The Notorious Serial Killer Ted Bundy: 30 Confirmed Murders and Beyond - Essay Sample

Introduction

Ted Bundy was born in June 1979 and died in 1989 January (Mokros et al., 2011). He got charged with multiple counts of murder, assault, kidnapping, escaping prison and more. He pleaded not guilty and not guilty because of insanity, but the court found him to be guilty. Ted Bundy who is one of the most notorious serial killers eventually admitted to 30 homicides, though it is assumed that he had committed higher killings than this number. In 1977, he escaped prison and committed more murders in Florida, and was finally recaptured in 1979 and his Florida murder trials being the first ones to be nationally televised, with more than 250 journalists who travelled from across the globe to capture the proceedings (Mokros et al., 2011).

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The sadistic personality of Ted Bundy set the ground for some of the shocking true-crime fascinations that have been seen in the U.S to date. Bundy refused the lawyer who got appointed by the court in his first trial and preferred to represent himself. However, he lost his confidence over time and was eventually found guilty he was then given a death penalty, and executed in 1989 by electrocution.

It is with no doubt that anyone with the capacity to commit murder has some mental illness. For Ted Bundy, a serial killer who 30 years after his execution has captured the attention of the entire nation, there were many things wrong with him (Mokros et al., 2011). Whereas there are no known reports of him seeing any therapists before, Ted Bundy's aptitude for violence has rendered the infamous murderer and rapist to be studied for decades under the court order. The fascinating thing about Ted Bundy is his ability to carry on a double life; being able to attend college, have a long-term relationship, build his political career, while at the same time secretly engaging in unthinkable and brutal crimes.

Ted Bundy referred to himself as the most cold-hearted son of a bitch one would ever meet, and this statement certainly got justified by his crimes. Police in the Pacific Northwest were in a panic during the summer and spring of 1974 (Mokros et al., 2011). There was a serious issue of women disappearing from colleges across Oregon and Washington, with the law enforcement having no leads to their whereabouts or to who was behind this. Six women had been abducted in just six months, and when Denise Marie Naslund and Janice Ann Ott disappeared in broad daylight from a crowded beach at Lake Sammamish State Park, panic in the area reached fever pitch.

Development of the Mental Illness

Psychologist Al Carlisle took part in the interviewing and assessment of Bundy and eventually determined that Bundy was violent and most likely to continue killing even after jail term. As a result of this, his fate in prison got sealed. However, what could be the likely reason for Bundy to become a psychopath? How did this condition develop? One of the key factors that the psychologist came to understand to be a possible cause of this condition, after speaking to A&E Real Crime, was Bundy's lonely childhood. Bundy also had a strong desire to control women and also participated in illegal activities, and these were the major reasons that lead him to psychopathic tendencies (Gainsburg, 2019). Several theories, however, exist as to why Bundy became a psychopath, from his pornography addiction to his mother passing herself off as his sister during his childhood. A person is not born a psychic, and Bundy was not a psychopath during his childhood or high school years.

More Detailed Description of the Mental Illness

Psychopathy is not the same as an antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), but it does fall under its umbrella. The meaning of this is that not all people with antisocial personality disorder are psychopaths, but all psychopaths have an antisocial personality disorder (Gainsburg, 2019). ASPD covers several behavioural traits described in psychopathy, such as the tendency to ignore the law and not being remorseful, but the personality of the subject is better detailed in psychopathy. A psychologist by the name of Henry Clerckley who pioneered the concept of psychopathy defined one with the psychopathy Clercklist. They included untruthfulness, superficial charm, and insecurity, inadequately motivated antisocial behaviour, lack of nervousness, pathological egocentricity, lack of shame and remorse, inability to follow life span and many others (Gainsburg, 2019).

According to Darrel Turner, PhD, who is a forensic and clinical psychologist, Bundy is a typical definition of a prototypical psychopath. Turner states that there are certain traits seen such as the tendency to follow one's own interests and lack of empathy, but he did see a lot of other psychopathy traits with Bundy. The other traits that specifically were seen in Bundy included being superficially charming and pathological lying. It would be impossible to argue that Bundy who had the capacity to capture fans in the courtroom, lure women into his car, and brutally killed at least 30 people, moved from one college to another and never finished his law degree, did not show some tendencies for psychopathy (Gainsburg, 2019).

History of the Mental Illness

The founding father of modern psychiatry was Philipper Pinel (1745-1826), and first described a group of patients stricken with insanity without delirium (Ortega-Escobar et al., 2017). The term was used to describe a group of people who did not have an intellectual problem, but a deep deficiency in behaviour marked by antisocial acts, cruelty, irresponsibility, alcohol and drug use, and immorality. Pinel gave a description of a type of moral sanity that occurred in the absence of confusion in intellect and mind, separating such cases from patients who has psychotic behaviours.

J.L.A. Koch (1841-1908) was a German psychiatric who coined the term psychopath or psychopastiche in 1888. He claimed that psychopath was as a result of flaws in the constitution of an individual at birth. In the 1900s literature, constitutional psychopathy became a very common disorder (Gainsburg, 2019). Koth then made a discovery then that to assess psychopathy; there was a need to conduct a holistic appraisal of the life history of an individual. To correctly characterize psychopathic traits, such a gestalt view is necessary for an individual. The strategy used by Koch is generalizable to assessing all personality traits, and in the Emil Kraepelin's 8th edition classic textbook on clinical psychiatry, it was included (Ortega-Escobar et al., 2017). There is no cure for psychopathy, and no pills can instil empathy, there is no vaccine to prevent cold-blood murder, and there is no amount of talk therapy capable of changing the mind of an uncaring individual. For all purpose and intents, psychopaths are lost to the normal social world.

Currently, getting a proper diagnosis requires a mental health professional to conduct a full mental health evaluation. The mental health professional during this process will evaluate the feelings, thought, relationships, and behavioural patterns of the individual. They will then identify the symptoms shown by the individual then compare them to the ASDP symptoms in the DSM-5 (Ortega-Escobar et al., 2017). The medical history of the person will also be looked at, then full evaluation, which is a critical step s conducted since ASPD tends to show comorbidity with other addictive and mental health disorders.

Legal Implications of the Mental Illness

Psychopathy is characterized by lack of guilt or remorse and empathy. In some cases, it also leads to poor decision-making, poor behavioural control, lack of responsibility, and impulsiveness (Morse, 2010). All these characteristics are seen in Bundy, and they definitely have legal consequences. A person with this disorder is likely to engage in activities that are contrary to the requirements of the law, and they in most cases, end up in courts and charge. Being psychopath does not protect an individual from getting convicted. Their lack of remorsefulness and inability to learn from their past mistake is a grave concern for people with this kind of mental illness, and in most cases, it is as a result of such behaviours that leads to their conviction (Morse, 2010). For Bundy, the legal problem covered is entirely related to his mental illness. He was a psychopath person, and this lead to him engaging in several criminal activities like kidnapping, raping, and killing women. In the courts, he was rude and overconfident, and never even once was remorseful for the acts he committed.

What Inspired You to Choose This Case

The case appealed to me due to various reasons. Bundy's case was the first of its kind t be aired on national TV with attention from across the world. It was a very controversial case that drew the attention of people from all races of life, and upon his death conviction which was done through electrocution, the reactions from the public were even more fascinating. The public was happy, with one of the police officers saying he was so unlucky not to be the one who pulled the switch for the electrocution.

References

Gainsburg M. (2019). So, Exactly Which Mental Health Disorders Did Ted Bundy Have, Anyway? Women'sHealth. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a27346043/ted-bundy-mental-health-disorders-antisocial-behavior-personality/

Mokros, A., Osterheider, M., Hucker, S. J., & Nitschke, J. (2011). Psychopathy and sexual sadism. Law and human behavior, 35(3), 188-199. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20393872

Morse, S. J. (2010). Psychopathy and the law: the United States experience. Responsibility and Psychopathy: Interfacing Law, Psychiatry and Philosophy (International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry series)(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 41-62. https://oxfordmedicine.com/view/10.1093/med/9780199551637.001.0001/med-9780199551637-chapter-004

Ortega-Escobar, J., Alcazar-Corcoles, M. A., Puente-Rodriguez, L., & Penaranda-Ramos, E. (2017). Psychopathy: Legal and neuroscientific aspects. Anuario de psicologia juridica, 27(1), 57-66. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S113307401730017X