Ted Bundy: An Informative Speech On Serial Killers

Title – The Charming Predator
General purpose – To inform the audience about serial killers
Specific purpose – To inform the audience about Ted Bundy, a person that committed outrageous crimes.
Central Ideas – What makes a person a serial killer? Ted Bundy proved that even a handsome and smart individual with everything going for him, can become a monster.
Introduction – (Attention getter) As Ted Bundy once stated, “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere…” (Orienting material) A serial killer is classified as someone killing three or more people in a short period. The exact reason why people kill is unknown. However, experts suggest that it may date back to traumatic events faced during childhood which
can cause mental disorders. Some people feel that serial killers are born killers and not made. Statistically, studies have shown that most serial killers have low IQ’s, but Ted Bundy was in a class of his own. Ted Bundy was smart, attractive, and had a great future in politics, but had a hidden dark side. Time magazine wrote, “A onetime boy scout and A student, Bundy seemed headed for a sterling career in Republican politics in Washington State and even served as assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee.” (Preview) Ted Bundy was categorized as a person with a psychological disorder that drove him to kill many women.
(Transition) Let me explain about him murdering young women.
Body – (Main point) Ted Bundy was responsible for raping and murdering many young women. His childhood was just as dark as his adulthood, which was believed what drove him to become that killer that he was. I. Theodore “Ted” Bundy’s childhood was extremely complicated. He was born in a home for unwed mothers to Louise Cowell. He grew up believing that his grandparents were in fact his parents and his mother was his sister. Studies on Ted Bundy tried to explain why he was mentally incompetent. His grandfather was “an extremely violent and frightening individual”. Throughout his younger years his grandmother was hospitalized several times for psychotic episodes. It is rumored that his grandfather Sam Cowell was indeed Bundy’s biological father. Ann Rule, author of The Stranger Beside Me, stated that Bundy found out the truth about his parentage in 1969. He found a copy of his birth certificate that proved that Louise Cowell was actually his mother. When Bundy was a teenager, he was shy and scared in social situations, he preferred to be alone. He had an obsession with pornography and later turned to watching women through windows. He became bored with this and began torturing, raping, and murdering women. All this was brought about in his last interview by James Dobson, Fatal Addiction. During the interview, Bundy spoke about why he did what he was being accused for. (Bundy) “In conjunction with my exposure to pornography, alcohol reduced my inhibitions and pornography eroded them
further.” 2. As stated in the Gale Biography, “It is not cleared exactly when Bundy began to kill young women, but his pattern of rage and murder began in earnest in January 1974.” He would fake injuries, use his charm, and his good looks to lure women into trusting him. Then he would beat them repeatedly until they were dead and then he would rape them post-mortem. 3. In 1975, Ted Bundy was arrested and charged with kidnapping. Then he was charged with murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Two years later, he escapes and moves to Florida. That is when he committed the Chi Omega Sorority house murders on January 14th 1978. He bludgeoned and strangled two women to death, raping one of them. He hit two other woman in the head but they survived, thankfully for another roommate (Nita Neary) who interrupted Bundy before he killed them. On February 9 1978, he kidnapped and murdered Kimberly Leach, a 12 year old girl. With the murder of Kimberly and a bite mark that was left on one of the survivors, the weeks to follow was the downfall for Bundy.
(Transition) Next, you will hear about his psychological disorder
Body – (Main point) Bundy went through many psychiatric testing to show why someone that seemed so normal could be a vicious woman killer. 1. Dorothy Ofnow Lewis, a professor at New York University School of Medicine, said he had a bipolar disorder but changed her diagnosis to multiple personality disorder and anti-social personality disorder. Many experts has also said he had a very Narcissistic personality disorder. Anti-social disorder is said that the behavior starts from a young age from your upbringing or genetics. 2. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical manual, Fourth edition, “DSM-IV”, the essential feature of anti-social Personality is a pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that starts in childhood and continues in adulthood. Which is indicated by repeated lying, no remorse, and reckless disregards to others. This disorder can just as likely be classified as a psychopathic and sociopathic disorder. Studies have proven that the majority of these cases are found in young males before the age of 15.
Conclusion – (Preview) Ted Bundy murdered young women due to his mental disorders. (Summary) He would lure women by his charm with no regards of hurting others. He was handsome and intelligent with a deep dark secret for killing women. Ted Bundy was convicted of two murders out of the 30 victims and he was put to death by the electric chair January 24, 1946 in the Florida State Prison. The New York Times said roughly 200 people stayed outside the prison until they finally got word of his death. Cheers were heard when the news of one of the most notorious killers was dead.

Works Cited

Bundy, Ted. Interview by James Dobson. Fatal Addiction: Ted Bundy’s Final Interview 23 JANUA 1989. JANUA . Print. http://pureintimacy.org/f/fatal-addiction-ted-bundys-final- interview/html.

Heffner, Chris. "Psychiatric Disorders." AllPsych Online. Heffner Media Group, Inc., 29 NOVEM 2011. Web. 1 Oct 2013. .

Lamar, Jacob V. "I Deserve Punishment." TIME. 24 JUN 2001: n. page. Web. 4 Oct. 2013. .

Lewis, Dorothy. "Bundy Psychological Problems May Have Started In His Infancy." DeseretNews. DeseretNews, 25 JANUA 1989. Web. 1 Oct 2013. .

Nordheimer, Jon. “Bundy Is Put to Death in Florida After Admitting Trail of Killings.” New York Times 25 Jan. 1989. Biography in Context. Web. 1 Oct. 2013

Rule, Ann. The Stranger Beside Me. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2009. 19-20. Print.

“Theodore Robert Bundy.” Gale Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 1999. Biography in Context. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.