He was born in November 1946 as Theodore Robert Cowell and used various aliases during his life. Some knew him as Chris Hagen or Richard Burton or even Ken Misner.

When he died in the electric chair in January 1989, the United States knew him as Ted Bundy and he was one of the most famous serial killers of the 20th century.

Authorities believe his murder spree lasted approximately four years, from 1974 to 1978, although Bundy himself said the first was in 1972. They believe it killed between 30 and 100 people. He confessed to 30 murders while on death row.

Ted Bundy was born and raised by a single mother, Louise, and his father’s identity is pure speculation. Ted and his mother lived with their parents in Philadelphia for the first four years of their life. Bundy grew up thinking that his mother was his sister and that his grandparents were his parents. At the age of four, Ted and Louise moved to Tacoma Washington and Louise soon married Johnnie Culpepper Bundy.

Bundy was a very good student and active in his youth at First Methodist Church in Tacoma, Washington. However, he was shy and not very sociable with others. He received a scholarship upon completion of high school and graduated from the University of Washington.

While in captivity, Bundy told authorities that there was an entity within him that has always been fascinated with sex and violence. All his victims were white, middle-class women. All were beaten and then strangled. Once it started in Washington state, it was killing at a rate of about one per month.

The first known victim was Joni Lenz in January 1974. She survived the ordeal, but brain damage prevented her from helping in the capture of Bundy. In February, Lynda Ann Healy was murdered by Bundy. On March 12, 1974, in Olympia, Bundy kidnapped and murdered Donna Gail Manson. A month later, Susan Rancourt disappeared and her disappearance has been attributed to Bundy. In May it was Brenda Ball and in June it was Georgeann Hawkins. Finally, the Bundy massacre in Washington ended on July 14, 1974 with the kidnapping of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund.

And then the killings in Washington stopped!

Bundy moved to Utah to attend the University of Utah law school and accelerated the pace of his murders by killing three Salt Lake City women in October 1974.

In 1975, Bundy killed some women in and around Colorado ski resort areas. He was arrested for alleged robbery and subsequently escaped. It is not really known if he killed during the next two years, but in January and February 1978 he killed three women in Florida using the same modus operandi and was finally captured for good.

Theodore Robert (Cowell) Bundy was executed in an electric chair at the maximum security prison near the remote town of Raiford, Florida, on January 24, 1989 and will go down in history as nothing more than a notorious serial killer.