The early stages of a person’s life are a great determinant of the kind of life the person lives in adulthood. A person who enjoys an uneventful childhood is likely to have a normal adult life. On the other hand, a person who is exposed to tumultuous conditions in his/her childhood is likely to lead an abnormal life in adulthood. The abnormality cited above may reveal itself in form of unwelcome social behavior and/or criminal behavior. This has made forensic officers use the past of criminals in predicting their criminal behaviors and thus people who engage in crime as a result of a bitter past are unlikely to escape the consequence of the law. This paper is an in-depth investigation of the relationship between the early life, social behavior and criminal life of the serial killer, Ted Bundy.
Ted Bundy was born on the 24th day of November in the year 1946 to Louis Cowell. After returning to her parents from the Elizabeth Lund home, where she bore Ted, Louis raised her son as if he was her brother and her parents were his parents. Therefore, Ted grew up knowing that his grandfather was his father, his grandmother was his mother and that his mother was his sister. In spite of this circumstance, Bundy was a well behaved and attractive teenager who did well in school (Montaldo, 2010, p. 1). After completion of his high school, he joined University of Puget which made him feel inferior around his affluent peers. He, therefore, went to University of Washington as a sophomore. Ted was extremely shy during his schooling years and thus he was not outgoing. He did not have a private life until he met a woman who he shared a skiing passion with, in Washington University. Bundy did all he could to impress her and even secured himself a scholarship at Stanford but she left him because she thought he could not be a good husband (Samuelson, 2008, p. 1).
After Bundy broke up with his girlfriend, he had a hard time coping with the break-up and even got to a depression during which he left school. During the same time, he became aware that his ‘sister’ was actually his mother. He was also being rumored as having stolen a number of petty items from his neighbors. He returned to college, overcame his shyness and excelled as a psychologist. He then started seeing another woman and even reunited with his former girlfriend who now treasured his new confidence. He also got actively involved in politics and got a number of political appointments (McDouglas, 2009, p. 1).
In the year 1974, colleges started having a serious problem with the disappearance of students from campuses. One of them was a radio announcer named Lynda Ann who was 21 years of age. In July, same year, two women declined the request of a young man named Ted who had requested help with his sailboat. Later in the day, two other women agreed to help him with his sailboat but they vanished after that. In the fall of the same year, he moved to Utah University to pursue a law degree. In November, a woman named Carol DaRonch escaped after being attacked by a man fitting the description of Ted at a mall in Utah. The man was dressed like a police officer and she managed to describe him, the car he drove and his blood sample. After some hours in the same day, another woman disappeared. She was Debbie Kent, aged 17. Almost at the same time as the disappearance of these women, hikers came across human bones in a forest in Washington. Washington and Utah investigators developed the profile of Ted and even gave his blood type and a description of how he lured women to death. After comparing the women who disappeared, police discovered that the women had a lot of similarities. The girls were all similar in physical appearance, they disappeared in the evening and were all hit in the head, sodomized and raped. In 1975, January, a lady named Caryn was killed in Colorado in the same way as the Utah and Washington women (Chua-Eoan, 2010, p. 1). This was followed by five more killings of women in Colorado in the same way.
Bundy was arrested in 1975 after he attempted to drive away from police who had stopped him. Having been found with a number of items that the police considered suspicious, he was arrested for questioning since police suspected he was a burglar. His belongings were compared with DaRonch’s description and he was charged with attempted kidnap. He was also investigated for the tri-state murders. He was found guilty of DaRonch’s kidnapping and was given 15 years in prison after which he was charged for murdering Caryn. He escaped from prison and was recaptured after a week. He escaped after some months and went to Florida State University. After hiding his murderous self for some time, he killed two women and sexually assaulted one. He also attacked two other girls, hitting then in the head with a log. He killed again in 1978, February after which he was arrested. He was tried for the killings of the University (Sorority) students, during which he represented himself in the case. After being tried for the murders, he was given two sentences to the electric chair. He got a third death sentence for killing Kimberly and was electrocuted in 1989, January 24th dying at 7:13 am. He had given details of some of the girls and women he had murdered; their number was more than fifty (Bell, 2010, p. 1).
As it has been evidenced in the discussion above, childhood is a virtual reflector of a person’s adulthood. In the same way, the experiences that a person undergoes in his/her life are also a determinant of the kind of life he/she lives after their occurrence. Much of Ted’s criminal behavior can be attributed to his break-up with his girlfriend and the fact that his mother had made him live his childhood without knowing her as his mother. This is evidenced by the fact that all his victims similar in physical appearance. They had a close resemblance to either his mother or his ex-girlfriend. It is therefore of essence to ensure that we raise our kids in the best way possible and that people take the responsibility of avoiding problems in their lives from affecting character.
Reference List
Bell, A. (2010). The Ted Bundy Story – Attack. Web.
Chua-Eoan, H. (2010). Crimes of the Century: Ted Bundy, 1978. Web.
McDouglas, H. (2009). The Case of a Chi Omega Killer. Web.
Montaldo, T. (2010). Serial Killer Ted Bundy. Web.
Samuelson, B. (2008). Who Was Ted Bundy? Web.