The Crime Book

279

See also: Jack the Ripper 266–73 ■ Harvey Glatman 274–75 ■ Colin Pitchfork 294–97

SERIAL KILLERS

Murders the woman and drives

her corpse to a national park

nature reserve for burial

Bundy attracts sympathy by wearing a sling,

putting on a fake cast, or using crutches

He hits the woman with a tyre iron, handcuffs her,

and drives her away

He lures the woman to his Volkswagen car

He asks a young woman for help gathering his

books or crossing the road

Disturbed child

Bundy’s family background was

complicated. He grew up in

Philadelphia believing that his

grandparents were his parents and

that his real mother, Eleanor, was

his sister.

From a very early age, Teddy –

then Theodore Robert Cowell –

enjoyed scaring people. His family

later revealed how, as a three-year-

old, he had delighted in placing

large, sharp kitchen knives around

his teenage aunt as she slept.

When his aunt awoke, she was

terrified, and her reaction thrilled

the laughing toddler.

Dr Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a

psychiatrist who has researched

the mental makeup and motives

of serial killers and got to know

Bundy when he was on death row,

described this behaviour as

“extraordinarily bizarre” for such a

young child. It suggests Bundy may

have endured trauma at a very

young age: perhaps he experienced

abuse himself, or witnessed

extreme violence between

members of his family.

Whether it was because of the

incident with the knives, or for

other reasons, Teddy and Eleanor

were sent away when Bundy was

four or five years old. They went

as far west as possible, to Tacoma,

Washington, to live with an uncle.

Eleanor began to use her middle

name, Louise, and passed herself

off as a widow or a divorcée.

In 1951, Eleanor met and later

married a hospital cook named

Johnnie Bundy. Together they had

four children. Ted now had to share

what little emotional connection

he had with his mother with two

brothers and two sisters. In an

attempt to tighten the family ties

and make Johnnie Bundy a father

figure for the young Teddy, he was

renamed Theodore Robert Bundy.

However, Teddy was missing

something – and it was more than

a father, a mother who wanted him,

or a home life devoid of violence.

Teddy was missing empathy. He

was missing an ability to form ❯❯

I don’t feel guilty for

anything. I feel sorry for

people who feel guilt.

Ted Bundy

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