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120-396: Theodore Robert Bundy ( né   Cowell ; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped, and murdered dozens of young women and girls during the 1970s. After more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 murders. The total number of his victims is likely to be higher. Bundy's modus operandi typically consisted of simulating having

240-476: A crowbar . After handcuffing her, he drove her to Issaquah , a suburb 20 miles (30 km) east of Seattle, where he strangled her and spent the entire night with her body. The next afternoon he returned to the UW alley and, in the very midst of a major crime scene investigation, located and gathered Hawkins' earrings and one of her shoes where he had left them in the adjoining parking lot and departed, unobserved. "It

360-723: A stroke due to being overweight and was not mentally ill. In 1950, Louise changed her surname from Cowell to Nelson and, at the urging of multiple family members, left Philadelphia with Ted to live with cousins Alan and Jane Scott in Tacoma , Washington . In 1951, Louise met Johnny Culpepper Bundy (1921–2007), a hospital cook, at an adult singles night at Tacoma's First Methodist Church. They married later that year and Johnny formally adopted Ted. Johnny and Louise conceived four children together, and though Johnny tried to include his adopted son in camping trips and other family activities, Bundy remained distant from him. Bundy would later complain to

480-501: A "bastard," but he told biographers Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth that he had found the certificate himself. Biographer and true crime writer Ann Rule , who knew Bundy personally, wrote that he did not find out about his true parentage until 1969, when he located his original birth record in Vermont. Bundy expressed a lifelong resentment toward his mother for never telling him about his real father, and for leaving him to discover

600-430: A 19-year-old woman who was studying to become a computer programmer, left a picnic to go to the restroom and never returned. Bundy told Stephen Michaud and FBI agent William Hagmaier that Ott was still alive when he returned with Naslund and that he forced one to watch as he assaulted and murdered the other, but he later denied it in an interview with Lewis on the eve of his execution. King County police, finally armed with

720-536: A Halloween party by herself just after midnight; she was last seen trying to hitchhike. Her naked body was found by hikers 9 miles (14 km) to the northeast in American Fork Canyon on Thanksgiving Day . The medical examiner estimated that Aime had died on November 20; twenty days after her disappearance. Both Smith and Aime had been beaten, raped, sodomized and strangled with nylon stockings. Years later, Bundy described his post-mortem rituals with

840-623: A UW classmate, Diane Edwards (identified in Bundy biographies by several pseudonyms , most commonly Stephanie Brooks). Bundy later described Edwards as "the only woman I ever really loved." In early 1968, Bundy dropped out of college and worked a series of minimum-wage jobs. He also volunteered at the Seattle office of Nelson Rockefeller 's presidential campaign and became Arthur Fletcher 's driver and bodyguard during Fletcher's campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Washington State . Edwards graduated in

960-450: A bag of plaster of Paris that he admitted stealing from a medical supply house and a meat cleaver that was never used for cooking. Additional objects included surgical gloves, an Oriental knife in a wooden case that he kept in his glove compartment and a sack full of women's clothing. Bundy was perpetually in debt, and Kloepfer suspected that he had stolen almost everything of significant value that he possessed. When she confronted him over

1080-486: A believer in the system." In early 1973, despite mediocre LSAT scores, Bundy was accepted into the law schools of UPS and the University of Utah (U of U) on the strength of letters of recommendation from Evans, Davis and several UW psychology professors. During a trip to California on Republican Party business in the summer of 1973, Bundy rekindled his relationship with Edwards. She marveled at his transformation into

1200-531: A cast or a sling and driving a brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle. The Washington and Oregon murders culminated on July 14 with the abductions in broad daylight of two women from a crowded beach at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah. Four female witnesses described an attractive young man wearing a white tennis outfit with his left arm in a sling, speaking with a light accent, perhaps Canadian or British. Introducing himself as "Ted," he asked their help in unloading

1320-455: A clean-cut law student with no adult criminal record could be the perpetrator. On September 6, two grouse hunters stumbled across the skeletal remains of Ott and Naslund near a service road in Issaquah, 2 miles (3 km) east of Lake Sammamish State Park. An extra femur and several vertebrae found at the site were later identified by Bundy as those of Hawkins. Six months later, forestry students from Green River Community College discovered

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1440-634: A college student, he shadowed Evans' opponent, former governor Albert Rosellini , and recorded his stump speeches for analysis by Evans's team. Evans subsequently appointed Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee. After Evans was re-elected, Bundy was hired as an assistant to Ross Davis, Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party . Davis thought well of Bundy and described him as "smart, aggressive ... and

1560-543: A crime episodically can utilize this aspect in their storytelling. Another strength of these podcasts is use of typical sensationalist techniques, such as inclusion of direct dialogue and focus on victims and their families. Podcasts can use music or other sound cues to maximize the intended impact or shock value of a fact, as seen in Serial . Trends in the United States In the U.S. women are predominantly

1680-564: A decision on justifications, sentencing, or in cases of unsolved true crime; who they believe did it. Algorithms are used not only to see what a specific user is watching, but also what is being watched worldwide and what is sparking conversation. It is obvious that if this algorithm picks up on popularity, Netflix will continue to push out true crime material. Many of the True Crime documentaries have Twitter pages that promote their show's hashtags and reply to fans and/or their theories about

1800-432: A detailed description of their suspect and his car, posted fliers throughout the Seattle area. A composite sketch was printed in regional newspapers and broadcast on local television stations. Kloepfer, Rule, a DES employee and a UW psychology professor all recognized the profile, the sketch and the car, and reported Bundy as a possible suspect; but detectives—who were receiving up to 200 tips per day—thought it unlikely that

1920-468: A direct effect on the aftermath of the crime and how it is dealt with by authorities or a given community. The Netflix show Making A Murderer has had a range of real-life effects, ranging from the show being shown in law schools as instructional material to increased mistrust in criminal investigators. The investigative process of the true crime genre can lead to changes in the cases being covered, such as when Robert Durst seemingly confessed to murder in

2040-459: A girlfriend that Johnny "was not his real father, "wasn't very bright" and "didn't make much money." Bundy varied his recollections of Tacoma in later years. To Michaud and Aynesworth, he described roaming his neighborhood, picking through trash barrels in search of pictures of naked women. To attorney and author Polly Nelson , he said that he perused detective magazines and crime novels for stories that involved sexual violence , particularly when

2160-435: A hidden collection of Polaroid photographs of his victims, which he destroyed after he was released. Salt Lake City police placed Bundy on 24-hour surveillance, and Thompson flew to Seattle with two other detectives to interview Kloepfer. She told them that in the year prior to Bundy's move to Utah, she had discovered objects that she "couldn't understand" in her house and in Bundy's apartment. These items included crutches,

2280-526: A highly profitable sub-genre. An informal survey conducted by Publishers Weekly in 1993 concluded that the more popular true crime books focus on serial killers, with the more gruesome and grotesque content performing even better. Some true crime works are "instant books" produced quickly to capitalize on popular demand; these have been described as "more than formulaic" and hyper-conventional. Others may reflect years of thoughtful research and inquiry and may have considerable literary merit . A milestone of

2400-480: A job at Seattle 's Suicide Hotline Crisis Center. There, he met and worked alongside Ann Rule, a former Seattle police officer and aspiring crime writer who would later write one of the definitive Bundy biographies, The Stranger Beside Me . Rule saw nothing disturbing in Bundy's personality at the time; she described him as "kind, solicitous, and empathetic." After graduating from UW in 1972, Bundy joined Governor Daniel J. Evans 's re-election campaign. Posing as

2520-531: A key that unlocked the handcuffs removed from DaRonch's wrist. Bundy eventually admitted to abducting Kent and keeping her at his apartment for a day, stating she was alive "during half of it." In November, Kloepfer called King County police a second time after reading that young women were disappearing in towns surrounding Salt Lake City. Detective Randy Hergesheimer of the Major Crimes division interviewed her in detail. By then, Bundy had risen considerably on

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2640-533: A member of his last defense team, agreed. She wrote that "Ted was the very definition of heartless evil." Ted Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946, to Eleanor Louise Cowell (1924–2012) at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington, Vermont . His biological father's identity has never been confirmed; his original birth certificate apparently assigns paternity to

2760-484: A month later, she demanded to know why he had unilaterally ended their relationship without explanation. In a flat, calm voice, he replied, "Diane, I have no idea what you mean," and hung up. She never heard from him again. Bundy later explained, "I just wanted to prove to myself that I could have married her"; but Edwards concluded in retrospect that "Ted's high-power courtship in the latter part of 1973 had been deliberately planned, that he had waited all those years to be in

2880-477: A moral message. Most were purchased by the "artisan class and above", as the lower classes did not have the money or time to read them. Ballads were also created, the verses of which were posted on walls around towns, that were told from the perpetrator 's point of view in an attempt to understand the psychological motivations of the crime. Such pamphlets remained in circulation in the 19th century in Britain and

3000-512: 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. By his own admission, he had by then mastered the necessary skills – in the era before DNA profiling – to leave minimal incriminating forensic evidence at crime scenes. Shortly after midnight on January 4, 1974, around

3120-550: A new TV and stereo, he warned her, "If you tell anyone, I'll break your fucking neck." She said Bundy became "very upset" whenever she considered cutting her hair, which was long and parted in the middle. She would sometimes awaken in the middle of the night to find him under the bed covers with a flashlight, examining her body. He kept a lug wrench , taped halfway up the handle, in the trunk of her car—another Volkswagen Beetle, which he often borrowed—"for protection". The detectives confirmed that Bundy had not been with Kloepfer on any of

3240-409: A physical impairment to convince his target that he was in need of assistance or duping her into believing he was an authority figure. He would then lure his victim to a vehicle parked in a more secluded area, at which point he would bludgeon her unconscious, then restrain her with handcuffs before driving his victim to a remote location to be sexually assaulted and killed. Bundy frequently revisited

3360-496: A position of where he could make her fall in love with him, so that he could drop her, reject her, as she had rejected him." By then, Bundy had begun skipping classes at law school. By April, he had stopped attending entirely, as young women began to disappear in the Pacific Northwest . There is no consensus as to when or where Bundy began killing women. He told different stories to different people and refused to divulge

3480-450: A role in the popularity of true crime podcasts. These podcasts often recount horrific crimes, which triggers the fear response and the release of adrenaline in the body. Due to the possibility of binge-watching podcasts, adrenaline rushes can be experienced in quick bursts. Another explanation for the popularity of true crime podcasts is due to the serialized nature of crime, in which events happen one after another. Podcasts that explore

3600-479: A sailboat from his tan or bronze-colored Volkswagen Beetle. Three refused; one accompanied him as far as his car, saw that there was no sailboat and fled. Three additional witnesses saw "Ted" approach Janice Ann Ott, 23, a probation caseworker at the King County Juvenile Court, with the sailboat story and watched her leave the beach in his company. About four hours later, Denise Marie Naslund,

3720-417: A salesman and United States Air Force veteran named Lloyd Marshall, though a copy of it listed his father as unknown. Louise claimed she met a war veteran named Jack Worthington, who abandoned her soon after she became pregnant. Census records reveal that several men by the name of John Worthington and Lloyd Marshall lived near Louise when Bundy was conceived. Some family members expressed suspicions that Bundy

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3840-467: A search for "Top Podcasts of 2021", true crime podcasts made up more than 20% of the podcasts constituting the lists. Trends in Australia In 2017, as many as 30% of podcast listeners had listened to true crime podcasts, and in 2019, this had increased to up to 44%. True crime works can impact the crimes they cover and the audience who consumes it. Also, coverage of true crime events can have

3960-531: A secluded area, where he raped and murdered her before dumping her body. During the first half of 1974, female college students disappeared at the rate of about one per month. On March 12, Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year-old student at Evergreen State College in Olympia , 60 miles (95 km) southwest of Seattle, left her dormitory to attend a jazz concert on campus but never arrived. Bundy claimed that he burned Manson's skull in his girlfriend's fireplace "down to

4080-563: A secondary site near Rifle , 90 miles (140 km) west of Vail. Weeks later, he made the six-hour drive from Salt Lake City to revisit her remains. Denise Lynn Oliverson, aged 25, disappeared near the Utah–Colorado border in Grand Junction on April 6 while riding her bicycle to her parents' house; her bike and sandals were found under a viaduct near a railroad bridge. Bundy stated he abducted Oliverson, killed her in his car near

4200-577: A serious and dedicated professional, seemingly on the cusp of a significant legal and political career. Bundy continued to date Kloepfer as well; neither woman was aware of the other's existence. In the fall of 1973, Bundy matriculated at UPS Law School , and continued courting Edwards, who flew to Seattle several times to stay with him. They discussed marriage; at one point he introduced her to Davis as his fiancée. In January 1974, Bundy abruptly broke off all contact with Edwards; her phone calls and letters went unreturned. When she finally reached him by phone

4320-422: A sharp weapon. On March 15, 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Snowmass Village, Vail ski instructor Julie Lyle Cunningham, aged 26, disappeared while walking from her apartment to a dinner date with a friend. Bundy later told Colorado investigators that he approached Cunningham on crutches and asked her to help carry his ski boots to his car, where he clubbed and handcuffed her before sexually assaulting her at

4440-564: A single mother from Ogden , Utah , who worked as a secretary at the UW School of Medicine. Their tumultuous relationship would continue well past his initial incarceration in Utah in 1976. Bundy became a father figure to Kloepfer's daughter Molly, who was three years old when he started dating her mother; he remained in her life until she was aged 10, after he had been arrested. As an adult, Molly wrote of incidents beginning at age 7 in which Bundy

4560-481: A sling. Bundy later stated he brought Ball back to his residence where they had a "consensual" sexual encounter before he strangled her while she was sleeping; although this failed to explain the damage done to her skull. Investigators from Seattle and King County grew increasingly concerned. There was no significant physical evidence, and the missing women had little in common apart from similar appearance: young, attractive, white college students with long hair parted in

4680-850: A still-unidentified hitchhiker in Idaho , then returned the next day to photograph and dismember the corpse before disposing of the remains in a nearby river. On October 2, he abducted 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox in Holladay, Utah , a suburb of Salt Lake City. Bundy confessed that Wilcox was walking on a poorly lit "main roadway" when he parked his car and forced her into an orchard. He then restrained her, put her into his vehicle and drove back to his apartment, where he allegedly kept her for 24 hours. Bundy informed investigators that her remains were buried near Capitol Reef National Park , some 200 miles (320 km) south of Holladay, but they were never found. On October 18, Melissa Anne Smith—the 17-year-old daughter of

4800-399: A theater production at the school to pick up her brother. The school's drama teacher and a student told police that "a stranger" had asked each of them to come out to the parking lot to identify a car. Another student later saw the same man pacing in the rear of the auditorium, and the drama teacher spotted him again shortly before the end of the play. Outside the auditorium, investigators found

4920-471: A timid and obedient woman who periodically underwent electroconvulsive therapy for depression and feared to leave their house toward the end of her life. These descriptions of Bundy's grandparents have been questioned in more recent investigations. Some locals in Roxborough remembered Samuel as a "fine man" and expressed bewilderment at the reports of him being violent. "The characterization that [Sam]

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5040-871: A true crime theme are a recent trend. The 2014 true crime podcast Serial broke podcasting records when it achieved 5 million downloads on iTunes quicker than any previous podcast. As of September 2018, it has been downloaded more than 340 million times. It has been followed by other true crime podcasts such as Dirty John , My Favorite Murder , Up and Vanished , Parcast series such as Cults , Female Criminals and Mind's Eye , Someone Knows Something , and many more. Podcasts have now expanded to more sites such as Spotify , Apple Music , YouTube and several others. They exist to provide others an easy way to learn about true crime murders and mysteries. Spotify has an expanding number of true crime podcasts with Rotten Mango , Conviction American Panic , Bed of Lies , Catch & Kill among many more. This genre has been on

5160-493: A twice-divorced mother of two who would play an important role in the final phase of his life six years later. Reports of the brutal attack on Sparks and the six missing women appeared prominently in newspapers and on television throughout Washington and Oregon . Fear spread among the population; hitchhiking by young women dropped sharply. Pressure mounted on law enforcement agencies, but the scarcity of physical evidence severely hampered them. Police would not provide reporters with

5280-533: A week with Kloepfer, who did not tell him that she had reported him to police on three occasions. She made plans to visit him in Salt Lake City in August. In 1975, Bundy shifted much of his criminal activity eastward, from his base in Utah to Colorado. On January 12, a 23-year-old registered nurse named Caryn Eileen Campbell disappeared while walking down a well-lit hallway between the elevator and her room at

5400-508: Is the name given to a person upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname , the given name , or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth register may by that fact alone become the person's legal name . The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (or perhaps from baptism or brit milah ) will persist to adulthood in

5520-461: Is the masculine form. The term née , having feminine grammatical gender , can be used to denote a woman's surname at birth that has been replaced or changed. In most English-speaking cultures, it is specifically applied to a woman's maiden name after her surname has changed due to marriage. The term né can be used to denote a man's surname at birth that has subsequently been replaced or changed. The diacritic mark (the acute accent ) over

5640-655: The United States , even after widespread crime journalism was introduced via the penny press . In 1807, Henry Tufts published A Narrative of the Life, Adventures, Travels and Sufferings of Henry Tufts , which is likely the first extensive biography of an American criminal. Thomas De Quincey published the essay " On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts " in Blackwood's Magazine in 1827, which focused not on

5760-456: The e is considered significant to its spelling, and ultimately its meaning, but is sometimes omitted. According to Oxford University 's Dictionary of Modern English Usage , the terms are typically placed after the current surname (e.g., " Margaret Thatcher , née Roberts" or " Bill Clinton , né Blythe"). Since they are terms adopted into English (from French), they do not have to be italicized , but they often are. In Polish tradition ,

5880-411: The social stigma that accompanied birth outside of wedlock at that time. Family, friends and even young Ted were told that his grandparents were his parents and that his mother was his older sister. Bundy eventually discovered the truth about his family, although his recollections of the circumstances varied; he told a girlfriend that a cousin showed him a copy of his birth certificate after calling him

6000-468: The 16th-century Cases of Magistrate Bao , were either inspired by historical events or else purely fictional. Hundreds of pamphlets , broadsides , chapbooks and other street literature about murders and other crimes were published from 1550 to 1700 in Britain as literacy increased and cheap new printing methods became widespread. They varied in style: some were sensational, while others conveyed

6120-474: The 1970's, and by 1996, almost none were being published, including True Detective , which had been bought and shut down by a new owner. True crime books often center on sensational, shocking, or strange events, particularly murder. Even though murder makes up less than 20% of reported crime, it is present in most true crime stories. Typically, the crimes most commonly include murder ; about 40 percent focus on tales of serial killers . Serial killers have been

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6240-660: The DaRonch case. Bundy denied knowing DaRonch but had no alibi, and was freed on $ 15,000 bail , paid by his parents, and spent most of the time between indictment and trial in Seattle, living in Kloepfer's house. Seattle police had insufficient evidence to charge him in the Pacific Northwest murders, but kept him under close surveillance. "When Ted and I stepped out on the porch to go somewhere," Kloepfer wrote, "so many unmarked police cars started up that it sounded like

6360-656: The King County hierarchy of suspicion, but the Lake Sammamish witness considered most reliable by detectives failed to identify him from a photo lineup . In December, Kloepfer called the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office and repeated her suspicions. Bundy's name was added to their list of suspects, but at that time no credible forensic evidence linked him to the Utah murders. In January 1975, Bundy returned to Seattle after his final exams and spent

6480-701: The November 1974 DaRonch kidnapping, and Bundy's name from Kloepfer's phone call a month later. In a search of Bundy's apartment, police found a guide to Colorado ski resorts with a checkmark by the Wildwood Inn, and a brochure that advertised the Viewmont High School play in Bountiful, where Kent had disappeared. Police did not have sufficient evidence to detain Bundy, so he was released on his own recognizance . He later said that searchers missed

6600-424: The U.S. top 50 spots for popularity by most listens, with Crime Junkie at No. 3, My Favorite Murder at No. 5, and others scattered among the top 50, such as; Serial at No. 13, Dateline NBC at No. 22, and Criminal at No. 30. In that year, true crime ranked third overall for genres by listen behind both comedy and news. From November 2019 through May 2022, true crime podcast listening increased

6720-726: The Utah state line, and dumped her body in the Colorado River . This admission was supported by gas receipts, which showed that he was in the city on the same day that Oliverson went missing. On May 6, Bundy parked outside of the Alameda Junior High School in Pocatello, Idaho , 160 miles (255 km) north of Salt Lake City, and after seeing 12-year-old Lynette Dawn Culver walking along by herself, he lured her into his vehicle before driving her to his Holiday Inn hotel room. He then raped Culver and drowned her in

6840-573: The Wildwood Inn (now the Wildwood Lodge) in Snowmass Village , 400 miles (640 km) southeast of Salt Lake City. Her nude body was found a month later next to a dirt road just outside the resort. According to the coroner's report, she had been killed by blows to her head from a blunt instrument that left distinctive linear grooved depressions on her skull; her assailant had slit her left earlobe and her body also bore deep cuts from

6960-435: The accents of some politicians he listened to on the radio. In essence, he was fantasizing about being someone else, someone important." Bundy's childhood Tacoma neighbor, Sandi Holt, described him as a bully and a "mean-spirited kid". "He liked to terrify people," Holt later said. "He liked to be in charge. He liked to inflict pain and suffering and fear." She also alleged that Bundy engaged in animal cruelty : "He hung one of

7080-482: The bathtub. He disposed of her body in the Snake River north of Pocatello. Bundy reportedly provided intimate details about Lynette's personal life in his confession. In mid-May, three of Bundy's Washington State DES co-workers, including Boone, visited him in Salt Lake City and stayed for a week in his apartment. He subsequently spent a week in Seattle with Kloepfer in early-June and they discussed getting married

7200-432: The beer drinking outings. I was a pretty, you might call me straight, but not a social outcast in any way." Classmates from Woodrow Wilson High School , however, told Rule that Bundy was "well known and well liked" there, "a medium-sized fish in a large pond." His only significant athletic avocation was downhill skiing, which he pursued enthusiastically with stolen equipment and forged lift tickets. During high school, Bundy

7320-665: The beginning of the Indy 500 ." In November, the three principal Bundy investigators—Jerry Thompson from Utah, Robert Keppel from Washington and Michael Fisher from Colorado—met in Aspen, Colorado , and exchanged information with thirty detectives and prosecutors from five states. While officials left the meeting (later referred to as the Aspen Summit) convinced that Bundy was the murderer they sought, they agreed that more hard evidence would be needed before he could be charged with any of

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7440-433: The bodies of those he abducted, grooming and performing sex acts on the corpses until decomposition and destruction by wild animals made further interactions impossible. He decapitated at least twelve of his victims, keeping their severed heads as mementos in his apartment. On a few occasions, Bundy broke into homes at night and bludgeoned, maimed, strangled and sexually assaulted his victims in their sleep. In 1975, Bundy

7560-518: The cafeteria and persuaded her to go with him to a bar. After they got into his car, he tied and gagged Parks and drove her back to Washington to be killed, raping her twice on the way. On June 1, Brenda Carol Ball, 22, disappeared after leaving the Flame Tavern in Burien , near Seattle–Tacoma International Airport . She was last seen in the parking lot, talking to a brown-haired man with his arm in

7680-600: The case to his car, a light brown Volkswagen Beetle. During this period, Bundy was working in Olympia as the assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee, where he wrote a pamphlet for women on rape prevention. Later, he worked at the Department of Emergency Services (DES), a state government agency involved in the search for the missing women. At the DES he met and began dating Carole Ann Boone (1947–2018),

7800-520: The case. Part of the reason viewers love watching true crime, especially on something so available as Netflix, is because after they form their opinions they are able to easily find places to discuss it online and share their opinions. This gains more attention online and leads more people to watching what is being spoken about online. However, this has caused some problems in the past with viewers feeling so strongly about this topic that there have been lawsuits of defamation against Netflix. Podcasts with

7920-426: The consumers of digital true crime podcasts, in 2019 making up around 73% of the content audience. The 2019 Edison Research Report found that at the time of data collection, an estimated 90 million of the U.S. population older than 12 had listened to a podcast in the last month, and of those polled, around 28% were interested in true crime as a topic to listen to in a podcast. In 2020, true crime podcasts held many of

8040-653: The corpses of Smith and Aime, including hair shampooing and application of makeup. In the late afternoon of November 8, Bundy approached 18-year-old telephone operator Carol DaRonch at Fashion Place Mall in Murray , less than a mile from the Midvale restaurant where Smith was last seen. He identified himself as "Officer Roseland" of the Murray Police Department and told DaRonch that someone had attempted to break into her car. He asked her to accompany him to

8160-443: The crime reporting network Crime Stoppers Australia that led to charges being pressed doubled from 2012 to 2017. This increased interest in crime is attributed to popular true crime podcasts. The true crime genre has been criticized as being disrespectful to crime victims and their families and is described by some as trash culture . Author Jack Miles believes this genre has a high potential to cause harm and mental trauma to

8280-465: The documentary The Jinx and was arrested. A study conducted in 2011, in Nebraska , showed that consuming non-fiction crime shows is correlated with an increased fear of being a victim of crime. As the frequency of watching true crime shows increased, support for the death penalty increased, while support for the criminal justice system decreased. In Australia , the amount of reports given to

8400-608: The execution chamber. The bodies of victims Wilcox, Kent, Cunningham, Oliverson, Culver and Curtis were never recovered. In August 1975, Bundy was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), although he was not an active participant in services and ignored most church restrictions. He would later be excommunicated by the LDS Church following his 1976 kidnapping conviction. When asked his religious preference after his arrest, Bundy answered " Methodist ,"

8520-408: The film Crime Story (based on the kidnapping of businessman Teddy Wang Tei-huei ), which featured action star Jackie Chan . Netflix has become one of the most influential streaming services in regard to their True Crime selection. The Netflix show Making a Murderer did so well, the company decided to establish more true crime and expand on this genre making a profit off of the interest from

8640-462: The first-year law curriculum a second time, Bundy was devastated to find out that the other students "had something, some intellectual capacity" that he did not. He found the classes completely incomprehensible. "It was a great disappointment to me," he said. A new string of homicides began the following month, including two that would remain undiscovered until Bundy confessed to them shortly before his execution. On September 2, Bundy raped and strangled

8760-600: The following Christmas. Again, Kloepfer made no mention of her multiple discussions with authorities in King County and Salt Lake County. Bundy disclosed neither his ongoing relationship with Boone nor a concurrent romance with a Utah law student (known in various accounts as either Kim Andrews or Sharon Auer). On June 28, 15-year-old Susan Curtis vanished from the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo , 45 miles (70 km) south of Salt Lake City. Her murder became Bundy's last confession, tape-recorded moments before he entered

8880-528: The genre and concluded that tabloidization and fictionalization are pervasive in the works of some of the authors of true crime literature. In some cases, even books by the same author disagree on specifics about the same killer or events. For instance, some facts reported in Capote's In Cold Blood were challenged in 2013. Capote's second attempt at a true crime book, Handcarved Coffins (1979), despite being subtitled "Nonfiction Account of an American Crime",

9000-469: The genre was Norman Mailer 's The Executioner's Song (1979), which was the first book in the genre to win a Pulitzer Prize . Other prominent true crime accounts include Truman Capote 's In Cold Blood ; the best-selling true crime book of all time, Helter Skelter , by the lead Manson family prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry ; and Ann Rule 's The Stranger Beside Me , about Ted Bundy . Rule's 1987 work, Small Sacrifices , tells

9120-425: The genre's heyday, before World War 2, 200 different true crime magazines were sold on newsstands, with six million magazines sold every month. By itself, True Detective had two million in circulation. The covers of the magazines generally featured women being menaced in some way by a potential criminal perpetrator, with the scenarios being more intense in the 1960's. Public interest in the magazines began declining in

9240-469: The hospital for ten days and although she survived, she was left with permanent brain damage with significant loss to her vision and hearing. In the early morning hours of February 1, Bundy broke into the basement room of 21-year-old Lynda Ann Healy, a UW undergraduate who broadcast morning radio weather reports for skiers. He beat her unconscious, dressed her in blue jeans, a white blouse and boots, and carried her away. He later stated that he drove Healy to

9360-499: The killings. In February 1976, Bundy stood trial for the DaRonch kidnapping. On the advice of his attorney, John O'Connell, he waived his right to a jury due to the negative publicity surrounding the case. After a four-day bench trial and a weekend of deliberation, Judge Stewart Hanson Jr. found Bundy guilty of kidnapping and assault. In June, he was sentenced to one to 15 years in the Utah State Prison . In October, Bundy

9480-468: The last ash" in "a fit of... paranoia and cleanliness". On April 17, 18-year-old Susan Elaine Rancourt disappeared while on her way to her dorm room after an evening advisors' meeting at Central Washington State College in Ellensburg , 110 miles (175 km) southeast of Seattle. Two female Central Washington students later came forward to report encounters—one on the night of Rancourt's disappearance,

9600-410: The little information that was available for fear of compromising the investigation. Further similarities between the victims were noted: the disappearances all took place at night, usually near ongoing construction work and were within a week of midterm or final exams. All of the victims were wearing slacks or blue jeans when they disappeared, and at many crime scenes there were sightings of a man wearing

9720-437: The middle. In the early hours of June 11, 18-year-old UW student Georgann Hawkins vanished while walking down a brightly lit alley between her boyfriend's dormitory residence and her sorority house. The next morning, three Seattle homicide detectives and a criminalist combed the entire alleyway on their hands and knees, finding nothing. Bundy later told Keppel that he lured Hawkins to his car and knocked her unconscious with

9840-412: The most of the top three genres by percentage gain in listeners, with a 66% gain (from ~12.9 million to ~21.5 million) in current listeners, versus the 44% and 37% gain in listeners by comedy and news respectively. On Apple Podcasts, True Crime podcasts make up just less than half a percent of the total number of podcasts on the platform. On a collated list of 432 podcasts from the most-visited results of

9960-404: The murder or the murderer but on how society views crime. Starting in 1889, Scottish lawyer William Roughead wrote and published essays for six decades about notable British murder trials he attended, with many of these essays collected in the 2000 book Classic Crimes. Many regard Roughead "as the dean of the modern true crime genre." An American pioneer of the genre was Edmund Pearson , who

10080-705: The nights during which the Pacific Northwest victims had vanished, nor on the day Ott and Naslund were abducted from Lake Sammamish State Park. Shortly thereafter, Kloepfer was interviewed by Seattle homicide detective Kathy McChesney, and learned of the existence of Edwards and her brief engagement to Bundy around Christmas 1973. In September, Bundy sold his Volkswagen Beetle to a Midvale teenager. Utah police impounded it, and FBI technicians dismantled and searched it. They found hairs matching samples obtained from Campbell's body. Later, they also identified hair strands "microscopically indistinguishable" from those of Smith and DaRonch. FBI lab specialist Robert Neill concluded that

10200-405: The normal course of affairs—either throughout life or until marriage. Some reasons for changes of a person's name include middle names , diminutive forms, changes relating to parental status (due to one's parents' divorce or adoption by different parents), and gender transition . The French and English-adopted née is the feminine past participle of naître , which means "to be born". Né

10320-418: The only one available for their use. After inputting the many lists they had compiled—classmates and acquaintances of each victim, Volkswagen owners named "Ted," known sex offenders and so on—they queried the computer for coincidences. Out of thousands of names, 26 turned up on four lists; one was Bundy. Detectives also manually compiled a list of their 100 "best" suspects, and Bundy was on that list as well. He

10440-531: The other three nights earlier—with a man wearing a sling , who was asking for help carrying a load of books to his brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle . On May 6, Roberta Kathleen Parks, aged 22, left her dormitory at Oregon State University in Corvallis , 260 miles (420 km) south of Seattle, to have coffee with friends at the Memorial Union , but never arrived. Bundy claimed that he spotted Parks in

10560-496: The penny press. The foreword of a 1964 anthology of Pearson's stories contains an early mention of the term "true crime" as a genre. Truman Capote 's " non-fiction novel " In Cold Blood (1965) is usually credited with establishing the modern novelistic style of the genre and the one that rocketed it to great profitability. The first true crime magazine, True Detective , was published in 1924. It featured fairly matter-of-fact accounts of crimes and how they were solved. During

10680-543: The pivotal time in his development." Devastated by the breakup, Bundy traveled to Colorado and then farther east, visiting relatives in Arkansas and Philadelphia and enrolling for one semester at Temple University . It was also at this time in early 1969, Rule believed, that Bundy discovered his true parentage in Vermont. Bundy returned to Washington in the fall of 1969, when he met Elizabeth Kloepfer (identified in Bundy literature as Meg Anders, Beth Archer or Liz Kendall),

10800-417: The police chief of Midvale , another Salt Lake City suburb—disappeared after leaving a pizza parlor at around 9:30 p.m. Her nude body was found in a nearby mountainous area nine days later; post-mortem examination indicated that she may have remained alive for up to seven days following her disappearance. On October 31, Laura Ann Aime, also aged 17, disappeared 25 miles (40 km) south of Lehi after leaving

10920-555: The presence of hair strands in one car matching three different victims who had never met one another would be "a coincidence of mind-boggling rarity". On October 2, detectives put Bundy into a lineup. DaRonch immediately identified him as "Officer Roseland," and witnesses from Bountiful recognized him as the stranger at the Viewmont High School auditorium. There was insufficient evidence to link him to Kent, whose body had not yet been found, but more than enough evidence to charge him with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault in

11040-684: The real people involved. True crime media can be produced without the consent of the victim's family, which can lead to them being re-traumatized. Recent discussions about the consumption of true crime media have also focused on the impact on the audience's mental health. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to well-established facts in journalistic fashion or can be highly speculative. Writers can selectively choose which information to present and which to leave out in order to support their narrative . Artists have offered fact-based narratives blending fiction and historical reenactment. Author Christiana Gregoriou analyzed several books of

11160-439: The rear seats, and searched the car. He found a ski mask, a second mask fashioned from pantyhose, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, a coil of rope, an ice pick and other items initially assumed to be burglary tools. Bundy explained that the ski mask was for skiing, he had found the handcuffs in a dumpster and the rest were common household items. However, Detective Jerry Thompson remembered a similar suspect and car description from

11280-415: The religion of his childhood. In Washington State, investigators were still struggling to analyze the Pacific Northwest murder spree that had ended as abruptly as it had begun. In an effort to make sense of an overwhelming mass of data, they resorted to the then-innovative strategy of compiling a database . They used the King County payroll computer, a "huge, primitive machine" by contemporary standards, but

11400-523: The rise as psychologist, Amanda Vicary, said her report found "women were most drawn to true crime stories that gave them tips for spotting danger and staying alive". The True Crime category in Apple Podcasts appeared for the first time mid-2019, and until then the podcasts that would be moved into the section had existed across many other categories, such as History, News & Politics, and even Comedy. It has been speculated that fear could play

11520-473: The skulls and mandibles of Healy, Rancourt, Parks and Ball on Taylor Mountain , where Bundy frequently hiked, just east of Issaquah. Manson's remains were never recovered. In August 1974, Bundy received a second acceptance from the University of Utah Law School and moved to Salt Lake City , leaving Kloepfer in Seattle. While he called Kloepfer often, he dated "at least a dozen" other women. As he studied

11640-671: The specifics of his earliest crimes, even as he confessed in graphic detail to dozens of later murders in the days preceding his execution. Bundy told Nelson that he attempted his first kidnapping in Ocean City , New Jersey , in 1969, but did not kill anyone until sometime in 1971 in Seattle. He told psychologist Art Norman that he killed two women in Atlantic City while visiting family in Philadelphia in 1969. Bundy hinted to homicide detective Robert Keppel that he committed

11760-600: The spring of 1968 and left Washington for San Francisco . Bundy visited her later that year after he earned a scholarship to study Chinese at Stanford University that summer. In August, Bundy attended the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami . Shortly thereafter, Edwards ended their relationship and returned to her family home in California , frustrated by what she described as Bundy's immaturity and lack of ambition. Lewis would later pinpoint this crisis as "probably

11880-446: The start of the 21st century, the genre of writing that was growing the quickest was true crime. Much of this is due to the ease of recycling materials and the publication of numerous volumes by the same authors differing only by minor updates. The majority of readers of true crime books are women. True crime documentaries have been a growing medium in the last several decades. One of the most influential documentaries in this process

12000-570: The station to file a complaint. When DaRonch pointed out to Bundy that he was driving on a road that did not lead to the police station, he immediately pulled onto the shoulder and attempted to handcuff her. During their struggle, he inadvertently fastened both handcuffs to the same wrist, and DaRonch was able to open the car door and escape. Later that evening, Debra Jean Kent, a 17-year-old student at Viewmont High School in Bountiful , 20 miles (30 km) north of Murray, disappeared after leaving

12120-566: The stories were illustrated with pictures of dead or maimed women. In a letter to Rule, however, he asserted that he "never, ever read fact-detective magazines, and shuddered at the thought that anyone would." He once told Michaud that he would consume large quantities of alcohol and "canvass the community" late at night in search of undraped windows where he could observe women undressing , or "whatever [else] could be seen." Psychologist Al Carlisle claimed that Bundy "started fantasizing about women he saw while window peeping or elsewhere [and] mimicking

12240-577: The story of Diane Downs , an Oregon woman who in May 1983 murdered her daughter and attempted to murder her other two children. An example of a modern true crime book is I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara . Erik Larson 's The Devil in the White City gives a novelistic account of H. H. Holmes ' operations during the 1893 World's Fair . In 2006, Associated Content stated that since

12360-583: The stray cats in the neighborhood from one of the clothes lines in the backyard, doused it in lighter fluid and set it on fire and I heard that cat squealing." She claimed that Bundy would take younger children in the neighborhood into the woods and terrorize them. "He'd take them out there and strip them down, take their clothes," she said. "You'd hear them screaming for blocks, I mean no matter where we were here, we could hear them screaming." Holt added that Bundy built makeshift punji traps around his neighborhood, injuring at least one girl. "One little girl went over

12480-450: The term z domu (literally meaning "of the house", de domo in Latin ) may be used, with rare exceptions, meaning the same as née . True crime Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles ( c.  1617 ) is a late Ming dynasty collection of stories about allegedly true cases of fraud. Works in the related Chinese genre of court case fiction ( gong'an xiaoshuo ), such as

12600-476: The time that he terminated his relationship with Edwards, Bundy entered the basement apartment of 18-year-old Karen Sparks (often identified as Joni Lenz, Mary Adams and Terri Caldwell in Bundy literature), a dancer and student at UW in Seattle's University District . After bludgeoning Sparks with a metal rod from her bed frame, he sexually assaulted her with the same rod causing extensive internal injuries and rupturing her bladder . Sparks remained unconscious in

12720-634: The top of one of Ted's tiger traps and got the whole side of her leg slit open with the sharpened point of the stick that she landed on." Accounts of Bundy's social life also varied. He told journalists Michaud and Aynesworth that he "chose to be alone" as an adolescent because he was unable to understand interpersonal relationships; he also claimed to have no natural sense of how to develop friendships. "I didn't know what made people want to be friends," Bundy claimed. "I didn't know what underlay social interactions." "Some people perceived me as being shy and introverted," he said. "I didn't go to dances. I didn't go on

12840-521: The truth about his paternity for himself. Bundy occasionally exhibited disturbing behavior at an early age. Louise's younger sister, Julia Cowell, recalled awakening from a nap to find herself surrounded by knives from the kitchen, and her three-year-old nephew standing by the bed, smiling. In some interviews, Bundy spoke warmly of his grandparents and told Rule that he "identified with," "respected" and "clung to" his grandfather Samuel. In 1987, however, he and other family members told attorneys that Samuel

12960-401: The viewers. Netflix has a number of key search words or tags to help users find true crime programs on their website because the genre has become so popular in the past few years. The way Netflix uses storytelling to explain the case is appealing to many viewers and creates an intimate relationship between the audience and the case itself. These programs often leave the viewer with the job to make

13080-611: Was The Thin Blue Line (1988), directed by Errol Morris . This documentary, among others, feature reenactments, although other documentary filmmakers choose not to use them since they do not show the truth. In the early 1990's, a boom of true crime films began in Hong Kong. These films ranged from graphic Category III –rated films such as The Untold Story and Dr. Lamb (based on serial killers Wong Chi Hang and Lam Kor-wan , respectively) to more general audience fare such as

13200-577: Was "literally at the top of the pile" of suspects when word came from Utah of his arrest. On August 16, 1975, Bundy was arrested by Utah Highway Patrol officer Bob Hayward in Granger , another Salt Lake City suburb. Hayward observed Bundy cruising a residential area in his Volkswagen Beetle during the pre-dawn hours, and fleeing at high speed after seeing the patrol car. He noticed that the Volkswagen's front passenger seat had been removed and placed on

13320-419: Was a feat so brazen," wrote Keppel, "that it astonishes police even today." Bundy said he revisited Hawkins' corpse on three occasions. After Hawkins' disappearance was publicized, witnesses came forward to report seeing a man on crutches, with a leg cast and carrying a briefcase, in an alley behind a nearby dormitory on the night of her disappearance. One woman recalled that the man asked her to help him carry

13440-425: Was a raging alcoholic and animal abuser was a convenient characterization used to make people justify why Ted was the way he was," said one of Bundy's cousins. "From my limited exposure to him, nothing could be farther from the truth. His daughters loved him dearly and had nothing but fond memories of him." In addition, Louise's sister, Audrey Cowell, stated that their mother could not leave her home because she suffered

13560-409: Was a tyrannical bully who beat his wife and dog, swung neighborhood cats by their tails and expressed racist and xenophobic attitudes. In one instance, Samuel reportedly threw Julia down a flight of stairs for oversleeping. He would sometimes speak aloud to unseen presences, and at least once flew into a violent rage when the question of Bundy's paternity was raised. Bundy described his grandmother as

13680-420: Was abusive or sexually inappropriate with her. Her accounts include Bundy hitting her in the face, knocking her down, putting her at risk of drowning, indecent exposure and sexual touching disguised as accidents or "games". In mid-1970, Bundy, now focused and goal-oriented, re-enrolled at UW, this time as a psychology major. He became an honor student and was well regarded by his professors. In 1971, he took

13800-666: Was arrested and jailed in Utah for aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault . He then became a suspect in a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in several states. Facing murder charges in Colorado , Bundy engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults in Florida , including three murders, before being recaptured in 1978. For the Florida homicides, he received three death sentences in two trials, and

13920-498: Was arrested at least twice on suspicion of burglary and motor vehicle theft . At age 18 the details of the incidents were expunged from his record, as is customary in Washington and many other states. After graduating from high school in 1965, Bundy attended the University of Puget Sound (UPS) for one year before transferring to the University of Washington (UW) to study Chinese . In 1967 he became romantically involved with

14040-412: Was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989. Biographer Ann Rule characterized Bundy as "a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death and even after." He once described himself as "the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever meet," a statement with which attorney Polly Nelson ,

14160-483: Was found hiding in bushes in the prison yard carrying an "escape kit"—road maps, airline schedules and a Social Security card—and spent several weeks in solitary confinement . Later that month, Colorado authorities charged him with Campbell's murder. After a period of resistance, he waived extradition proceedings and was transferred to Aspen in January 1977. Birth name#Maiden and married names A birth name

14280-521: Was influenced in his style of writing about crime by De Quincey. Pearson published a series of books of this type starting with Studies in Murder in 1924 and concluding with More Studies in Murder in 1936. Before being collected in his books, Pearson's true crime stories typically appeared in magazines like Liberty , The New Yorker , and Vanity Fair . Inclusion in these high-class magazines distinguished Pearson's crime narratives from those found in

14400-567: Was sired by Louise's own father. However, in the 2020 documentary film Crazy, Not Insane , psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis claimed she received a sample of Bundy's blood and that a DNA test had confirmed that he was not the product of incest . For the first three years of his life, Bundy lived in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia with his maternal grandparents, Samuel Knecht Cowell (1898–1983) and Eleanor Miriam Longstreet (1895–1971). The couple raised him as their son to avoid

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