Ted Cowell Personality

Theodore Robert Cowell was born in a Vermont home for unwed mothers on 24 November 1946, to Louise Cowell, and was raised initially by his grandparents. Teddy, as he was known, believed that his grandparents were his parents, and that his mother was his elder sister, a circumstance that was fairly common in illegitimate births at that time. When his mother married Johnnie Bundy in 1951, her son took his stepfather’s name, and was known thereafter as Ted Bundy.

His stepfather’s attempts to integrate the young Bundy into the family were rebuffed, and he became increasingly more isolated as four additional children were added to the Bundy brood, preferring his own company. Despite his aloofness, he did well at school, and his natural good looks increased his popularity and improved his self-esteem.

In 1967, whilst a student at the University of Washington, he was to meet the girl who was to have the most profound effect on his life, fellow student Stephanie Brooks, who was from a wealthy family, and with whom he fell deeply in love. She didn’t reciprocate with as much passion, however, and when she graduated in 1968 she ended their relationship abruptly.

His devastation was to have a major impact on his life, and it is believed that the vast majority of his future victims were selected for their physical similarities to Brooks, who became a lifelong obsession. He dropped out of college for a while, and found out about his true parentage, which must have been a significant psychological blow. However, as if to prove both Brooks and his family wrong, he threw himself into his studies with renewed vigour, becoming an honours student in his chosen field, psychology. He also nurtured a keen interest in politics, and became a charisma...

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...da, he confessed to an investigator that he had committed various acts of butchery and necrophilia, and various accounts cite his victim count anywhere between 26 and 40, with others believing the total may have been much higher. It remains a matter of conjecture whether Bundy was simply exaggerating to prevent the inevitability of his execution. Certainly, in the case of Kathy Devine (a young woman originally attributed as a Bundy victim), later DNA evidence found another man, William Cosgrove, guilty of her murder, who had no connection to Bundy.

Bundy’s delaying tactics finally came to an end on 24 January 1989, and he was executed at 7 am, taking the secret of his actual victim count with him. His body was cremated and his ashes were spread over the same Washington State mountain area that had served as his favourite dumping ground for the bodies of his victims.