Theodore Robert Bundy is perhaps the most infamous serial killer of all time. His combination of cunning and charisma helped lead at least 36 women to death at his hands and sets him apart from the average serial killer. Numerous documentaries were inspired by his life, including Netflix’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vial. These serve to allow many of us a familiarity to this horrific man, but something that remains obscure is the early life story that led to the making of this murderer.
Theodore Robert Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont on November 24, 1946. More often known as Ted, Bundy grew up with an unusually complex family dynamic. He was adopted at a young age, but Bundy's real mother was never far from him, as his adopted parents were his grandparents.
With an age difference between them of 22 years, Bundy claimed that from an early age, he never believed Louise was his sister. Experts theorize that Bundy’s true father was the man who adopted him and his grandfather, and that he was the result of Louise being raped by her father.
Evidence that supports this may be found in Bundy’s struggle with speech impediment growing up. Developmental delays such as this are one reason why incest is warned against. Adopting him may have been his father’s way to reconcile this or an attempt to maintain its secrecy. Either way, his mother's lie to him filled Bundy with resentment from an early age.
Insecurity, likely stemming from his irregular home life and developmental issues, plagued Bundy growing up and gave him an obsession with materialism that his working-class father couldn’t support. This built upon his existing resentment towards his family and his father, who was far from perfect otherwise and suffered from mental health issues as well.
Bundy's father was known to have a raging temper and had agoraphobia-which is the fear of leaving one’s home. Along with his alleged sexual abuse towards Louise, Bundy and his sister indicated that his father was also physically abusive towards him from his youth. Moreover, like many that suffer from phobias, his father’s fear manifested in his control over his children’s lives as well. Ted and Louise both had to stay home often for this reason, making them easy targets for their father’s fits of anger, further worsening that difficult relationship.
It was as early as his toddler years that symptoms of psychopathy appeared in Bundy. One example of this can be found in Bundy’s fascination with knives that was sighted when he was as young as 3 and was caught placing them near his aunt while she slept. This continued, as he aged, as Bundy enjoyed scaring people.
A good example of this came in grade school. It was then he started making what he called "tiger traps". These were giant holes filled with stakes and covered with vegetation that at least one of his female classmates is known to have fallen into. It wouldn't be long that these pranks would satisfy Bundy's urges. It’s believed that Bundy’s first murder came just a few years later when he was 14.
After graduating from high school near the top of his class, Bundy went on to study psychology in college. While acquiring his undergraduate degree, he studied at 3 universities: the University of Puget Sound, Temple and the University of Washington. After earning his bachelors, Bundy went on to study law at the University of Utah. He dropped out before finishing his degree there.
During college, Bundy received good marks and fell in love. While attending the University of Washington, he met Elizabeth Kloepfer-the woman he would date on and off for the next decade. The two lived together for years, during his killing streak-Bundy even caring for her young daughter-and almost married, before she ended their relationship in the late 70s.
Bundy's ability to conceal his murderous streak from his girlfriend, the police, and the rest of the world was thanks to his high intelligence. It's believed that his IQ was 135, qualifying him as gifted. It's believed that Bundy was inspired by his necrophilia. Necrophilia is sexual paraphilia with which a person is unable to receive sexual gratification unless the other party involved is either dead or acting near it, offering no resistance.
Despite never graduating with his law degree, Bundy used what he learned in its pursuit to defend himself in trial after being caught in 1976. There, the judge said Bundy “would have made a great lawyer," but there was ultimately too much evidence against him to win. Ted Bundy was found guilty of the murder of two coeds in Florida.
After his conviction was finalized, Bundy admitted to killing 36 woman throughout his life, but is suspected of as many as 100. It’s hard to speculate the extent his murderous streak was caused by Bundy’s background. It’s one of the most debated topics in psychology today-nature verses nurture. Although his actions were deplorable, in Bundy’s case, an increased understanding of the nurture involved makes the nature of his crimes more fathomable. Theordore Robert Bundy's death sentence was carried out on January 24, 1989.
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