Ink pulse(different angle)

The man who changed the ways of crime and first made the term serial killer popular.. Content Warning.

Bob Howard, a patrol officer in Salt Lake City, Utah, was sitting in his car in front of his house on Hogan Street on June 18, 1975. He had just finished his shift when a beige Volkswagen Beetle passed by without its lights on. He felt something was off. He knew his area well and knew that this car didn’t belong to anyone in the neighborhood. He decided to check it out and followed the car. The car stopped in front of his neighbor’s house, which was empty at the time; the parents were not home, and their two daughters (aged 17 and 19) were inside alone. Howard turned on his high beams to read the car’s license plate. The driver got scared and sped away, and of course, Howard chased him immediately. The driver ran through one stop sign and then another, and Howard continued following him because he sensed something was wrong. After a while, Howard managed to corner the car and stopped it at an abandoned gas station. The driver got out with his hands raised, wearing jeans, a black hoodie, and sneakers. His hair was dark and long, reaching his shoulders, and he smelled like marijuana. Howard pointed his gun at him. The man claimed he was a lost college student who had been watching a movie at an outdoor cinema but got lost on the way. However, Howard had passed by the cinema earlier, and the movie the man mentioned wasn’t playing. Howard knew he was lying and decided to search the car. Upon searching, he found something strange: the passenger seat was missing and replaced by an open bag containing very suspicious items — a ski mask, crowbar, ice pick, garbage bags, gloves, women’s underwear, rope, and wires. In the trunk, there were handcuffs. Howard told the man, “I’m going to arrest you tonight for fleeing the police, and I’ll ask the prosecutor to charge you with possession of burglary tools.” They went to the station, registered his data, and took photos. But after all procedures, there was no direct evidence linking him to a crime, so he was released on bail. Howard was very suspicious and believed this man was planning to break into his neighbors’ house where the two daughters were alone. But what Howard didn’t know at the time was that this man was no ordinary person — he was the most notorious serial killer in American history: Ted Bundy. Arresting him a second time wasn’t easy, because Ted Bundy was a monster. He didn’t scream or attack wildly; he was smart, organized, charismatic, but at the same time, he beat his victims to death. He appeared normal to everyone, but he was a serial killer inside. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ted Bundy committed kidnappings and murders of young girls. He appeared as a handsome, educated man, but he deceived everyone. He would approach his victims in public places pretending to have an injury or illness, ask for help, then hit them until they lost consciousness, and take them to isolated places where he abused and killed them. Over time, the number of missing girls increased, and the police began to notice a pattern, but they had no strong evidence. Bundy chose his victims carefully and knew how to hide his traces well. In November 1974, he committed a crime that left eyewitnesses who helped the police identify him. A girl named Carol DaRonch had been abducted but managed to escape and reported detailed information about him and his car. In 1975, Ted Bundy was arrested after a police chase, and tools indicating his intention to commit crimes were found in his possession. He was released on bail due to lack of sufficient evidence. Later, he was arrested again and put on trial. He tried to defend himself but escaped from prison twice using clever and deceptive methods. During his second escape, he committed murders in Florida, including killing women at a sorority house at the University of Florida. In February 1978, he was finally arrested after resisting a police officer. In 1979, he was sentenced to death for killing several victims. Before his execution, he confessed to killing 36 women, but it is believed that the number of his victims may exceed 100. His trial was the first to be televised nationally in the U.S., where millions watched the case details. He was executed in January 1989. Ted Bundy’s story is considered one of the most famous serial killer stories in history, teaching us the importance of caution, watching over children, and teaching them not to trust strangers, even if they seem friendly.