The Crime Book

280 TED BUNDY

emotional bonds with his fellow

human beings. He was missing

a conscience.

A taste for murder

Bundy’s first victim may have been

eight-year-old Ann Marie Burr, who

disappeared from her home in

Tacoma, Washington, in the early

morning of 31 August 1961. She

was never found. Bundy was only

14 years old when Burr vanished

and always denied having anything

to do with her disappearance.

However, detective Robert Keppel’s

claim that Bundy never revealed the

name of his first victim has fuelled

speculation that he did kill the girl.

There is good reason to think

that Ann was Bundy’s first victim.

Ted and his mother lived with

family members in the Burr’s

neighbourhood before his mother

married. Bundy continued to visit

those relatives after they moved.

Although Tacoma police dismissed

the speculation about Ann Burr’s

disappearance, her parents did not.

Furthermore, Dr Ronald Holmes, a

professor in the Department of

Justice Administration at the

University of Louisville who

interviewed Bundy in prison,

claimed he admitted committing

his first murder at the age of 15.

Bundy’s first acknowledged murder

was in January 1974. He was 27

and had graduated with a degree

in psychology from the University

of Washington in Seattle two years

earlier. Bundy abducted 21-year-old

Lynda Ann Healy, a student at

the same university, from the

basement bedroom of a house she

shared with friends. Just over a

year later, in March 1975, her skull

was found on Taylor Mountain,

east of Seattle.

After Healy’s murder, Bundy

was unstoppable. Between

February 1974 and August 1975,

with brief breaks of just a few

weeks between murders, he killed

more than a dozen young women.

Bundy’s VW, the scene of his crimes,

was later bought by Lonnie Anderson,

a former Salt Lake County sheriff’s

deputy. It is now in the US National

Museum of Crime and Punishment.

Murder is not about lust and

it’s not about violence. It’s

about possession.

Ted Bundy

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SERIAL KILLERS 281

Ted Bundy When Bundy’s unmarried mother,

22-year-old Eleanor Louise Cowell,

found herself pregnant in 1946,

she travelled to the Elizabeth

Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in

Burlington, Vermont, to give birth.

Her father Samuel was a violent

and abusive man, who dominated

his wife and children. Eleanor was

unable to confirm the identity of

her unborn baby’s father, and

rumours began to circulate that

Samuel Cowell was the father.

On 24 November 1946,

Theodore Robert Cowell was

born. Eleanor went home, leaving

her baby son at the facility. It was

his first abandonment. In 1947,

Eleanor returned to collect the

baby at the insistence of her

father. They called him Teddy.

For years, Bundy believed

that Eleanor was his sister

and that his grandparents were

his parents. One of his teachers

later suggested that Bundy

“snapped” when, at 15, he found

out he was illegitimate. After

his mother married in 1951, her

husband, Johnnie Bundy, legally

adopted her son. However, Ted,

unimpressed by his stepfather’s

low intelligence, never bonded

with him.

During this time, Bundy moved

to Utah to enrol at the University

of Utah Law School.

First arrest

Bundy’s first arrest came in August

1975. It was 3am, and he was
      driving his VW through the
      suburbs of Salt Lake City when a
      highway patrol officer, Sgt Bob
      Hayward, noticed that Bundy had
      not turned on his headlights. When
      Hayward tried to pull Bundy over, a
      chase through residential streets
      ensued, which ended when
      Hayward cornered Bundy in an
      abandoned petrol station. Asked by
      Hayward to account for his
      movements that night, Bundy
      explained that he was a Utah law
      student and had lost his way after
      leaving the local drive-in movie.
      Dressed in a black turtleneck and
      trousers, Bundy looked the part, but
      Hayward knew that his claim to
      have watched The Towering
      Inferno was a lie, because that

Bundy’s Florida victims included

21-year-old student Margaret Bowman

(right), who was murdered in her bed,

and 12-year-old Kimberly Leach (far

right), who was abducted from school.

movie was not showing locally.

During a search of the vehicle,

Hayward found a torn pair of tights,

a crowbar, rope, and a ski mask.

Although Bundy was calm, and

provided an explanation for having

each of these items, a highly

suspicious Hayward booked him

for avoiding arrest.

However, it was an incident that

had taken place the previous year

that clinched Bundy’s conviction. In

November 1974, 18-year-old Carol

DaRonch was approached by Bundy

in Murray, Utah. Pretending to be a

police officer, Bundy claimed her

car was stolen and told her to go

with him to the station to fill out

a report. DaRonch got into his

VW, but when she pointed out

that Bundy was driving away from

the police station, he became

aggressive and tried to handcuff

her. As DaRonch struggled with

Bundy, he mistakenly fixed both

cuffs around the same wrist. ❯❯

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