True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

 (Dennis Rader - BTK. Picture credit: nzherald)

''There once was a girl who had all the right curves and a large tummy. All the better to wrap up tight and make a mummy.''- Dennis Rader (BTK) 

One of the things that I found really interesting and refreshing about the popular Netflix show Mindhunter, was that it introduced a lot of infamous serial killers to a new true crime audience. Some of us have had an interest in Criminology and studied it for a long time but some people just have a passing interest and are not as familiar with some of the shocking murder cases we have known about over the decades. 

If you follow me on social media you will be aware of my constant moaning in regards to the lack of a Mindhunter third season! To say I was addicted to that programme is an understatement, I would have to sit and watch every episode and I'd be glued to my sofa until 5am. Everybody I knew loved it and talked about it so it was a shock when they said there would be no more episodes. I'm still salty about it and you know who else is probably salty about it.....Dennis Rader! 

As you know, the series was based on the Mindhunter book by the famous criminal profiler and pioneer John Douglas and Johnny Dodd. I've mentioned John Douglas a few times previously on this blog not only because of his amazing work in the criminology field, his insightful and informative books but also because his work has inspired TV shows and even the famous character 'Jack Crawford' in my favourite movie of all time, The Silence of The Lambs. John Douglas is a legend in the area of criminal profiling and is still regularly consulted to this day, he's had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting across the table from some of the most evilest of murderers in history and he details a lot of his experiences in his books. I highly recommend John Douglas's books if you happen to have an interest in true crime. 

So the reason I mentioned that Dennis Rader would be salty about the third season of Mindhunter not coming to fruition, is because if you know a bit about him, the guy kinda likes a bit of publicity! I am of course talking about infamous serial murderer, Dennis Rader or as he likes to call himself....BTK (which stands for Bind, Torture, Kill). My best friend often refers to him as BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, which is a popular sandwich over here in the UK. I had to tell her to stop because it was confusing me and I started to actually call him this) but all jokes aside, the man is a monster and intriguing in a nightmarish way. Not a shred of remorse to be seen which is often the case with serial murderers but this guy seems to be really proud of his 'work' and will talk about it in detail until the cows come home. He's a publicity whore and if there's an opportunity for his name to be mentioned in anything, he'll take it. With the third season of Mindhunter, we were supposed to be getting closer to the focus being on the infamous serial killer BTK (the series had hinted about Rader in the first two seasons) but everything came to an abrupt stop and as of right now (I still live in hope) there are no plans for the show to continue. So the viewers never got the chance to find out the story of BTK, Ted Bundy and many more. I put off writing about BTK because I thought he was going to feature highly in Mindhunter and expected to see his story all over the place. We saw how Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and Edmund Kemper's popularity soared (I know that sounds in poor taste but serial killers who have featured in Netflix shows have a habit of attracting a cult following as disturbing as it may seem, some people are curious and some people actually idolize them) as soon as the Netflix shows were put out. 

I think that Dennis Rader was hoping for the same, for his name and crimes to be the topic of conversation again and possibly have a teen heart-throb like Zac Efron (that's what they did with the Bundy movie) play him and over glamourize everything as Hollywood and Netflix shows tend to do. 

In this post I was going to be moving into the decade of the 1980s with the focus being on the first of the six serial killers that I had chosen for that particular decade. I have already covered six serial killers from the 1970s and for some reason I planned to start the 1980s decade with Dennis Rader. Dennis committed most of his known murders in the 1970s with two known murders taking place in the 1980s and one in the 1990s. I should have placed him in with the 1970s decade but here we are. I have titled this post as Serial Killers of The 70s, 80s & 90s because Dennis Rader was active for all three of those decades. He terrorized Wichita, Kansas for over three decades and played cat and mouse with the media and the police for years until he was caught. I could have placed him in any one of my chosen decades but as the investigation and hunt for him was still actively ongoing in the 1980s and it was when the team of investigators (The Ghostbusters) that were sorely dedicated to the BTK case, was officially set up, I have kept him in this decade. 

I mentioned that he had been active in all three decades but although he committed murder in the 70s, 80s and 90s, he took breaks in between and the police, media and public were never sure of when he was going to strike again. So I will be delving into some facts and information about BTK in this post and I hope you find it informative. Please be aware that I will be sharing some disturbing details. 

• BTK came into the world on the 9th of March 1945 as Dennis Lynn Rader in Pittsburgh, Kansas (USA). He was brought up by his church-going parents, William and Dorothea, in Wichita. His childhood was described by some criminologists to be 'unremarkable and somewhat normal' but I beg to differ, I may not be a qualified criminologist or psychologist but Dennis was showing abnormal behaviour from a young age which included the torture and murder of animals as well as  masturbating into his mother's lingerie. His relationship with his mother was very up and down and she would beat him if she discovered that he had been masturbating this further led to him learning to be secretive. There was also an incident where he found a toy in the street one day and brought it home to play with, his intention was to take it back but his mother accused him of being a thief and ordered him to return the toy to where he found it. Although this does not sound like a major incident, to Dennis he would recall this moment in his childhood as traumatic and left him with feelings of humiliation and loneliness, He was a confused child who couldn't understand why his mother would be harsh with him one minute but very loving the next. 

• He spent a lot of time on farms as a child and would torture animals, mostly cats which he disliked. He was very suspicious of them and claimed that he thought they had mystical powers and were devious. He also said that they reminded him of women and that the cats were his first BDSM victims. He would either strangle or drown the cats and had made a box specifically designed to capture the poor animals so that he could carry out his sickening acts. Dennis said that he had seen a lot of animal cruelty in his childhood with various relatives either slaughtering animals for food or drowning them.

• When it came to animals, he intensely disliked cats but claimed to not have a problem with dogs because dogs reminded him of wolves. Dennis said that he could relate more to wolves as he saw himself as a lone wolf. In one of his many games with the police later on in his life, he would tell investigators false truths and one of them was that he tortured dogs which he later claimed to be untrue, he just told investigators that to create a bit of attention for himself which he always enjoyed. 

• Dennis had three brothers and complained that his parents didn't show him enough attention during his childhood because they worked long hours so they would have to make their own entertainment. Dennis would often play with other boys and they would go hunting, fishing or playing in the barns on the farm. He kept his fetish for lingerie secret but a small interest in women's underwear was soon developing into a full time hobby as he enjoyed dressing up in the undergarments and progressed to taking pictures of himself. In the beginning he thought it was a phase but soon learned that it was deeply ingrained into him and he would continue this interest all through the rest of his life. 

• He realised that he was not like other boys and he later believed that it had something to do with a couple of dramatic events in his childhood which may have caused permanent brain damage. When Dorothea was pregnant she had an accident and fell and there is a possibility that Dennis was injured as a result. She also dropped him when he was six months old and this time he had taken a blow to the right side of the head. Dennis claimed that he had turned blue but nobody took him to the hospital at that time. He survived the incident and nothing more was said about it. As for his unusual behaviour, the aspects of his personality that he did allow people to see, were still unusual for a young boy but everyone around him just ignored it. 

• As he grew older he realised that these strange fantasies were not going to go away. He developed a keen interest in detective magazines that depicted bound women on the front cover (many serial killers have mentioned these types of magazines before and how they peaked their interests), He was also drawn to movies which were violent in nature and included scenes of women being tied up. He also had an obsession with mummification and werewolves. He said that the idea of someone being in pain, wrapped up like a mummy and buried alive, turned him on. He was growing more and more interested in serial killers who he could identify with in different ways. He would study how they carried out their crimes and where they went wrong. Dennis considered himself more intelligent and was quite self assured believing that he would never be caught if he was a serial killer. 

•  He saw serial killers H.H Holmes and Ted Bundy as inspirations. After graduating from high school he went on to attend University and tried to keep his fantasies under control. He also spent four years in the U.S Airforce and had traveled to various countries around the world. He was always keeping himself busy and to some people on the outside, Dennis was a handsome and well adjusted young man but what they didn't know was that beneath the surface a horrible darkness was continuing to grow and had been festering. It was only a matter of time before he was tempted to carry out his fantasies. 

• After his time in the Airforce he decided to return home to settle down and marry his long term girlfriend, Paula as well as start a family. The couple lived in an area known as Park City which was situated just outside of Wichita and Dennis took a job at a local supermarket before returning to University to study for a degree in Electronics. He did very well at University and would later go on to gain a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, It was during this period of time that he and Paula welcomed two children into their lives, a boy and a girl. All through his murder spree and the moments where he took breaks, he was constantly working and involved in his local community. He was the president of a local church, a popular leader of a scout group, a family man and neighbourhood watch type figure that people felt they could trust and say hello to. He moved on to other jobs too, such as an assembler for a camping firm (Coleman company) which, ironically two of his victims had also been employees of. He'd also later worked for a company that specialised in installing security systems. Dennis seemed to pick up knowledge and techniques from everywhere he could, he learned how to tie knots from his time as a scout leader and he also figured out how to trick security alarms. His last position was for the Compliance Department of Park City and the power in this role seemed to go to his head. He was responsible for any of the housing complaints in that area and he was very tight with his restrictions, often giving fines and warnings for the least little thing. 

• Despite always keeping a busy lifestyle, Dennis could not shake off the fantasies that constantly plagued him. In private he would steal women's lingerie, wear the garments and masturbate. He would also stalk various women in his local neighbourhood but this only kept him calm for a short period of time, he wanted more and started to fantasize and plan what it would be like to commit a murder of a human being, even a family. 

• He was always watching people everyday and sometimes he would be driving past someone's house and he'd see a person and instantly pick them out as a potential 'project'. He saw all of his victims as 'projects'. He would carefully stalk and plan out how he was going to kill them and he would keep personal records and drawings of his crimes. Sometimes he would take items that had belonged to the deceased. 

• Whilst being able to carry out the everyday appearance of the hardworking, church-going family man and scout leader, Dennis Rader was living a double life. It is a wonder how he was able to organize and carry out his sickening crimes and then go back to his family but he had his own system in place. He nicknamed this dark part of his life as Factor X. As far as Dennis was concerned, he was able to switch either of the two sides of him on and off like a light switch. Any evil doing was simply carried out by the Factor X side of his personality and not the family man side. His first known murder was of 4 innocent people in 1974, The Otero family. The parents Julie and Joseph were murdered in a sickening fashion with their two children, Joseph Jr and Josephine. He didn't know the family personally but claimed that he had planned what he was going to do to Julie and Josephine. Dennis went around the back of the house and cut the phone lines, he then waited at the back door to which Joseph Jr suddenly opened the door and he forced his way in. He expected to see Julie and the two younger children but was surprised to see that Joseph Snr was in the house. He threatened the shocked family with a gun and claimed that he was an escaped convict. He told the family to put the dog outside and they did so. Joseph and Julie were begging for him not to harm them or the children and had offered him money, their car and to take anything that he wanted but he didn't care, he had no feeling or remorse, all he cared about was living out this sick fantasy that he had stored up for years. 

• At first Dennis instructed the family to lay down in the livingroom but then decided he'd rather carry out the killings in the bedroom so ordered them to go there. Whilst being tied up and held at gunpoint, the family were complaining about how tight the binds were and in a strange action, Dennis would attempt to loosen the restraints but also was concerned in trying to make Joseph Snr a bit more comfortable as he had complained of an existing rib injury from a previous car accident. Dennis placed a pillow underneath him to ease some of his discomfort in that moment. Dennis engaged in conversations with the parents and despite their pleas for mercy and offers of their belongings, he still planned to go ahead and kill them especially as they would now be able to identify him. He wasn't wearing any type of mask and could easily be identified so he knew he had to go through with his evil plans. He tried to kill Joseph Snr first by placing a plastic bag over his head with a ligature around his neck. 

• At this point Joseph Snr was not deceased but he was struggling whilst Dennis moved on to Julie and strangled her. During his confession in 2005, he claimed that he had never physically strangled a human being before so he wasn't sure how much pressure to apply or how long it would take before the victim would succumb to the lack of oxygen. Dennis was out of his depth with this first killing and struggled to control the victims, this was demonstrated when he had thought he had murdered all four family members but they were indeed, passed out. He noticed that Joseph Snr had managed to create a hole in the bag and was still alive so he placed another bag along with a t-shirt over his head with a ligature and sadly Joseph finally succumbed to lack of oxygen. He noticed that the others were stirring and he strangled Julie again until she was deceased. He then murdered Joseph Jr in the same way. Josephine was still alive but disorientated, he picked her up and carried her to the basement where he hung the child and when she was deceased he pleasured himself before taking a few items from the property which included a watch and a radio. He then took the car keys and drove the Otero family car to another location before walking back to his own vehicle. 

• The sickening murders of the Otero family were said to be Dennis's first experience of taking human life and the mistakes that he made during the killings showed that he was not an experienced killer. He did clean up the house after the murders and tried to cover his tracks the best he could. He made sure that he would plan better for his next project. Sadly, he had no remorse or disgust at taking the lives of this beautiful, innocent family, it just gave him more of a thirst to carry on because he enjoyed the power and the sexual satisfaction it gave him. 

• He would go on to murder six more innocent people who he referred to as 'projects'. The victims would be stalked, the same procedure would follow with the phone lines being cut and strangulation would occur. He never r*ped any of his victims but he would masturbate at the scene.

• His next victim was to be a young woman named as Kathryn Bright (aged 21). He had stalked her after driving past her house one day and planned how he was going to take her life. He broke into her house and waited for her to come home, when she finally did return, he was surprised to see that she had a man with her (he didn't know at the time that this man, later identified as Kevin, was her brother). The young siblings were shocked to discover Dennis in the house and he told them the same story that he told the Otero family, that he was a convict on the run and needed a car. He ordered Kevin to tie his sister up and then he proceeded to bind Kevin. Dennis had two handguns with him this time but he claimed that he didn't have his kill kit with him so there was a struggle with both victims with the binds not being tight enough. He fired one of the guns at Kevin and assumed that he had been killed so he returned to Kathryn and decided to stab her. Thinking that Kathryn was deceased he returned to check on Kevin who was still alive and able to make a run for it. Kevin managed to escape from BTK but Kathryn sadly didn't. 

• Chillingly, Dennis would later say that if he had, had the correct equipment with him that day then Kevin would have been deceased. 

''If I had brought my stuff and used my stuff. Kevin would probably be dead today. I'm not bragging on that. It's just a matter of fact.'' - Dennis Rader (BTK) 

• Another young woman was to be his sixth known, deceased victim and that was 24 year old Shirley Vian. Shirley had been chosen at random and Dennis discovered that she had three children. When he got into her house, he found her alone with the children and told her that he had sexual problems and desired to have sex with her. Shirley and the children were clearly terrified but followed instructions. The children were tied up and placed in the bathroom whilst Dennis carried out his attack on their mother. Just like the strange behaviour of placing a pillow underneath Joseph Otero Snr's body when he complained of a rib injury, Dennis ordered Shirley to place toys and blankets in the bathroom to keep the children (who were understandably distressed) occupied. 

• Shirley had vomited a couple of times and it's unclear whether this was because of the trauma of the situation or because she was actually sick (she had been dressed in a robe at the time). Whilst being sick, Dennis brought her a glass of water as if trying to be helpful, he then placed a plastic bag over her head with a rope and strangled her whilst her three children were locked in the bathroom. The children could clearly hear the commotion and were screaming and banging on the bathroom door. Dennis quickly cleaned up and placed his items in his briefcase (which was his kill kit. The briefcase contained rope, tape, gloves, one or two handguns, knives, handcuffs and tools for cutting wires and breaking into houses. Sometimes he would carry a camera in there along with fake identity papers and business cards). 

• He would go on to kill four more women in a similar fashion with the final victim said to be 62 year old Dolores Davis in 1991. He strangled Dolores with a pair of stockings and then looked through her house for items before taking her car. He took Dolores's deceased body with him in the vehicle because he said he had some commitments to see too. He later dumped her body underneath a bridge. 

• Throughout his killing spree, Dennis would often taunt the police and the press. He would leave messages in local library books and it was he himself who insisted on being called BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill). He made it clear that he was proud of his 'work' and wanted to be known as an infamous serial killer who was always one step ahead of the police. For years he evaded capture and would get irate and contact the police and media if someone was trying to take credit (as he saw it) for the murders that he committed. The real identity of BTK remained a mystery and continued to haunt Wichita was years with residents constantly having to look over their shoulder wondering if and when BTK would strike next. The police had an audio recording of his voice when he brazenly contacted 911 to report one of the murders by payphone. When the tape was made public his daughter (who later went on to write about her father) recognized her father's voice immediately. 

• His last known murder was of Dolores in 1991 and he later claimed that he was planning to 'retire' from murdering innocent people. He avoided detection all the way through the 1990s and continued to be a family man and pillar of the community. It was only when an article appeared in the Wichita newspaper which was focused on the 30th anniversary of the BTK murders, did Dennis suddenly sit up and take notice again. As always, being the publicity whore and attention seeker that he was, he was fuming as he read the article that basically implied that the community had began to move on from BTK and had mostly forgotten him. It was meant to be a healing article to show that the community was trying to move on after a horrific time in the past. Dennis didn't see himself in the past though, to him the murders (his 'work') was not in the past. He enjoyed being this mysterious boogeyman who outsmarted the police and had the community gripped in fear, walking around knowing what he had done and nobody suspecting him in a second, he enjoyed that power. But the huge bruise to his ego that he was just old news was enough to start the evil inside him rising again. He planned to commit another murder to show them all that he still had what it took. He contacted the police and the media again to let them know that he was still around.

• I'm sure a lot of people were hoping that he would be dead after being quiet for so long but their fears were to be ignited again with the knowledge that he could strike at any time. For the cops they saw this as another chance to finally get him.

• And the cops were to get their day because Dennis finally made the ultimate slip up and it was because of a computer disk. He contacted the police and asked them if he could be traced via a computer disk, they told him that they wouldn't be able to and he fell for it. He sent in a computer disk after he saw a secret code which the police had arranged to be printed in a local newspaper and it was through this that they were able to trace him. 

• It was an extraordinary moment when Dennis Rader aka BTK was finally arrested on the 25th of February 2005. It had been a long time coming and a lot of people had given up hope of ever seeing that day but here it was, the monster was finally caught.

• At first he tried to deny his guilt but the evidence was overwhelming and he just gave up and confessed to everything in chilling detail. It was chilling the way he was able to recall every minute detail from each of the murders as if it happened only yesterday. 

• There was no trial, Dennis and his lawyers knew the game as up and there would be no point with the huge amount of evidence against him. There was a hearing where the evidence was to be presented along with Dennis Rader's confession and a chance for the victim's families to have their final say. Dennis stood up in the courtroom and talked about each of the killings with no emotion, almost as if he was reading out a shopping list. 

• He was given 10 life sentences and missed out on the death penalty because it had not been reinstated at the time of his crimes. He is still alive today and continues to serve his sentence. A number of books, documentaries and movies have explored his crimes and he is very much still obsessed with gaining as much publicity as possible. He managed to get himself into the press recently by saying that he felt sorry for the alleged Idaho Four murderer Bryan Kohberger. Bryan is featured heavily in the media right now because he is due to stand trial, he also attended a criminology course which was being conducted by Dr Katherine Ramsland. Dr Ramsland is a well known 'expert' on the BTK murders and has been in personal contact with Dennis Rader for a number of years and has written a best-selling book on the case. Dennis claimed to feel sorry for Bryan because he knew what it was like to feel lonely in prison but assured that things would get better once the letters arrived. I think the letters that Dennis means are from the ghouls, the crazy people who are obsessed with serial killers and the ambitious true crime writers. 

(Known victims of Dennis Rader - BTK. Picture collage credit: the-line-up)

RIP to the known victims of Dennis Rader:

The Otero Family: Joseph Snr, Julie, Joseph Jr & Josephine.

Kathryn Bright (thoughts also to her brother Kevin who managed to get away and survive the horrific ordeal). 

Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox, Marine Hedge, Vickie Wegerle and Dolores Davis.

There was also a lady who nearly became another one of BTK's victims but fortunately she had returned home later that night and he had given up waiting for her. The lady had no idea that she was on his kill list until she started to receive items in the mail. Some items had been stolen from her house and returned in packages with a poem asking why she never showed up. It was chilling along with a lot of chilling things that he did. As well as the sketches, records, notes and personal items that he would keep of his victims (which he kept locked away from his family) he had personal, disturbing photographs of himself dressed up in lingerie and bound. He was able to set up this whole macabre scene himself. He would either go to a wooded area to play out these sick photoshoots or he would go to a motel for what he called 'Motel Parties' and it would just be him, taking pictures of himself in lingerie, tied up, posing as a victim. 

''When this monster entered my brain. I will never know, but it is here to stay. How does one cure himself? I can't stop it, the monster goes on , and hurts me as well as society. Maybe you can stop him. I can't.'' - Dennis Rader (BTK) 

(Dennis Rader - BTK. Picture credit: oxygen)

Further Reading & Sources: 

- A Serial Killer's Daughter | Book by Kerri Rawson

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- The Anatomy of Evil | Book by Michael Stone

- The Psychology of Notorious Serial Killers | Book by Todd Grande

- Inside The Mind of BTK | Book by John Douglas & Johnny Dodd

- The Killer Book of Serial Killers | Book by Michael Philbin & Tom Philbin

- Serial Killers & The Phenomenon of Serial Murder | Textbook by Prof David Wilson, Elizabeth Yardley & Adam Lynes

- The True Crime Dictionary | Book by Amanda Lees

- Confession of A Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, The BTK Killer | Book by Katherine Ramsland phD

- Dennis Rader - BTK: Full Confession | Courtroom Footage

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Born To Kill (Documentary)

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Murderpedia

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Wikipedia

- Dennis Rader: Article | The Independent

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Crime Museum

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Daily Mail

- Dennis Rader - BTK | Psychology Today

- BTK News | The Wichita Eagle

- Dennis Rader - BTK: Article | The New York Times

His level of evilness continues to intrigue and fascinate to this day, was he born evil or was it the injuries to his head as a child? Was he made to be a killer after years of watching relatives on the farm killing animals and slaughtering them? Did this take away any sensitivity, empathy and feeling he may have had for an animal or a human being in suffering? Nobody knows the answer and it continues to baffles us to this day. His wife was granted an emergency divorce in 2005 when the truth was finally revealed. He was able to live two separate lives for decades and nobody suspected a thing. I still hope that Mindhunter will return and that they will delve into the BTK case, not for attention for Dennis but for the viewers. We are all struggling to understand this type of evil behaviour and we all want to find ways to prevent it but it's an uphill battle. We may never be able to get to the bottom of why serial killers are able to do what they do. 

(Dennis Rader - BTK. Picture credit: wikipedia)

''I actually think I may be possessed by demons., I was dropped on my head as a kid.'' - Dennis Rader (BTK) 

If you have made it this far, as always, thank you, I appreciate it. I hope you will join me next time for my next post in the series. 

Take care x 

 (Andrei Chikatilo. Picture credit: dailystar)

''When I used my knife, it brought psychological relief. I know I have to be destroyed. I was a mistake of nature.'' - Andrei Chikatilo 

I'm often asked who is the most sickest and most vilest of serial killers that I have written about. There is a few names that come to mind and right at the top of the list is this monster, Andrei Chikatilo. They say to never judge a book by it's cover but one glance at this frightening creature and you'd be forgiven for feeling extremely uncomfortable. You only just have to look at him to see that he is deeply disturbed. I remember seeing his face in one of my serial killer books when I was younger and he freaked me out. I could only manage to read a few sentences (which were very graphic) about this man's crimes and that was enough for me, I couldn't continue. Even now, you'd think after all of this time of writing about such horrible crimes and horrific murderers that I would be somewhat immune to some of the nightmarish stories and people that I come across but no, you never get used to it. Every time I write about a case I think it's bad enough but then comes along another story that's even worse than before. 

During my research into Andrei Chikatilo (who is also known by various nicknames such as The Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper, The Forest Strip Killer and The Rostov Ripper) I watched some of the footage of one of his court appearances and to say it was disturbing is an understatement. Because of the public outcry and danger to his life, he had to be placed in a cage for his own safety, due to numerous relatives of victims and survivors who wanted to get their hands on him. It was disturbing to watch all of these poor people in such grief, pain and anger at the horrible murders of their loved ones and seeing this pathetic and creepy looking creature in the cage smirking and not showing an ounce of remorse. 

So this is the sixth installment of my serial killers of the decades series. If you have been joining me here on my blog for the past five weeks, you will already be aware that I have focused on six specific serial killers who are known to have been predominantly active in the 1970s. There are so many killers I could have chosen from but I selected six for each decade that I will be covering. For the 1970s, I have covered: 

- Rodney Alcala: The Dating Game Killer

- Samuel Little: He Murdered Over 90 Women

- John Wayne Gacy: ''I'm The 34th Victim''.

- Pedro Lopez: The Monster of The Andes

- The Many Faces Of Ted Bundy

And in this post the focus will be on Andrei Chikatilo. As I mentioned before, Andrei is responsible for some of the most horrific crimes in history and is often considered to be the most evilest serial killer in Russia's history. 

So let's get into the case of Andrei Chikatilo and his horrendous crimes. 

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was born on the 16th of October 1936 into some very harsh and difficult times in the Ukraine under Joseph Stalin's regime. Poverty was rife and he lived with his family in a one bedroom hut on some farm land where his parents worked as laborers. Instead of money his parents were given permission to grow their own crops which was not very much. The family lived on very small portions so hunger was a part of life. Andrei claimed that he had never eaten a slice of bread until he was twelve years old. One of his older siblings was apparently murdered by his neighbours because they were so hungry they cooked and ate him. This horror story was repeated to Andrei by his mother and stated as fact all through his childhood and beyond. It was hellish circumstances and physical and sexual abuse was common place. His childhood was pure hell in every aspect and it was very much the ideal beginnings in the making of, what he would go on to be, a complete and utter monster. 

Andrei's home life was horrific but the outside surroundings were no better. Everyone around him was living in extreme poverty and occasions of people resorting to cannibalism was something that people were used to. To try and stave off the hunger, Andrei and his family would resort to eating grass and leaves. His father joined the Red Army and the family tried to survive in his absence. It was during World War II when the Nazis had occupied the Ukraine and his father was reportedly captured by the Nazis. Growing up at the time, Andrei was exposed to all of the horror around him which was carried about by the Nazis. What he had witnessed left a scar on him for life. 

Andrei would sleep in the same bed as his mother but this would always cause conflict because he would constantly urinate during the night. His mother would beat him every time this occurred but he still had difficulties controlling this habit. 

Whilst his father was away Andrei's mother mysteriously became pregnant and this was reportedly as a result of being r*ped by Nazi soldiers which was witnessed by Andrei. 

At school, Andrei was quite sensitive, shy and would often be bullied for how thin and pale he was. He was often collapsing due to extreme hunger and fatigue. Despite all of the difficulties he was enduring, he was a good student and had a determination to do something with his life and had a desire to get the respect and proper treatment that he felt he deserved. His life was a struggle and other kids would laugh at him, he wanted to change all of that and become something and get out of that harsh way of living. 

As a teenager he showed promise, being heavily focused on his studies and had become a dedicated communist. He was so dedicated to communism that he read every book that he could get his hands on and even arranged protests and marches. He saw himself as a leader and seemed to have developed from a shy, fragile boy into a confident young man. However, things were not as quite as they seemed. He was becoming confident academically but was struggling with other areas of his life. He took a shine to a girl who worked with him on the school newspaper and desired to ask her out but never got the courage to do so. Girls were becoming a problem because he didn't know how to act around them and he'd stutter and become shy and socially awkward, he hated this part of himself and it only seemed to get worse as he got older. 

Andrei graduated from high school and was supposed to go on to university but there was an issue which he claimed was down to his father's involvement in World War II (his father was suspected of being a traitor because he was captured by the Nazis in 1943 and it was believed that he gave up information in order to be released). It turned out that his lack of entry into this particular university was not down to his father but simply due to his performance in an exam where other students had scored higher than him and only a select number of places were available. He decided to do some laboring work for a few months to make some money and put himself forward for a vocational course. 

During studying towards a communication technician qualification, he met and fell in love with a girl which was a major boost to his confidence at first until he realised that he could not perform sexually. It seemed to be that every time he was with his girlfriend, trying to get intimate, he couldn't keep an erection. It was a source of frustration for the couple and the relationship didn't last. He was left with a feeling of embarrassment and inadequacy at not being able to have full sexual intercourse with a woman. 

Andrei had partaken and completed various courses in engineering and in 1957, he had a stint in the Soviet Army. After this he returned to live with his parents and worked alongside them on the farm land. Another romance was blossoming but again this was short lived due to Andrei's difficulty at sexual relations. The woman told her friends about why the relationship had ended and word soon got around. Andrei was humiliated with people pointing and laughing and it was especially painful because it was women and girls who were laughing at him. He attempted to take his own life which failed. He decided he had to leave his hometown and start fresh somewhere else. 

He left town and managed to get a job and a little apartment to which his sister had moved in with him. His relationship with his sister was a pretty normal one and she could see how depressed that he was becoming due to his lack of love life. She decided it would be a good idea to set him up with a woman named Feodosia. The pair were an odd couple and seemed to just accept each other. Both had difficulties finding romance so it was a sort of settlement for both of them. Andrei seemed to be at peace in this relationship because Feodosia didn't expect anything from him, she was just happy to have a husband and he provided for her financially. Their sex life was non-existent but again. Feodosia was accepting of this and when it came to a decision to have children together, Andrei would masturbate and insert his semen into her vagina with his fingertips. 

Andrei and Feodosia had a daughter (born 1965) and a son (born 1969).

Despite now considered to be a hardworking family man, Andrei could not cope with his lack of sex life. He realised that the only way he could gain an erection was to fantasize about children and people in pain (I have to be careful how I word this because it's horrendous). There was an incident when he was a teenager where he was able to maintain an erection and had managed to ejaculate on to a younger girl's dress. He'd fallen on the girl and she was in pain and he realised that this creepy and disturbing encounter actually turned him on. 

He was not satisfied with what he had been able to achieve since his days of extreme poverty. Other people may have looked at him and thought that he'd done quite well for himself especially growing up in such circumstances but it was all for show. Andrei was not a happy man, he was not sexually satisfied and saw himself as a failure. Through the courses, jobs and married life, he was constantly looking for that self satisfaction and self acceptance that he was never able to find. Nothing was good enough so he decided that becoming a teacher would give him the proper respect he felt he deserved and the ability to be comfortable with himself. 

Andrei took various courses and spent some time teaching thinking he would be respected and admired. This was a disaster and reminded him of his childhood. The students thought he was a joke and sensed his fear. He struggled to control the classroom and kids would sit in front of him smoking cigarettes because they didn't respect him. He hated the whole experience and this plunged him further into depression and anger. His conduct was completely diabolical, he started to inappropriately touch his female students and various complaints were made. His colleagues reported that they had seen him masturbating in the classroom on various occasions and often in full view of the students. For some unbelievable reason, instead of calling the police and reporting his disgusting behaviour, he was simply given the options of being fired or to voluntarily resign. This wasn't a problem for Andrei because he found another teaching job. 

He later claimed that he had an obsession with seeing girls naked and would hang around public bathrooms in the hopes of being able to spy on children. He would try and gain trust by trying to have conversation with young girls and offering them bubblegum. Using this manipulative method he was able to assault quite a number of girls. 

His new teaching role didn't last long because he'd been accused of sexually assaulting both male and female children. It was clear that his behaviour was getting more worse and worse as time went on. The red flags were all there for all to see but the country as it was, things were done in terms of police investigations was very much behind with the times. 

His first reported victim was a nine year old girl by the name of Yelena Zakotnova. The child was taken to a filthy hut which he had previously bought with the intention of using it for the purpose of harming children in privacy. He attempted to sexually assault her but failed to get an erection, he then proceeded to stab the child and it was through this sickening act that he was able to ejaculate. The child was then strangled and dumped in a river. Instead of being horrified and remorseful at what he had done, this only gave him a sickening taste for more. 

For the murder of Yelena Zakotnova, another man was to take the fall. Aleksandr Kravchenko was accused by the police to be responsible after blood stains that had been found on his wife's jumper had matched Yelena's blood type (both Yelena and Aleksandr's wife had the same blood type), he was sentenced to death after the police had forced him to confess. Yelena's family were determined to see him put to death especially when there was talk of his sentence being changed to a life sentence instead. He ended up being executed by firing squad in 1983. Aleksandr had a history of sexual assault and murder of a young girl in the past to which he served time in prison for. Any sympathy for him just flies out of the window but still, Andrei should have been held to account for this horrific crime. 

Andrei Chikatilo realised that he had enjoyed and took pleasure in Yelena's murder and it wasn't long until he struck again. He lured a 17 year old girl to a wooded area with promises of alcohol and subjected the poor girl to a horrific attack. The monster had thrown her to the ground, ripped her clothes off and attempted a sexual assault but he couldn't achieve an erection so became even more angry. He shoved mud down the girl's throat in an attempt to quiet her screaming. It was a sickening and vile attack and got sicker and more evil as he continued. He didn't have a knife so he tore apart her body with his teeth and a stick. It was just nightmarish and when he was finished his disgusting ordeal, he beat and strangled the poor girl to death. He fled the scene and the girl's deceased and mutilated body was found the next day. 

More victims were added to his sick list, each suffering a horrendous ordeal of torture, mutilation and sexual assault. He would often gouge his victim's eyes out and investigators believe that this was due to an old Russian superstition that the last person a victim sees before death stays imprinted on the eye. In his twisted and sick mind he may have thought he was helping to cover his tracks by removing the eyes or that he simply enjoyed the mutilation. As well as stabbing and strangling victims, they would be subjected to horrendous torture, he would bite off their noses, their ears, their nipples. He wanted to inflict as much pain and suffering as possible. The more pain the victims suffered, the more turned on that he got. 

The victims were both male or female and had been subjected to a savage attack and murder by Andrei Chikatilo. He would sometimes use weapons to kill his victims but often he took their lives by his own hands, teeth, sticks and whatever object he could find. He would literally rip off skin, genitals and tongues  with his teeth. He also ate parts of his victims flesh and organs but would state to investigators later that he only 'nibbled' them. He also said that he enjoyed tasting his victim's blood and would sometimes kill his victims by sitting on their chests until their hearts stopped beating because it gave him a sense of calmness and pleasure. 

His horrendous killing spree went on for 12 years and in that time it is impossible to know how many deaths he is responsible for. He'd been arrested in the early 1980s for lewd conduct and theft from a previous employer but served only three months and was back on the streets again to continue his murder spree. He managed to slip through the cracks so many times and continued to move from job to job. 

The police were finally on to him in 1990 after investigations into the various murders, the lewd conduct and the sexual assault claims by his former pupils, it was all finally catching up with him. He was put under surveillance by the police where they observed him trying to talk to young girls. They finally arrested him and at first he claimed that he was innocent but eventually after knowing all of the evidence that he had stacked up against him, he confessed after nine days of being put under continuous interrogation. 

He originally admitted 36 murders but later confessed to 20 more. Investigators believe that he was responsible for more murders. He led the police to where some of his victims were buried.

When he appeared in court, he had to be placed inside a steel cage for his own safety because the victim's families and survivors were so determined to get their hands on him. Emotions and anger ran high, especially as he seemed to find everything so humorous and didn't have a shred of remorse. He painted a freak-like figure with his skinny frame, wide eyes and shaved head (his hair was shaved off as a precaution because lice was often rife in Russian prisons). He was quite frightening to look at and it was clear that this individual was deeply disturbed. 

At his trial, the disturbing details of what he had done to each of his victims was fully revealed and it was incredibly horrific and heartbreaking for the families to hear. His behaviour at times was often erratic and he had to be told to be quiet by the Judge on a number of occasions. Andrei gave a two hour statement going on about his life and his crimes, the relatives were howling and shouting obscenities at him but it didn't phase him. On a couple of occasions he would stand up, pull his trousers down and expose himself to the packed courtroom. He would sing and shout out random comments about not being homosexual, he even claimed to be pregnant at one point. On one occasion when the court took a break, he was let out of the cage and the brother of a victim had manged to throw a chunk of metal at his chest, when the police tried to get a hold of the young man, the other relatives protected him and told the police to back away. 

He was eventually found guilty to no surprise and sentenced to death. His reaction to this was to kick his chair across the cage, shouting and making a spectacle of himself. The relatives of the victims were relived to see some justice done although I'm sure they would have preferred to serve him their own kind of justice after the sickening things he had done. 

Andrei had the nerve to appeal his sentence but it got thrown out and he had to accept his fate. The Russians didn't mess about when it came to his execution, he was simply led into a room on the 14th of February 1994 (Valentine's Day) and shot once in the back of the head. No suffering, no lingering pain just quick. A relief that he was gone form the earth but I'm sure in some ways that the relatives of the victims felt somewhat cheated because his death came quick whereas, their loved ones had went through hell. 

There is the possibility that Andrei Chikatilo could be responsible for as many as 100 murders, we can never know for sure considering his thirst for killing and the length of time that he was able to carry out his crimes. His victims were not only young children but people who lived on the streets, homeless people, sex workers and random people he would follow from bus stops and train stations. Some people were reported missing, others were not. Some remains were found and a lot were never discovered. He was a pure monster and one of the most evilest creatures (I don't know how else to describe him) that I have ever written about. 

So I close this decade of the 1970s with the horrendous story of Andrei Chikatilo, it's unbelievable to think that such evil exists in this world. Chikatilo may no longer be on this earth but we know the reality that there are others out there just like him, possible operating right now, undetected, slipping through the cracks. There will always be serial killers as there has been ever since time began. We continue to study these people to try and find answers and another frighting thing is, sometimes there are just no answers. There's lots of theories as to why Andrei turned out the way that he did, his poverty stricken background, his abusive mother, the lack of a satisfying sex life, the feelings of inadequacy and never being taken seriously. The list goes on. He could have sought help for his intimate problems, he had a wife and children who were clearly there for him, he had achieved things in his life despite the difficult start, he could have made something positive of his life. I don't have the answers but I know that the story of Andrei Chikatilo continues to haunt people to this day and nobody can forget that frightening, evil and sadistic face or his terrible crimes. 

RIP to all of the known victims of Andrei Chikatilo and also to the victims who we may never know the names of but are equally as important and hopefully one day will be identified so that their families can have some sort of closure. Prayers and thoughts also to the families of the victims. 

Further Reading & Sources: 

- The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers | Book by Michael Newton

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- The Killer Book of Serial Killers | Book by Tom Philbin & Michael Philbin

- Andrei Chikatilo: Article | Britannica

- Andrei Chikatilo: Article | Daily Mail

- Andrei Chikatilo | Wikipedia

- Andrei Chikatilo | Murderpedia

- Andrei Chikatilo: Article | Daily Star

- Andrei Chikatilo | Biography

- Andrei Chikatilo: Article | Victims of Crime

- Andrei Chikatilo: Article | Mirror

- Andrei Chikailo: Documentary | Youtube

- Andrei Chikatilo: Footage | Youtube

I know this was a difficult post to get through and I thank you as always if you have been able to reach the end. I will be moving into the 1980s next, so I hope you will join me for my next post where I will be delving into another serial killer and this is another one that you may be very familiar with. 

Take care & see you in my next installment x 

Apparently the word 'Serial Killer' didn't exist until Ted Bundy, we had dangerous killers roaming around but there wasn't a specific name for them and so when Ted's crimes came to light, the phrase apparently became a thing and we've been using it ever since to describe these types of monsters. In this series where I have been focusing on a select number of serial killers from the 1970s, I've spent the past week focusing on Ted Bundy. This will be my fifth installment in the series and of course he had to be included (especially as so many of you have been asking me to write about him for years now). He has featured on my blog very briefly but in this post we'll be talking more about him. 

I'm lucky enough to have a vast number of books and quite a lot of encyclopedias of Serial Killers, as you can imagine, Ted Bundy features quite a lot in those books. Some people believe that he is the most infamous Serial Killer in American history but that is up for debate as we often hear others sharing that title, especially Jeffrey Dahmer. I knew about his case like so many people but I wanted to approach my research as if I was only discovering his story for the first time and even though I may have felt that I knew a lot about him before, I did come across details that I had never heard before. 

I spent many hours reading books about him, watching all the trial footage that I could find, interviews with him, newspaper articles, court documents and listened to various books on audible (I'd actually go to bed with my headphones on and wake up in the morning with the narrator still yapping away in my ears). Not surprisingly I ended up dreaming about Ted Bundy (not in a romantic way but his face just appeared in my dreams) which came as a surprise because I've written about a lot of serial killers and never do I have them pop up in my dreams. 

I'm not attracted to Ted Bundy, when well dressed he could appear to be handsome. Certainly not what people in the past would consider to be a dangerous Serial Killer based on looks. He broke the mold in that respect and woke everyone up to the reality that anyone, no matter how successful or good looking they may be, could be capable of such evil things. On the surface he had a lot going for him and had the ability to draw people into him. Even the footage of the interview that was recorded the night before his execution, if you look at the comments underneath the video you will see so many people saying similar things. They were taken in by him, forgetting what he had actually done. They found him interesting, well spoken and charismatic. 

When I watched the footage of the Chi Omega trial where Ted had represented himself, I watched in amazement as he single handedly held everyone in the courtroom (even the judge) in the palm of his hand. When he spoke, people listened, People couldn't take their eyes off of him. Usually trials can be long and exhausting to get through but the utter fascination of watching this individual, who had done the most horrendous things imaginable, was quite interesting. Ted would just stand there full of confidence and intelligence, talking in such a manner with a calmness, so self-assured and it was like he was hypnotizing everyone. The people in the courtroom would hang on every word as well as the viewers like myself who watched the footage on YouTube, all transfixed wondering what he was going to say next. 

I think that's why the fascination with Ted Bundy continues to this day because we just can't get our heads around how he could be so many people in one person. I titled this post 'The Many Faces of Ted Bundy' because he was able to adapt his personality (of which he had multiple) to whatever situation he was in and whoever he was with at the time. Some people knew him as a monster, some knew him as a life saver who comforted people who were having mental health difficulties. Some people saw him as a promising politician, a future lawyer. Some people saw him as a family man who was a great cook and great with kids. Some people saw him as a creep. 

Like Richard Ramirez, Ted Bundy had this neverending line of adoring female fans who are still obsessed with both of them to this day. I've seen tattoos dedicated to these killers, coffee cups with their faces on, valentine's cards and fridge magnets with their images on....pure madness! Even I get messages and emails from people who assume that I am a fan girl who's obsessed with such serial killers like Bundy and just jumping on the true crime bandwagon. When the reality is that I'm working on my own book and plan to be a published true crime writer. Both Richard and Ted had no problems with the opposite sex and many women found them attractive so what was this incredible evil that drove them to hurt as many women and people as possible? And why would some women find this attractive?, to be drawn to a dangerous man that has done the most unspeakable things? I spoke recently about the young boy, Jason Moss who wrote to serial killers in prison and how that had psychologically scarred him to the point that he ended up taking his own life. I have also mentioned before about one of Richard Ramirez's fans who thought she was in love with him. She visited him in prison for the first time after months of letters to find that the sexy fantasy that she had in her mind, was not what she thought. The guy was a complete and utter psycho and scared the hell out of her so much, that she cut off contact with him from that moment on. 

So, in this post you will be familiar with the timeline and other details may ring a bell but I do hope you are able to take away something from this that you may not have heard before. I always inject a lot of my own personality into my posts so it's not supposed to sound like a run-of-the-mill boring script. I always want my readers to feel that I'm there with them telling them about these cases over a cup of coffee. That's the feeling I always get whenever I pick up an Ann Rule or Reg McKay book. 

Before I go any further I have to warn you (which you won't be surprised, I'm sure) that I will be sharing disturbing details. I don't think it's possible not to talk about Ted Bundy without sharing horrifying details but these are his crimes and this is what he did to innocent people and they deserve their stories to be heard. Also, talking about Ted Bundy in posts such as mine is important for reminding some people that this guy was not a comedy character or just some guy off of the TV to admire, he was a monster who destroyed lives. He may have done some good for other people at some points in his life and he may have been handsome and talented at certain things but the reality is, he was a very sick and evil individual. 

• His interests were Psychology, Asian studies, Politics and Law and he did go to and fro with Universities, spending a semester here and a semester there. Sometimes Ted would start things and fail to complete them and this would be a sense of frustration for some people close to him. He was dating a girl at the time who he considered to be his ultimate dream girl. She was pretty, intelligent and was from a highly respected and wealthy family. His confidence soared when he was with her and he had aspirations of being wealthy and successful for himself but also to impress her and her family. He still had his heart set on law school but his applications kept getting rejected. He decided to do some voluntary work for a crisis helpline as well as work on some political campaigns to help make connections and he viewed this as a foot in the door to law school. It was at the crisis helpline center that he met the late, best selling true crime writer, Ann Rule. Ann previously worked in law enforcement but was now a single mother and aspiring writer. She would volunteer at the helpline once a week and she would sit for hours taking phone calls and chatting to Ted. They grew close, not in a romantic way but they had a mutual respect for each other. 

• Ann would later describe those late nights of working with Ted and claimed that he was always very good at putting people at ease and helped save a number of lives. Ted would beam as he told Ann about his girlfriend but on one evening she noticed that he wasn't being his usual self. It turned out that his girlfriend broke up with him because she felt that he didn't have any proper goals or plans in place. He would talk about becoming a lawyer and all of these other great things but nothing was actually happening and months and months would go on with no new development. Ted was utterly heartbroken but it pushed him to try harder and eventually he got into law school and was doing so well in the politics field that he was being painted as this up-and-coming star. Months had passed since his girlfriend had dumped him and he was moving on but seeing how well he was doing, she was suddenly back on the scene again. They gave their relationship another chance but Ted had other ideas. 

(Ann Rule. Picture credit: storey-lines)

• Ted became a bit of an injustice collector and never forgot how she made him feel. It was difficult enough for him to try and impress her before because of the wealthy background she had but for him to be dumped out of the blue, was a massive bruise to the ego for him. So he set about a ridiculous plan that actually produced the results that he wanted. He waited until she was comfortable in the relationship and made her endless promises about marrying her, going for holidays with her and moving in together. He basically 'Love Bombed' her (emotionally setting her up for a downfall by promising her all of these romantic things and love) and then suddenly without warning, he dumped her, leaving her hurt and confused. He wanted to make her feel how he felt. The strange thing is, that he never stopped loving her in a way, but too much water had gone under the bridge at that point and he had moved on. Some people believe that the disintegration of this relationship was what started Ted on this horrible path to serial murder. 

• Around this time in 1974, Ted was reported to have started his horrific campaign of attacking young women and girls. He would peep through girl's windows and watch them get undressed whilst he would pleasure himself. He would break into their apartments, in many cases he would render them unconscious by hitting them violently over the head with an object, strangle them and sexually assault them. Some were able to survive these evil attacks, some died from these devastating ordeals and some seemed to vanish into thin air with only traces of blood left on their bedsheets which indicated that all was not well. He didn't just break into apartments, he would drive around in his Volkswagen Beetle equipped with a missing passenger seat and a brown satchel which contained his rape kit (items included a ski mask, ice pick, large plastic bag and a pair of stockings with holes cut out of them which he would use to either wear as a mask or strangle his victims) as well as a crowbar under his seat. He always had everything planned right down to how he was going to trick the girls to come with him. He would stalk college campuses and parks abducting girls by posing with his arm in a cast pleading for them to help him get his canoe either on to or off of his car. Girls were vanishing and nobody knew what was happening to them. He moved around different states and started to be careless, being seen talking to girls who would later go missing, mentioning his name was Ted and the fact that some witnesses were aware of the type of car he drove.

• Whenever his name came up during an investigation into a horrific sex attack, girl's disappearance or murder, his file was cast to the side and he wasn't looked at as a person of interest in the beginning because he was deemed to be too 'squeeky clean'. The cops thought he was a well spoken, university educated and handsome young man so they thought there was no way that he would have had anything to do with what happened to any of these poor girls. When two girls had gone missing from a popular park, witnesses had provided information to authorities who put together a sketch which matched Ted's profile, people who knew Ted personally had seen it and agreed that it looked and sounded like him but they didn't believe he could be capable of such a thing, not the Ted they knew.

• Ted would abduct girls by his method of using a cast on his arm (an idea which was also used by the character Buffalo Bill in the movie The Silence of The Lambs) to gain sympathy and encourage them to help him put some books or something into his car, he would then hit them over the head with a crowbar and bundle them into the space where he removed the front passenger seat. The girl would be subjected to a horrendous ordeal before being murdered. He later confessed to taking the girls deceased bodies to various woodland areas, he would return repeatedly to the remains to record the progress of decomposition. Sometimes he would put makeup on the heads which would (in many cases) be decapitated. He claimed animals were responsible for the heads being detached from the rest of the remains. And just when you thought all of that wasn't sickening enough, he would pleasure himself sexually using the decomposing remains until they had become too putrid. Some of the heads would be brought back to his apartment and he would do the same routine of putting makeup on them, even washing the hair. He would use the heads for sexual gratification before they had decomposed to the point that it was no longer possible. 

(Ted Bundy. Picture credit: peacocktv)

• Like a lot of serial killers, there comes a point where they are so careless that they end up making a slip somewhere. Ted Bundy claimed that alcohol helped fuel his actions, he needed it to give him the confidence and nerve to carry out his evil acts. He made a huge mistake which was to lead him on the path to downfall when he tried to abduct a pretty young woman by the name of Carol DeRonch from a shopping mall in Salt Lake City. He followed Carol and approached her claiming to be a police officer. He told her someone was trying to break into her car and told her to come to the police station to file a report. Alarm bells started ringing for Carol, she'd seen the state of the inside of his car and could smell the alcohol. She attempted to get away from him but there was struggle and he managed to handcuff one of her wrists but she managed to get away and he sped off. Through Carol, the police were able to get some information but it would be months before the cops caught up with him.

• On the same day as the attempted abduction of Carol DeRonch, another young girl went missing some hours later. A key was found near to where the girl went missing. The cops tried the key in the lock of the handcuffs that Ted had slapped on Carol's wrist and the key fit the lock perfectly.

• On the 16th of August, Ted Bundy was up to his old tricks again, driving around in his car looking for potential victims and he ended up in a random neighbourhood. A local policeman spotted him and chased after him. Eventually Ted stopped the car and got out, playing Mr charming as usual. The policeman noticed the brown satchel and searched it and judged it to be items used for an attempted burglary. He was arrested and put in a lineup where he was identified by Carol DeRonch as her attacker. He was charged with attempted kidnapping but the police believed he was responsible for more abductions and murders, they believed that they had a serial killer on their hands. He was taken over to Colorado to face charges for the murder of a girl in Snowmass. If convicted of his crimes he was due to go down for the rest of his life in prison but he came up with a plan as he always did. He asked to be allowed to represent himself at trial and requested access to the law library which was granted. On the 7th of June 1977, Ted Bundy managed to jump out of the library window and escape for a period of 8 days. He slept in abandoned cabins, ate leaves and stole food wherever he could but he couldn't stand it anymore so he went into town to steal a car and ended up being caught by the cops and taken back into custody.

(Ted with Elizabeth. Picture credit: marieclaire)

• In his private life during these horrendous attacks and murders, he was busy playing house with a single mother named Liz. With Liz and her daughter, he played the perfect family man. He cooked and cleaned, acted caring and protective. Liz was even there in the early stages of the investigation and both she and Ann Rule originally believed that Ted Bundy was innocent in the beginning. I was reading Liz's book this past week and I was cringing at a lot of what she had written, especially when she'd said that she met Ted Bundy in a nightclub, took him home with her that same night and he was there with her and her young daughter. She fell asleep and basically left him alone with her daughter on more than one occasion. I'm not saying that every guy is a potential Ted Bundy, I'm not even a parent yet but even I know, you don't have strange guys around your children, not even yourself. Anything could have happened and she was really lucky that nothing did. It was clear thought that she had been hoodwinked by Ted as a lot of women who had known him personally seemed to have been. 

• Ted Bundy's vanishing act from police custody was not a one-off, he came up with another plan. He noticed there was a hole in the ceiling of his cell right next to a light fixture. He studied the size of the hole and managed to chip some of the ceiling away. He started to starve himself so that he could lose enough pounds to be able to fit through the gap. He would practice climbing through the gap late at night and on one evening he decided to make a real go of it. He stacked some books on his bed and threw a sheet over them, then he climbed through the gap and managed to get to what looked like closet space, he climbed down in and it ended up giving him access to a prison official's apartment. The apartment was quiet as nobody wad home so he put on some clothes and carried on with his escape plan. He managed to get away with it and spent New Years Eve at a bar before fleeing to Florida.

(Ted Bundy. Picture credit; abcnews)

• Once he was in Tallahassee, Florida, he managed to find some accommodation using what money he had. He was staying right at the heart of the student area. In January 1978, Ted Bundy struck again in the wee small hours at the Chi Omega Sorority House. Earlier that evening he'd been spotted by some of the female student that lived there, in a nightclub. Ted had been acting creepy, staring at all of the girls but not in an appreciating way, more of a angry sort of way. His sickening actions in those early morning hours at that student household were something that nobody who heard about it back then or even hears about it now, can ever comprehend such pure evil. Like a psychotic wild animal he broke into the house and headed straight for one of the rooms to where a girl named Margaret Bowman was sleeping. Margaret had been hit so violently over the head with a blunt object that her skull had been completely shattered and some of her brain was exposed. She was then strangled with a nylon stocking which was later found tight around her neck. He then moved on to the room of Lisa Levy. Lisa has been beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted. Her nipple was almost bitten off and she had bite marks on her buttocks. Two girls were also subjected to a horrendous attack but by some miracle they managed to survive. They had been beaten so badly that they had no recollection as to who or how it happened. one of the victims later recalling that she went to bed that night and the next thing she knew, she was being lifted into an ambulance. 

• After the horrific events at the Chi Omega Sorority house which all happened so fast that it literally took Ted Bundy just around 15 minutes to brutally attack four girls, two fatally and the other two almost at the brink of death but were saved just in time. He then broke into another young students bedroom and subjected her to an horrendous assault leaving her alive but permanently disabled. 

• Days and weeks passed after those horrible incidents and nobody knew who was responsible but some of the people who lived at the same accommodation as Ted, noticed how strange he had been acting. He seemed to keep looking over at the Chi Omega house all of the time. A short while after this, a white van was reported stolen from the University and it had been taken by Ted. He must have known that this deadly trail of beautiful young girls who had been so cruelly murdered, would lead the cops to him so he had to get out of there. The nightmarish scenes at the Chi Omega house and the student he attacked a few blocks away seemed to be not enough for Ted Bundy, he was ready to find another victim. 

• His next and final victim was little 12 year old Kimberly Leach, she had been at school and was due to take a PE lesson but had left her kit at another part of the building so she was on her way to retrieve it. Ted Bundy had already attempted to abduct another child previously to spotting Kimberly but that attempt failed and the child was able to get away. Sadly, Kimberly was to fall into Ted Bundy's evil clutches. Witnesses say that they saw Kimberly getting into the white van looking really upset. Ted reportedly had an angry look on his face. Another witness claimed to have seen Ted Bundy driving the white van and shouting in the direction of the passenger seat. The van was discovered abandoned a few days later and under inspection it was clear that a lot of trauma had taken place within that vehicle. Investigators also found a receipt for a hunting knife which they believed to have been the weapon he used to murder Kimberly. Ted Bundy was nowhere to be seen, he dumped the van and took off. Kimberly's remains were found dumped in an unused pig pen in some woods. 

• It seemed that Ted Bundy's time had now come, he was spotted driving around in his macabre VW Beetle, erratically, psychotic, full of adrenaline and alcohol. The police took him into custody and finally, Ted Bundy was removed from the streets and nobody was going to have to suffer this monster anymore. 

• In 1979, the man of many faces, the cruelest of killers and sickest of individuals, finally was going to be put to task for everything he had done. He put on the performance of a lifetime as the promising, wannabe lawyer but it was just another role to play for him. The trial itself was gripping and watching this demon in action was both disturbing and fascinating. He really thought he could get away with anything but none of his games worked this time. He was sentenced to death for the murders of Margaret and Lisa at the Chi Omega Sorority house and later tried and sentenced to death for the murder of Kimberly Leach. For 11 years he continued pretending to be innocent despite the mountains of evidence against him. Investigators and the victim's families were desperate for answers and there were missing girls who's families wanted to know if he knew of their whereabouts. Ted Bundy kept his mouth shut and didn't say a word. Even being the psychotic monster that he was he always seemed to be in some sort of relationship with someone and his final relationship was with a woman named Carol Ann Boone. Despite the fact that this guy was a raving lunatic and total monster who tortured, sexually assaulted and brutally murdered various young women and a 12 year old child, Carol still thought he was a bit of a catch. Carol was clearly desperate. 

• So he and Carol had this long term relationship and she'd even had sexual intercourse with him on one of her prison visits which resulted in pregnancy. Ted Bundy had one biological daughter as a result of this relationship. Carol was in deep denial due to Ted's ways of persuasion and actually thought he was an innocent man. However, three years before he was due to die by electric chair, they broke up. Apparently she finally realised that the numerous amounts of evidence proving his guilt was actually real. His daughter would later change her name and live a quiet life not wanting anyone to know who her biological father was, who could blame her? 

(A member of the public selling Ted Bundy execution t-shirts. Picture credit: etsy)

• When it was clear that no appeal was going to work and there was no doubt that he would be facing the electric chair, Ted Bundy decided to start talking but it was too late, nobody cared, they'd had enough of him. As the day of death grew closer, members of the public threw parties, it was like a holiday event. 
• His mother (who came across as a total nutcase herself) had been in denial for years about Ted and practically worshipped the ground he walked on. She stood by him all the way and wouldn't hear a bad word said against her precious boy. He finally told her the truth that he did it all but that didn't do anything, she still attempted to defend him and make excuses. 

(Ted Bundy's last interview. Picture credit: pinterest)

• The night before his execution, Ted gave an interview putting on another performance. He was in denial himself, he was always able to try and get out of any situation but this time there was no stopping it and I think that shocked him. In the interview you can see it in his eyes how scared he was. He thought he could use the victims as a bargaining tool to buy himself more time on death row. He claimed he could help solve cases, work with the police to identify victims etc but nobody was interested. They knew what he was trying to do. 

(People celebrating Ted Bundy's execution. Picture credit: aenetworks)

• For his last meal, he was so nervous he didn't want to eat anything but it was part of the rules that he was to have some sort of dinner. They brought him in some steak and eggs but he didn't touch any of it. In a movie based on Ted Bundy, there is a scene where he has to bend over and cotton wool is inserted into his anus being forced to wear an adult diaper as well as other indignities. Sadly this didn't happen. It's a wonder why this scene was put in the movie, maybe because it was the sort of justice that we all wanted to see? Ted Bundy being humiliated after everything he had done to those poor girls. He was scared and his last word were simply ''Give my love to my family and friends.''

(Members of the public celebrating Ted Bundy's final hours. Picture credit: The Sun)

• Ted Bundy was executed on the 24th of January 1989 by electric chair. The time of death was 7:16 am. 

(The Newspapers after the execution: Picture credit: rarenewspapers)

(Another newspaper article about Ted Bundy's execution. Picture credit: The Sun)

• In the weeks and days leading up to his execution, Ted Bundy confessed to the murders of 36 women and girls. He said that he was not willing to talk about any murders that had happened to younger girls or murders that had happened closer to home. He never admitted any involvement in the disappearance of 8 year old Ann Marie Burr who lived in his neighbourhood when he was 14. Was she his first victim? 

(Some of Ted Bundy's victims. Picture credit: inews)

• In the 1980's, Ted Bundy reached out to investigators and offered his help and advice on how to catch the infamous serial killer known as The Green River Killer. At the time nobody knew where this guy was or that he was indeed, Gary Ridgeway. Ted offered his advice on the case but the killer's identity was finally revealed in 2001 due to the advances in today's DNA technology

• Ted Bundy was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. This was another unpleasant fact about the case since we know that some of his victims remains were placed there.

• Ted Bundy's mother, Louise passed away on the 23rd of December 2012.

(Ann Rule. Picture credit: nytimes)

• Ann Rule sadly passed away on the 26th of July 2015. Her true crime books continue to fly off of the shelves. She continues to be an inspiration to me and other aspiring true crime writers. The judge who presided over the Chi Omega trial, Edward Cowart, sadly passed away on the 3rd of August 1987. He was a highly respected man and well liked by all who knew him and who did not know him personally. Everyone still talks about that moment during the Chi Omega trial where he accosts Ted Bundy for shaking his finger at me ''Do not shake your finger at me young man.''

(Judge Edward Cowart. Picture credit: imdb)

• The Infamous picture of Ted Bundy in the courtroom was one of the most used pictures that was printed in the newspapers at the time and is still used to this day. Ted was not happy with the picture and said that it was taken completely out of context because the newspapers wanted to paint him as a monster. The shot was taken during a joke as Ted had been doing a Laurel and Hardy impression at the end of one of the court sessions. See the picture below: 

(Ted Bundy. Picture credit: cosmopolitan)

• Ted Bundy's 1968 Volkswagen Beetle can currently be seen on display at the crime museum of Alcatraz East. 

• Some people believe that there were plenty of red flags in Ted's childhood of things to come. Rumours have played out for years that his grandfather was a violent man who had a severe addiction to pornography and would show indecent images to Ted. Ted never spoke of this and never claimed to have been molested by his grandfather although some people believe that to be the case. Psychiatrists who have worked on the case and studied his behaviours believe that something else must have happened in Ted's childhood (such as possible molestation and exposure to violent pornography) because just the upset from learning the truth about Louise being his biological mother was not enough to have set him on the path to the pure evil monster that he became. 

• I would like to take a moment to pay tribute to the young women and girls who lost their lives at the evil hands of Ted Bundy. There are those that we know about, the ones that he had been convicted of killing, the brave survivors and the girls who remain unidentified to this day. He has been linked to so many other murders and often hinted about other possible victims but he continued to play games and refused to elaborate further. We may never know the true number of his victims but investigators believe that the number could be close to 100. RIP: Ann Marie Burr, Lonnie Trumbell, Lisa Wick, Joni Lenz, Lynda Ann Healy, Donna Gail Manson, Susan Elaine Rancourt, Brenda Baker, Roberta Kathleen Parks, Brenda Carol Ball, Georgeann Hawkins, Janice Ott, Denise Naslund, Caryn Campbell, Julie Cunningham, Denise Lynn Oliverson, Melanie Cooley, Shelly Robertson, Nancy Wilcox, Melissa Smith, Laura Aime, Debby Kent, Nancy Baird, Sue Curtis, Debbie Smith, Rita Lorraine Jolly, Vickie Lynn Hollar, Lisa Levy, Margaret Bowman, Kimberly Leach, Lynette Culver, Rita Curran & many unidentified others. 

• Ted dumped the remains of five of his victims on Taylor's Mountain and this became known as 'Bundy's Graveyard'.

• Like some of his fellow murderers, Ted Bundy's brain was removed after death to be examined. Nothing abnormal was found which added a further sinister twist because there just didn't seem to be any answer or explanation for his level of depravity and evil.  

''I'm perfectly happy with the person I am and I've always been. I don't pay my telephone bills on time and I don't write my mother as many letters as I should. There's all kinds of things I could improve about myself...so...but weirdo? No! I feel good about myself. I am happy with myself.'' - Ted Bundy 

Further Reading & Sources:

- Hunting Humans | Book by Michael Newton

- The World Encyclopedia of Serial Killers | Book by Susan Hall

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- The Killer Book of Serial Killers | Book by Michael Philbin & Tom Philbin

- Journey into Darkness | Book by John Douglas & Mark Olshaker

- The True Crime Dictionary | Book by Amanda Lees

- Serial Killers of The 1970s | Book by Jane Fritsch

- Ted Bundy (Documentary) | Born To Kill

- Ted Bundy: Conversations With A Serial Killer (Series) | Netflix

- Ted Bundy: Article | Facts.Net

- Ted Bundy | Wikipedia

- Ted Bundy | Murderpedia

- Ted Bundy: Trial Playlist | Youtube

- Ted Bundy: Article | Britannica

- The Enigma of Ted Bundy | Book by Kevin Sullivan

- The Stranger Beside Me | Book by Ann Rule

- The Stranger Beside Me | TV Movie

- Serial Killers & The Phenomenon of Serial Murder | Book by David Wilson, Elizabeth Yardley & Adam Lynes

- The Anatomy of Evil | Book by Michael H. Stone

- The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers | Book by Michael Newton

- The Only Living Witness | Book by Stephen G . Michaud & Hugh Aynesworth

- The Phantom Prince | Book by Elizabeth Kendall & Molly Kendall

- Facts & Information | Death Penalty Information Center

If you have made it all the way to this point in the post, I thank you so much! It was a lot to get through but I hope you found it informative and maybe learned a few new things along the way as well as any myths you've heard about Bundy, being cleared up? As always, I welcome any comments either in the comments section below, elsewhere on my socials / Instagram or simply email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com 

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I will be back with my last installment of my 1970s Serial Killer series next time. But all is not lost because I will be moving on to the decade of the 1980s after that which I hope you will find interesting. 

See you in the next post x