Editing Ted Bundy (section)

== Early life ==
=== Childhood ===
Ted Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946, to Eleanor Louise Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers<ref>[http://www.lundvt.org/ Lund Family Center] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307150638/https://lundvt.org/ |date=March 7, 2017 }}, retrieved September 30, 2015.
</ref> in [[Burlington, Vermont]]. His biological father's identity has never been confirmed; his original birth certificate apparently assigns paternity to a salesman and [[United States Air Force]] veteran named Lloyd Marshall,{{sfn|Rule|2000|pp=8, 17}} though a copy of it listed his father as unknown.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=62}} Louise claimed she met a war veteran named Jack Worthington,{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|pp=56, 330}} who abandoned her soon after she became pregnant.{{sfn|Barth|2020|p=291}} Census records reveal that several men by the name of John<!-- This is the first name used in the source. Please do not change to "Jack" which is a diminutive anyway --> Worthington and Lloyd Marshall lived near Louise when Bundy was conceived.{{sfn|Barth|2020|pp=292–293}} Some family members expressed suspicions that Bundy was sired by Louise's own father, Samuel Cowell.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=56}} 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]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Gina |last=Tron |date=November 20, 2020 |title=What Did A Doctor Learn About Ted Bundy That Made Her Think He Isn't 'Pure Evil'? |url=https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/crazy-not-insane-what-ted-bundy-secret-did-dorothy-lewis-learn |access-date=June 13, 2022 |website=[[Oxygen (TV channel)|Oxygen]] |language=en-US |archive-date=June 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607051825/https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/crazy-not-insane-what-ted-bundy-secret-did-dorothy-lewis-learn |url-status=live }}</ref>

For the first three years of his life, Bundy lived in the [[Roxborough, Pennsylvania|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 the [[social stigma]] that accompanied [[Illegitimacy|childbirth outside of wedlock]] at that time. Family, friends and even young Bundy were told that his grandparents were his parents and that his mother was his older sister. Bundy eventually discovered the truth, 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 a "bastard,"{{sfn|Kendall|1981|pp=40–41}} but he told biographers Stephen Michaud and [[Hugh Aynesworth]] that he had found the certificate himself.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=62}} 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.{{sfn|Rule|2000|pp=16–17}} Bundy expressed a lifelong resentment toward his mother for never telling him about his real father, and for leaving him to discover the truth about his paternity for himself.{{sfn|Rule|2009|pp=51–52}}

In some interviews, Bundy spoke warmly of his grandparents{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|pp=17–18}} and told Rule that he "identified with," "respected" and "clung to" his grandfather Samuel.{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=9}} In 1987, however, he and other family members told attorneys that Samuel was a tyrannical bully who beat his wife and dog, swung neighborhood cats by their tails and expressed [[racism|racist]] and [[xenophobia|xenophobic]] attitudes. In one instance, Samuel reportedly threw Julia down a flight of stairs for oversleeping.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=330}} He would sometimes speak aloud to unseen presences,{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=154}} and at least once flew into a violent rage when the question of Bundy's paternity was raised.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=330}} Bundy described his grandmother as a timid and obedient woman who periodically underwent [[electroconvulsive therapy]] for [[depression (mood)|depression]]{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=154}} and was afraid to leave their house toward the end of her life.{{sfn|Rule|2000|pp=501–508}}

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] was a raging [[alcoholism|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 a [[stroke]] due to being overweight and was not mentally ill.{{sfn|Barth|2020|p=296–299}}

[[File:Ted Bundy HS Yearbook.jpeg|thumb|right|upright|Bundy as a high school senior in 1965]]
In 1950, Louise changed her surname from Cowell to Nelson{{sfn|Rule|2000|p=8}} and, at the urging of multiple family members, left Philadelphia with her son to live with cousins Alan and Jane Scott in [[Tacoma, Washington]].{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=155}}<ref name=childhood/> The following year she met Johnny Culpepper Bundy (1921–2007), a hospital cook, at an adult singles night at Tacoma's First Methodist Church.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=57}} They married later that year and Johnny formally adopted Bundy.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=57}} 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 a girlfriend that Johnny "was not his real father," "wasn't very bright" and "didn't make much money."{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=51}}

Bundy 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 three-year-old Bundy standing by the bed, smiling.{{sfn|Rule|2000|p=505}} Sandi Holt, a childhood neighbor in Tacoma, recalled Bundy as a "mean-spirited kid" who "liked to inflict pain and suffering and fear."<ref name=childhood>{{cite web|first=Jill|last=Sederstrom|url=https://www.oxygen.com/martinis-murder/what-was-ted-bundys-childhood-like|title=What Was Ted Bundy's Childhood Like?|website=[[Oxygen (TV channel)|Oxygen]]|date=August 11, 2019|access-date=August 9, 2022|archive-date=June 7, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607025053/https://www.oxygen.com/martinis-murder/what-was-ted-bundys-childhood-like|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Holt, Bundy once engaged in [[animal cruelty]] by hanging a stray cat from his backyard clothesline and setting it on fire with lighter fluid.<ref name=childhood/> She also claimed that Bundy would take younger children from the neighborhood into the woods, force them to strip and proceeded to terrorize them: "You'd hear them screaming for blocks, I mean no matter where we were here, we could hear them screaming."<ref name=childhood/> Bundy reportedly built makeshift [[punji stick|punji traps]] around his Tacoma neighborhood, injuring at least one girl.<ref name=childhood/><ref>''Invisible Monsters: Serial Killers in America''. "Episode 1: First Look." A&E. Broadcast 5 August 2021.</ref>

Bundy varied his recollections of Tacoma in later years. To Michaud and Aynesworth, he described picking through trash barrels in search of pictures of naked women.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|p=22}} To attorney and author [[Polly Nelson]], he said that he perused detective magazines and [[crime novel]]s for stories that involved [[sexual violence]], particularly when the stories were illustrated with pictures of dead or maimed women.{{sfn|Nelson|1994|pp=277–278}} In a letter to Rule, however, he asserted that he "never, ever read fact-detective magazines, and shuddered at the thought that anyone would."{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=612}} 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 [[peeping tom|observe women undressing]], or "whatever [else] could be seen."{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|pp=74–77}} Psychologist Al Carlisle claimed that Bundy "started fantasizing about women he saw while window peeping or elsewhere [and] mimicking the accents of some politicians he listened to on the radio. In essence, he was fantasizing about being someone else, someone important."<ref name=childhood/>

Accounts of Bundy's social life also varied. He told Michaud and Aynesworth that he "chose to be alone" as an adolescent because he was unable to understand interpersonal relationships;{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=64}} 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."{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=66}} "Some people perceived me as being shy and introverted," he said. "I didn't go to dances. I didn't go on the beer drinking outings. I was a pretty, you might call me straight, but not a social outcast in any way."<ref name=childhood/> Classmates from [[Woodrow Wilson High School (Tacoma, Washington)|Woodrow Wilson High School]], however, told Rule that Bundy was "well known and well liked" there, "a medium-sized fish in a large pond."{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=13}} His only significant athletic avocation was downhill skiing, which he pursued enthusiastically with stolen equipment and [[forgery|forged]] lift tickets.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=62}} During high school, Bundy was arrested at least twice on suspicion of [[burglary]] and [[motor vehicle theft]]. At age 18 the details of these incidents were expunged from his record, as is customary in Washington and many other states.{{sfn|Rule|2009|pp=13–14}}

=== University years ===
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 language|Chinese]].{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=14}} In 1967 he became romantically involved with a UW classmate, Diane Edwards (identified in Bundy biographies by several [[pseudonym]]s, most commonly "Stephanie Brooks").<ref name="akaLeslieHolland" /> Bundy later described Edwards as "the only woman I ever really loved."<ref name="Brooks">{{cite web |url=https://heavy.com/entertainment/2019/01/diane-edwards-ted-bundy-girlfriend-now/ |title=Diane Edwards, Ted Bundy's Girlfriend: How She Changed Him |last=McBride |first=Jessica |date=January 28, 2019 |website=[[Heavy (website)|Heavy.com]] |access-date=August 27, 2022 |archive-date=May 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531141725/https://heavy.com/entertainment/2019/01/diane-edwards-ted-bundy-girlfriend-now/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

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<ref name="timeline" /> and became [[Arthur Fletcher]]'s driver and bodyguard during Fletcher's campaign for [[Lieutenant Governor of Washington|Lieutenant Governor of Washington State]].{{sfn|Rule|1980|p=15}} Edwards graduated in 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=June 26, 2019 |title=Ted Bundy's Education |work=ati.com |url=https://allthatsinteresting.com/ted-bundy-education |access-date=March 6, 2023 |archive-date=May 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529105918/https://allthatsinteresting.com/ted-bundy-education |url-status=live }}</ref>

In August, Bundy attended the [[1968 Republican National Convention]] in [[Miami]].{{sfn|Larsen|1980|pp=5, 7}} 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 the pivotal time in his development."{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=279}} 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]].{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=19}} During his studies, he frequently visited [[New York City]], where he was drawn to [[pornography]]. He immersed himself in violent pornographic literature while nursing his wounds from the breakup.<ref>[https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/did-ted-bundys-murder-spree-000003837.html Did Ted Bundy's Murder Spree Begin With Two College Girls In New Jersey?]</ref> It was also at this time, Rule believed, that Bundy discovered his true parentage in Vermont.{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=19}}{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=53}}

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"), a single mother from [[Ogden, Utah]], who worked as a secretary at the UW School of Medicine.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=74}} Their tumultuous relationship would continue well past his initial incarceration in Utah in 1976.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Storey |first1=Kate |title=Elizabeth Kendall Dated Ted Bundy As He Murdered Dozens. She's Telling Her Side of the Story. |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a27179474/ted-bundy-girlfriend-elizabeth-kendall-kloepfer/ |access-date=May 22, 2021 |work=[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]] |date=January 31, 2020 |archive-date=August 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810200455/https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a27179474/ted-bundy-girlfriend-elizabeth-kendall-kloepfer/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 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 [[child molestation|sexual touching]] disguised as accidents or "games."<ref>{{cite web|first=Jill|last=Sederstrom|url=https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/molly-kendall-shares-disturbing-memories-of-ted-bundy-in-book|title=Naked Hide-And-Seek And Dangerous Lake Shenanigans: Daughter Of Ted Bundy's Girlfriend Details Disturbing Incidents In Book|website=[[Oxygen.com|Oxygen]]|date=January 13, 2020|access-date=February 24, 2022|archive-date=June 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604063923/https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/molly-kendall-shares-disturbing-memories-of-ted-bundy-in-book|url-status=live}}</ref>

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.{{sfn|Rule|2000|pp=18–20}} In 1971, he took a job at Seattle's Suicide Hotline Crisis Center. There, he met and worked alongside Rule, a former [[Seattle Police Department|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."{{sfn|Rule|2000|pp=22–33}}

After graduating from UW in 1972,{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=76}} Bundy joined [[Governor of Washington|Governor]] [[Daniel J. Evans]]'s re-election campaign.{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=39}} Posing as a college student, he shadowed Evans' opponent, former governor [[Albert Rosellini]], and recorded his [[stump speech]]es for analysis by Evans's team.{{sfn|Larsen|1980|pp=7–10}}<ref name="Ellensburg1973-08-30" /> Evans subsequently appointed Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wImbDAAAQBAJ&q=ted+bundy+ironic+crime+prevention+daniel+evans&pg=PT176|title=Statesmen and Mischief Makers: Volume III: Officeholders and Their Contributions to History from Kennedy to Reagan|publisher=[[Xlibris]]|location=Bloomington, Indiana|isbn=978-1514469750|last1=Crass|first1=Scott|year=2016|access-date=October 15, 2020|archive-date=May 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523005225/https://books.google.com/books?id=wImbDAAAQBAJ&q=ted+bundy+ironic+crime+prevention+daniel+evans&pg=PT176#v=snippet&q=ted%20bundy%20ironic%20crime%20prevention%20daniel%20evans&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> 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&nbsp;... and a believer in the system."{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=46}} In early 1973, despite mediocre [[Law School Admission Test|LSAT]] scores, Bundy was accepted into the law schools of UPS and the [[S.J. Quinney College of Law|University of Utah]] (U of U) on the strength of letters of recommendation from Evans, Davis and several UW psychology professors.{{sfn|Rule|2009|pp=22, 43–44}}{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=79}}

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 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 [[Matriculation|matriculated]] at [[Seattle University School of Law|UPS Law School]],{{sfn|Rule|2009|pp=45–46}} 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.{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=51}}

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 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.{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=52}} Bundy later explained, "I just wanted to prove to myself that I could have married her";{{sfn|Foreman|1992|p=16}} 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 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."{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=52}} By then, Bundy had begun skipping classes at law school. By April, he had stopped attending entirely,{{sfn|Rule|2000|pp=44–47}} as young women began to disappear in the [[Pacific Northwest]].{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|pp=81–84}}

=== First murders ===
There is no consensus as to when or where Bundy began killing women. He told different stories to different people and refused to divulge the specifics of his earliest crimes, even as he confessed in graphic detail to dozens of later murders in the days preceding his execution.{{sfn|Keppel|2005|p=400}} Bundy told Nelson that he attempted his first [[kidnapping]] in [[Ocean City, New Jersey]], in 1969, but did not kill anyone until some time in 1971 in Seattle.{{sfn|Nelson|1994|pp=282–284}} He told psychologist Art Norman that he killed two women in [[Atlantic City, New Jersey|Atlantic City]] while visiting family in Philadelphia in 1969.<ref name="DailyNews" />{{sfn|Sullivan|2009|p=57}} Bundy hinted to homicide detective [[Robert D. Keppel]] that he committed a murder in Seattle in 1972{{sfn|Keppel|2005|p=387}} and another murder in 1973 that involved a [[hitchhiking|hitchhiker]] near [[Tumwater, Washington|Tumwater]], but he refused to elaborate.{{sfn|Keppel|2005|p=396}} Rule and Keppel both believed that he might have started killing as a teenager.{{sfn|Rule|2000|p=526}}{{sfn|Keppel|2005|pp=399–400}} 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.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|p=87}}