True Crime Tuesday January 7th, 2025 - Ted Bundy in Florida
A change of scenery doesn't always help things out
Ted Bundy had always referred to himself as two different people, his regular side, and the portion of himself that he would call his entity. But there was more to Bundy than his two identities. He also could be described as two different killers, one organized and methodical, while the other was brash and reckless. We wouldn't see the other killer until Bundy was on the run, in Florida, after escaping authorities in Colorado. Once we did, we got the entire portrait of Theodore Robert Bundy that many knew already existed.
Welcome to this week's edition of True Crime Tuesday. Today, we delve into Ted Bundy again, looking at the differences between his crimes in the Western part of the US and what he did when he finally landed in Florida. As always, your likes, comments, shares, and subscriptions keep this train moving. Feel free to start the new year by helping me, if you wish.
On December 30, 1977, Ted Bundy slipped out of the iron grasp of the long arm of the law. It wasn't the first time, but ultimately, it would be the last. Ted had escaped in June of the same year. Bad weather and bad luck would force Bundy to return to captivity. But during the December escape, things went much differently.
Ted dropped a significant amount of weight over the months before his escape. He disguised this tactic as being dissatisfied with the food he was being served in prison. In actuality, he was slimming himself down to fit through a lighting fixture in his cell. It was set to be welded over for some time before that date, but the issue of moving inmates and securing the cell enough to get an outside contractor in to complete the task proved too much. Ted took advantage of this and slipped through the opening before sliding into a jailer's living quarters. The jailer was out due to the holidays, which made it possible for him to go through the door and walk out of prison unnoticed. He had stacked books and other items on his bed so well that his absence wasn't noticed until the end of the day.
Bundy would later talk about the event and explain the logic of his departure. He claimed he wanted to escape prison and start over. He desired to travel as far away from his captors as possible, and Florida seemed like the ideal spot after looking at a map of the country. Ted also claimed that he intended to go the straight and narrow. He planned on getting work in construction or something similar but couldn’t procure the correct documents for employment.
I'm not a believer in this statement. Bundy’s eventual landing spot was Tallahassee, chosen because Florida State University was housed there. Bundy wanted to live somewhere "familiar to him", and what was known to Ted at this time was killing young women. He could have chosen the rural Everglades or lived as a beach bum in Miami, but instead, he chose to make his home in a town that had a large population of young coeds.
Ted would arrive in Tallahassee on January 8. His first few days were spent stealing and surviving. Ted was able to gather credit cards and vehicles to help him get by. But it was different than before he was convicted in Utah for the kidnapping of Carol DaRonch. He didn't have the same look and demeanor. Ted hadn't been free since 1975; he had been under 24-hour surveillance before his eventual conviction. Gone were the same benefits he had before, such as legitimate income and the facade of a successful young law student. Instead, it was the image of a disheveled man. Time in prison alongside stress from another trial did a number on Theodore. His entire approach to doing what he enjoyed most in life, hunting and killing women, was suddenly stunted. He didn't have his crutches or fake slings. He didn't know the area like he did in Utah or Washington. All he had was his freedom and wits, and both were running thin.
The success and the ego-boosting that accompanied Ted's endeavors in the Northwest were a hindrance and a functioning cog in his makeup. When Ted could live his double life on his terms, he worked efficiently with his targets. No physical evidence was ever tied to Ted for his murders in Washington and Oregon. It wasn't until he moved east that he started to make mistakes, and the most startling ones came in Florida after he could no longer placate the beast that laid dormant inside him.
Ted's first attack took place on January 15, just one week after Bundy arrived.1 It would also be one of his most violent. Margaret Elizabeth Bowman, Lisa Janet Levy, Kathy Kleiner, and Karen Chandler, all Chi Omega sorority sisters, would end up feeling Bundy's wrath. Ted entered the residence and attacked Bowman first, using a log he had found near the entrance of the house to bludgeon her while she slept. The bitemark he left on Levy's body was also the piece of evidence that had him convicted for the attack. Instead of the well-put-together Bundy, who would have the entire abduction as well as the disposal laid out in his head before engaging with the assault, a disorganized and frantic Ted would replace his Western counterpart.
Kleiner and Chandler would survive the attack, and both would attribute that survival to Bundy being frightened by headlights being seen in the windows of the house. A roommate and her boyfriend had come back to the house after a night out. Unlike prior crimes, Ted's timing for the sorority murders couldn't have come at a worse time. His actions were discovered almost immediately. Police were still processing the Chi Omega house when a report came over the radio for a similar affair. A Florida State student named Cheryl Thomas was beaten in her basement apartment just a short distance from the initial crime scene. Ted had caused immeasurable havoc and bloodshed but still wasn’t satisfied.
The truth was Ted wasn’t going to feel the same satisfaction from these crimes as his previous ones. They were too far from his own fantasies, and with the difference in both being so large, he was never able to calm himself completely. Ted spoke of a love for control with the women he killed later on during his confessions. This wasn’t possible with the Chi Omega killings.
Between the arrival in Tallahassee and the night when Ted unleashed his urges onto the Florida populace, he had been named the FBI's Most Wanted criminal and went on a date with a neighbor he had met while stealing and dealing. Those two elements paint the perfect picture of Bundy's life. While he was charming and a ladies' man, he also was a cold-blooded killer who needed to be kept from the general public.
It should also be noted that Ted's attack wasn't completely unplanned. He knew things about the locations he would enter. He seemed aware of the logs by the entrance of the Chi Omega house, and that the lock on the house was faulty. He also knew that Cheryl Thomas kept her window unlocked. Portions of the old Ted were on display, but without the old toolset he had created in Washington and perfected in Utah and Colorado, he couldn’t do the same things. While normal individuals would probably see that Ted was able to kill and had his urges satiated, that wasn't the case, and it would lead to even more murder.
On February 9, just over a month after Ted arrived in Florida, he would find himself in Lake City. This is where Ted's final murder would occur, one that would reveal aspects of Ted that were unknown before that fateful day. It had been assumed that Ted had only stuck to one type of victim, attractive young women, typically with long straight hair parted down the middle. We didn’t know when Ted couldn’t obtain his preferred target, he would hunt for something else, children.
Kimberly Leach, a 12-year-old student, was walking back to her homeroom class that morning to retrieve a purse she had left. While strolling back through the campus, Ted intercepted her and convinced the young girl to accompany him to his stolen van. A witness would state that he saw Bundy escorting Leach while she sported a worried expression. The assumption has always been that Ted informed Kimberly that he was a family friend and needed her to accompany him due to an emergency.
Kimberly was found in an abandoned hog shed on April 7. Unlike Ted’s victims who were found in pieces and were skeletal when they were found, Kimberly’s body revealed a road map for investigators to later try Ted with. Leach’s conviction would be the one to put Ted Bundy in the electric chair. The horror she witnessed at the hands of Bundy was somewhat satisfactory, but you would never be able to convince the loved ones of Kimberly of it. She was barely starting her life when Ted found her. She had just started dating a boy and was wearing a custom football jersey with her name embroidered on the back. Kimberly deserved more than her untimely demise.
Even with a somewhat familiar element, one where Ted can capture his victims and take them somewhere remote, he didn’t accomplish the same feats he had before. Ted’s knowledge of the area wasn’t the same as in Washington or Utah. He had only been in Florida for weeks. Compare that to growing up in the Pacific Northwest and cruising for hours through Utah and its neighboring states. The truth was Ted no longer cared to be careful. His mental state wouldn’t allow it. He was soothing himself in his sadistic fashion.
Ted’s final capture would take place soon after his final abduction.
He only lasted a few more days as a free man. It was February 12 when Ted decided to go to Pensacola. He was behind on rent and unable to get enough to keep his landlord at bay. He stole a car and left Tallahassee behind. On the 15th, he was stopped around 1 am. Officer David Lee noticed a VW Bug was stolen after he ran its plates. Ted stopped and at first, went along with Lee’s requests, but once he was told that he was under arrest, Bundy kicked out the officer’s legs from under him. Officer Lee fired some warning shots before giving chase, and after tackling Bundy, the two fought over his firearm. David Lee ended up pistol-whipping Bundy and handcuffing him after a struggle. After this moment, Ted would never again take another breath of air as a free man.
Ted at first wouldn’t give his real name. He had multiple IDs, making it difficult for authorities to decipher who he was. Ted held on as long as he could, with news reports being released on the mystery man police detained, but he knew his goose was cooked. He alluded to wishing that Lee had killed him after he was placed in the police car, and after getting into an interrogation room, he started to unravel. Once he was ready to give in, he asked if he could make a phone call. After some back and forth on the subject, investigators decided that by allowing their mystery man to dial out they’d finally get his real name.
Ted would call Elizabeth Kleopfer, his longtime girlfriend from Washington. Liz would recount her experience living alongside Ted as he murdered countless women, and she also was the first person who would see the complete picture of Bundy due to this call. He would tell Liz that she would hear things about him and that he had tried to keep his distance from her.2 He even admitted to attempting to kill her one night. Once Ted confessed these things to her, he returned to the investigators and gave them his name, Theodore Robert Bundy.
Ted Bundy was so distraught and stressed during his flight from law enforcement that he felt the need to go back to what felt familiar to him, but he didn’t have the same ability to capture women as he did before. Due to this, he adapted to a different type of serial killer. We’ve seen this happen with other murderers, but Ted’s crimes were so widespread and heinous that he captivated America once the true depths of his depravity were revealed. Bundy went from a regional news story, reported in multiple jurisdictions, to a national headline. It wouldn’t be until years later, after much research and discussion on the subject, before we fully understood Ted’s urges and inclinations to gravitate toward destruction, even at the detriment of himself.
Here’s hoping your January is starting on the right foot. As always, be safe out there.