I recently wrote a nice little paper for my college English 2010 writing course, and decided that I would share it with you. Note that this work contains a full Bibliography, along with in text citations. That means that you could, in theory, reference this for one of your very own papers! Wow. A paper which we can call academic; how exciting. If you like serial killers, a bit of psychology, criminal justice, or just don’t have anything better to do, please have a read. You’re welcome to use this work for your own endeavors, but please give credit where credit is due (that would be to me of course). If you would like something with a more friendly reading format, I’ve been so kind as to include a PDF at the included link.

Link to PDF: http://www.thesparklingwiggles.com/uploads/ted-bundy-final.pdf

Jason Trent
Mr. Bjork
English 2010
March 02, 2008
Ted Bundy: Creating the Perfect Killer
America: the home of the brave and sensationalism. From the tallest buildings to the most luxurious automobiles, Americans pride themselves in having the biggest and best of everything, and having an unusual talent for producing the worst the world has to offer, they delight in being able to produce the most violent of media, the most explicit of music, and the most dangerous of killers.
Serial killers are organized killers who choose their target, location, and the method, all prior to committing the actual act of murder. Another definitive characteristic of a serial killer, is that they kill in “three of more separate locations with an emotional cooling-off period between homicides” (Schechter 7). This particular category of killer is of special interest to our culture as they represent something especially exotic and dangerous; part sick interest, and part innocent curiosity, society strives to understand what it is that drives those who compulsively slay others in order to satisfy their own needs.
One of the most prolific serial killers of American history, “Ted Bundy is almost universally hailed as the killer who represented the all-American boy, the boy next door who did not marry but, rather, killed the girl next door” (Caputi 444). Killers are often portrayed to be socially inept and mentally unstable, but Bundy did not fit into the preconception of who a killer should be. A product of his environment, personality, and habits, Ted Bundy conditioned himself to become the perfect serial killer.
In order to begin to understand a person, steps must be taken to understand the environment in which their character was molded. “As the serial offender develops or evolves through life, he/she experiences a number of developmental events and incorporates these internally through the mind-body process” (Carich, Fisher, and Kohut 13). Born Theodore Robert Cowell, Bundy grew up in an instable environment. Once Ted was born, his actual mother Louise, age 24, left to Philadelphia for three months. During this time, Louise’s parents adopted Ted as their own, and from that time on, Ted knew Louise as his sister, and his actual grandparents as his mother and father. In his book Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, Peter Vronsky explains that Ted’s grandfather had an “explosive temper” and on occasion struck Ted’s grandmother, exposing young Theodore to abuse at a young age (106). Because “traumatized children remain fixated on [the events where they were subjected to trauma]” (Carich, Fisher, and Kohut 13) it is possible that this early exposure to violence provided Bundy an example to emulate. Seeing an authority figure hit another was an event which could have trained young Bundy that violence was acceptable, or perhaps even appropriate.
One of Ted’s cousins stated that both he and Ted, at a young age (this had to have been while Ted was age 4 or younger, as at age 4, Ted and his real birth mother left his grandparents), were exposed to their grandfather’s pornography collection. He recalled that after stumbling upon this discovery, he and Bundy “pored over the images” (Vronsky 106). Being subjected to sexually explicit images at such a young age may have also led to an eventual problem with pornography. An FBI study found that 81% of serial killers were exposed to pornography at a young age (Vronsky 107).
“Offenders often experienced childhoods of physical and emotional abuse, caretaker instability, and perceptions of unfair treatment within the family” (Carich, Fisher, and Kohut 3). At the age of four, Louise, Ted’s mother took Ted from his grandparents whom he believed to be his actual mother and father, and moved to Tacoma Washington. In describing the effect of a change of parents in a child’s life, Schechter says, “the belief (usually fully justified) that they have been rejected by their birth parents contributes to a sense of worthlessness and shame that typically afflicts budding psychopaths” (258). This move placed Bundy into the category of serial killers from single parent homes which makes up 43% of serial killers Vronsky 103). Due to conflicting accounts from Bundy himself, it is not entirely clear when he found that Louise, rather than his grandmother, was his biological mother. It is plausible that this particular discovery gave Ted a feeling of instability, and led to the inability to form meaningful and trusting relationships with others as his life progressed. Carich, Fisher, and Kohut in describing this impact on young Ted’s life reason that “when Bundy discovered that his “sister” was in reality his mother, and that he was born illegitimate, this event had traumatic impact upon his ability to form genuine, empathetic relationships later in life. This may be viewed as the etiology of his violent behavior” (18).
As Ted moved from elementary school to high school, he seemed to move from a popular person among his peers, to someone with difficulty in fitting in with those around him. He recalls feeling out of place, and isolated from others (Vronsky 107). Being a part of the baby boomer generation, this feeling was compounded by the large student body, where anonymity was more prominent than it would have been during other years. A study conducted by the FBI found that 77% of serial killers have expressed feelings of seclusion (Vronsky 107).
While enrolled in his post high school studies, Bundy fell for the love of his life Stephanie Brooks (a pseudonym). Being the first woman he was sexually involved with, he became very emotionally attached. At first she found him charming and charismatic, however as their relationship progressed, Ted’s boyish nature began to irritate Stephanie, and to the shock and dismay of Bundy, he soon ended their relationship. Although this may sound like a small event, this event seemed to leave a hole in Ted’s soul which never recovered. It seems that he used Stephanie’s physical characteristics for a pattern of who he would later choose his victims to be. They all had the following features which Stephanie also had: long hair parted down the middle, Caucasian with a fair complexion, smart, and slender.
Without knowing of the crimes Bundy was to commit the unsuspecting onlooker would probably notice that he was handsome, well mannered, clean cut, and well dressed. He appeared and acted normal in every respect. He has been referred to an everyday, all American young man, with “an uncanny ability to blend into society” (Carich, Fisher, and Kohut 6). We picture serial criminals as secluded and socially challenged. Ted was not. Described by Schechter, a common quality of a serial killer is intelligence (28). It obviously takes a certain degree of intellect to be able to kill relatively without being caught, and Bundy was no exception to this. A college graduate with a degree in psychology, one of his professors said:
It is clear that other students use him as a standard to emulate… His personal characteristics are all of the highest standards. Ted is a mature young man who is very responsible and emotionally stable (but not emotionally flat as many students appear—he
does get excited or upset appropriately in various situations) … I am at a loss to delineate any real weaknesses he has. (Vronsky 114)
Although he appeared average, seeming to have the same dreams and aspirations of his peers, Ted’s mind was a far darker place than anyone could have imagined prior to his incarceration and eventual conviction. At age three, Ted demonstrated a strange act of violence to his fifteen year old aunt while she was napping. Lifting her bed sheets, he placed three large kitchen knives beside her. She recalls, “He just stood there and grinned. I shooed him out of the room and took the implements back down to the kitchen and told my mother about it. I remember thinking at the time that I was the only one who though it was strange. Nobody did anything” (Vronsky 107).
In addition to his early patterns of violence, there was also a history of mental illness in the family. A history of mental illness within a family means that family members down the line are far more likely to exhibit some of these same attributes. Some of these mental problems likely found their way through heredity into Bundy’s personality as well. An example of mental instability within the family can be seen with his grandmother. Late in her life she expressed symptoms of psychosis, and in order to treat this, she underwent shock therapy. It is likely that the abuse she endured through her marriage, and that which Bundy was exposed to, contributed to these problems.
While in college, Bundy recalls having walked past an open window where a young woman was undressing. Taken with this event, he began deliberately seeking out such events in order to satisfy his growing sexual desires. Once this was no longer sufficient to arouse him, he then began viewing pornography regularly. This soon led to compulsive masturbation with the assistance of this pornographic material. As he spiraled further and further out of control, Bundy’s interests shifted from traditional pornography, to pornography more violent in nature. In this brand of material, women were portrayed in situations where they were bound and battered, a new twist on the typical sexual images normally depicted. Shortly before his death, Michaud and Aynesworth interviewed Bundy, and reported
He told me that long before there was a need to kill, there were juvenile fantasies fed by photos of women in skin magazines, suntan oil advertisements, or jiggly starlets on talk shows. He was transfixed by the sight of women’s bodies on provocative display… Crime stories fascinated him. He read pulp detective magazines and gradually developed a store of knowledge about criminal techniques – what worked, and what didn’t. That learning remained incidental to the central thrill of reading about abuse of female images, but nonetheless he was schooling himself. (Caputi 447)
Along with pornography, Bundy was very interested in true crime detective books. In these books characters, often women, were captured and held against their will. Bundy found this to be a stimulating act of vicariously living out his fantasies through reading, while at the same time training himself on the methods commonly used to kidnap and hold a person against their will.
Through his childhood, Bundy had a preoccupation with feeling poor. He envied the things which people of prestige and wealth had, and these feelings led to habitual theft of these things. Stealing proved to both be a practical although dishonest way to obtain goods. An easy thrill and a way for him to exercise his budding deviance, Ted found himself stealing the things which he desired as a child. Expensive clothing, books, and other forms of media were common targets. Interestingly enough, he didn’t choose to steal things which he had no use for. The items which he stole were always put to use. As his theft became more and more of a problem, he turned to alcohol in order to further dampen his inhibitions, while at the same time allowing him to appear more calm then he could have normally expressed. As he began to rely more and more upon alcohol for courage, his theft turned to burglary, and he found himself breaking into homes in order to satisfy his desires.
Why did he do what he did? Although Bundy may have had some oddities in his environment and personality, these things alone could not have led to this sick and warped mind. Everyone grows up with varying amounts of adversity to overcome. Everyone has been exposed to things which have been unpleasant, and everyone has had bouts of selfish desires, however the key differences in how personalities develop lie in how people react to these events and desires. A habit is a trained and routine behavior. We train our habits, whether they are good or bad.
Killers kill in order to satisfy a need to cope with events in their formative lives “Coping strategies are the methods used by the offender to manage or regulate his behavior in relation to his needs. At some point, the cycle or pathway of deviance and offending is initiated, reinforced when needs are met, and maintained” (Carich, Fisher, and Kohut 16). Taking a look into Bundy’s past, it is fairly easy to ‘connect the dots’ in a sense to see how one event led to another. We see that at a young age, Bundy had an unstable home environment, specifically with the issue of distinction between his parents and grandparents. The discovery that the woman he believed to be his sister was actually his mother led to a feeling of detachment and the inability to form lasting and meaningful relationships with others. Seeing that the parent child relationship is the first relationship in one’s life, it is not difficult to see why the violation of such a relationship could lead someone to these feelings. This event is something that he perceived as an inability to control the events surrounding his life. As he progressed through life, he was exposed to both violence and pornography at a young age, making the first four years of his life toxic to his personality. Due to these events in his formative years, Bundy found an interest in these very things later in life. The problem is that he pursued these interests. These interests led to habits, which led to addictions. As we take a look back on his life, there is a very distinct path from normal to abnormal. When initially seeing pornography at the age of four, he was shown that it was acceptable to objectify women. At that time this event was probably nothing more than a passing interest soon forgotten. As he was subject to seeing his grandmother being abused, he was taught that this behavior was also acceptable. It is also important to note that the very person who took him away from who he perceived his real parents to be, also caused a great deal of uncertainty and confusion for young Ted. As years passed he began involvement with pornography which Bundy details as a major contribution to his eventual behavior:
The most damaging kind of pornography—and I’m talking from hard, real, personal experience—is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces—as I know only too well—brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe. Before going on any further, it is important to me that people believe what I’m saying. I’m not blaming pornography. I’m not saying it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility for all the things that I’ve done. That’s not the question here. The issue is how this kind of literature contributed and helped mold and shape the kinds of violent behavior. (Schechter 267)
It is apparent that by bringing both violence and sex into one complete bundle, Bundy taught his mind and body, that in order to be sexually satisfied, he needed to have both of those things at once. This is perhaps the most dangerous link in Bundy’s life, as these are the very things which he was satisfying while killing his victims, then later performing acts of necrophilia upon them. “Sexual serial killers have significant intimacy defects and most are unable to form “connected” relationships” (Carich, Fisher, and Kohut 8), and as such, Bundy had to find another way to meet his needs of relationships in his life. As his inhibitions with his actions began to loosen, so did those of his fantasies. He began taking steps to make his fantasies become a reality. It began with small things such as viewing pornography, and soon escalated. He would take steps to plan out every facet of his crime, selecting the time, place, and means. Bundy was not a sadist, that is he did not take his victims for the reason of torture. Upon capture, he would quickly take his victim, and bludgeon her over the head to make her lose consciousness. He would then rape the victim, and leave her for dead. As with the pattern of escalation with pornography, his murders also escalated in nature. He began mutilating the genitals of his victims, and after the initial rape, would return to the grave site to perform acts of necrophilia, the “ultimate form of power and control” (Carich, Fisher, and Kohut 6).
Having very little control in his young life, he felt he was unable to truly be happy. He dealt by this by committing crimes for the sake of having control. Any one of his crimes could be said to have helped satisfy this need. He stole so that he could take something from someone else. He partook of violent media (specifically pornography) in order to begin acting out his fantasies, and in the end practiced the ultimate control over another, murder. After all, choosing between allowing someone to live or die is truly the definitive level of control which one person can have over another. Speaking in relation to control and dominance, Schechter says, “[The pleasure] has to do with the assertion of power – the lust to dominate, to reduce a victim to a state of total submission” (216). In the end, Bundy was as selfish as one could get. In response to the question as to whether or not he felt guilty for his actions, Bundy replied, “Guilt is an illusionary mechanism to control people and is unhealthy and does terrible things to one’s body (Vronsky 141).
Although contributors to his eventual actions, pornography, alcohol, environmental factors, and habitual factors cannot be held accountable for Bundy’s actions. Obviously they were factors, however ultimately, it was his decision to pursue these interests and to eventually let these interests take hold of his inhibitions. “The typical sexual killer does not randomly simply decide to rape and murder; this decision requires a developmental process” (Carich, Fisher, and Kohut 12). The pattern we see in Ted’s life was that of self service. Everything he did, he did for himself. He wanted nothing else other than to satisfy his own desires, and it is this mentality which led to his uncontrollable urges of murder and rape. Bundy lacked the very thing which separates man from animal. That is an ability to empathize and sympathize with others; the ability to put other’s needs before your own. Bundy, “a man who himself was portrayed as a paradigmatic American son, the “handsome,” “intelligent,” and “charming,” (Caputi 17) will go down in history. He appeared to be the very essence of normal. He had looks, education, and charisma, but sadly due to a combination of his environment, personality, habits and most of all choices, he let himself become preoccupied with the carnal desires of his soul which he allowed to compromise his very humanity.

Bibliography
Caputi, Jane. “The Sexual Politics of Murder.” Gender and Society 3 (1989): 437-456. JSTOR. Utah Valley State College Lib., Orem, UT. 5 Feb. 2008 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0891-2432%28198912%293%3A4%3C437%3ATSPOM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3/>.
White, John B. “Irresistible Impulse and Criminal Liability.” Michigan Law Review 23 (1925): 443-474. JSTOR. Utah Valley State College Lib., Orem, UT. 5 Feb. 2008 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-2234%28192503%2923%3A5%3C443%3AIIACL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W>
Schechter, Harold. The Serial Killer Files. 1st ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004.
Ted Bundy: the FBI Files. FBI. Washington D.C.: Filiquarian, 2007.
Vronsky, Peter. Serial Killers: the Method and Madness of Monsters. New York: Berkley Books, 2004.
Carich, Mark S., Dawn Fisher, and Margaret R. Kohut. “Sexual Murder and Sexual Serial Killers: Towards a Mind-Body Developmental Theory.” Rocky Mountain Way Freelance Writing. 2006. 2 Mar. 2008 <http://www.rockymountainwaywriting.com/PDF/SEXUAL%20MURDERS%20AND%20SEXUAL%20SERIAL%20KILLERS.pdf>.