The Real Story Of Ted Bundy

The Serial Killer

By TheNaethPublished 10 months ago • 11 min read

Serial murderer, rapist, and necrophiliac Ted Bundy confessed to murdering 30 women in the 1970s, but other experts think he killed over 100. He got three death sentences for murdering two Florida State University Chi Omega sorority sisters and a 12-year-old child after being apprehended for good in February 1978. Bundy's pleasant looks made him a celebrity throughout his trial, and his tale has inspired countless serial killer books and movies. He was 42 when hanged in January 1989.

Theodore Robert Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont, on November 24, 1946. His illegitimate birth shamed his mother's devout parents. Louise Cowell, 22, gave birth to Ted in an unwed mother's home. Cowell later took her kid to Philadelphia to her parents.

Ted's birth certificate says his father is “unknown,” meaning his birth father may never be identified. There are several ideas concerning his identity. Ted's colleague and The Stranger Beside Me author Ann Rule says Lloyd Marshall, an Air Force veteran and Penn State graduate, was his father. Others suggest Ted's father is Jack Worthington, who may have been his grandpa.

Bundy was raised as his grandparents' adopted son and told his mother was their sister to mask his illegitimacy. Cowell married Johnnie Bundy in 1951 after moving to Tacoma with her son. Ted accepted his name but didn't respect his stepfather, whom he looked down on for being ignorant and working class. Johnnie and Louise have many kids.

Bundy seems to have been raised in a happy working-class home. He had a unique early fascination in the macabre. Knives attracted him at 3. Bundy was quiet yet smart, doing well at school but not with his friends.

According to Iowa State University criminologist Matt DeLisi, who wrote Ted Bundy and the Unsolved Murder Epidemic in 2023, Bundy allegedly picked apart mice in the woods and tried to drown swimmers and boaters. He had no “remorse, guilt, embarrassment, or shame.”

He had a darker side as a teenager. Bundy enjoyed peering through windows and snatching what he desired.

The University of Washington awarded Bundy a psychology degree in 1972. He attended Utah law school but never graduated.

Bundy fell in love with Diane Edwards, an affluent, beautiful California girl, while at the University of Washington. She had his dream: money, status, and influence. Their separation hurt him. Bundy's subsequent victims were gorgeous, long-haired students like his college lover.

From the mid-1970s, Bundy became increasingly confident and involved in politics and society. After his campaign, the Republican governor of Washington sent him a letter of support.

Bundy admitted to killing 30 women in multiple states in the 1970s, but experts suspect the number was more. Bundy confessed before his death after years of denial. “It all felt like a ploy to extend his life,” said veteran FBI agent Bill Hagmaier, who spent time with the assassin following his capture.

After raping his victims, he beat them to death. Bundy regularly called ladies into his automobile by claiming to be hurt and needing aid. Their generosity was deadly.

When Bundy began murdering is disputed. Most accounts place his murdering spree around 1974. Many Seattle and Oregon women disappeared about this period. The victims were reportedly spotted with Ted, a young, dark-haired male.

In a 2023 book, criminologist Matt DeLisi claims Bundy killed over 100 people and began in youth. “Bundy drops a lot of clues that there were way more murders,” DeLisi said, adding that investigators were unprepared to pursue Bundy. “And the pacing and confidence with which he kills between 1974 and 1978 suggests he couldn't have started.” The precise number of women Bundy murdered is unknown.

Perhaps Bundy's most famous lover, Elizabeth Kloepfer, helped authorities apprehend the serial murderer. He and Kloepfer dated for six years after meeting at a Seattle pub in 1969. Single mother of a small kid, she fought with drinking. She stated Bundy was “warm and loving.”

Kloepfer suspected Bundy in 1974. He used his charm to deflect her questions about unusual practices like having a butcher cleaver in his desk.

Kloepfer covertly reported Bundy's participation in significant local killings to the police, but they didn't believe him. Though they stayed together, Bundy's departure to Olympia the next year strained relations.

Kloepfer returned to authorities in 1975 with evidence that helped catch the serial murderer. Bundy told Kloepfer over the phone from his jail cell that he had attempted to murder her and couldn't resist when he felt “his sickness building in him,” she later wrote. After leaving Bundy, she published a book about her ordeal.

After Bundy traveled to Utah for law school in September 1974, women disappeared there too. The next year, cops stopped him. A crowbar, face mask, rope, and handcuffs were found in his car. He was detained for having these tools, and authorities started investigating him for more serious offenses.

Bundy was arrested in 1975 for kidnapping Carol DaRonch, one of his rare escapees. A one- to 15-year term followed his conviction.

Bundy twice escaped jail in 1977. The first time, he was indicted for murdering a young Colorado lady and represented himself. He initially escaped by jumping out a window at the courtroom library. He was arrested eight days later.

Another Bundy escape occurred in December. After dropping almost 30 pounds to squeeze through a hole he created in his cell ceiling, he climbed out. Police didn't find Bundy for 15 hours, giving the serial murderer an advantage.

Bundy reached Tallahassee after his second jail breakout. Bundy broke into Florida State University's Chi Omega sorority home on January 14, 1978. Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy were slain by him after he assaulted four young women. Bundy abducted and killed 12-year-old Kimberly Leach on February 9. He was arrested later that month after these killings, ending his murdering spree.

Bundy's bite marks on Levy's corpse were the strongest evidence linking him to the two FSU Chi Omega killings.

Ted Bundy was implicated when his mother, Louise, was a University of Puget Sound secretary. After he confessed, she believed the claims after years of denial.

During his trial, Bundy was famous for his beauty, charisma, and brilliance. He fought for his life but was convicted and executed twice for murdering Bowman and Levy in July 1979. He appealed his death sentence for nine years.

Bundy received another death sentence for Leach's murder in 1980. His 1989 electric chair execution was due to this sentence.

Bundy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court but was denied. He provided information on unsolved murders to avoid the death penalty, but he couldn't delay punishment forever.

Bundy married Carole Ann Boone, a mother of two he dated before his imprisonment, in February 1980. They married in court during his penalty trial. He proposed and she accepted in front of the court, validating the Florida marriage. While working at Olympia's Department of Emergency Services, the couple met six years earlier.

In 1982, Boone had Rose and named Bundy her father. Because Bundy couldn't have conjugal visits in jail, his paternity was questioned. However, Ted's former colleague Ann Rule, who authored a book about him, believes Bundy bribed the jail guards to allow the pair have sex.

Boone ultimately found Bundy guilty. According to Rule's book, she divorced him in 1986 and relocated to Washington with her kid. Not much is known about Rose (also known as Rosa) today. It’s thought Boone altered both of their identities to help them remain out of the public glare.

Rule has stated she purposefully excluded anything about Boone or Rose because they deserve their privacy. “I don’t want to know where they are; I never want to be caught off guard by some reporter’s question about them,” Rule said on her website. “All I know is that Ted’s daughter has grown up to be a fine young woman.”

On January 24, 1989, Bundy was executed about 7 a.m. at a Florida State Prison in an electric chair colloquially known as “Old Sparky.” Outside the jail, spectators rejoiced and even fired off fireworks following Bundy’s death. Some brought frying pans they beat on in joy and screamed, “Burn, Bundy, burn!”

According to the Los Angeles Times, evangelical broadcaster James Dobson interviewed Bundy the night before his death. He said Bundy cried and apologized. Bundy called his mother twice and ate steak, eggs, hash browns, and toast before his execution.

Bundy's last words were to his lawyer, Jim Coleman, and pastor, Fred Lawrence. “I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends,” Bundy said before his death.

Scientists examined Bundy's brain after his execution for physical anomalies that may have caused his violence. But none were found.

No public ceremony was conducted for Bundy's cremation in Gainesville, Florida. He asked his ashes be dispersed in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state, where he killed at least four people, before his execution.

Zac Efron as Bundy and Lily Collins as girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer premiered Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile at Sundance in 2019. A Netflix film, the title originates from Judge Edward Cowart's post-sentencing statements to Bundy. Efron felt obligated to make the film a “psychological study” of Bundy rather than a celebration. Some reviewers said the film and Efron idealized Bundy.

Also in 2019, Netflix released Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. The short docuseries includes Bundy's death row tapes and current interviews. Author Stephen Michaud and journalist Hugh Aynesworth used over 150 hours of Bundy interviews to write a book.

Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman, starring Chad Michael Murray, was released in 2021. No Man of God, based on 1980s FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier chats with Bundy, starred Luke Kirby that year.