Essay Sample on Description and Background of the Case

The case involved Ted Bunny, a serial killer who raped kidnaped, and killed many young girls and women in the 1960s and the 1970s (Katherine, 2013). Bunny was arrested for suspicion of murder after his car was found with various burglary tools such as a facemask, rope, crowbar, and handcuffs. This American law enforcement agency linked to burglary tools to the numerous sinister crimes that were occurring in the United States. In the year 1975, he was arrested for kidnapping one woman who escaped his bait. This made him receive a fifteen years jail term (Seltzer, 2013). After h his first arrest, he managed to escape from prison twice, whereby he went ahead to continue committing more murders in various states within the United States. However, the law later caught up with him, and he was arrested in the year 1978 and prosecuted for numerous homicides. This made him receive a two-death sentence for two of the murders he committed. Ted's Bunny charm, intelligence, and good looks made him become a celebrity during his trials. After these convictions, he confessed to the other thirty murders that happened in the United States between the year the 1960s and 1970s (Seltzer, 2013). The law enforcement agencies, however, believed that the total number of murder cases was approximately one hundred. He spent approximately nine years on death row, trying to appeal for this death sentence. He even tried to take this case to the United States Supreme Court, but the court turned him down. He even promised to offer information on some of the unsolved homicides within the country in order to avoid the electric chair. Despite his efforts to stall justice, he was executed in the year 1989 in an electric chair (Katherine, 2013).

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Psychology Issue Involved in the Case

Ted Bunny is perceived to have developed several psychological issues. Some of these include, first, multiple personality disorder which mainly suggests why he suddenly changed his initial behavior and took the character of a very new person. This made even his aunt fear him. His aunt believed that the multiple personality disorder had completely turned him into a very new person. Secondly, he is also considered to have portrayed antisocial personality disorder, which is mainly characterized by various long-term patterns of violating other people's rights. This psychological issue made him violate people's right to life by killing them without any remorse. However, Ted was able to hide this character from other people, particularly to the people that he used to school and work with.

Life Events That Led to The Development of Pathology and Violent Behaviors

The pathology and the violent behavior portrayed by Ted Bunny may have been triggered by various life events, for instance, being brought up in a violent environment whereby he might have picked up the interest. After his birth, his religious grandparents were greatly humiliated and ashamed of Ted being born without a responsible father to take care of him. This made them take him in as an adopted son. Ted was told that her mother was her sister, which was not actually the case. However, Ted later came to realize the truth that Louise was her biological mother. Ted expressed strong lifelong resentment to his biological mother for not telling him the truth about his father and living him to realize the truth about the parentage all by himself. Ted was brought up by a grandfather who was known to be very violent, a bigot who hated Catholics, blacks, and Italians and a tyrannical bully (Williams, 2019). His grandfather was also well known for beating his family dog and wife an was also very cruel to the neighbor's cats and dogs. On the other hand, her grandmother was an obedient woman who underwent several electro cursive depression therapies and also had to leave home. Being brought up in such a violent family during his early childhood age could have made him develop pathology and violent behaviors. In most cases, the type of environment the child is brought up in usually determines the type of person he or she will be. According to her mother, while he was still living with his grandparents, he occasionally portrayed disturbing habits or behaviors (Williams, 2019). For instance, she remembers waking up and finding Bunny surrounded by all the knives from her parent's kitchen. This was a clear indication that being brought up in such a violent environment was having a huge impact on him.

Case Law Associated With the Case

The are several case laws associated with the case, some of this cases laws include, first, according to testimonies given in the court proceeding, Ted was seen by a witness in the ballroom that was next to the campus and opposite chi omega sorority house where two women were abducted and later killed. Secondly, Lisa levy had been killed through strangulation after receiving a severe beating. Margret's head had also been crushed and left open. The attacker had bit the victim, and the bite could be easily identified as a human bite. During the investigations, the police made numerous photographs of the bites. During the entire course of the case, the Bunny was found to have violated various laws. For instance, he was guilty of murder and manslaughter.

How the Offender Was Caught and What Tools Or Strategies Did Law Enforcement Use

After committing several murders without being noticed, the Utah police patrol officer finally caught up with him when he saw Ted cruising a certain residential area in the early morning hours. After noticing that the police had seen him, he attempted to flee, but the police managed to stop him. After conducting a search in his car, they found several tools such as a facemask, handcuffs crowbars, rope, and plastic bags hidden in the car. After questioning, he claimed that the ski mask was meant for skiing, he found the handcuffs in a dumpsite, and the rest items such as a crowbar were his own basic household items. Since the police did not have enough evidence to prosecute him for the killings, they decided to realize him but placed constant surveillance on him. After monitoring his movement for a long time without finding anything to link him to the murder cases, the family caught up with him after he decided to sell his Volkswagen Beetle (Seltzer, 2013). The Utah police impounded the car, and after conducting a thorough search, they found the hair samples that matched the ones obtained from one of the victims. Later on, they also found microscopic hair strides belonging to the other two victims. The police officers concluded or decided that the presence of the three-hair stride belonging to three different women in one car was a clear indication that he was actually the serial killer. This was enough evidence to prosecute him in a court of law. The police shared the information among different states and decided to arrest and convict Bunny for kidnapping and murder.

The Outcome of the Legal Case

On conviction of the three counts of murders, the judge found him guilty and sentenced him to fifteen years in jail. However, after being transferred from Utah prison to Garfield jail, he managed to escape and relocate from Chicago to Florida then, Tallahassee, whereby he committed several murders (Williams, 2019). The police, however, managed to arrest him several years later in Florida. The police decided to convict him again. The jury present during the case hearing deliberated in very few hours that he was guilty for the other three counts of attempted murder that he committed during his escape and the other two counts of burglary that he had also committed. The judge, therefore, decided to convict him to a death sentence for all the murders committed. Approximately six months later, he went through a second trial in Orlando for murder and abduction (Smithson, 2013). After listening to several testimonies from witnesses, he was finally found guilty and sentenced to death through electrocution. He tried to appeal for the death sentences up to the United States Supreme Court, but they were all denied. After realizing that there was no other alternative option, he decided to confess to all counts of murder and was later electrocuted to death.

My View of the Case and its Outcome

after critically assessing the Ted Bunny cases, from how he was brought up in his grandfather's home, and how he started to engage in serial killing at a very young age and continued with the habit till he was arrested, I can conclude that he was actually guilty of the murders. The law enforcement agencies had done a commendable job in trying to find concrete evidence to prosecute the killer. However, I do not agree with the death sentence rendered by the two judges after his attempt to escape from prison. The main reason why I do not support this conviction is because despite the offense committed; it is usually against God's will to take away human life.

References

Katherine Ramsland, PhD, C. V. (2013). The many sides of Ted Bundy. Forensic Examiner, 22(3), 18. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/b5d06af44de65706a87be3e8fe05e276/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=25766

Seltzer, M. (2013). Serial killers: Death and Life in America's wound culture. Routledge. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/9780203700143_googlepreview.pdf

Smithson, R. (2013). Rhetoric and psychopathy: Linguistic manipulation and deceit in the final interview of Ted Bundy. Diffusion-The UCLan Journal of Undergraduate Research, 6(2). Retrieved from http://bcur.org/journals/index.php/Diffusion/article/viewFile/51/37

Williams, D. J. (2019). Is serial sexual homicide a compulsion, deviant leisure, or both? Revisiting the case of Ted Bundy. Leisure Sciences, 1-19. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490400.2019.1571967