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Ted Bundy - 40 years ago

sidnole5

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Aug 6, 2005
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Mods may bump this but I can't help but share... 40 years ago this morning when I was a junior at Florida State, I was awoken after a big party the night before by our fraternity president who said that the police were downstairs and wanted to question every brother in the house about their whereabouts the night before as 3 murders had occurred, two at the Chi Omega Sorority house right down the street ...... I knew one of the young women and her photo haunts me to this day... and weeks later Ted Bundy was arrested in Pensacola for the murders....

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/li...get-remembering-margaret-and-lisa/1026999001/
 
Mods may bump this but I can't help but share... 40 years ago this morning when I was a junior at Florida State, I was awoken after a big party the night before by our fraternity president who said that the police were downstairs and wanted to question every brother in the house about their whereabouts the night before as 3 murders had occurred, two at the Chi Omega Sorority house right down the street ...... I knew one of the young women and her photo haunts me to this day... and weeks later Ted Bundy was arrested in Pensacola for the murders....

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/li...get-remembering-margaret-and-lisa/1026999001/
Sad day for sure...and the shooting a couple years back too!
 
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I was a freshman in Osceola Hall. They were looking for a guy wearing white painters pants and they questioned anyone who had them.
Very scary times for us girls
 
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Mods may bump this but I can't help but share... 40 years ago this morning when I was a junior at Florida State, I was awoken after a big party the night before by our fraternity president who said that the police were downstairs and wanted to question every brother in the house about their whereabouts the night before as 3 murders had occurred, two at the Chi Omega Sorority house right down the street ...... I knew one of the young women and her photo haunts me to this day... and weeks later Ted Bundy was arrested in Pensacola for the murders....

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/li...get-remembering-margaret-and-lisa/1026999001/

I wasn’t alive then, so I’m curious, did everyone know it was Buddy right away or were they looking for an unknown suspect. I watched the Bundy movie years ago, and I didn’t quite understand how he made his way from out west to Florida.
 
I wasn’t alive then, so I’m curious, did everyone know it was Buddy right away or were they looking for an unknown suspect. I watched the Bundy movie years ago, and I didn’t quite understand how he made his way from out west to Florida.
He was a drifter, never staying in one spot for long.
 
I wasn’t alive then, so I’m curious, did everyone know it was Buddy right away or were they looking for an unknown suspect. I watched the Bundy movie years ago, and I didn’t quite understand how he made his way from out west to Florida.

He escaped from jail in Utah for a kidnapping and suspected of murder out there... and came all the way to Florida under an alias... Some say he murdered over 40 young women...mostly out west...
 
I was working in the State Attorney's office and married to an Investigator at TPD. I spent many nights and weekends working as support at the command center while this animal was being identified, tracked, and ultimately arrested. The details of these killings and others TB committed are truly the things in your worst nightmares. So much tragedy and sadness.
 
He escaped from jail in Utah for a kidnapping and suspected of murder out there... and came all the way to Florida under an alias... Some say he murdered over 40 young women...mostly out west...

So it was just random that he was in Tallahassee, nothing specific that brought him here. Is that correct?
 
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Mods may bump this but I can't help but share... 40 years ago this morning when I was a junior at Florida State, I was awoken after a big party the night before by our fraternity president who said that the police were downstairs and wanted to question every brother in the house about their whereabouts the night before as 3 murders had occurred, two at the Chi Omega Sorority house right down the street ...... I knew one of the young women and her photo haunts me to this day... and weeks later Ted Bundy was arrested in Pensacola for the murders....

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/li...get-remembering-margaret-and-lisa/1026999001/


Wow. Sad day. Hard to believe it’s been 31 since Pablo died.
 
I was there. Actually it was 1/15 and they caught him in Pensacola on 2/15. That night changed FSU and the campus forever. Our Fraternity had a couple Chi O little sisters that were at our party. They were the ones to go home and find the back door ajar. One of them said it felt strange when they went upstairs and the hall lights were out, she changed then went to bed. As soon as she laid down she heard all of the other ones coming home about someone running out. I spent the rest of the quarter every night staying overnight in a sorority house.

What was strange was the feeling of relief when he was finally executed. It was like closure. He played with the system and mugged for the cameras to the point it was unbearable to watch. I have never over the years been able to watch any movie or documentary about him.
 
Such a horrible, horrible crime. I still think of this often when I go back to Tally. If I recall correctly, he was actually executed for the murder of a 12 year old girl in Lake City. I think that murder was just after the Chi O murders. Beyond tragic.
 
I am a Tallahassee native. It was such a safe innocent town back then. I graduated from FSU in 1969. We never had a key to our house. Could not lock it if you wanted to. If we were going to be out of town for a few days, my mother would leave a note for the milk man to "please put the milk in the refrigerator". What has happened to our country, world?
 
I was with Margaret Bowman, one of the girls that got killed that night. We were at an apartment party the night of the murder. I was keep for questioning well into Sunday. That winter quarter in Tallahassee was like a ghost town with all the girls walking in large groups to class. Also spent, with several other Frat. brothers, the next 10-14 day's at the KD house because of the fear they had of another situation.

Something that will never forget. Buddy was an animal!!
 
We had just moved to New York - I was on my way to a store, and it came as breaking news on the radio, not saying which sorority house - I literally pulled into a parking lot and threw up. Turned around and went home, called our close friends in Tally to get some of the details.
She was a KD alum and I am a DG alum, and we were so sorry to hear about the poor girls at the XO House, and I remember how we talked about how it could have been any of the houses because everyone was so "relaxed" about security. It was a different world and yes, the campus was changed forever.
Bundy had been very violent in these murders, and some of the details are still gruesome to think about.

He was a very twisted individual who needed to be put down like a rabid dog, and I was glad to hear that his execution was carried out.
 
I went through sorority rush 2 years later and remember touring uostairs at the XO house and just getting chills knowing what happened there. RIP Lisa and Margaret. It was a good day when 'Ol Sparky took that POS Bundy's life.
 
He was actually suspected in over 100 murders of women. Washington, Utah, Colorado and then Florida. After his second escape, he asked someone what state had the death penalty..... A part of him wanted to be caught. After being told Florida, he arrived in Tallahassee via Chicago and lived on College St. just down from Westcott posing as a student. I lived in Magnolia Hall at the time. The girls then began to drop out like flies in fear.... He was in the bar Silver Dollar (?) which later was the Phryst the night of the attack to gain some liquid courage. A typical narcissistic psychopath. It is suspected his first murder as at 15.
Just hours before his execution he asked James Dobson of Focus on the Family for an interview. He still never came clean; trying to manipulate our governor for more time if he shared where another body would be. The governors response, "We don't make deals with serial killers." Changed my life as a freshman being too naiive, innocent, and trusting.
 
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Such a horrible, horrible crime. I still think of this often when I go back to Tally. If I recall correctly, he was actually executed for the murder of a 12 year old girl in Lake City. I think that murder was just after the Chi O murders. Beyond tragic.
Correct. He left Tallahassee when the police were hot on his tail. Literally within a few feet of bringing him in for questioning, but that's another story. He left Tallahassee and went to Lake City where he kidnapped and murdered Kimberly Diane Leach. From Lake City he went to Pensacola where he waa stopped on a traffic violation. I did a happy dance the day he was executed.
 
A friend of mine on this board made a (professional) mistake making a comment about Bundy (which many of us agreed with).

He was every bit the animal that you believe he was.

He was in Jacksonville and had located a potential victim, when his plan was interrupted. He left Jax and headed West. Bundy had purchased a knife at a local sporting goods store, which he later used on Kimberly Diane Leach in Lake City. A child.

The murders at FSU were horrendous, as noted by Twin. Bundy was savagely brutal.

I came into contact with him a few years later. I was struck by two things; how small he was and how he never stopped pacing/moving. He had dieted in preparation of an escape and had nearly succeeded.

Needless to say, for those of you against the DP, Bundy paid the price, even though not in the manner he probably deserved, he will not escape, nor will he terrorize anyone else, in person. The DP effectively deters him from further harm.

May his victims rest in peace. I know he rots in hell.
 
IIRC when he was stopped in Pensacola, he gave identification of an FSU track athlete and he knew everything about him. The police called the track coach and he told him that wasn't the person they had stopped.
 
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The Leach girl's body was found on a farm in a pig pen, I believe. She had been brutally assaulted and her body had a large piece of wood lodged in it in a hideous fashion.
It was an insult to his victims that it took so long for justice to be served.

Yes, she was found in an old hog pen. Brutalized. I think the wood was used in Tallahassee though. Evil would know.

What you wrote about the insult is true, especially what an insult it was to allow that piece of feces to mug and smirk for the whole world to see.

Too many years. He went out like a bitch though. Begging for more time. Not like the monster he was.
 
The Leach girl's body was found on a farm in a pig pen, I believe. She had been brutally assaulted and her body had a large piece of wood lodged in it in a hideous fashion.
It was an insult to his victims that it took so long for justice to be served.
Sadly, Goldmom, you are correct. Her death has always haunted me more than the others because she was just a child.
 
I was there also. Shortly after was I believe when we started kind of escort service for girls to get walked home from class or anywhere they felt unsafe. Frats and others took turns being on call so to speak. Later dated a girl who was in Chi O’s first pledge class after this tragedy. Changed all of us forever and as others have said a lot of cheering and closure when that scumbag was electrocuted
 
Yes, she was found in an old hog pen. Brutalized. I think the wood was used in Tallahassee though. Evil would know.

What you wrote about the insult is true, especially what an insult it was to allow that piece of feces to mug and smirk for the whole world to see.

Too many years. He went out like a bitch though. Begging for more time. Not like the monster he was.
NoleMac, I honestly don't recall whether the Leach girl had been brutalized with wood or not. That investigation was run out of another judicial circuit, not in Leon County. The details I did have were horrific though. A quick death was too good for him, IMO.
 
Man. This event was kinda the end of innocence around Tally.
I used to go to the Silver Dollar just down the street from that house and had in fact been there a night or two before. All kinds of thoughts ran thru my mind as I tried to think of anybody who seemed to be a creeper there.
Wow, and then soon afterwards word came that the little girl in Lake City (?) was missing. Bundy told the detectives that he was able to trick her into coming with him after school by reading her name on the back of her shirt/jersey. Most parents put a stop to that practice after hearing that report.

It seems like this is the same time frame when Butch Trucks (RIP) used to jam at the Silver Dollar. from time to time.
 
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My wife lived in some apartments just behind the Chi O house at the time of the murders.
 
NoleMac, I honestly don't recall whether the Leach girl had been brutalized with wood or not. That investigation was run out of another judicial circuit, not in Leon County. The details I did have were horrific though. A quick death was too good for him, IMO.

I believe, and I don't recall exactly (I used to have some access, but have forgotten some/parts of the info), that he used the knife to savage the Leach girl. I remember (probably incorrectly) that he carried and used a piece of wood in the Sorority murders, that was why I referenced you.

Thank you for your work and for your input.

It's a tough life, working in the SA's office, with very little beauty and roses. Just a never ending stream of criminal behaviors and activities, with brutal crimes and crime scenes.

Again, thank you for your efforts there.
 
Such a horrible, horrible crime. I still think of this often when I go back to Tally. If I recall correctly, he was actually executed for the murder of a 12 year old girl in Lake City. I think that murder was just after the Chi O murders. Beyond tragic.


Poor little Kimberly Leach from Lake City was indeed twelve years old. May she rest in peace and Bundy burn in Hell for eternity.
 
I believe, and I don't recall exactly (I used to have some access, but have forgotten some/parts of the info), that he used the knife to savage the Leach girl. I remember (probably incorrectly) that he carried and used a piece of wood in the Sorority murders, that was why I referenced you.

Thank you for your work and for your input.

It's a tough life, working in the SA's office, with very little beauty and roses. Just a never ending stream of criminal behaviors and activities, with brutal crimes and crime scenes.

Again, thank you for your efforts there.


He definitely carried and used some wooden material during the sorority murders....it was characterized as a "tree limb" or "tree branch" at he time. Bundy was a perfect example of why the death penalty is justified in certain cases.
 
I believe, and I don't recall exactly (I used to have some access, but have forgotten some/parts of the info), that he used the knife to savage the Leach girl. I remember (probably incorrectly) that he carried and used a piece of wood in the Sorority murders, that was why I referenced you.

Thank you for your work and for your input.

It's a tough life, working in the SA's office, with very little beauty and roses. Just a never ending stream of criminal behaviors and activities, with brutal crimes and crime scenes.

Again, thank you for your efforts there.
Boy, the notes we could compare over a drink sometime.

Yes, if I remember correctly he did use a knife on the Leach child. I'm fuzzy on whether the wood was used or not. Forty years (wow!) is a long time and with that investigation being handled by the State Attorney in Lake City, I didn't have access to the entire file.

Bundy did carry and use wood in the Tallahassee attacks. The most chilling trial evidence I saw was the bite mark evidence. Seeing the dental impression taken of his teeth match the bite mark on one of the victims removed all doubt that he was the perpetrator. Larry Simpson was the prosecuting attorney and he did a tremendous job of trial prep for the case. You will recall that the trial was moved to Miami, mostly because the Leon County sheriff at the time had turned the case into a complete circus aired out in front of the cameras.

As a side note, during the time I helped at the command center (located just across the street from TPD), one of the SAO investigators I worked for insisted on walking me to my car every night. It was a terrifying time for everyone in Tallahassee, even for the law enforcement officers involved.

Just curious, if you can say, how you came to be in contact with Bundy.
 
It was from the wood pile for the fireplace on the Chi O back patio.

In the case of The Leach girl, she was found positioned on her knees with a piece of wood in her anal cavity, per an article in the Jax paper at the time, IIRC.
 
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