The serial killer has become a staple in books and films, a new form of bogey man that strikes fear into the public precisely because there seems to be no clear reason why he (or, in the rare instance, she) kills. The real reason for the fear is that there is usually no connection between the killer and his victim, and this means that anyone can become a victim at any time if they meet the serial killer at an inopportune moment. Capturing these elusive murderers is very difficult, and there are a number of well-known serial killers who remain at large to this day, such as the Zodiac in San Francisco or the Green River Killer in Washington State. A killer like Ted Bundy is even more difficult to capture as a rule because he traveled across the country, killing in different jurisdictions rather than in one place where the police could develop a strategy for finding him. Another advantage Bundy had was that he was so normal-seeming--he was a good-looking young man who had been somewhat notable in his home town and who seemed to have everything going for him, which is not at all the picture most people have of a serial killer. Ted Bundy was good at fitting into society on one level, while on another level, he was at war with that same society. At one time, he was an assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention advisory committee and even wrote a pamphlet instructing women on rape prevention. When younger, he had been a Boy Scout and even had a promising career in Washington State politics. Ted Bundy seemed to many to be an example of a good, upstanding citizen, but he was hiding a secret life behind his smile. He was executed in Florida only a portion of the murders attributed to him. At least 36 young women are said to have been killed by him, but by his own admission, there are many more deaths which the authorities never learned about or attributed to him (Corpus, 1989).
Bundy was a celebrity among serial killers,...