What The Media Doesn't Want You To Know About Ted Bundy

When you think about a historical figure like Ted Bundy, what do you imagine? A calculating and sadistic killer raping and mutilating his way through the world, knowing he has a meeting with the devil to look forward to?

That's what they want you to think.

While Bundy's crimes are indisputably atrocious, his final interview before his execution (with Dr. James Dobson of Focus on The Family Ministries) completely dismantles the remorseless face of evil that mainstream media has been portraying to us since his arrest in 1978. During his time in prison, Bundy came to faith in Jesus and repented for his crimes. In his interview with Dobson, Bundy describes the peace his faith gives him concerning his imminent execution, as well as the forces that fuelled his crimes.

In this interview, Bundy describes his idyllic childhood, dispelling any possibility of abuse being the root of his moral insanity.

"I grew up in a wonderful home with two dedicated and loving parents, as one of 5 brothers and sisters. We, as children, were the focus of my parents' lives. We regularly attended church. My parents did not drink or smoke or gamble. There was no physical abuse or fighting in the home. I'm not saying it was "Leave it to Beaver", but it was a fine, solid Christian home. I hope no one will try to take the easy way out of this and accuse my family of contributing to this. I know, and I'm trying to tell you as honestly as I know how, what happened."

Quickly after this, Bundy discusses the influence which did contribute to his criminal activities: pornography.

"As a young boy of 12 or 13, I encountered, outside the home, in the local grocery and drug stores, softcore pornography. Young boys explore the sideways and byways of their neighborhoods, and in our neighborhood, people would dump the garbage. From time to time, we would come across books of a harder nature ‐ more graphic. This also included detective magazines, etc., and I want to emphasize this. The most damaging kind of pornography ‐ and I'm talking from hard, real, personal experience ‐ is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces ‐ as I know only too well ‐ brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe."

What follows is an excerpt from the transcript of Bundy's interview with Dr. Dobson. Bundy describes the downward spiral of pornography and it's eventual culmination in the physical manifestation of sexual violence.

JCD: Walk me through that. What was going on in your mind at that time?
Ted: Before we go any further, it is important to me that people believe what I'm saying. I'm not blaming pornography. I'm not saying it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility for all the things that I've done. That's not the question here. The issue is how this kind of literature contributed and helped mold and shape the kinds of violent behavior.

JCD: It fueled your fantasies.

Ted: In the beginning, it fuels this kind of thought process. Then, at a certain time, it is instrumental in crystallizing it, making it into something that is almost a separate entity inside.

JCD: You had gone about as far as you could go in your own fantasy life, with printed material, photos, videos, etc., and then there was the urge to take that step over to a physical event.

Ted: Once you become addicted to it, and I look at this as a kind of addiction, you look for more potent, more explicit, more graphic kinds of material. Like an addiction, you keep craving something which is harder and gives you a greater sense of excitement, until you reach the point where the pornography only goes so far ‐ that jumping off point where you begin to think maybe actually doing it will give you that which is just beyond reading about it and looking at it.

JCD: How long did you stay at that point before you actually assaulted someone?

Ted: A couple of years. I was dealing with very strong inhibitions against criminal and violent behaviour that had been conditioned and bred into me from my neighborhood, environment, church, and schools. I knew it was wrong to think about it, and certainly, to do it was wrong. I was on the edge, and the last vestiges of restraint were being tested constantly, and assailed through the kind of fantasy life that was fueled, largely, by pornography.

JCD: Do you remember what pushed you over that edge? Do you remember the decision to "go for it"? Do you remember where you decided to throw caution to the wind?

Ted: It's a very difficult thing to describe ‐ the sensation of reaching that point where I knew I couldn't control it anymore. The barriers I had learned as a child were not enough to hold me back from seeking out and harming somebody.

JCD: Would it be accurate to call that a sexual frenzy?

Ted: That's one way to describe it ‐ a compulsion, a building up of this destructive energy. Another fact I haven't mentioned is the use of alcohol. In conjunction with my exposure to pornography, alcohol reduced my inhibitions and pornography eroded them further.

JCD: After you committed your first murder, what was the emotional effect? What happened in the days after that?

Ted: Even all these years later, it is difficult to talk about. Reliving it through talking about it is difficult to say the least, but I want you to understand what happened. It was like coming out of some horrible trance or dream. I can only liken it to (and I don't want to overdramatize it) being possessed by something so awful and alien, and the next morning waking up and remembering what happened and realizing that in the eyes of the law, and certainly in the eyes of God, you're responsible. To wake up in the morning and realize what I had done with a clear mind, with all my essential moral and ethical feelings intact, absolutely horrified me.

While all of this is important to consider, Bundy sums it all up in this powerful quote:

JCD: Outside these walls, there are several hundred reporters that wanted to talk to you, and you asked me to come because you had something you wanted to say. You feel that hardcore pornography, and the door to it, softcore pornography, is doing untold damage to other people and causing other women to be abused and killed the way you did.

 Ted: ...I've lived in prison for a long time now, and I've met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography ‐ deeply consumed by the addiction. The F.B.I.'s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers. It's true.

So this is the message that Ted Bundy wanted to get out -- in a way, these are his dying words. So why would the media work so hard to stifle this interview, make such an effort to quiet anyone drawing attention to this?

The answer is simple: the prevailing influences in our culture are committed to the destruction of traditional moral values. Bundy is a warning to the rest of the world, a sobering picture of where pornography can eventually lead. And so the media has to make sure that message is stifled. On top of that, the image of remorseless serial killers scares us -- and fear keeps us in line. Even today, the effort to vilify Bundy from cradle to grave continues in the Netflix biopic based on his life.

Ted Bundy may have one of the most dramatic redemption arcs in modern history, but almost nobody knows it. This is just another example of why mainstream media can never be trusted. The people you are getting your information from do NOT have your best interests in mind.

Always draw your own conclusions.
Always do your own research.

--Zed