Ted Bundy was one of the most wanted criminals in the United States during the four years that followed 1974. He was a high-profile serial killer and it is estimated that he was responsible for the death of over 35 females. Normally, he would bash his victim’s head with a crowbar and then choke them to death. In other instances, he would rape his victims and also have sex with them even after their death. He managed to escape twice from police custody but in the second month of 1978, he was arrested for the last time. The state of Florida found him guilty of various murder charges and was sentenced to death. At the beginning of 1989, Ted Bundy was electrocuted to death on an electric chair (Sullivan, 2009).
At the beginning of February 1978, a young girl by the name of Kimberly Leach disappeared from her school. She was only 12 years old; some witnesses reported seeing her leave the junior high school with a man who was assumed to be her relative. After an intensive search for Kimberly, her partly decayed body was found in a small pig shed in Suwenee County. This was two months later and 45 miles from Lake City where she was abducted. Her body was naked other than a jersey wrapped around her neck. Her panties were discovered close to her corpse with male reproductive fluid traces on the crotch (Vronsky, 2004).
During the discovery of Kimberly’s body, Bundy was still in police custody. Before his execution, he confessed to Kimberly’s murder and revealed the details of the abduction. Like many other victims, he lured Kimberly to his car where he had hidden a crowbar under his car. He never revealed how he convinced Kimberly to his car, but we know that he did not bash her head with a crowbar like the other victims. This is because her skull showed no signs of head trauma.
He took her to Suwenee County to a holiday inn where he already had a room. That day, he raped her violently and then drowned her to death. He did discard the body right away but kept it for a while. He used to wash it and have sex with it for about a week. Afterward, he disposed of her body in a wooded area near Suwannee River. All of Bundy’s victims had signs of being strangled except for Kimberly since she was drowned (Sullivan, 2009).
Groth’s typology of sex offenders and rapists classify all rapists into two categories; child sexual abusers and rapists. Under rapists, there are further three more categories; anger rapists, power rapists, and sadistic rapists. A sadistic rapist is probably the most dangerous of them all because he is thrilled and sexually aroused when he causes pain to his victims. Rapists who fall under this category plan well ahead on how they will attack their victims.
To increase the chances of a successful abduction, they carry some tools like duct tapes and masks. Later these rapists would take their victims to an isolated area, where they would do whatever they wish on their victims. What fascinates them most is the fear in their victims; they instill fear by telling them what they are going to do and also by displaying their tools. The way they abduct their victims, torture them, rape them, kill them and dispose of their bodies is fairly the same. They continue their killings with the hope of satisfying their fantasies (Vronsky, 2004).
Bundy fell under this category judging from his confession regarding Kimberly’s murder. All of his victims were white females, mostly students from universities. Most of them were aged between 16 and 26 and came from a middle-class background. Some researchers have concluded that he attacked females with long straight hair, but Bundy rejected the theory saying that the only thing common between all his victims was that they were all young and attractive (Vronsky, 2004).
Two years before his execution, the nature of the illness was identified after a 7 hour examination period by Professor Dorothy Lewis. She concluded that Bundy was a depressed maniac who reacted by committing crimes when depressed. Bundy narrated his childhood to Lewis claiming that he is a product of abuse from his grandfather who raised him. He said that his grandfather was a racist who disliked all immigrants including Italians and also hated Catholics.
He continued to say that his grandfather molested domestic pets; he occasionally punished his dog and used to torture cats in the neighborhood. He said he used to sneak to their greenhouse to watch his grandfather’s pornography together with his cousin. His grandfather maintained a strong authoritative figure who was never questioned by anyone. As a result, his grandmother suffered from depression which he believes killed her (Sullivan, 2009).
On the night before his death sentence, he permitted Dr. James Dobson, a psychologist, to interrogate him. He confessed that the violent pornography he used to watch as a young boy fueled his sex crimes. At first, he started watching soft pornography but as time passed by, he found himself being attracted to harder pornography. He particularly found himself being aroused by pornography that had violence in it. He kept trying to seek satisfaction from reading and watching violent pornography but they had their limits. Researchers believe that it is at this point that he began to seek real-life violent pornography. Others believe he was just fooling around with Dobson. Earlier, Dobson had come up with a theory that suggested that the cause of Bundy’s sex crime was as a result of watching violent pornography (Sullivan, 2009).
Before making his second escape, he left a letter that said that he attacked people who appeared vulnerable. Their vulnerability was the one that made him commit all those crimes. In another instance, he regarded himself as the most cold-hearted person in the world. He was a psychopath.
No reformation treatment was given to Bundy; this was probably because he was going to be executed anyway. He was a sexually aggravated serial killer and that makes him untreatable. Since these types of criminals are sexually driven, they will always be aroused by their previous acts and continue formulating more. The best thing to do is to completely exclude them from other human beings. It is worth noting that Bundy had a degree in psychology and also had enrolled in law school. Whatever he was saying as excuses cannot be taken seriously. He had the capability of manipulating an interview to his advantage. In one way or the other, it would have been difficult to assess his progress in recovery (Vronsky, 2004).
It is acceptable to all communities in the world that wrongdoers should be punished. It gives a sense of security and the feeling that justice is has been served. Without punishment criminal activities would be rampant and out of control. Treatment of criminals with the hope of making them noncriminals is a noble idea. In some instances, it has worked, mostly for people involved in opportunistic crimes. When it comes to people who plan for their crimes against other people well in advance, and somehow appear noble in the eyes of the community, it cannot work. This is particular to sex offenders. Like Bundy, all sex offenders should be locked up forever or killed because they are bound to seize an opportunity to commit a crime when they get one. Once they do, they will be on a roll again.
References
Sullivan, K. M. (2009). The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History. New York: Paperback.
Vronsky, P. (2004). Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters. New York: Berkley Books.