This week, we are going to talk about one of the most notorious serial killers: Ted Bundy.

Ted was born on November 24, 1946 to Eleanor Louis Cowell and to an unknown father.  While suspicions of his father exist, no definitive answer has been given.  Raised by his grandparents, his true mother wasn’t revealed to him until later in his childhood.

Bundy attended the University of Puget Sound, then transferred to the University of Washington but never graduated.  After moving around, Bundy eventually settled back in Washington with his long-term girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, who he would continue to date even after his first incarceration.   Ted was described as very normal and charismatic, nothing in his personality indicated the evil hid within.

Ted’s murderous antics began in 1969 with an attempted kidnapping, but after a failure, did not try again until 1971.  In the years following, young, college aged women began to disappear in the areas where Ted lived, but most cases remained open as Ted’s personality helped him evade capture.

Between the October and November of 1974, Ted Bundy kidnapped and murdered Nancy Wilcox, Melissa Smith, Laura Aime, and Debi Kent.  However, his current kill streak ended with the attempted but failed kidnapping of Carol DaRonch.  After luring Carol to his car with a ruse, DaRonch managed to escape Bundy’s vehicle and managed to report him to the police.  This report led to his arrest in 1975.

Before his initial arrest, Bundy managed to murder various other women, but his girlfriend eventually reported her suspicions of Ted to the police.  Ted was pulled over in August of 1975 with various conspicuous items in his car such as an icepick, handcuffs, rope, and more.  Further circumstantial evidence was gather from his apartment.  In March of 1976, Bundy was convicted for the attempted kidnapping of DaRonch with further trials ahead of him.  However, continuing his spree, Bundy managed to escape a courthouse in 1977, but was soon apprehended.

Once again, in December of 1977, Bundy was able to escape police custody once again and fled to Florida and attacked college students at a sorority there, along with a twelve year old girl.

Finally apprehended for the final time, Bundy was put on trial for his murders.  The trial was very eventful, as Bundy chose to defend himself.  Justice finally prevailed, as Bundy was convicted on almost 30 murder charges in 1989 and was sentenced to death.

Ted Bundy managed to escape police twice and murder up to 30 women, making him onee of the most prolific serial killers in US history.  I got my information today from Wikipedia and various other news articles about the case.