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Bite Mark Analysis

By Kathy Steck-Flynn

Ted Bundy was a killer. Not only was he a killer but he was a serial killer. He rampaged through a large part of the United States killing and brutalizing women from 1974 until his eventually capture in 1978(Ramsland, 2004). He was captured twice and managed to escape twice. Under stress from life as a fugitive he made the fatal mistake which would lead to his conviction and eventual execution.

Ted Bundy bludgeoned, raped and tortured more than 30 women. Some estimates are closer to forty. Yet he did not fit the profile of a killer. He was intelligent and some say handsome. He seemed to have a future as a lawyer. He killed most of his victims without leaving any traceable evidence. In some cases the bodies were not found until years later. In most cases he left no fingerprints or other traceable evidence. DNA was recovered but could not be matched conclusively to Ted Bundy( Ramsland, 2004).

There are many theories as to why a young intelligent man would become a violent, sadistic killer of young women. I personally think that as a shy young man he was frustrated by a relationship in which he felt inferior. When the woman of his dreams, who he had professed love, broke off there relationship the rage in him grew. He had worked as a volunteer counselor at a rape crisis hotline (Rule, 1991). In his rage against the failure of his relationship he sought to inflict the most pain he could on women especially those who looked like his ex-girlfriend.

He had been dumped by a beautiful young woman fitting for his role as a lawyer (He studied law briefly but was not a lawyer). He had worked as a rape crisis counselor where he had the perfect opportunity to hear and feel what hurt women the most. He dearly wanted to hurt the woman who had hurt him. He couldn't really hurt her so he raged against women who looked like her in the beginning. In the end the thrill of the kill was what mattered to him and the look of the victim no longer mattered.

Maybe he was sexually aroused by the anger and pain of the rape crisis line victims he counseled. Ted Bundy's motivation for his brutality will remain a mystery but it was probably a combination of these and other factors.

After escaping from custody in Aspen, Colorado not once but twice he fled to Florida. There he went on a deadly rampage at the Chi Omega Sorority house leaving two women dead and two badly injured all in a matter of hours.

He succumbed to his rage and bit one of his victims on the

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