American serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy was one of the most notorious criminals of the late 20th century. Ted Bundy was a 1970s serial murderer, rapist and necrophiliac. Ted Bundy admitted to 36 killings of young women across several states in the 1970s, but experts believe that the final tally may be closer to 100 or more. The exact number of women Bundy killed will never been known. On January 24, 1989, Ted Bundy was put to death around 7 a.m. at the Florida State Prison in an electric chair. Outside the prison, crowds cheered and even set off fireworks after Bundy's execution.
Family and Childhood:
Ted Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont on November, starting life as his mother's secret shame. Eleanor Cowell was 22 years old and unmarried when she had her son Ted, which humiliated her deeply religious parents. She delivered the child at a home for unwed mothers in Vermont and later brought her son to her parents in Philadelphia. To hide the fact he was an illegitimate child, Bundy was raised as the adopted son of his grandparents and was told that his mother was his sister.
Interests and Education:
Bundy showed an unusual interest in the macabre at an early age. Around the age of three, he became fascinated by knives. Bundy was a shy but bright child who did well in school, but not with his peers. As a teenager, a darker side of his character started to emerge. Bundy liked to peer in other people's windows.
While a student at the University of Washington, Bundy fell in love with a wealthy, pretty young woman from California. He was devastated by their breakup. Many of his later victims resembled his college girlfriend—attractive students with long, dark hair. His killings also usually followed a gruesome pattern. He often raped his victims before beating them to death.
Career:
He graduated from University of Washington with a degree in psychology in 1972 and had been accepted to law school in Utah. By the mid 1970s, Bundy had transformed himself, becoming more outwardly confident and active in social and political matters. Bundy even got a letter of recommendation from the Republican governor of Washington after working on his campaign.
Psychological Profile:
Bundy was a sexual psychopath suffering from a chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior. A sexual psychopath is a condition of a psychopathic personality that manifests itself through sexually sadistic behavior – i.e. hurting victims sexually.
Bundy was a highly intelligent man who was also very insecure – partly because of a feeling of inferiority because of his lack of wealth while being surrounded by wealthy classmates. He was acutely shy and a psychological evaluation done later showed that he had a strong dependency on women; that he had a fear of being humiliated in his relationships with women.
Quotes:
1. "Guilt. It’s this mechanism we use to control people. It’s an illusion. It’s a kind of social control mechanism and it’s very unhealthy. It does terrible things to the body".
2. "Those of us who have been so much influenced by violence in the media, in particular pornographic violence, are not some kinds of inherent monsters. We are your sons, and we are your husbands. And we grew up in regular families. And pornography can reach out and snatch a kid out of any house today. It snatched me out of my home 20, 30 years ago".
3. "Society wants to believe it can identify evil people or bad or harmful people, but it’s not practical. There are no stereotypes".
4. "We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow".
