Ted Bundy: Criminal Profile

Cardinal: Ted had Machiavellianism, Necrophilia, was psychopathic and narcissistic because he had a grandiose sense of self-importance and entitlement. 

He was also sociopathic. 

Central: He was adaptable according to former FBI profiler Brad Garrett which made him fit right into the social context of his victims. He was attractive, charming, personable, and friendly. Ted was also intelligent as described by his former friend Marylynne Chino and had a degree in psychology, was friendly, competent, deliberate, and orderly, and achievement-oriented. 

He is further described as empathetic, sympathetic, and ambitious. 

Secondary: He was irritable, domineering, manipulative, impatient, angry, arrogant, aggressive, desired power and control, and adaptable. 

He was a strategic planner and conscientious which contributed to his being successful as a criminal, was deceitful, lacked remorse, was impulsive, anxious, irresponsible, and reckless. 

Other: He could have been bipolar because he was capable of living a normal life and even get involved in politics while at the same time, carry out numerous killings without being caught. He had both a vague personality and a killer. He was also an extrovert who was assertive, thrill-seeking, and active. He was a careful planner which enabled him to evade capture while killing his victims for so many years. 

He was diabolical, a trait which only his victims witnessed. 

All the victims that Ted killed or tried to kill were beautiful young women, between the age of ten and thirty. 

They all had long black hair, center-parted, a hairstyle that was identical to that of a girl who once turned him down. 

They all looked alike. 

Some victims were famous and were women in professions like Linda Anne Healey, who was on the radio, and Caryn Campbell, who was a nurse from Michigan. 

Many of them lived alone, which made it easy for Ted to break into their houses and abduct them. 

Most of them were students such as Donna Manson who disappeared from Evergreen State College and Susan Rancourt, a student at the Central Washington University. 

Roberta Kathleen Parks was a student from Oregon State University while Georgann Hawkins was a student at the University of Washington. 

However, Brenda Ball was not a student. 

There was no pattern between the geographical locations where Ted abducted and killed his victims. There was little if any or no physical tie to the places he captured his victims. 

He used his car, a Volkswagen to carry them to different locations where he strangled them, raped them, and buried their bodies. 

There were similarities in where he took his victims after he kidnapped them. After the abduction, he would drive his victims off the main highway to mountains as he did with Georgann Hawkins. He timed the moonlight so he would not be forced to put his headlights on. 

He killed some of his victims in their houses like Linder, then carried them to his car and drove off to bury them. 

They were in places that Ted felt comfortable like when he kidnapped the two women on the same day. 

Other victims were abducted from alleys and along the streets like Georgann Hawkins whom he captured on a driveway and Carol whom he caught on the street in Utah. 

In some places, he captured his victims in front of many people who were unaware while in others, there were no witnesses. 

After committing murder, he would move to new places where the police were not searching for dead bodies. More specifically he moved to areas that were populated by strangers where he would fit in quite well such as Aspen after he left Utah. 

Weapons used/Methodology: 

Ted had a murder kit in which he put the weapons he used. They included crowbars, screwdrivers, masks, gloves, ropes, handcuffs, and spotlights. 

He used a crowbar to hit victims like Georgann Hawkins unconscious after he had pretended to be using crutches and unable to carry his briefcase. She helped him to his car, where he knocked her unconscious with the crowbar. He then handcuffed her and put her in his car 

He kidnapped his victims in one county, took them to a different county after he strangled them, raped them while unconscious or dead, after which he would bury them and dispose of their clothing in different counties. 

Family traits/Background/Romantic Relationships: Ted was illegitimate as his father is not known, while the one his mother married never liked him. There was dysfunction in his family, which made him grow up with a lot of rage towards women. His family was not wealthy like he wanted, so he developed a resentment towards his mother for failing to marry a rich man so he would not have to go out and steal to look wealthy. This made him a petty thief and started peeping on people, which made him develop the killing habit. 

He had a longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth who had a child and Ted spent a lot of time with them, which he said he enjoyed. 

His grandfather, who raised him as a young boy was ruthless, and he could have learned many traits from him. He was also fascinated with killing animals at a young age. 

The time between murders: Ted loved night time because he felt invincible in the dark and could not be seen. On one particular day, 14 th July 1974, he abducted Denise and Janice in broad daylight. Janice left with him at about ten in the morning and never came back. He would later come back and kidnap Denise at around 4:30 in the evening. 

He had no specific time between murders. It depended on how much he was compelled to kill at a particular time. In Aspen, Ted killed Caryn Campbell, and after two months he killed Julie Cunningham. He then went to the coast of northwest and killed Denise, 23 years old, Susan 15 years old and Lynnette, a 12-year-old.