The Mind of a Monster
CRJ308: Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Instructor Eric RadkowskiDecember 23, 2013 Even though Ted Bundy was very intelligent and had a high level of conscientiousness which most anti-social people do not have; he was competent, able to achieve goals, and deliberate and yet he was a serial killer psychopath. Bundy had an anti-social behavior and lacked normal emotional response and morality. He wasn't capable of being empathetic or having feelings. First, He had an anti-social behavior and lacked normal emotional response and morality. Hours before being electrocuted Bundy had an interview with religious broadcaster and psychologist James Dobson. Bundy told Dobson in this interview that “his guilt and remorse were ‘compartmentalized’ in his brain” (Keen, 1989, p.01A). Bundy described this compartmentalized part of his brain as being a very sharply focused area that was a black hole that was like a crack, and everything that fell into that crack, hole just disappeared. I read this about Bundy and I remembered reading an article about the mind of a psychopath titled “Deep in the Mind of a Psychopath” by Daniel Goleman. Goleman states in this article that “psychopaths seem to have an unusual pattern of brain organization; with the center that controls language showing signs of irregular development” (Goleman, 1987, p.1D). Some psychologists believe that psychopaths are born with a brain disorder or else a severe trauma happens at a very early stage in a child’s life usually before the age of three. The term psychopath refers to someone with confusing emotional defects, the apparent incapability to feel compassion or the emotions of a conscience. A psychopath is described as having persuasiveness and artificial charm, an unrealistic sense of superiority, lack of guilt and feelings, impulsiveness and lack of realistic plans. Right before his execution Bundy told religious broadcaster and psychologist James Dobson that “You keep craving something ... that gives a greater sense of excitement” (Keen,1989, p.01A). This description of a psychopath is what Ted Bundy was. I first heard about Theodore (Ted) Bundy when I was around eleven years old living in Tallahassee, Florida and there was a man hunt for this serial killer that was on the loose. In the year of 1978, I remember being scared to walk outside in the evenings. I was scared to go to sleep at night. All of my fears left when it came over the television that they had caught him again. However, I also remembered hearing from adults how smart this serial killer was and how he had escaped twice already and I was scared he would escape again. Ted Bundy was born on November 24, 1946 as Theodore Robert Cowell in Burlington, Vermont to Eleanor Louise Cowell in a facility for unwed mothers but raised by his mother’s parents and they had him believe that his mother was his sister. I guess because in those days it was unthinkable to have a child out of wedlock. His grandfather was really strict and abusive towards the young child. Bundy’s father was said to be an Air Force veteran however no paternity test was ever taken. Family members suspected that Bundy’s dad might have been his mother’s abusive father that had molested her. He later fund out the truth about his mother when an older cousin called him a “bastard” and showed him his birth certificate. Bundy told stories f how racist his grandfather was and how he would beat his grandmother and torture the family pets. Bundy showed signs that he was severely troubled when at age three he would lay knives next to his sleeping aunt’s body and smile when she woke up terrified. He also was very interested in macabre at a very young age. By the teenage years, Bundy was showing signs of strangeness when he would get caught peering into people’s windows. Ted was a shy and uncomfortable in social situations so he stayed to himself and became a loner. In 1967, Bundy met his