Beyond Comprehension: The Gruesome Story of Douglas Clark & Carol Bundy: The Sunset Strip Slayers | Killer Couples

(Carol Bundy & Douglas Clark. Picture credit: wikimedia)

This is one of those cases where people are often divided in their opinion on who was the more dominant killer and who was the one who was dragged along for the ride out of fear. I have to say that I've done a lot of research into Carol Bundy (no relation to Ted Bundy) and Douglas Clark and watched the numerous documentaries about them, even the ones who take a more sympathetic view to Carol and I'm still convinced that both of them were just as evil, sick and twisted as the other. 

From the get-go, I was getting serious Rose West vibes from Carol. Not only did they look similar, claim to be victims of their partners who were led astray but you find as the story goes on and the evidence is presented, Carol was quite the monster just like Rose West was, don't let the frilly blouses and the granny glasses fool you. These women were very much involved in what their partners were doing and in some cases they tortured, mutilated and murdered their innocent victims on there own. 

To this day, some people can't seem to grasp the fact that some women can be truly evil and very frightening, I have covered quite a few cases here on my blog of women who have done horrendous things. In this post I'm taking a look at the story of Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy, otherwise known as The Sunset Strip Slayers. 

I have to warn you that this post will feature some disturbing material so please keep that in mind.

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So let's begin...

I'll start first by talking about Douglas Daniel Clark who was born on the 10th of March 1948 in Pennsylvania in the US. He's not one to talk about his childhood but from what we do know, he had quite a privileged upbringing and had actually lived in 37 countries before settling in Southern California. His father was a retired Navy Commander and Douglas (who preferred to be called Doug) even spent some time at boarding school.

(A young Douglas Clark. Picture credit: Oxygen)

During his younger days he was popular with girls and was never short of a date. The girls were attracted to the fact that he was a clean-cut American boy from a comfortable background who could speak French. As he grew up, he became a bit big for his boots where his ego was concerned and his attitude towards women was appalling. He called himself 'The King of The One Night Stands' and would show off to his friends by playing audio tapes of sex sessions he had with various women.

Through the ladies man image and the fancy French talk lay a dark secret underneath that he had been hiding. Douglas had an obsession with rape fantasies and would dream about sexual intercourse with the deceased. He kept this secret to himself for years but began feeling restless and frustrated and eager to bring these fantasies to life. 


Douglas was a typical narcissist who seemed to believe that he was God's gift to women. A lot of people who have met him or known him have often spoken of his cold, dead eyes. Personally speaking, some of his pictures remind me of Kane from Poltergeist, don't ask me why, I just get that vibe from him. He thought he was clever when it came to women though and would often target middle aged, insecure housewife types who he would charm and live off of.

He was like a sugarbaby, living off these lonely women for money and then when their backs were turned, he'd sneak out at night and meet up with young women for sex.

In 1979, Carol Mary Bundy was at the end of her rope where her abusive husband was concerned. She'd had enough of living in fear and finally took her two children and left him. Carol hadn't had an easy road in life up to that point, she was born on the 26th of August 1942 and to say her childhood was horrendous is an understatement. 

Both of her parents were alcoholics and she suffered emotional and physical abuse by the pair of them. When her mother passed away from a heart attack when she was just 11 years old, her father demanded that she now take care of the house and sleep in bed with him. She was subjected to sexual abuse on a regular basis. 

As she got older, Carol went from being a cute little girl to someone who looked twice their age and she just stopped caring about her appearance which is a common occurrence in victims of sexual abuse. 

Her father began a relationship and remarried so he wanted Carol out of the house. She was pushed around foster home to foster home.

So Carol was no stranger to abusive men but in 1979 she'd had enough and ended up renting an apartment from a man named John 'Jack' Murray (I'll be calling him Jack throughout this post as that was the name he preferred to be called & what his friends and family had known him as). Jack seemed like such a nice guy but a bit of a charmer, he had an air of old school Tom Jones about him and he actually was a singer. Sometimes he'd sing at a bar in LA called Little Nashville. Like a lot of people in LA, Jack (who was originally from Australia) had dreams of stardom but his career wasn't going quite as well as he hoped.

Feeling lonely and vulnerable and having Jack be such a gentleman towards her, it was no surprise that Carol took a shine to him. He'd been so nice to her and her two sons, helping them move in, making sure everything was ok. 

Instead of admiring Jack from afar (he was married with two children himself), Carol became obsessed and went to great lengths to get his attention, even clogging the toilet in her apartment just so she had an excuse to invite him over. 

Eventually Carol got what she wanted and one thing led to another and they had a full blown affair. She did enjoy his attention and he even helped her sort out her glasses, got her a proper eye test as she had been having eye trouble for quite some time. He helped her get registered blind which enabled her to receive welfare every month. 

Carol did have eyesight problems but she wasn't fully blind. I think they must have played that up a bit to the Doctors in order to get the welfare.

Having Jack around was great for sex and for support, Carol decided that the affair wasn't enough, she wanted him all to herself completely. She came up with the ridiculous idea of approaching Jack's wife with $1500 in an attempt to pay her to leave Jack. Of course this was a complete disaster and resulted in Carol and Jack having an argument and Carol being told that she'd have to find somewhere else to live.

So again she felt rejected, not wanted, not good enough and went to the Little Nashville bar to drown her sorrows and it was there that she met Douglas Clark. Carol was just what Douglas was looking for, a lonely, vulnerable woman, another one who would give him money and take care of him. That night they went home together and were inseparable.

Carol moved her obsession from Jack on to Douglas and was determined to make him happy in any way possible. The pair developed a bond really fast and Douglas felt that he could share his sick fantasies with her. Any woman in their right mind would have run a mile if someone said the things that he was saying but surprisingly, Carol was on board for everything. 

In the Summer of 1980 things took a sickening turn in their relationship, Douglas wanted to act out his fantasies for real and Carol was eager to play along with this, even when he brought young women back to the house for sex she would take pictures and was turned on by what was taking place. On one occasion, Douglas brought an 11 year old child to the house that he'd abducted from a local park, instead of getting the child to safety and calling the police, Carol proceeded to take photographs whilst Douglas abused the girl.

On the 11th of June 1980, two young girls who were half sisters, Gina Narano (15) and Cynthia Chandler (16) went missing after arranging to meet some friends at Huntington Beach. The girls bodies were found the next day next to a freeway. Both of the girls had been shot in the head. Douglas had apparently abducted the girls and forced them into his car where he drove them to a location and forced them to carry out sex acts on him before shooting them in the head. The monster then took the girl's bodies back to his garage where he molested their corpses and put them in poses whilst he took photographs before dumping them next to the freeway. He seemed to have enjoyed telling Carol these details as she later claimed. 

Carol began seeing Jack again in secret at the Little Nashville bar, they'd go to his van and have sex before she returned to Douglas. Douglas hated Jack with a passion and saw him as a rival for Carol's attention.

On the 24th of June, the body of a 24 year old working girl by the name of Karen Jones was found behind a Burbank steakhouse she had also died of a gunshot wound. The very same morning that Karen was found, the police found another female's body, this time the location was Studio City and even more gruesome was the fact that she'd been decapitated.

Investigators couldn't find the head but were able to identify the remains as being that of a 20 year old working girl, Exxie Wilson. 

The details of what happened to Exxie are horrific. Douglas had her head in the refrigerator and when Carol's sons had gone to visit a relative, he thought he would surprise Carol by putting it on the kitchen table. They both thought this was funny and Carol started to play with the head, putting makeup on it. She later said ''We had fun with her. I was making her up like a Barbie doll''

And just when you thought that it couldn't get any worse, Douglas took Exxie's decapitated head into the shower in the bathroom with him where he performed sex acts on it. The head was kept in the fridge and the pair would take it out and do various things with it before Douglas put it in a box and dumped it in a Hollywood alley where it was discovered on the 27th of June.

''It's a bitch trying to get clothes off of a dead girl.'' - Carol Bundy 

Another unidentified female body was found on the 25th of July on Sunset Boulevard. She had also died from a gunshot wound to the head. Two weeks after this discovery, an unidentified female body was found by snake hunters in the Fern Wood area near Malibu. She had been shot in the head.

Carol was at the Little Nashville bar drinking and having a secret meeting with Jack. She'd had a bit too much to drink and started spilling the details of what she and Douglas had been up to. Jack threatened to report Douglas to the police, this suddenly sobered Carol up and she realised that she'd let the cat out of the bag. She managed to smooth things over with Jack and lured him out to the van for one of their usual sex sessions. 

Jack got more than he bargained for because Carol attacked him, stabbing him and slashing him. When Jack stopped breathing, she decapitated him and took his head home in a bag to show Douglas. 

She walked into the house and said ''I've brought Jack home with me'' to which Douglas was confused but when she pulled his head out and placed it on the table, the sick pair burst out laughing. Jack's head was later thrown out of a car window by Carol. 

When Jack's remains were found a few days later in his van, Carol panicked. She realised that she was the last person to have seen Jack alive, there were witnesses. At work she had a breakdown and ended up telling her shocked colleagues what Douglas (not her) had been up to. She painted herself as a victim. 

(Some of the identified victims of Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy. Picture credit: From top left: Jack Murray, Gina Narano and Cynthia Chandler. From bottom left: Karen Jones, Exxie Wilson and Marnette Comer. Picture credit: cncpunishment)

Someone at her work called the police and Carol's house was searched, the police found items that belonged to the victims as well as photographs, the pair were arrested and proceeded to blame each other for the crimes.

They were both charged with murder and the cases went to trial. Douglas was found guilty on the 28th of January 1983 of 6 counts of first degree murder with 'special circumstances' plus one count each of attempted murder, mayhem and mutilating human remains. He was given the death penalty and is currently 73 years old and is yet to have met his executioner.

(Carol Bundy: Picture credit: Daily News)

Carol had her own trial for the murder of Jack and an unidentified young woman. She struck up a plea deal which meant she wouldn't get the death penalty. She was found guilty and got 27 years to life on one count and 25 years to life on the other. 

On the 9th of December 2003, Carol Mary Bundy passed away from heart failure. 


(Douglas Clark: Picture credit: alchetron)


''I used to be a good looking guy, ya know. But, see what they done to me in here. My hair is falling out, my teeth are rotten and still they want to kill me. Still, we all gotta fu*kin' die some time. I've outlived the judge, and the prosecutor: It's just they're killing an innocent man.'' - A quote taken from the amazing book: Talking With Serial Killers by Christopher Berry Dee

RIP to the victims and my heart goes out to their families.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, those that know this case well have a difference of opinion, some think the murders were all carried out by Douglas, some think it was both, some think it was all Carol and that Douglas was the poor guy who she set up to take the fall. 


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3 comments:

  1. What a truly disturbing pair! No remorse, no repent. Just truly sickening these two were. Hard top even stomach the depravity that they committed.

    A truly incredible true crime story and a truly gruesome, chilling, frightening story too.

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  2. It's one of the most disturbing, shocking and gruesome true crime case I ever read in my life. I had to take some breaks because I felt sick to my stomach.
    These two individuals are beyond evil and they are MONSTERS.
    You did a fantastic job to cover one of your most shocking true crime case to date. RIP to all the victims.

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  3. Thank you for checking out my latest case and for your comments x

    ReplyDelete