by Erin Banks
The more I review the cases the more I am of the mindset that we may perhaps at times get too hung up on the frequent use of the crowbar and strangulation aspect when discussing Bundy’s modus operandi.
If some of his victims hadn’t been confirmed, due to forensic evidence and his confessions, we might have been inclined to dismiss him as a possible suspect because of the difference in MO.
Bundy appeared to – quickly – develop his method of killing, as well as change it up at times. The crowbar and strangulation as well as employing a ruse such as an arm cast or crutches were frequently used. But there are also less frequent repetitions:
Bundy violently inserted a speculum – previously misidentified as a metal bed post by author Ann Rule in “The Stranger Beside Me” – into his first victim, Karen Sparks’, vaginal cavity.
One of the last victims, Lisa Levy, suffered similarly as Bundy inserted a Clairol hairspray bottle into her.
We cannot ascertain whether this method was used more often in between because what remained of many of the victims were skeletal remains, single bones or skulls.
As has been pointed out by other researchers, Bundy couldn’t spend as much time with, nor risk raping either Sparks or Levy due to fear of detection. To that end the insertion of the above mentioned items may have served as what could be referred to as a “rage proxy,” which is conclusive.
If Bundy also used this method in other slayings, he may have taken the items with him as a souvenir, in order not to leave behind evidence, or law enforcement may have simply overlooked them, especially if bodies were already too decomposed or skeletonized.
However, we can also observe an obvious change in victimology. We can further hypothesize that Bundy moving on from murdering mainly co-eds in Washington to high school girls – or at least choosing girls away from college campuses – in Utah, could very well have been a deliberate choice in order to further throw off law enforcement over the years and throughout different counties and states.
Especially considering that Bundy’s fiancé Elizabeth Kloepfer already halfheartedly considered him to be the “Ted” from Lake Sammamish, having reported her suspicions to the local police department which then co-operated with Utah law enforcement.
Generally, the change in MO and victimology may also have kept the thrill of the kill or the sensation of “newness” alive for Bundy.
Early development of MO:
After attacking Karen Sparks in her bed, Bundy left her there, most likely believing to have killed her. To find out she survived must have come as a shock.
First of all because he will have considered the possibility of her being able to identify him in some way, and secondly because he realized he may have left incriminating evidence behind. (Hair, bodily fluids, fibers, etc.)
The next learning experience was to then abduct Lynda Ann Healy from her basement bedroom in order to decrease the chance leaving evidence behind, on top of being able to make sure she expired at some point.
It’s also interesting that he may have made several phone calls to Healy’s house that night.
We cannot prove it was indeed Bundy, yet no similar reports about prank calls were ever corroborated by the room mates, plus the timing seems too much of a coincidence.
Were these calls made simply to relish in the panic of the room mates and the family who came over to the house later in the afternoon?
Or was it to listen to any possible background noise or conversations, in order to find out if her disappearance had indeed been detected already and police were at the house?
If the latter played a part it shows how panicked he himself must have been.
Likely still not satisfied with the amount of evidence left behind, Bundy took Donna Gail Manson from Evergreen State College campus, though we are unaware whether he already used a ruse.
Considering that he had once suffered a leg injury as a child which forced him to walk on crutches, as well as his aunt Julia Cowell reportedly having had to wear an arm cast in 1969 – though there are no records of this particular injury – Bundy may have taken inspiration from these incidents, as well as the courteous and considerate ways people treated him, offering help due to said injury.
Though Manson’s disappearance was noticed by her room mate, it was not reported to campus security, her father, and ultimately police until 18 days later due to Manson’s unsteady lifestyle and habit of traveling without alerting friends of family to the fact.
Bundy must have been quite pleased with himself when realizing that law enforcement was utterly oblivious to whether a crime had occurred, and if so, trying to establish who, when, where specifically, how and why.
It is my contention that this experience was the driving factor behind Bundy for the most part staying true to this MO almost exclusively and perfecting it later down the road.
Change in MO: The youngest victims:
As it pertains to changes in MO the first victim that comes to mind is 12-year old Lynette Dawn Culver.
Had Kimberly Dianne Leach’s body not been found, we cannot be certain what story Bundy may have concocted for investigators regarding the specific circumstances of her death.
My consideration is that since he struggled talking about the murders of his youngest victims – for various personal and also in part calculated/legal reasons – Bundy may have lied about the true specifics of Culver’s death.
I must firmly state that I do not intend for this to come across as me being a Bundy apologist in any way, but particularly being aware of Bundy’s usual brutality, a drowning seems almost too “gentle” or at least not as violent as a slow strangulation during rape.
It is also in most cases a quicker death.
Did he make up this story in order to almost make himself, in a twisted and unsuccessful way, look like a somewhat“considerate” or less brutal killer, taking her age into account in particular?
Another conclusion for the drowning may of course also be that, as Bundy did not know the area, he was forced to take her to the Holiday Inn he was staying at.
Hotel walls are thin and any noises may have alerted his neighbors to a struggle. Drowning Culver could just have been the most quiet and hence convenient way of murdering her.
Others have pointed to Bundy’s statements proving he took great pleasure in watching the last breaths leaving the victims’ bodies.
In what environment is this best or visibly possible? Under water.
It is interesting that Bundy’s other 12-year old victim, Kim Leach, was also murdered in a rather uncharacteristic way. He was in a secluded spot when cutting the middle schooler’s throat so there was no reason to deviate from his usual MO in the same way as there may have been with Culver.
Again the thought comes into play that this would have been a quicker – albeit in this case more brutal – death than strangulation, and in that case her age matters too.
Change in MO: Other inconsistencies:
Before that, while in Colorado, Bundy abducted Julie Cunningham, playing a very perverse cat and mouse game by daring her to escape from his car before finally strangling her.
While he did not make any similar confessions about any of his other victims, in my personal opinion it still calls into question his insistence that his main goal of serial killing was “possession” but not torture murder.
Cunningham at least experienced prolonged mental and emotional torture.
We must consider that there may have been other circumstances that prompted Bundy to – at times or at least this once – enjoy extending a victim’s suffering.
Cunningham, known as an assertive young woman, could have fought back verbally, tried to use psychological tactics on him to humanize herself to him in some way, or done a number of other things to aggravate him further.
There are also possible – though as most of us would say unlikely – victims, such as Elizabeth Perry and Susan Davis who were stabbed to death in New Jersey in 1969.
Bundy had once remarked to forensic psychologist Art Norman that his first murders took place in 1969 in New Jersey, though some of the details of his confession, his life circumstances back then and the case itself indicate this may have been a lie, though it certainly seems like at least somewhat of a coincidence.
I would not necessarily consider Bundy an unlikely suspect because Perry and Davis were stabbed but because of the above mentioned development from January 1974 to July 1974 mostly, as well as his previously unsuccessful attempts at attacking women between 1972 and 1973.
Both the woman he hit over the head in front of her car, as well as the one he beat in the back of her head while she was unlocking her front door, started screaming, causing him to flee the scene of the crime.
Additionally this indicates how inexperienced Bundy still was at that time and that he did not factor his victims fighting back by screaming for help into the equation. In this light the 1969 murders appear unlikely as well.
But it is a conclusive development for him to have evolved from trying to randomly attack women on the street to attacking Sparks in her bedroom, while she was asleep and could in all likelihood not start to scream and where he was safe from public detection.
Going back to the lake victims in 1969 however, if he killed these young women, Bundy may have backed off from stabbing victims because he did not calculate the great amount of blood involved.
We know that Bundy kept at least one spare set of clothes in his car later on, so he may also have taken this away from the Jersey Shore murders, again – if – he is indeed responsible for them.
That he then cut Leach’s throat might initially spark surprise, but we must also remember that he was in a near-psychotic frenzy after his second escape from Colorado jail and may have anticipated getting caught after the Chi Omega attacks, simply wanting to kill as many people in as many ways as possible before being reapprehended.
Lastly, what is one to make of the hitchhiker murders in 1973? One unnamed victim that was never found was allegedly picked up near Tumwater, Washington.
Another one Bundy confessed to is a hitchhiker in California that disappeared while he was visiting his “fiancé” Diane Edwards, one reason he was later also considered a suspect in the “Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders.”
At first glance it appears odd that these women were linked, as some of them were poisoned, last seen entering a vehicle with two men, one victim had her neck broken and had suffered compression of the spine, and yet another had been picked up by a man in a wooden camper instead of a VW bug, etc.
Despite the possibility that Bundy may have experimented more than we usually believe, the Santa Rosa kills were considered to be the work of one or multiple experienced suspects by experts.
That Bundy would be successful at abducting multiple hitchhikers and then go back to botch at least two attacks on women he beat over the head in a residential area seems strange and unlikely.
This is also one among many reasons I do not believe that Bundy successfully abducted, killed and permanently hid the remains of 8-year old Ann Marie Burr when he was a mere 14 years old.
Ultimately, what Bundy researchers are left with, are – as usual – many third person “confessions” or rather speculations, conflicting reports about when he first began killing and ever more questions rather than definitive answers.
CrimePiper 