Editing Ted Bundy (section)

== Death row, confessions and execution ==
Shortly after the conclusion of the Leach trial and the beginning of the long [[appeal]]s process that followed, Bundy initiated a series of interviews with Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth. Speaking mostly in [[third person (grammar)|third person]] to avoid "the stigma of confession," he began for the first time to divulge details of his crimes and thought processes.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|pp=15–17}} Bundy recounted his career as a thief, confirming Kloepfer's long-time suspicion that he had shoplifted virtually everything of substance that he owned.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|pp=37–39}} "The big payoff for me," he said, "was actually possessing whatever it was I had stolen. I really enjoyed having something ... that I had wanted and gone out and taken." Possession proved to be an important motive for rape and murder as well.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|p=41}} Sexual assault, he said, fulfilled his need to "totally possess" his victims.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|pp=102–114}} At first, Bundy killed his victims "as a matter of expediency ... to eliminate the possibility of [being] caught"; but later, murder became part of the "adventure." "The ultimate possession was, in fact, the taking of the life," he said. "And then ... the physical possession of the remains."{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1989|pp=124–126}}

Bundy also confided in Special Agent William Hagmaier of the FBI [[Behavioral Analysis Unit]]. Hagmaier was struck by the "deep, almost mystical satisfaction" that Bundy took in murder. "He said that after a while, murder is not just a crime of lust or violence," Hagmaier related. "It becomes possession. They are part of you ... [the victim] becomes a part of you, and you [two] are forever one ... and the grounds where you kill them or leave them become sacred to you, and you will always be drawn back to them." Bundy told Hagmaier that he considered himself to be an "amateur," an "impulsive" killer in his early years, before moving into what he termed his "prime" or "predator" phase at about the time of Healy's murder in 1974. This implied that he began killing well before 1974—although he never explicitly admitted having done so.{{sfn|Rule|2009|pp=380–396}}

[[File:TedBundy1980MughsotFull.jpg|thumb|alt=An unsmiling Bundy faces the camera.|upright=0.8 |Bundy mugshot after his sentencing for the murder of Leach, February 1980]]
In July 1984, prison guards found two [[hacksaw]] blades hidden in Bundy's cell. A steel bar in one of the cell's windows had been sawed completely through at the top and bottom and glued back into place with a homemade soap-based adhesive.{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=528}}<ref name="DN-trials" /> Several months later, Bundy was moved to a different cell after guards found an unauthorized mirror.{{sfn|Rule|2009|p=532}} Shortly thereafter, he was charged with a disciplinary infraction for unauthorized correspondence with another high-profile criminal, [[John Hinckley Jr.]]{{sfn|Nelson|1994|pp=155–156}}

In October 1984, Bundy contacted Keppel and offered to share his self-proclaimed expertise in serial killer psychology{{sfn|Rule|2009|p = 532}} in the ongoing hunt in Washington for the "Green River Killer," later identified as [[Gary Ridgway]].{{sfn|Keppel|2005|p = 176}} Keppel and Green River Task Force Detective [[Dave Reichert]] interviewed Bundy, but Ridgway remained at large for a further seventeen years.{{sfn|Nelson|1994|pp = 33, 101, 135}} Keppel published a detailed documentation of the Green River interviews,{{sfn|Keppel|2005|p=26; Bundy coined the nickname "The Riverman," which was later used for the title of Keppel's book, ''The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer''.}} and later collaborated with Michaud on another examination of the interview material.{{sfn|Keppel|Michaud|2011|loc = Kindle location 1690}}<ref>{{Cite news |first=Peyton |last=Whitely |title=Ted Bundy Helped Green River Investigation Detective Says Bundy Met With King County Officials Probing Killings |newspaper=[[The Spokesman-Review]] |location=Spokane, Washington|date=August 7, 1995|access-date=May 8, 2018 |url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/aug/07/ted-bundy-helped-green-river-investigation/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508185246/http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/aug/07/ted-bundy-helped-green-river-investigation/ |archive-date=May 8, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

In early 1986, an execution date (March 4) was set on the Chi Omega convictions; the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] issued a brief [[stay of execution|stay]], but the execution was quickly rescheduled.{{sfn|Mello|1997|pp=103–104}} In April, shortly after the new date (July 2) was announced, Bundy finally confessed to Hagmaier and Nelson what they believed was the full range of his depredations, including details of what he did to some of his victims after their deaths. He told them that he revisited Taylor Mountain, Issaquah and other secondary crime scenes, often several times, to lie with his victims and [[necrophilia|perform sexual acts with their bodies]] until [[putrefaction]] forced him to stop. In some cases, he drove for several hours each way and remained the entire night.{{sfn|Keppel|2010|loc=Kindle location 7431–98}} In Utah, he applied makeup to Smith's lifeless face and repeatedly washed Aime's hair. "If you've got time," he told Hagmaier, "they can be anything you want them to be."{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|pp=334–335}} Bundy [[decapitation|decapitated]] approximately twelve of his victims with a hacksaw,<ref name="timeline"/>{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=339}} and kept at least one group of severed heads—probably the four later found on Taylor Mountain (Rancourt, Parks, Ball and Healy)—in his apartment for a period of time before disposing of them.{{sfn|Keppel|2005|pp=378, 393}}

Less than 15 hours before the scheduled July 2 execution, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] stayed it indefinitely and [[Remand (court procedure)|remand]]ed the Chi Omega case back to the Southern District of Florida due to legal issues, including Bundy's mental competency to stand trial and an erroneous instruction by the trial judge during the penalty phase requiring the jury to break a 6–6 tie between [[life imprisonment]] and the death penalty{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=111}}—which, ultimately, were never resolved.<ref name="findlaw">{{cite court|litigants=Bundy v. Wainwright|vol=794 F.2d|court=US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit|date=July 2, 1986|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/808/1410/173788/|access-date=October 11, 2018|quote=The judgment of the district court is REVERSED and the case REMANDED to that court for proper consideration.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181012054156/https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/808/1410/173788/|url-status=live}}</ref> A new date (November 18) was then set to carry out the Leach sentence; the Eleventh Circuit Court issued a stay on November 17.<ref name="findlaw"/> In mid-1988, the Eleventh Circuit ruled against Bundy, and in December the Supreme Court denied a motion to review the ruling over the dissents of Justices [[Thurgood Marshall]] and [[William J. Brennan Jr.]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Bundy v. Florida |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/479/894/ |website=Justia |access-date=August 9, 2022 |archive-date=July 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723043918/https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/479/894/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Within hours of that final denial, a firm execution date of January 24, 1989, was announced.{{sfn|Mello|1997|pp=103–106}} Bundy's journey through the appeals courts had been unusually rapid for a capital murder case: "Contrary to popular belief, the courts moved Bundy as fast as they could ... Even the prosecutors acknowledged that Bundy's lawyers never employed delaying tactics. Though people everywhere seethed at the apparent delay in executing the archdemon, Ted Bundy was actually on the fast track."{{sfn|Von Drehle|1995|p=297}}

With all appeal avenues exhausted and no further motivation to deny his crimes, Bundy agreed to speak frankly with investigators. He confessed to Keppel that he had committed all eight of the Washington and Oregon homicides for which he was the [[prime suspect]]. He described three additional previously unknown victims in Washington and two in Oregon whom he declined to identify if indeed he ever knew their identities.{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|p=337}} He said he left a fifth corpse—Manson's—on Taylor Mountain,{{sfn|Rule|2000|p=516}} but incinerated her head in Kloepfer's fireplace.{{sfn|Keppel|2005|p=395}} "He described the Issaquah crime scene [where the bones of Ott, Naslund and Hawkins were found], and it was almost like he was just there," Keppel said. "Like he was seeing everything. He was infatuated with the idea because he spent so much time there. He is just totally consumed with murder all the time."{{sfn|Rule|2000|p=519}} Nelson's impressions were similar: "It was the absolute [[misogyny]] of his crimes that stunned me," she wrote, "his manifest rage against women. He had no compassion at all ... he was totally engrossed in the details. His murders were his life's accomplishments."{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=258}}

Bundy confessed to detectives from Idaho, Utah and Colorado that he had committed numerous additional homicides, including several that were unknown to the police. He explained that when he was in Utah he could bring his victims back to his apartment, "where he could reenact scenarios depicted on the covers of detective magazines."<ref name="timeline"/> A new ulterior strategy quickly became apparent: he withheld many details, hoping to [[parlay (gambling)|parlay]] the incomplete information into yet another stay of execution. Despite warnings from his appellate attorneys that "the spectacle of peddling information for time would turn the courts against [Bundy]," Bundy began offering investigators piecemeal information regarding some of his murders. "There are other buried remains in Colorado," he admitted, but he refused to elaborate.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1989-01-29 |title=Speculation, controversy still surround Bundy |url=https://www.deseret.com/1989/1/29/18793107/speculation-controversy-still-surround-bundy/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241002103021/https://www.deseret.com/1989/1/29/18793107/speculation-controversy-still-surround-bundy/ |archive-date=2024-10-02 |access-date=2024-10-02 |work=[[Deseret News]]}}</ref>{{sfn|Keppel|2010|loc=Kindle location 7600–05}} The new strategy—immediately dubbed "Ted's bones-for-time scheme"—served only to deepen the resolve of authorities to see Bundy executed on schedule and yielded little new detailed information.{{sfn|Von Drehle|1995|pp=352–358}} In cases where he did give details, nothing was found.{{sfn|Keppel|2005|p=363}} Colorado Detective Matt Lindvall interpreted this as a conflict between his desire to postpone his execution by divulging information and his need to remain in "total possession—the only person who knew his victims' true resting places."{{sfn|Keppel|2010|loc=Kindle location 7550–58}}

When it became clear that no further stays would be forthcoming from the courts, Bundy supporters began lobbying for the only remaining option, [[clemency|executive clemency]]. Diana Weiner, a young Florida attorney and Bundy's last purported love interest,{{sfn|Nelson|1994|pp=136–137, 255, 302–304}} asked the families of several Colorado and Utah victims to petition [[Governor of Florida|Florida Governor]] [[Bob Martinez]] for a postponement to give Bundy time to reveal more information.{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=264}} All refused.{{sfn|Rule|2000|p=518}} "The families already believed that the victims were dead and that Ted had killed them," wrote Nelson. "They didn't need his confession."{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=256}} Martinez made it clear that he would not agree to further delays in any case. "We are not going to have the system manipulated," he told reporters. "For him to be negotiating for his life over the bodies of victims is despicable."{{sfn|Michaud|Aynesworth|1999|pp=335–336}}

Boone had championed Bundy's innocence throughout all of his trials and felt "deeply betrayed" by his admission that he was, in fact, guilty. She moved back to Washington with her daughter and refused to accept his phone call on the morning of his execution. "She was hurt by his relationship with Diana [Weiner]," Nelson wrote, "and devastated by his sudden wholesale confessions in his last days."{{sfn|Nelson|1994|pp=271, 303}} Hagmaier was present during Bundy's final interviews with investigators. On the eve of his execution, he talked of [[suicide]]. "He did not want to give the state the satisfaction of watching him die," Hagmaier said.<ref name="Word1999-01-24" />

Bundy rejected his last food<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.gq.com.mx/entretenimiento/articulo/ted-bundy-quien-es-historia-real-y-perfil-psicologico-del-asesino-en-serie | title=Ted Bundy: La historia que no conocías del famoso asesino | date=April 6, 2020 }}</ref> and was executed in the Raiford [[electric chair]] at 7:16&nbsp;a.m. [[Eastern Standard Time (North America)|EST]] on Tuesday, January 24, 1989. His [[last words]] were directed at his attorney Jim Coleman and Methodist minister Fred Lawrence: "Jim and Fred, I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends."<ref>{{cite web|title=These Were The Last Words Ted Bundy Ever Spoke|website=[[Grunge.com]]|date=August 23, 2021|access-date=January 14, 2022|url=https://www.grunge.com/495088/these-were-the-last-words-ted-bundy-ever-spoke/|archive-date=June 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230628211849/https://www.grunge.com/495088/these-were-the-last-words-ted-bundy-ever-spoke/|url-status=live}}</ref> Hundreds of revelers sang, danced, and set off fireworks in a pasture across from the prison as the execution was carried out,<ref name="Sentinel"/><ref name="2,000 Cheer"/> then cheered as the white [[hearse]] containing Bundy's corpse departed the prison.{{sfn|Nelson|1994|pp=311–321}} He was cremated in [[Gainesville, Florida|Gainesville]],{{sfn|Nelson|1994|p=323}} and his ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location in the [[Cascade Range]] of Washington State, in accordance with his [[will (law)|will]].<ref name="Bundy'sWill"/>{{sfn|Rule|2009|pp=xxxvi–xxxvii}}