The Transcribed Interview between Ted Bundy and Robert Keppel on January 20, 1989.
Florida.
King County Sheriff’s Department, Audio Files: Part One.
These are some audio files from interviews FBI agents (specifically Bob Keppel and Dave Reichert) did with serial killer Ted Bundy during his time on death row in the 1980’s in Florida State Prison in Raiford.
Margaret Elizabeth Bowman.
Margaret Elizabeth Bowman was born on January 6, 1957 to Jack and Runelle (nee Karnes) Bowman in Honokaa, Hawaii. Jackson Harrison Bowman III was born on October 26, 1930 in Chattanooga, TN and Mrs. Bowman was born on May 19, 1932 in Denton, TX. Margaret is also the great-great-granddaughter of Pinellas County pioneer Daniel McMullen and the great-niece of Donald C. Bowman (a prominent attorney). The couple were married on December 27, 1954 in Dallas TX and had two children together: Margaret and her younger brother, Jackson H. Bowman IV (b. May 12, 1961).
Mr. Bowman attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he was a ROTC cadet. He joined the Air Force and became a pilot, and flew Trans-Pacific routes from bases in California, Hawaii, Utah and Japan; he also served his Country as an Operations Staff Officer in Saigon Vietnam where he flew combat missions, earning a Bronze Star. While ‘getting his wings,’ in 1953 he went on a blind date with Runelle, who was a Braniff Airways flight attendant at the time and the pair were together ever since. In December 1973 Jack retired from the US Air Force with the aeronautical rating of command pilot and the rank of lieutenant colonel. The following year he began his second career in the real estate business in St. Petersburg, where he served as president of the local Realtor Association and was an officer of the Florida Association of Realtors.
Always Margaret from the first grade on (never Peggy or Maggie), she always requested to be called by her full name. Tall and willowy, with chestnut hair and warm brown eyes, Bowman had her mother’s strong features as well as her delicate nose. As a little girl, she would sit in her father’s lap while he read her Peter Rabbit, and if he stopped for any reason she would pick up where he left off, reciting the book completely from memory, and when her grandparents gave her a copy of ‘The Secret Garden’ at the age of ten, she devoured it, and read it over and over again.
In Margaret’s early years the Bowman family moved around a lot, but in 1973 they settled down in St. Petersburg, FL during her time in high school and college. During her junior and senior years in high school Bowman was a member of the drama club, the Civinettes service club, the scuba diving club, and the tennis team, and in her senior year she served as the president of the French Club and the French National Honor Society, ‘Le Cercle Francais;’ she also enjoyed playing chess with her brother.
At the time of her murder, Bowman was 21 years old and a junior art history major (she had a deep love for classical civilizations) at Florida State University in Tallahassee and was a member of the Gamma Chapter of the Chi Omega sorority. She joined the Chi Omega’s because her grandmother (who was also named Margaret) had pledged there as well. She lived in room number nine in their house on West Jefferson Street, and was described by her sisters as ‘very religious’ but very sweet and easy to get along with. Margaret was rush chairman for the Chi Oh’s and was a member of the schools senate, and in January 1978, she was learning to sew and was working on making a green velveteen dress.
On the evening prior to their murders, both Bowman and her sorority sister Lisa Levy had been at Sherrod’s, a disco-like bar that was located right next door to their house, but whether Bundy saw them there is unknown. According to The Tallahassee Democrat on January 17, 1978, Margaret was invited to go out for a late night burger at an all-night diner on the evening she was killed but she turned them down, deciding to go to bed instead.
In the early morning hours of January 15, 1978, Bowman was attacked as she was asleep in her second story bedroom as well as three other coeds: Lisa Levy, Karen Chandler, and Kathy Kleiner were found brutally attacked in their beds. Kleiner and Chandler survived, but Margaret and Levy did not. Using blood samples from the four women, forensic serologist (which is a scientist that studies bodily fluids) Richard L. Stephens proved that Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman were bludgeoned before Kleiner and Chandler.
According to author Steve Winn, responding Tallahassee police officer Bill Newkirk went into Margaret’s room first and he assessed the damage: the young coed laid on her bed in a limp, awkward pose and she had a pair of panty hose cinched around her neck (knotted at the windpipe); her lifeless eyes stared blankly in front of her, and her mouth was gaped open. She had experienced a substantial blow to the head and had a large puncture on the left side of her cranium as well. There was blood everywhere, which had largely accumulated around her shoulders and head and there was also a bloody palm print on the wall that had already started to dry. Despite the massive head wound that Bowman had, the medical examiner concluded that both her and Levy died as a result of strangulation.
According to Officer Newkirk: ‘Ms. Bowman was lying on the bed in the south-west corner of the room with her head and feet pointing in the south-north direction, respectively. The bed spread was covering Ms. Bowman’s entire body with the exception of her head, which was tilted to the right lying on her pillow. Her face was facing the west wall. This writer pulled back the cover bedspread and observed Ms. Bowman had been strangled with a pair of nylon panty hose. Her legs were bent outwardly slightly and spread open. Ms. Bowman was lying on her stomach. Her right arm was extended down her side and her left arm was bent with her elbow facing east and her left hand resting on her back. Both palms of the hands were turned upward. This writer turned Ms. Bowman over onto her right side to check for a heartbeat or pulse and discovered neither. This writer looked at Ms. Bowman’s head and observed where Ms. Bowman had received a crushing blow to her right forehead coupled with what appeared to be puncture wounds in the same vicinity. Massive bleeding occurred from both the forehead and the right ear. Additionally Ms. Bowman’s neck appeared to be disjointed leading this writer to believe there was a possible neck fracture. Ms. Bowman’s body was relatively warm to the touch and her eyes were glassy with pupils dilated.’
As we all know, Margaret’s killer would later be identified as Ted Bundy, who was first arrested in Granger, Utah in August 1975. After being found guilty of attempted kidnapping on March 2, 1976, Bundy escaped (for the second time) from Glenwood Springs jail in Colorado on December 31, 1977, and over the course of a few days he slowly made his way to the sunshine state, arriving by bus on January 6, 1978. He secured housing at ‘The Oaks’ rooming house the following day, and was seen next to the Chi Omega house late in the day on January 14, 1978.
At 2:00 AM on January 15, 1978 Bundy left Sharrod’s Bar and approximately a half hour later entered the Chi Omega house and began his assault on the four sleeping coeds. It’s strongly believed that Margaret was attacked while in her bed at about 2:45 AM; she had been sexually assaulted and beaten with a piece of firewood, then strangled to death with a Hanes stocking. At 3:17 AM Nita Neary arrived home from a date when she heard unusual noises coming from the upstairs, and suddenly a man came running downstairs then out the door; police were immediately called and nine minutes later they arrived on the scene.
After fleeing the Chi Omega house Bundy made his way about eight blocks over to Dunwoody Street, where at 4:37 AM he broke into the basement apartment of Cheryl Thomas. He brutally attacked the 21-year-old dance major and left her for dead; her skull was broken in five places and she suffered from a dislocated shoulder and fractured jaw. Thomas survived, but due to the permanent loss of equilibrium that she suffered from the attack essentially ended her dance career.
Thankfully before the media broke the news the families of the victims were notified of what happened in the early morning hours of January 15, 1978. The attacks at Florida State shook the Tallahassee community, and the perpetrator remained unidentified for nearly a month. Bundy was arrested for the final time at 1:30 AM on February 15, 1978, but not before he killed 12 year old Kimberly Diane Leach in Lake City, Florida; he was identified two days later. On July 7, 1978 he was indicted for the Chi Omega attacks and after standing trial was given the death sentence for the murders; he was executed on January 24, 1989.
Margaret was one of the few victims whose murder Bundy was ever charged with, and in the days before his execution he confessed to thirty murders, including hers. After their daughter’s death the Bowman family found peace within their church, St. Thomas Episcopal on Snell Isle. Mrs. Bowman said: ‘We decided that the only acceptable way to continue on with our lives was to live life to the fullest and not become bitter old people that no one wanted to be around.’
If Margaret Bowman were alive in December 2024, she would be 67 years old. Her parents thought she would have found happiness working at a museum, possibly involving art or archaeology and would probably be married with children of her own. In 1987, Jack and Runelle Bowman donated a cross in their daughter’s name at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in St. Petersburg, where Margaret once belonged. Runelle said that God blessed her with ‘a non-feeling’ when it came to the man that killed her daughter, and she didn’t hate him or even think about him. Instead she turned to her faith, and went to church every Sunday, where she would look at the cross dedicated to Margaret and remember her memory. According to Mrs. Bowman, ‘we decided that the only acceptable way to continue on with our lives was to live life to the fullest and not become bitter old people that no one wanted to be around.’
After Margaret was murdered Runelle Bowman went back to school and earned her Bachelor’s degree in business from the University of South Florida in 1982. After graduating and getting a job in her field she never missed an opportunity to cook a good meal for someone she loved, and her ‘food offerings’ helped serve as a great reminder of how much she loved her family and friends.
On the morning of Bundy’s execution Jack Bowman couldn’t sleep, and as dawn crept near he and Runelle turned on their television set. As seven o’clock came and went, somewhere inside of Florida State Prison the last person to see Margaret alive was being strapped into the electric chair. According to an article published by The Tampa Bay Times, at 7:18 AM they were notified by Paul Freeman from the attorney general’s office that their daughter’s killer had finally been put to death. Freeman’s position had only recently been created mostly due to the efforts of Diane Cossin, a Chi Omega sorority sister who held Lisa Levy as she died.
Following the call, the couple heard horns and fireworks going off in the distance, and on the news saw crudely made signs supporting Bundy’s death and felt a little sickened. About the execution, Mrs. Bowman said: ‘I don’t understand. You don’t see any of the victims’ families acting that way.’ As they watched their TV they saw an eyewitness to the execution describe Ted as looking scared, but that he had managed to retain a sense of dignity. Jack Bowman was glad to hear that, saying: ‘I didn’t have a motivation of vengeance. I had a motivation of justice.’ In the days following Bundy’s death, someone asked about his feelings regarding the execution, to which he replied, ‘I wanted him punished, This was not hard for me,’ and when asked to talk more about Margaret, he began to cry then shut his eyes, saying ‘I don’t think I can.’
After retiring Jack and Runelle decided to stay in Florida because of the kindness they had received from the community when they were on deployment. According to his son, Mr. Bowman was someone that never forgot a face or said an unkind word about anyone, and enjoyed a good meal at a fine restaurant with loved ones. About her husband, Runelle said ‘I was so blessed to have Jack as my husband. He made me a better person. He could connect with people and people loved him.’ The couple were married for over sixty years when Jack died of esophageal cancer at the age of 84 on May 31, 2015. Runelle Bowman passed away peacefully at the age of 88 on March 13, 2021.
Valerie Ann Duke.
Valerie Ann Duke was born on July 27, 1956 to Thomas and Elizabeth Ann (nee Porter) Duke in Mathis, Texas. Mr. Duke was born on September 15, 1931 Archer City, Archer, TX and Elizabeth was born on August 9, 1933 in Mathis, TX. The couple were wed on November 6, 1954 and had two children together: Valerie and her younger brother Thomas Wade Duke II (b. 1957). An Eagle Scout, Tom went on to earn his PhD in Oceanography at Texas A&M after serving as a Lieutenant in the US Air Force. At some time the family relocated to Tucson, AZ and in 1968 they moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida. The Duke family was Methodist, and before her death Valerie was a member of the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church.
Information about her background was hard to come by, but I do know she graduated from Woodham High School in Pensacola in 1974 then went on to attend Florida State University in Tallahassee. After enrolling she pledged the Gamma Chapter of the Chi Omega society, and eventually moved into their house on West Jefferson Street; in early 1978 she lived across the hall from Lisa Levy, and next to Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler. On January 14, 1978 (which was the night before Bundy’s Chi Omega attacks) Duke decided to go home to her parents house for the weekend in Gulf Breeze, and was not present for the murders that took place the following evening.
On the first anniversary of the murders Valerie Duke dropped out of school, which according to her mother was ‘completely out of character for Valerie. She had broken up with her boyfriend and couldn’t seem to decide whether to stay in Tallahassee or come here.’ Her sorority sisters also said that she was having an incredibly difficult time processing the murders, and to make matters worse, according to her parents Bundy’s fingerprints were found in her room (even though I came across a shred of evidence that confirmed that).
But, Valerie believed it and on May 1, 1979 while driving in between her home in Gulf Breeze and Tallahassee the twenty-two year old* pulled her car off to the side of the road near the East River in Holley and shot herself; she died as a result of her injuries. Her remains were discovered at 6 PM later the day, roughly ten hours after she killed herself . Former Lieutenant Ron Boswell of the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Department said Duke parked her car near the river, locked the doors, then shot herself with a .38 caliber pistol that was found inside of the car. Also according to Boswell, ‘a suicide note was found inside of the car, at this point we have no reason to suspect foul play.’ It’s strongly speculated by those that knew her well that survivors’ guilt drove Duke to take her own life, and after a communion service she was laid to rest at the Cenizo Hill Cemetery in Mathis, TX. * For the record, I have seen her age listed at both 20 and 22, but simple math puts her at 22 years old.
Thomas Wade Duke I retired from the US Environmental Protection Agency as their Laboratory Director of Marine Biological Research in Gulf Breeze, FL, and went on to work as an environmental consultant for five years. In 2006 Tom and Elizabeth moved from Florida to Woodstock, Georgia to be close to their son and his family. Dr. Thomas Duke died at the age of 79 on March 10, 2011 in Woodstock, Georgia, and Mrs. Duke passed away at the age of 84 after a lengthy illness on December 1, 2017 in Pensacola.
on August 12, 1979.
Analysis of ‘No Man of God.’
Directed by Amber Sealy and written by C. Robert Cargill (under the pseudonym of Kit Lesser), ‘No Man of God’ stars Elijah Wood (as Bill Hagmaier), Luke Kirby (as Ted Bundy), Aleksa Palladino (as Ted’s final attorney Carolyn Lieberman/Diana Weiner), and James Patrick of Terminator fame (Roger Depue). The film had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 11, 2021 and was officially released by RLJE Films on August 27, 2021. In my opinion, this movie is unlike any other Bundy production that’s out there because it takes place (almost) completely inside the walls of Florida State Prison after his murders and trials took place. Set between 1985 and 1989, it’s based on conversations between the FBI Agent (Hagmaier) and serial killer during his time on death row in the sunshine state. In the opening scene some information about what you’re about to watch appears on the screen: ‘in the late 1970’s, a team of FBI researchers proposed that, by understanding the psychology of violent serial offenders, investigators could more effectively combat serial rapes and homicides. The process was called profiling. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the establishment of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, creating the first five full-time positions for FBI profilers. Special Agent Bill Hagmaier was picked as one. The following is inspired by FBI transcripts, recordings, and the recollections of Bill Hagmaier.’
The movie begins in 1985, where an group of FBI agents from the elite Behavior Science Unit are sitting in on a meeting with Supervisory Special Agent Roger Depue, who shares with them that he needs them to gather case studies on violent offenders, including serial rapists and killers (by ‘begins’ I mean the plot of the movie, in literal terms it actually begins with a real-life broadcast announcing Bundy’s execution). Names like Charles Manson, Ed Kemper, and David Berkowitz are thrown around… and when the other agents laughed and passed on Ted, newcomer William Hagmaier accepted the challenge despite being aware of the killers deep distrust of the Bureau. Initially through snail mail, Bundy expressed interest in communicating with Hagmaier, who eventually traveled to the condemned man’s final home for an interview. Over the next couple of years, the two men developed an unusual ‘friendship’ of sorts while discussing pornography and detective magazines as a possible catalyst for violent serial offenders. Despite some hesitation at first from the agent, during these conversations Bundy was able to cajole personal details about his personal life out of him, under the guise of establishing trust between them.
The following year the two men met again. This time, Ted is shown some crime scene photos related to the recent Green River murders and gives Hagmaier his opinion on them, and through the agents sly questioning the killer accidentally volunteers some details about his own diabolical history. At one point during their chat Bundy asks Bill if he thinks he could kill someone, and when the agent responds that, due to his being an FBI agent it could in theory happen, it’s not exactly the answer he was seeking. Back at Quantico, FBI Unit Chief Depue cautioned his agent not to get too close to someone like Bundy, and that he ‘didn’t want someone like him getting inside his head.’ Despite this warning, while sharing stories about their children during their next visit in 1987, Ted senses that his new friend is getting too deep inside of his head and taunts him to wonder outloud what he might do if he ever escaped from prison. In response, Hagmaier describes it with (most likely) a good amount of accuracy, which makes him furious and he verbally attacks him. After calming down a bit Bundy begins to disclose more intimate details of his life and what may have led him to murder, but along the way he also dispelled many of the popular myths about him (such as going after women with long, dark hair). The killer also shared that in an alternate reality Bill could be the one sitting in prison and he could be an FBI agent, a statement that deeply affected the agent.
Thanks to IMDB, I learned quite a few interesting facts about the movie I was unaware about before writing this article: in the first conversation between Bundy and Agent Hagmaier the SK asks why the Bureau didn’t send Douglas, and by that he meant John Douglas, who was the criminal profiler that wrote ‘Mindhunter’ on which the TV series is based. Also, when Bill is talking to Bundy about confessing he mentions Henry Lee Lucas, another serial killer that (along with his partner/lover Otis Toole) frequently lied and fabricated stories about his criminal history, hinting at him to tell the truth. Lastly, in 1987 Ted mentions that they should co-author a book together and name it ‘The Bill and Ted Show,’ alluding to the 1989 movie ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ which was released less than a month after he was executed. This is one of the few errors, as the movie wasn’t released for two years after this conversation took place.
The final half of the movie (roughly) takes place in the last few days of Bundy’s life in January 1989, after (then) Florida state Governor Bob Martinez signed his death warrant and he was trying to weasel his way out of getting executed. Ted (of course) said that the determination of only being granted seven days was done by the governor in a pathetic attempt to gain the favor of the people of Florida in the hopes of getting reelected (spoiler alert, he did not). Hearing of the killers quickly approaching doom, individuals from all over the US as well as members of the media began to gather outside the prison. At this time, we meet his civil attorney Carolyn Lieberman, who is deeply against Hagmaiers involvement in anything related to Ted due to his ties to ‘law enforcement,’ however the killer is insistent that he be there, saying Bill is his ‘best friend.’
Hagmaier was sent to Florida not to fight for Bundy’s life but to simply be there and act as his scheduling coordinator: Ted is finally ready to confess and spill all of his secrets, and because he is a complete narcissist it’s all being done on his terms. He tells Bill of his plan to only give detectives the bare minimum in order to bait them and make them want more, which he hoped would grant him more time to live. In response, the agent urges Bundy not to play games with the governor of Florida, advice that he mostly ignores. Members of law enforcement agencies from all over the US poured into Florida: Idaho, California, Oregon, Colorado, and Utah; where I didn’t hear representatives from NJ or Vermont mentioned I recall Bundy also being questioned about the 1969 New Jersey Parkway murders (Susan Davis and Elizabeth Perry) as well as the 1971 homicide of schoolteacher Rita Curran (in VT).
During interviews with investigators across multiple states, Bundy is purposefully vague and evasive with his answers, only sharing small tidbits of information with them. Additionally, he completely disregarded Bill’s concerns about media coverage and Carolyn scheduled an interview with Christian Psychologist, creator of ‘Focus on the Family,’ and straight up douchebag Dr. James Dobson the day before he was executed in hopes that he would petition the governor on behalf of Ted in hopes of getting a stay… But of course, the sleazebag waited until after the interview to reveal that he never planned on talking to Martinez, as he felt the killer would never be granted a pardon. It was really almost spooky watching Kirby’s performance as Bundy during his interview: not only was the dialogue nearly identical but so were the facial expressions made by the killer. It was as if he somehow channeled Bundy’s spirit during that scene.
Later that day after the interview the warden informed Hagmaier that Bundy was to undergo a last-minute sanity hearing, and where multiple conversations were to be conducted the decision to put the killer to death would ultimately fall completely on his testimony to a psychiatric board; as we know, they ultimately declare Bundy sane.
When the men speak for the last time on January 23, 1989 Bill brings up a conversation they had a few years prior, about being ‘brought under the water:’ through violent, horrifying details, Bundy finally opened up and shared how he lured and killed one of his victims, leaving the agent completely overwhelmed and in tears. After this interaction Ted asked his friend why this is happening to him, proving he was still completely remorseless. Infuriated, as Bill prepares to leave the condemned man asks if he had any idea why he did what he did, to which he simply said, ‘because you wanted to.’ Just moments before Bundy was scheduled to die, Hagmaier is told by a prison official that he had been taken off the list to sit in on the execution so that someone else could fill his spot. The movie wraps up with Agent Hagmaier alone in the warden’s office, answering the telephone and talking to his wife and son. As he is catching up with his son, the crowd outside erupts in spirited cheers as it was announced that Ted was officially declared dead.
Just some quick background on Diana: she was a civil attorney, which is a type of lawyer that mainly works on civil lawsuits (such as, a personal injury case or contract dispute) and represents their clients in non-criminal areas of the law. Weiner (whose maiden name was Acevedo) got her BA from Houghton College (which is a Christian school close to where I live) in NY in 1969 and went on to earn her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown in 1982. She has been married to her husband Nevin for over forty years, who also worked as an attorney before retiring.
Diana first met Ted Bundy in October 1986 through psychologist Art Norman, who was brought on earlier in the year to interview him for a clemency proceeding. Dr. Norman was in the same social circle as Weiner and her husband, and he felt that Bundy would be more open and honest if there was an ‘intelligent, attractive attorney, and a woman who could be very open and would have the personality to open up and would not be threatened by whatever he says.’ Well, he was definitely on the right track: almost immediately, Diana’s presence prompted Ted to talk more honestly and intensely about his feelings towards violence and women, which were ‘things he has difficulty talking about with a man.’ All of this was being done by Dr. Norman in an attempt to figure out whether the killer had been ‘mentally competent’ to stand trial when he was convicted in the early 1980’s. Shortly after their meeting, Weiner officially became Bundy’s civil attorney and represented him (along with other death row inmates) in a civil rights lawsuit surrounding the poor ‘exercise conditions’ at Raiford Prison.
There seemed to be quite a bit of whispering about the nature of hers and Bundy’s relationship before he was put to death, but there is no proof that anything inappropriate ever took place between the two. About Bundy, Weiner said they had ‘an attorney-client relationship, but I also, as an attorney and client do, developed a congenial relationship with the client.’ The idea is strongly hinted at in ‘No Man of God’ as well: in the movie the warden asked Hagmaier why a civil attorney needed to visit a death row inmate 80 times in three years, and where I don’t know how accurate that estimation is, in reality she spent roughly seventy hours with him during his time on death row.
According to the website ‘yourtango’ (just for the record, I don’t know how accurate this information is), Bundy’s feelings for Weiner were so glaringly obvious that they became a bit of annoyance to the rest of his legal team, including his defense attorney Polly Nelson. At one point she even confronted Ted about his feelings, which she was beginning to suspect were making her own job more difficult. In her book ‘Defending the Devil,’ Nelson wrote about her experience, and at one point said: ‘Ted, quit giving me this ‘Ms. Weiner’ stuff. I know why you see her, and it has nothing to do with any lawsuit. She’s beautiful, she’s interested, she can come during lawyer’s visiting hours, and you can have unsupervised visits with her.’ In response to this, Ted paused briefly, smiled then said, ‘that about sums it up.’
In one of the few interviews she did after Ted’s execution, Weiner said she the man she knew wasn’t a killer, or a rapist: while she made it clear that she wasn’t in any way minimizing what he did, she remembers a man that became a born-again Christian that seemed genuinely remorseful for what he did and was sincere when he said he wanted to confess in hopes to ease the pain of his victims’ families: “I think the public is unwilling to accept that there could be a commonality between Ted Bundy and the rest of humanity or that Ted Bundy could have at the end of his life sought to tell the truth, confess or have had any moral compunction to do so.’
According to the legal paperwork that was left behind by the killer, Bundy left Weiner all of his worldly possessions, including his wedding ring, roughly $700, and his ashes. Regarding the latter of the three, she was instructed by her client to spread them across one of his dumpsites at Taylor Mountain, which never took place; a family member of Ted’s is currently in possession of them.
One thing I wonder about is the scene towards the end of the movie when Ted said he would rather slit his wrists then be killed by the state of Florida, an act he was easily talked out of by Hagmaier. I mean, it was no secret that Bundy was absolutely terrified of dying, and personally I think he would never have committed suicide because I honest to God think he fully expected a call from the governor granting him another stay of execution at the very last possible moment (like, as he was being strapped into the Ol’ Sparky). I mean… I just don’t think Bundy had it in him to take his own life. It’s ironic, in a really sad way: he had no problem killing potentially dozens upon dozens of girls and young women, but when it came to himself he was scared shitless.
One thing I was incredibly impressed by was how accurate this movie was when it came to the smaller details about Bundy’s life as well as his timeline. In quite a few Ted related movies, the creators changed the names of victims and family members, but that didn’t happen with ‘No Man of God.’ They even called his daughter by the correct name, which surprised me a bit as I know she has tried her hardest to stay out of the limelight regarding her fathers case (I hope that was able to continue); it’s even mentioned that that he hadn’t seen Rosa for a long stretch of time after he told Carole Ann Boone his plans of confessing (she stopped visiting in 1986). Additionally, when Bill talks about how his son pulled his pants down while pretending to be an elephant while crab-walked around his preschool classroom… Well, he really does have a son named Bryan, who followed in his fathers footsteps and became an officer with the NYPD (and I’m sure he loved that story being involved in the movie).
Other popular names related to Bundy were also used, like Liz Kloepfer, true crime legend Ann Rule, and his first love Diane Edwards. Rule is briefly brought up in conversation, when Ted denied her theory that Edwards was the main catalyst for his drive to kill and declared that being dumped by her had nothing to do with why he committed such atrocities. One name did jump out at me as being wrong but it was the way it was done that surprised me: Hagmaier questioned Bundy about ‘Diane Leach,’ and where the details were mostly correct they called her by her middle name and completely left out her first (Kimberly). Another identity that was changed was Carolyn Leiberman, and it wasn’t until after I spent a solid half-hour trying to figure out who she was that I realized the name was changed from Diana Weiner. My educated guess as to why: Ms. Weiner is still alive and the creators of the movie didn’t want people looking her up and harassing her.
And now I’m just going to go through and point out various things that interested me about this movie (thrilling, I know):
- When Bundy is talking to members of LE across various states about his potential victims, the detective from Oregon lists different cities across the state and asks whether or not he ever murdered there. Every place he brings up is one that Ted was suspected of killing in: Eugene (mainly Vicki Lynn Hollar but there are other suspected victims), West Linn (Rita Lorraine Jolly), and Corvallis (Kathy Parks, who was actually confirmed).
- When a detective from Colorado questions Ted if he committed murder before 1975 (specifically 1968) he evades the question at first, and says he’s ready to break for lunch; when alone he tells Agent Hagmaier that he suspects the officer was in a relationship with one of the women he killed. I found no evidence that this ever happened, and I have never heard of this before seeing ‘No Man of God’ (I also couldn’t find a record of it anywhere else). After Ted tells Bill of his suspicions about the member of LE he shares that he not only killed the young woman but he also ‘made love to her dead body’ then cut her head ‘clean off.’ Looking into murdered women from the state in 1968, on March 26 Constance Marie Paris walked off a bus in Denver at the intersection of Girard Avenue and South Broadway and was never seen alive again. Just five days later on March 31, 1968 her remains were found in a ditch in the southwest part of Denver; she was found naked and was strangled and sexually assaulted. As of July 2024 her case remains unsolved.
- Ted told Bill that when he was finally recaptured in Florida he tried to tell police who he was but they didn’t believe him. I recall (from listening to Liz Kloepfer’s ‘The Phantom Prince’ exactly one thousand times on Audible) that in reality he was reluctant to share his true identity and only gave them his name in exchange for a phone call (to Liz)… so I’m not exactly sure how accurate that part is.
- When Ted takes Bill ‘under the water,’ he mentioned using smelling salts to revive his victim, which I never heard of him using before. Also interesting, the victim he discussed killing was Kathy Parks. In this scene, he said: ‘I’m going to… take you somewhere… that I’ve never taken anyone before. And I will do the talking. She’s… beautiful. She’s…. Radiant. And very familiar. Her dad is sick. He’s, uh… He’s in and out of the hospital. I hear her talking about it over a pay phone. He has heart problems. I have a badge that I got in the usual way, a local police badge. And tonight… full moon. She looks amazing. She’s exactly like one of the girls from the magazines. Walk up to her. I’m Officer Ted, Officer Ted Bundy. Something’s happened. She goes pale. “What do you mean?” ‘Your father’s had a heart attack. I was sent to find you. My car is over this way.” She rushes with me. It all happened so fast. She doesn’t have time to clock the police officer is picking her up in a Volkswagen. I open the door for her. Before she realizes there’s no passenger seat, wham! I hit her in the back of the head with a tire iron. She’s out. Isn’t she beautiful? Her dark hair parted down the middle.’ Parks was abducted on May 6, 1974 at around 11 PM, most likely right outside the Memorial Union on Oregon State University’s campus; she was on her way to get a hot fudge sundae. We know that she was incredibly upset and distracted that night because her father had recently suffered from a heart attack and she was concerned about him.
I know that Ted once told a story that he was in the library at Michigan State University and was flipping through college catalogs while contemplating his next move… he knew he wanted to go somewhere warm that was near water and close to a college campus. The movie features a scene where Ted tells Bill that he didn’t want to get caught, and honestly I’m going to have to lean towards that. Did he go to Florida in hopes of living out the rest of his life in anonymity, or did he go there purposefully to get a death sentence? Or, did he simply not want to live the rest of his life behind bars? I mean… I’m sure he was aware that if he stayed in Colorado there would be a good chance that he would die of natural causes while living out his final days in prison. If you really think about it, the Chi Omega murders (and the attack of Cheryl Thomas on Dunwoody Street) were incredibly reckless almost to a point they would be considered careless. It was as if he was begging to get caught. Why was he so sloppy if he wanted to avoid detection?
Over the years there have been many movies made about Ted Bundy, and that isn’t taking into account the dozens upon dozens of documentary-type television shows and mini-series that have been produced as well. Personally, my favorite is the oldest one starring Mark Hammon titled, ‘The Deliberate Stranger.’ Made in 1986, it’s a (fairly) accurate retelling of a book by the same name that was written by Seattle Times reporter Richard W. Larsen in 1980. The book was adapted into a two-part made for TV movie that originally aired on NBC on May 4 and 5, 1986. What I think is interesting about this is that TB was still alive when it was made, even though he claimed he had no interest in seeing it. Surprisingly, there wasn‘t another film about the SK made until 2002 (things really seem to pick up after that), when Michael Reilly Burke played the serial killer in the movie simply named ‘Ted Bundy;’ it was universally panned (as it should have been because it’s a total of crap) and was deemed ‘exploitative’ by critics. The following year Ann Rule’s classic ‘The Stranger Beside Me’ was made into another made for TV movie starring Billy Campbell and Barbara Hershey. Next up: on July 21, 2008 Parker Lewis himself Corin Nemec starred in ‘Bundy: An American Icon’ (which is also called ‘Bundy: A Legacy of Evil’) and to be honest, I thought this and the MRB movie were one in the same. I only recently realized that they’re two separate films. Then of course in 2019 we have another favorite of mine, the Zac Efron/Lily Collins Netflix movie titled, ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile,’ and where it wasn’t entirely accurate it was pretty well-made and entertaining. Lastly, in 2021 one-time teen heart throb Chad Michael Murray played the titular character in ‘Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman;’ it was a cinematic abortion and I don’t think I ever finished it.
There’s also been multiple films about Bundy’s involvement in the investigation of the Green River/Gary Ridgway killings that took place near Bundy’s hometown of Tacoma: in 2004 Cary Elwes portrayed Ted in ‘The Riverman,’ followed by ‘The Capture Of The Green River Killer’ in 2008 then ‘Bundy And The Green River Killer’ in 2019.
On the movie review website ‘Rotten Tomatoes,’ ‘No Man of God’ currently has an approval rating of 80% based of 81 reviews; the film has an IMDB rating of 6.4/10. According to ‘Metacritic,’ it has a weighted score of 67/100 and a user score of 7.1 (based off 21` reviews); this is considered by them to be ‘highly favorable.’ As of July 2024 ‘No Man of God’ earned $216,000 at the worldwide box office.
Works Cited:
bundyphile.com/2021/11/05/no-man-of-god-movie-review/
yourtango.com/2019321781/who-is-diana-weiner-ted-bundys-lawyer-and-final-love-interest
Ted Bundy Drawings from his time at Florida State Prison.
I always knew John Wayne Gacy created artwork while in prison but I didn’t know Bundy did as well. Referred to as ‘the Ted Bundy Drawings,’ these five pieces of artwork were supposedly sketched by the killer himself, and it’s strongly speculated they depicted images that utilized metaphors as well as allusions and weren’t of his victims. They offer no explanation for his crimes against humanity, but do share some general, very loose commonalities, such as dark and intense eyes, over-exaggerated mouths, and a consistent ‘phallic’ type of shape.
Thank you to the website ‘The True Crime Database” for these pictures. Taken on May 2, 2024 from https://www.thetruecrimedatabase.com/case_file/ted-bundy-drawings/
Bundy’s Execution: January 24, 1989.
Theodore Robert Bundy was executed in Florida’s Prison’s electric chair on January 24, 1989 after brutally raping and killing dozens of young women between 1974 and 1978 (most likely earlier than that). The infamous serial killer was sentenced to capital punishment after brutally killing three young women in Florida (and countless others across the Pacific Northwest) and had been given the death penalty three times before he was finally killed. Bundy sat on death row for almost a decade when he was finally executed at 7:16 AM EST, and the event became a celebration of sorts for Floridians. On January 23, as the condemned man was spilling his guts in a last ditch effort to push off his execution, a crowd of almost 500 gathered outside the Florida Prison chanting phrases such as ‘die, Bundy, die’ and ‘burn Bundy, burn,’ drinking drank beer and holding signs that read ‘watch Ted fry, see Ted die!’ But not everyone was excited, there was also a small group of anti-death penalty protesters that didn’t want to see the event take place.
Judge Edward Douglas Cowert.
Edward Douglas Cowart was born on February 17, 1925 to William and Helen (nee Douglas) in Plant City, FL. He had an older brother named William that was born in 1920. Judge Cowart served in the Navy from 1942 to 1946 and when he returned married Elizabeth Pearl Royal on July 22, 1946. The couple had two daughters, Susan and Patricia. Cowart worked as a motorcycle officer in the Miami Police Department before returning to school to earn his degrees in law: he got a BA in 1950 from the University of Miami and a JD from Stetson University in 1952.
Cowart worked as a Dade County Circuit Court Judge for 14 years. He was highly respected in the law community and was well-known for his almost Southern hospitality and long drawl. The trial that helped make him famous is that of Ted Bundy, who had a messy, incomplete background in law himself and was originally arrested for a series of murders in the Pacific Northwest on August 16, 1975 in Utah (between at the very least 1974 and 75). The judge imposed a death sentence on the serial killer, and he is frequently remembered for his unusually sympathetic post-sentencing remarks to Bundy:
‘The court finds that both of these killings were indeed heinous, atrocious and cruel. And that they were extremely wicked, shockingly evil, vile and the product of a design to inflict a high degree of pain and utter indifference to human life. This court, independent of, but in agreement with the advisory sentence rendered by the jury does hereby impose the death penalty upon the defendant Theodore Robert Bundy. It is further ordered that on such scheduled date that you’ll be put to death by a current of electricity, sufficient to cause your immediate death, and such current of electricity shall continue to pass through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity, I think, as I’ve experienced in this courtroom. You’re a bright young man. You’d have made a good lawyer and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. I don’t feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself.’
Cowart replaced Gerald Kogan in the position of Dade County Circuit Court, as he was appointed to the Florida state Supreme Court. About Cowart, Kogan said that he was ‘one of those human beings who was destined to be a judge. He was intelligent, he was compassionate, he was understanding, and when he had to be, he was tough as nails.’
In 1982 then Dade State Attorney and (former) US Attorney General Janet Reno hired Cowart to be her chief assistant, in between his stints on the bench. He stayed in the position until 1984, when he went back to be a judge at the Dade County Circuit Court. Every year he was in that role, Cowart ranked either at or close to the top in the annual Dade Bar poll of judges.
Just after midnight on August 3, 1987 Edward Douglas Cowart died of a massive heart attack at Coral Reef hospital in Miami at the age of 62. He was cremated and the location of ashes is unknown. In his obituary published by The Miami Herald on August 7, 1987, ‘from jail guards to Supreme Court justices, traffic cops to traffic judges,the wept together and swapped favorite stories on Thursday (August 6, 1987) at a memorial service for Dade Circuit Court Judge Edward Cowart.’ The 25 minute long service in the massive Old Cutler Presbyterian Church (which seats 1,500) was standing room only.
What is so upsetting to me is that Bundy outlived the judge, as he wasn’t executed until January 1989 (after a number of unsuccessful appeals to Cowart and the Court of Appeals in attempts to overturn his death sentence or be granted a new trial). Elizabeth Cowart passed away on April 5, 2001 in Danbury, CT. Their daughter Susan passed away on October 4, 2007.
Kimberly Dianne Leach.
Bundy’s Confirmed Victims: A List.
I’ve been spending a good chunk of my time writing about the unconfirmed victims so in this installment of ‘All Things Bundy,’ I’m going over his confirmed kills.
Karen Sparks-Epley (18). January 4, 1974. Survived, Seattle, WA.
Also referred to as ‘Joni Lenz,’ Sparks was brutally assaulted by Ted Bundy while asleep in her basement apartment in the University District of Seattle. She was his first known victim. Thankfully Bundy didn’t kill her, however she was badly beaten with a metal rod, sexually assaulted, and left unconscious for hours before her roommates discovered her later that night. Ted left her with a number of serious long-term injuries she still struggles with to this day.
Lynda Ann Healy (21). February 1, 1974. Murdered, Seattle, WA.
On January 31st, 1974, Healy borrowed a friends car to go shopping for a family dinner she was preparing the next night and returned with her groceries at roughly 8:30 PM. Shortly after, Lynda and her roommates went drinking at a popular bar called Dante’s Tavern located at 5300 Roosevelt Way NE. The establishment was a five minute walk from her apartment but the friends didn’t stay out long because Lynda needed to be up at 5:30 AM to be at her job giving the ski report for a local radio station. A number of sources report that Bundy used to go to Dante’s often and it is hypothesized that he first saw Lynda there then followed her home. In the early morning hours of February 1, 1974, he broke into Healy’s basement room, beat her, took off her bloody nightgown (making sure to neatly hang it up in her closet), dressed her then carried her off into the night. It is theorized that Ted only took clothes to make it appear as if Lynda left on her own but obviously we’ll most likely never know the truth. Her body found in March 1975 on Taylor Mountain, near Issaquah outside of Seattle.
Donna Gail Manson (19). March 12, 1974. Murdered, Olympia, WA.
On the day of her abduction, Donna planned on going to a folk dancing class at the College Activities Building at Evergreen State College (where she attended). Later that same night, she made plans to go to a jazz concert at the Daniel J. Evans Library (also on campus), which was scheduled to start at 8 PM. Donna departed her dormitory just after 7 PM and set out for the dance class, which was just a two minute walk away. Despite how close the College Activities Building was to her dorm, no one recalls seeing her at either the dancing class or the jazz recital, making it highly unlikely that she ever made it that far. Manson was never seen alive again. After confessing to her murder, Bundy said he burned her skull in Liz Kendall’s fireplace.
Susan Elaine Rancourt (18). April 17, 1974. Murdered, Ellensburg, WA.
Shortly before 8 PM the evening she disappeared from her college campus at Central Washington University, Susan Rancourt put some clothes in a washing machine in Barto Hall (her dorm building). She then went to a meeting about becoming a Residential Advisor at Munson Hall. When it ended at 10 PM Sue left to walk back to her dorm to switch out her laundry but was never seen alive again. She had plans later that night to watch a movie with a friend but never showed up. Rancourts skull was later found near Taylor Mountain, where Bundy placed several bodies during his reign of terror.
Roberta Kathleen Parks (20). April 17, 1974. Corvallis, OR.
A student at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Parks was abducted from her college campus, which is over a four and a half hour drive for Bundy (who was living at the Rogers Rooming House on 12th Ave NE in Seattle at the time). Shortly before 11:00 PM the night she disappeared, Parks encountered Bundy in the Memorial Union Commons cafeteria at OSU. During Teds interviews with journalists Hugh Aynesworth and Stephen Michaud, he ‘confessed’ in the third-person that Kathy may have encountered her killer while in the cafeteria. Bundy then said he was able to convince her to leave with him and as soon as the opportunity presented itself he immediately overpowered her. He most likely bound and gagged Parks during the 250-mile trip back to Seattle, where then killed her and dumped her body on Taylor Mountain.
Brenda Carol Ball (22). June 1, 1974. Murdered, Burien, WA.
In the wee hours of June 1st, 1974, Brenda Ball seemingly vanished into thin air after seeing a band play at The Flame Tavern located at 12803 Ambaum Boulevard in Burien, WA. She arrived at the bar alone and stayed until closing. As the act was wrapping up their set at the end of the night Brenda asked one of the members she knew for a ride home back to her house but he was heading in the opposite direction so he couldn’t help out. There are two conflicting reports about how she could have left the bar that night: one is that she left by herself and was planning on hitchhiking home, and the other claims that she left with an unidentified man wearing an arm sling. Despite law enforcement being hesitant to officially say her disappearance was related to the other missing girls in Seattle, her skull was the first discovered on Taylor Mountain in March of 1975.
Georgeann Hawkins (18). June 11, 1974. Murdered, Seattle, WA.
A student at the University of Washington, Georgann Hawkins disappeared from an alley behind her sorority house in June 1974. The night before she vanished, Hawkins went to a party, where she had a few mixed cocktails. Because she had a Spanish final coming up that she needed to study she didn’t stay long; she did mention to a sorority sister that she was planning on swinging by the Beta Theta Pi House to pick up some Spanish notes from her boyfriend. Hawkins arrived at the frat at approximately 12:30 AM on June 11 and stayed for approximately thirty minutes. After getting the notes and saying goodnight to her beau, Georgann left the fraternity house for her sorority house, Kappa Alpha Theta. Before he was executed, Ted told law enforcement that he approached her in an alley on her way home, feigning injury with a hurt leg (using his crutches as a ruse) while dropping his briefcase. Bundy asked Hawkins for help carrying the prop to his VW Bug, which was waiting in a parking lot roughly 160 yards north of the alley. She agreed and as she bent over to put the briefcase in his vehicle, Ted grabbed a conveniently placed crowbar and knocked her out with a single blow to the head. He then pushed George into his car and drove off into the night. Bundy claimed that while driving she regained consciousness and started to incoherently babble about her upcoming final, thinking he was her Spanish tutor. He again knocked her out with his crowbar. Once at his intended location, Ted took her unconscious body out of his car and strangled her with an old piece of rope. According to him, the parts of Georgann’s body he had not buried were recovered in Issaquah with the bodies of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. He confessed to murdering Hawkins shortly before his 1989 execution.
Janice Ann Blackburn-Ott (23). July 14, 1974. Murdered, Issaquah, WA.
At the time she was murdered, Janice Ott worked as a probation case worker at the King County Youth Service Center in Seattle, WA. In December of 1973, she married Jim Ott, who at the time of her death was in California for graduate school. After her car was broken into while living in Seattle, she moved in with a roommate to 75 Front Street in Issaquah (she felt the smaller community would be safer). The morning she disappeared, Janice spent a few hours at doing laundry and having a cup of coffee with a friend. After her errands and chores were completed, she rewarded herself with a trip to Lake Sammamish. Ott was abducted by Bundy at around 12.30 PM, and just a mere three and a half hours later he returned to the same park and abducted Denise Naslund.
Denise Marie Naslund (18). July 14, 1974. Murdered, Issaquah, WA.
On a beautiful, picture perfect sunny day, Naslund disappeared from a very busy Lake Samammish State Park (that day was Rainier Beer’s annual picnic, there were over 40,000 people there). She was there with her boyfriend and another couple, and after telling them she was going to the restroom Denise was never seen alive again. Naslund lived with her mother in Seattle and was studying to become a computer programmer. Eleanor Rose said her daughter had the kind of helpful nature that would easily place her in danger. Denise’s remains were found on a hillside near Issaquah roughly two months later in September 1974, only two miles away from Lake Samammish. Bundy confessed to her murder shortly before his execution.
Nancy Wilcox (16). October 2, 1974. Murdered, Holladay, UT.
The first of Teds confirmed Utah victims, Wilcox went missing after she went on a walk to buy a pack of gum (it’s also speculated that from there she was on her way to her high school to visit her boyfriend). She left the house in a huff after getting into a fight with her Dad about her bf’s pick-up truck leaking oil on the families driveway. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox said that because of this law enforcement initially considered her to be a runaway even though they knew their daughter would never voluntarily leave home and had no troubles whatsoever in her personal life. Nancy left all of her personal belongings behind including some expensive jewelry that held deep sentimental value to her. Before he was executed Bundy confessed to sexually assaulting and strangling her, then burying her body about 200 miles away near Capitol Reef National Park. Sadly her body has never been found.
Melissa Smith (17). October 26, 1974. Murdered, Midvale, UT.
Bundy abducted Smith shortly after she left a pizza parlor on West Center Street in Midvale at around 9.30 PM on October 26, 1974. One unconfirmed report suggests that he may have been asking women in the area to help him with a car issue. Melissa was the daughter of Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, and her murder took place just sixteen days after Nancy Wilcox vanished from the nearby city of Holladay (and five days before Laura Aime). On the night she disappeared, Smith was supposed to sleep over at a girlfriend’s house but those plans fell through after she didn’t answer the phone. After realizing she had been stood up, she decided to leave the pizzeria and walk back to her house on Fern Drive. At some point during her walk, its speculated that Bundy grabbed Melissa off the street and killed her. She never made it home.
Laura Aime (17). October 31, 1974. Murdered, Lehi, UT.
Shortly before she disappeared Aime dropped out of high school, left home (she frequently couch surfed at various friends’ homes), and worked a few menial part-time jobs. Surprisingly she still remained in contact with her family and according to her parents, they were just beginning to accept her ‘nomadic lifestyle.’ So, when she first disappeared no one really seemed overly concerned. Thanks to my newspapers.com subscription it didn’t take long for me to realize there were no news articles mentioning Laura Aime’s disappearance at first, and her name only began to appear in ink after two hikers discovered her remains in American Fork Canyon. Additionally, when her body was first discovered, law enforcement first speculated it belonged to Deborah Kent.
Carol DaRonch (18). November 8, 1974. Survived, Murray, UT.
The evening she was abducted Carol DaRonch parked her maroon 1974 Camaro on the southern side of The Fashion Place Mall in Murray, UT. As she was window shopping outside Walden Books, DaRonch was approached by Bundy, who was posing as a police officer. He said that her car had been broken into and asked her to drive down ‘to the station’ with him to file a report with him. However as they were on their way he attempted to subdue and handcuff her but was unsuccessful: she was able to fend him off and escape. Of the encounter, DaRonch said that she ‘thought he was kind of creepy … I thought he was a lot older than he was.’ She also commented that she could smell alcohol on his breath.
Debra Jean Kent (17). November 8, 1974. Murdered, Bountiful, UT.
After Bundy was unsuccessful in his attempts to kidnap Carol DaRonch he quickly realized he was going to need a new victim. So he made the twenty-two minute drive away to Viewmont High School, where he successfully abducted Debbie Kent. Kent was watching a play with her family but left the school at approximately 10:30 PM to pick up her brother from the nearby Rustic Roller Rink. She never made it to the rink and was most likely abducted in the parking lot. According to an eyewitnesses, there was loud screaming coming from the area at roughly the time that Debra was last seen, and another person saw a light-colored VW Beetle speeding away from the school. After the Kent’s realized their daughter hadn’t even made it out of the parking lot, they found a handcuff key on the ground by their car. Bundy confessed to killing Deb and burying her body in the same area as Nancy Wilcox.
Caryn Campbell (23). January 12, 1975. Murdered, Estes Park, CO.
Bundy abducted the 23-year-old nurse from the Wildwood Inn in Snowmass Village. While staying at the inn with her fiance and his children, Campbell went missing after going upstairs to her room to retrieve a magazine. Although we will never know for certain how exactly Ted managed to abduct the attractive young woman, it is highly likely he feigned an injury and asked her to help him carry something back to his vehicle. After he lured her away from the hotel to a darkened parking lot he hit her over the head then quickly snuck her into his Bug. Roughly five weeks after Campbell disappeared her body was found less than three miles away from the Wildwood Inn. Someone driving by her remains noticed a large amount of birds flying over the area. Using dental records, police determined that the remains belonged to Caryn. The postmortem examination revealed that her skull had sustained three heavy blows. Before Ted’s run in with Ol’ Sparky, he confessed to Campbells murder.
Julie Cunningham (26). March 15, 1975. Murdered, Vail, CO.
Cunningham disappeared early in the evening on March 15, 1975 after leaving her Apollo Park apartment in Vail to go a nearby bar to meet up with a friend. Bundy told law enforcement that he pretended to be an injured skier on crutches that needed help carrying a pair of ski boots to his car. According to Ted, the pair walked over half a mile together before they finally reached his vehicle. Once there, Bundy knocked her unconscious, put her in his car then drove to a remote area roughly eighty miles west of Vail and sexually assaulted her. When finished, he strangled her to death and dumped her remains in a shallow grave near Rifle, CO. Julie’s body has never been recovered.
Denise Oliverson (24). April 6, 1975. Murdered, Grand Junction, CO.
On April 6, 1975, Denise Oliverson set out on a bike ride to her parents house but was never seen alive again. The next day, a search party found her bicycle and shoes under the Fifth Street Bridge by some railroad tracks. Just days before he was executed in January 1989, Bundy told law enforcement he abducted Oliverson then disposed of her body in a river about five miles West of Grand Junction. Her remains have never been found.
Lynette Dawn Culver (12). May 6, 1975. Murdered, Pocatello, ID.
Although the details surrounding Culvers murder seem to vary between sources, it’s strongly speculated she was last seen at Alameda Junior High School. It’s worth mentioning, this was a two and a half hour drive from where Bundy was living at the time in Salt Lake City to Pocatello, Idaho. Some places say that she left campus during her lunch period, where others claim Lynette was last seen getting on a bus. When considering her healthy and happy relationship with family and friends as well as and her stellar academic performance, she most likely was taken against her will. In his death row interviews, Bundy confessed to killing Lynette then dumping her body in the Snake River. He also said he raped and drowned the 12 year old child in a hotel room after abducting her. Law enforcement didn’t fully accept his confession despite providing some convincing details.
Susan Curtis (15). June 27, 1975. Murdered, Provo, UT.
At the time she was murdered, Susan was a freshman at Woods Cross High School. She had a history of running away from home for days at a time but never was gone for very long. Susan was originally from Bountiful, Utah but at the time of her disappearance was attending a youth conference at Brigham Young University in Provo. A natural athlete, Curtis had ridden her bicycle 50 miles from Bountiful to Provo to attend the conference. She vanished on the first evening of the conference after a formal banquet: she left her friends to make the quarter mile walk back to her dormitory to brush her teeth but was never seen or heard from again. As Bundy walked down to the hall to be executed Curtis was his last death row confession. Since her body has not been recovered she is still regarded as a missing person.
Margaret Bowman (21). January 15, 1978. Murdered, Tallahassee, FL.
In the early morning hours of January 15, 1978, a group of young women residing at the Chi Omega house at Tallahassee’s Florida State University were asleep in their beds when evil crept in… Margaret Bowman was born in Honolulu and moved to Florida in 1973 after her father retired from the US Air Force. Bowman was one of four women Bundy attacked when he broke into the sorority house at around 3 AM on January 15, 1978. He beat her with a piece of firewood as well as a telescope and strangled her to death with her own tights. Despite the violent nature of the crime, the initial investigation failed to produce any evidence of sexual assault or struggle. The severity of the beating was so extreme that part of Bowman’s brain was visible.
Lisa Janet Levy (20). January 15, 1978. Murdered, Tallahassee, FL.
Lisa was born in St Petersburg, FL and attended Dixie Hollins High School, where she played flute in the band for two years. At FSU, she majored in fashion merchandising and worked at the Colony Shop near campus. When law enforcement got to the crime scene Levy’s was the first sister that officers found dead. Medical Pathologists discovered that she had been beaten on the head with a log, sexually assaulted with a hair spray bottle then strangled. Additionally, they found bite marks on her buttocks and one of her nipples had been so savagely bitten that it was almost completely severed from the rest of her breast.
Kathy Kleiner-Rubin (20). January 15, 1978. Survived, Tallahassee, FL.
Kathy Kleiner-Rubin and Karen Chandler shared a room at the Chi Omega sorority house. That night she was attacked Kathy went to bed first, with Chandler following shortly after. After Bundy attacked and murdered Lisa Levy, he went into the room next door and brutally assaulted Kleiner-Rubin and Chandler. In an interview, Kathy said that was awoken that morning by the sound of her bedroom door opening. The assailant then tripped over a chest that was in-between the girls twin beds. Ted then assaulted her with a piece of firewood, which left her with a broken jaw, concussion, skull fracture, broken arm and finger. Miraculously, she survived her injuries and testified against Bundy in his death penalty trial.
Karen Chandler (22). January 15, 1978. Survived, Tallahassee, FL.
As I said earlier, Karen Chandler was Kathy Kleiner-Rubin’s roommate in the Chi Omega house. After Bundy was done brutally assaulting Kathy he moved onto Chandler. Bundy knocked out four of her teeth and beat her so severely that he broke her jaw and right arm. Somehow Chandler survived. She took the rest of the academic quarter off, but later returned to the Chi Omega house at FSU.
Cheryl Thomas (21). January 15, 1978. Survived, Tallahassee, FL.
After Bundy was finished with his atrocities at the Chi Omega sorority house, he wandered a few blocks over and climbed into an open kitchen window in Cheryl Thomas’ apartment. He attacked her and Thomas barely escaped with her life: her jaw was broken in two places, her shoulder dislocated, and she had five skull fractures, which left her permanently deaf in her left ear. In 1978 Thomas was a student at FSU and a member of the schools dance team. The night she was attacked was alone in her apartment but thanks to some attentive neighbors who heard the assault her life was saved.
Kimberly Dianne Leach (12). February 9, 1978. Murdered, Lake City, FL.
In 1978, Kim Leach was a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Lake City Junior High School, where she was a straight-A student and the runner-up Valentine Queen. Leach was one of Bundy’s youngest and his last victim. On the morning of February 9, 1978, Kimberly arrived at Lake City Junior high School on time. Just before 9 AM, she left her first period class to go and pick up her purse that she had accidentally left behind in her homeroom. After she recovered the purse she headed back towards her classroom in the pouring rain but never arrived. That afternoon, Kimberly’s parents became concerned when their daughter didn’t come home after school. They called everybody they knew, but nobody could account for Kimberly. Their concern escalated to fear when they learned she had been at her first period class but then never returned. They immediately called law enforcement to report their daughter missing. A search party quickly formed and concentrated on Suwannee River State Park for weeks. Kims remains were eventually found on April 7, 1978 in an abandoned hog pen with a small metal lead-to. She was nude other than for a pullover jumper, her clothes were piled up beside her body. She was in an advanced state of decomposition, but she was identified thanks to dental records. Leach had suffered homicidal violence about the neck region.
Miscellaneous:
There is no consensus as to when or where Bundy began killing. He told different people varying stories to and refused to give the specifics of his earlier crimes, even as he shared in graphic detail to dozens of later murders in the days before he was his executed. He told one of his attorneys Polly Nelson that he attempted his first kidnapping in 1969 in Ocean City, NJ, however did not kill anyone until sometime in 1971 in Seattle. He told Portland forensic psychologist Dr. Art Norman that he murdered two women in Atlantic City while visiting family in Philadelphia in 1969. Bundy hinted to former homicide detective Dr. Robert Keppel that he committed a murder in Seattle in 1972 and another murder in 1973 that involved a hitchhiker near Tumwater, but he refused to elaborate. Rule and Keppel both believed that he might have started killing as a teenager. Bundy’s earliest documented homicides were committed in 1974, when he was 27 years old. By his own admission, he had by then mastered the necessary skills to leave minimal incriminating forensic evidence at crime scenes.
On September 2, 1974, Bundy drove through Boise while moving from Seattle to Salt Lake City and during that trip, he picked up a still unknown hitchhiker and killed her. Ted returned the next day to photograph and dismember the corpse then dumped her remains in the Snake River. Reports from Gonzaga University’s student newspaper ‘The Gonzaga Bulletin’ claim that Bundy stopped by a campus dorm for a party in the 1970’s and drove a female student to Pullman. She miraculously survived.
Bundy confessed to detectives from Idaho, Utah, and Colorado that he had committed numerous additional homicides, including several that were unknown to the police. He explained that when he was in Utah he could bring his victims back to his apartment, ‘where he could reenact scenarios depicted on the covers of detective magazines.’ A new ulterior strategy quickly became apparent: he withheld many details, hoping to parlay the incomplete information into yet another stay of execution. ‘There are other buried remains in Colorado,’ he admitted, but refused to elaborate. The new strategy (which was referred to as ‘Ted’s bones-for-time scheme’) served only to deepen the resolve of authorities to see Bundy executed on schedule, and yielded little new detailed information. In cases where he did give details, nothing was found. Colorado detective Matt Lindvall interpreted this as a conflict between his desire to postpone his execution by divulging information and his need to remain in ‘total possession, and the only person who knew his victims true resting places.’
- in Oregon, 2 (both unidentified)
- in Idaho, 2 (1 unidentified)
- in California, 1 (unidentified)
After being sentenced to death, Bundy spent 11 years on death row, before he was executed by electric chair on 24 January 1989.
Another Bundy Blog. 