Module 5 - Criminal Profiling

Lesson 2 - The Use of Criminal Profiling in Homicide Investigations

Organized Offender Cast Study: Ted Bundy

	- Image Source: Wikipedia.org His Early Years Ted Bundy was born in November 1946 at a facility for young unwed mothers. The identity of Bundy’s biological father was unknown to him; he grew up thinking his grandparents were actually his parents. To hide the shame of his unwed mother, he was made to believe that his mother was actually his older sister. Bundy achieved high grades in school and was known as well mannered and well dressed. When Bundy went to university for degrees in psychology and eventually law, he fell in love for the first time. However, this relationship ended badly, and he was devastated. Soon after this break up, he discovered his parents were actually his grandparents. The Washington State Murders Bundy’s first confirmed assault was on the night of January 4, 1974. He entered the basement bedroom of an 18-year-old female dancer and student at the University of Washington. He sexually assaulted the girl, then he beat her with a metal rod from her bed frame. The girl survived and but suffered permanent brain damage. Later that month, Bundy killed another University of Washington student and dumped her body in a separate location. His next attack was in March 1974 at Evergreen State College where he kidnapped and murdered a 19-year-old female student. A month later, a female student from Central Washington State College disappeared. He lured her by wearing a cast on his arm and asking her to help him carry some books to his car, a Volkswagen Beetle. His next victim was a female student at Oregon State University who was last seen in May 1974. In June 1974, he killed two young female university students, one after she was seen leaving a tavern late one night and the other while she was walking at night from her boyfriend’s dorm to her sorority house on the University of Washington campus. Witnesses later reported that a man with a leg cast was seen asking a woman to help him carry a large briefcase to his car, a Volkswagen Beetle. In July 1974, Bundy changed the location and time of day he hunted for his victims from university campuses at night to parks during the day. Twice during the same day, he abducted and murdered two young females from Lake Sammamish State Park in Washington. Numerous witnesses told the police a handsome young man named Ted with a Canadian accent asked them to help him unload a sailboat from his Volkswagen Beetle because one of his arms was in a sling. Several witnesses actually saw one of the victims walk away from the beach with Ted. All eyewitness accounts led to police distributing a sketch and description of Ted Bundy to newspapers and television stations. This eventually led to Bundy's girlfriend, one of his psychology professors and a former co-worker and now famous crime novelist Ann Rule, to report him as a possible suspect. However, police did not pay much attention to this report because he was a clean-cut law student. The Utah Murders In the fall of 1974, Ted Bundy moved from Washington to attend law school in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he continued to kill young females. However, he changed his modus operandi (MO). He decided to target young females that were not university students. He lured his victims by claiming to be a police officer conducting an investigation. He abducted and killed three young females during October 1974. However, when he tried this technique in November 1974, it failed twice. On the first occasion, a young female got into Bundy’s car after he told her she needed to come with him to the police station. After she was in the car, he handcuffed her. However, when he tried to hit her with a crowbar, she managed jumped from the car while he was driving. This failure did not seem to deter Bundy because later that day he hunted for another victim. At a Utah high school, he tried to convince a teacher and a student to come to his ‘police car’, but they both refused. Instead, he abducted and killed a 17-year-old female student who was leaving the school to pick up her younger brother. The Colorado and Idaho Murders Likely because he had been seen by numerous eye witnesses in Utah, in 1975 Bundy decided to target females in the nearby states of Colorado and Idaho. From January 1975 to May 1975, he abducted and killed four separate females by pretending to have a leg injury and asking for help to his car. One victim was taken just outside her hotel while on a holiday; two victims were abducted in the parking lot of a ski hill; the fourth was a junior high school student who disappeared while walking home from school. Arrest and Two Escapes While driving his car in August 1975 in Utah, Bundy was arrested for failing to stop for a police officer. When police searched his Volkswagen Beetle, they found what appeared to be burglary tools: a ski mask, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, and an ice pick. Detectives soon linked his car to the kidnapping in which the girl escaped and to the other Utah murders. In March 1976 following a week-long trial, Bundy was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1977 while awaiting for his trial for the murder of one of the Utah victims, Bundy escaped from the law library of the court building. He was caught after only six days, but seven months later, he escaped again from jail. Florida Rampage Leads to Final Arrest After his second escape, Bundy took a train, then a stolen car, and finally a bus to Florida where he began another murderous rampage. In January 1978, in a 30-minute period late one night, he brutally attacked four female students at a sorority house on the Florida State University campus. Two of the victims died after the attack; the other two were severely injured. Bundy then broke into another home a few blocks away and severely injured another female student while she slept. In February 1978, he killed a 12-year-old girl in south Florida. He was caught less than a week later in a stolen Volkswagen Beetle. He eventually confessed to murdering 35 young women, but many believe the number to be much higher. Ted Bundy was executed on January 24, 1989, after he lost several court appeals. Bundy’s Modus Operandi To gain a better understanding of serial murderers and organized offenders, Ted Bundy was interviewed by criminal profilers while he was incarcerated. Ted Bundy’s modus operandi was both fascinating and frightening. It provided experts with a better understanding of the deviant mindset of organized serial murderers. Ted Bundy’s MO included the following: All Bundy's victims were white females with straight hair between the ages of 15 and 25. Most were from middle class families; the majority were college students. Bundy often drank alcohol prior to finding a victim. After luring a victim to his car, Bundy would hit her on the head with a crowbar. (Every recovered skull except one showed signs of blunt force trauma.) Every recovered body, except for one, had been strangled. At least half of his victims were decapitated with a hacksaw. (He kept some of the severed heads in his home for some time before disposing of them.) Some of the victim’s skulls were found with front teeth broken out. Many of the victims were dumped a great distance from where they disappeared. Bundy confessed to visiting some of his victims' bodies numerous times in the secluded locations where he had dumped them. (He said he would lie with them for hours, applying makeup to their corpses, and performing necrophilia.) In about one in three murders in Canada, a person kills someone in his or her family. One in eight murders is gang related.

His Early Years

Ted Bundy was born in November 1946 at a facility for young unwed mothers. The identity of Bundy’s biological father was unknown to him; he grew up thinking his grandparents were actually his parents. To hide the shame of his unwed mother, he was made to believe that his mother was actually his older sister. Bundy achieved high grades in school and was known as well mannered and well dressed. When Bundy went to university for degrees in psychology and eventually law, he fell in love for the first time. However, this relationship ended badly, and he was devastated. Soon after this break up, he discovered his parents were actually his grandparents.

The Washington State Murders

Bundy’s first confirmed assault was on the night of January 4, 1974. He entered the basement bedroom of an 18-year-old female dancer and student at the University of Washington. He sexually assaulted the girl, then he beat her with a metal rod from her bed frame. The girl survived and but suffered permanent brain damage. Later that month, Bundy killed another University of Washington student and dumped her body in a separate location. His next attack was in March 1974 at Evergreen State College where he kidnapped and murdered a 19-year-old female student. A month later, a female student from Central Washington State College disappeared. He lured her by wearing a cast on his arm and asking her to help him carry some books to his car, a Volkswagen Beetle.

His next victim was a female student at Oregon State University who was last seen in May 1974. In June 1974, he killed two young female university students, one after she was seen leaving a tavern late one night and the other while she was walking at night from her boyfriend’s dorm to her sorority house on the University of Washington campus. Witnesses later reported that a man with a leg cast was seen asking a woman to help him carry a large briefcase to his car, a Volkswagen Beetle.

In July 1974, Bundy changed the location and time of day he hunted for his victims from university campuses at night to parks during the day. Twice during the same day, he abducted and murdered two young females from Lake Sammamish State Park in Washington. Numerous witnesses told the police a handsome young man named Ted with a Canadian accent asked them to help him unload a sailboat from his Volkswagen Beetle because one of his arms was in a sling. Several witnesses actually saw one of the victims walk away from the beach with Ted. All eyewitness accounts led to police distributing a sketch and description of Ted Bundy to newspapers and television stations. This eventually led to Bundy's girlfriend, one of his psychology professors and a former co-worker and now famous crime novelist Ann Rule, to report him as a possible suspect. However, police did not pay much attention to this report because he was a clean-cut law student.

The Utah Murders

In the fall of 1974, Ted Bundy moved from Washington to attend law school in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he continued to kill young females. However, he changed his modus operandi (MO). He decided to target young females that were not university students. He lured his victims by claiming to be a police officer conducting an investigation. He abducted and killed three young females during October 1974. However, when he tried this technique in November 1974, it failed twice. On the first occasion, a young female got into Bundy’s car after he told her she needed to come with him to the police station. After she was in the car, he handcuffed her. However, when he tried to hit her with a crowbar, she managed jumped from the car while he was driving. This failure did not seem to deter Bundy because later that day he hunted for another victim. At a Utah high school, he tried to convince a teacher and a student to come to his ‘police car’, but they both refused. Instead, he abducted and killed a 17-year-old female student who was leaving the school to pick up her younger brother.

The Colorado and Idaho Murders

Likely because he had been seen by numerous eye witnesses in Utah, in 1975 Bundy decided to target females in the nearby states of Colorado and Idaho. From January 1975 to May 1975, he abducted and killed four separate females by pretending to have a leg injury and asking for help to his car. One victim was taken just outside her hotel while on a holiday; two victims were abducted in the parking lot of a ski hill; the fourth was a junior high school student who disappeared while walking home from school.

Arrest and Two Escapes

While driving his car in August 1975 in Utah, Bundy was arrested for failing to stop for a police officer. When police searched his Volkswagen Beetle, they found what appeared to be burglary tools: a ski mask, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, and an ice pick. Detectives soon linked his car to the kidnapping in which the girl escaped and to the other Utah murders. In March 1976 following a week-long trial, Bundy was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1977 while awaiting for his trial for the murder of one of the Utah victims, Bundy escaped from the law library of the court building. He was caught after only six days, but seven months later, he escaped again from jail.

Florida Rampage Leads to Final Arrest

After his second escape, Bundy took a train, then a stolen car, and finally a bus to Florida where he began another murderous rampage. In January 1978, in a 30-minute period late one night, he brutally attacked four female students at a sorority house on the Florida State University campus. Two of the victims died after the attack; the other two were severely injured. Bundy then broke into another home a few blocks away and severely injured another female student while she slept. In February 1978, he killed a 12-year-old girl in south Florida. He was caught less than a week later in a stolen Volkswagen Beetle. He eventually confessed to murdering 35 young women, but many believe the number to be much higher. Ted Bundy was executed on January 24, 1989, after he lost several court appeals.

Bundy’s Modus Operandi

To gain a better understanding of serial murderers and organized offenders, Ted Bundy was interviewed by criminal profilers while he was incarcerated. Ted Bundy’s modus operandi was both fascinating and frightening. It provided experts with a better understanding of the deviant mindset of organized serial murderers.

Ted Bundy’s MO included the following:

All Bundy's victims were white females with straight hair between the ages of 15 and 25.
Most were from middle class families; the majority were college students.
Bundy often drank alcohol prior to finding a victim.
After luring a victim to his car, Bundy would hit her on the head with a crowbar. (Every recovered skull except one showed signs of blunt force trauma.)
Every recovered body, except for one, had been strangled.
At least half of his victims were decapitated with a hacksaw. (He kept some of the severed heads in his home for some time before disposing of them.)
Some of the victim’s skulls were found with front teeth broken out.
Many of the victims were dumped a great distance from where they disappeared.
Bundy confessed to visiting some of his victims' bodies numerous times in the secluded locations where he had dumped them. (He said he would lie with them for hours, applying makeup to their corpses, and performing necrophilia.)

In about one in three murders in Canada, a person kills someone in his or her family. One in eight murders is gang related.

Glossary Term: Necrophilia

sexual contact with a dead body (corpse)

Glossary Term: Modus Operandi (MO)

a method of operating or functioning; a criminal’s manner of committing a crime

After studying Lesson 2, you should be able to…

compare the traits of an organized offender with those of an disorganized offender
identify a given criminal suspect(s) as being an organized, disorganized, or combination offender
describe the contents of a criminal profile report and explain the characteristics included in the report
analyze or create a criminal profile of a criminal suspect from a mock crime scene