Ted's First Love...and Loss

Experts beleive that the loss of Ted's first love, Stephanie Brooks, is what led him to murder. David Lohr interprets their unique relationship in his crime report, "Ted Bundy: The Poster Boy of Serial Killers". Ted first met Stephanie in 1967. She was beautiful, with long dark hair parted in the middle. The two got along exceptionally well and before too long, they had fallen in love. Once Ted transfered to Stanford University, and Stephanie graduated from the University of Washington, she decided that it was time for them to go their seperate ways. Bundy was completely devestated with the loss of his first love, and this took a tole on his grades. He eventually felt as though he had no other choice but to drop out of college. In 1969, after Ted began to get his life back on track, his main focus was winning Stephanie back. He kept in touch with her through letters and phone calls, but she did not return his love. When Stephanie finally decided to meet up with Ted to catch up, she was amazed at how different he seemed. She gave this new Ted a chance and things were going pretty well; they even discussed marriage. Then completely out of nowhere, Ted dumped Stephanie Brooks, just as she had him earlier. Stephanie never saw or heard from him again. Astonishingly, every woman Ted Bundy murdered had Stephanie's slender build, hair style, and hair color.

I do beleive that loss of your first love can be life changing and may,as well, lead to some irrational thoughts. However, the extent to which Ted Bundy carried out his pain is almost unbeleivable. Most people have the ability to move on and find someone new (which he did by the way: Meg Anders) but the pain and hatred he carried around for years is remarkable. For someone to have so much anger built up inside them and hide it so well that even those closest to him didn't know? Crazy! What I don't get is why he murdered so many women who looked like Stephanie, when he could have just murdered Stephanie. Of course I don't argee that murder is a solution to any problem, but one dead woman is better than 30+.



Lohr, David. "Ted Bundy: The Poster Boy of Serial Killers". An Encyclopedia of Crime. Crime Magazine, n.d. Web. 31 Mar 2010. http://www.crimemagazine.com/ted_bundy.htm.

Ted's Childhood and Early Life

It is believed by many that a person's childhood contributes to the life they lead and molds them into the person they become. As shown in Marillyn Shadow's biography of Ted, he was born to Eleanor Cowell and an unknown father. His grandparents raised him as if he was their own and he believed that his biological mother was actually his sister, since she gave birth to him at a young age. As a child, Ted suffered abuse from an uncle and his biological grandparents. Later on, soon after he discovered that Eleanor was his mother and not his sister, Eleanor married a man named Johnny Bundy and she then took Ted away with them and changed his last name to match hers. As a teenager, Ted became interested in pornography, did not have friends (nor did he want any), and he was convicted of petty crimes such as shop lifting. Some experts believe that his first murder was Ann Marie Burr when he was fourteen years old, but he never did admit to her murder.
Personally, I think a person's background has a lot to do with who they become. Of course, I do not think that being abused as a child is an excuse for murder. There is no excuse for that. But there is a lot of evidence in psychology that proves how a person is raised affects who they become. Shadow says, "It is believed that Ted Bundy's childhood contributed to the essence of the innate want to the nature of his killings." Ted did not receive love from the people he thought were his parents, and then when he found out who his mother really was he also found out that there were a number of men who could be his father and on top of that his step father wanted nothing to do with him. I can see how this could lead to depression or even domestic violence, but not murdering dozens of innocent women. The fact that he was attractive yet had no friends in high school should have struck someone as odd, but then again nobody ever thought this quite young boy would become a notorious serial killer.


Shadow, Marillyn. "Ted Bundy, The Serial Killer." Quazen. N.p., 28 Aug 2008. Web. 25 Mar 2010. http://quazen.com/reference/biography/ted-bundy-the-serial-killer/.