Ted Bundy- A Mask of Sanity.

Theodore Robert Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell November 24 1946 at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington Vermont. His Mother was Eleanor Louise Cowell. His Father's identity has never been determined. From an early age he was told that his Maternal Grand Parents were his Father and Mother. He was told that Eleanor was his older Sister. Ted would spend the first four years of his life living at his Grand Parents home in Philadelphia. Family members and friends describe Ted's Maternal Grand Father,Samuel Cowell as a bully and a bigot who beat his wife and children relentlessly.

In 1950 Louise changed her surname from Cowell to Nelson and moved in with relatives in Tacoma Washington. In 1951 Louise met Johnny Bundy at a church dance. They were married later that year and Johnny adopted Ted formally in 1952. Johnny and Louise would go on to have four more children over the years.

By all appearances Ted had a normal happy life growing up. His family were far from wealthy but they never went without a roof over their heads and never went hungry.

Ted graduated high school in 1965 and enrolled in college that Fall. Ted dropped out of college in 1968 and worked for Republican Nelson Rockefeller's Presidential Committee. He even went to the Republican Convention in Miami as a Rockefeller delegate that year. In mid 1970 Ted re enrolled in college at the University of Washington. He became an Honor Student and impressed all who met him as a bright and charismatic personality. He graduated from college in 1972 with a degree in Psychology.

It's not really known when Ted began to murder women. The first confirmed murder that is almost certain to have been the work of Ted was committed on February 1 1974. Lynda Ann Healy disappeared from her apartment that night and was never seen alive again. From that point female college students began to disappear at a rate of close to one a month in and around Washington and Oregon. In one bold move he took two victims from the same crowded state park at different times on the same day. On that day he had been seen by many people and had approached several women. Questioned by the police the women all told of a handsome young man who had said his name was Ted. He told them he need help loading his sailboat onto his car. Now the police had a name and a description of their killer. In Seattle it became known as the Ted Murders and the police were attributing at least 8 murders to the unknown Ted.

Unknown to the authorities at this time Ted had moved on. He had been excepted at the Law School at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. It wasn't long before pretty young women began to disappear in Utah and surrounding States. It was in Utah that one of Ted's targets got away from him.He tried to kidnap a young woman from a shopping center. He was able to lure her into his car where he placed a pair of handcuffs on her. She was able to excape out of the right side door and flag down a passing motorist.

When Ted was stopped by the Utah police a few days later they found burglary tools in his car. They also found a handcuff key. That key opened the handcuffs found on the woman who had managed to escape from her kidnapper. She picked Ted out of a line up. He was convicted at trail of Aggravated Kidnapping and sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison.

Meanwhile prosecutors in Colorado had gathered enough evidence to get an indictment against Ted for a murder committed there. Ted was extradited to Colorado to face trail there. Ted was able to escape from custody in Colorado not once but twice. It's hard to imagine but Ted was just such a smooth talker I think people were just kind of charmed by him and he bit them in the butt. On his second escape from custody in Colorado he was able to make it all the way to Florida.

He killed two girls in a sorority house at the university in Tallahassee and brutally beat two others. About a week later in what would be his last murder he kidnapped a 12 year old girl from her school and killed her.. This would be the murder that he would be executed for.

In a trail that drew national attention Ted acted as his own attorney. The evidence was strong against him and the police in Florida weren't about to let Ted escape from their custody like he had in Colorado. Ted was found guilty of the murders at the sorority house and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Six months later after another trail he was convicted of the murder of the 12 years old girl and once again sentenced to die.

Ted would sit on death row in Florida for almost ten years. He tried to negotiate with authorities to spare his life by reveling where some of his victims that had yet to be located,could be found. Ted did not want to die.

He gave an interview the day before he was to die in Florida's electric chair in which he tried to blame his actions and crimes on him having been exposed to porn at an early age. The State of Florida executed Theodore Robert Bundy on January 24 1989.

The thing about Ted that made him unique among serial killers is his choice of victims. Ted took people who would be missed. Most serial killers target prostitutes and street people. Prostitutes make for easy victims just because of the nature of their work. They get in cars with strange men out of sight of the police hopefully. Ted didn't pick easy targets. He killed college coeds and people who the public and police cared about. I don't want to sound callous but when a prostitute vanishes not many people notice. When a college coed disappears an alarm is sounded at once. I think that was part of the game for Ted. He liked to think that he was smarter than the police. He wanted to see the stories of his crimes in the newspapers,and he got his wish on that account.

Suggested reading- The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule which is an interesting book because Ted and Ann Rule had actually known one another before Ted was known to be a murderer. Another book I would recommend would be the Deliberate Stranger by Richard Larsen. I find it interesting that both book contain the word Stranger in referring to Bundy.