Term Paper on "Ted Bundy"

Term Paper 7 pages (2139 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Ted Bundy: A LOST RESOURCE

The man who violently stole the lives of more than forty women, Ted Bundy does not easily fit into any compartment of criminal theory. An outwardly intelligent, responsible and gregarious person, Bundy's killing spree went unchecked over a period of years, because his personality and lifestyle did not fit with any previously established profile of a serial killer. Bundy's life story could have provided a fascinating and valuable resource for criminal and psychological studies today. His death by electrocution is regrettable, and makes a profound statement for the elimination of capital punishment. Since his death in 1989, the fields of science, medicine and psychology have made astonishing progress in our understanding of criminal behavior, as well as in methodologies of reprogramming and healing mental illness. Bundy, had he lived out his life in prison, may have provided the world with extraordinary insights into one of the most perplexing criminal minds in American history.

In Dr. Charles Whitfield's 2004 book, The Truth About Mental Illness, he demonstrates a very strong link between mental illness and childhood trauma. Complex childhood post-traumatic stress syndrome is an area that is being explored in depth during this decade. However, during Bundy's incarceration, although childhood trauma was considered as a factor, it was not well understood. Born in Burlington, Vermont in 1946, Bundy was the illegitimate child of a woman whose family was so ashamed of his mother's unmarried status when she gave birth, that his grandparents claimed him as their own child. They led Ted and others to believe that his mother was his older sister. When he was thirteen, a cousin proved to Ted that his "older sister" was actually his mother. Ted later admitted to being angry at his mother for withholding the truth all of those years, however, if he experienced or was imprinted with the deep shame that was extended toward her in his infancy, we will never know. Certainly, he experienced deep confusion as a small child with respect to his identity.

In addition, as a small child, the grandfather who served as his father figure was Ted's beloved role model from whom he was involuntarily separated when his mother moved him to Washington state. Although Ted focused on his love for his grandfather, the family's church described him as an "extremely violent man who generally terrorised everyone he lived with"(libertus.net). During his incarcertaion, Dr. Dorothy Lewis found, through interviews with the Bundy family, that Ted's grandfather may have influenced Bundy far more than Ted ever realized.

A grandfather was an extremely violent man who tortured animals and behaved brutally to family members. The little boy who would become a serial murderer began sticking butcher's knives into his bed and demonstrating other behaviour that worried some family members enough for them to think he should be removed from the environment"(lilbertus.net).

Perhaps Bundy's mother, having to play the role of an older sister, was more emotionally removed from him than she might have been if she had openly been able to mother him. The Swiss Criminal Profiling Scientific Research Site has studied characteristics of a number of serial killers. We cannot know for sure, but perhaps this description would fit Bundy's infancy and early childhood:

From birth to age 6/7, studies have shown, the most important adult figure in a child's life under traditional circumstances is the mother, and it is this period that the child learns what love is. Relationships between the researched subjects and their mothers were uniformly cool, distant, unloving, neglectful, with very little touching, emotional warmth - the children were deprived of love.

Further, being torn from a father figure he loved at the young age of four, may have affected Bundy's ability to socialize properly. This same study suggests that,

From ages of 8 to 12, all the negative tendencies present in their early childhoods were exacerbated and reinforced. In this period, a male child really needs a father, and it was in just this time period that the fathers of half the subjects disappeared in one way or another.... Potential murderers became solidified in their loneliness first during the age period of 8 to 12; such isolation is considered the single most important aspect of their psychological makeup (Swiss Criminal Profiling, Childhoods of Violence?).

Bundy's stepfather, with whom he spent the majority of his childhood, was not known to be violent and was fond of and supportive of his stepson, but Bundy never felt a close connection with him.

Perhaps what happened at a very early age had more of an impact on his development.

Bundy was not insane, nor was he evil. Anne Rule, the true-crime writer who was Bundy's good friend for years prior to his arrest, said, "Ted seemed to embody what was young, idealistic, clean, sure, empathetic"(Rule, p. 396).

In fact, Anne Rule met Ted while they were operating a suicide hotline system in Seattle. Rule has stated that she watched Ted "save" lives, and describes him in glowing terms as a responsible, caring young friend.

Bundy, after learning of his mother's true identity, had made the decision to be the best, to achieve everything he could, so that she could be especially proud of him. She had remarried Johnnie Bundy and had several other children, and Ted grew to feel that he needed to stand out among his siblings for her sake. A person who is criminally insane is generally incapable of fitting into society, however, Ted maintained a high grade point average in college, socialized with some of the wealthier and more influential people in his community, skied, and pursued politics and the arts. In a sense, he wrote his own role and cast himself as the actor in the chosen play of his life. He wanted to become wealthy and hold status among his peers, and carefully studied the traits of those whose characteristics he would emulate.

Ted Bundy was not biologically inferior, at least to the extent that it could be measured at that time. He was physically fit, his body toned and athletic. He was extraordinarily handsome, and did not outwardly fit into William Sheldon's criminal body-type theories. Bundy was gregarious, not particularly depressed (although he occasionally cried when he was sad), and seemed to love good food, affection and being with people. He was fairly even-tempered, although extremely shy. It became clear in later interviews that Bundy was not capable of feeling love toward people, but could only relate well to things; however, his well-practiced behaviors did not belie that. And, clearly, his crimes cannot be written off to anomie. Bundy knew, to an extreme degree, exactly what was expected of him and what to expect from others. Nor did Bundy fit Enrico Ferry's four positivist categories of insane, born criminal, occasional criminal and criminal by passion.

Bundy knew the difference between right and wrong, and did not experience blackouts or memory blocks during his crime sprees. However, I would argue that Bundy's crimes, still, were not done of his own free will, but were almost epileptic responses to of the residual forces of shame, rage and guilt born in his childhood, and persisting throughout his life. Positivism, in this sense, is a theory that could be applied to Ted Bundy's criminal behavior. Bundy told his girlfriend, 'I don't have a split personality. I don't have blackouts. I remember everything I've done. The force would just consume me....I'd try not to, but I'd do it anyway" (Kendall, p. 176). This force is the missing element in the conclusions that have been drawn about Ted Bundy.

Another potentially drastic problem for Ted was that he felt that was personally more sophisticated, genetically, than his stepfather. He was not willing to surrender to a life of financial or social mediocrity, which was how he perceived his stepfather. Neither relative deprivation nor poverty, but social inequality was another force that drove Ted Bundy to steal luxurious possessions and to act out violently upon victims who resembled a well-to-do woman who at one time rejected him. "American studies of economic inequality have found it to be a more significant variable than poverty" (Greek/Ecological Support and Social Disorganization).

Although Bundy's crimes were heinous, a functionalistic approach could be taken to his case, in that he was an enigma. Emile Durkeheim felt that crime provided an "indirect utility" for understanding the need for changes in our laws and values. Durkeheim proposed that, "If there were no crime, it would be evidence that change was not possible: To make progress, individual originality must be able to express itself"(Durkeheim, P.874).

In order for Bundy's crimes to provide any redeeming value to society, it would have been important to preserve his life in an ongoing attempt to understand him. Durkeheim may have agreed, in this sense, that there is a need for change in our system of punishment, as well.

Literature on Ted Bundy and his crimes is widely available. In addition to the true-crime narrative written by Anne… READ MORE

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