The stalking and failed abduction incident in ’69 in Ocean City (the build-up to it and the aftermath)

In early 1969, according to his confession to Dorothy Lewis, Ted Bundy went to Temple University in Philadelphia, which is close to Ocean City... Later on that same year, in the spring, he went to Ocean City, New Jersey.

He also told Lewis that in the late winter of ’68, early spring of ’69, the “entity” began to reach the point where it was necessary to act out, to begin to stalk, to look, and he then ended up stalking around the downtown area of Ocean City, New Jersey, trailing women, and he approached a woman whom he then attempted to abduct, but she escaped, which Ted put down to his having been inept at focusing on the aggression he was perpetrating.

He also told Lewis that in Ocean City he acted out a vision he’d been having of some attractive woman. He’d been having this vision since his arrival in Philadelphia in early 1969.

He told Lewis that not long after his arrival in Philadelphia, he started having this vision of himself and some attractive woman (before that, he had visions of Diane Edwards being raped by someone else)... And that led to him acting out in Ocean City.

The incident frightened him, really scared him, he told Lewis.

Here are quotes from the exchange between Bundy and Lewis, published in Nelson’s book "Defending the Devil":

Bundy: “in early ’69 I did go to Philadelphia for the second semester at Temple. It’s at that point that I think again that I reached the point of acting out. In part because it was quickly apparent to me that this place, just a change of place, wasn’t going to solve anything, and I was hoping it would and school was just... [...] I was still very heavily... I think what really got me to that point, what pushed me over the edge from thought into action, was often times I would take the commuter train from Philadelphia to New York to Forty-second Street, where you have the hardest of the hard core, and this feeling was you just  can’t get any more graphic than this, but it just isn’t enough.”

Dorothy Lewis then asks Ted: “You actually saw live porno there?”

Bundy answers: “Mostly magazines and books and things. I just kept coming up to it and I’d wonder what it was really like. It offered something, even short term, a sense of excitement, sense of control, a sense of domination, a sense of adventure. It became very appealing. In addition, it was all out of sight. Nobody knew about this but me. It was a time bomb.

     And what happened was, for instance, I found myself at least on one occasion... I remember coming into New York this time, this very first time I was going to try something, you know, of course it was very... amateurish, because with most any activity you learn by doing. And you learn, you can read books, but reading books and doing the real thing is something else. Rationally, I knew that this is not one of the cases where a lot of trial and error was allowed. I mean, if you made a mistake, that was the end of the game - you went to jail. So this was something where I knew I had to be very tentative, because a real blunder would mean the end of the learning experience, so to speak. So I remember, in the late winter of '69, going to New York, and I'd done all those thing. Like I bought a fake mustache and bought hair stuff - some hair dye. I registered in some seedy hotel-motel under a false name and all these things. I had this horribly inept plan in mind, and I wasn't sure exactly where it was going to go."

 

42nd Street in the 1970s, when it was considered a seedy part of New York, full of adult video stores, peep shows theaters, XXX movie theaters, prostitutes and pimps (courtesy of https://viewing.nyc)

Lewis: "What was the plan?"

Bundy: "Following some woman in some hotel to her room and rushing in on her and doing... I wasn't sure what... I think sexually assaulting her. But beyond that I really didn't... it was really some half-cocked effort. [...] my other erotic behavior – masturbation, fantasy – was a way of deconditioning feelings of inhibition against engaging in conduct. At the same time it was a way of dealing with remorse, I mean, repressing any kind of remorse or guilt because the fantasy became more graphic each time it was aroused.”

Lewis: “When was the first time that you actually acted?”

Bundy: “Later on that same year, in the spring, I went to Ocean City, New Jersey. And just hanging out at the beach, and looking at the young women, trailing them around. And my plan again was – I had never done anything like this before – I was, it was very confusing, kind of, and fearful, and yet I felt compelled to continue to, sort of, act out this vision... This time it was just someone, some attractive woman. Okay, so I was just stalking around the downtown area of this small resort community and I saw a young woman walking along. I didn’t actually kill someone this time, but I really, for the first time, approached a victim, spoke to her, tried to abduct her, and she escaped. But that was frightening in its own way. But that was the first – the kind of step that I couldn’t ever return from.”

 

1969 Ocean City, NJ Boardwalk, Moorlyn Theatre Marquee Julie Andrews Postcard

Lewis: “Did you ever think of talking to a psychiatrist or someone about this?”

Bundy: “No. I always... felt... even though several years later, in 1972, I was going back to school and I felt I had my life back together and I had a purpose, and I was going out with a nice young woman, Liz Kloepfer, and things seemed to be good. I felt like I had myself back together. I was disturbed about what I was doing during 1969 in Philadelphia. And, yet, I figured that it was in control, really. It wasn’t...”

 

Angela Mox has fun making tracks in the sand in 1969. (Lloyd Pearson / Baltimore Sun files / Sept. 1, 1969)

The difference between that one incident at Ocean City and the first time he actually killed someone

Then Bundy told Lewis about the difference between that one incident at Ocean City and the first time he actually killed someone:

 “The difference was that it was sort of half-hearted, sort of confused, sort of, there’s a lack of – it was a serious, serious, manifestation. But it wasn’t a complete, total, focused kind of aggression when I knew what I was doing, I knew what I wanted and was going to do it, and I had the experience and skill to carry it off. Several years later this process continued. The acting out, getting closer and closer. I know that I, in Ocean City, I realized just how inept I was. And so that made me more cautious, and so I didn’t do that again for a long time. It really scared me. And when I stopped doing it I would get the feeling, you know, like a person who’s on a diet, get the feeling something happens and you start eating. Well, I was feeling that I was on top of this, I’m okay. I’m not going to do this anymore. I got scared straight, no problem. And then I did put my life together in 1972.”

Ocean City scenes from the 1960s. (Walter McCardell / Baltimore Sun files / May 31, 1969)