One rainy night ...
One rainy night in November 1974, Carol DaRonch was window-shopping in Salt Lake City, Utah when she was approached by a man in his twenties, who said he was a policeman. He asked her if she had left her car in the parking lot and requested her registration number.
The "policeman" said a man had been arrested for trying to break into her car and asked if she could come and see if anything had been stolen. But she became suspicious as they walked to the car park because he did not seem to know the way.
The 17-year-old then asked him for proof of his identity and he produced his wallet and showed her what appeared to be a police badge. When they got to the car and found nothing stolen, he asked her to accompany him to police headquarters to make a statement.
As he led the way to his own car, an old Volkswagen Beetle, she became suspicious again and asked for his name. The man said he was Officer Roseland of the Murray Police Department. He was so convincing that she got into the Beetle and they drove off.
A lucky escape
But she began to panic when she smelt alcohol on his breath and realised he was driving in the opposite direction to the police station. When he stopped briefly in a side street she reached for the door handle and tried to get out. But he was too quick. He snapped a handcuff on her wrist but was unable to secure the other one.
She continued to struggle and he pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot her. Carol's instincts took over. She pulled the door open, clambered out and began to run. The man began chasing her but he stopped when a car turned into the street. He got back in his VW and sped off.
Carol had been lucky, but Bundy was determined to claim a victim. Later that night he abducted and murdered 17-year-old Debbie Kent. And she would not be the last of his victims...
Bundy's first victim was Lynda Healy, 21, a psychology student at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was abducted from her basement flat.
Five more young women vanished from the Seattle area in the spring and summer of 1974 but the case did not get national newspaper headlines until July, when two girls disappeared from Lake Sammamish State Park on the same day.
Seattle beginnings
It had been a sunny day and the park, 12 miles from downtown Seattle, had been crowded with people walking their dogs, sailing boats and enjoying picnics. Several women reported having seen a man, calling himself Ted, with an arm in a sling. He had been asking for help with his boat. Doris Grayling accompanied him to his brown VW, but then became suspicious, made her excuses and left.
But two other women, Janice Ott, 23, and Denise Naslund, 19, must have fallen for Bundy's trick, and they were never seen alive again. The double murder struck terror into women in Seattle but Bundy, having finished his psychology degree, was about to leave the city and move to Salt Lake City to study law.
It wouldn't be long before Bundy (pictured right) continued his murder spree. In October, he claimed his first Utah victim. Three more killings followed that first murder, Carol DaRonch would have made it four if she had not got away and another happened in the ski resort of Snowmass in neighbouring Colorado.
Chance discovery
In the early hours of 16 August 1975 Bundy was stopped while driving without lights in a Salt Lake City suburb. Bundy's evasive answers fuelled the suspicions of Utah Highway Patrolman Bob Hayward, who soon discovered a balaclava, a stocking mask, an iron bar and a pair of handcuffs on the floor of the car. Had he finally been discovered?
Bundy was arrested but he remained cool under pressure and explained away the items, he said he needed the balaclava and mask for skiing and had found the handcuffs in a rubbish bin. A search of Bundy's flat uncovered a brochure from a hotel in Snowmass.
Bundy denied having been to Colorado, but by now Detective Jerry Thompson was beginning to see through his harmless, self-confident exterior. He ordered an identity parade and Bundy was picked out by Carol DaRonch and two other witnesses. It seemed that Ted Bundy had been caught.
He was convicted of the aggravated kidnapping of Carol DaRonch and was jailed for 15 years. In June 1977 he jumped out of the window of a court building and escaped, only to be recaptured eight days later. The authorities in Colorado were confident they could put him on trial for the murder of Caryn Campbell, the girl who was killed in Snowmass at the height of the skiing season.
But in December 1977 Bundy escaped again, this time by cutting a hole in the ceiling of his cell with a hacksaw blade and this time he would not be caught so easily.
On the run
Bundy fled east and by mid-January was in sunny Florida, 1,500 miles from chilly Colorado. By now he was another different figure. Bundy was no longer the dapper, mild-mannered Republican who could charm the birds from the trees. He was an unkempt fugitive from justice, living on food stolen from supermarkets, whose murderous urges were out of control.
On 15 January he broke into a sorority house on a university campus in Tallahassee, Florida. He strangled 21-year-old art history student Margaret Bowman and beat to death Lisa Levy, 20, after assaulting her. Two other girls who lived in the house were also beaten with a wooden club, but they survived.
A month later Bundy claimed what would be his final victim, 12-year-old Kim Leach. She was abducted from a high school gym, sexually assaulted and strangled. Bundy's days as a free man were, however, numbered.
Recapture
Bundy was finally arrested in the early hours of 15 February 1978 as he drove a stolen car towards Pensacola and in June 1979 he went on trial for the sorority house murders. Bundy protested his innocence and conducted his own defence.
The evidence for the prosecution, including evidence from a dentist that his teeth matched bite marks found on Lisa Levy, was overwhelming and the jury found him guilty. Sentencing him to death, Judge Edward Cowart told him: "I bear you no animosity. But you went the wrong way, partner. Take care of yourself."
Bundy spent the next 10 years on Florida's Death Row, using legal tactics to delay his execution and offering confessions to his crimes in exchange for a reprieve. After years of living in denial, insisting he was innocent, Bundy finally came clean, although he referred to himself in the third person and claimed the killings were carried out by an "entity" within him.
He said he became obsessed by hardcore pornography involving sado-masochism and bondage and said he enjoyed the feeling of being in complete control of his victims. He said the primary motive was rape and that he had to kill the victims to prevent them testifying against him.
The final act
Florida finally lost patience with Bundy's legal manoeuvring and at 7am on 24 January 1989, Bundy, with his head shaved, was strapped to the electric chair inside Starke prison, near Gainesville. He just had time to nod in the direction of his lawyer before straps were placed over his chest and mouth and a steel cap, full of electrodes, was placed on his head.
At 7.07am the executioner flicked the switch and Bundy strained against the seat as the huge pulse of electricity pulsed through him. Outside a large crowd cheered when his death was announced. Only a handful of people grieved for him, including his mother, Louise Bundy, who described him as "my precious son".
Ted Bundy's victims:
Seattle, Washington:
31 Jan 1974: Lynda Healy, 21
12 Mar 1974: Donna Manson, 19
17 Apr 1974: Susan Rancourt, 18
6 May 1974: Roberta Parks, 22
1 Jun 1974: Brenda Ball, 22
11 Jun 1974: Georgann Hawkins, 18
14 Jul 1974: Janice Ott, 23
14 Jul 1974: Denise Naslund, 19
Salt Lake City, Utah:
2 Oct 1974: Nancy Wilcox, 16
18 Oct 1974: Melissa Smith, 17
31 Oct 1974: Laura Aime, 17
8 Nov 1974: Debbie Kent, 17
Aspen, Colorado:
12 Jan 1975: Caryn Campbell, 23
Tallahassee, Florida:
15 Jan 1978: Margaret Bowman, 21, and Lisa Levy, 20
9 Feb 1978: Kim Leach, 12
