Ted Bundy has been described as the most notorious serial killer of young women in the 1980's and has woken up the fear in most families that serial killers do exist, and can be found in any community. Most people who contemplate the personality of a serial killer are stunned by the grace and manipulation that Ted Bundy portrayed leading his victims to death. It has been revealed in documentation and research--- that Ted Bundy suffered abuse as a child from near-by relatives such as an Uncle and his parents. Does abuse lead to the beginnings of a serial killer's mind? Why did Ted Bundy choose women over men? The reasoning behind Ted Bundy's killings can be considered in the realm of anti-social personality disorder but still remains a mystery.
The Life of Known Serial Killer Ted Bundy
Why did Ted Bundy kill women? Why did he choose this double life that so-called hated and predisposed nature of destroying lives? The phenomenon stood as I remembered as most women in their teenage years were under strict curfew to stay inside of their homes. Parents of these young women feared the unknown secondary to the known killings of women by Ted Bundy. It was hush, hush throughout most small towns. Maybe not talking about it would keep him away? All I knew was as a young woman I was not allowed to sit on the front steps of my house after dark and to not walk alone anywhere in the small town I lived in for the fear that Ted Bundy could be around any corner waiting for a vulnerable moment. Ted Bundy the serial killer of woman was on the loose!
Ted's Childhood into High School
It is believed that Ted Bundy's childhood contributed to the essence of the innate want to the nature of his killings. According to author J Gilks, he was born to, Eleanor Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington, Vt. Nov. 24, 1946. She concocts a story about the father being a war veteran, but the family doesn't believe it. Some suspicion has fallen on her father, Samuel, but Bundy's father has not been revealed. Secondary to possible stigmas Ted's grandparents' gave ted his last name “Colwell” and adopted him secondary to the concerns of the violent and abusive behaviors of his father” (Gilks, 2007). According to J. Gilks, for the first few years of his life lived with maternal grandparents and mother. After a move to Washington Ted's mother met Johnny Culpepper Bundy and married him. Ted's last name then changed to Bundy. Ted spent most of time babysitting and remained detached from his stepfather emotionally. In high school ted became introverted and felt he “hit a wall”, secondary to not understanding the socialization aspect of life itself. He didn't understand friendships and why people wanted friends. During high school Ted became a thief and shop lifter. He also became interested in images of sex and the interrelationship of violence. (Gilks, 2007).
There is a question of the beginning of Ted's killings at the time he was in the beginning stages of high school. “Many Bundy experts, including Rule and former King County detective Robert D. Keppel, believe Bundy may have started killing as far back as his early teens: an 8-year-old girl from Tacoma, Ann Marie Burr, vanished from her home three miles from Bundy's house one summer night in 1961, when Bundy was 14 years-old” (Gilks,2007).
Odd Behavior, College Life and the Beginning of Killings
Bundy graduates from high school in 1965 with a scholarship to the University of Puget Sound. He transfers to University of Washington in Seattle after two semesters. He works on the suicide hotline and meets Ann Rule who later would write a book about him, “The Stranger Beside Me”. His girlfriend leaves him sighting lack of ambition and immaturity as her reasons.
In reference to odd behavior regarding relationships ted expresses and clamed he got engaged just to prove to himself he could have her. This is in regard to a relationship Ted had regarding a woman he had been seeing in college at that time.
College students which are young women begin disappearing in Washington State. Bundy's first victim, in January 1974, survives the attack. His second dies. Women, especially young co-eds disappear from the Seattle area at about one per month. His first victim is 18 and survives after the attack, but suffers brain damage. A variety of young women disappear in Pacific Northwest in 1974.
Possible Earlier killings
Bundy admits to trying to kidnap a woman in 1969, but several including Rule, think he killed earlier.
