At the start of 2019, a documentary series entitled “Ted Bundy: Portrait Of A Killer” arrived on Netflix. Later this year, the film “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile” will come out in cinemas, starring the actor Zac Efron in the leading role. But why has this killer, who has 36 murders to his name, fascinated so many people in the US? Theodore Bundy was born in 1946, to an unmarried mother by the name of Eleonor Louise Cowell, and Lloyd Marshall, who wrote his name in the family record book. As a child, he often spoke alone and handled knives like no one else, while he was raised by his grandfather, who was described as a violent man.
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In his teens, he lived in Tacoma, in the state of Washington, and tried to make friends. It is there that he discovered pornographic and criminal magazines. After studying at university, he became interested in politics from 1968 and volunteered for Nelson Rockefeller’s Republican campaign. His then-girlfriend, Stephanie Brooks, ended their relationship and the young man decided to return to live with his mother, where he met a new woman. At the start of the 70s, he became interested in psychology and joined an assisted suicide centre in Seattle. Meanwhile, he got back with his ex-girlfriend but stayed torn between two women, just as strange disappearances were starting to occur.
He sexually assaulted young women
Several sources ascertain that he committed his first crime in 1974. He then started sexually assaulting women with different objects, while knocking them unconscious. Some women disappeared and were never found again. He next moved to Salt Lake City to study law and there yet again, young girls mysteriously disappeared. One night he was even stopped by the police while he was driving slowly through town, probably in search of new prey. In his boot, police discovered a raincoat, gloves and a pocket lamp. He was then remanded in custody and submitted to a line-up. One woman recognised him at this point and accused him of attempted kidnapping. Subsequently, a trial took place and he was found guilty. He then had to meet a psychologist to see if he presented a danger to society. They decided he was violent, and he received a prison sentence.
The king of escaping
Later, the police discovered that he was behind a crime that happened in Colorado and Ted Bundy accepted a transfer to a prison in Aspen. He then actively prepared his escape from his cell, and the day of his trial, got out through a window. Seven days later, he was found and put back in his cell. But one night in 1977, he succeeded once again in escaping, after starving himself so he would be thin enough to get through the trapdoor in the ceiling of his cell. Once again he committed murders in Florida, and 46 days after his escape, the authorities caught Ted Bundy again. In 1978, he was officially charged with having committed a series of murders of a sexual nature. After doing everything possible to defend himself with unnerving confidence, he was finally condemned to death by electric chair. However, in the meantime he had a little girl, born out of his relationship with his then-girlfriend.
Before his execution, he confessed to all his crimes to “purify his soul” and even practically confessed to necrophilia, saying he returned to the crime scenes to have sexual relations with bodies already in advanced states of decomposition. He also confessed to having decapitated around a dozen of his victims. Ted Bundy died on the 24th of January 1989 by electric chair.
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