[newsman] Listen up, please. Hold it down.
Hold it down a minute. Hold it one minute.
If you have a tape or a package that's ready to feed,
bring it to the feed point between 11:00 and 11:30
and 12:00 and 12:30.
Keep your pieces short so that we can all get on the air.
-[typewriters clacking] -[indistinct chatter]
Here it comes. Three, two, one...
This is Larry Welling reporting live from Ted Bundy's double murder trial.
He is charged with killing two female students
at Florida State University.
He is also being sought for questioning in 36 slayings.
[female reporter] Those whose bodies have been found were sexually molested
and severely beaten.
The lurid nature of the case, the depravity of the violence,
and the personality of Ted Bundy
combined to make this something that the media could not ignore.
[male reporter] As a result of a Florida State Supreme Court ruling,
the Bundy trial would be open to TV cameras,
no matter what the prosecution or the defense had to say.
This was the first time a trial had ever been covered by TV like this.
[man] I'm ready to go!
[Hula] It was tremendously exciting. Lights on, cameras rolling.
Smile Ted.
[Hula] Technologically, it was another era.
Electronic news gathering was just in its infancy.
[woman] If anybody's using a walkie-talkie on this floor, shut it down!
You're breaking up the feed!
We had the media from all 50 states
and nine foreign countries in big numbers.
It was an unprecedented filming of a trial of this nature.
Three, two, one. Following exten--
-Take ten. -Four, three...
-...two... -...one.
[theme music playing]
[male bailiff] Order in court. All rise.
The circuit court, second judicial circuit of the state of Florida
in the Leon County is now in session.
The Honorable Edward D. Cowart presiding. Be seated.
We're conducting the public's business, gentlemen,
and we're gonna conduct it in the sunshine,
as we've said in Florida.
[man] Nobody had ever handled a case like this before,
before the cameras and certainly not before...
um, the virtual nation watching.
[man] What's all these cameras doing on the court floor?
What's these cameras doing on the court floor?
-Excuse me. -[man] Get away from here! Get!
[Simpson] I was a young lawyer at the time.
It was baptism by fire, if you would.
But quite frankly, from my perspective,
I had to treat it like it was just another case.
[man] I was the public defender appointed to represent Ted Bundy.
We didn't have any choice about the case.
Mr. Bundy didn't have any money.
When I first met Bundy, I had an opportunity to speak with him...
in a very small visiting room.
And it was not altogether comfortable
being at close quarters with him.
It was, um, a little awkward,
and, uh, maybe a little frightening.
[Simpson] I've got a case. I got facts.
I've got to deal with those facts, and I've got to come up with a way
to convince a jury that Theodore Bundy committed these crimes.
[Minerva] I felt the forensic evidence
against Bundy was really pretty sketchy.
The problem with Ted Bundy was he was not a typical defendant
because he was so infamous.
The media had flooded the whole state of Florida
with all of this prejudicial publicity
about what Ted Bundy had done.
All the information goes a long way
to destroying whatever public perception
or belief in "innocent until proven guilty".
So my strategy was low-key, low-profile,
have Ted Bundy do as little as possible.
I may have described it as,
"Just sit quietly and look innocent."
[Simpson] Obviously, there was a great deal of pressure on the prosecution,
and nobody knew for sure that we were going to be able
to get a conviction ultimately in trial.
And the one thing that we were absolutely positive of
is that we did not want Mr. Buddy back on the streets again.
[Minerva] The most important thing was to save his life.
I wanted to discuss the possibility
of trying to negotiate a plea bargain
that would result in him being spared the death penalty.
So I went and talked to him.
[Bundy] He came into my cell and he said, "Ted...
I don't like the way this prosecution against you is shaping up."
It was his sincerest belief there was no way I could be found not guilty.
[Michaud] Mm-hmm.
"They made the proposal," he said. "An offer was made for you to make a plea
in exchange for a life sentence."
And it bothered me,
because I felt like he was conceding that I was guilty
and all he was there for was to save my life.
I said, "Are you willing to have us negotiate?"
He said, "Yes, I can-- I can do a plea." I was surprised when he said yes.
[Simpson] We decided that it would be best if we could resolve this case
to have him enter a guilty plea that would ultimately result
in Mr. Bundy, uh, going to prison for the rest of his life.
[Bundy] I was under a lot of pressure. A lot of pressure.
I don't think I've been under so much pressure that I can recall.
A lot of pressure to take it.
I mean, I'd be the last one to say I want the death penalty. I don't.
-[Michaud] Yeah. -I mean, I would lay awake at night
worrying that this was going to happen to me.
[Katsaris] Ted Bundy was concerned about losing his life.
And it got out, of course, that there may have been a deal struck.
It went like wildfire.
[Minerva] The courtroom was full of people,
even though our agreement with the state was,
"Let's don't have a big show.
As few people as possible." But it was packed.
[Bundy] In that room full of law enforcement officers and...
Katsaris and the head of the state patrol sitting right up in front,
uh, in front of God and everybody
just looking like cats that had just swallowed the canary.
Well, we went into court that morning
thinking Mr. Bundy was going to enter a plea, and, uh...
We got there, and the first thing that happened
was Mr. Bundy stood up and started making a speech.
It's my position that my counsel, one, believe that I am guilty.
Two, that they have told me they see no way
of presenting effective defense,
and on no uncertain terms they have told me that.
And three, that they see no way of avoiding conviction.
Your Honor, if that does not raise itself
to the level of ineffectiveness of counsel, I don't know what does.
[Minerva] He sabotaged the plea and turned it down.
I mean it was...
demoralizing to me.
-[Bundy] I skewered Mike. -[Michaud] Yeah.
[Bundy] Pretty rigorously. -[Michaud] Uh-uh.
And I, at no time, ever did I intend to plead guilty to anything.
[Michaud] You've got a sense of drama, Ted. [laughs]
No way could I stand up in front of a jury
and try to convince them that he was not guilty
when he said I had told him I believed he was guilty.
I mean, there was no...
no credibility there at all.
I talked to Mr. Minerva after court that day
and I just looked him in the face and I said,
"Bundy just gave up the deal of a lifetime."
[Minerva] I finally filed a motion to withdraw.
But the judge would not let us out.
[male reporter] Judge Cowart, not in the mood for more delays
decided Minerva should stay.
I'm going to deny the motion to substitute counsel,
and I am likewise going to deny the motion to withdraw.
[Minerva] So I stayed involved in a limited way
in the role of advisory council.
And because Bundy was so insistent on taking part in the case,
the judge allowed him to be co-counsel,
which is a fiction, because he wasn't a lawyer.
[Hula] He always knew best.
I think he believed he knew better than any other lawyer.
And after he rejected the plea bargain,
we got the idea that he was not going to be
a person to take these charges sitting down.
[male reporter] You gonna try for another attorney?
Are you gonna represent yourself, or are you gonna get another attorney?
I'm staying with the man I know best right now, and that's me.
[camera shutters click]
[newswoman] The State of Florida is going to officially begin
testing its case against Theodore Robert Bundy.
[male reporter] It was pre-trial publicity which brought the Bundy trial
from Tallahassee to Miami.
Too many people were familiar with the details of the Bundy case.
Bundy, who's accused of murdering two Florida State University coeds,
is acting as his own lawyer.
[Bundy] I was really in control of myself. I really felt good.
There was just no problem.
The new and improved Ted Bundy.
How you doing? Aren't you getting tired of Florida?
[male bailiff] All rise, please.
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. This honorable circuit court
of the 11th judicial circuit of Florida in Dade County is now open.
The Honorable Judge Cowart presiding.
Please be seated. Court will come to order.
[male reporter] Today, the Bundy trial has begun.
and there's a new member on the defense team:
attorney Margaret Good.
[woman] After the failed plea,
Mike Minerva is still head lawyer on the case.
However, he decided not to go to Miami,
and Mike Minerva had requested me to join the defense team.
I was just a run-of-the-mill, idealistic, young criminal defense lawyer,
when asked to do a very difficult job, said, "Yes, I'll do it."
We took the position that Ted was incompetent.
He didn't understand the evidence against him.
It's a basic principle of our law
that you don't try a person when they are incompetent.
I thought Bundy was very competent, very capable,
and we did have a competency hearing.
[Good] And the judge, remarkably, ruled that he is competent.
[reporter] Unlike most murder trials, this one will feature the defendant
helping four public defenders in cross-examining witnesses.
[Good] Judge Cowart ruled that not only was Ted competent to stand trial,
but that he was in charge of the defense.
And it was just a very difficult situation,
because there were times
when he was very erratic, impulsive and, um, strange.
[Judge Cowart] Specifically, what do you seek, Mr. Bundy?
Well, specifically, Your Honor, I'm seeking...
daily outdoor exercise.
[Good] You know, we couldn't control his impulses in his irrationality,
anymore than he could control it, and it was annoying
and it was different and we had no training in how to handle it.
[reporter] Earlier today, Bundy directly asked the judge
for more exercise, more access to the jail's law library,
more conference periods, and the use of a typewriter.
He was always deferring and deflecting
to draw the attention away from the case.
[Simpson] One of my favorite motions that he filed
was a motion for a change of menu,
arguing that he had eaten the same grilled cheese sandwich every day
for the last five or six days, and he just really needed something else.
[reporter] This morning, he said his living conditions at the jail
prevent him from helping his attorneys.
The light source is totally inadequate to read by.
The only way one can read in that cell is to hold the document outside the bars
and read the document in the available light that filters
from the light source outside the cell.
[reporter] During a noon recess, Judge Cowart visited Bundy's cell
and said the lighting was bad.
He told jailers, "I'd hate to have to read in it myself."
He then ruled that Bundy should be transferred
to this nearby conference room.
[Hula] He thought he was clever enough and smart enough
and cunning enough to avoid conviction.
He had, I guess, just enough knowledge of the law
to know what to do,
but not enough to keep him out of trouble.
Come over here, please. Step onto the witness box.
Raise your right hand.
[clerk] Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give
is the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
I do.
[Simpson] Officer Ray Crew was one of the first officers
that arrived at the Chi Omega house that morning.
I put him on the witness stand to kind of...
uh, set the scene, if you would.
I began a room-by-room search to see if there were any other victims...
or potential witnesses.
And I started at the northwest corner of the north hall.
[Simpson] Because I had crime scene people still coming,
I had not gone into detail.
[Simpson] No further questions, Your Honor.
[Judge Cowart] Mr. Bundy?
[Simpson] Out of the clear blue sky, for some reason,
Mr. Bundy decided that he was going to cross-examine that witness
about what the crime scene looked like at the Chi Omega house.
[Bundy] You testified here this morning that you recall arriving
at the Chi Omega house at approximately 3:26 a.m.
[Crew] Yes, sir.
[Bundy] Then, to the best of your recollection,
step-by-step if you can, officer, what did you do next?
Step-by-step...
I went in room four, and there was a--
I observed a young lady lying
on her right hand side,
basically face down, the sheet pulled up.
Initially, I observed a puncture wound...
through the nipple on her right breast.
Um, when the sheet was pulled off, she was moved to the floor,
I observed a...
bloody mark on her right buttocks.
[Simpson] I've never seen anything like that before in my career.
You would never, if you were a lawyer,
want your client to cross-examine
a crime scene witness.
He was bringing out the gore that he had left there.
[Bundy] Did you touch Miss Bowman?
No sir, I didn't touch her body, I re--
lifted the covers back so that I could observe.
[Bundy] And can you describe what you saw when you lifted up the covers?
As much detail as you can recall.
If you need to use report, please feel free to do so.
[Crew] She was lying,
basically face down.
There was a considerable amount of blood around her head.
There was what appeared to be
a nylon stocking netted around her neck.
Her head was bloated, discolored,
one of her eyelids was raised, her eyes appeared a little glassy.
[Good] Asking him to relate in excruciating detail
what you saw when you first got there over and over again...
it could be perceived that he had encountered the...
crime scene before and relished in what it looked like
and wanted it repeated...
is how it could be interpreted.
[Bundy] Can you describe the exact position,
as best as you can recall,
of Miss Levy's body as you saw it when you first entered the room?
[Simpson] Objection, repetition, Your Honor.
[Cowart] He's previously described that, Mr. Bundy.
[sigh]
[woman clears throat]
Recall the position of her arms.
[Bundy] If we recognize that the person of this type
could receive gratification in the act of killing itself,
it's reasonable to assume at a later point he might dwell on that,
because it fits into the-- it might fit into the fantasy structure.
[Michaud] Mm-hmm.
It was just very, um, unsettling,
did not seem to be in Ted's best interest.
And it put us, the defense attorneys, in a particularly difficult situation.
[female report] There are reports of unrest in the defense camp
as the lawyers quarrel among themselves on who should do key cross-examinations.
[male reporter] The jury is unaware of the squabbles amongst the defense team,
and these conflicts have apparently not affected the way
the defendant views his chances of acquittal.
[Simpson] I did not have any strong forensics on this case,
but we had a positive identification of Mr. Bundy
as the one that committed the crimes.
[clerk] Do you solemnly swear that your testimony
is the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
-I do. -[Cowart] Please be seated.
Nita Neary was, I thought, one of the best witnesses that we had.
[Simpson] Do you recall the man that you saw
at the door of the Chi Omega house
on the morning of January 15, 1978?
Yes, I do.
Could you describe the man that you saw at the door?
Yes, he had a very prominent nose
a straight bridge that almost came to a point,
not quite, uh,
very thin lips, um, clean-shaven.
I commented earlier, nice looking for most, if you want.
[Simpson] And is that man in the courtroom today?
Yes, he is.
Would you point him out for us, please?
[Simpson] I thought that she gave a very compelling testimony.
And one of the most important pieces of evidence in my mind
was she sat down with an artist
and she described the profile view of the man.
You can hold that sketch up next to Mr. Bundy,
and it is a spitting image of Mr. Bundy.
[Minerva] The sketch was not very detailed,
but was almost like a stick figure.
It didn't amount to conclusive proof.
[man] Did you ever have any direct, eye-to-eye contact with the man?
No.
[Haggard] Did you see the man's facial expression?
No.
Did you see the man's eyes?
No.
[Haggard] Did you see the man's eyebrows?
I can't remember that now.
Did you see the man's ears?
No.
[Haggard] Did you see the man's hair?
[Neary] No.
I had a few seconds to observe...
the entire man.
[Good] Bob Haggard did an excellent job on cross-examination.
Her testimony was not very certain.
And right after Robert Haggard
did that very, very excellent cross-examination
destroying the state's case,
Ted got up in open court and tried to fire Haggard as his attorney.
[Bundy] Attempts by me to participate in the courtroom
have been met with vigorous opposition from a part of my counsel.
This is more-- [clears throat]
We are speaking more to a problem that attorneys have of giving up power.
Maybe we're dealing with a problem of professional psychology,
where the attorneys are so jealous
of the power they exercise in the courtroom,
they're afraid to share it with the defendant.
[reporter] Then, the defense attorney Robert Haggard, without explanation
asked to be excused and walked out of court.
[Cowart] And then there were three.
[courtroom laughs]
[Good] Ted was not a well person.
If ever there was a decision to be made that would benefit the defense
or benefit the state,
Ted would always choose the one that benefited the state.
My feeling is that the lawyer should control
the defense of the case
by virtue of their experience.
[Hula] We were seeing here a real crime drama.
It was just sordid, lurid, sensational enough
that I think people wanted to watch it
replay every day during the trial.
[male reporter] Each day, the courtroom is filled with spectators
drawn by a fascination with Theodore Bundy himself,
or by the gruesome details of the crimes.
What is unusual to see is that many of the onlookers
are women. Young women.
[Good] Women would slip notes to me
and ask me to give them to Ted.
You know, I would say, "No, I can't do that."
[man] Are you little scared when you look at him?
Yes. Scares me to be in the same room with him,
but I know there's other people in there.
I'm not afraid. He just doesn't look like the type to kill somebody.
Everytime he turns around, I kinda get that feeling, "Oh, no!"
You know? [chuckles] "Gonna get me next."
-But yet, you are fascinated by him. -Very. Very.
-Why do you do it? -I don't know. [chuckles]
[reporter] One woman who has been at the trial for the past four days
and who frequently confers with Bundy has another impression entirely.
Carole Boone believes Bundy is completely innocent.
Some have called her his girlfriend.
She prefers be known as just a close personal friend.
[Michaud] Carole was a friend of his from Washington.
And Carole had reappeared in his life
to actually act as his champion,
because she felt that he was telling the truth
and that he was being railroaded.
She was Ted's advocate.
That was her identity.
She felt maternal towards him to some extent.
And she was adamant that her Bunny, as she called him,
was, uh, wholly innocent.
Let me put it this way. I-- I don't think that Ted belongs in jail.
The things in Florida don't concern me...
any more than the things out west do.
-And those other things-- -You think these are trumped-up charges?
I don't think they had reason to charge Ted Bundy with murdering
in either Leon County or Columbia County.
[reporter] Boone says she has twice been allowed to visit Bundy in jail
since he was brought to Miami six days ago.
She describes him as nervous, but cautiously hopeful.
[man] Are there any dates set on any other trials?
-Pardon me? -Even with acquittal?
[laughs]
Yes, well...
You know,
if I was a football coach, I'd say you don't--
When you're in the first game of the season,
you don't start looking for the Super Bowl.
[courtroom laughs]
[Katsaris] I believe he thought he was going to get away with this.
But the piece of evidence that was going to be
the centerpiece of the prosecution,
that would be used for the first time in a court setting,
was the bite marks.
There was a very large, very imprinted
double bite mark.
The person bit, withdrew,
and... bit again, as hard as the person could.
[Simpson] And the question became whether or not there was any way
that a suspect could be identified from that bite mark.
[Simpson] Could you please state your name for the record?
My name is Richard Souviron.
[Simpson] What is that?
This is a stone cast of Mr. Bundy's upper teeth.
[reporter] The State's star witness, Dr. Richard Souviron,
a Miami forensic odontologist,
showed the court the peculiarities of Bundy's teeth.
Slightly crooked upper front teeth with distinct incisors and chip marks.
Whoever made this mark in the skin, in the flesh,
had crooked teeth.
[Katsaris] I believe it was the canine teeth that were very distinct,
that really, uh, were different.
[Minerva] It was obvious that the jury was affected
by the big show put on by the prosecution.
But we really concentrated hard
on trying to limit the scope of that testimony.
[Good] Mike did come down to Miami and handled the bite-mark evidence.
It was the first time that kind of "tool-mark evidence"
had been used in a criminal case.
And he was the expert, legally speaking, on that.
[Minerva] Bite-mark evidence is not like DNA.
It's now pretty much considered junk science.
[Good] This idea that you could positively identify someone
from the bruise pattern they would leave on human flesh,
it was just gross speculation,
but it didn't change what happened.
[Minerva] Can you tell us with any reasonable degree of dental certainty
that those teeth...
made the marks on those photographs?
Yes, sir.
[Minerva] And what is that opinion, sir?
They made the marks.
[Bundy] I mean, I felt the tide turn right there.
They may have been somewhat ambivalent up to--
in the State's case-- up until the point when the State's witnesses testified.
And then our failure to effectively refute that,
I think, was-- was very significant to the jurors.
I was feeling embittered
and-- and, uh, persecuted.
I couldn't endure this-- this humiliation.
I had to make a statement.
[male reporter] The jurors were out of the courtroom this morning
when Judge Edward Cowart received word from one of Theodore Bundy's guards
of an incident at the Dade County Jail involving the defendant last night,
which also explained his absence from the court
at the start of this morning's session.
Go ahead.
[guard] This morning, I went to Mr. Bundy's cell to awaken him
so he could get dressed to come to court,
I could not get him to get up.
I noticed that the lock had been jammed with what appeared to be toilet paper
Was this form the inside of the cell or--
From the outside, Judge...
He had a wet toilet paper and had stuffed it in the lock
and kept it from locking. He was different.
And he was smart, and he...
He was a challenge to the best.
[Cowart] The court will find him in contempt of this court
for failing to be here at this time.
And I want to instruct counsel to go talk to Mr. Bundy.
And it's now ten minutes after nine.
This court will reconvene at 9:30, and we'll continue,
whether he's here or not.
[bailiff] Everybody, remain seated.
[Simpson] At that point in time,
things were going good for the prosecution.
So it was real obvious
he was trying to do something to change that.
[reporter] Just past 9:30 this morning,
Theodore Bundy entered the court before Judge Cowart.
-[Cowart] Mr. Bundy? -Yes, sir.
[Cowart] The court wants to talk to you a minute. Come up to the bar here.
What happened?
-[Bundy clears throat] -What happened?
[Bundy] Where? Do you mean in the jail?
[Cowart] The court was supposed to start at nine o'clock.
I wanna tell you something, young man,
and I wanna tell you clearly and unequivocally so you understand.
This court is not gonna follow your schedule.
This court is gonna set the time when we convene
and when we do not convene.
The court has already found you in contempt of this court.
Be forewarned, I'm not tolerating any more of this.
Is there any question in your mind?
[Bundy] Perhaps the court can tell me how I can hold the jail in contempt?
[Cowart] You can quit breaking lights and stuffing toilet paper in a lock,
that's how you can not hold them in contempt.
[Bundy] What I'm saying to you, Your Honor,
is I'm laboring under conditions...
which are causing me stress which this court is not aware of.
The conditions imposed upon me
by the Dade County Jail constitute harassment.
It is an attempt by the system,
I think, to coerce me, to wear me down.
Since I have been in Dade County, I've been allowed--
[Cowart] Don't point your finger at me, young man.
Don't shake your finger at me, young man!
[Bundy] ...of one and one half hour--
[Cowart] That's fine, you can shake it at Mr. Haggard.
[laughter]
[Bundy] He probably-- He probably deserves it better than you do.
[Haggard] He occasionally shakes his finger at me, Judge.
[Bundy] This railroad train is running, Your Honor.
But if I wanna get off, I'll get off.
If I need to demonstrate to the court
that there are things happening outside this courtroom
that are influencing and affecting me.
There comes a time when I just have to say, "Whoa!"
[Cowart] If you say "Whoa,"
I'm gonna be using spurs and overcome that whoa.
-Giddy up, that's what-- -You bet.
And this court is gonna proceed on schedule.
Bless your heart. I just hope you stay with us,
because if you don't, we'll miss you.
-[laughter] -All right?
[Bundy] I'm not going to try to please people.
I hold my head high. I believe in myself.
Dealing from that on out, I know exactly what's what.
And Lord knows I am the first and foremost person
who has personal, intimate knowledge
that it couldn't be me, that it's not me, that I'm innocent.
And I'll lay my money on me.
[Cowart] Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
Counsel will now be making their closing arguments to you,
their final arguments.
The evidence in this case presents many reasonable doubts.
It's a sad day for our system of justice
that can put a man's life on the line
because they say he has crooked teeth.
How tragic it would be if a man's life to be taken from him
because 12 people thought that he was probably guilty,
but they were not sure.
[Good] You hope the jury would find a reasonable doubt
and find that this evidence was insufficient and find him...
not guilty of first degree murder.
But you never know what the jury's gonna do.
[Simpson] This man premeditated this murder.
He knew what he was going to do before he did it.
He thinks he is smart enough
to get away with any crime.
Give him...
the same amount of mercy
that he gave Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman,
which was absolutely none.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
you may retire now to consider your verdict.
This case went to the jury shortly before--
Jury will deliberate until midnight--
-Ted Bundy committed the-- -...arrested in Pensacola--
It was exactly three hours ago that Judge Edward Cowart
gave the case to the jury. They are now deliberating
behind closed doors, inside the jury room,
examining more than a hundred exhibits.
[reporter] Are you confident that he will be acquitted here?
[sighs] I hope he will be acquitted. I can't say I'm confident.
We interrupt this program to bring you a special report,
live from the justice building in Miami, Florida.
Deliberating for six and a half hours,
the jury returned to the courtroom,
just past 9:30 Eastern time Tuesday night to announce its decision.
[indistinct chatter on TV]
[man] Okay.
Here we go, folks. I'm feeding.
Have you reached the verdict, Madam Clerk?
In the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit
of Leon County, Florida,
case number 78670,
the State of Florida versus Theodore Robert Bundy, verdict:
We, the jury at Miami Dade County, Florida
24th day of July A.D., 1979,
find the defendant, Theodore Robert Bundy,
as to count two of the indictment, murder in the first degree
upon one Margaret Bowman, guilty as charged,
as to count three of the indictment,
murder in the first degree upon one Lisa Levy, guilty as charged.
So say we all... [unintelligible]
[Bundy] They refuse to perceive me as being anything
that approaches being normal.
They don't understand me. They don't really understand me.
They are missing, you know, a very important point, I guess.
[Good] When the verdict came in, Ted, his demeanor, his expression,
was completely different
than how he had been throughout the trial.
One of intense surprise, which really just confirmed to me,
that he did not have a rational understanding of the proceedings
or what was happening to him or what was about to happen to him.
[reporter] Ted Bundy is found guilty of all seven counts of the indictment.
That's includes three charges of attempted murder
and two counts of first-degree murder,
a crime that is a capital offense in the State of Florida,
a crime for which he could be sent to the electric chair.
[indistinct chatter]
[reporter] What's your reaction?
We're very satisfied with what verdict we did get in this case.
We couldn't have expected it to be any better than it was.
[Simpson] It, uh, had been a long, hard investigation, a long, hard trial.
We knew that a lot of people were pulling for us to win that case,
and, uh, it was a tremendous relief, uh, to know that we did.
[man] Come on, be calm, you guys, be calm.
Needless to say, I think the jury is totally wrong.
They didn't take enough time.
How could you consider all those momentous decisions in six hours?
It's just-- It's just impossible.
It's wrong. We'll appeal it. It's just... [sighs]
What else can I say?
We, the family, are devastated by this,
but we'll stick behind him because we know he's not guilty,
as do all his friends.
That's-- That's it.
[man] Back up.
[reporter] At 2:20 this afternoon, the case was handed to the jurors
with a decision before them of whether to sentence
convicted murderer Theodore Bundy to life imprisonment or death.
But it was the defendant's mother, Louise Bundy,
who made the most impassioned plea for her son's life.
My Christian upbringing tells me that,
to take another's like under any circumstances
is wrong.
And I don't believe the State of Florida is above, uh...
the laws of God.
Ted can be very useful in many ways, to many people,
living.
Gone from us
would be like taking a part of all of us and throwing it away.
[Cowart] Defendant, please step forward.
[bailiff] Bundy, step up the bar, please.
[Cowart] The court finds that of both these killings
were indeed heinous, atrocious, and cruel...
and that they were extremely wicked,
shockingly evil,
vile, and the product of a design to inflict a high degree of pain
and utter indifference to human life.
This court, independent of, but in agreement with,
the advisory sentence rendered by the jury,
does hereby impose the death penalty
upon the defendant, Theodore Robert Bundy.
-Take care of yourself, young man. -[Bundy] Thank you.
[Cowart] All right? I say that to you sincerely.
Take care of yourself.
It's a tragedy for this court to see such a total waste, I think,
of humanity that I have experienced in this court.
You're a bright young man.
You'd have made a good lawyer.
I'd have loved to have 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.
Court will be in recess until Saturday morning at ten o'clock.
[bailiff] Everybody remain seated until the Judge is out of the courtroom.
[Bundy] I don't really feel like I have any really...
acute insights or observations...
analysis to add to...
what's happened this afternoon.
I am tired...
sad.
And even now I am...
both fascinated with and angry at myself.
for falling into that role.
[reporter] There is yet another case titled "The State of Florida
versus Theodore Robert Bundy."
[reporter #2] This time, Bundy is accused
of killing Lake City school girl Kimberly Leach.
[man] The Kim Leach trial
was the first murder case that I actually tried as a prosecutor.
People criticized us, saying, "Why are you wasting the county's money
prosecuting him, when he's already got the death penalty?"
You get two death penalties,
you got twice as much chance of one standing up,
to make... sure, certain...
that he was executed.
The strategy of the trial was very simple.
We had tons of evidence.
There was an eyewitness that saw Bundy
loading Kim Leach into the white van at the junior high school.
And in that white van that he was driving was a bloodstain.
The blood type was the same as Kim's blood type.
Numerous fibers from the clothing from Kim Leach's body
were found on the van carpet.
Fibers from Bundy's blue blazer were found on Kim's clothing.
Shoe tracks. There was mountains of evidence against him.
[female reporter] Wearing a blue bow tie and a big grin,
Theodore Bundy faced the jury for the last time.
[Dekle] Bundy defended himself
and that did not go over well with the jury.
He displayed a tremendous amount of arrogance.
One thing that he did was his...
impromptu wedding ceremony
between him and one of his witnesses,
Carole Boone.
[female reporter] The defense called only one witness, Carole Boone.
Acting as his own lawyer, Bundy questioned her about his character.
She said he's a kind, warm, patient man,
a very positive part of her life.
Then the convicted man popped the question.
-Carole, do you wanna marry me? -[Boone] Yes.
-And I wanna marry you. -Yes.
-And I do wanna marry you. -[chuckles] You said you did.
[female reporter] Bundy went on questioning Boone.
The prosecution called the marriage proposal a charade
and asked the jury to consider the timing of the announcement.
[Dekle] I thought at the time,
this was simply a ploy.
"How could you possibly vote the death penalty on my wedding day?"
The second thing he did was, in the final argument before the jury,
uh, he spread his arms out like this.
He compared himself to Jesus.
Well, the jury didn't appreciate that at all.
The next morning, we had a verdict.
And, I was-- Man, I was pumped.
I had been sweating bullets
until the judge called us back into to the courtroom.
It is the sense of this court as to count one of the indictment
that you, Theodore Robert Bundy, be adjudicated guilty of murder
in the first degree
and that you be sentenced to death for the murder of Kimberly Diane Leach.
[female reporter] Bundy sat with his back to the judge
during the reading of the recommendation.
Then, one last outburst, as the jury was being released.
-[judge] The court is adjourned. -Tell the jury that they were wrong.
[man coughs]
Denied. Bring the jury back.
Get off! Let go of me.
We're going to go to the holding cell.
[Dekle] I feel that there are some people
who by the enormity of their crime
forfeit the right to live.
He is such an evil person
who had done so much harm, hurt so many good people.
He is just a...
piece of garbage...
in the shape of a human being.
[indistinct chatter]
[Michaud] When Ted went back to death row
there was no guilt, no remorse.
[Bundy] I don't feel guilty for any of it. I feel less guilty now
than I've felt at any time in my whole life.
About anything. I mean, really.
And it's not that I've forgotten anything or I've closed down part of my mind
or compartmentalized.
I believe I understand everything that I've done.
There was pride in what he did.
[Bundy] I am in the enviable position
of not having to feel any guilt. And that's it.
Guilt is this mechanism we use to control people.
It's an illusion.
It's this kind of social control mechanism and it's very unhealthy.
[Michaud] Death row is a terrible place,
so Ted would get drunk and smoke dope.
[Bundy] There are a lot of guys heavy into drugs up on death row.
I smoked a lot of weed, and I have never in my life been so fucked up.
I don't like the dope that just gets you mildly giddy.
I mean, when I smoke dope, I like to hallucinate a little bit.
[Michaud] Many days, he was really, really high.
His wife, Carole, would take drugs in to Ted...
vaginally.
And then he would take the drugs back to his cell rectally.
[Bundy] I'm gonna bring some dope down here sometime,
and we'll just smoke it. And Valiums and alcohol.
[Michaud] Ted and Carole were the French expression folie à deux.
They were crazy together.
Carole loved him.
She told him that she wanted a child,
and somehow they had sex in the prison.
[Boone] We kept looking out of the window.
There was a black guard who was real nice.
After the first day, they just-- they didn't care.
They walked in on us a couple of times.
And they built this little family on death row.
Ted and Carole and little Rosa.
[reporter] This convicted killer, who fathered a daughter,
tried to have a semblance of family life with daughter, stepson, and wife.
[Michaud] The narcissist in him adored the attention.
[Bundy] If you wanna interest someone, let's say, in--
in the screenplay rights, the movie rights, film rights,
news articles about me,
the Rolling Stone stuff, the New Times stuff,
the New York Times magazine.
As a media event,
-to touch people throughout the country... -[Michaud] Hm-hmm.
...because people throughout North America,
really are-- to one degree or another, know about Ted Bundy.
I was really interested in putting Ted in my rearview mirror.
We'd recorded roughly a hundred hours of recorded conversation.
But if you listen to the tapes, he never confessed.
The last time I talked to Ted, we said we were gonna publish the book.
He said, "I don't care what you say, as long as it sells."
I was heartily sick of what I was hearing.
I was sick of Ted.
I walked out of that prison with an enormous sense of relief.
[birds chirping]
[Aynesworth] Last time I saw Ted Bundy or talked with him
I was so damn sick of his lies
and his denials of what he told us.
Sometimes we'd come out of that prison
and we'd be actually sick.
I just was...
tired of Ted Bundy
and what he'd taken of my life, really.
[Michaud] The book was about finished
and we felt a responsibility to his mother and stepfather
to tell them what Ted had been saying to us
and what we were gonna publish in the book.
So, we fly to Seattle and we have the tape recorder.
Louise is sitting next to the tape recorder.
I'm sitting next to Louise.
And Ted comes on, his voice comes on,
and he's talking about murder.
[Bundy] As he came up behind her, she heard him, she turned around,
and he brandished a knife.
And, let's say, he placed his hands around her throat.
And Louise starts making these little sounds,
like a little mouse sounds, little squeaks.
And she just listened to it and listened to it.
Then we said, you know, "Do you have any questions?"
And neither one of them had any questions whatsoever.
So, we turned off the tape recorder, and she stood up
and she said,
"Who's for apple pie and ice cream?"
And we had apple pie and ice cream.
And then we left.
The nation's worst mass murderers may yet make a contribution to society.
They have supplied the raw data
to help the FBI build a composite picture of the mass killer
and his victims.
The bureau today said a new computer center
is being set up to analyze that data.
Agents hope that this computer will spot those subtle patterns
that they have missed in the past.
[reporter] Today, the FBI announced the creation of a national center
for analysis of violent crime.
The center would use computers like these
to look for patterns in the methods of murder.
Agents have already interviewed 38 convicted killers
including Charles Manson,
to put together profiles on who kills and why.
This is the case we got in today down in North Carolina.
Are we looking at post-mortem or ante-mortem wounds?
[standing agent] It is definitely post-mortem mutilation to the breast area.
[man, voice-over] At that time, I had the privilege of joining
the first class of full-time profilers in that program.
We would look at hundreds of cases that were solved or unsolved
to try to understand the thought processes of the perpetrators.
Not only how they develop their skills, but how they evaded detection.
We would go in and talk to serial killers, serial child molesters, serial rapists,
and Ted Bundy was one of the ones that was chosen.
[Michaud] Ted's case taught law enforcement,
specifically the FBI, that...
their way of going about these investigations
was going to have to change
because a new type of criminal was emerging,
typified by Ted Bundy.
He was brand new and absolutely frightening.
We're learning these people are good at what they do.
They're very good.
[Hagmaier] Ted Bundy was unique
from most-- all other serial killers that we were aware of.
He had a degree in psychology. He was very bright.
He basically set the standard.
He's the Jack the Ripper of the United States.
He just potentially
was a tremendous source of intelligence for us, if he would talk to us.
The first time I talked to him,
he had been on death row for a number of years,
but he was still not admitting any of these crimes.
He said, basically,
"Who do you think you are to come down here, in death row,
pull me out of my cell and ask me stuff?"
You know? "You're the FBI. You guys know everything. You're the geniuses.
You write the books. You write the papers. What do you want from me?"
I said, "I wanna be better. I want to save lives.
I want you to help me."
And he just said...
"They wanna kill me."
And I said, "They wanna kill you?"
And he said, "The State of Florida wants to kill me.
And you'd kill me too, wouldn't you?"
And I said, "I wouldn't take pleasure in it,
but if it was my job to pull the switch...
yeah, you're toast."
And he just started looking at me and laughing and said,
"How many times do you think I've asked that question to other people?"
He said, "They all lie. They all said they thought I should be a survivor."
He said, "You told the truth."
And that was the way we finished our first discussion.
They trusted me.
In visits after that, I would go in...
and he would have newspaper clippings of murder cases,
some of which I was working, some of which I wasn't even familiar with.
And he would say, "Let's profile this case."
And he-- he was very good.
I mean, he would say, "I think that guy would do this. Then he'd do that.
I think maybe you guys ought to do this or that."
He talked about how a lot of serial killers
will return to their crime scene.
He also talked about leaving evidence behind
that had nothing to do with the crime scene
that might throw them off.
He confirmed a lot of things that we suspected about serial killers,
but he also gave us a lot more things to think about.
[male reporter] The state prison in Florida, America's Sunshine State.
This is death row.
Prisoners here have been sentenced to die in the electric chair.
Some have been here as long as 12 years.
They could be executed tomorrow, next week, perhaps never.
[woman] I became Ted Bundy's lawyer in 1986,
when an associate came in and said, "Well, there's this guy in Florida,
and he has his execution scheduled,
and we need someone to take that case."
I was very clear about being opposed to the death penalty,
even for the most heinous crimes.
Preventing the government from killing people in my name,
was...
uh, one of the most important things I could do.
[newswoman] Convicted murderer Ted Bundy
is scheduled to die in Florida's electric chair
one week from today.
[Nelson] Ted was on deathwatch,
so there was no time to waste.
Our strongest argument was the fact
that Ted received inadequate representation
and that he was represented by himself,
who was not competent...
to either assist, or even worse, in Chi Omega case,
present his own defense.
He truly had sabotaged his trials,
and we were hoping to find some clear mental illness
that we could use as an issue in the case.
Convicted murderer Theodore Bundy
is taking new steps to avoid Florida's electric chair.
[male reporter] This is the first time Ted Bundy has left Florida's death row
since being sentenced to death.
Armed guards brought Bundy to the hearing to determine his mental competency.
[Nelson] My associate Jim Coleman and I were in desperate need of an expert
to analyze Ted.
[reporter] Are we talking about incompetence to be his own lawyer
or incompetence to stand trial?
Uh, we're talking about competency to stand trial.
That kind of analysis had not happened
during the trial because Ted believed he was more than competent.
[Bundy] I knew I wasn't crazy, insane, or incompetent or anything else.
I was insulted by even the suggestion by my attorneys
that we should consider the defense.
They knew damn well I wasn't crazy.
Doctor Dorothy Lewis, the psychiatrist at Yale,
was willing to begin neurological testing on him.
She specialized in understanding the brain chemistry of violent men.
And then she called me up to say,
"Do you know that your client is manic-depressive?"
That was the first that we'd heard any kind of actual diagnosis
of a mental illness with Ted.
He talked in terms of a voice in his head.
And this voice would start saying things about women.
Dr. Lewis realized that this was during...
the down-phase of his manic depression.
And Ted, controlling his own defense
was just a sign of his manic episodes.
And he also started talking about that he did not feel empathy.
He did not feel love.
Dr. Lewis was extremely confident
that there was something unique about Ted's brain that had led to this.
Some unique brain chemistry,
or even a tumor
in a critical location that blocked his empathy.
So we got a stay of execution.
Just six hours before his scheduled execution in Starke, Florida,
convicted killer Ted Bundy won a 24-hour stay.
[Nelson] The appeals in the case had to go through so many layers of courts.
They happened over a period of...
three years.
Serial killer Theodore Bundy has escaped the chair once again.
[reporter] Lawyers for Bundy went to the court in a last-ditch effort
to argue that he wasn't competent to stand trial in 1980.
[Nelson] But the public pressure
and the political pressure was unsurmountable.
[reporter] Eleanor Rose of Seattle believes
Bundy killed her daughter, Denise.
[woman] As far as Bundy goes...
I hate him and I do want him to get the electric chair.
[Nelson] No court was gonna be the one
to stand in the way of Ted Bundy's execution.
[reporter] Bundy's lawyers were trying for a stay of execution
in U.S. District Court today, but were turned down this afternoon.
This, after the Florida Supreme Court rejected his appeal Friday.
[Nelson] We had won two stays of execution,
and in the last case, the Supreme Court denied the stay.
[female reporter] Shortly after the High Court's decision was announced,
Florida Governor Bob Martinez signed a new death warrant.
He represents why you have capital punishment.
For ten years, Ted Bundy has been fighting execution in Florida's electric chair.
[male reporter] Bundy is scheduled to die in the Florida electric chair on Tuesday.
[Nelson] On the last few days before the execution
he decided to confess.
[Bundy] I'm at the point finally where I see that I'm going to have to...
tell you and others everything I know in regard to so-called unsolved cases.
[Nelson] Ted always thought that his knowledge of these crimes
was his ace in the hole.
That by offering to confess, the governor would...
delay his execution a few years.
[Bundy] I am the only one in possession of this information,
and that's just the way it is.
To do a proper job for everybody,
I mean, I'm going to need some time.
[Nelson] Jim and I thought it was extremely foolhardy
for him to publicly confess.
I didn't think the governor would buy it. I didn't think it'd stop his execution.
[Keppel] His attorney had called me in Seattle
to please go down, talk to Ted.
He wanted to confess.
[Hagmaier] I was told that he wanted to talk, so I went down.
His purpose in doing this, obviously, was to extend his life.
Although I was not trying to extend his life,
my job was to kind of encourage him to talk and remind him of things
that might be applicable to the cases.
[Hagmaier] I'm here at Florida State Prison
at Raiford, Florida, with Mr. Ted Bundy.
We're having a meeting,
and presently it's two days prior to his scheduled execution date.
You've been involved in how many homicides?
[Bundy] Well, we came up with 30. I mean, we added up.
It's late at night like you said, but I think that's a fairly close figure.
[Hagmaier] Would you just try to summarize
what states they were in and what periods of time?
[Bundy] I just really will summarize it, uh...
California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, uh..
Colorado, and Florida,
between 1973 and...
1978.
[Hagmaier] Of the 30 that you were involved in,
can you-- You have an idea of how many were actually buried?
[Bundy] Well, that's a good question.
Gee, ten?
-[Hagmaier] Ten burials of the 30-- -That's roughly, I mean, I just-- I guess.
[Hagmaier] Okay.
In a couple of the cases, and I'm not sure how many,
but you opted to sever the heads from the victims.
And how many were there, do you recall, of the 30, that...
[Bundy] Perhaps half a dozen.
[Keppel] Well, I was there two days.
The first day, you know, he's behind heavy glass
and there's a kind of a mouth hole you can talk through.
And that's when he told me everything.
-[Bundy] Can you-- Can you hear that? -[Keppel] I can hear you.
[Bundy] Oh, okay.
I just said that the Hawkins girl's head was severed and taken up the road about...
[inhales]
[exhales] 25 to 50 yards.
And buried in a location about ten yards west of the road on a rocky hillside.
-Did you hear that? -[Keppel] Mm-hmm.
[Hagmaier] When he said he was clearing his soul at the end,
he wanted me to know that he...
practiced necrophilia.
That was something he never talked about even the third person before that.
[stuttering] You know, the truth is-- is terrible.
You know? It's terrible.
[Nelson] We woke up in the morning
and there all the newspapers are, you know, "Ted reveals his secrets."
At that point...
I was really overcome with emotion.
It was over, and we knew it was over.
[male reporter] After 11 years of silence,
he has begun admitting to over 30 killings in five Western states
he has always been suspected of.
[reporter #2] The confessions came as a surprise to Bundy's mother.
[Mrs. Bundy] If he...
killed all those lovely young women,
we have several beautiful daughters of our own.
We know how we would feel.
[voice wavers] And that's a terrible thing!
And he wasn't raised that way.
[reporter] This evening, the Florida governor says he's fully confident
Bundy will be executed tomorrow morning.
In the words of one other state official,
"This master manipulator won't be allowed to make a mockery of the judicial system."
[Hagmaier] I was with him when he had gotten a call.
It was his attorney saying that, uh,
there were no more appeals.
He knew he was going to die.
[newsman] One of this country's most notorious killers
will be executed tomorrow morning at the Florida State Penitentiary.
[male reporter] Ted Bundy has always received a lot of public attention.
The day before his scheduled execution was no different.
Television crews are here from across the country.
[Hula] The day before the execution of Ted Bundy,
we had satellite trucks set up all over the field.
I think that was one of the first big uses of satellite trucks
to cover an event like that.
-[honking] -[whooping]
[Hagmaier] There were thousands of people outside.
You could hear them inside, even in the inner confines of the prison.
[man chanting] ♪ Burn, Bundy, Burn! ♪
"Burn, Bundy, Burn! Burn, Bundy, Burn!" They were setting fireworks off.
I looked at Ted, and I said, "Do you hear that out there?"
And he goes, "They're crazy."
He said, "They think I'm crazy. Listen to all of them."
[crowd chanting] ♪ Goodbye ♪
♪ Na na na na, na na na na... ♪
[Bundy] Vengeance is what the death penalty really is.
Really, it's a desire of society to take an eye for an eye.
And I guess there's no cure for that. That's a society's problem.
Maybe we should find a cure for society's problem.
Just down the road from the prison, there're even Ted Bundy T-shirts for sale.
This one says, "Burn, Bundy, Burn."
-Thrown one in, huh? -I'll give them to the girls.
[Aynesworth] I was in the crowd outside the prison.
It was almost like a carnival.
-Mr. Aynesworth, have you been in-- -No, I haven't seen Ted for a long time.
We wrote a very unfavorable book about him,
and he doesn't care much for us.
I was so happy to see him go.
He's entertaining. He's got a good sense of humor,
but he's also very devious. He's very-- And he's a mean son of a gun.
The man's a wimp. I mean, people that sneak up on women
and kill them and-- What else can you say?
[Hagmaier] At some point that day,
Ted tells me that he's not gonna sit in the chair.
And I-- I said, "Well, what-- what are you gonna do?"
He said, "I'm gonna die right here."
And he was sitting across from me,
and he had a pen.
And he said, "I can stick this so far up my artery, it'll squirt in your face.
And I'll be drained before anybody even gets here."
And I said, "Is that what you want to do?"
And he says, "I'm not going to let them kill me."
And we had just had some other discussions,
religious discussions throughout our visits over the years.
But that particular day, he had the Bible with him,
and he was reading scripture.
And I said...
"How many numbers did we talk about earlier?"
And he said, "Thirty-something." And I said...
"And now, you're gonna go to 31?
Don't you think taking a life, even if it's your own,
is a method of homicide, even though they call it suicide?
If you think there's a deity upstairs that's gonna judge you,
do you think you're in a position to push the envelope that far?"
And he just looked at me and said...
"You got me again."
And so, then, he prayed some, and I...
prayed with him.
-All right, can you all hear? -[woman] Yeah.
Ted Bundy is being served for supper tonight
a meal of burrito, rice, and salad.
At five o'clock tomorrow morning,
he'll be offered a last meal of traditional steak and eggs.
Then we rehearsed his execution on a chair in the office.
I said, "Well, you know, they're gonna shave your head.
They're gonna shave your right calf."
I said, "You're going to sit down in the chair."
I said, "They're gonna put shackles on your feet.
You know, you're gonna feel jilts."
This evening, there is a one-on-one interview
with Dr. James Dobson, which you are aware of.
[male reporter] Bundy told a California religious broadcaster
that a sexual frenzy drove him to kill women across the country.
There was a great deal of remorse said.
He wept several times...
while talking to me.
I've lived in prison for a long time, now.
And, I've met a lot of men
who were motivated to commit violence, just like me.
And without exception,
every one of them was deeply involved in pornography.
without question, without exception.
Deeply influenced and consumed by an addiction to pornography.
[Aynesworth] I was stunned when he blamed it on pornography,
because we all grow up having access to pornography,
and it doesn't turn us all into serial killers.
I guess he was trying to blame it on somebody else. [chuckles]
You know, blame it on the devil and pornography.
I think that's typical Ted. He's playing it for all it's worth.
He's playing a game. He's buying time.
In truth, when I talked to him about the pornography,
he said, "I never said it made me do it.
But I did as best I could to try to get them to help me.
You know it didn't make me do it. I did it because I wanted to do it."
[female reporter] Good morning.
In just about ten minutes, serial killer Ted Bundy
is scheduled to be executed here, at Florida State Prison.
[male reporter] The prison fired up
the generators which power the electric chair.
Neither the Supreme Court or Governor's Office
has granted a stay.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
[crowd chanting] ♪ Na, na, na, na ♪
♪ Na, na, na, na Hey, hey, hey, goodbye... ♪
[Michaud] I was in New York.
I got up early to watch it on TV.
[reporter] Floodlights bathe the prison at dawn.
Note the activity visible in the window at the bottom right of your screen
as the death chamber is being prepared.
I was interested that there were a lot of drunken college kids there.
Uh, young men who were age ten or so
when Ted had killed those girls at Chi Omega.
It was an excuse to get drunk and hoop it up.
There was a lot of that going on.
They got burn!
This is over, Ted.
-[man] Y'all get your chair pin? -[woman] An electric chair pin?
[man] Yes Ma'am. Old Sparky, it's a three-legged chair.
just like the original.
Five dollars.
[indistinct chatter]
[Dekle] All of the witnesses, the official witnesses
we got there early in the morning.
Loaded us up in buses...
and then drove us over to the death chamber.
We walked into the viewing part of the death chamber.
And doors swung open,
in came two burly guards with Bundy between them.
And he was white as a sheet.
They brought him around to the electric chair.
and they strapped him down,
and he was allowed to say some final words.
He said something about sorry he caused so much trouble.
Then they lower the skull cap with the black hood over his head.
A guy on the phone gives a high sign,
and they throw the switch.
[click]
And as the electricity coursed through his body,
you could see his fist tightening...
with the thumb between the two fingers.
And I remember thinking that time, "I wonder how many throats...
that fist has tightened around."
When the electricity was turned off,
a doctor unbuttoned the front of his shirt,
put a stethoscope to his chest,
and finally stepped back and pronounced Bundy dead.
And then I think it was a warden,
someone announced that the death penalty had been carried out.
I'm ashamed to admit that I was elated.
I hope I'm never that happy...
over the death of another human being ever again.
[reporter] His witnesses walked out of the prison to signal Bundy's death.
The crowd outside cheered.
[cheering]
About damn time!
[Hagmaier] Then the hearse picked him up and drove down, and...
hundreds and hundreds of people ran after the hearse.
[cheering]
[male reporter] For the man who murdered dozens of women,
the irony of the final act of justice
is that it may have been carried out by a female executioner,
hidden from Bundy and others by a black hood.
[Hagmaier] He decided that he would be cremated.
And he wanted his remains spread over the Cascade Mountains,
where he said he had some of the best times of his life.
But of course, that's also where the remains
of some of his victims were found.
And some probably still remain there.
[Nelson] Did anyone know the real Ted?
Was he just an evil genius, as the Ted Bundy myth eventually became?
Or was there something wrong?
Was he not in complete control?
[Sandi Holt] He could have done something good with this life.
But he didn't.
He chose to go his way.
[Bruce Lubeck] There's never been anybody I've seen
that remotely approaches what he was like.
There were just too many things wrong, too many wires crossed.
He was born with the safety off.
[Marlin Lee Vortman] How do I feel about Ted?
I don't think I really, really handled it.
You know, he's-- he's gone.
I don't deal with it.
I sort of closed that chapter a long time ago in my life.
[Carol DaRonch] I was very lucky I got away
from one of the world's most infamous serial killers.
I sit and think about the victims and their families.
He did not deserve to live.
He's in a place, where I hope...
that he's basically just burning in hell.
[Michaud] Ted endures in the hearts and minds of those who knew him.
Like a bad cold, he just keeps coming back.
There's a kind of a taint that I can't get rid of.
[Aynesworth] It was horrendous.
Sometimes you wake up at night and think about it. [chuckles]
[Bundy] We want to be able to say we can identify these dangerous people.
And the really scary thing is you can't identify them.
People don't realize that there are potential killers among them.
How could anyone live in a society where...
people they liked, loved, lived with, worked with, and admired
could the next day turn out to be
the most demonic people imaginable?