serial killers in the past have been
categorized as organized and
disorganized with the latter kind
usually being an uneducated maniac prone
to unplanned outbursts of extreme
violence but organized while these smart
predators plan ahead ted bundy was one
of them as you shall now see bundy
sometimes went to great lengths and
luring his victims he embraced a number
of techniques to evade arrest and they
worked for a long time he was the
quintessential psychopath he thought he
was one step ahead of the cops all the
time you'll hear later how one of his
victims managed to get away after he
struck but for the most part if someone
got in the car with mr bundy they were
not long for this world it's not certain
when he first killed he might have
murdered a girl named anne-marie burr in
1961 when he was just 14 years old but
that's inconclusive he always denied he
killed that girl still murder was likely
on his mind back then homicide
detectives that worked on his case
agreed that bundy started young
kidnapping and killing in his teens and
early 20s those were the years when he
tried to perfect killing without being
caught he later admitted that he
couldn't control his urges even though
he felt some shame using the third
person but really talking about himself
he described what it was like to kill or
try and kill in those early days he felt
horrified by the recognition that he'd
done this the realization that he had
the capacity to do such a thing or even
attempt that's a better word this kind
of thing he sat back and swore to
himself that he wouldn't do something
like that again bundy also said on tape
that he educated himself in getting away
with murder by reading those gory
detective magazines that were so popular
back then so with a bit of booze to
diminish his inhibitions he was ready to
become the complete product the epitome
of the educated killer he was 27 he knew
the time was right the victim was 18
year old karen sparks she was a dance
student at the university of washington
on january 4th 1974 bundy crept into the
basement apartment where she was
sleeping just before dozing off though
something had frightened her many years
later she recalled i remember seeing
some guy looking at me and thought gosh
you know maybe it was just a figment of
my imagination because it was so quick
she wasn't imagining things in fact she
remembered that before she went back to
her apartment she'd been at the
laundromat and some guy kept looking at
her when she looked back he turned his
head away this was most likely bundy
he'd already become a predator a kind of
human panther that stalks before
striking when he attacked sparks that
night with a metal rod he did so with so
much violence that she should have died
her injuries were catastrophic both
internal and external she thinks the
only reason bundy stopped attacking her
was that her male roommate in the room
next door had talked in his sleep which
he did quite often bundy had followed
this girl so he would have known she had
male roommates young men that could have
easily overpowered him he likely knew he
was taking a risk the next victim had to
be alone and this time she had to die he
didn't even wait for an entire month
before he struck again the victim also
studied at the university of washington
like the first victim he didn't so much
lure her away but before we get to his
social techniques we want to give you an
idea of his modus operandi the victim
was linda ann healey bundy entered her
room and beat her until she was
unconscious as she was sleeping he then
dressed her in a pair of blue jeans and
a white blouse picked her limp body up
and took off she was discovered missing
because that morning at 5 30 a.m her
alarm went off and a roommate noticed
that it just kept ringing police found
blood on her bed in nightgown but there
wasn't much else in terms of forensic
evidence remember bundy at this point
thought he was smarter than the cops he
wasn't just addicted to killing the
thrill of the chase afforded him a lot
of pleasure her skull was later found on
a nearby mountain it would come to light
that her apartment was just a few blocks
from bundys again he had stalked his
prey this time he made sure there were
no burly men staying right next to her
it was then he started employing charm
and good looks to find his victims
rather than slaying sleeping women this
time he went over to the evergreen state
college to hunt the victim was 19 year
old donegail manson he killed those
first two women in january and february
and now it was march it's hard to know
the full details about how he lured
manson because of the sad fact that he
killed her unlike the few survivors that
actually talked to bundy and lived to
tell the tale we could only reconstruct
how he manipulated manson we know that
on march 12th she stood out in the crowd
wearing a red orange and green striped
shirt she was on her way to a jazz
concert on campus and she never made it
there in april he killed again as if
trying to meet a monthly quota the
victim was 18 year old susan elaine
rancourt it was with her murder that we
learned so much more about bundy's
tricks of the trade there's no doubt
that he knew how to come across as a guy
people trusted in junior high school he
sold christmas tree lights to earn some
extra cash a fellow student from back
then recalled ted was the best damn
christmas light salesman i've ever seen
he must have used his cool and calm
demeanor to abduct miss ramcord she'd
been at central washington state college
in ellensburg and went missing on her
way back to her dorm what happened
exactly we don't know but we know that
bundy had previously tried to
unsuccessfully pick up other girls at
the same college one of them was 21 year
old kathleen clara d'olivio she told
police that she saw bundy struggling to
carry a bag of books his arm was in a
sling and his hand had a splint on it
which is why he was struggling she
stopped and asked him if he was on his
way to the library and he said yes can
you please help me notably when she
chatted with him she never turned her
back to him usually as soon as that
happened he would strike his victim over
the head rendering them unconscious
bundia dropped a bunch of books and was
hopelessly trying to pick them up the
olivia later told detectives we started
walking and when we came to a bridge it
was obvious that he wasn't going to go
to the library he then said his car was
close by she saw that he had a brown
volkswagen beetle feeling somewhat
suspicious of him she still helped him
carry his books to the car she then
thought she'd done enough put the books
down and started to walk off he
subsequently called after her saying he
had dropped his car keys and he couldn't
get to him he asked her for help she
told the cops i was cautious at the time
i mean even while we were walking i
thought well i'm not going to let him
get behind me i'm going to keep an eye
on him she did help him look for his
keys but airing on the side of caution
she said they both should step back and
look under the car rather than bend down
in front of him she outsmarted bundy
right then they spotted the keys
together and she walked away shouting
behind her good luck with your arm he
must have been furious that some girl
had seen right through him or at least
been cautious enough to consider that he
might be a sketchy dude it wasn't the
only time he failed to get his prey on
that campus he also tried with a young
woman named jane curtis she later told
detectives that the man she met was good
looking not someone she thought was
freaky or creepy he looked like a guy
you could trust a wholesome educated
type she said she bumped into him at
about 9 pm near the library
she told detectives he had this huge
stack of books like eight or nine books
and he had a cast on his left arm all of
a sudden he kind of drops them right in
the direction i was walking in she
offered to help this injured handsome
fella and politely told her how grateful
he was the two then started walking as
they were going in the same direction
she was carrying a bunch of books she
later recalled he looked at me strangely
his eyes seemed weird that's because he
was looking at someone he thought he was
about to kill he was looking through her
already imagining all the warped things
he would do to her dead body she also
noticed that he had a splint over some
of his fingers he told her that he'd
been injured in a skiing accident you
see bundy made himself look vulnerable
for two reasons one he knew young women
would come to his aid especially because
he was well spoken and soft on the eyes
two a man with a splint and a cast
immediately says to a woman that he
poses no physical threat but bundy
operated with more manipulation than
that he could have easily said he had
hurt his fingers while building a deck
on his house or when he lifted some
weights or when he was fixing a shelf
but those things he knew very well come
across as a bit working class a bit too
masculine he said skiing because that's
what the well-to-do folks enjoy in their
free time serial killers don't ski at
least in the minds of most people back
then the public seemed to labor under
the misapprehension that killers should
look deranged and walk around with
tattoos and shaggy beards bundy even
drove a feminine kind of car perhaps the
cutest car on the market he was gaming
the public's ignorance and to some
extent he got one over on the cops too
but he didn't outsmart curtis she later
told police that little metal thing over
his finger looked like it had just been
taped on still she walked over to his
car and it was then he told her to open
the passenger door because he couldn't
do it with his arm the way it was she
refused to open it so he did the first
thing she noticed was that the passenger
seat was missing that was because it was
easier to push an unconscious woman into
the car and she wouldn't be seen curtis
said the missing seat really bothered
her something was just not right about
the guy she told detectives i had the
books in my hand and he said get in i
said what he said get in and start the
car for me i said oh i can't he wanted
me to get in through the passenger side
noticing her suspicion bundy started to
pretend that his arm was suddenly
causing him a lot of pain she'd seen
enough though she left him grabbing his
fake broken arm when she was out of
sight bundy got in the car and threw off
the cast again he must have been furious
narcissistic psychopaths don't like to
be owned unfortunately miss manson fell
into his trap maybe she turned her back
on him maybe she walked for a while with
his books maybe she fell for the missing
key ruse we'll never know but she fell
for something even though bundy had
failed on occasions he was smart enough
to learn from his failures and was like
a killing machine a machine learning
algorithm that gets better each time it
kills like an algorithm bundy felt no
remorse the only important thing was
succeeding we know he kept using that
fake sling ruse because when young women
went missing people reported to police
that they'd seen a man with his arm in a
sling some witnesses also saw a
volkswagen beetle nearby on top of that
the sketches of this man police made
were very close to what bundy looked
like he wasn't just smart he was also
exceptionally confident after he killed
one woman he went back to the scene of
the crime to collect some of her
belongings police were still everywhere
and he walked right into a crime scene a
detective later said it was a feat so
brazen that it astonishes police even
today this was another reason how he got
away with so many crimes he knew his
demeanor made him invisible rather like
the character in the book american
psycho hide in plain sight must have
been his motto but he changed his system
up a bit on other occasions he swapped
the arm in his sling for crutches a man
that couldn't even walk right was way
less of a danger than someone with a
useless arm he also carried a briefcase
at times because hey killers don't walk
around with briefcases this is
reminiscent of an educated british drug
smuggler who became the first foreigner
ever to break out of one of thailand's
worst prisons once he got over the wall
he opened up an umbrella getting the
umbrella over with him was very hard but
it was worth the trouble when he was
asked why he did it he replied because
escaped prisoners don't use umbrellas
bundy was an expert at exploiting
people's preconceptions moreover when he
told people he worked for the assistant
director of the seattle crime prevention
advisory commission who could believe he
was a killer it was true too he actually
wrote a booklet aimed at women when
discussing how to avoid dangerous men
his temerity knew no bounds time and
again he lured women to his car one time
in broad daylight that day he wore a
tennis outfit because again what kind of
killer looks like he could almost pass
as jimmy connors bundy also moved around
a fair bit which made police work across
states very hard before massive computer
databases came into existence he was
well aware of what we now call linkage
blindness that's when crimes are not
connected he became a law student which
was a great pickup line especially when
he had those good looks too many people
who met bundy on a night out were
literally charmed to death they only
really became his lovers after they were
dead still bundy often returned to his
tried and tested being injured canard if
it's not broken why fix it he might have
told himself one time in colorado he
approached a victim on crutches and
asked her to help him carry his heavy
ski boots she was dead soon after he
dumped her and went back to her
decomposed body six weeks later there
was one exception though the only woman
who ever got in his car and actually
survived this was nothing short of
miraculous like waking up next to a lion
only to find its cooked you breakfast
and put your phone on charge her name
was carol the ranch she was in a
shopping mall in salt lake city utah
when a good-looking smartly dressed man
walked up to her he introduced himself
as a detective and said he needed to
know her car license number bundy sly
has ever started looking around the mall
he told the woman he was just trying to
see where his partner was she fell for
it he told her there'd been quite a few
car break-ins down at the mall car park
would you go down to the car park with
him just so he could ascertain if she'd
been one of the victims phew she thought
when the two realized her car had been
left alone but bundy said he still had
to file a report it was just a few
minutes drive to the station he said she
could go with him in his car although
she became somewhat suspicious when she
saw the police car was actually a
volkswagen beetle beetle a name beetle
in nature what kind of cop drives such a
slow car she thought unfortunately
deranch was quite a naive person she had
not seen the ways of the world having
grown up in a rural mormon community her
parents had always told her to show the
utmost respect toward authority figures
she did however she still thinks the
beetle was a bit weird and that's why
she asked bundy to show some id yet
again the psycho was able to think on
his feet he quickly flashed his wallet
up to her eyes and she didn't have the
confidence to tell him she didn't really
see much she got in the car bundy said
strap up and that's when she smelled
booze on him now things really didn't
seem right when they were alone on a
quiet road bundy stopped the car the raj
was now scared she could still smell the
alcohol vapors wafting around the car
for a moment there was an awkward
silence as bundy just looked forward
through the windshield he then turned on
her snarling as he did he clipped on
some handcuffs only in his hastiness he
fastened them onto the same hand neurons
tried to get out of the car at which
point bundy smacked her on the back of
the head with a crowbar she screamed
punched kicked out landing a blow right
in bundy's fiendish face deranch got out
of the car and left the bloody bundy in
her dust one thing she told police later
was that he hardly said a word to her
while they were driving when being
interviewed in prison bundy explained
why he was a man of few words when it
came to his victims he said he never
wanted to know any personal details
about them that was because it was hard
to kill someone once they became a
little too real this wasn't about
empathy but the fact that them becoming
real would wreck his fantasy according
to some experts on serial killers if you
ever find yourself up close and trapped
by one of them start talking and make
sure you become as real as can be it
probably won't work but it's about the
best chance you'll have now you need to
hear the full story how they caught
serial killer ted bundy or have a look
at this