Ted Bundy,The Man Who was NOT Ken Misner, or Chris Hagen.

"It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that that current be passed through your body until you are dead."

It was clear that judge Cowart wished that things were different for Theodore Robert Bundy. He looked at Ted and said softly,

"Take care of yourself, young man."

"Thank you."

"I say to you sincerely, take care of yourself. It is a trajedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity that I've experienced in this courtroom. You are a bright young man. You'd have made a good lawyer, and I'd have loved to have seen you practice in front of me-but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don't have any animosity to you. I want you to know that."

"Thank you."

"Take care of yourself."

"Thank you."

-taken directly from Ann Rule's fine book, The Stranger Beside Me. Ann knew Ted Bundy as well as anyone who ever knew him. I recommend this book to any and to all-cause you should all know just how thoroughly you can be duped by someone as intelligent as Ted was. The man brings to mind the bit from the book of Jude, where it says something about the "sons of God" coming to Earth and having children with women; but then again I tend to reach a bit in seeing what may, or may not even be there. . . . .

The fact that Theodore Robert Bundy was damadged early on comes out in a most telling incident that Dr. Lewis related in Ted's December 1987 competency hearing. It occured when Ted was three years old. His aunt Julia, then about fifteen, awakened from a nap to find that her body was surrounded by knives. Someone had placed them around her as she slept. She wasn't cut, but the glitter of the blades made Julia's heart convulse.

Julia recognized that the knives had come from the cutlery drawer in their kitchen, and she looked up to see her three year old nephew. The adorable, elfin Ted Bundy stood by her bed, grinning at her. Three years old.

Now for some question and answer with Ann Rule, then I'm going to be done with Bundy.

Who was Ted's Biological Father?

This has never been absolutely established. His mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell, said simply that Ted's father was a "sailor." His birth certificate listed his father as Lloyd Marshall. Jack Worthington was another name listed as his father. Many, however, believe that Ted was born a child of incest, fathered by his mother's father, a man known for his violent temper. Blood samples were never taken to establish or refute anything, and DNA testing was still fifty years in the future.

Where you ever afraid when you were alone with Ted Bundy?

No, I had always prided myself on my ability to detect aberrance in other human beings-I had that skill through experience and training. I have berrated myself silently for a long time because I saw nothing threatening or disturbing in Ted's fascade. He was very kind to me, solicitous of my safety, and seemingly empathetic.

The only clue that I had was that my dog-who liked everyone-didn't like Ted at all. Whenever he bent over my desk at the Crises Clinic, she growled and the hackles on the back of her neck stood up. The lesson is clear: Pay attention to your dog!

Don't you think that Ted Bundy should have been kept alive and studied by psychiatrist while he served life in prison?

No, I don't. Ted would have found a way to escape again, and he would have been more dangerous than ever. He fooled any number of intelligent, experienced people-including myself-and he was fully capable of doing it again and again. That was too big a risk to take.
Ann Rule.

Okay folks, now you know that as a matter of principle I'm against the state killing people, but I have to admit that a man that had already escaped twice, and had been busted two other times with the plans to escape-and with the types of crimes that he was addicted to committing. . . . I just don't know?!

Now you might say that today's prisons are above all of that, and I'd beg to differ. Today's criminals are much smarter, if possible, than Ted Bundy simply because they have to be in this tech oriented world. Someday I'll regale you with my tales of officer Aubury Hawkins, shot down by the "Texas Seven," who escaped.

Salt Lake Tribunal associated press article wrote:

When people deny that we can reason about moral matters, they give up much more than they ever imagined. Consider the following example. In the following paraphrased of a tape-recorded conversation with one of his victims, serial murderer Ted Bunday attempts to justify the murder of his victim:

"Then I learned that all moral judgments are 'value judgments,' that all vallue judgments are subjective, and that none can be proved to be either 'right' or 'wrong'. I even read somewhere that the Chief Justice of the United States had written that the American Constitution expressed nothing more than collective value judgements. Believe it or not, I figured out for myself - what apparantly the Chief Justice couldn't figure out himself - that if the rationality of one value judgment was zero, multiplying it by millions would not make it one whit more rational . Nor is there any 'reason' to obey the law for anyone, like myself, who has the boldness and daring - the strength of character - to throw off its shackles. ... I discovered that to become truly free, truly unfettered, I had to become truly uninhibited. And I quickly discovered that the greatest obstacle to my freedom, the greatest block and limitation to it, consisted in the insupportable 'value judgment' that I was bound to respect the rights of others. I asked myself, who were these 'others'? Other human beings, with human rights? ...Surely, you would not, in this age of scientific enlightenment, declare that God or nature has marked some pleasures as 'moral' or 'good' and others as 'immoral' or 'bad'? In any case, let me assure you, my dear young lady, that there is absolutely no comparison between the pleasure I might take in eating ham, and the pleasure I anticipate in raping and murdering you. That is the honest conclusion to which my education has led me - after the most conscientious examination of my spontaneous and uninhibited self."

After a sharp scream, the tape clicks off. Although no rational person will condone Ted Bundy's behavior, the unthoughtful slogans we hear in the public square (e.g. "Who are you to judge?") may unwittingly abet it.