Mind of a Serial Killer - Ted Bundy Pt. 1

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Ted Bundy is one of America's most infamous serial killers, infamous for his charm, intelligence, and shocking brutality. Preying on young women, Bundy terrorized college campuses across the Pacific Northwest during the 1970s, carefully hiding his dark, violent side behind a mask of respectability. His ability to blend in and manipulate others made it almost impossible to suspect him as the horrifying killer he truly was. Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House Original. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @crimehouse for more true crime content. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Crime House. We all have insecurities. Most of the time they're pretty minor. We don't like something about the way we look, or we feel like we don't measure up to some kind of arbitrary standard. But sometimes our insecurities run deep to the very core of our being. And if we're not careful, they can consume us.

That's what happened with Ted Bundy. He grew up feeling rejected by an absent father and betrayed by his mother. In time, that feeling of betrayal turned into anger. And then it transformed into something even darker. Something evil. The human mind is fascinating. It controls how we think, how we feel, how we love, and how we hate.

And sometimes the mind drives us to do something truly unspeakable. This is Mind of a Serial Killer, a Crime House original. Every Monday, we'll be taking deep dives into the minds of history's most notorious serial killers and violent offenders. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Mind of a Serial Killer, wherever you get your podcasts.

Your feedback truly matters. And to enhance your Mind ofof-a-serial killer listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once, plus exciting bonus content. I'm Vanessa Richardson. And I'm Dr. Tristan Engels. As Vanessa takes you through our subject stories,

I'll be helping her dive into these killer's minds as we try to understand how someone could do such horrible things. Before we get into the story, you should know it contains descriptions of murder and violent crime. Listener discretion is advised. This is the first of two episodes on Ted Bundy,

one of the most notorious serial killers of all time. Between 1974 and 1978, Ted murdered at least 30 young women. Many of them bore a striking resemblance to his college girlfriend. But was this a pattern or a coincidence? Despite decades of investigations and countless psychological examinations, much about Ted Bundy remains a mystery. In today's episode, we'll examine his

enigmatic early life and the beginning of the killing spree that made him a household name. Next time, we'll follow the investigation that landed Ted in jail, the daring escapes that baffled investigators, and his final brutal murders. And as always, we'll be asking the question, what makes a serial killer? What makes a serial killer?

Hi there, it's Vanessa. If you're loving mind of a serial killer, killer. Hi there, it's Vanessa. If you're loving Mind of a Serial Killer, you won't want to miss my new show, Crime House True Crime Stories. Every Monday, I take you on an in-depth journey through two of the most notorious true crime cases from that week in history, all connected by a common theme, from notorious serial killers and mysterious disappearances to unsolved murders and more. Follow Crime House True Crime Stories now wherever you get your podcasts.

And for ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple podcasts. When it comes to Ted Bundy's childhood, the truth is hard to decipher. Later in life, after his reign of terror was at an end, he gave countless, contradictory interviews about his youth. So it's hard to know what's real and what's not. One thing we know for sure is that Ted was betrayed from the moment he entered the world. His father abandoned Ted's mom Louise when she got pregnant in early 1946. Ted was born out of wedlock that November, which was a major stigma at the time. So Ted's family was desperate to keep his origins a secret. For the first three years of his life,

his grandparents raised him as their own son in Philadelphia. He actually spent his early life thinking Louise was his older sister. But here's where it gets murky. Sometimes Ted described his youth as happy and healthy, with his grandfather, Samuel, serving as a warm father figure. But in other instances, Ted claimed Samuel was abusive and deranged. According to this second version of events, Samuel was a delusional racist who experienced hallucinations and beat Ted's grandmother. If Ted is to be believed, Samuel even swung cats by their tails

for the sadistic fun of it. Ted's relatives would mostly agree with this latter version. So the question is, why would Ted lie? Yeah, let's discuss some reasons for that. As you already mentioned, Vanessa, Ted was born out of wedlock. And due to the perceived shame that this brought to his family, given the time, his grandparents and his mother orchestrated a cover story to hide this secret

and maintain the reputation in the community. Ted was raised to believe that his mother was actually his sister, his grandparents were actually his parents. So Ted started his life out by lying. But he was being groomed from a young age that appearances, reputation, and image matter. And if lying was necessary to maintain those things, then it was acceptable. So I think this is what really set the foundation for any pathological or compulsive lying behaviors

in Ted going forward. So it's likely Ted didn't grow up in a nurturing home because even as a young boy, it was clear there was something disturbing bubbling beneath the surface. One night in 1950, when Ted was just three years old, his teenage aunt Julia awoke to find her nephew standing beside her, a smile plastered on his face.

She squinted in the darkness and saw that Ted was lifting up her covers to put three butcher knives next to her. This is not something that a three-year-old generally thinks to do on their own. They emulate behaviors. So given what was described about his grandfather and what just happened, this appears to be something he may have witnessed because violence and abuse are learned behaviors. Despite the signs that something was clearly wrong, Ted's family didn't get him any help. In fact, things only got didn't get him any help. In fact, things only

got less stable for him over time. In 1951, when Ted was four, he and Louise, still pretending to be his sister, moved to Washington State. It was supposed to be a fresh start, but it was a confusing adjustment for Ted, who still thought his grandparents were his biological parents. To him, it seemed like his older sister was separating him from his mom and dad. Oh wow, that can be very traumatic and very frightening to a four-year-old. And things only got more difficult from there. Shortly after moving, Louise met a man named Johnny Bundy at church. They got married after a few months of dating, and John adopted Ted as his own. But Ted never really accepted Johnny as his father.

As he got older, Ted constantly treated Johnny with disrespect. Johnny typically responded with violence, and it doesn't seem like Louise came to her son's defense. The problem only got worse when Ted found his birth certificate and discovered that his birth father had abandoned him and his older sister was actually his mom. It's not clear exactly when this happened, and there are several different versions of how he found out, but it seems like it was sometime in early adolescence. Regardless, the revelation

turned his world upside down. Finding something like this out on his own, especially at an age when he was old enough to understand if his mother actually sat him down to explain it to him, would be absolutely devastating. It's almost world-shattering. It fractures everything he's ever known about anyone in his life, and what he's believed until this point. And statistically, a discovery like this has shown to cause long-term deficits such as identity confusion, inability to trust other people, emotional distress like anger, depression, shame, anxiety. And it will impact their interpersonal relationships

and the attachments they make moving forward in addition to really affecting their sense of self-worth. And given what we know already about the mistreatment in his home, first while living with his grandparents and now with Johnny and his mother not stepping in to protect him, Ted's sense of self-worth would likely be deeply fractured. So actually no two people who have discovered later in life, later later though, that their

parent wasn't actually their parent. Is there a healthy way to confront these kinds of revelations? Oh yeah, there's been a lot of research done on this, particularly within adoption communities. There are millions of children who are adopted and will learn that their parents are not their biological parents at some point. This also applies to foster children as well. But the research shows that children will adjust well to hearing the truth of their

story if they are made aware of this early in life in age appropriate language and that that is integrated into conversation at a young age. It's encouraged that their caregivers tell them their origin story in a positive and loving way. Always be honest in those discussions, answer questions openly, and of course be patient, be supportive and nurturing. That did not happen with Ted because Ted became very bitter after finding out the truth about his parents. He withdrew into himself feeling rejected and insecure. As a teenager he developed a reputation for being a bit of a loner. Yeah and this doesn't surprise me given how little he likely trusts others and how this likely affected his ability to make attachments.

Well, his reserved attitude always surprised his classmates because on the outside, Ted seemed to have it all. He was clever, good-looking, and well-spoken. Many of the girls at his high school wondered why he never went on any dates. That's the thing about insecurity, though. It isn't rational. Despite everything he had going for him, Ted never felt like he fit in, especially around young women.

That didn't mean he wasn't interested in them. But he wasn't able to express those desires in a healthy way. Instead, he would sneak out at night to take walks around his neighborhood, stalking women and peeping on them as they dressed. His sexual fantasies started to revolve around dominating women and controlling them. So sexually deviant behavior appears to be manifesting during Ted's adolescent years, which is actually pretty typical. Deviant behavior can develop at any time really, but statistically it is

often found to develop in adolescence or early adulthood. Well unfortunately, Ted was never caught for doing this. To those who knew him, he seemed like an average teenager. He graduated high school in 1965 when he was 18 with middling grades and moved on to the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. A lot of young people treat college as a fresh start, a way to reinvent themselves. Not Ted. He felt lonely and aimless. He couldn't decide on a major and had trouble making friends. This appears to really show the identity confusion that results from learning who his real parents are that I talked about earlier. One of the psychosocial stages of development identified by Eric Erickson is identity versus role confusion.

If a crisis in this stage, which occurs between the ages of 12 and 18, then they will find themselves in a state of indecision and uncertainty due to a lack of a clear sense of identity. He had a crisis in this stage. The next stage is intimacy versus isolation, and at this point in the story, that is where Ted is currently. This is the stage where connection with others is imperative. Well, more than anything, he wanted a girlfriend, hoping a real relationship would squash his

urge to peep on strangers. But his paralyzing shyness kept him from asking anyone out. Something had to give. Ted finally decided that to make a major change in his life, he had to push himself further out of his comfort zone. In 1966, the 20-year-old transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle on a quest to remake himself.

He studied Chinese, hoping to someday work in the State Department as a liaison to East Asia. It was the kind of position that would give him the authority and control he desired. For the first time, Ted had some direction in his life. It also built up his confidence. Soon, Ted hit it off with a classmate named Diane Edwards, a beautiful, driven young woman from a wealthy California family. Finally, everything he ever wanted seemed within his grasp. The problem was, Ted didn't feel like he was good enough for Diane.

She expected a lot from a boyfriend, and he tried to live up to those expectations by dressing better and sharpening his conversational skills. Ted tried his best, but sometime in 1967, when Ted was 20 or 21, the pressure overwhelmed him. He started questioning everything, including his career goals, and his grades took a nosedive. On top of that, he was still plagued by unhealthy sexual desires. At first, he'd hoped a loving girlfriend would stop him from fantasizing about violence. But now he feared those thoughts would never truly go away.

Then came the finishing blow. Diane became frustrated with Ted. She thought he was weak and lacked ambition. After about a year of dating, she decided to end their relationship. And the breakup absolutely shattered him. Breakups especially your first one ever, are tough for everyone. We all remember that first breakup. Given what we know about Ted, he has really had no experiences in his life where he felt

valued by the people in his life who should value him the most, and that's family. We don't get to choose family, but we can choose our friends and we definitely can choose our partners. Diane is the first person that chose Ted, and that was likely what made him feel the pressure to live up to her standards. So when changing his appearance and his conversational skills to appease her and hopefully maintain her interest didn't work, it not only reinforced the core belief that he is not valued or loved by his family, but that belief now extended outside of family. And that is something that was no doubt

very impactful for someone like Ted. The breakup was a new low in Ted's life. He saw it as a confirmation of all his worst insecurities, but instead of proving them wrong, he gave into them. The following year, in 1968, Ted dropped out of college and spent the next few months traveling aimlessly around the country, not doing much of anything. When he did come home to Washington, it was to take on a series of menial jobs. But Ted hadn't completely given up on making something of himself, so when an old friend suggested getting involved in politics, he gave it a chance.

Just like his dream of working for the State Department, being in politics would give Ted some of the authority and control he was so desperate for. Ted started out by volunteering for Arthur Fletcher's campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Washington. Fletcher ultimately lost his election, but Ted was energized by the experience. He decided to give a career in politics a real shot. In 1969, 22-year-old Ted enrolled at Temple University in Philadelphia to pursue a degree in urban planning. But his renewed sense of purpose didn't dispel the darkness inside of him. He returned to his old habit of peeping, wearing

a fake mustache and a wig while he stalked the campus at night. By this point, his sexual fantasies had become much more disturbing. He now imagined himself abducting young women, then sexually abusing and killing them. So Ted is definitely displaying signs of sexual sadism. Also, he is displaying signs of a condition called voyeurism. And that's when someone becomes sexually aroused by watching an unsuspecting person who's in different states of undressed or engaged in sexual activity. And to qualify for this there needs to be urges and fantasies that compel the individual to engage in this behavior and can also cause them distress. And based on what you described, Vanessa Ted

was in distress over these behaviors because he was hopeful that a girlfriend would help him stop. Now that he is no longer in a relationship and his girlfriend has no longer been motivating him to be a version of himself that's, quote, better, but also not really him, it makes sense that he defaulted back to these behaviors during this period. The fact that they have become darker in nature

is likely fueled by anger over the breakup and resentment toward Diane and his sense that he is not fulfilled by his renewed sense of purpose in the urban planning degree. He continues to lack an identity and meaningful connection with others. Is it common for criminals to start small in this way by peeping before escalating to more violent crimes? So voyeurism is a paraphilia disorder that is typically chronic, meaning that once the behaviors start, they're typically going to continue as they are.

For most cases, they do that without any significant change. But there are cases, especially when this condition is comorbid with another condition or more than one, that these behaviors progress and become more violent and develop into sexual sadism. And we're already starting to see the thoughts and signs of sexual sadism are occurring already. At some point during his first semester in Philadelphia, Ted decided to indulge his sadistic fantasies. One night in 1969, the 23-year-old drove to Ocean City, New Jersey and tried to approach

a young woman outside a bar. He intended to kidnap her once her guard was down, but apparently his nerves got in the way. When the conversation went south, Ted clumsily tried to grab the woman, but she was able to escape. Humiliated and scared she would go to the police, Ted rushed back home. He realized he couldn't just approach random women without a plan. Too much could go wrong.

So after only a couple of months at Temple University, the 23-year-old returned to Washington with a new scheme. By day, he would work hard to appear as normal as possible, to seem like he was above suspicion. And he's also engineering a superficial persona and image to the outside world. And that's something that Ted has been skilled at doing since he was a child, since that's what he was taught that was important.

That's right. Once that image was in place, he could unleash his dark side at night, a persona he called the entity. That was the true Ted Bundy, the one he'd been struggling to contain all his life. But now, he was ready to embrace it. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings.

Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Hi there, it's Vanessa. If you're loving mind of a serial killer, you won't want to miss my new show, Crime House True Crime Stories. Every Monday, I explore two of the most notorious true crime cases from that week in history, all linked by a common theme. From infamous serial killers and mysterious disappearances to unsolved murders, we're

bringing you the defining events that shaped true crime both past and present. Each episode dives into the stories behind the headlines, featuring high-profile cases from past and present, including the murder of Gabby Petito, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the Heaven's Gate cult tragedy, and so much more. Follow Crime House True Crime Stories now, wherever you get your podcasts. And for ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. In the spring of 1969, 23-year-old Ted Bundy left Philadelphia and moved back home to Seattle. He was ready to unleash the dark side of himself, the one he'd spent his life repressing.

But to do that, he needed to present a front that seemed so normal, nobody would suspect his true nature. It sounds like he wants the mask of sanity, and that's something that serial killers do to hide in plain sight. Right, he definitely didn't wanna come off as a creepy loner. So the first step of Ted's plan was to find a steady girlfriend.

In September 1969, he met a divorced single mother named Elizabeth Klepfer at a bar. 24-year-old Elizabeth was smart and mature. She had to be to take care of her three-year-old daughter all on her own. From the moment they started dating, Elizabeth was clear she was looking for someone to marry, so if Ted expected to stay with her, he would need to get his act together. That played right into Ted's hands. He told Elizabeth he was planning to go back to college, then law school after he graduated. Elizabeth took him at his word. She had so much faith in him, she paid his tuition when he went back to the University

of Washington in 1970. Psychopaths exhibit a trait called a parasitic lifestyle, which is essentially what it means. They feed off the host. Ted knows that Elizabeth will stay by his side, and he's also using her to maintain an image and now for financial reasons. So finally, Ted had found the motivation he needed to succeed. He became an honor student, got involved in local politics,

and was seen as a rising star in the community, which was exactly what Ted wanted people to think. Nobody suspected that this clean-cut, respectable young man was going out at night, watching young women in bars and following them home. Sometimes he approached his targets while they were still at the bar and took them out on dates if they were interested.

He cheated on Elizabeth shamelessly, engaging in multiple one-night stands. On top of that, he had a habit of stealing whatever he could just for the thrill of it. He burglarized homes and shoplifted from businesses, taking things like clothes, stereos, TVs, even an eight-foot tree from a local nursery. That rampant theft was the only crime Elizabeth really picked up on. It bothered her, but she mostly dismissed it as a small flaw in her otherwise perfect boyfriend. It actually distracted her from prying into what he got up to at night. They didn't live together, but whenever she noticed he was out late, she assumed he was going around stealing rather than doing something worse.

Thrill-seeking is actually a trait of psychopathy, and it's because psychopaths are prone to boredom and they're highly impulsive. And stealing, like kleptomania, is an impulse-control disorder. This is what appears to be driving his compulsion to steal. It stems from those impulse-control deficits, but also a need for immediate gratification and some grandiose reinforcement. some of those impulse control deficits, but also a need for immediate gratification and some grandiose reinforcement. The fact that he's finding that he is able to be himself in the dark because he's so

unsuspecting in the day, it's gratifying to him. Not to mention, Ted is showing a lot of signs of psychopathy already from that grandiosity, the impulsivity, superficial charm, chameleon-like traits, criminal versatility, callousness, lack of empathy, pathological lying, promiscuity, and earlier behavioral problems. He also is exhibiting a lot of narcissism so far. With Elizabeth Nunn the wiser, Ted continued his double life for the next few years. In 1972, he graduated from the University of Washington and was accepted to a couple of law schools. At 26 years old, he finally felt like he was making something of himself. But it still wasn't enough. Ted's impulses were growing darker.

He described the feeling as an intense pressure in his gut, a tension that steadily wound tighter and tighter. He became filled with rage that couldn't be sated by peeping, stealing, or fantasizing. And if he was going to satisfy it, he needed to make sure he didn't get caught. That meant he had to know everything about how the police operated. So Ted deferred his law school admission and used his political connections to secure a job with the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission. The position gave Ted access to all kinds of data on violent crime.

He learned about the investigative techniques detectives commonly used, and that communication between different jurisdictions was limited. This really showcases the psychopathic traits that Ted has. He's learning how to become more cunning and manipulative so that he can offend more with less risk. After about a year, 26-year-old Ted had learned what he needed. He left the Crime Commission and finally entered a local law school in the fall of 1973.

But he had trouble focusing on his schoolwork. His desire to dominate and destroy was overwhelming him. And on January 4, 1974, Ted took it to another level. That night, Ted drove to the University District in Seattle, a neighborhood mostly populated by students. Ted regularly peeped on young women there. And that night, he decided to prey on 18-year-old Karen Sparks, a freshman political science major who lived in the basement of

a house she shared with some friends. Karen was pretty, a brunette with her hair parted in the middle. From a distance, she looked a lot like Ted's ex-girlfriend, Diane Edwards. Let's talk about that. Serial killers typically have demographics that they target, and they don't often deviate unless it's because of opportunity or something unplanned, like there's collateral damage in an attempt that they were already doing. The reason they do this is because their chosen demographic is easily accessible, such as knowing unsuspecting college women are on a college campus and walking around a campus at night is not inherently concerning because so many people are doing that. But the demographic is also vulnerable. Women in

marginalized or disenfranchised are commonly targeted for that reason or because of personal desires. So it seems clear to me that Ted was deeply wounded by the rejection of Diane as we already broke down, and that caused a deep resentment and a lot of anger. Targeting a woman who resembles her is his way of reenacting a fantasy of revenge, much like voyeurism was a way of engaging in a fantasy. Whether or not Ted intentionally chose Karen because she looked like Diane, he was dangerously fixated on her.

Ted watched her sleep through a small window. It wasn't long before he was overwhelmed by rage and desire. He crept to the door on the opposite side of the house and found it unlocked. He slipped inside and made his way to Karen's room. He watched her sleep for a moment before savagely ripping off a part of her bed frame and swinging it into her skull. Before she could even get a look at her attacker, Karen went limp, blood seeping into her mattress. Ted sexually assaulted her, beat her further, and then left her for dead. Once he was finished, he slipped back out, completely undetected.

Around 2.30 the following afternoon, Karen's housemates noticed she hadn't come out of her room. One of the young men who lived with her peeked inside and saw her bundled up in bed, covered by a pile of blankets. He thought she was sleeping and left her bundled up in bed, covered by a pile of blankets. He thought she was sleeping and left her alone. But five hours later, she still hadn't stirred. At that point, someone pulled back Karen's blankets and realized what had happened to her.

Miraculously, Karen was still alive, though she'd fallen into a coma. She was hospitalized as news spread around campus that a young woman was attacked. Police launched an investigation, but there was little to go on. Ted hadn't left anything behind at the scene, and these were the days before DNA profiling. Although Ted certainly hadn't planned for Karen to survive the attack, his heinous plan had otherwise gone off without a hitch. Even after Karen woke up from her coma ten days later, she wasn't able to identify him. It was clear that nobody was coming after him, so after less than a month, he decided

it was time to strike again. This attack on Karen may have given him a temporary reprieve from his violent urges, but the reality is it just gives him a desire to do it again. And given he is criminally versatile, he will learn from this attack so as to improve his methods. It's likely that his mini break was so that he could ensure that he was safe from being identified.

But also, he likely took the time during this period to find a new target or fantasize about what he planned to do to his next victim. After midnight on February 1st, 1974, Ted returned to the same neighborhood where he'd nearly killed Karen Sparks 28 days earlier. He ended up only a couple minutes away, outside another basement apartment.

This one belonged to 21-year-old Linda Ann Healy, a senior at the University of Washington. Linda had spent that night out with friends at a popular college bar called Dante's. After some drinks and dancing, she called it an early night. She watched TV with her roommate, then chatted with her boyfriend on the phone for about an hour before falling asleep. That night, Linda and her housemates had left their front door unlocked, and Ted was able to enter without anybody noticing. He made his way to Linda's room and beat her until she was unconscious, but he'd learned

from his experiences with Karen Sparks. Instead of continuing his assault in Linda's room, he dressed her in a blouse and jeans, cleaned up the evidence as best he could, including making her bed. Then he dragged her out into the night. And this is the same method that we saw with Karen, only he is taking her to a second location, which would allow him more time and more control. Ted managed to get Linda in his car. Then he drove to a secluded spot he knew nobody would find him.

There, he sexually nobody would find him. There, he sexually assaulted and murdered her. Afterwards, he dismembered her body, scattering the remains off the side of a road on Taylor Mountain, a low summit about 18 miles from Seattle. He raced back home, confident he'd gotten away clean and spent the rest of the night snug in bed with his girlfriend, Elizabeth. The night had gone off without a hitch. Linda Ann Healy was officially Ted Bundy's first confirmed murder victim. But she wouldn't be his last.

Sometime after midnight on February 1, 1974, 27-year-old Ted Bundy assaulted and murdered Linda Healy, a senior at the University of Washington. Her housemates had no idea what had happened. At 5.30 that morning, Linda's alarm went off. The sound woke Linda's housemate, Karen. She pulled the covers over her head and stayed in bed until 6, when she couldn't take it any longer. Karen cracked open the door to Linda's room in the basement to find it empty. But she didn't think anything was wrong. She figured Linda left already. She worked for the

campus radio station and made early morning weather forecasts. Karen turned off the alarm and started to head back upstairs. On her way out, she noticed that Linda's bed was made, which was odd. Linda usually didn't bother. Even weirder, the bed was made up in an unusual way. Something about it didn't sit right with Karen, but she shrugged it off. Thirty minutes later, someone from the campus radio station called the house wondering why Linda wasn't at work. Karen's blood ran cold. There wouldn't be any other reason for Linda to leave the house that early.

Something was definitely wrong. For the rest of the day, she called around to see if anyone knew where Linda was, but no one had heard from her. So Karen called Linda's family and they reported her disappearance to the police. Let's talk about Karen's intuition. When we live with someone, you become very accustomed to their routines, their behavior, and their schedules. Something as subtle as the way the bed was made, or even that it was made,

is enough to set off someone's intuition. It's a deviation from their baseline. But more importantly, a woman was found nearly bludgeoned to death nearby a month prior. So most women were likely on high alert as it was. As women, we are taught at a very young age the importance of safety. Research even indicates that women tend to demonstrate higher levels of situational awareness

than men. So when there is a brutal attack in your community, and anyone in the community, especially women since the victim was a woman, is likely to be more acutely aware of their environment. It's intuition, but also survival instincts that likely caused Karen to notice these details and catalog them like she did. Of course, Karen's intuition was right. Officers searched Linda's room and found trace blood stains on her pillows, along with a huge red spot on a nightgown hanging in the closet.

But even though it had only been a few weeks since Karen Sparks was attacked, the police didn't immediately suspect foul play. College students like Linda often disappeared for days at a time. This seemed no different. Instead, they theorized the blood could have come from a massive nosebleed. Maybe Linda went out looking for a hospital in the middle of the night without telling anyone. It sounded dubious, but the authorities expected her to return home soon, regardless. Meanwhile, Ted was already planning his next murder. Over the following weeks, he became so absorbed in his violent fantasies that he barely attended

his law classes. He still saved some energy for Elizabeth and her daughter, but that was about all he had the patience for. His bloodlust was too overpowering. Just like the last time, Ted waited about a month before seeking out another victim. Thanks to his time on the Seattle Crime Commission, he knew that if he kept killing in the same area, there was more risk of being caught. So for his next attack, he traveled further from home. On March 12, 1974, he drove down to Evergreen State College in Olympia, about an hour south

of Seattle. He waited outside the school's concert hall until a young woman named Donna Manson passed by. She resembled his other victims, young, white, and pretty, with dark hair parted down the middle. Ted abducted her without anyone noticing and murdered her in the surrounding wilderness. But like Linda Healy, police didn't suspect foul play at first. Donna was a regular hitchhiker with a reputation for being a free spirit, so the authorities had reason to believe

she took off without notice. That also allowed Ted to repeat his crime a month later, on April 17th. This time he abducted a young woman named Susan Rancourt outside the library at Central Washington State College, about a hundred miles south of Seattle. Thankfully, her case was actually taken seriously. Susan's laundry was running, and most of her things were left at home when she disappeared. Clearly, she wasn't planning on going anywhere for long. That being said, the authorities didn't have much to go on. Ted's strategy to strike across different police jurisdictions had worked.

Nobody had realized that female college students were disappearing across the Pacific Northwest, which left Ted free to continue his killing spree. On May 6, 1974, about a month after murdering Susan Rancourt, Ted drove down to Oregon State University and murdered 22-year-old Roberta Parks. Once again, it took a while for foul play to be seriously considered. Before Roberta went missing, her father had a heart attack. So when Roberta was suddenly gone, her friends figured she'd gone home to be with him while he recovered. It was another twisted stroke of luck for Ted.

But the more victims he claimed, the more he wanted to kill. And as this need grew stronger, the respectable facade he presented began to crumble. Until this point, Ted had managed to maintain his relationship with Elizabeth, even as other parts of his life fell by the wayside. And on June 1, 1974, Ted was scheduled to attend the baptism of her now eight-year-old daughter, Molly. The day before the baptism, he spent the afternoon and evening with Elizabeth's family. As always, he acted like a supportive boyfriend, but Elizabeth noticed him getting antsy as time went on. They didn't get home

until around 10 p.m., and according to Elizabeth, Ted was desperate to head back out on his own. Elizabeth assumed he was going out for one of his strange walks, or maybe to indulge in his kleptomania. She just hoped he didn't stay out too late since they had an early morning. But Ted couldn't control himself. Just hours before the baptism, he met 22-year-old Brenda Ball outside a bar called the Flame Tavern in Seattle. She was last seen in the parking lot, catching a ride from a brown-haired man with his arm in a sling. Ted wasn't actually injured, though. He frequently wore a sling or a cast

when hunting for victims. It made him seem less threatening. Yeah, this is like the wounded gazelle theory, which is the concept or phenomenon that individuals will exhibit signs of vulnerability or weakness to manipulate others because it can elicit sympathy or support. Ted posing as vulnerable or injured was very strategic and very calculated. Like you said yourself, Vanessa, not only does it help give the image that he is non-threatening, but he is also appeasing to the empathetic side of his victims, something he himself clearly lacks. Also, Ted has struggled socially for most of his life. So presenting

this way not only helped him to likely gain access to victims and gain their sympathy and their trust, but break the ice because it makes him more approachable and maybe even made conversations come easier. But it was disarming enough that Brenda felt safe to take a ride with him. And once she is in his car, he is in full control, and that is the ultimate goal. Ted would later claim he took Brenda back to his place and that the two of them had consensual sex. He killed her while she was sleeping,

then spent the rest of the morning cleaning up and dumping the body. He was so busy that he was late to the baptism. As Ted's personal life was unraveling, so was his seemingly perfect crime spree. The police were finally realizing that all the women who'd gone missing weren't coming home and that their disappearances might be linked to one person. In June 1974, the authorities in Seattle learned about some disturbing reports from students at Central Washington State College, where Ted killed his third victim, Susan Rancourt. Back in April, five days before Susan's disappearance,

multiple students told the campus police they had unusual encounters with a man wearing a sling. One young woman likely came within inches of death. As she passed by the campus library, she spotted Ted hunched over a pile of dropped books with his sling on. She offered to help him carry the stack and he led her to a secluded parking lot where he'd parked his Volkswagen Beetle. The student was wary of him, but Ted pressured her to help him load the books in his car. Luckily, she was able to rush out of there afterward, and Ted didn't chase after her. She reported the encounter to the campus police, and a second student described a similar experience. Finally, the authorities had confirmation there was a man out there trying to lure young women into a trap.

These reports spurred local authorities to reach out to police departments across the region. Although it took a while to reach their counterparts in Seattle, it paved the way for a real, major investigation into the recent disappearances on college campuses. So far, the only thing that connected the victims was their physical appearances. The attacker left no identifying information at the crime scenes and almost always took his victims to a second location where he presumably murdered them. So there were no bodies to examine either.

And by the time they realized this, Ted had claimed another victim, a University of Washington student named George Ann Hawkins, who disappeared shortly after visiting her boyfriend on the night of June 11, 1974. The culprit was clearly a meticulous killer who targeted young women at random, making him the hardest kind of criminal to catch. Since January, 1974, he'd claimed a victim every single month.

By the beginning of July, six young women were already dead and a seventh, Karen Sparks, had been beaten to the edge of her life. The various departments in the area agreed to work together to go after the murderer with everything they had. But Ted Bundy had covered his tracks well, and now that his rampage had begun, he wasn't going to stop.

Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next Monday to discuss the conclusion to Ted Bundy's infamous killing spree. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And for ad-free and early access to Mind of a Serial Killer, plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. We'll be back next Monday. Mind of a Serial Killer is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson, and Dr. Tristan Engels, and is Monday. Thank you for listening. Looking for a deep dive into history's most notorious true crime cases?

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