Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

This case study will look to examine the prosecution and eventual conviction of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy by use of forensic evidence. One of the most well-known and infamous criminal cases resulting in conviction in recent memory, Bundy confessed to 36 killings of young women across several states in the 1970s, though experts believe that the actual number may be closer to 100 or even more. The case which will be discussed in particular, however, was the one that finally allowed law enforcement to put Ted and his mercilessly vicious ways to a halt for good. In this case study, the fact of the crime, suspect and victim information, forensic science techniques used to convict Bundy, as well as the ultimate conclusion and outcome of this case will be identified and discussed thoroughly.

Although there is generally a debate as to when Bundy began his murders, most sources believe that his evil rampage started around 1974. During this time period, women in the Oregon and nearby Seattle area began disappearing, often being described as last seen in the company of a “young, dark-haired man known as Ted." Bundy often relied on luring his victims (who were always young women) into his car by pretending to be injured or disabled and asking for help; unfortunately, most of those who were kind enough to lend a helping hand were then forcefully overpowered and put into the car, awaiting what can only be described as a grim fate.

By the fall of 1974, Bundy had commenced law school in Utah. Coincidentally, around this time, more young women began to disappear. The following year, he was pulled over by police after speeding and evading their vehicle. Because of this, the police decided to search his vehicle. The search would uncover several different tools likely used for burglary and breaking and entering, including a crowbar, face mask, rope, and handcuffs. Bundy was arrested for possession of said items, which began law enforcement’s investigation into linking him to the disappearances that were beginning to frequently occur around the area.

Luckily for law enforcement, a young woman by the name of Carol DaRonch had been one of the few women who had survived Bundy’s attempted assaults. At the station, DaRonch positively identified Ted as the person who attempted to kidnap her, and he was convicted and sentenced to 1-15 years in jail. This, however, is not the case this study is discussing—this would unfortunately not be Ted Bundy’s last killing before his eventual demise.

During his stint in prison, Bundy managed to escape on two separate occasions. First, in 1977, after being indicted on murder charges for the death of a young woman from Colorado, Bundy decided to represent himself in court during the case. While making a trip to the courthouse library, he found an open window, jumped out, and made his first escape; he was captured only eight days later. In December of 1977, Bundy managed to escape from custody once more. After dropping over 30 pounds, he climbed out of a hole he created in the ceiling of his cell, squeezed through and fled the property undetected. Because authorities did not realize he had escaped for more than 15 hours, Bundy was given a large head start on his pursuers.

This period marks the beginning of the end. While on the lamb, Bundy made his way down to Tallahassee, Florida in an attempt to remain hidden. On the night of January 14, 1978, the sadistic sociopath broke into a Florida State University Chi Omega sorority house. While inside, Bundy assaulted and raped four of the young female residents, leaving two of them dead. Most notably, the murder of a young sorority girl named Lisa Levy. During the attack of Levy, Ted bit the buttocks of the young girl, leaving a deep mark that would later allows forensic scientists to use this mark to prosecute Bundy for the slaying of Levy as well as the other sorority women he killed (and eventually, all of his murders).

Before evaluating the forensic science techniques used to eventually convict Bundy, it would first be helpful to examine the information surrounding his background that led him to become the depraved murderer he was, as well as his most notable victim that finally brought him to justice.

On November 24, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont, Theodore Robert Bundy was born to 22 year-old Elenor Louise Cowell, who was unmarried. While Ted’s father may have been a man named Lloyd Marshall, an Air Force veteran, little is known of Bundy’s biological father; due to his birth certificate listing the father as “unknown,” it is likely his real father may never be identified.

Because Bundy’s mother’s deeply religious parents were against their daughter’s unwed pregnancy, Bundy began his life as her “secret shame." In an attempt to hide his illegitimacy, Ted was raised by his grandparents, and informed that his grandparents were his biological parents and his mother was his sister (yes, you heard that right). A few years later, Elenor moved her son to Tacoma, Washington, where, still posing as his sister, she married who would technically be Bundy’s stepfather, Johnnie. Ted allegedly did not find out Elenor was actually his mother until he was 23, after which he strongly resented her for it.

Although there is not a vast amount of information from Bundy’s childhood, most accounts cite him as growing up in a “content, working-class family.” During his adolescence, one of the most consistent reports was Bundy’s unusual fascination with knives; he was also cited as becoming fascinated with stealing, as well as wandering the streets at night and watching neighbors through their windows as a teenager, hoping to catch glimpses of women undressing. Although he was an intelligent young man, he was not very popular amongst his peers, and often found himself as more of a loner than someone who had consistent friendships.

Despite his dark fantasies, Ted was a well-educated person. He received an undergraduate Psychology degree from the University of Washington in 1972, and had even been accepted to a law school in Utah, where he planned to further his academic prowess—although he would never finish his schooling there. During his time at the University of Washington, Bundy met a gorgeous young woman from California who he eventually fell in love with. To Ted, this woman had everything: wealth, class, and intelligence. After she ended their relationship, he found himself absolutely devastated; many of his victims in the following years would strongly resemble his ex-girlfriend’s appearance: young, attractive students with long, dark hair.

During the mid-1970s, Bundy made a drastic personality change, transforming from a once shy and introverted person into a confident extrovert who worked in social and political matters alike. Impressively enough, he even managed to receive a letter of recommendation from the Republican governor of Washington after spending some time contributing to his campaign. While at the time, Bundy may have seemed like a promising, bright young law student to the outward eye, what no one could have known was that a great darkness was building up inside him—one that would soon be released onto the world without restraint.

During the trials of Ted Bundy, many people in the public did not believe someone like him could be capable of such unapologetic and relentless violence. Generally speaking, Bundy was a charming man; many female spectators of the trial found him too handsome to be guilty, and believed that his charisma and good looks were too overwhelming to be those of a mass murderer. Amanda Howard, an Australian author who has covered Bundy in several different books, stated that “Ted made us re-evaluate who we considered our monsters to be. We expect serial killers to be these snarling madmen. Yet Bundy was an attractive young man who was highly intelligent. He was the antithesis of what we expect a serial killer to be." Clearly, Bundy used his endearing charm to mask his obsession with horrific violence and murder—something that likely kept him out of prison far longer than he should have been.

This case cannot be discussed without first at least giving some background to Ted's most important victim, Lisa Levy, whose demise ultimately led to Bundy’s conviction. While there is little information available about Levy, what is known is that she was originally born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and attended Dixie Hollins High School. While at Florida State, Levy was studying fashion and merchandising, and worked at The Colony Shop in Tallahassee. When she was murdered, Levy was only 20 years old. Levy was also a member of the Congregation B’nai Israel in Saint Petersburg, and lived with her mother when she wasn’t at school.

Although her life was cut tragically short, and there is minimal information as to her background, Levy’s murder served as the turning point in Ted Bundy’s string of killings; using forensic science, the bite mark Levy received from Bundy the night of the attack was crucial evidence in convicting him of murder, as well as uncovering the 36 other killings he confessed to during the investigation. While as stated previously, the final tally of Ted's victims may have actually been closer to 100 or even more, Levy’s autopsy was absolutely indispensable in taking down the man who had evaded prosecution so many times before.

Moving forward, it is important to note that the forensic evidence used to convict Ted Bundy was unorthodox. Because he had bitten Lisa Levy multiple times in her buttocks, law enforcement had not just one, but multiple sets of teeth marks that they could examine. In order to do so, forensic dentists (referred to professionally as odontologists) Lowell Levine and Richard Souviron were tasked with attempting to find some kind of physical evidence as to Bundy’s involvement in the murders of the two Chi Omega sorority sisters. After discovering the bite marks, the two odontologists made quick note of the marks, immediately taking a picture and placing a ruler next to the bites as a point of reference.

The marks themselves had very revealing characteristics. The teeth that created the bite marks specifically had a chipped left incisor with three peaks and distinctly crooked bottom teeth. As prosecutors would later discover, this description perfectly described the alignment of Bundy’s teeth. Using wax molds of his bite, pictures of the marks on the victim’s body, and a large photo of the bite mold compared to the marks on the body, impressions were placed on top of one another, and matched. According to experts regarding this evidence, the bite marks were nearly identical when placed on top of one another. With the help of computer-enhanced imagery, prosecutors were able to show the jury this evidence in more vivid detail.

It is also integral to note that during Bundy’s murder trial, forensic science was limited in what it could accomplish. Because of this, the bite marks were another absolutely crucial key in the prosecution’s case; due to the loss or destruction of samples in Ted's other crimes, these bite marks, along with witness testimony and some circumstantial evidence, were essentially all the prosecution had to make or break their case. Luckily, the forensic science, or more specifically forensic dentistry that was brought into light, proved to be extremely helpful and convincing. Although it was fair that the odontologists involved were ultimately presenting their opinions through a mixture of art and science, not indisputable facts, their visual aids remained very important in the outcome of the case.

Bite mark analysis is quite different from other forms of evidence used in forensic science. Unlike evidence including blood samples or results from a breathalyzer, which are done in separate locations, forensic dentistry measurements, as well as the comparisons used in the process, can be performed in front of the jury during the trial. This allows for jurors to witness first-hand the process of attempting to match bite marks, and also gives clear reference as to how the odontologists came to the consensus that they did.

Matching Bundy’s bite marks to the wounds discovered on Levy was, even at the time, considered to be a very straightforward practice. Odontology was seen as being highly reliable. Due to this, even with his enthusiastic charm and appeal while representing himself, once the evidence of his bite marks compared to Levy’s wounds were presented in court, Bundy was found unable to defend himself, and failed to testify. After only a span of a few hours, the jury was able to determine that Ted was guilty. Despite all of the murders he carried out over the years, it was a bite mark and the use of forensic dentistry that led to Bundy’s conviction, and the events that would unfold afterwards.

In the end, Ted was unable to escape “damnable evidence,” along with a witness from the night of the FSU sorority house attacks who testified she saw him enter and leave the house the night of the murders. Due to these overwhelming pieces of evidence, Bundy was finally convicted in his 1979 Miami Trial on two murders, as well as three counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of burglary. By the end of July 1979, Ted was sentenced by Judge Edward Cowart not just once, but twice, to death—one for each of the two girls he killed at FSU—by electric chair. While this may have seemed like the end, Bundy went through another trial in January 1980, despite already being sentenced to death, this time for the murder of Kimberly Leach.

After receiving an account from an eyewitness that Ted had lured Leach into his car, along with clothing fibers found on Leach’s body that came from one of his jackets, Bundy was again found guilty of murder. After deliberation, he was sentenced to death for a third time in February 1980. During the trial, Bundy had called Carol Ann Boone, a woman he’d formerly worked with at the Washington State Department of Emergency Services, to the witness stand. He asked her to marry him while on the stand, and she responded “I do hereby marry you,” which made the marriage legal in the eyes of the law. The couple even had a daughter named Rose while Bundy was on death row, but the pair eventually divorced in 1986 before his execution.

While Bundy refused to ask for mercy after receiving his sentence, and maintained his innocence for some time after his multiple convictions, on the night before his execution, January 23, 1989, Bundy confessed to the killing of more than 30 other women. On January 24, 1989, the 42 year-old serial killer died by electrocution after less than two minutes in the electric chair in Florida State Prison.

Overall, the forensic dentistry used in this case was inherently crucial and responsible for bringing down one of America’s most prolific serial killers. Had the abhorrent Bundy not left bite marks on Lisa Levy, he may have been able to continue his murderous rampage for far longer; without law enforcement’s use of forensic science, one of not just the country’s, but the world’s most infamous killers may have gone on untouched for years—or even worse, never been caught at all.