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Showing posts from June, 2021

Ted Bundy and his fellow inmates at Florida State Prison: how they got along

Florida State Prison, at the time Bundy was housed there, didn’t have tiers or yards reserved for the so-called “lowest on death row’s pecking order”: serial killers and child molesters. Serial killers and child molesters weren’t housed together to protect them from the others. In other prisons throughout the U.S., the death row inmates were separated according to their perceived dangerousness. For instance, at San Quentin State Prison, Yard 4 was reserved for serial killers and child molesters. They were free to leave their cells and go into Yard 4 to exercise, play cards and chat with other inmates, convicted of similar crimes. One of San Quentin’s spokespersons once said in the media that the inmates at San Quentin State Prison had their own code, and housing them all together would put them in danger. Death row inmates at Florida State Prison had mixed feelings about Bundy, according to media reports, and although it was no doubt known among the inmates that Bundy was convicted...

February 3, 1985 letter Bundy sent to Keppel

In Bundy’s February 3, 1985 letter to Keppel, he mentioned the importance of checking out the persons arrested for violent crimes against women. And he was definitely intrigued by how the Green River Killer had become a proficient and elusive killer. He thought the Green River Killer could have been displaying gradually more violent non-lethal behavior long before he became a killer. As if the murders were part of a chain of increasing violent behavior. Keppel had sent Bundy lists in which there was no mention of persons arrested for violent crimes against women. This puzzled Ted. He wrote: “Obviously the vast majority of men who are arrested for rape, assault, or some other violent crimes against a woman, are not serial murderers or on the way to becoming serial murderers. In the Green River case, for example, there is a very good chance that the Riverman has no criminal record of violence against women at all, but there is an equally good chance he does. A criminal record of vi...

January 29, 1985 letter Bundy sent to Keppel

On January 29, 1985, Bundy sent Keppel a letter whose content was later published in the book "Reflections on Green River: The Letters of, and Conversations with, Ted Bundy" by "Sara: A Survivor". The letter was particularly interesting - I thought! – and here are some excerpts: "I would caution you that just because a young woman murdered during the first six months of 1982 didn't disappear from PHS or downtown Seattle, and just because the victim wasn't a prostitute, doesn't mean the Riverman didn't kill her. He is not a robot. He is just as capable of a certain degree of inconsistency and change as anyone else. "He may see a girl here and there who qualifies as a potential victim in his mind. He has a finely tuned sense of awareness when it comes to evaluating whether or not a girl is a prostitute. It may have become something of an art to him and art developed through the experience of much observation and many contacts. That does...

October 6, 1984 letter about the July 18, 1984 escape try

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  I have attempted to transcribe an October 6, 1984 letter Bundy wrote to his pen pal Diane Elliot, in which he mentioned the July 18, 1984 escape try that the prison officials discovered while doing a routine search of Bundy's cell (when they found that a cell bar had been sawed). The handwritten letter is offered for sale on murderauction.com and has been recently added to the auction site's listings: https://www.murderauction.com/auction/listing/theodore-robert-bundy-very-important-handwritten-4-pages-letter-talking-about-a-third-but-failed-escape-attempt-from-1984/234079 Due to the watermarks, some of the words were illegible to me but I managed to pick up most of what he wrote.   October 6, 1984   Dear Diane,             Greetings. I have your September 8 letter and your September 25 note you enclosed with some stamps that came earlier this week. Thanks. The arrival of the stamps was especially timely si...