Ted Bundy Research Paper

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

The police cooperation was the first initial process of the investigation. The murders had started in Seattle, Washington on January 31, 1974. Ted Bundy was living in Seattle and attending school at the University of Washington at that present time. The first reported victim was a twenty-one year old by the name of Lynda Ann Healy. She had been abducted from her apartment and the officers could only find her nightgown that was neatly hung up in her closest with blood on it and her sheets also had traces of blood. The police conducted searches but was unable to find Lynda. On March 12, Donna Gail Mason at Evergreen State College located in Olympia, Washington was last seen leaving her dorm to attend a concert. She was later reported missing and was not located. In Ellensburg, Washington at Central Washington State College Susan Elaine Rancourt disappeared from her campus on April 17, 1974. The

This psychopath terrorized the people of Wisconsin and Ohio for thirteen years. This man committed a series of murder, rape, and dismemberment amongst his seventeen 17 victims. This paper will go one to talk about his early life, first victims, killing spree, arrest and imprisonment, and also his death.

“Ask a psychopath what love is and he’ll go on and on, but he has never felt it himself…If you catch him lying, he’ll just shift gears and go on as though nothing had happened” (Goleman). Ted Bundy was one of the most famous psychopaths in the history of the country (Nordheimer). People say he was the perfect killer- handsome, intelligent, witty, and charming (Boynton 25). Bundy was the complete opposite of what people thought a serial killer looked like, so his victims did not fear him (“Ted Bundy”). Robert Keppel, an expert on serial killers, stated, “He taught us that a serial killer can appear to be absolutely normal, the guy next door (“Serial Killers and Mass Murderers”). At one point he was working for a suicide hotline; a friend

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 .

He was a serial killer as well. He was sadistic, which means he drove pleasure from inflicting pain upon others. He was also narcissistic which means he had an excessive interest in his own physical appearance. He killed around 30 people, or at least that’s what he confessed to. Another serial killer is Jeffrey Dahmer, who was a cannibal. When they found him, he was in a state of dissociation. When he is in a state of dissociation, he can forget things and there is a lack of connection in his thoughts, according to the article titled Dissociation and Dissociative

His first murder is believed to have occurred in 1974, when a young woman was kidnapped from her basement apartment in Seattle. The only evidence that remained was a few blood stains (Salem Press, 2008). Upsurges in abductions of young women, in their college years, around the King County area in Washington followed suit. As time progressed, skeletonized remains of those missing women were later discovered amongst the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. After kidnapping his victims, Bundy would often rendered them unconscious, take them to a remote location where he would then strangle and assault them (Salem Press, 2008).

Eventually, he ended his rampage in a third floor lecture hall where he shot and wounded several more people before ending his own life. Suicide notes found on him revealed that his motives were based on his hatred for feminists, stating that they have “ruined his life”. It also revealed a hit list containing 15 public figures, probably found through news media sources, but stated that he was unable to act upon it. Instead, all his victims turned out to be strangers that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the killing spree (Maser, 1987).

Throughout Andrei Chikatilo's childhood and early adult life may have been the reason why this man became such a vicious killer. Chikatilo had an awful childhood since day one. When analyzing Chikatilo one must start at his birth. He was born with water on his brain Chikatilo like any teenage boy felt a desire for girls, because he was so insecure and shy he probably felt more comfortable with younger girls. At an early age Chikatilo felt power over younger girls between age eight and age sixteen. When Chikatilo could not get an erection it caused him anger and frustration. When looking at Chikatilo's childhood, you would have to assume that he was traumatized and a product of all the horrible events in his later years. Going through these events alone would make anyone a psychopath.

Richard Kuklinski was a convicted murderer and contract killer who was born on April 11 in 1935. Kuklinski claims to have killed over 200 people over the course of his “career” during 1949 to 1986. At first, he would simply kill people who annoyed him, got on his nerves, or who he ‘needed’ to kill. When the mob caught wind of a man who killed as frivolously as Kuklinski, they began to hire him out as a contract killer. He lived in New Jersey and New York and committed most of his crimes in that area. In 1988, he was caught and sentenced to life in prison -- he later died in prison in March of 2006

Ted Bundys murders took place in the years of 1966-1978. His first victim went by the name of Lonnie Trumball. She was killed in Seattle on June 23, 1966. He began a killing spree around the year 1972. Bundy said he first murder was like a “horrible dream.” Bundys last known victim went by the name Ann Leach. She was believed to be killed on February 9, 1978 in Salt Lake City, Florida. Some people believe that his first victim may have been an eight year old girl from Tacoma. If that was true he would have been fourteen at the age of his first murder, but that statement was not proven true. The majority of his victims were young women who looked like a girl that had ended a long-term relationship with him. Bundy said that when he committed these horrific murders, it felt like being possessed by something awful and alien. Ted Bundy blamed nothing but himself and pornography for his murders.

Dennis Rader murdered 10 people over a 17-year period from 1974 to 1991 in the Wichita, Kansas area (Hickey, 2016). He was called BTK for blind, torture, and kill. He lived a pretty normal life by serving four years in the military. Then he worked for ADT Security Services giving him the knowledge to disarm home alarm systems. He targeted mostly women who he stalked, and often waited for them in their own homes. He referred to the people he killed as projects and bragged about keeping trophies such as rings and lingerie (Tresniowski & Comander, 2005). He also used a squeeze ball in order to strengthen his hand muscles so he could strangle his victims more easily. He kept some of his victims alive longer so he could continue to torment them. He even planned an 11th murder however, he was captured before he could carry it out.

Most of his victims were black prostitutes or drug addicts. He is believed to prey on this specific type of woman, because he wanted to seek vengeance against a female figure who wronged him in the past. To do so, this meant that he hurt, raped, photographed (sometimes unconscious or while raping), strangled, and shoot at a close range (many times) victims who resemble her in some way. His first known victim, Debra Jackson, was murdered August 10, 1985. Jackson was found shot three

No one will ever really know what happened to set Ted Bundy off, but around 1973 he began raping and murdering women at a surprising rate. No one really knows exactly when and how many woman he had murdered but he was a prime suspect in many unsolved murders. Kathy Devine was last seen getting into a green pick-up on November 25, 1973, which was later found that Ted Bundy had the same green pick-up at the time. Fifteen year old Divine's decomposed remains were found on December 6 with her jeans cut open in between her legs. Her throat was cut and the investigators concluded that she was murdered right after she disappeared and there were no leads or evidence to bring someone to justice for the acts they have committed on this poor girl.

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).