Ted Bundy Biography | Ted Bundy

Theodore Robert Bundy (born Theodore Robert Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer and necrophile who kidnapped, raped, and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier.

After more than a decade of denials, before his execution in 1989, he confessed to 30 homicides that he committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. The true number of victims is unknown and possibly higher.

Many of Bundy’s young female victims regarded him as handsome and charismatic, traits that he exploited to win their trust. He would typically approach them in public places, feigning injury or disability, or impersonating an authority figure, before overpowering and assaulting them in secluded locations.

He sometimes revisited his secondary crime scenes, grooming and performing sexual acts with the decomposing corpses until putrefaction and destruction by wild animals made any further interactions impossible.

He decapitated at least 12 victims and kept some of the severed heads as mementos in his apartment. On a few occasions, he broke into dwellings at night and bludgeoned his victims as they slept.

In 1975, Bundy was jailed for the first time when he was incarcerated in Utah for aggravated kidnapping and attempted a criminal assault. He then became a suspect in a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in several states.

Facing murder charges in Colorado, he engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults, including three murders, before his ultimate recapture in Florida in 1978. For the Florida homicides, he received three death sentences in two separate trials.

Bundy was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989. Biographer Ann Rule described Bundy as “a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human’s pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after.”

He once called himself “the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you’ll ever meet.” Attorney Polly Nelson, a member of his last defense team, wrote he was “the very definition of heartless evil.”

Ted Bundy Age

Theodore Robert Bundy was an American serial killer and necrophile who kidnapped, raped, and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier.

By the time of his death, Bundy was 42 years old. He was born on 24 November 1946, in Burlington, Vermont, United States.

Ted Bundy Death

Bundy died in the Raiford electric chair at 7:16 a.m. EST on January 24, 1989; he was 42 years old. Hundreds of revelers—including 20 off-duty police officers, by one account—sang, danced and set off fireworks in a pasture across the street from the prison as the execution was carried out, then cheered loudly as the white hearse containing his corpse departed the prison.

His body was cremated in Gainesville, and his ashes scattered at an undisclosed location in the Cascade Range of Washington State, in accordance with his will.

Ted Bundy Mother

Bundy’s mother was known as Eleanor Louise Cowell, born on 21 September 1924, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States and she died on 23 December 2012. His father was known as Johnny Culpepper Bundy.

How Many People Did Ted Bundy Kill?

Ted Bundy admitted to 36 killings of young women across several states in the 1970s, but experts believe that the final tally may be closer to 100 or more. The exact number of women Bundy killed will never be known.

Execution

On January 24, 1989, Bundy was put to death around 7 a.m. at the Florida State Prison in an electric chair sometimes known as “Old Sparky.” Outside the prison, crowds cheered and even set off fireworks after Ted Bundy’s execution.

Wife and Daughter

In February 1980, Ted Bundy married Carole Ann Boone, a mother-of-two whom he’d dated before his initial arrest, in a Florida courtroom during the penalty phase of his trial.

When Boone gave birth to a daughter in 1982, she named Ted Bundy as the father. Boone eventually realized Bundy was guilty of the crimes and stopped visiting him during the last two years of his imprisonment.

Childhood

Ted Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont, on November 24, 1946, starting life as his mother’s secret shame. Eleanor Cowell was 22 years old and unmarried when she had her son Theodore, which humiliated her deeply religious parents.

She delivered the child at a home for unwed mothers in Vermont and later brought her son to her parents in Philadelphia. To hide the fact he was an illegitimate child, Bundy was raised as the adopted son of his grandparents and was told that his mother was his sister.

Eleanor moved with Ted to Tacoma, Washington, a few years later. In 1951, she married Johnnie Bundy and the couple had several children together. From all appearances, Bundy grew up in content, working-class family.

Education

Bundy showed an unusual interest in the macabre at an early age. Around the age of three, he became fascinated by knives. Bundy was a shy but bright child who did well in school, but not with his peers.

As a teenager, a darker side of his character started to emerge. Bundy liked to peer in other people’s windows and thought nothing of stealing things he wanted from other people.

While a student at the University of Washington, Bundy fell in love with a wealthy, pretty young woman from California. She had everything that he wanted: money, class, and influence.

He was devastated by their breakup. Many of his later victims resembled his college girlfriend—attractive students with long, dark hair. His killings also usually followed a gruesome pattern. He often raped his victims before beating them to death.

He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology in 1972 and had been accepted to law school in Utah. By the mid-1970s, Bundy had transformed himself, becoming more outwardly confident and active in social and political matters.

Bundy even got a letter of recommendation from the Republican governor of Washington after working on his campaign.

Ted Bundy’s Victims

While there is some debate as to when Ted Bundy started killing, most sources say that he began his murderous rampage around 1974. Around this time, many women in the Seattle area and in nearby Oregon went missing.

Stories circulated about some of the victims last being seen in the company of a young, dark-haired man known as “Ted.” He often lured his victims into his car by pretending to be injured and asking for their help. Their kindness proved to be a fatal mistake.

In the fall of 1974, Bundy moved to Utah to attend law school, and women began disappearing there as well. The following year, he was pulled over by the police.

A search of his vehicle uncovered a cache of burglary tools—a crowbar, a face mask, rope, and handcuffs. He was arrested for possession of these tools and the police began to link him too much more sinister crimes.

In 1975, Bundy was arrested in the kidnapping of Carol DaRonch, one of the few women to escape his clutches. He was convicted and received a one-to-15-year jail sentence.

Two years later, Bundy was indicted on murder charges for the death of a young Colorado woman. He decided to act as his own lawyer in this case. During a trip to the courthouse library, Bundy jumped out a window and made his first escape. He was captured eight days later.

In December 1977, Bundy escaped from custody again. He climbed out of a hole he made in the ceiling of his cell, having dropped more than 30 pounds to fit through the small opening.

Authorities did not discover that Bundy was missing for 15 hours, giving the serial killer a big head start on the police. He eventually made his way to Tallahassee, Florida.

There, on the night of January 14, 1978, Bundy broke into the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. He attacked four of the young female residents, killing two of them.

On February 9, Bundy kidnapped and murdered a 12-year-old girl named Kimberly Leach. These crimes marked the end of his murderous rampage as he was soon pulled over by the police that February.

How Was Ted Bundy Caught?

The most damning evidence connecting Ted Bundy to the two Chi Omega murders at FSU were bitten marks on one of the bodies, which were a definitive match to Bundy.

In July 1979, Ted Bundy was convicted for those crimes. He was given the death penalty twice. He received another death sentence the following year in the murder of Kimberly Leach.

Bundy’s Trial

Ted Bundy’s good looks, charm, and intelligence made him something of a celebrity during his trial. Bundy fought for his life, spending years appealing his death sentence.

He tried to take his case as high as the U.S. Supreme Court, but he was turned down. He also offered information on some of the unsolved murders to avoid Florida’s electric chair, but he could not delay justice forever. Ted Bundy was executed on January 24, 1989.

Where Is Ted Bundy’s Grave?

Bundy’s body was cremated in Gainesville, and no public ceremony was held. Before he was executed he requested his ashes be scattered in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, where he murdered at least four of his victims.

Ted Bundy Movie and Books

Ted Bundy’s life has been the subject of countless books and documentaries trying to shed light on this brutal killer’s crimes. An infamous national figure since his Florida trials, he remained a source of fascination.

Zac Efron
In The Deliberate Stranger, actor Mark Harmon played Bundy in a 1986 television movie. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is an upcoming independent film in which Zac Efron will play Ted Bundy.

Books
The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story, published in 1980 by Ann Rule. A coworker of Ted Bundy’s at a crisis hotline, Rule describes how she gradually realized Bundy was a serial killer and then draws from their ongoing correspondence, which lasted until just shortly before Bundy’s execution.

Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer, published in 1989 by author Stephen Michaud and journalist Hugh Aynesworth, this collection of stories was created from more than 150 hours of interviews with Bundy.

Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy’s Last Lawyer, published in 1994, was written by Polly Nelson, a newly-minted lawyer who was offered Bundy’s case pro-bono by the Washington, D.C. law firm where she worked just weeks before he was scheduled to be executed.

I Survived Ted Bundy: The Attack, Escape & PTSD That Changed My Life, published in 2016 by Rhonda Stapley, who was brutally attacked by Ted Bundy in Utah in 1974 but survived and, after battling PTSD, wrote a book about her experience.

Ted Bundy Trial

In 1979, after a murder trial, Bundy was found guilty of first-degree murder in the cases of both Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levye (Chi Omega) and sentenced to death.

Other charges were brought up against him four months later, for the death of 12-year-old Kimberly Diane Leach. It was in this trial period that he proposed to Carole Boone while acting as his own defense attorney.

He was found guilty again and convicted of murder once more. He then served his time while on death row and Boone

Ted Buddy Wife

Bundy was married to Carole Ann Boone from 1980 to 1986. They first met in Washington and later she became his advocate. She was unknown to the world until she was mentioned in episode four as Bundy was on trial and already under suspicion for multiple murders.

He proposed to her during his own murder trial and during her visits, she managed to have sex with him and she fell pregnant. As a result, their daughter Rose Bundy was born. Carole was also his only witness and she described him as being “kind, warm and patient”. In 1986, Boone divorced Bundy and moved out of Florida with her two children (one of whom was Bundy’s daughter).

When Boone met her husband, she was newly divorced and was trying to raise her teenage son James Boone. Not much is known about the mother and daughter since 1986 as they managed to keep off from the spotlight.

Bundy also had a couple of relationships in his lifetime, none of whom seem to know nothing about the sinister side of Bundy.

Ted Bundy Daughter

Ted’s daughter from his short-lived marriage to Carole Ann Boone, is Rose Bundy.

When were Bundy and Carole Ann Boone’s daughter Rose born?

Boone gave birth to Rose in October 1982, with questions being raised about how she was conceived since her parents got married while her father was incarcerated. Although conjugal visits were prohibited at Raiford Prison where Ted was jailed, the inmates knew how to bribe the guards for private time with their female visitors.

The couple continued to see each other, with Rose often being brought along. By the time Ted was being executed, the little family had already vanished.

Ted Bundy Quotes

• Society wants to believe it can identify evil people or bad or harmful people, but it’s not practical. There are no stereotypes.
• I don’t feel guilty about anything. I feel sorry for people who feel guilt.
• We, serial killers, are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere.
• And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.
• I haven’t blocked out the past. I wouldn’t trade the person I am, or what I’ve done, or the people I’ve known, for anything. So I do think about it. And at times it’s a rather mellow trip to lay back and remember.
• I am the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you will ever meet.