Introduction
The heart of man is desperately wicked, who can know it. This is sometimes difficult to believe but a review of the life, charges and confessions made by Ted Bundy can confirm this to us that quote from the bible is correct. Psychological depression might actually be responsible for majority of the actions or it might be as a result of interest or joy being derived from someone else pain or discomfort. These views about the notorious American serial killer Ted Bundy could be confirmed by exploring different perspective of his life, and actions. Exploring all the issues surrounding the serial killing, there is no justification for all those activities. The crimes he committed do seem to be short of his confession.
Beginning of Ted Bundy’s life
The attractive, smart and vocal man was born as Theodore Robert Cowell to Louise Cowell on the 24th of November, 1946 at Burlington, Vermont U.S.A. his place of birth was the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. Several weeks after his birth at that unwed mother’s home, Louise her real mother returned to her parents’ house. Ted was raised at Louise’s parents’ house. There Ted was made to believe that the real grandparents were the mother and father. Later, that initial thought changed as he discovered that the people he thought to be the parents are actually the grand parent and Louise he called sister for several years was his mother. Ted’s name changed to Ted Bundy when he moved with his mother to Tacoma to marry a military cook known as Johnnie Bundy.
The issues that surrounded his life never showed any sign as a young boy. This is because in a depressed setting, humans might tend to react negatively or in some form of aggressive manner. The parental circumstances and meagre that were present during growth should have been considered as a major precipitating factor for the latter attitude in life. However, Ted was well behaved growing up and performed academically well both in high school and the University. The financial limitation surrounding Ted influenced the actions and resulted in change of university to where people are less concern about financial status during that period.
Ted worked in different fields after drop out from the University as a former law student. One important aspect of Ted's life at the university was when he met the girl of her dream Stephanie Brooks. The relationship was somewhat growing until she graduated from the institution in 1968. The lady ended the relationship abruptly and even before the end of the relationship, Ted wasn't getting a return of the investment committed to the relationship. The end of the relationship was seen by many as an aspect towards the depressive state that was experienced by Ted. That change in the love life was seen to contribute to perspective towards female and a probable cause for the criminal action towards females. Ted considers pornography as a contributory act towards the criminal activities. He commented on the addiction as a major part of what killed his passion for love and also changed his orientation towards people.
Ted had some form of political future because he was smart and confident as regards to politics. He helped in certain political rallies and was chosen to work as a member of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee. When working as a member, he portrayed several political features that made people believed he had a great future in politics.
The crimes
He committed several crimes which are both known and unknown. Some of the few survivor of ted's criminal act is Joni Lenz, which was attacked by Ted brutally on 4 January 1974 (Bio.com). Despite her survivor of the incident, she experienced some sort of permanent damage. This act shows a form of criminal act and violation against humanity. 21-year-old Lynda Ann Healy is another Ted Bundy’s victim. She is a slender, pretty and long-haired law student. In her case, she is not as fortunate as Joni’s case. What just happened was her disappearance which occurred on 31 January 1974. When the disappearance occurred the parents did not initially alarm the police. But when other incidence occurred, they were forced to contact the police as regards to the disappearance of Lynda.
Ted movement to another town Utah resulted into the criminal act against another four victims. This act occurs during the October and November of the same year Lynda disappeared. The unfortunate thing about the act for Ted was that one of the victims was a police chief’s daughter. As a result of that, all action was taking to track down the actual criminal.
At that period, Ted’s partner that has been with her for some years (five years) named Meg Anders also helped the police in the chase. She discovered that the description the police made as regards to the criminal relates to her partner hence Ted might actually be the criminal the police has been chasing for some period. However, his gentle, smart and handsome features helped him survive the chase even after been seen by several people.
Ted considered pornography and alcohol as addiction that both affected is purpose in life. Those addictions were considered by Ted as what led in to commit his first murder. The actions that became his passion were expressed through the activities he committed in his first murder. He believed that his actions were later fuelled by the thirst for more potent and explicit content or materials. After that experience with addiction, he got to a point whereby he actually wants to perform some of those actions that he is addicted in watching via pornography magazines or movies.
Another criminal attempt was that which was on Carol DaRonch on 8th November 1974. This occurred when Ted tried to abduct her from a particular shopping centre in Utah. That attempt gave the police the opportunity to eventually prove the identity of Ted. The police were also able to get some blood sample of Ted from the struggle that occur with the person he was trying to abduct. This was like a breakthrough for the police in charge of the case. Ted later killed the woman the same day.
On the 12th January 1975, Ted committed another major crime that was identified by the police. That was against a lady identified as Caryn Campbell. She was brutally murdered in Colorado. It was later after the incident that the police found the dumping ground for Ted’s victims. That dumping ground was found to be close to Taylor’s mountains in the Washington states.
Ted Bundy’s Death
The Journey towards Ted’s death started when he was arrested after a short chase by a local policeman. The policeman was able to identify the beetle car he was using during that period. After the arrest the police were so much convinced that Ted was the serial killer they have been chasing for some time. The feature they based their search was that of the criminal that killed Carol DaRonch. That led to full investigation towards the previous criminal act of Bundy so as to actually make a case against him. However, as the case investigations continue, Ted has started pleading not guilty of the charges against him.
The first court trial was made against Ted on the ground of kidnapping. This was on the 23 February 1976. The case was for the kidnapping of DaRonch. The judgement outcome as regards to the trial was that he was found guilty and sentence to one to fifteen years jail term.
The judgement outcome seem somewhat unsatisfactory to many police officers especially those investigators in-charge of the case. This is because they believed that there is enough evidence to actually tried him for murder. Their evidence was for the murder of Caryn Campbell. As a result of that evidences they have gathered, the investigators later filed a charge against him on 22 October of the same year the first trial was made. This new charges against him was what actually led to the extradition of Ted in the following year.
The opportunity granted by the court for him to represent himself at his trial and the research he actually decided to make gave him the opportunity to have access to the library. He escaped by jumping out of the window of the library on 7th June of the same year. He was later rearrested 8 days after the escape from the library. The security monitoring him increased as a result of the escape. However, the increase in monitoring never really prevented him from escaping again. He actually managed to escape again on 30th December 1977. The escape was found out on the second day of escape by the police.
Conclusion
Ted had several trials after initial trial that got him jailed. One of the trials was related to the murder of Kimberly leach and this led to prosecution of the death sentence by electrocution. Ted actually refused to accept those judgements and his faith. He believed that he is innocent and several appeals were made. Those appeals led to extension of date of execution.
Ted’s life and actions actually shows that that he behaved as a wicked individual because of the mode by which he tend to murder his victims. Most of those victims are brutalized and raped before being murdered. Taking a longer time for Ted to accept his faith could just be likened to an act of denial which we could conclude as a main factor that contributed to his actions.
Work Cited
Bio. Ted Bundy Biography. 2011. Web. 1 December, 2011. (http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/ted-bundy.html)
CelebrityMorgue. Ted Bundy, Serial Killer. 2011. Web. 1 December, 2011. (http://www.celebritymorgue.com/ted-bundy/)
Leilani Corpus. What we learned from Ted Bundy. The Forerunner. 1989. Web. 1 December, 2011. (http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0332_Ted_Bundy.html)
Supreme Court of Florida. Theordore Robert Bundy, Appellant vs. State of florida, Appellee. May 9, 1985. Web. 1 November, 2011.
