Ted Bundy: Film Portrayal
Driving to high school bus loops and parking lots, looking at underage girls, feeling on himself.
Grocery shopping, eyeing young women and making them uncomfortable.
Stealing out of women’s purse while they’re in the dressing room.
Dressed and looked very well, very well groomed.
Drove a yellow punch buggy.
Stole a plant, tree, fern from market.
In night clubs and bars by himself, drinking at the bar, eyeing young women, asking them to dance, not taking “no” for an answer.
Telling young females, he was a student, asked if they were students.
Followed a young girl home after the bar, peaked into her window and began to masturbate while she got undressed. Gets caught by neighbors and they respond “you again?!” and throws water on him.
Ted drives home very upset and aggressive then spots another woman while driving and stops, pulls out a wooden object, beats her then steals her purse and leaves woman on curb then starts hysterically laughing.
Calls an old lover at 4am named Lee and says he wants to see her, she says its only convenient for him, he tells her he loves her and hasn’t been seeing anyone else, Lee gives in and agrees to meet up with him.
Spends time in the park with Lee and her daughter, who adores Ted like a father. Lee hopes one day she can have Ted to herself and commit and he says they are committed just because he has admirers doesn’t mean he sleeps with them. Ted gives Lee a bracelet, she assumes it stolen because he’s given her stolen objects before. Lee threatens to tell everyone he is a theft and he threatens to break her neck if she does.
Flunked out of law school then flunked out of psychology.
Lee gives him money to stay in school.
Lee and Ted have sex, Ted asks Lee to flip over but she denies because it feels dirty, instead Ted askes Lee to close her eyes as he begins to choke her and becomes aggressive then gets up and leaves.
Ted appears to be working at the crisis center from 11-3 where girls call about rape cases. On the phone with a victim the two begin to flirt, she introduces herself as Karen and asks if she could speak with Ted again sometime and he says of course.
Ted is drinking at the bar; he spots a young girl and follows her home. Sneaks into her room, gets undressed, and knocks her out with a crowbar, handcuffs her to the bed, rapes her and begins to beat her to death with the crowbar. Later that night, Ted returned back to Lees house after not calling or returning her calls. Lee asks if Ted is sick, he replies he’s hungry and she feeds him. While caressing him, Ted vents to Lee about wanting a good job, clothes, nice car, go into politics, and wanting to be normal. Lee assures him that he is normal and everything will be okay.
Ted sneaks into another young girls’ room, covers her mouth, threatens to kill her if she screams, tells her he broke into her apartment, knocks her out cold, puts her in his trunk and drives off, with people passing by not paying attention or bothered.
Calls himself illegitimate and a bastard to Lee. Tells Lee he found out at 5 his sister was his mother. At 17 he found out that his father wasn’t his father. Lee consoles him.
Wears a cast around his arm to school, drops his books in front of young woman and claims they’re law books to impress her, Ted asks if she could assist him to his car, as she’s putting books on the floor he hits her with a crowbar and stuffs her inside of the passenger seat of his car.
At a dinner party; guests are watching the news. The news shows a serial killer on the loose and Ted confirms that it isn’t him without anyone asking and his friends reassure him that he would be the last person they’d suspect. Ted states police hold things back, the women are probably already dead, then Ted and a female coworker start to talk about murder and how interesting and motivating murderers are. Lee gets jealous and confronts Ted on their conversation.
Ted takes a girl into the woods, says he wants to talk because he needs some attention. While talking, Bundy hits the girl with a crowbar. The girl starts crying for help as he tosses her around and then begins to choke her to death. Says to her he has control and that this is his law.
Tells Lee he is going to Salt Lake for Law school, Lee gets upset, Ted pushes her into the lake, tells Lee it was a joke, Lee finds handcuffs in Teds car and confronts him but Ted states that he’s never seen the handcuffs before.
Shows scene of Bundy putting lipstick on a mannequin head and calling her a pretty girl.
Lee comes over to Bundys’ house and asks “What’s that smell”, Ted responds it’s a bologna sandwich he left on the counter.
Ted asks Lee if she knew about submission, she replies she thought that’s what she was doing, Lee wants to make love but Ted wants total control. Ted ties Lees’ legs and arms then becomes more aggressive, Lee isn’t feeling Teds’ aggression, then Ted asks Lee to pretend like she is dead. Ted orders her to not breath or talk, then screams “fuck you bitch” while having sex with Lee as she pretends she’s dead.
Confronts a girl (Shaun) as she’s tanning on the beach, uses his charm and “cast” to convince her to help him with his sail boat, says he’ll take her for a ride if she helps, she agrees. The two walk to Bundys’ car, Shaun asks what about the sail boat, Bundy says its up the street, Shaun appears uncomfortable but she gets in the car.
Bundy stops another young girl to help him with his sailboat. Both girls wake up in a cabin in the woods, handcuffed to a pole, bleeding and screaming. Bundy screams back in taunting, one of the girls tries to run away but he does a friendly skip/jog as he chases after her. He’s clearly enjoying himself. The girl comes across a dead female body in a sexual position, she reacts and gets caught, Bundy drags the female back to the cabin. Bundy has sex with the bleeding female he was chasing then smashes her head with a cement brick while the other girl watches then asks if she wants to have some fun.
Bundy leaves Lee and her daughter to go to Utah for college for law school to become a lawyer.
As he’s leaving the state, police find seven heads and three bodies at the crime scene.
Bundy picks up a female hitchhiker, they have a conversation the he knocks her out with a crowbar.
A scene shows several police sketches of Ted and police discovering the bodies of the victims.
Throws all corps into the woods, even lays beside one.
Bundy pretends to be a police officer and tells a young woman that someone has just broken into her car and says he need to take her to the “station”. The two fight in the car once she realizes where they’re not going to the police station, Bundy holds a gun to her head and threatens to shoot her if she fights her way out of the car, the girl escapes out of the car and runs away to another car and gets away. Bundy beats himself up in the car calling himself stupid for messing around.
Bundy approaches a teenage girl after basketball game, walks to her car with her and hits her with an object in public.
A scene shows Ted smoking a joint as the police pull up behind him, Ted doesn’t stop or slow down, he speeds up then eventually pulls over. Bundy gets out of the car and apologizes but the police officer still arrests him. Detective asks him why he’s driving around with a rape kit which contained a stocking mask, lock picking tools, crowbar with duct tape around it, hacksaw, rope, and knife. Ted replies that it isn’t his, the detective proceeds to ask him if he knows Tina Gallagher and says she saw his picture and recognized him as the guy who tried to kidnap her from the mall a couple months ago. Bundy replies “no” and that he wouldn’t mind going to a stand up. The detective asks if he knows any of the women named Barbara, Karen, Suzan, Karen Parks, Mary Ann, Lucy Lee, Wendy, Stephanie, Lenn Adams, he replies “no”.
Bundy writes a letter to Lee while he’s in jail, Lee comes to visit him and talks to him saying that she’s been faithful throughout the years but she’s notice the police reports saying he’s been with other women. He tells Lee that he’s being charged for a Terry Bells kidnapped from the ski resort murder. Says they’ll never get a conviction and smiles because the case is weak. Lee leaves in disbelief.
Bundy asks guard “why do women wear makeup and perfume?”, then answers “because they’re ugly and stink”. Guard leaves Bundy alone while he leaves for a smoke in the hallway, Bundy escapes out of the window, clear in an unknown direction.
Police find Bundy breaking into a car and apprehend him as he smiles.
A scene shows Bundy having sex with a visitor in jail and giving the guard money afterwards.
Visitors send him money and wants to get him out of jail says she loves him and soon he’ll get out and they’ll be together.
Bundy was labeled the worse mass murderer. Has committed 150 murders in the country. Bundy has escaped for the second time and that it’ll only be a matter of time before he kills again.
Goes to Tallahassee asking about an apartment from an ad in the paper, pays cash for the apartment and moves in. Changes his name to Chris, goes to a college gathering, shares his pitcher of beer with two sorority girls and then exchanges conversation.
One girl leaves uncomfortably from the bar and goes home, Bundy follows her and waits to sneak into her house, kills 2 girls then beats 2 more half to death and then leaves once another girl enters the house, runs to the car and leaves.
During a conversation with the owner of the house, he says “it takes guts to go in the house and have your way with those girls”.
While in jail, police prepare Bundy for his execution at 7pm, his last meal was steak and eggs but he refused it. The police officers shaved his head and stuffed his bottom with Vaseline and cotton balls and place a diaper on him.
Protestors were outside the jail with signs saying “let him fry” and “let him die”.
Minister says a prayer for him but he doesn’t say amen, he just sits there. Bundy begins to cry as he faces his last minutes.
Ted refused to get out of the cell so they go inside and drag him out. Bundy’s final statements were to tell his family he loved them.
Says the word serial killer was first used to describe Ted Bundy, in the months leading to his execution he received more than 200 letters a day from women who claimed they loved him.
THE STRANGER BESIDE ME (1995/2002)
Memorial Day Party. Everyone is outside celebrating. Jenn (brunette) is sitting by herself, drawing. Guy in gorilla costume approaches Jen, she claims he’s too much of an animal later finds out it was Chris Gallagher (Ted Bundy). Chris sits by Jenn, calls her beautiful and asks her out on a date, she declined he respectfully leaves. Chris gets invited over Jen’s house by her guardian, Chris pops up with flowers and asks for a date again. Jenn declines but her father pressures her into going, so she goes.
Chris says he’s leaving in 6 weeks for the navy, says he needs to train and kick back.
Jenn and Chris have dinner and they start making out. Chris says he wants to make love to Jenn, she declines and gets up and starts getting dressed. Chris says he loves Jenn and wants to marry her. Jenn admits that she’d been raped by her friends’ step father, says she really scared of change and Chris says she doesn’t have to be no one will hurt her like that again if she marries him.
The two get married and Jenn thanks Dave, her guardian, for introducing her to Chris.
Jenn moves away with Chris and into their new house and Chris immediately begins to make love and seduce Jenn. Jenn asks if they’re going to present every room like this and Chris responds absolutely, even the closets.
Chris is home when Jenn arrives, she says she got a job and offers to start dinner. Chris says he’s going for a run, Jenn asks if he is okay, Chris replied “Yes, it was just my first day and I expected you to be here for me”, Jenn apologizes and Chris leaves for his run.
A scene shows a woman getting out of the shower and notices someone looking in her window and calls for her husband. Her husband runs outside to chase a couple who were casually jogging then runs into Chris who was “jogging” as well. Chris suggests that the husband go one way while he goes another then arrive back at his house. Once he arrives he says the person got away.
Chris gets home, Jenn asks how was his run, he says it was fine then begins to kiss and caress on Jenn then asks for her to take off her clothes, she says she’s going to take a shower but Chris insists that she takes off her clothes, she does so as he stands and watches then commands her to stand still as he undresses and starts to seduce Jenn.
Jenn later finds out about the chasing that happened. Two girls called about peepers in the past month, same thing happened to another woman in the area.
A scene shows the neighbors wife waking up and seeing a black figure in the bedroom with a mask on as he walks closer to her then the scene ends.
Jenn begins to worry about the mystery peeper and Chris yells at her for always worrying and not trusting his safety. Chris expresses how nerve wrecking it is to be in the navy sub and that it feels like a tomb.
Jenn notices a cut or scratch on Chris, says it’s something that happened at work. Later gets informed that he doesn’t have to ship out, Chris tells Jenn that he told the crew how nervous he was about the ship and they let him off. The couple was happy to be themselves again.
Jenn then finds out that Chris was requested a counselor, says that he’d kill himself is he had to go to sea.
When Jenn confronts Chris on the matter, Chris snatches Jenn and asks what is she doing checking up on him, calls her a spy and says he doesn’t need her help and to stay the hell out of his business. Jenn walks home in frustration as she gets chase by a dark figure who turns out to be Chris, Jenn hits him and then he claims he thought she saw him and that’s why he ran towards her. Chris explains that what he said about killing himself was a expression and he wasn’t serious, he says he doesn’t care if they think he’s crazy as long as he doesn’t have to be away from Jenn for three months. During Chris’s apology, the police pull up to the house and arrest Chris for peeking into neighborhood windows. Jenn is called in to question about Chris, they ask where was her husband on said night around 9, she said he was home, the police says he was peeping in women’s window that night, Jenn refuses to believe. The police asked if Chris owned a gun and Jenn replied no, the police shows Jenn a pistol receipt as well as duct tape, gloves, a stocking cap, and bandages in their trash assuring that someone fought back and took a piece of him. The police states that he is convinced her husband is a rapist instead of just a peeper in windows. Jenn is in disbelief.
Jenn goes to visit Chris in jail and begins to cry. Chris tells Jenn not to cry, she says you don’t know what they’re saying about you. Chris says he was in question for four hours and that the cops were just trying to convince him that he was psycho, all he thought about how bad they would feel if something happened to someone while they were busy questioning him. Jenn asks if he had a gun, Chris replies he did but he sold it for her wedding ring and that they just need to keep strong until the questioning is over. He says his first charge is criminal trespass, a woman picked Chris out of line with positive identification. Jenn suggest they get a different lawyer, Chris declines and admits that he did look in some windows. Jenn gets upset and confesses that she’s pregnant and then leaves in frustration.
In court, Chris pleads guilty, the chief says that the navy will discipline Chris internally. Chris will recite back to New Mexico, with a psychological counselor then discharged. The judge agrees and sends Chris home.
After the jurisdiction, Chris and Jenn get into an argument, Chris compared window peeping to looking at Playboy but Jenn says they don’t arrest people for looking at Playboy. She asks why he did it, Chris says he doesn’t know but he couldn’t stop or help it. Claims he is sick, he lost everything, and asks if Jenn will help him, asks if she wanted to leave everything and move back home to start a new life with their baby. She agrees and the couple move back and stay with Dave, Jenns’ guardian. The two pay to stay upstairs and assure Dave that Chris has a job and they’ll be gone shortly. Chris tells Jenn that he’s going to keep a diary of times he should be home, which is 5:45.
At work, Chris boss asks him to pick up some dry wall from the store. On the way, Chris spots a woman gardening her flowers and stares in elongation then proceeds to the store.
In a scene at a neighborhood cookout, a friend of Chris who is a cop, stops by a cookout and says that he’s on the job because there have been calls about rape and it’s having a hard time keeping it out of the press. Chris tells his friend not to tell Jenn about the calls and his friend agrees.
Jenn and Chris arrive home, Jenn asks why there isn’t any gas in the tank and Chris asks where she’s been, Jenn responds the store therefore there should be half a tank. Chris gets upset and accuses Jenn of accusing him of looking in windows again then storms off and leaves the house. Jenn calls around looking for Chris then her water breaks.
While Jenn is in the hospital giving birth, Chris is seen sneaking into another woman’s house. The woman calls for help, Chris later shows up to the hospital while Jenn is resting. Jenn calls Chris the next day but no answer. Dave assures her that he’ll be back and that he’s just a little upset.
Jenn gets home and sees the place has been unpacked, she’s confused as to why Chris didn’t call or come by the hospital but set up the house. Jenn says that Chris acts like a child sometimes. Chris little cousin, Dana, says that Jenn can’t let Chris near the baby. Then proceeds to talk about how Chris would come into Dana’s room when she was younger and told her stories then would begin to touch her but she’d let him do it because she was a kid but he’s a monster and she needs to stay away. Chris arrives home and his cousin leaves immediately.
Chris apologizes for Jenn not seeing him in the hospital but he says she was sleeping so he didn’t want to bother her. Says he thought it’d be good to unpack. Jenn says she’s going to take a nap, Chris offers to take the baby but she insists that the baby stay with her. Jenn asks Dave if he could stay a little while longer, Chris leaves and says have a good nap and assumes Jenn is still mad. Dave scolds Chris for not being in the delivery room, Chris gets defensive but then apologizes.
Jenn wakes up and calls investigator to ask why there was no rape charges on her husbands case, investigator says that was the DA’s decision; they said there wasn’t enough evidence but he listened to the witnesses and they describe Chis perfectly, he wore a ski mask, he had a gun and didn’t speak, same height and weight, he was a jogger, and drove the same car. Chris asks Jenn who she was speaking too and she hung up the phone and began to pack her clothes. Jenn tells Chris that Dana told her everything as well as the police in Cali. Says she knows he raped Gina and that she was taking the baby with her. Chris tells Jenn to put her bag away then pushes her down and throws the bag out of the window. The police arrive saying the neighbor called a disturbance, the police ask Jenn if she wants to press charges and she says “yes”, they arrest Chris and take Jenn to the police station.
Jenn arrives at the police station and meets with an officer who turns out to be Chris friend. Chris friend tries to calm Jenn and says he wants things to work out for her and Chris. Jenn leaves in frustration as Dana suggests maybe she should get another lawyer, when Jenn asks Dana to confess what Chris did to her she declines. Jenn visits Chris in jail and Chris says “maybe it is true, maybe I did do things in Cali, Maybe I’m still doing them, but they’ll never believe you”. Chris threatens that if Jenn runs away with their daughter he’ll find her and that’s a promise. Jenn says she’ll drop the charges and Chris says they’ll be a happy family.
At home, Jenn tells Dave he’s never going to stop, he’s going to keep raping women and the police are going to do nothing about it. Chris arrives back at the house saying that everything was cleared up at the police station, Dave tells Chris he’s not welcomed at the house anymore, Chris says Dave was trying to hurt his feelings, Dave’s says if he lays a finger on Jenn or their daughter he will find and hurt him, Chris calls Dave grouchy for his old age.
In the car, Chris stops by a house and says “that’s a nice house, bet there’s a beautiful woman inside, tall and blonde, who takes long showers” then drives off while Jenn looks in disgust.
Jenn meets with a cop again and says that her husband is responsible for the rapes, says that he was out on the nights that the rapes happened and she tracked the mileage on his car from the incidents and it matched up. The cop suggests that Jenn hires a detective but she doesn’t want to involve them, then he says that she will need something more concrete such as a gun if she wanted to trap him.
The next day, Jenn steals Chris’s car keys and searches Chris’s car and finds Chris’s gun in his trunk with the spare tire. Jenn sends Chris to the store to buy formula as she calls the police, Chris gets back from the store and sees the police, they ask to check his car because of a weapon and the gun was gone. Once the police leave, Chris pulls all his supplies out of the grocery bag, and says he couldn’t think of a better hiding place and considers getting rid of the gun. Jenn calls Chris insane and says she prays every night that they will catch him and put him in jail for the rest of his life.
Jenn comes home from Daves a little late, Chris asks where she was and demands his family be home when he comes home. Then commands Jenn to make dinner for him and the guys because they’re hungry. After Chris friends leave, he claims that Jenn was teasing his friends by the way she dressed and moved in front of them. He later says he’s going out for a drive and tells Jenn not to wait up for him. Jenn grabs her jacket and purse and leaves right after Chris as she follows a few cars behind. The two arrive to a house where a woman is seen getting ready for bed through her window. Chris gets out of the car and puts his hoodie and face mask, Jenn calls the police department then flattens Chris’s tires. The police arrive and then go inside of the house to arrest Chis, Chris runs outside but Jenn stops him with a gun. The police tackle Chris to the ground, unmask him, and arrest him. Jenn apologizes to the rape victim and says that the man who tried to rape her was her husband but you’re safe now.
Sources
“A&E Biography Ted Bundy.” YouTube - Broadcast Yourself., 8 June 2002, www.youtube.com/.
Rule, Ann. The Stranger Beside Me. USA Cable Network, 2002. TV Movie.
Rule, Ann. The Stranger Beside Me. W.W Norton & Company, 1995. Print.