Ted Bundy

 Ted Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont on November 24, 1946, at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. The identity of Ted's father remains a mystery. Bundy's birth certificate lists a "Lloyd Marshall", while Bundy's mother, Louise, would later tell a tale of being seduced by a war veteran named "Jack Worthington". Bundy's adopted family disbelieved this story, however, and expressed suspicion about Louise's violent, abusive father, Samuel Cowell. To avoid social stigma, Bundy's grandparents claimed him as their son, giving him their last name; he grew up believing his mother to be his older sister. Bundy would not learn the truth about his parentage until he was in high school.

For the first few years of his life, Bundy and his mother lived in Philadelphia with his maternal grandparents. In 1950, Bundy and his "sister" moved to live with relatives in Tacoma, Washington where Louise had Ted's last name inexplicably changed from Cowell to Nelson. In 1951, one year after their move, Louise met Johnny Culpepper Bundy at an adult singles night held at Tacoma's First Methodist Church. A Navy veteran and cook at a local Veterans Administration hospital, Bundy was eligible and lonely much like single mother Louise. In May of that year, Johnny and Louise were married and soon thereafter Johnny willingly adopted Ted, legally changing his last name to "Bundy".

In time, the Bundy family grew to add four more children, whom Ted spent much of his free time babysitting. Johnny Bundy tried to include him in camping trips and other father-son activities, but the boy remained emotionally detached from his stepfather. In Bundy's mind, he felt more like a Cowell than a Bundy and saw Johnny and the rest of the Bundy clan as beneath him. He became increasingly uncomfortable around his stepfather and made it clear that he preferred to be alone. Bundy was a good student at Woodrow Wilson High School, and was active in a local Methodist church serving as vice-president of the Methodist Youth Fellowship. He was involved with a local troop of the Boy Scouts.

Socially Bundy remained shy and introverted throughout some of his high school and early college years. He would later say that he "hit a wall" in high school; he was unable to understand social behavior, stunting his social development.
 He maintained a facade of social activity, but he had no natural sense of how to get along with other people: "I didn't know what made things tick. I didn't know what made people want to be friends. I didn't know what made people attractive to one another. I didn't know what underlay social interactions."


Before he was even out of high school Bundy was a compulsive thief, a shoplifter, and on his way to becoming an amateur criminal. To support his love of skiing, Bundy stole skis and equipment and forged ski-lift tickets. He was arrested twice as a juvenile, though these records were later expunged.
Bundy described the part of himself that, from a young age, was fascinated by images of sex and violence as "the entity", and kept it very well hidden. Later, friends and acquaintances would remember a handsome, articulate young man. While a college student, he worked as a volunteer at a Seattle suicide crisis center, alongside fledgling crime reporter Ann Rule. Ironically, Rule would go on to write the most famous biography of Bundy and his crimes, The Stranger Beside Me.

Bundy had one serious relationship with fellow college student Stephanie Brooks (a pseudonym), whom he met while enrolled at the University of Washington in 1967. Following her 1968 graduation and return to her family home in California, Stephanie ended the relationship. Fed up with what she described as Bundy's immaturity and lack of ambition, they separated, although he obsessively stayed in touch with her through letters. It was at this time that Bundy decided to pay a trip to Burlington, Vermont, the place of his birth. Making a visit to the local records clerk in Burlington, he finally discovered the truth of his parentage in 1969. Although it is unclear what impact this discovery had on him emotionally, it is clear that following his return from Vermont he began to treat Johnny Bundy with more obvious disdain.

After his discovery, Bundy became a more focused and dominant character. He re-enrolled at the University of Washington, this time with a major in psychology. Bundy became an honors student and was well liked by his professors. In 1969, he started dating Elizabeth Kendall (pseudonym), a divorced secretary who fell deeply in love with Bundy. They would continue dating for over six years, until he went to prison for kidnapping in 1976.

 Bundy graduated in 1972 from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology, and soon afterward, he began working for the state Republican Party. While on a business trip to California in the summer of 1973, Bundy came back into Stephanie's life with a new look and attitude; this time as a serious, dedicated professional who had been accepted to law school. Bundy continued to date Elizabeth as well, and neither woman was aware the other existed. Bundy courted Stephanie throughout the rest of the year, and she happily accepted his proposal of marriage. Two weeks later, however, he unceremoniously dumped her, refusing to return her phone calls. He would later dismiss the proposal and break-up as part of a challenge he undertook, saying, "I just wanted to prove to myself that I could have her." It was a few weeks after this breakup that Bundy began a murderous rampage in Washington state.



First wave of murders

Many Bundy experts, including Rule and former King County detective Robert D. Keppel, believe Bundy may have started killing as far back as his early teens: an eight-year-old girl from Tacoma, Ann Marie Burr, vanished from her home three miles from Bundy's house one summer night in 1961, when Bundy was fourteen years-old. When asked about Burr's disappearance by Keppel shortly before his execution, Bundy denied killing her. While the possibility of Bundy's involvement in her disappearace is intriguing, it is improbable since the Burrs lived on the other side of town from the Bundy's home. When talking to his lawyer the day before his execution, Bundy said that his first attempt to kidnap a woman was in 1969, and implied that his first actual murder was sometime in the 1972-73 time frame. His earliest known, confirmed murders were committed in 1974, when he was 27.

Shortly after midnight on January 4, 1974, Bundy entered the basement bedroom of 18-year-old Joni Lenz (pseudonym), a dancer and student at the University of Washington. Bundy bludgeoned her with a metal rod from her bed frame while she slept, and sexually assaulted her with a speculum. Lenz was found the next morning by her roommates in a coma and lying in a pool of her own blood. She survived the attack, but suffered permanent brain damage and was unable to continue in her aspirations as a dancer.

Bundy's next victim was Lynda Ann Healy, another University of Washington student. On the night of January 31, 1974, Bundy broke into Healy's room, knocked her unconscious, dressed her in jeans and a shirt, wrapped her in a bed sheet, and carried her away. On March 12, 1974 in Olympia, Bundy kidnapped and murdered Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year old student at The Evergreen State College. She was last seen walking to an on-campus jazz concert. On April 17, Susan Rancourt disappeared from the campus of Central Washington State College in Ellensburg. Later, two different CWSC co-eds would recount meeting a man with his arm in a cast — one that night, one three nights earlier — who asked for their help to carry a load of books to his Volkswagen. Next was Kathy Parks, last seen on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis on May 6. (Oregon State is approximately 250 miles away from the scene of the Washington murders. Consequently, detectives for some time were unsure if they should class Parks with the other disappearances.) Brenda Ball was never seen again after leaving The Flame Tavern in Burien, Washington on June 1. Bundy then murdered Georgeann Hawkins, a student at the University of Washington and a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, an on-campus sorority. In the early morning hours of June 11, 1974, she walked through an alley from her boyfriend's dormitory residence to her sorority house. Hawkins was never seen again. Witnesses later reported seeing a man with a leg cast struggling to carry a briefcase in the area that night. One co-ed reported that the man had asked her help in carrying the briefcase to his car.

Bundy's Washington killing spree culminated on July 14 with the abduction in broad daylight of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund from Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington. Eight different people that day told the police about the handsome young man with his left arm in a sling who called himself "Ted". Five of them were women that "Ted" asked for help unloading a sailboat from his Volkswagen Beetle. One of them accompanied "Ted" as far as his car, where there was no sailboat, before declining to accompany him further. Three more witnesses testified to seeing him approach Janice Ott with the story about the sailboat, and to seeing Ott walk away from the beach, with her bicycle, and in his company. She was never seen alive again. King County detectives were able to get a description both of the suspect and his tan Volkswagen Beetle. Some witnesses told investigators that the "Ted" they encountered spoke with a clipped, Canadian accent. From the witnesses police obtained descriptions of the man and his Volkswagen, and soon fliers were up all over the Seattle area. After seeing the police sketch and description of the Lake Sammamish suspect in both of the local newspapers and on television news reports, Bundy's girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall (pseudonym), one of his psychology professors at the UW, and former co-worker Ann Rule all reported him as a possible suspect. The police, receiving up to 200 tips per day, did not pay any special attention to a tip about a clean-cut law student.

 The fragmented remains of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund were discovered on September 7, off Interstate 90 near Issaquah, one mile from the park. Along with the women's remains was found an extra femur bone and vertebrae, which Bundy shortly before his execution would identify as that of Georgeann Hawkins. On March 2, 1975, the skulls and jawbones (and no other skeletal remains) of Healy, Rancourt, Parks and Ball were found on Taylor Mountain just east of Issaquah. Because Ball was not a college student and had disappeared from a bar rather than a campus, investigators had not initially believed her to be one of the "Ted" victims. Later, they would discover that she had been seen dancing at the Flame on the night of her disappearance with a man that matched the "Ted" description, including the sling on his arm. Years later Bundy claimed that he had also dumped Donna Manson's body there, but no trace of her has ever been found.

Second wave of murders

 That autumn, Bundy moved to Utah to attend law school in Salt Lake City, where he resumed killing in October. Nancy Wilcox disappeared from Holladay, near Salt Lake City, Utah on October 2. Wilcox was last seen riding in a Volkswagen Beetle. On October 18, Bundy murdered Melissa Smith, the 17-year-old daughter of Midvale police chief Louis Smith. Bundy raped, sodomized, and strangled her. Her body was found nine days later. Next was Laura Aime, also 17, who disappeared when she left a Halloween party in Lehi, Utah on October 31, 1974. Her remains were found nearly a month later by hikers on Thanksgiving Day, on the banks of a river in American Fork Canyon. She was found naked, beaten beyond recognition, sodomized, and strangled with her own sock.

In Murray, Utah, on November 8, 1974, Carol DaRonch narrowly escaped with her life. Claiming to be Officer Roseland of the Murray Police Department, Bundy approached DaRonch at a mall, told her someone had tried to break into her car, and asked her to accompany him to the police station. She got into his car (but refused his instruction to buckle her seat belt), and they drove for a short period before Bundy suddenly pulled to the shoulder and attempted to slap a pair of handcuffs on her. In the struggle, he fastened both loops to the same wrist. Bundy then whipped out his crowbar, but DaRonch caught it in the air just before it would have cracked her skull. She then managed to get the door open and tumble out onto the highway, thus escaping from her would-be killer.

About an hour later, a strange man showed up at Viewmont High School in Bountiful, Utah, where the drama club was putting on a play. He approached drama teacher Raelynne Shepard several times, eventually asking her to go out to the parking lot to identify a car. Shepard declined. The man asked another student in attendance, Katherine Ricks, to come out to the parking lot and help him fix his car. Ricks also declined. Shepard would see the man again shortly before the end of the play, this time breathing hard, with his hair mussed and his shirt untucked. Another student, Tamara Tingley, would see the man lurking in the rear of the auditorium. Debby Kent, a 17-year-old Viewmont High student, left the play at intermission to go pick up her brother, and was never seen again. Later, investigators found a key in the parking lot outside Viewmont High. It unlocked the cuffs taken off of Carol DaRonch.

In 1975, while still attending law school at the University of Utah, Bundy shifted his crimes to Colorado. On January 12, Caryn Campbell disappeared from the Wildwood Inn at Snowmass, Colorado, where she had been vacationing with her fiancé and his children. She vanished somewhere in a span of fifty feet between the elevator doors and her room. Her body was found on February 17. Next, Vail ski instructor Julie Cunningham disappeared on March 15, and Denise Oliverson on April 6. While in prison, Bundy confessed to Colorado investigators that he used crutches to approach Cunningham, after asking her to help him carry some ski boots to his car. At the car, Bundy clubbed her with his crowbar and incapacitated her with handcuffs, later strangling her in a crime highly similar to the Georgeann Hawkins murder.

Lynette Culver went missing in Pocatello, Idaho on May 6 from the grounds of her junior high school. While on Death Row, Bundy later confessed that he kidnapped Culver and had taken the girl to a room he had rented at a nearby Holiday Inn. After raping her, he stated that he had drowned her in the motel room bathtub and later dumped her body in a river. After his return to Utah, Susan Curtis vanished on June 28. (Bundy confessed to the Curtis murder minutes before his execution.) The bodies of Cunningham, Culver, Curtis and Oliverson have never been recovered.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, investigators were attempting to prioritize their enormous list of suspects and, in an innovative use of technology for 1975, using computers to cross-check different likely lists of suspects (classmates of Lynda Healy, owners of Volkswagens, etc.) against each other, and then identify suspects who turned up on more than one list. "Theodore Robert Bundy" was one of 25 people who turned up on four separate lists, and his case file was second on the To Be Investigated pile when the call came from Utah of an arrest. 

Arrest, first trial and escapes

Bundy was arrested on August 16, 1975, in Salt Lake City, for failure to stop for a police officer. A search of his car revealed a ski mask, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, an icepick, and other items that were thought by the police to be burglary tools. Bundy remained cool during questioning, explaining that he needed the mask for skiing and had found the handcuffs in a dumpster. Utah detective Jerry Thompson connected Bundy and his Volkswagen to the DaRonch kidnapping and the missing girls, and searched his apartment. The search uncovered a brochure of Colorado ski resorts, with a check mark by the Wildwood Inn where Caryn Campbell had disappeared. After searching his apartment, the police brought Bundy in for a lineup before DaRonch, Shepard, and Tingley. They identified him as "Officer Roseland" and as the man lurking about the night Debby Kent disappeared. Following a week-long trial, Bundy was convicted of DaRonch's kidnapping on March 1, 1976 and was sentenced to 15 years in Utah State Prison. Colorado authorities were pursuing murder charges, however, and Bundy was extradited there to stand trial.

On June 7, 1977, in preparation for a hearing in the Caryn Campbell murder trial, Bundy was taken to the Pitkin County courthouse in Aspen. During a court recess, he was allowed to visit the courthouse's law library, where he jumped out of the building from a second-story window and escaped. In the minutes following his escape, Bundy at first ran and then strolled casually through the small town toward Aspen Mountain. He made it all the way to the top of Aspen Mountain without being detected, but then lost his sense of direction and wandered around the mountain, missing two trails that led down off the mountain to his intended destination, the town of Crested Butte. At one point, he came face-to-face with a gun-toting citizen who was one of the searchers scouring Aspen Mountain for Ted Bundy, but was able to talk his way out of danger. On June 13, Bundy was able to steal a car he found on the mountain. He drove back into Aspen and could have gotten away, but two police deputies noticed the Cadillac with dimmed headlights weaving in and out of its lane and pulled Bundy over. He was recognized and brought back to prison after having been on the lam for six days.

Upon arrest, Bundy was placed in the smaller Glenwood Springs jail, rather than being taken back to Aspen. Somehow he had acquired a hacksaw blade and $500 in cash--Bundy later claimed the blade came from another prison inmate. He was able to saw through the welds fixing a small metal plate in the ceiling and, after dieting down still further, to fit through the hole and access the crawl space above. An informant in the prison told guards that he'd heard Bundy moving around the ceiling, but no one checked it out. When Bundy's Aspen trial judge ruled on December 23 that the Caryn Campbell murder trial would start on January 9, 1978, and changed the venue to Colorado Springs, Bundy realized that he had to make his escape before he was transferred out of the Glenwood Springs jail. On the night of December 30, 1977, Bundy dressed warmly and packed books and files under his blanket to make it look like he was sleeping. He wriggled through the hole and up into the crawlspace. Bundy crawled over to a spot directly above the jailor's linen closet--the jailor and his wife were out for the evening--dropped down into the jailor's apartment, and strolled out the door to freedom.

Bundy was free, but he was on foot in the middle of a bitterly cold, snowy Colorado night. He managed to steal a broken-down MG, but it stalled out on a mountain road. Bundy was stuck on the side of Interstate 70 in the middle of the night in a blizzard, but a helpful driver gave him a ride into Vail. From there he caught a bus to Denver and boarded the 8:55 a.m. flight to Chicago. The Glenwood Springs jail guards did not notice Bundy was gone until noon on Dec. 31, 17 hours after his escape, by which time Bundy was already in Chicago.

Bundy's final rampage, Florida

Bundy then caught an Amtrak train to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he got a room at the YMCA. On January 2, he went to an Ann Arbor bar and watched his beloved University of Washington Huskies beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl. He later stole a car in Ann Arbor that he abandoned in Atlanta, Georgia before boarding a bus for Tallahassee, Florida, arriving on January 8. There, he rented a room at a boarding house under the alias of "Chris Hagen" and committed numerous petty crimes including shoplifting, purse snatching, and auto theft. He stole a student ID card that belonged to a Kenneth Misner and sent away for copies of Misner's Social Security card and birth certificate.

 Just one week after Bundy's arrival in Tallahassee, in the early hours of Super Bowl Sunday on January 15, 1978, two and a half years of repressed homicidal violence erupted. Bundy entered the Florida State University Chi Omega sorority house at approximately 3 a.m. and killed two sleeping women, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. Levy and Bowman were bludgeoned, strangled, and sexually assaulted. Bowman's brain was visible through a hole in her skull. Two other Chi Omegas, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, were bludgeoned in their sleep and severely injured. The entire episode took no more than half an hour. After leaving the Chi Omega house, Bundy broke into another home a few blocks away, clubbing and severly injuring FSU student Cheryl Thomas.

 On February 9, 1978, Bundy traveled to Lake City, Florida. While there he abducted, raped and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, throwing her body under a small pig shed. She would be his final victim. On February 12, Bundy stole yet another Volkswagen Beetle and left Tallahassee for good, heading west across the Florida panhandle. On Feb. 15, 1978, shortly after 1 a.m., Bundy was stopped by Pensacola police officer David Lee. When the officer called in a check of the license plate, the vehicle came up as stolen. Bundy then scuffled with the officer before he was finally subdued. As Lee took the unknown suspect to jail, Bundy said "I wish you had killed me." Before long, Bundy was identified and taken to Miami to stand trial for the Chi Omega murders.



Conviction and execution

 Bundy went to trial for the Chi Omega murders in June of 1979 with Dade County Circuit Court Judge Edward D. Cowart presiding. Despite having five court-appointed lawyers, he insisted on acting as his own attorney and even cross-examined witnesses, including the police officer who had discovered the body of Margaret Bowman.

Two pieces of evidence proved crucial. First, Chi-O Nita Neary, getting back to the house very late after a date, saw Bundy as he left, and identified him in court. Second, during his homicidal frenzy, Bundy bit Lisa Levy in her left buttock, leaving obvious bite marks. Police took plaster casts of Bundy's teeth and a forensics expert matched them to the photographs of Levy's wound. Bundy was convicted on all counts and sentenced to death. After confirming the sentence, Judge Cowart bid him goodbye:

"It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that current be passed through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity as I've experienced in this courtroom. You're an intelligent 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. Take care of yourself. I don't feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself." 





After the Chi Omega trial, Bundy was tried for the Kimberly Leach murder in 1980.He was again convicted on all counts, principally due to fibers found in his van that matched Leach's clothing and an eyewitness that saw him leading Leach away from the school, and sentenced to death.

During the Kimberly Leach trial, Bundy married former coworker Carole Ann Boone in the courtroom while questioning her on the stand. Following numerous conjugal visits between Bundy and his new wife, Boone gave birth to a girl she named "Tina" in October 1982. Eventually, however, Boone moved away, divorced Bundy, and changed her last name and that of her daughter. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

In the years Bundy was on death row at Florida State Prison, he was often visited by Special Agent William Hagmaier of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Behavioral Sciences Unit. Bundy would come to confide in Hagmaier, going so far as to call him his best friend. Eventually, Bundy confessed to Hagmaier many details of the murders that had until then been unknown or unconfirmed. In October 1984, Bundy contacted former King County homicide detective Bob Keppel and offered to assist in the ongoing search for the Green River Killer by providing his own insights and analysis. Keppel and Green River Task Force detective Dave Reichert traveled to Florida's death row to interview Bundy. Both detectives later stated that these interviews were of little actual help in the investigation; they provided far greater insight into Bundy's own mind, and were primarily pursued in the hope of learning the details of unsolved murders that Bundy was suspected of committing but had never been charged with.

 Bundy contacted Keppel again in 1988. With his appeals exhausted (Bundy had beaten previous death warrants for March 4, July 2, and November 18, 1986), and execution imminent, Bundy confessed to eight official unsolved murders in Washington State, for which he was the prime suspect. Bundy told Keppel that there were actually five bodies left on Taylor Mountain, and not four as they had originally thought. Bundy said that the fifth body was that of Donna Manson, the Evergreen State College student missing since 1974. Bundy confessed in detail to the murder of Georgeann Hawkins, describing how he lured her to his car with the crutches-and-briefcase routine, clubbed her with a tire iron that he'd stashed on the ground under his car, drove away with a semi-conscious Hawkins in the car with him, and later strangled her.

After the interview, Keppel reported that he had been shocked in speaking with Bundy, and that he was the kind of man who was "born to kill". Keppel stated:

"He described the Issaquah crime scene (where Janice Ott, Denise Naslund, and Georgeann Hawkins had been left) and it was almost like he was just there. Like he was seeing everything. He was infatuated with the idea because he spent so much time there. He is just totally consumed with murder all the time."

 Bundy had hoped that he could use the revelations and partial confessions to get another stay of execution or possibly commute his sentence to life imprisonment. At one point, a legal advocate working for Bundy, Linda Barker, had asked many of the families of the victims to fax letters to Florida Governor Robert Martinez and ask mercy for Bundy in order to find out where the remains of their loved ones were. To a person, all the families refused. Keppel and others reported that Bundy gave scant detail about his crimes during his confessions, and promised to reveal more and other body dump sites if he were given "more time". The ploy failed and Bundy was executed on schedule.


The night before Bundy was executed, he gave a television interview to James Dobson, head of the evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family. During the interview, Bundy made repeated claims as to the pornographic "roots" of his sexually driven violence. He stated that, while pornography didn't cause him to commit his crimes, the consumption of violent pornography helped "shape and mold" his violence into "behavior too terrible to describe." He alleged that he felt that violence in the media, "particularly sexualized violence," sent boys "down the road to being Ted Bundy's". After the interview was made public, many who knew Bundy as a sociopath had their doubts as to the validity of his "the pornography made me do it" claims. In the same interview, hours before his execution, Bundy stated:

"You are going to kill me, and that will protect society from me. But out there are many, many more people who are addicted to pornography, and you are doing nothing about that."

According to Hagmaier, Bundy contemplated suicide in the days leading up to his execution, but eventually decided against it.

 At 7:06 a.m. on January 24, 1989, Ted Bundy was executed in the electric chair. His last words were, "I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends." Then, more than 2,000 volts were sent through his body for less than two minutes. He was pronounced dead at 7:16 a.m.

"I'm not going anywhere..."

Robert Berdella: The Kansas City Butcher

 

Summary:

The profile of one of the most barbarous serial killers in U.S. history who participated in vile acts of sexual torture and murder.

Personal Information:

Born - January 31, 1949

Birthplace - Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Died - October 8, 1992

Location of Death - Missouri State Penitentiary

Cause of Death - Natural causes

General Information:

Gender - Male

Religion - Catholic

Ethnicity - White

Bob’s Bazarre Bazaar And More:

Robert Berdella was the owner of a store called Bob’s Bazarre Bazaar in Kansas City, Missouri that specialized in novelty items that appealed to those with darker and occult-type taste. Around the neighborhood he was considered odd but was liked and participated in organizing a local community crime watch programs. However, inside his home, it was discovered that Robert ‘Bob’ Berdella lived in a world dominated by sadomasochistic slavery, murder and barbarous torture.

What Goes On Behind Closed Doors:

On April 2, 1988 a neighbor found a young man on his porch clad in only a dog collar fastened around his neck. The man told the neighbor an incredible tale of sexual tortuous abuse that he had endured at the hands of Berdella. The police placed Berdella in custody and searched his home where 357 photographs of victims in various positions of torture were recovered. Also found were torture devices, occult literature, ritual robes, human skills and bones and a human head in Bedella’s yard.

The Photographs Disclose Murder:

By April 4 the authorities had an overwhelming amount of evidence to charge Berdella on seven counts of sodomy, one count of felonious restraint and one account of first degree assault. After closer scrutiny of the photographs it was discovered that six of the 23 men identified were homicide victims. The other people in the pictures were there voluntarily and participated in sadomasochistic activities with the victims.

The Torture Diary:

Berdella established the 'Rules of the House' which were mandatory for his victims or they risked being beaten or receiving bolts of electric shock on sensitive areas of their bodies. In a detailed diary that Berdella kept, he logged details and the effects of the torture he would subject upon his victims. He seemed to have a fascination with injecting drugs, bleach, and other caustics into the eyes and throats of his victims then anally raped or inserted foreign objects inside of them.

No Indication of Satanic Rituals :

On December 19, 1988, Berdella pled guilty to one count of first and to an additional four counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of other victims. There were attempts by various media organizations to try to connect the crimes of Berdella to the idea of a nationwide underground satanic group but the investigators responded that over 550 people were interviewed and at no point was there any indication that the crimes were connected to a satanic ritual or group.
Berdella received life in prison where he died of a heart attack in 1992 soon after writing a letter to his minister claiming that the prison officials refused to give him his heart medication. Berdella’s death was never investigated.

Victims:

Name	Age	Date of disappearance
Jerry Howell	20	July 5, 1984
Robert Sheldon	18	April 19, 1985
Mark Wallace	20	June 22, 1985
James Ferris	20	September 26, 1985
Todd Stoops	21	June 17, 1986
Larry Pearson	20	July 9, 1987

Herb Baumeister: Alleged Sav-a-Lot Killer

 

´Herbert Richard "Herb" Baumeister (April 7, 1947 - July 3, 1996) was the founder of the thrift store chain Sav-a-Lot and an alleged serial killer from suburban Westfield, Indiana.

Baumeister's childhood was unremarkable, but when he entered his teens he began showing antisocial behavior which was later diagnosed as schizophrenia. Left untreated, he had a difficult time keeping a job yet managed to marry and father three children.

Sav-a-lot

In 1988 Baumeister founded the Sav-a-lot chain. The chain was a success and Baumeister became very rich. He also began spending a lot of time in homosexual bars in Indianapolis. Allegedly he would bring men he picked up back to his mansion where he would strangle them and dispose of their bones in the woods behind his home. Investigators eventually ended up at Baumeister's estate after receiving a tip from a man who accused Baumeister of trying to kill him. Baumeister fled to Toronto and killed himself.

A Backyard Burial Ground

A search of his property uncovered the bones of 11 men. Baumeister was also suspected of killing nine more men and disposing of the bodies in rural areas between Indianapolis and Columbus.

Cesar Barone

 

His Preference - Senior-Aged Women:

In April of 1991, Barone raped and strangled to death 61-year-old Margaret Schmidt, inside her home.

Another Killing Six Months Later:

In October 1992, Barone shot bullets into a car, wounding mid-wife, Martha Bryant, as she drove home from work from the Tuality Hospital in Hillsboro. He then sexually assaulted her and dragged her from her car onto the road. He ended his assault by shooting her in the head at close range, killing her.

Barone's Youngest Known Victim:

In Portland, during December 1992, 23-years old Chantee Woodman was Barone's next known victim. He beat, sexually assaulted her, then shot her to death and left her body along U.S. 26 near Vernonia.

Victim Dies of a Heart Attack:

A month later, January 1993, 51-year-old Betty Williams was attacked by Barone inside her Portland apartment. She died after suffering a heart attack as Barone began sexually assaulting her.

His Sentencing :

Barone was given 89 years for Williams' killing, and received the death penalty for the slaying of Schmidt, Bryant, and Woodman.

Were There More Victims?:

Barone, at the age of 19, was suspected of raping and murdering by strangulation his 71-year-old neighbor, while she was in bed. He was sentenced to two years of juvenile detention for previously attacking the same woman. Florida did not seek prosecution since he is already on death row in Oregon. Authorities also suspect he was responsible for the beating of his grandmother around that same time, although he was acquitted for that crime.

His Rage Continues:

He managed to attack a female corrections officer while in prison.

Wonder What They Talked About?:

While in a Florida prison, he spent a short time as the cellmate of Ted Bundy, after Bundy's final arrest in 1979. 

 

Death Row Serial Killer:

Cesar Barone is currently on death row in Oregon, after being convicted of the rape and murder of three women in the Portland area. He faces a 89-year sentence for a fourth slaying.

 

Joe Ball: The Alligator Man

Joseph D. (Joe) Ball (January 6, 1896 – September 24, 1938), was an American serial killer, sometimes referred to as "The Alligator Man", the "Butcher of Elmendorf" and the "Bluebeard of South Texas".
He is said to have killed at least 20 women in the 1930s. His existence was long believed to be apocryphal, but he is a familiar figure in Texas folklore.

After serving on the front lines in Europe during World War I, Ball started his career as a bootlegger, providing illegal liquor to those who could pay. After the end of Prohibition, he opened a saloon called the Sociable Inn in Elmendorf, Texas. He built a pond that contained five alligators and charged people to view them, especially during feeding time; the food consisted mostly of live cats and dogs.

Women Mysteriously Vanish:

After several barmaids, girl friends and two of his wives vanished into thin air, the local authorities began to suspect that Ball was up to no good. However, his intimidating nature kept the suspicious and curious at bay.

One Shot to the Head:

On September 24, 1948, a group of Texas Rangers decided to go and question Ball about all the missing women. Instead of talking to them, he opted to shoot himself in the head.

The Handy Man Talks:

A handy man for Ball, Clifford Wheeler, soon admitted to helping Ball get rid of the bodies of some the women Ball killed. He led them to the remains of Hazel Brown and Minnie Gotthard. Wheeler told authorities that Ball murdered at least 20 other women, but the alligators had disposed of any evidence to back up his claim.

A Neighbor in Fear:

A neighbor, who had fled to California after fearing that Ball would kill him, admitted to seeing Ball dismembering a body near the alligator pit.

No Evidence:

No real evidence was ever found that determined that Ball actually fed his victims remains to the alligators.

John Eric Armstrong

 

His Friends Called Him 'Opie':

John Eric Armstrong was a 300-pound, former U.S. Navy sailor, who was married with two children. He was known as being mild-mannered, and had an innocent child-like look, so much so, that while in the Navy he was nicknamed "Opie" by his mates.

Armstrong Arouses Suspicion:

Detroit investigators became suspicious of Armstrong after he contacted them in regards to a body he saw floating in the Rouge River. The body was that of 39-year-old, Wendy Joran, whose murder was similar to a string of murders of prostitutes which had recently occurred.

The Truth Comes Out:

Through DNA testing the investigators were able to link Armstrong to one of the murders, and upon his arrest, he confessed to killing other prostitutes and 12 other murders that he committed around the world, from 1993-1998, while in the Navy.

Convicted:

Armstrong later recanted his confessions, but was convicted for the killing of Joran in January 2000, and for the murder of 34-year-old Kelly Hood. He then plead guilty to killing Robbin Brown, 20, Rose Felt, 32, and Monica Johnson, 31, all Detroit prostitutes.

FBI Launches an International Investigation:

The FBI continued to try to connect him to similar unsolved murders in countries such as Thailand, and all other places Armstrong was based while in the Navy.

Plus 31 More..:

On July 4, 2001, Armstrong bargained down to a plea of second-degree murder, and as a result he was sentenced to 31 years of life in prison for the murders of Brown, Felt and Johnson. All together he received two life sentences plus 31 years as punishment for his killings.

Richard Angelo: The Angel of Death

Richard Angelo was 26 years old when he went to work at Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island in New York. He had a background of doing good things for people as a former Eagle Scout and volunteer fireman. He also had an out-of-control desire to be recognized as a hero.

Playing Hero

Unable to achieve the level of praise he desired in life, Angelo came up with a plan where he would inject drugs into patients at the hospital, bringing them to a near-death state. He would then show his heroic capabilities by helping to save his victims, impressing both co-workers and the patients with his expertise. For many, Angelo's plan fell deathly short, and several patients died before he was able to intervene and save them from his deadly injections.

Working the graveyard shift put Angelo into the perfect position to continue to work on his feeling of inadequacy, so much so that during his realitvely short time at the Good Samaritan, there were 37 "Code-Blue" emergencies during his shift. Only 12 of the 37 patients lived to talk about their near death experience.

Something to Feel Better

Angelo, apparently not swayed by his inability to keep his victims alive, continued injecting patients with a combination of the paralyzing drugs, Pavulon and Anectine, sometimes telling the patient that he was giving them something which would make them feel better. Soon after administering the deadly cocktail, the patients would begin to feel numb and their breathing would become constricted as did their ability to communicate to nurses and doctors. Few could survive the deadly attack.

Under Suspicion

Then on October 11, 1987 Angelo came under suspicion after one of his victims, Gerolamo Kucich, managed to use the call button for assistance after receiving an injection from Angelo. One of the nurses responding to his call for help took a urine sample and had it analyzed. The test proved positive for containing the drugs, Pavulon and Anectine, neither of which had been prescribed to Kucich. The following day Angelo's locker and home were searched and police found vials of both drugs and Angelo was arrested. The bodies of several of the suspected victims were exhumed and tested for the deadly drugs. The test proved positive for the drugs on ten of the dead patients.

Taped Confession

Angelo eventually confessed to authorities, telling them during a taped interview, "I wanted to create a situation where I would cause the patient to have some respiratory distress or some problem, and through my intervention or suggested intervention or whatever, come out looking like I knew what I was doing. I had no confidence in myself. I felt very inadequate." He was charged with multiple counts of second-degree murder.

Multiple Personalities?

His lawyers fought to prove that Angelo suffered from dissociative identity disorder, which meant he was able to disassociate himself completely from the crimes he committed and was unable to realize the risk of what he had done to the patients. In other words, he had multiple personalities which he could move in and out of, unaware of the actions of the other personality. The lawyers fought to prove this theory by introducing polygraph exams which Angelo had passed during questioning about the murdered patients. The judge however, would not allow the polygraph evidence into the court.

Sentenced to 61 Years

Angelo was ultimately convicted of two counts of depraved indifference murder (second-degree murder), one count of second degree manslaughter, one count of criminally negligent homicide and six counts of assault with respect to five of the patients and was sentenced to 61 years to life.

Rodney Alcala: The Dating Game Killer

 

Rodney Alcala is a convicted rapist, torturer and serial killer who evaded justice for 40 years.

Dubbed the "Dating Game Killer" Alcala was once a contestant on the show, "The Dating Game," where he won a date with another contestant, however the date never happened because the woman found him to be too creepy.

Alcala's Childhood Years

Rodney Alcala was born on August 23, 1943, in San Antonio, Texas to Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez. His father left, leaving Anna Maria to raise Alcala and his sisters alone. At around the age of 12, Anna Maria moved the family to Los Angeles.

At the age of 17, Alcala joined the Army and remained there until 1964 when he received a medical discharge after being diagnosed with a severe anti-social personality.  

Alcala, now out of the Army, enrolled in UCLA School of Fine Arts where is earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1968. This is the same year that he kidnapped, raped, beat and tried to kill his first known victim.
 
Tali Shapiro
 
Tali Shapiro was an 8-year-old on her way to school when she was lured into Alcala's car, an act that did not go unnoticed by a nearby motorist who followed the two and contacted police.
Alcala took Tali into his apartment where he raped, beat and attempted to strangle her with a 10-pound metal bar. When police arrived, they kicked in the door and found Tali laying on the kitchen floor in a large puddle of blood and not breathing. Because of the brutality of the beating they thought she was dead and begin to search for Alcala in the apartment.
A police officer, returning to the kitchen, saw Tali struggling to breathe. All attention went to trying to keep her alive and at some point Alcala managed to slip out the backdoor.
When searching Alcala's apartment the police found several pictures, many of young girls. They also found out his name and that he had attended UCLA. But it took several months before they would find Alcala.

On the Run but Not Hiding
 
Alcala, now using the name John Berger, fled to New York and enrolled in NYU film school. From 1968 to 1971, even though he was listed on the FBI's most wanted list, he lived undetected and in full view. Playing the role of a "groovy" film student, amateur photographer, single hot shot, Alcala moved around New York's single clubs.
During the summer months he worked at an all girl's summer drama camp in New Hampshire.
In 1971, two girls attending the camp recognized Alcala on a wanted poster at the post office. The police were notified and Alcala was arrested.

Indeterminate Sentencing
 
In August, 1971, Alcala was returned to Los Angeles, but the prosecutor's case had a major flaw - Tali Shapiro's family had returned to Mexico soon after Tali recovered from the attack. Without their main witness, the decision was made to offer Alcala a plea deal.
Alcala, charged with rape, kidnapping, assault, and attempted murder, accepted a deal to plead guilty to child molestation. The other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to one year to life, and was paroled after 34 months under the "indeterminate sentencing" program. The program allowed a parole board, not a judge, to decide on when offenders could be released based on if they appeared rehabilitated. With Alcala's ability to charm, he was back out on the streets in less than three years.
Within eight weeks he returned to prison for violating his parole for providing marijuana to a 13-year-old girl. She told police that Alcala kidnapped her, but he was not charged.
Alcala spent another two years behind bars and was released in 1977, again under the "indeterminate sentencing" program. He returned to Los Angeles and got a job as a typesetter for the Los Angeles Times.

More Victims
It did not take long for Alcala to get back into his murderous rampage.

• The Murder of Jill Barcomb, Los Angeles County In November 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized, and murdered 18-year-old Jill Barcomb, a New York native who had recently moved to California. Alcala used a large rock to smash in her face, and strangle her to death by tying her belt and pant leg around her neck.
  Alcala then left her body in a mountainous area in the foothills near Hollywood, where she was discovered Nov. 10, 1977, posed on her knees with her face in the dirt.
  
• Murder of Georgia Wixted, Los Angeles County In December 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized, and murdered 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted. Alcala used a hammer to sexually abuse Georgia, then used the claw end of the hammer to beat and smash in her head. He strangled her to death using a nylon stocking and left her body posed in her Malibu apartment. Her body was discovered Dec. 16, 1977.
  
• Murder of Charlotte Lamb, Los Angeles County In June 1979, Alcala raped, beat, and murdered 33-year-old legal secretary Charlotte Lamb. Alcala strangled Charlotte to death using a shoelace from her shoe and left her body posed in a laundry room of an El Segundo apartment complex where it was discovered on June 24, 1979.
  
• Murder of Jill Parenteau, Los Angeles County In June 1979, Alcala raped and murdered 21-year-old Jill Parenteau in her Burbank apartment. He strangled Jill to death using a cord or nylon. Alcala's blood was collected from the scene after he cut himself crawling through a window. Based on a semi-rare blood match, Alcala was linked to the murder. He was charged for murdering Parenteau, but the case was later dismissed.
  
• Murder of Robin Samsoe, Orange County On June 20, 1979, Alcala approached 12-year-old Robin Samsoe and her friend Bridget Wilvert at Huntington Beach and asked them to pose for pictures. After posing for a series of photographs, a neighbor intervened and asked if everything was alright and Samsoe took off. Later Robin got on a bike and headed to an afternoon dance class.
  Alcala kidnapped and murdered Samsoe and dumped her body near Sierra Madre in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Her body was scavenged by animals and her skeletal remains were discovered July 2, 1979. Her front teeth had been knocked out by Alcala.
  
  

Arrested
 
After the Samsoe murder, Alcala rented a storage locker in Seattle, where police found hundreds of photos of young women and girls and a bag of personal items that they suspected belonged to Alcala's victims. A pair of earrings found in the bag were identified by Samsoe's mother as being a pair she owned.
Alcala was also identified by several people as the photographer from the beach on the day Samsoe was kidnapped.
Following an investigation, Alcala was charged, tried, and convicted for Samsoe's murder in 1980. He was sentenced to receive the death penalty. The conviction was later overturned by the California Supreme Court.
Alcala was again tried and convicted for the murder of Samsoe in 1986, and was again sentenced to the death penalty. The second conviction was overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.


Three Times a Charm
 
While awaiting his third trial for the murder of Samsoe, DNA collected from the murder scenes of Barcomb, Wixted, and Lamb was linked to Alcala. He was charged for the four Los Angeles murders, including Parenteau.
At the third trial, Alcala represented himself as his own defense attorney and argued that he was at Knott's Berry Farm on the afternoon that Samsoe was murdered. Alcala did not contest the charges that he committed the murders of the four Los Angeles victims, but rather focused on the Samsoe charges.
At one point he took the stand and questioned himself in third-person, changing his tone depending on if he was acting as his lawyer or as himself.
On Feb. 25, 2010, the jury found Alcala guilty of all five counts of capital murder, one count of kidnapping and four counts of rape.
During the penalty phase, Alcala attempted to sway the jury away from the death penalty by playing the song "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie, which includes the lyrics, "I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL."
His strategy did not work and the jury quickly recommended the death penalty to which the judge agreed.

More Victims?
 
Immediately after Alcala's conviction, the Huntington police released 120 of Alcala's photos to the public. Suspecting that Alcala had more victims, the police asked for the public's help in identifying the women and children in the photos. Since then several of the unknown faces have been identified.

New York Murders
 
Two murder cases in New York have also been linked through DNA to Alcala. TWA flight attendant Cornelia "Michael" Crilley, was murdered 1971 while Alcala was enrolled at NYU. Ciro's Nightclub heiress Ellen Jane Hover was murdered in 1977 during the time that Alcala had received permission from his parole officer to go to New York to visit family.
Currently Alcala is on death row at San Quentin State Prison.



 

Some of Ted Bundy's notorious quotes

1.

“We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow”

2.

“You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You're looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!”

3.

“Sometimes I feel like a vampire.”

4.

“Murder is not about lust and it's not about violence. It's about possession.”

5.

“There's lots of other kids playing in streets around this country today who are going to be dead tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and month, because other young people are reading the kinds of things and seeing the kinds of things that are available in the media today. “

6.

“I'm the most cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch you'll ever meet.”

7.

“I've met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence just like me. And without exception, without question, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography. “

8.

 “I didn't know what made people want to be friends. I didn't know what made people attractive to one another. I didn't know what underlay social interactions. “

9.

“What's one less person on the face of the earth, anyway?”

10.

“I don't feel guilty for anything. I feel sorry for people who feel guilt.”

11.

“I just liked to kill, I wanted to kill.”

12.

“… I deserve, certainly, the most extreme punishment society has and society deserves to be protected from me and from others like me, that's for sure.”

13.

“Well-meaning, decent people will condemn the behavior of a Ted Bundy, while they're walking past a magazine rack full of the very kinds of things that send young kids down the road to be Ted Bundys.”

14.

“I'm as cold a motherfucker as you've ever put your fucking eyes on. I don't give a shit about those people.”