Ted Bundy Research Paper

Crime occurs every day, all over the world. Most crime is unreported or is unknown to the vast majority of the populations. Over time, crime has grown to become a normal part of society and typically people are not surprised to hear that a crime has been committed. Most crimes are dealt with and forgotten, however a few crimes grab the media’s attention and are highly publicized, ultimately giving the criminal their 15 minutes of infamy. Ted Bundy was one of these criminals. Bundy was a law student in Utah and during the 1970’s, he assaulted, raped and murdered at least 30 known women with some criminologists suspecting as high as nearly 100 victims. The tactics he used along with the extent of his killings is how Bundy acquired his long lasting infamy and notoriety as one of America’s top 10 most wanted during his time. Our true focus here is explaining why these murders occurred; truly understanding the motivation behind Bundy’s actions and finding the roots of causation which could lead a person to commit such serious crimes.

Not surprisingly, Bundy entered adolescence without a sense of identity and certain role confusion. He had no quality attachments, no modeling figure in his life, a mother that he called his sister, and a biological father that never existed for him. As a juvenile, he constantly sought to create an impression of being a member of the “popular” group, and relied on his academic achievement to differentiate himself from others. While he made friends, he was found to be socially unreliable, preferring to babysit his

Ted Bundy was one the most well-known textbook psychopaths, who was characterized as a sexual psychopath due to him sexually assaulting his victims, whom were all white, thin, single, females. Psychopathic personality traits that Bundy exhibited according to the PCL-R scale were, intelligence, and superficial charm. Bundy’s charm was first noted DR Carlisse, whom was the psychiatrist who evaluated Bundy after his first arrest, His charm was used to reel in his victims by pretending to be injured by wearing crutches of arms slings, during his political campaign, and in his failed attempt to evade arrest and the death penalty. He was a timid and insecure person due to being of middle class in a classroom full wealthy students, and having a dependency

Theodore Robert Bundy was an infamous serial killer who confessed to brutally murdering over 30 women. He was born on November 24th, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Ted’s mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell gave birth to him in the Elizabeth Lund Home For Unwed Mothers. The identity of Ted’s father is still unknown, but his birth certificate names a Lloyd Marshall. Eleanor also claimed that a veteran by the name of Jack Worthington could also be his father. Ted’s mother brought him to her parents, his grandparents, where they helped raise him. They lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for about 4 years. He then took his grandparents’ last name, Cowell, and was convinced while growing up that his mother was his sister and that his grandparents

Theodore Bundy was an infamous American serial killer who preyed upon numerous young women during the 1970s and possibly earlier. He was associated with at least 30 counts of homicide and suspected of an estimated one hundred or more. Beyond homicide, he also made it apparent that he was capable of other sinister crimes such as rape, kidnapping, and necrophilia. His most frequent method of killing was an attack with a blunt weapon to the head. However, he did not merely kill his victims; evidence concludes that each were also sexually assaulted and sodomized. It is reported that he even revisited his crime scenes to further engage in sexual acts with the decomposing corpses. Moreover, at least 12 of his victims had been decapitated .

Americans were shocked in the 1970s when authorities began reporting a string of disappearances of young women from Washington, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Florida and Oregon. The man behind these crimes was Theodore (Ted) Bundy. Many people still consider him to be one of the most notorious serial killers of all time and was once one of the FBI’s most wanted. He was officially tied to 36 murders, however he is believed to have committed more than one hundred. The Ted Bundy murders shocked everyone because of his outwardly sociable appearance, politeness, and political aspirations. He was intelligent, good looking, and charismatic. Many of his victims did not fear him or question him because of how charming

He had a lot of strains in his life growing up like living with a violent grandfather, having an unstable relationship with his mother, and being molested by a boy scout leader in his early teenage years. He started to develop a weird reality and he lived inside his head. He dreamt to be the most powerful man in the world and to control his own destiny. Bundy grew up with very minimal relations to girls and during those times he crept on women through windows. He was lied to by women his entire life and he felt some sort of need for revenge on the female species.

“Ask a psychopath what love is and he’ll go on and on, but he has never felt it himself…If you catch him lying, he’ll just shift gears and go on as though nothing had happened” (Goleman). Ted Bundy was one of the most famous psychopaths in the history of the country (Nordheimer). People say he was the perfect killer- handsome, intelligent, witty, and charming (Boynton 25). Bundy was the complete opposite of what people thought a serial killer looked like, so his victims did not fear him (“Ted Bundy”). Robert Keppel, an expert on serial killers, stated, “He taught us that a serial killer can appear to be absolutely normal, the guy next door (“Serial Killers and Mass Murderers”). At one point he was working for a suicide hotline; a friend

The objective of this case study is to examine the personality of one of the most notorious serial killers in modern history, Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy was alleged to have humiliated, tortured and murdered at least 50 women. Possibility more, but the true number will never be known. Because Ted Bundy kept the true number of his victims to himself and refused to inform authorities of the exact number of his horrific deeds, before he was executed on January 24, 1989 (Wikipedia, n.d.).

Eventually, Bundy would figure out the truth because one of his cousins would show Ted a copy of his birth certificate after calling him a “bastard” (Ramsland, K. 2013, p. 2). This resulted in Bundy expressing a lifelong resistant toward his mother forever because she hid this fact from him leaving him to have to find out for himself. Evidently, this ties quite well with attachment theory because the relationship between his mother and him would never be the same after that unfortunate day.

Ted Bundy was an American born rapist, a necrophile; a serial killer and a kidnapper who assaulted and murdered several young women during the 1970’s. The criminal kept on denying the charges for more than ten years and later confessed of having committed the thirty homicide crimes in seven different states before his execution (Rule, 2009). Bundy’s handsome and charismatic appearance made it possible for him to easily win the confidence of young women who were always his targets. He broke into the dwellings of his victims at night and bludgeoned them as they slept. He also approached young women in public places where he impersonated as an authority figure or feigned injury on his victim before empowering and assaulting at a

Ted Bundy is known to be the worst serial killer in U.S. History. In the 1970's, Ted raped and murdered women in at least five different states. Bundy eventually confessed to thirty murders, although the actual total remains unknown. Theodore Robert Bundy was born on November 24th, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont to Eleanor Louise Cowell, a 22 year old single woman. Ted's mom never told him much about his father other than that he was in the armed forces and that they never were really together. Bundy had a difficult childhood and was pretty much an wanted by his mother. After being left in foster care for two months, Eleanor decided to have her parents raise Ted and make him and everyone believe that they were his adopted parents and

Looking helpless and using his good looks and charms Bundy was able to lure in his victims and would knock them out with a foreign object or would handcuff them in his car. Once he had the victims he would proceed in kidnapping, sodomizing, raping, and killing them in a brutal manner. In Ted Bundy case agencies from different states worked together in the apprehension of Bundy. The conviction of Ted Bundy was credit towards good criminal investigation; with police cooperation, forensic evidence and the witnesses' statements.

In his trial however, his defense psychiatrist said that Bundy had come from a single parent home, with a grandfather who was violent, hurt animals and read pornography. His grandmother had psychological problems that required hospitalization and electroshock therapy. Bundy was reported by

Ted’s emotional state was very fragile, as he was unable to experience understanding, love, or even have a conscience of what he was doing. The lack of primary emotional components became an excellent breeding ground for the dark and charismatic Bundy. In his youth he was believed to have been exposed to unrelenting cruelty, at the hands of his grandfather and open neglect from his mother. His exposure to a sporadically critical and cruel caregiver set the stage for the development of the impulsive emotional needs. (Black,