this is "nightline." >> tonight. >> your honor, i'm here today because he wish i kwish twish te >> ted bundy, how he managed to get away with so many murders for so long until a traffic stop ended his trail of murder, acting as his own lawyer. >> can you describe what you saw when you lifted up the covers? >> tonight, 30 years later, the frightening saw kga of a haman continues to haunt his survivors. survivors.

good thank you for joining us. exactly 41 years ago tonight, a volkswagen beetle was pulled over. the driver was ted bundy. that ended the most terrifying strings of murders in modern

american history. and we learned how terrifying his story really was. >> there are an infinite number of ways to describe how a man comes to the point where he destroys human life. >> it's been 30 years since the execution of ted bundy, responsible for the deaths of at least 30 women. >> an anniversary like that provides an opportunity to look back at the legacy of somebody. >> it's a legacy that three decades later is still haunting so many. it's being retold in a netflix series "conversations with a killer", ted bundy tapes. and dramatized with the movie, extremely shocking and evil and violent. >> zac efron plays ted bundy, and we are taking his teen heartthrob image and turning it on its head. >> tonight we take you inside the story of a man who terrorized a nation, revealing

new details and interviews. >> i never wanted to think people were born evil, but my opinion about that changed when i met ted. i think he was just born evil. >> when you look at ted bundy he was about the right age to be in college. he drove a volkswagen beetle. very, very popular car in the '70s. so, when he would move into a college campus, he just fit right in. that was disarming to his victims, like, he should be here. he looks like one of us. he drives one of our cars. >> he graduated in june of '72 from the university of washington, with a degree in psychology. >> why does he get a degree in psychology? from my view, he does that because he wants to continue to manipulate people. >> linda heely was a very popular young woman, because she was on the radio f d week. at 7:00 in the morning.

she gave the ski report. i was one of many who listened to her in the morning, and i realized the day that she wasn't on the air that there was something unusual. >> she never showed up for work. they used to frequent a bar. on the last night of her life, lynda and a friend went to dante's with a friend of theirs. he checked the front door, and it was unlocked. he would tell a writer later that he choked her. it was a strange, strange abduction. the chances he took, it's not just that he went out and committed murder, but he seemed imperfe imperfe impervious to fear. >> more women would vanish, and

then. >> george ann was abducted in june of 1974, on a beautiful, warm, summer evening. >> years later, ted bundy would describe in detail what happened to bogeorge ann hawkins. >> what happened was i knocked her unconscious with a crowbar. >> a wave of fear swept all across the state of washington. >> last seen monday evening. >> when someone was abducting young women. >> it's hard to tell you when there was any foul play or not. >> there were no clues whatsoever. it's remarkable nobody saw anything. >> july 14, 1974. the place was absolutely packed, 40,000 people there. >> a number people that day at the lake were taking photos and shooting film. little did they know, the police would want to review this footage.

>> ted was able to meld into the crowd. he was able to convince denise naslund and janice to help him with the ruse that he had a sailboat, it that he had his arm in a fake sling. >> there were three women that saw janice ott roll her bicycle up to the beach and lay it down. and then they observed this man walk up to her. and they heard her get up and say, hi, i'm jan. and he said, i'm ted. he gave his real name. >> first, janice went missing. and that was early, earlier in the morning. she disappeared. and then later, he came back to the park. and that's when denise

was abducted. those abductions were very brazen, in front of literally thousands of witnesses. but the witnesses did not know what they were seeing. it was also critical that people who were at the park that day, who were taking photographs of their friends and family, any filming that they had done, turned over their photographs and film to us so we could find something that could be a clue. >> and from the witnesses that saw him were composite drawings made. >> when they finally got a ted bundy picture of this person of interest, no question in our minds. no question that this was the guy. >> bundy realized if he wanted to keep killing, he was going to have to go somewhere where there was no investigation. >> so what does bundy do? he has the presence of mind to move from the washington area to

utah. and, again, he starts changing his tactics. >> bundy went to university of utah school of law. the first semester, he's in class three times. he's like a kid in a candy store. he upped it in utah and killed around four women in just a matter of weeks. >> carol parked her car in this parking lot at the fashion mall. shortly afghan whter, began wha calls her personal nightmare. >> what makes it so pivotal is that she's the only one who ever got away from bundy. >> bundy, posing as a police officer, approaches her, tells her they've apprehended a suspect who was trying to break into her car. >> he said they would have to go down to the main murray police department to sign a complaint. she the abductor's car. >> she jumped out of the car. the man jumped out, waving what

looked like a crowbar, she flagged down a passing car and an elderly couple drove her to the police station. the search for her abductor began. >> bundy was off to a new hunting ground. >> it's the winter of 1975. and ted bundy's got to find a place where there's not a lot of talk about missing women and he can blend in. so he heads up the mountains to colorado. >> there the list of victims grew. five additional women would be killed. one, just a 12 year old child. >> in the summer of 1975, bundy's luck is changing. >> he was going from being the hunter to be being the hunte>> the attention of a police officer, a short police chase was quickly followed by an arrest. once in custody, hiding became more difficult. >> that put him on the radar of utah law enforcement. and they had this unsolved

abductor of carol. >> carol came to the police station, was shown a lineup and was able to identify bundy as the person who attacked her. >> he was arrested and charged with the kidnapping of carol. >> during court proceedings in utah, bundy actually comes outside and talks to the media. >> yes, i intend to complete my legal education and become a lawyer and be a damn good lawyer. >> he was an arrogant [ bleep ], basically, and that's the way he ca the stand. >> ted bundy was convicted of kidnapping carol. >> meanwhile, detectives found more incriminating evidence. >> hairs in his volkswagen bug gear shift lever were from

victims from colorado and utah. >> and that gave enough evidence to file on him in colorado. >> they took him to the jail in aspen. >> he was assisting in his own defense, so he had a right to go use the law library. this is an old, old courthouse. and the law library was up on the top floor. >> the judge decreed that he didn't have to wear shackles or handcuffs. so he walked about the courtroom and law library as a free man. >> over the months, i noticed a number of opportunities to just walk right out. i thought a great deal about escape. and i didn't know if i had the guts to do it, quite frankly. >> there's a picture of him coming into the building that morning, and he's got a really concentrated look on his face. >> the guard went out for a smoke. the windows are open and the fresh air is blowing through and the sky was blue, and i said i'm ready to go and walked to the window and jumped out.

honest to god, i got sick and tired of being locked up. >> he drives through downtown aspen in a cadillac. >> he was a terrible driver by the way. there was a police car, and they see this car weaving. it was late, must be drunk. he wasn't drunk. it was ted bundy, back he goes. >> once in jail, he was already planning his next escape, losing enough weight to fit through a hole in the ceiling. a small stature, allowing him to wiggle his way out. >> just like in a movie. came down into the closet in the jailer's apartment. >> he put on civilian clothes. this is astounding stuff. and he gets out into the night and is free again. >> once he escaped, he had an opportunity to go somewhere and disappear, but he couldn't even do that. he had to kill again. >> stay with us. ♪

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and buttermilk pancakes for $6.99. male voice: $6.99? are you out of your mind? why are we still out of our minds? denny's new super slampler, all for $6.99. "nightline" continues. >> soon after his escape from jail in colorado, bundy travels southeast. the man responsible for at least 30 murders is about to commit his most brazen attack yet, striking at florida state university. >> in the early morning hours of january 15, between 3:00 and 3:15 a.m., there was an intruder in the sorority house. he had with him some sort of a wooden club. i was on routine patrol that night with my partner. so we drove straight there.

as i stopped into the girls were yelling upstairs, upstairs. and at the top of the stairs was a girl named carrie chandler. she was down on the floor and bleeding quite badly from head injuries. >> pretty much every bone in my face was broken. my front teeth were mostly gone. >> she made mention about her roommate, kathy kleiner. her injuries were much more extensive. her jaw was actually hanging off. >> i remember then laying on my bed and trying to talk. and i couldn't make any moist because my jaw was broken in three places. >> from new york, this is the abc weekend news. >> four young women were beaten with a club and three strangled by a man who found his victims sleeping in this sorority house. >> in pensacola, a month after the khai omega attacks, this man

is arrested on a traffic stop. they find out that his driver's license isn't who he is. the car he's driving doesn't belong to him. he's just this mystery guy. >> he finally tells officers, i am ted bundy. >> theodore bundy, one of the fbi's ten most wanted is in custody in pensacola and is a suspect in last month's slaying. >> step out, mr. bundy. what do we have here? oh, an indictment, all right. why don't you read it to me. >> it was a combination crime drama, combination political theater. >> your honor, i'm here today because i assert my innocence. >> he had gone to law school. this wasn't so far-fetched for him to be in a courtroom. >> some things are best done by yourself than others. >> it's the ideal stage for ted

bundy. he's self-assured. he thinks he can manipulate and convince a jury through his charm and good looks that he couldn't have possibly committed these crimes. . >> i called ray crew to set the scene of what he saw whenever he got to the omega house. >> bundy's cross examination in my mind was the determining factor in the case. >> and, can you describe what you saw when you lifted up the covers? as much detail as you can recall. if you need to use your report, please do so. sbh s . >> she was lying basically face down. there was a considerable amount of blood around her head, matted in her hair, on the walls. >> as i was describing her injuries and the blood, i had the distinct impression that he was vicariously reliving it and enjoying it.

>> publish the verdicts madam clerk. >> verdict, we the jury on the defendant theodore robert bundy as to count 12 of the indictment, mushed in trder in degree, guilty as charged. >> ted's basically convicted of all the charges. the jury recommends he gets death, the judge gives him death. >> it is further ordered on such scheduled date that you be put to death. >> following the trial, bundy was later convicted again, this time for the murder of 12 year old kimberly leach. he was once again sentenced to death. [ applause ] ♪ bye, bye ted bundy good-bye [cheers and applause] >> it was really festive atmosphere. >> there are even ted bundy tee shirts for sale. ♪ ted bundy, you're dead

>> people were cheering. they were singing. >> all right! >> right now, bundy's meeting with a minister in one of those death row cells behind me. in a few minutes, his head will be shaved as he's prepared for execution. >> he'd been shaven. he didn't look like the boy next door. his head was completely bald. and i literally saw him, his knees just collapsed when he saw the chair and knew he wasn't going to get away. >> that's it. that's the signal. sfw >> he was executed at 7:16. >> it's about damn time! >> i think the continuing fascination with reltfr a myth that he is this charming, intelligent individual and ha somehow that charm and intelligence was involved in the murder of these women. when, in fact, he didn't charm these women.

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