When people think of serial killers, they have two different images in mind. Fantastical rampaging monsters, grotesque people without humanity that kill in crazy and vicious ways, the stuff of slasher movies and freakshow asides from the regular course of human history.
The second image is the exact opposite. It’s the stranger on the street with a too-kind smile, the neighbor, or the college graduate who says and does nothing wrong in the public eye.
The real horror of a serial killer isn’t just in what they do; it lies in how they appear, which for the most part is normal.
Ted Bundy is the perfect example of the latter. A man who hid great darkness behind a regular persona.
He was attractive, charismatic, someone, anyone, would be proud to be friends with, and when the lights were down, and the door was locked, he killed people with that same approachable, friendly face.
10 /10 Uncertain Start
Theodore Bundy, originally Theodore Robert Cowell from his mother’s maiden name, was born to unknown circumstances. His father has never been positively identified.
After his capture and investigation surfaced, rumors surfaced that his mother, Eleanor, had been raped by her abusive father Samuel, but it was never confirmed.
She likewise claimed he was the son of potentially wealthy air force members who never came forward with proof despite the listing on his birth certificate.
9 /10 Freaky Family
For the first part of his life, Ted was raised believing that the grandparents who raised him, including Samuel, were his birth parents and that his mother, Eleanor, was his older sister.
He felt that entirely up until he was told the truth as an adult. It was around that time that his violent inner tendencies started to emerge.