Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert Bundy was something of a celebrity throughout the 70's and 80's. He allegedly killed 36 women, but by his own admission, there were at least 100 more unaccounted for. His trial was marked by a lot of pomp and arrogance on his own part, and the media and public ate it up.
Ted Bundy was a graduate of the University of Washington. He had worked as a political campaigner, and for the Crime Commission in Seattle. He was our next door neighbor, very charming, the boy next door, the last one we would ever want to suspect.
His crimes were chilling and brutal. The crimes began in Washington; his first victim was beaten with a metal rod in 1974 while she was asleep. She did survive the attack though. It was only four weeks later that Bundy would claim the next victim, Lynda Ann Healy, 21, who vanished from her coed basement room in a group house. A tall, slender beautiful girl with long dark hair and blue eyes, Lynda worked as a ski forecaster for Northwest Ski Reports. On Jan 31, 1974, Lynda rose at 5:30 am like always, to bike over to the Reports office just a few blocks away. But Lynda's boss called shortly after, and it was soon realized that Lynda had not biked to work. Her bike was still in the basement...
Upon investigation, the police pulled back her bedcovers and found a heavily blood stained pillowcase and blood-soaked sheets. Her nightgown was found stuffed in her closet, the neck lined crusted with dried blood. The clothes she'd worn that day were missing. Not one trace of the attacker or her body could be found. About a year later, during a thorough investigation of what came to be known as Bundy's graveyard, Lynda's skull was found, bearing the unmistakable marks of vicious battering. Ted Bundy confessed to her murder before his execution.
During the following March, April and May, three more girl students vanished and in June two more. In July, two girls vanished on the same day. It happened at a popular picnic spot, Lake Sammanish. A number of people saw a good-looking young man, with his arm in a sling, accost a girl named Janice Ott and ask her to help him lift a boat on to the roof of his car; she walked away with him and did not return. Later, a girl named Denise Naslund was accosted by the same young man; she also vanished. He had been heard to introduce himself as ‘Ted’...
In October 1974 the killings shifted to Salt Lake City where three girls disappeared in one month. In November, the police had their first break in the case: a girl named Carol DaRonch was accosted by a young man who said he was a detective, he lead her back to his car and he snapped a handcuff on her wrist and pointed a gun at her head. She fought and screamed, and managed to jump from his car. Later that evening, a girl student vanished on her way to meet her brother. A handcuff key was found near the place from which she had been taken.
Thus Ted Bundy traveled from Washington to Utah to Colorado and Florida leaving a trail of death, missing, brutally beaten, raped young women behind him. While in Utah he was arrested. In his car, a ski mask, ice pick, and crowbar were found. He was then identified by Carol DaRonch as the man who tried to kidnap her and bloodspots on her clothes - where she had scratched her assailant - were of Bundy’s group. Credit card receipts showed that Bundy had been close to various places from which girls had vanished in Colorado. Ted Bundy was convicted and sent to Colorado to stand trial. He escaped twice during the pre-trial hearings.
After 2 months he was finally recaptured in Florida where one of his final victims was a junior high school student named Kimberly Leach, which was pretty young for him. The others were Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. It was, in fact, the bite marks on Lisa Levy's buttocks which, for the most part, sealed his fate.
Bundy’s trial began on 25 June 1979, and the evidence against him was damning: a witness who had seen him leaving the sorority house after the attacks. A pantyhose mask found in a room of the sorority house, which resembled the one found in Bundy’s car. But above all, the fact that Bundy’s teeth matched the marks on Lisa Levy’s buttocks. The jury took only six hours to find him guilty on all counts and Judge Ed Cowart pronounced sentence of death by the electric chair.
In the days before his pending execution, Ted Bundy finally admitted to being the killer of over 30 women in 6 states. But by his own admission, there were at least 100 more unaccounted for. He made a last-minute attempt to save his life by offering to bargain murder confessions for a reprieve but failed - it was not granted.
Ted Bundy
One of Ted Bundys many faces...
Wanted!
This poster was in every newspaper...
Lynda Ann Healey
On of Ted's victims.