Ted Bundy Biography

Born November 24, 1946, Theodore Robert Cowell had a semi-normal childhood. Ted was born out of wedlock to a twenty-two-year-old mother who he would grow up believing was a sister. Because of only having one-parent, Ted was already at an astounding 43 percent risk to becoming a serial killer according to the FBI. Ted was raised by his grandmother and step-grandfather, Johnnie Bundy, taking his “step-father’s” last name and receiving the name he would then possess for life. Johnnie was known to have a temper and a liking for pornography and although Ted and his step-father weren’t particularly close, there was no abuse and a fair bit of stability in Ted’s life. Ted was later introduced to some of Johnnie’s bad habits and began to enjoy pornography
According to a blogger, “His classmates from public school remember Bundy as intelligent, happy, and popular child with many friends and a good academic record,” (Maria). However, people change as they grow older and Bundy was no exception to this part of the cycle of life. In high school, Ted wasn’t as popular as he had been; his academic progress waivered, and he started to become withdrawn from society – all signs of an instable character, pointing to a possibility of future problems. Then things began to turn in a brighter direction for Bundy when he met the love of his life Stephanie. Stephanie was older than Ted and eventually grew tired of his immature ways and manipulation and ended the relationship. After the breakup, Ted lost control of his emotions and left Stanford, only to wait a few months to enter the University of Washington and not only become an average student, but an honor student and participate in political campaigns in his area. A normal human-being excelling in life and possessing stable, strong relationships in his life, only to soon become one of the most notorious serial killers in American
The hard-core porn wasn’t enough, but his religious and moral beliefs helped to restrain him until he became intoxicated one night and had just enough to help break his restraints and reduce his inhibitions. It is unknown as to when Ted first killed since he denies accusations of his first murder being at age 14. Another theory of deviance which relates to containment applies to the life and actions of Bundy. It is assumed Ted didn’t have much outer containment at home knowing he was first exposed to porn by his step-father around age 12. By not having outer containment and rules at home leads to more free-time for children to develop bad habits as Bundy did. From research, it is assumable that Ted started out having inner containment, being able to control his inappropriate inhibitions until he cracked and then felt no remorse or guilt for his actions until the end for Ted