Case Study Theodore (Ted) Bundy

Case Study: Theodore (Ted) Bundy “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow” – Theodore Bundy Social, cultural and historical contextualisation of Bundy and his offences: There are not many who do not know the name Ted Bundy and of his atrocious crimes. This case study will analyse the serial sex necrophiliac murderer Theodore Bundy, considering the social, cultural and historical context of his crimes, an outline of his offences, a profile of Bundy and lastly the details of his capture. The 1970s era in the Unites States saw a rise in serial killings, with the likes of Theodore Bundy and John Wayne Gacy terrorising the streets. This increase in serial killings likely had several roots (Murphy, 2018) as the period of the 1970s coincided with a general increase in violent crime in the United States and Canada. This doubled with a new age of increased mobility; a rise of the use of hitchhiking, women leaving the life of domesticity and unsupervised children roaming with more freedom created an environment ideal for killers to prey on vulnerable victims. This can be used in support of Ted Bundy’s murderous fouryear rampage, as he targeted either college attending women or high school girls, which were an easy target as they were often alone and unsuspecting of Bundy’s true, violent nature. Furthermore, the introduction of the interstate highway system resulted in easy access to states, which can be linked with reference to Bundy’s serial killings, as they occurred over a course of four years across seven different states. There is knowledge that Bundy used the introduction of the interstate highway system to his advantage, as he was able to travel anonymously to and past areas that offered wooded privacy. The two victims whom he abducted from Lake Sammamish, for example, were taken one after the other to a hidden wooden area near the Interstate 90 (Berger, 2019). The term ‘serial killer’ was a very new term, having been coined in the 1970s by Robert Russler, an FBI investigator who worked in the Behavioural Science Unit (Sullivan, 2013). Ted Bundy changed the way society viewed serial killers, as prior to his capture the media painted serial killers as ugly, disfigured and mentally unstable. Bundy went against this predisposition of serial killers representing societal rejects, shocking the US in being regarded as “intelligent”, “charming”, “a law student” and “a good-looking guy”, creating an 2 image many would call ‘the boy next door’ (Berger, 2019). It has since been said that Bundy’s physical appearance has accompanied his crimes (Gately, 2019), consequently resulting in what some would argue a romanticisation of the violent serial killer, with TV series and films still being produced based on him to this day. The impact of romanticising serial killers such as Ted Bundy results in glamorising and unjustifiably humanising individuals whom have committed such heinous and barbaric crimes (Crenshaw and Stroud, 2019). Glorifying the egregious Bundy also could be portrayed as dangerous for women, demeaning what it means to be a victim and potentially evoking hybristophilia; the name given to sexual arousal that comes from a partner who has committed crimes (Moore, 2019). It can therefore be said that although Bundy’s crimes occurred 50 years ago, they are still as infamous and prevalent in people’s minds to this day. Outline of Bundy’s offences: Bundy’s rampage of confirmed murders occurred between 1974-1978, in which during this time period he sexually assaulted and murdered at least 30 women (Canning, 2019). Some authors however argue that this number greatly under-represents the actual count and evaluate it at more than one hundred victims (Rule, 1980). Bundy’s murders occurred over a series of seven states (Fraga, 2019), with his first string of sexual attacks and murders taking place between January-July 1974 in Washington and Oregon, in which it is believed he murdered 8 women. Bundy then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he continued his spree of heinous crimes. His murders spanned over the states of California, Idaho, Colorado and finally Florida, where his last and final arrest occurred. During his time in Utah, Bundy attempted to abduct an 18-year-old, Carol DaRonch, however he failed and she managed to escape. This escapade ultimately resulted in Bundy’s placement on the police’s radar, as DaRonch’s report of her attempted kidnapping led to Bundy’s first arrest in August 1975. Bundy’s victim selection tended to be young, attractive college women, which may have stemmed from his porn addiction and as possible revenge on his mother and first girlfriend. His victims all shared specific characteristics, with experts later noting his victims all seemed to be in their early 20s with long, dark hair parted in the middle, displaying a physical resemblance to his Bundy’s first girlfriend. However, Bundy did not consistently follow his routine victim selection, with his youngest confirmed victim being 12-years old. This choice 3 to move on from murdering mainly college women to high school girls may well have been a deliberate one, in order to throw off law enforcement over the years (Banks, 2019). Modus operandi: With reference to Bundy’s Modus Operandi, which refers to a distinct pattern or manner of working that comes to be associated with a particular criminal (Bhutia, 2018), he attempted to lure girls and women into his now infamous Volkswagen Beetle with a ruse. These ruses would comprise of Bundy often wearing his arm in a sling or a fake cast on his leg with crutches; this fake disability and his charmful personality resulting in the abduction and consequent violent murders of his victims (Crime Museum, 2017). On occasion, Bundy was also known to impersonate authority figures such as a police officer to gain his victim’s trust. Bundy used tools and weapons such as crowbars or pipes to inflict blunt trauma to the victim’s heads, subsequently immobilising them with handcuffs and laying them out of sight in the back of his car, in which he had removed the passenger seat to make this possible. Bundy would then go on to rape his victims, typically strangling or bludgeoning them as the cause of death, and occasionally mutilating or decapitating them after death in order to take home trophies. Bundy would then either dump the bodies or take them home with him in order to gain further sexual gratification in the act of necrophilia. In some cases, he would return to the dump site to have coitus with his victims until putrefaction made this intolerable. Profile of Offender: In order to understand how and why Ted Bundy came to become one of the world’s most infamous serial killers, an analysis of his history and background must be deliberated, taking into careful consideration biological, psychological and social factors which may have predisposed and led him to commit his heinous crimes. Psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Lewis, who examined Bundy during his trial, claimed that there were signs in Bundy’s childhood that pointed toward his psychotic adulthood (Serena, 2019). From an outsider’s perspective Bundy’s family and childhood could be deemed as unproblematic and happy. However, dig deeper, and at a second glance the cracks begin to 4 transpire in what appears to be a troubled and disturbing childhood, with Bundy’s early years showing signs of problematic behaviour and hints of darkness that led him to become the world’s infamous serial sex killer, Ted Bundy. Born at a home for unwed mothers, Bundy began his life living a lie, deceived into believing his mother was his sister and being raised by his grandparents as his parents (Kettler, 2019). Lying, deceit and manipulation were all later used in Bundy’s ploys to abduct and eventually rape and murder his victims, thus suggesting he learned to lie after being brought up in one. Not only could this behaviour have been learned by Bundy, but also his violent tendencies. Multiple sources, including Bundy’s mother, Louise Cowell, described her father and Bundy’s maternal grandfather Samuel Cowell as abusive, sexist and racist (Serena, 2019), and as having a violent streak towards animals, employees and family members. These violent and sexist values and attitudes may have been observed and learned by Bundy, suggesting that his social environment may have been a significant factor in who he would go on to become. This exposure of violence and abuse from an early age may have normalised these tendencies, and can be linked to social learning theory, theorised by Bandura (1973), in which it is suggested children learn to be aggressive through observation and imitation, consequently resulting in a child learning and adopting this type of behaviour. The Bobo Doll experiment (Bandura, Ross and Ross, 1961) supports these claims, focusing on the importance of role models in reference to children learning to act aggressively. This being said, although Bundy’s grandfather was abusive and inhumane, Bundy on many occasions confessed his admiration for him, suggesting that Bundy glorified and normalised the violence he observed and struggled with immorality. Bundy displayed signs of aggressive and worrying behaviour from a young age, with his maternal aunt revealing that on several occasions she awoke to find a young Bundy slipping butcher knives underneath her sheets and giggling, hence suggesting that his exposure to violence from a young age contributed to his adoption of learned aggression. However, to infer that Bundy’s violent tendencies were the result of social factors learned from his abusive and violent grandfather would be overly deterministic, and it has been said that Bundy may have had a predisposition to mental health problems on a biological level. From a biological perspective, it could be suggested that Bundy had a genetic predisposition to mental health disorders (Deseret News, 1989). Bundy’s grandmother, Eleanor Cowell, had 5 been prone to fits of psychotic depression in which she had to be hospitalised multiple times, and also displayed signs of agoraphobia. This predisposition to mental health disorders can be supported by the psychiatric evaluation conducted by Lewis, in which she diagnosed Bundy with bipolar disorder, suggesting that his decision to defend himself in his trial was done during one of his manic episodes (Deseret News, 1989). However, individuals with bipolar disorder are not inherently violent, and also connecting Bundy’s crimes to his mental health disorders creates harmful generalisations, as the vast majority of individuals with mental health issues do not engage in violent behaviour. Furthermore, (Tehrani et al, 2000) suggested that genetics can predispose certain actions but not predetermine them, indicating that genetics interplay with socio-economic factors. Bundy was also diagnosed with psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. Although similar, it must be distinguished that individuals with psychopathy all have antisocial personality disorder however not all individuals with antisocial personality disorder are psychopaths. Hervey Cleckley, the man who pioneered psychopathy, diagnosed Bundy as a psychopath with displaying the following traits; antagonism, extraversion, high conscientiousness and low neuroticism (Piercy, 2019). Studies have found that both environmental and biological factors affect the development of psychopathy, supporting the idea of the interactionist approach between socio-environmental and biological factors. (Akers, 1999) suggested there needs to be a greater balance between nature and nurture before strong conclusions can be made. This can further be supported in the case of Bundy, with his genetic predisposition to mental health disorders and his learned aggression from his violent grandfather. Leading on with Bundy’s biographical history, when he was aged four, he and his mother fled to Tacoma, Washington, where she went on to meet her husband Johnny Bundy (Nelson, 1994). Bundy is said to have always been distant from his stepfather, later complaining that he “wasn’t his real father”, “wasn’t very bright” and “didn’t make much money” (Rule, 2009). This lack of a father figure may have contributed to his late violent crimes. Furthermore, to add to the list of factors which may have predisposed Bundy to become a psychopathic serial killer, his eventual discovery that Louise Cowell turned Bundy was in fact his mother rather than his sister caused Bundy to resent her for lying to him. His initial separation from his grandfather, whom he admired despite his violent ways, and his 6 discovery of his true heritage may have resulted in an insecure attachment with his caregivers. This idea of an insecure attachment stems from Bowlby’s attachment theory (1958), which states that attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another. Ainsworth (1970) went on to devise the strange situation study, adding three main attachment styles; secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant. A fourth was later added, disorganised attachment, which normally occurs when children have been exposed to prolonged abuse or neglect (Reyes, 2018). Bundy displays signs of a disorganised attachment, after being exposed to abuse by his grandfather, and additionally showed symptoms in adulthood such as a greater likelihood of addiction, impulsiveness, desire for control and an unwillingness to accept responsibility (Garza and Randall, 2019). Proceeding with this idea that individuals with an insecure attachment go on to display a greater likelihood of addiction, Bundy blamed a growing addiction to pornography for fuelling his murderous killings. In his last interview before his execution, Bundy talks of how he became desensitised to the objectification and abuse of women from an early age (Smithers, 2018). (Michaud and Aynesworth, 1989) described how Bundy spoke of roaming his neighbourhood, looking through bins to find discarded pornography, and when Bundy spoke to Nelson, he explained how he pursued detective magazines for stories that involved sexual violence. This supports Bundy’s claim of a pornography addiction; however many have seen this as a last-minute ploy for a stay of execution. Nonetheless, there has been extensive research on how consuming violent porn can normalise sexual violence, and also how violent porn is connected with aggressive behaviour. (Wright et al, 2016) stated in their research that multiple studies found that exposure to both violent and non-violent porn increases aggressive behaviour, including violent fantasies and committing violent assaults. Therefore, Bundy’s subjectification to violent sexual porn from a young age most likely did contribute to his sadist, sexual killings. There is a lot to consider when analysing what pushed Ted Bundy to kill, however it can simply be put down to an interplay of various contributing factors. His genetic predisposition to mental health disorders, paired with his exposure to violent pornography, his abusive grandfather and his apparent insecure attachment all significantly contribute towards his development as the world’s most infamous serial killer. Typologies: 7 In order to identify and capture serial killers, police use a method called criminal profiling, an approach that creates appropriate predictions about a criminal by limiting the focus (Douglas et al, 1992). Its main aim is to identify the demographics, location and behaviour of the perpetrator (Bartol and Bartol, 2008). The organised or disorganised dichotomy was the first systematic approach to crime scene profiling, devised by Hazelwood and Douglas (1980). This approach categorises serial killers into two headings (organised or disorganised) based on victim traits, personal characteristics of the offender and crime scene information. Bundy is the epitome of an organised offender, displaying almost all the attributes listed in the organised section of the dichotomy (Bonn, 2018). Organised offenders often have high intelligence, supported by the knowledge that Bundy was a college graduate and law school student. Additionally, organised killers also have good social skills, which can be seen in the case of Bundy using a ruse to ensnare his victims. A final example of why Bundy is the epitome of organised offenders is they often have a widening range when cruising for victims, displayed by Bundy when he abducted Roberta Kathy Parks from Oregon State University, and drove her 300 miles back to Seattle (Holmes and Holmes, 2008). This therefore suggests that the organised/disorganised dichotomy is successful in profiling Ted Bundy. Details of Capture: The capture of Theodore ‘Ted’ Bundy was not a simple one, involving two escapes and two captures, solely coming down to two routine traffic stops. The lack of technology and DNA testing made it near impossible for police to connect Bundy to the murders that spanned across Seattle, Oregon, California, Utah, Florida, Idaho, Washington and Colorado (Brockington, 2019). Bundy was first apprehended for evading capture from a police officer, resulting in the discovery of a gym bag filled with suspicious tools, including the handcuffs he used in his attempt to abduct DaRonch (Hammon, 2018). DaRonch and two other women went on to pick Bundy out of an identity line-up, leading police to believe they had enough evidence to charge him with attempted kidnapping. Authorities also felt confident that Bundy was responsible for the tri-state murder spree (Montaldo, 2020). The importance of identification line-ups is shown in the Devlin Report (1976) in which 2000 line-ups occurred, with 45% successfully picking out the suspect, and a further 82% leading to a conviction, thus reinforcing the importance of eye witnesses such as DaRonch. Waiving his right to a 8 jury trial, Bundy was convicted of attempted kidnapping in March 1976, sentenced for up to 15 years in prison. Bundy was consequently extradited to Colorado where he was put on trial for murder, in which he represented himself, however managed to escape twice, in June and December of 1977 (Montaldo, 2020). Bundy’s second escape led to the Florida Sorority House Murders, which resulted in the downfall of Bundy in his second trial. Bundy’s penultimate trial took place June 1979 in Miami, Florida. Bundy left two eye witnesses, with the testimony of one of the survivors proving damning for Bundy (Crime and Investigation), who mounted his own defence. The most incriminating evidence in this trial however, was dental evidence linking Bundy conclusively to the sorority house murders. On 30 July, 1979, the judge sentenced Bundy to death by means of electric chair (Crime and Investigation). However, Bundy continued to maintain his innocence, with his final trial occurring in 1980, relating to the murder of 12-year old Kimberly Leach. At this point, Bundy’s trial was the first televised and brought about national attention. Bundy decided against defending himself, however according to (Nelson, 1994), his defence attorney, ‘Bundy’s rogue actions sabotaged the defence’s efforts out of spite, distrust and grandiose delusion’. His defence counsel pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, however his irrational behaviour tripled with the cruciality of the role of eye witness testimonies in prosecuting him and the volume of forensic evidence against him resulted in the jury returning a guilty verdict. Bundy was executed by means of electric chair 24th January, 1989. In the years running up to Bundy’s execution, interviewers Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth began unpicking Bundy’s story. Bundy liked to talk in third person to avoid the stigma of confession, and began to paint a realistic picture of the number of his victims, and what made him commit such heinous crimes. In his final moments leading up to his execution, Bundy blamed his murders on his addictive pornography addiction. Since Bundy’s execution extensive research has been conducted on the correlational relationship between pornography and sexual violence, with the warnings heeding no change. The story of Ted Bundy has resulted in changes to people’s perceptions of serial killers, a change in the way law enforcement handle homicide investigations and also 9 resulted in a cultural obsession with true crime, with the media still romanticising serial killers whilst overshadowing the stories of the affected victims. 10