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- [00:01]
A
Marshall's buyers are hustling hard to get amazing new gifts into stores right up to the last minute. Like a designer perfume for that friend who never RSVP'd wishlist topping toys for her kids who came too. Belgian chocolates for the neighbor. A cozy scarf for your boss. And a wool jacket for your husband that you definitely did not. Almost forget. Marshalls, we get the deals, you get the good stuff. Even at the last minute, find a Marshall's near you.
- [00:30]
B
I am not an animal. I'm not crazy. I don't have split personality disorder. I am just a normal individual. He's sitting there in his chair, cradling this tape recorder close to his chest like it's its own little price possession. Leaning back, he's comfortable. There's not a worry behind those eyes. Actually, there's not much going on behind those eyes at all. But he's looking at you in the eye, determined to convince you that he is just a normal guy. Imagine saying those words, knowing for a fact that you have committed some of the most brutal, disgusting, evil, disturbing crimes in the world. I know I sound like a broken record every single time I say this. That is the scariest thing in the world to me. That eyes that have seen other unspeakable things. Those eyes, those same eyes can look at you in the eye with a smile, saying, I'm just a normal guy. It sends shivers down my spine. Ted Bundy. And look, I know, I know, I know. I don't want you guys coming into this episode thinking we've heard this story a million times. Everyone knows everything about Ted Bundy. This story has been told time and time again because it has. But that is my point. I get it. Every single person on earth probably knows Ted Bundy. But there is a reason as to why. Do you know what I mean? There's a reason as to why his name is like the first name to come up. When true crime is in the conversation, when serial killers are in the conversation, when people talk about what they're scared of, there is a reason why the name Theodore Bundy has been a name that has been in conversations for generations. So I tried to gather as much information up as I could on this guy. And I'm hoping to be able to tell you some aspects about his story that you might not have heard of before. So let's get into it. Welcome to this episode of I wish you were here.
- [02:33]
In November of 1946, Theodore Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont, to his mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell. His mother was Actually still living at home when she gave birth to Ted with her parents. Who Ted's father is, that remains unclear. As a young child, for the first few years of his life, Ted was raised to believe that his grandparents were his biological parents and that his actual mom was his older sister. So right from the beginning, his he was basically raised on lies. He was being lied to by those closest to him. I really don't know why they lied to him. I don't know why they wouldn't just tell him the truth. But his mom was 22 years old when she had him. She gave birth to Ted in a home for unwed mothers. And then her, along with her parents, Ted's grandparents decided that they were gonna lie to Ted and tell him that his grandparents were his parents and that they just had him later on in life, which is the reason why he was so much younger than his quote unquote sister. However, Ted would discover the truth eventually. And it comes to no one's surprise that from the time that he was really, really little, like as in three years old, he was already displaying disturbing behavior, to say the least. For example, one time at 3 years old, 1, 2, 3, little Ted found his aunt sleeping. She was taking a nap, and little Ted looked at her and decided that it would be a good idea if he walked over to the kitchen, grabbed as many knives as he could, and made a circle out of the knives around his aunt just for fun. He didn't do anything with the knives, thankfully, like, he didn't put them to use, but he just placed them all in a circle around his sleeping aunt. So things like that definitely made him stand out from the average kid, if you know what I mean. When his mother decided that it was time to move out after Ted had learned the truth about his family family dynamic, she took Ted and both of them moved to Seattle. In Seattle, Ted's mother met a man called Johnny Bundy and married him. AKA that is where the name Bundy comes from. Johnny and Eleanor had more children together. Johnny ended up adopting Ted. Now Ted, pretty much his entire childhood, he held a lot of resentment towards his mother because of his confusing childhood for allowing him to believe that his grandparents were his parents parents and then for never telling him who his father was. When he was 14 years old, he found his birth certificate and the father was listed as unknown. And that made him so angry, it made his blood boil that his mom would withhold that information from him. Whether she didn't tell him because she didn't want to tell anyone or because she herself did not know actually who the father was. Who knows? But point being that that was a, definitely a driving factor for a lot of anger to build up within Ted. And, and he associated that anger against his mom. He also, on top of that, was not a fan of his stepdad at all. He would complain about the fact that he was not his real father and he disliked him even more because he thought that he just wasn't very bright his entire life. If you don't know this, this is a big thing about Ted's personality. His entire life he held people who were wealthy and smart to a higher standard. So basically, if you were not rich, if you were not smart, you, Ted would automatically look down on you. And that very much included his stepfather. He had absolutely zero respect for the guy. But in Ted's eyes, you know who was bright and smart and intelligent himself, of course. He was obsessed with himself in the way that he thought he was better than everyone. He thought that he was always the smartest person in the room. And he felt it in his bones that he was destined for something bigger and better than the average person. More on that later. As a child, he was described as a bit of an outcast. He was the shy kid who would be by himself in a group of kids more often times than not. But he did do very well in school. He was a good student. He later spoke about how during his childhood, it was his decision. He chose to be alone because he didn't understand, slash want to make friends. He didn't really understand how to build relationships. But Ted himself didn't really see anything wrong with it. And the interesting thing is because the way that I'm describing him, you kind of think, you kind of assume, I guess you could say, how society would look at him. But the interesting thing is that not everyone looked at him being quote, unquote, different in a negative light. Like he stood out for sure because he was more reserved. In his entire life, he was also quite just quiet overall. But in the same breath, his entire life. He was also considered to be a conventionally attractive dude, a good looking dude. So people paid attention to him, girls paid attention to him because they thought that he was cute and he was the kind of person that kept more to himself. But I guess a lot of girls mainly saw that as intriguing because I guess you could say that he had this sort of mystique, serious aura about him. And the people that did know him did like him. He was also the type of person who could talk to anyone. Unfortunately, he Was well spoken, he was easy to approach, he was easy to talk to, which is something that he definitely used to his advantage as he was growing up. Referring to himself, Ted later on said, quote, some people perceived me as being shy and introverted. I, I didn't go to dances, I didn't go on social outings. I was a pretty, you might call me straight, but not a social outcast in any way. Throughout his teenage years, Ted did involve himself in some petty crimes. Here and there he was seen as the pretty boy, but he also had kind of a bad boy side to him. He was arrested twice when he was in high school for committing burglary. And he would also later go on to steal things out of cars that he would break into. But also he would steal a lot of skiing equipment from skiing places, which is interesting. Those arrests happened before Ted turned 18. So his pattern of crime began there, although obviously, yet it wasn't anything violent. Not good, but not violent yet. When he was only 14 years old, however, an 8 year old little girl who took piano lessons from, from Ted's uncle disappeared down the road in the area that Ted lived in. Ted himself has always denied having any involvement in anything to do with that and there is no proof that he did. But a lot of people do believe that that little girl could have been his first victim. After high school, Ted decided that he wanted to go to law school. He wanted to become a lawyer. He also wanted to get a degree in psychology. During law School, around 1967, at the University of Washington, Ted met Diane Edwards. He would later go on to describe Diane as the only woman he ever really loved. Diane came from a very wealthy family. She was a very smart girl, very put together. And two of the most valuable things to Ted as we know are being smart and being wealthy. And he very, very quickly grew this obsession with her. But at the same time, I think he was kind of weirdly jealous of her because she grew up with everything that he had ever wanted. She was rich, she had a nice car, she had a loving family, she had a nice family home. She was smart, she was beautiful, respected by her peers and Ted saw all of that and it was everything that he had ever wanted for himself his entire life. So he, he fell in love with this girl. But I almost want to say that it was for the wrong reasons. His relationship with Diane ended after a few years and in 1974, shortly after the breakup, Ted would break into the house of 18 year old Karen Sparks. Karen looked a lot like Diane, Ted's first Girlfriend. They both had thick brown hair that was parted down the middle. And honestly, the similarities between Diane and many of Ted's victims, if not most, were very, very noticeable, to say the least. A lot of people believe that because Diane was, quote unquote, the only woman he ever really loved, and because he had such a weird and strong obsession with her, even after the breakup, it's highly believed that he grew to hate Diane because she broke up with him. And he specifically would then choose victims who resembled her because he would never actually hurt her because he loved her or whatever, but he would just go after girls and women that looked just like her. When Ted broke into Karen's house while she was sleeping, he made his way to her bedroom and grabbed a metal rod from her bed frame. He hit her over the head with it. He then sa her using that same metal rod. And he used so much force that it caused extensive internal injuries. It even ruptured her bladder. He continued to harm her and hit her with the metal rod until he was satisfied, I guess, and then he left. Thankfully, Karen would survive the attack, but she was in the hospital for such a long time, and she was left with permanent brain damage because of what Ted did to her. This is the first victim that we know of, the first that Ted confessed to. However, it sucks that we won't really know if he did or did not have any victims prior. The very next month, Ted broke into the house of 21 year old Linda Ann Healey. He beat her until she was unconscious, and after he was satisfied, he dressed her with new clothing, took her to his car, drove to a secluded area where he would then sa her, murder her, and then dispose of her body. By July of 1974, Ted had ended the lives of eight women. And he had two main strategies that he would do that he would use to pick out his victims. It seems like he always did it one of two ways. He would either break into their homes while they were sleeping, or he would pretend to be injured, even using like a fake arm cast, fake crutches to make girls believe that he really needed help. And then when they offered to help him, he would lure them to his car, pull out a crowbar and hit them hard enough to knock them out. He then shoved them inside of his car. It was around this time as well when Ted met 24 year old Elizabeth Clover. We're going to be referring to her as Liz while they were both living in Seattle. Ted was 22 years old when he met her. Liz, she was a single mother. She Worked as a secretary at the University of Washington where Ted was a student. So that's how they connected. Liz and Ted would fall in love and they would stay together for the next few, five years. At one point, actually they did plan to get married. They even went out and got their marriage license. But in one of their arguments, Ted ripped up the license. So they never got married. But they were really, really close, which is crazy to think about. Ted was maybe, surprisingly, maybe not an incredible partner to Liz. He worshiped the ground that she walked on and she loved him for it. She loved him for his charming personality. She thought that. She really thought, I think at one point, deep, deep in her heart and her soul, that he was the perfect guy for her. And she really did see such a long future with this guy. Her family loved him. He just showed her all of the qualities that she looked for in a partner. And he very, very quickly also became a father figure to her little three year old daughter. And that just made Liz like him even more. Because that is the thing about Ted Bundy. He was charming and he was what people would consider to be conventionally attractive. And he did have an ability to him that made him be able to make the people around him trust him. One of his co workers, when describing what it was like working with him, said, quote, he was one of those rare people who listened with full attention, who genuinely cared by their very stance. You could tell things to Ted that you might never tell anyone else, end quote. Which is so dangerous and so sick and twisted like to have such a sick and twisted mind like his. But, but I hate to say it, he was good at it. He was good at making people trust him. And the way that he was so easily able to live a double life is so scary. But he was good at that too. They had their little life at home. His and Liz's life was wonderful. It was perfect. And it honestly was what some most people, well, not most people, it was what a lot of people would consider to be a perfect little dream life, to have a life like theirs. But during the day, Ted acted like a father figure, A loving boyfriend, a caring partner after dark. However, when Liz's little girl went to bed and Liz fell asleep herself, Ted would go out on the town and live a completely different life. A violent, gruesome life of crime. And don't get me wrong, he did express some strange behavior throughout the relationship. Like for example, a handful of times Liz caught him underneath a blanket looking at her body with a flashlight while she was sleep. And then he would play fight, they would play fight together, and he would like, pretend to bite her and hurt her, but he wouldn't actually hurt her. Weird things like that that now, in hindsight, obviously makes your skin crawl, knowing what we know now that he was doing in secret throughout the entire time. A couple of years into their relationship, Liz fell pregnant. And because Ted acted like he loved and cared for Liz's daughter, you would like to think that he would also pretend to be happy about the pregnancy and continue growing their little happy family together. But that wasn't the case. Ted told Liz to get an abortion because she needed to work, because she needed to make money, to be able to pay for Ted to go to law school. He didn't want a baby for selfish reasons, to no one's surprise, because he only ever really cared about himself. But Liz agreed, and she did go through with terminating her pregnancy. In 1973, when Ted was with Liz and involved in her child's life and deep into their relationship, he got back together with his one true love, Diane Edwards. Because this entire time, even though years had passed, he was still obsessed with Diane. So he wasn't only living a double life, he was living a triple life because he was dating Liz, then got back together with Diane behind Liz's back, even got engaged to Diane. But Liz and Diane obviously had no idea that the other one of them existed. Surprisingly, he was the one that eventually ended up cutting things off with Diane. And I guess you could say that he chose Liz. He ended up staying with her, and yeah, he never ended up talking to Diane again. Isn't that weird yet? It's just another example of just how easy it is for Ted to hide his secrets and. And live his life as a lie. Now let's talk about what life looked like from an outsider perspective. Living in Seattle during this period of time, the community was terrified. Young women were living their life in fear as more and more women and girls kept going missing. Girls would go missing and their family and friends would report them missing. Bodies of girls would be found in such horrible conditions, showing what they went through before they lost their lives. And it was the biggest mystery in town. No one could figure out who was responsible for this. And before they could even come close to being on the right track with any investigation, there would be a new victim for more than one victim. Witnesses came forward to police and said that prior to the disappearance, they would see some women talking to a man near his vehicle, a tan colored Volkswagen. And some even overheard this strange man, mysterious man, introducing Himself as Ted. Which is how police ended up getting a name. They came up with a sketch, and they put it out to the public, saying, we are looking for a man that looks like this and who is named Ted. When the sketch was put out, Liz's not only co workers, but also family members would point it out to her and say, hey, this kind of looks like you're Ted. Maybe you should be careful, because it might be him. But Liz would shut those rumors down immediately, because in Liz's eyes, there was just no possible way that her boyfriend, her best friend, the father figure to her daughter, could do anything like that. The thought wasn't even there. It was. It was non existent in Liz's mind at first, because there was just simply not a world in which her Ted Bundy could commit such crimes. But although she did not think that her Ted was the Ted that authorities were looking for, she did start paying closer attention to Ted's behavior. And she did begin to notice that slowly but surely, he was becoming more aggressive. When they would be intimate and doing things in the bedroom. He loved to be in control. One time, he even asked Liz to just lay there and pretend that she was dead. Pretty concerning behavior, obviously, knowing what we know now. By August of 1974, so many girls were going missing. Two too many girls. And Ted decided that it was time for him to move to a different place so that police would not get suspicious of him. He got accepted into a different law school located in Utah. And he would end up moving there to, quote, unquote, attend law school in Utah, Leaving Liz and her daughter back in Seattle while he left to go study. And within the very, very first day of Ted living in this new place, a new woman went missing. And by November, four more women disappear. Ted kept up and continued his act of going to public places, such as public beaches. He would pretend that he was injured, Introduce himself as Ted, and ask for help until the women got closer to his car, which is when he would then knock them out, shove them inside of his car. He would take out the front seat of his Volkswagen and put it in the trunk to make more space to have his victims lying unconscious and handcuffed inside of his car. He would then drive to a secluded area, Beat them until they were no longer alive, Sa them and leave their bodies. At times. This is so sick. If you're eating, maybe stop. At times, Ted would decapitate his victims. And then he would take the heads of his victims, only the heads, and back to his place, where he would put makeup on them and talk to them and kiss them and use them for his own sick pleasures. We know for a fact that he did this to at the very least 12 of his victims. Throughout this entire time, Ted was still living his double life. He still had his little happy family back at home. He was still presenting to himself as this charming, good looking guy that a lot of people found attractive. And from an outsider's perspective, he was seen still as a handsome, friendly man who had absolutely everything going for him. He was still attending law school, he was studying psychology. He was even now involved in politics. And he gave off this impression that he was a very well put together, intelligent, charming man. There were times when the police actually did speak to him about his own crimes, because they had received 10 tips of this Volkswagen that matched Ted's. He drove that kind of car. Obviously it was his car. And the descriptions that they gave of the men also happened to match Ted. So police would talk to him, but all that they would see was this put together, clean, smart, soon to be lawyer man. And Ted would say that he had nothing to do with it, and the police would believe him. Back at home, Liz's friends and family are saying, look, I know you don't want to think that Ted could be the person responsible for all these crimes. And. But as soon as Ted left town and moved to Utah, girls stopped going missing here, and now they are going missing there in the state that Ted moved to at the exact time that he did. And Liz then does start thinking that is actually really, really weird, because it did seem like wherever Ted went, the crimes would only follow one day. Liz's daughter was getting baptized. Ted went over there the night before to get ready to attend her baptism the next morning. But the night that he showed up, he left early. A girl went missing that night, and then Ted showed up late to the baptism the next morning. I think after that, I think it was. It was that that was the first time when Liz started really wondering and considering that Ted Bundy, that her Ted, could be the Ted that authorities were looking for. It was the first time that she was wondering if the love of her life could be capable of doing everything that she had been seeing on TV and in the newspapers. She began getting so suspicious that she eventually ended up calling investigators, saying, look, I think that the person that you might be looking for might be my boyfriend. And that was a very, very understandably difficult thing for Liz to do, to call and say that, because she did not want to believe it. And I'm sure you could Tell that she was just completely losing herself. Getting caught up in the middle of such a terrifying, scary situation with one of the people that she cared about the most, One of the people that she thought that she could trust. It was a very, very dark time for Liz. And that showed the police find Ted. They talk to him, they ask him about the unsolved missing people cases and Ted says, no, it wasn't me. That sucks and it is unfortunate, but I can't help you because I don't know anything about that. And the cops, I guess, just said, okay, must not be him. In January of 1975, a girl called Karen Aline Campbell goes missing in Colorado. Her body is found a month later on the side of the road, dead. She is believed to have been Ted's 14th documented victim. In March of that same year, 26 year old ski instructor Julie Lyle Cunningham disappears as well. Not long after, Ted approached another young lady at a store in a parking lot in. He told her that he was an investigator and that someone was trying to break into her car in the parking lot and that she needed to come out with him. The girl freaked out because it was her mom's car. So she followed Ted started walking towards her car, but when she looked at her car, it looked completely fine. So she asks Ted, are you sure we're talking about the same car? Because my car kind of looks to be just fine. And Ted assures her that it was her car and tells her to just keep on following him. He's able to convince her to get inside of his car and tells her that they need to drive down to the police station to interview her to talk about her car being broken into. But she starts getting suspicious when she notices that the direction that they're driving is not towards the police station. She attempts to jump out of the car. There is a struggle. Ted starts attacking her, but she's eventually luckily able to get out of the car. She jumps into somebody else's car screaming for help and. And Ted quickly speeds off by himself. Obviously this is an issue for him now, big issue, because that girl has now seen Ted Bundy's face. She saw him up close, she saw his car. She was almost one of his victims. But she successfully ran away and reported it to the police. On August 16th of 1975, Ted Bundy gets pulled over because he drove the kind of car that police were looking for. He was, he was driving around sorority houses very slowly while it was dark outside with his headlights off, looking very, very suspicious. That cop makes Ted get out of the car so he can search his vehicle. And what they found inside of Ted's car Was telling, to say the least. The officer finds a ski mask, A crowd bar, handcuffs, trash bags, rope, Amongst other things. He asks him about it, and Ted says, well, first of all, the ski mask was for skiing. Duh. The handcuffs I found in a dumpster, and the rest of the items Are just household common items. Thankfully, the cop was not buying it. Ted gets arrested, and now they have the girl that was almost abducted but was able to get away and this guy that matches the description that she gave. They then put Ted in a lineup with other men. They asked the girl to identify her attacker, and. And she points Ted out immediately. She had no doubt in her mind that that was the guy that tried to take her. And ted bundy then gets charged with kidnapping. However, they also put him in a lineup for other victims, and seven out of those eight that saw him Said that it was not him. Ted's family and friends hear about this. They immediately think, this is so messed up. You have the wrong guy. Our ted is wonderful. He's the best son in the world. There's just absolutely no way that he could have done this. And you have the wrong guy. They pay his bail, and Ted leaves jail, and immediately he drives to go and see his girlfriend, Liz. He shows up at her porch, and it catches Liz so incredibly off guard because she thought that he was supposed to be in jail. Ted uses his tactical, manipulative skills to make Liz that they did have the wrong guy, and he begs her to just let him come home. And Liz does. She gives in, and their relationship continues. In March of 1976, Ted is convicted of the kidnapping charge, and he is sentenced to one to 15 years in prison. During this time, he is still maintaining his innocence. Repeating myself here. But Ted's family was in complete denial that Ted could have been responsible for the crimes. However, when investigators start talking to his family, past girlfriends, that is when the true red flags show and start presenting themselves. Because his past girlfriends would say that, yeah, he was sweet and he was charming. However, he had a completely different side to him, A side to him that would get angry often. And they all said that when he got angry, he would get this look in his eyes. His eyes would just go black, and they would look dark, and they would look evil. Investigators have started to connect some dots. They suspect that he might also be responsible for the murder of Karen aline campbell, and they find enough evidence to be able to charge him for that as well. While he is already in prison. This is also when finally, different stations in different states finally start talking to each other and comparing crimes, comparing victim types. It seemed like almost all victims were between the ages of 15 and 25. Most were college students. They all had a very, very similar look to them. A headline comes out. Newspapers with a title quote is Utah Ted, Seattle Ted, end quote. And then Utah starts talking to Washington, who starts talking to Colorado, who starts talking to Oregon, who starts talking to Idaho. And things start to get very, very bad. They start to look very, very bad for Ted. In prison, he kept up his Persona of being a charming, charismatic, friendly, kind, outgoing man that was wrongfully convicted. And everyone in there loved him. Everyone in prison thought that he was great. They trusted him. He would get along with everyone, and he would make everyone laugh. I mean, this guy's manipulative tactics are something like I've never seen before. June 7, 1977, Ted was transported from prison to a courthouse for a preliminary hearing. During recess, Ted asked if he could go to the courthouse law library to research his own case, and they allowed him to. And they took his handcuffs off because he's so charming and wonderful. So he goes to the library, and a guard stands outside, right outside the door to monitor him. Ted sees a window. He sees the windows open. He. He described the day after the fact to be a beautiful morning. He saw the sky, and it was nice and blue. And as soon as that guard turned around, he jumped out of the window from the second story, hurt his ankle, but he gets up and made a run for it when the guard realized that he was missing. And people started asking each other, where's Ted Bundy? Where's Ted Bundy? It was complete and utter chaos, as you can imagine. Investigators have described that day to be a surreal experience. Ted is on the run for six days, playing a game of catch me if you can with authorities. But eventually, thankfully, he was found and he was sent back to prison. That would not be the last time that he escaped prison. In November, December, Ted begins his plan to escape again. He starts losing a lot of weight, and above his cell, there was this. What I assumed to be an air vent. And his goal was to get small enough to be able to crawl into the vent and into the ceiling. And it worked. I mean, he did. He lost 35 pounds. And that night, he would crawl up there in the middle of the night and start digging out his path to be able to escape. And little by little, oh, my. I. Isn't that so scary? Like, imagine Ted Bundy crawling in your ceiling and you can hear him like climbing, clawing out his path. That is so terrifying. Inmates reported that they could hear Ted crawling in the ceiling at night time to the jail staff and nobody did a thing about it. December 30, while a lot of the prison staff members were away for Christmas break, Ted gathered up a lot of books, a lot of just random items and stuff to cover up with a blanket in his cell to make it look like it was him, like it was his body that he was sleeping and, and then he crawled into the air vents and through his little path, he broke through the ceiling into somebody's office, changed into street clothing from the janitor's closet and walked out of the front door as if he were a free man. He got a flight to Chicago, got a train to Michigan, stole a car, drove to Atlanta, hopped on a bus and ended up in Tallahassee, Florida. There he found a room to rent right by a university very, very close to all of the sorority houses. And within one week of arriving in Tallahassee at 2:45 in the morning, Ted broke into a sorority house. He snuck into the room of 21 year old Margaret Elizabeth Bowman and brutally ended her life using a piece of firewood. He then went to the room of 20 year old Lisa Janette Levy, strangled her, ended her life, SA'd her and did so many horrible things to her, leaving her with bite marks. He walked over to the room of 21 year old Kathy Kleiner, attacked her, leaving her with a broken jaw, then walked over to the room of 21 year old Karen Chandler, left her with a concussion, a broken jaw, a crushed finger and missing teeth. The first two girls sadly did not make it. They lost their lives from the attack, but the last two, they lived. Ted Bundy's last victim was 12 year old Kimberly Diane Leach. She was in class when her teacher asked her to go outside to grab her purse from her car in the parking lot. And Kimberly was never seen again. Ted saw her in the parking lot, lured her to his car and did unspeakable things to her, ending her life. Her remains were found seven weeks later with proof proved to show that she suffered an immense amount of pain before passing away. In February, Ted Bundy was arrested by a Pensacola police officer for driving a stolen car. In the car they found three sets of IDs belonging to female FSU students, 21 stolen credit cards, and he was later charged with the homicides of the female sorority students. Something massive. I'm sure all of you know About Ted Bundy is his arrogance. He had such a big ego and a massive desire, like something that he probably saw as a need to be in control. He thought that he was intelligent enough and more than capable to manipulate the legal system and convince the court of his innocence. Not only did he have little trust in the legal system, but he had also been studying his own cases and keeping track of everything that was said about him, because he just absolutely loved being the center of attention. And because of that, he made the decision to represent himself at court. I assume it's because he thought that he would be able to do so, and he wanted to. To be able to narrate the story in the way that he wanted to, because he would be able to craft his own dramatic courtroom performance. But issue being, he really overestimated his legal knowledge and skills. Something else that you need to know, though, is that people loved him. Ted Bundy had fans. I honestly don't know what else you would call them, Especially female fans that would romanticize Ted and his charismatic personality. There was a certain psychological fascination with him because I guess when you think of a criminal, a dangerous person, a serial killer, you might think of a creepy guy that looks. Often looks weird and. And Ted was anything but that. He was a law student. He was assumed to be lawyer. He was clean. People described him as handsome. But more than that, the way in which he spoke was with such confidence. He would chuckle here and there. People ate it up. They loved it. What ultimately determined his fate were the bite marks, the ones that he had left on one of his victims. I mean, you can't really deny that if dental records are proving otherwise. Eventually, Ted Bundy was found guilty, and he was sentenced to death. He was on death row for 10 years. And now we get to the infamous Ted Bundy tapes. During his interviews and his confessions. At first, Ted just talked and talked and talked about nonsense, and they were not getting anywhere near him. It wasn't until one of the reporters interviewing him came up with the idea to suggest that they talk to Ted about the crimes in third person. They wanted him to speak in third person instead of speaking as if he did it himself. And that was the key. Ted ended up started talking in that way. He grabbed the tape recorder close to his chest, Leaned back in his chair, and said everything. His goal with these tapes was clear. He wanted to exert control over his own narrative, Even after he was. Was already behind bars, because he would only give enough details as he wanted to and only confess to him to as many murders as he wanted to. He wanted to tell the story how he wanted it to be heard. And that he did. We know Ted Bundy was responsible for taking the lives of at least 30 women, but it is believed to be many more. In his conversations with detectives, he said that there were other homicides that he didn't want to talk about because. Because they were just too close to home. And others that he didn't mention because they involved young children. Which is crazy, isn't it? That he did such disgusting, gruesome things, so dark and evil that he himself did not even want to talk about them. But when it came to doing them, he obviously had no problem committing them. The recordings were more than just a confession. They were Ted's final attempt to to dominate the narrative of his life and in his crimes, even in his final days. Ted Bundy was executed on Tuesday, January 24, 1989. His last words were to his attorney and to his minister, quote, Jim and Fred, I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends. End quote. That is all I have for this week's episode. 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