Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer

When I look at those photographs,

I just realize, what felt like a deep and meaningful

relationship we had, just having fun;

my daughter's in most of the pictures;

um, it just... it felt very inclusive.

And I think that's why I had such a difficult time

ever letting go of... of him.

It's so incompatible with the Ted that I knew.

I just didn't think he could do these things.

Theodore Robert Bundy, at age 28,

a University of Utah law student...

- How you doin'? - Good, how are you?

At 30, a Colorado jail escapee

and one of the FBI's ten most wanted men.

Ted Bundy knew how to prey on women.

He knew he was going to go after women

for their good nature, their willingness to help out,

their empathy, their belief that they should be nurturers,

that they should be kind, and especially be kind to men.

My jaw was broken in three places.

I had lacerations on my shoulder.

I had a broken jaw.

Um, some of my teeth were knocked out.

3, 2, 1.

Tonight, Ted Bundy and cameras in the courtroom...

- Ted Bundy... - Ted Bundy...

- Ted Bundy... - Ted Bundy...

Ted Bundy...

Theodore Robert Bundy...

Smile, Ted.

The Ted Bundy story has been recycled

over and over and over again.

It makes for great entertainment.

He's a fascinating, evil character.

It's a discounting of the stories of the women,

in favour of the central hero

being the most important character in the narrative.

And that is the failure to look deeper

and think harder about violence against women in our culture.

At that time, women were on the cusp

of becoming independent.

You're starting to feel like you can do anything,

and all of a sudden, you get walloped.

I guess I feel like speaking about my sister now

because women's lives are still secondary to men,

and somewhat expendable.

It's the only reason to really poke at it again,

is to try to learn something, to rise above it.

The story has been told many times by men.

I want to tell the story because I think

there are some lessons to be learned.

Now's the time to talk about this.

And all of... all of this.

Not just bits and pieces of it,

but my story from beginning to end.

I've had so much to work through

since all of this happened.

There was shame; there was guilt;

there was all kinds of things that I...

I didn't feel really good about.

Even after he was arrested

and he was in prison,

he wrote me many, many letters

where he talked about me and my daughter

being the best thing that ever happened to him,

and that's what he really missed by not being free.

He missed our life together.

Gosh, it's...

My gosh.

"I would not change places with any other man in the world.

"I consider you a miracle in my life,

"and in spite of the disaster we have suffered,

"I would not, for a moment,

"ever wish for another woman.

"You are the most loving and lovely woman I have ever known.

"You are in my mind constantly.

"No words could express adequately

"the dimensions of my feelings.

"I shall love you forever and forever in my dreams.

"I shall love you with every long-haired beauty I see.

"I shall love you with every clear blue sky.

"I will love you until my last breath.

"No goodbyes, just I love you."

That one...

That one still gets me.

We came over I-90,

which is through the mountains.

It had been raining, and there was mist in the air

that was hanging at the tops of the trees.

And then we ended up on a floating bridge

that went across Lake Washington.

It was just beautiful.

And it just knocked my socks off.

I was so happy to be here.

I thought, "This is it.

"This is the place I want to be."

So I was a single mom,

and I was moving here from Utah with my daughter, Molly.

I found a place on Capitol Hill,

which was kind of run-down at the time.

It was a one-bedroom apartment,

so my daughter slept on the couch.

But it was close to where my friend lived,

so I felt comfortable about that.

You know, there weren't a lot of options in the day.

There was like teaching, nursing, secretarial work.

I thought I would be really happy

working at the University of Washington,

and I knew I could be a good secretary.

The first interview I went out on,

they hired me right away,

and I thought, "This is great."

And it just felt like I'm...

gonna have this big adventure.

My daughter, she was just three

when I went to work.

I found a good daycare for her,

but it was hard for me to drop her off in the morning,

so they'd let me bring my daughter to work,

and she enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed having her there.

When I was first introduced to Liz,

I just couldn't believe it.

She just looked so young and...

and so vulnerable.

The look on her face, it was like,

"My God, I finally got a job at the U."

She just looked like she was so wide-eyed

and hadn't been very many places.

Growing up in Utah,

I was the youngest out of four kids.

Not that I was ever that good at going to Mormon church,

but it was the culture in Utah.

All your neighbours are Mormon.

Everything that goes on down there

has got influenced by the LDS church.

The wife is there to support the husband in his important work,

and so the most important job for a woman

is to be a good wife and a good mother.

In the Relief Society,

we learn how to become better wives and mothers,

and receive religious instruction

in this worldwide organization.

I feel that Mormon women

have always been liberated.

- Hi, Jeanette. - Won't you come in?

I often looked at my parents' marriage,

and I thought, "That's just not for me,"

because my dad was the one that went out

and made the living and brought in the money,

and my mom took care of the home.

And even though I was really wanting a family,

I didn't see myself as having to... ask for money.

And so it felt like there was really not a place for me.

I mean, I just felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb.

Since an early age I've been shy,

so it's been a lifetime of struggle.

When I meet new people or I'm in a situation

that I've not been in before, I just get so tongue-tied,

and really wishing that I could just crawl into a hole.

I think it had a lot to do with self esteem.

I just grew up thinking,

"There's something wrong with me.

"I don't know what it is."

In college, I went through sorority rush,

and at the end of that, I... I didn't get a bid,

as they call it, and I got dropped.

And even though I didn't think I wanted to be in a sorority,

it was still devastating because it felt like rejection.

And that's when I realized that if I drank,

that I was just way more fun.

So I just felt smarter, prettier,

more charming, funnier.

So drinking was a big problem,

and it did nothing to help me become

the person that I was hoping to become.

I did get married and had a baby

while I was still in college.

My husband was very immature.

He was a year younger than me and partying a lot.

The marriage just didn't survive.

I really wanted to get married again

and have more children.

I thought that Seattle would be the place

where I would really settle down,

and I was just gonna work there until I found Mr. Right.

When I first walked onto campus,

I saw that there was this huge demonstration,

and I saw all these police cars go by,

and they were full of police in riot gear.

I had no idea what was going on.

And all of a sudden a big cheer went up,

and these people had pushed a bulldozer into this pit

that had been dug for a new building.

And there were cops coming in riot gear

by the carful, and I just stood on the sidewalk

and watched it all,

because I'd never seen anything like that in Utah.

The University of Washington was a hotbed

of anti-war movement.

There were campus radicals;