Bundy
The Childhood of a Serial Killer
About the Book

For decades, the psychological underpinnings of Theodore Robert Bundy have been considered and described by mental health professionals, law enforcement, and lay specialists. His formal evaluations while in prison have also proved to offer informative insights on his psychological structure.

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Here is what most people know about Ted Bundy’s story:

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Starting in his second decade, he floridly increased his siege on young females. He indicated that his prey totaled over one hundred, but that may have been bluster to impress I don’t know who. He admitted to about thirty deaths in his very last hours of life, and that was only in hopes of a stay of execution. Bundy erroneously surmised that we would want to mine his mind to discover what made an amazing being like him tick.

 

He also thought we would want to learn from his sage wisdom regarding the others in his line of work who were still active that he could generously help us find. He was helpful with the investigation of the Green River Killer. Not only that, but he drew a checklist for investigators about the habits and processes used by serial murderers. The checklist, hand written by himself, was six pages long (Nelson pp. 159-164).

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Bundy had an unimaginable lust for killing and a Houdini talent for escaping. He accomplished two famous jail breakouts and attempted two lesser known escapes from Utah State Prison and Florida State Prison. Once free after an escape, he went right back to slaughtering women and girls. Because of his evasion tricks, he had an uncanny ability to avoid detection and capture for months on end.

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He would travel large distances by airplane, train, bus, and automobile from one end of the country to another, successfully evading detection while readying for his next attacks. Ergo, the Florida Supreme Court and Florida Governor Bob Martinez refused to grant yet another stay of execution for Bundy.

Denying any more stays definitely saved innocent lives.

 

Ironically, at the same time, his death snuffed information that might have been useful to save even more lives. Because of what Ted was, however, they did not want to take that chance.

 

At the time of Ted’s final arrest, I felt a ping of coincidence since I was born in Pensacola, Florida. I’m not a superstitious person, but several coincidences in my life have reinforced my intrigue with Bundy specifically. We were in Pensacola for about a year when my brother and I fell off of the turnip truck and ended up with our grandparents in the countryside near Seattle, Washington.

 

We were raised by our grandparents, who we called Gramma and Grampa, but I was puzzled why we didn’t call them mom and dad like other kids did their parents. It wasn’t until years later that I asked, and contrary to Ted, was gently told.

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Since I had a small inheritance following the death of our parents, I desired to use the money to attend the University of Washington. Had my life been on track, I would have entered the UW Psychology program and been in classes with Bundy.

 

Fortunately, an unplanned pregnancy sent me down the road of popping out babies instead of being a UW Coed. As the years progressed and the case against Bundy evolved, with every news release I put down the broom and soaked in every detail.
 
Ted targeted young brunettes with a center part—as was the style in that day—and I did the same with my long brown hair. I got a tap of relief and a heart squeeze when I learned that one of his first victims, Linda Ann Healy, had been in three of the same psychology classes with him. I would have been as trusting and naive as every one of those lovely women and feel grateful that my children may have saved my life.

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Years later, I was finally able to study at the University of Washington, where I focused on psychiatry with psychopathic origins in mind. Over the years, I have read everything I could find about Bundy. Rather than sinking into the crimes and investigations, I wanted to know how the heck he became who he was.

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Up until now, I have waited for someone to look at his developmental material in depth and share with us how these people, primarily Ted, came to be. As of yet, I have not seen a clinical evaluation of his not-so-obvious psychological detachment caused by interrupted bonding and developmental trauma from his early years. For decades, whenever new articles, documentaries, or books came out regarding him, I looked expectantly for his early years to be covered psychologically since the first several years are where psychopathic development starts. Perhaps by the time I publish this book, someone will have done that. If not, or even if so, here are my thoughts regarding his developmental years.

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Ted’s unimaginable emotional disengagement from living beings started early and remained fixed for his entire life. He was dangerously detached from other humans, resentful, and terrifyingly murderous, yet no one could see it.

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How in the world did this young man reach a point that he would hunt, steal, and massacre young women and girls? And what was it about him that helped him get away with it for so long? The individuals in his path and their subsequent families deserve an explanation. Many say there was no reason, that it didn’t make any sense at all. I disagree. It is clear to me that from the very beginning he had limited, if any, human attachment opportunities and markedly distorted impressions of women.

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Society has been fed a positive impression of his upbringing in movies and documentaries. Believers in his innocence emphasize that Ted was raised in a good Christian home, was a Boy Scout, had a paper route, was a college graduate and a law student, aspired to political leadership, and was trusted and supported by political acquaintances and professional associates.

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Much of this is true. Because of his seemingly untainted past, the world was in disbelief when learning of his luring women by pretending to be injured and removing the inside car door opener so they couldn’t escape once there, bashing their heads in, running and grabbing them, sneaking in their houses, and so forth. The whats, whos and hows of his crimes have already been published at length, or at least as much as has been discovered. We need to understand and be able to explain rationally how he came to be who he tragically was.

I will do this for you.

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These serial murderers do not wake up on a random morning and decide, “I think I’ll start attacking people now.” This thinking is a long time coming and detectable if we understand the psychological process behind their decisions, which we didn’t when Bundy was alive. We have more information now for detecting and preventing psychopathy, which is the solution for ensuring a safer future.

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We can glean quite a lot from Ted’s developmental years that can illuminate how this human distortion came about. Perhaps this volume will shed light on the pathway that brings about characterologically disturbed individuals and yield understanding of what elements to watch for—if not prevent—in our youth.

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You will notice my inherent bias toward Bundy’s story throughout this book. The vignettes are the elements that come to my mind based on what I know about how these killers come about. You will have your own ideas, but these are mine. I do become somewhat irreverent at times, but this is Ted we are talking about.

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I have no intention whatsoever of blaming any individuals that are related to, cared for, loved, or befriended Bundy. We were all fooled. He was able to fool anyone he wanted to deceive. I leave the unnamed individuals in the book unnamed in order to honor their right to privacy. The individuals to which I refer are folks that have already been in the news, books, or have made public statements. Regarding any inaccuracies here that may be determined by the reader, I welcome your corrective feedback.

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More than anything else, I want to respect the beautiful, intelligent, promising women and girls that were robbed of us and their loving families by ensuring this volume grants them eternal, dignified peace.