension of Bundy. The conviction of Ted Bundy was credit towards good criminal investigation; with police cooperation, forensic evidence and the witnesses' statements.

Ted Bundy is known for charismatic personality, good looks, and charm; he is also known as the most organized murderer to have lived. Bundy would lure woman to his car using a number of excuses; he was handicap or else lost. Because he was so charming women would feel at ease around him and go where he asked. Once at his car, Bundy would grab and restrain the woman. He would then drive to a different location where he would beat and rape the woman until death. Finally he would drive to yet ANOTHER location to dispose of the body. In February 1978, Ted Bundy was finally captured and interviewed. As a child, raised by his grandparents, he showed no signs of previous abuse or neglect. He was raised well and sociable during high school where classmates report that he was well liked. After further analysis, Bundy was presumed to have low activity to his orbital frontal cortex; this is the part of the brain in charge of the conscious, and the “right or wrong” factor. This is not to say that Bundy had a deficiency that prevented him from knowing what he was doing. Just merely a common abnormality that should be noted. Bundy’s case supports the idea that an individual’s makeup can have an effect on their actions.

Ted Bundy was an intelligent man who knew how to take advantage of his victims’ vulnerabilities, but just like an addict he became desperate. His demand to feed his psychotic break encouraged him to abduct women sporadically. He would fake an injury and convince his victims into helping him to his car. Then when they had their back towards him, he would knock them out. He would restrain them and sexually assault them. After putting them through misery, he would then strangle his victims to death and enjoy the girls last moments alive. His disposal method included that he hid the corpse of his victims in locations that he could revisit them if he wanted to. When the bodies became of no use to him, he would mutilate them and bury them so that

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.

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 .

Based on the general idea of Ted Bundy’s background, psychological theory can be applied to his cases of murdering. Psychological theories focus on human’s mind and behavior and the assumption is problems are rooted in unconscious mind and symptoms are manifestations of hidden disturbances or conflicts. According to his childhood circumstances, Ted Bundy’s childhood trauma and abuse played an important role in his serial murders. His father disappeared before he was born and his whole started with the loss of parent. Not only he was living without his father, his mother did not take the full responsibility of him neither. Ted’s mother pretended to be his sister and let his grandparents to be their parents. Although Ted Bundy was

Theodore “Ted” Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont on November 24, 1946, and later executed by the electric chair on January 24, 1989, after being convicted of a serial murder, rapist, and necrophiliac. Bundy brutally murdered and sexually assaulted 30 women but many believe that number to be higher. He would use his charm to lure these women, before engaging in sexual assault and murdering them. Bundy would also revisit some of his victims to again engage in sexual actions until their bodies would decompose. This essay will look at how the impact of Bundy’s disturbed childhood has one of the key factors of his psychotic behavior using attachment theory.

Bundy was born as Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946 at a home in Burlington, Vermont for unwed mothers. He started his life as a secret shame. His mother, Eleonor Cowell, also known as Louise, was a 22-year-old unwed woman, whose parents were deeply religious. Bundy was raised as the adopted son of his grandparents and was told that his mother was his sister to hide the fact that he was an illegitimate child born out of wedlock. Bundy later found out that his sister was actually his mother and her husband, Johnnie Bundy, formally adopted him. Bundy grew to be very articulate and intelligent as well as charming. However, when he was younger, Bundy was shy and he didn’t do well with his peers. By the time he was in his teens, he started showing signs of a darker side. Bundy recalled that he wandered the streets looking for discarded pornography and peering into other people’s windows. When Bundy was 18, his extensive juvenile record for theft was dismissed. Eventually, in 1972, Bundy discovered his true passion, which was viciously assaulting his earliest confirmed victim in 1974. Ultimately, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson had completely different upbringings.

Ted Bundy, infamous serial rapist and murderer, was first arrested for kidnapping and was sentenced for time in prison. He escaped two years later, and was recaptured eight days later. But he did not give up, again December 1977 he escaped and the authorities did not discover till fifteen hours later, giving him a head start to Florida, where he was headed. The following January one night, he attacked four girls and killed two of them, his last ones because in July 1979, he was convicted of murderer twice for those last ones. As he was investigated more, he has confessed to thirty six plus murderer, and investigator still suspect it to be much more, nonetheless, he killed people for his own satisfaction. Did he deserve the death penalty? Did he deserve to die when he kill only almost 40 people? It may be a little too late to ask that because on January 24, 1989, he died in Florida’s electric chair as he consewuence. Nonetheless,and as unfortunate as it it, people like bundy exist today, some yet to be discovered.

He found it difficult to engage with people after breaking up with his girlfriend. This serial killer suffered from Antisocial personality disorder. without any empathy at all, Ted Bundy killed and raped at least 36 people, most of them were college students with brown long hair. Bundy was becoming better on the outside; a murderous rage was building on the inside of him. In other words, Ted’s superficial was charming, engaging, and he was intelligent. He took advantage of people who trusted him because of his appearance. He used double personalities when he was seducing women. The Charming Evil Bundy used to wear a cast on his arm and ask beautiful women to help him with his books to the car, after that he hit them with his crutches and push them into his car. He usually brutally beat, rape, and murder those women without any reason. Ted Bundy was untruthfulness, insincerely, and lacking empathy. Bundy was unable to have an interpersonal relationship because he did not understand the intrapersonal

Ted Bundy is known to be the worst serial killer in U.S. History. In the 1970's, Ted raped and murdered women in at least five different states. Bundy eventually confessed to thirty murders, although the actual total remains unknown. Theodore Robert Bundy was born on November 24th, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont to Eleanor Louise Cowell, a 22 year old single woman. Ted's mom never told him much about his father other than that he was in the armed forces and that they never were really together. Bundy had a difficult childhood and was pretty much an wanted by his mother. After being left in foster care for two months, Eleanor decided to have her parents raise Ted and make him and everyone believe that they were his adopted parents and

Beneath the charming Theodore Robert Bundy lurked a devilish individual, who was capable of anything in order to satisfy his lust for power and control. After being betrayed by his family and discovering that his first love decided to leave him because she thought that he would never amount to anything drove his urge for domination. He was mad at the world and wanted to revenge. He wanted every single one of his victims to see and feel what others had made him feel when he was known for his weak personality. He wanted to deprive them of everything they owned and wanted to feel how his hands would slowly wrap around their victims necks. The feeling of seeing and hearing how life would leave his victims body would arouse him. He was incapable

Described as “THE execution” (Lyons & Trei, 1989, p. Ia) serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy was put to death by the State of Florida at 7.16 A.M. January 24, 1989. During his life he had been convicted of the 1978 rape and murder of a 12 year old, Kimberly Leach in Lack City; and the death of Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, sorority sisters at Florida State University. Just two days before his execution Bundy also admitted to killing a number of other females of various ages in Washington, Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Florida although he was never tried or convicted for those (Rule, 1989, p. 479-480). In total it is estimated that he killed between 25 and 30 women (Rule, 1989).