The 30th anniversary of Ted Bundy's execution was on January 24, 2019, and a documentary came out on Netflix that was based around Ted Bundy's actual tapes that were recorded before his death in the 80s. A new movie starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy also came out the weekend of the anniversary.
What has caused Ted Bundy to rise to such infamy was he was not your standard serial killer or serial rapist. He was handsome, well educated, he had girlfriends — he was completely unsuspecting to most people. His parents never wanted to believe that he had done it. Because who would ever want to believe that their child was capable of that?
He was in law school. He wasn't what FBI agents or police officers would think of when they thought of a serial killer. Charles Manson and John Wayne Gacy were the faces that law officers associated with this kind of crime, not a "handsome devil." It opened the eyes of a lot of people to the fact that rapists and murderers can be the person sitting next to you who looks so sweet and clean-cut.
Because in today's society, that's the kind of criminal that many people face in their lifetime. The people that some would never suspect, even with allegations against them. The kind of person who could be living a complete double life and seem innocent and kind. That's what the rapists and murders that people are afraid of really look like. Rape is happening less out of the bushes and random acts but increasingly by people who are known by the victim — even people who the victim had a relationship with because then it gets very confusing to sort out the feelings.
That's why there is a warning to not watch the documentary alone, and people are doing so anyway, eliciting a very fearful response because it is so real and shows that it really can happen anywhere, to anyone, by anyone. Good looks do not stop murderers, and it is very, very real for many people.
I ended up watching the documentary by myself. OK, I had a dog and a hamster there with me, so I wasn't totally alone, but I did not become as scared because the monster that was being portrayed on the screen had been in parts of my life already, and I had made it out alive. But this a reminder that so, so many people don't make it out alive from those encounters.
Trust your instincts. Build friendships where it counts, and don't give up on life, even if there are "Ted Bundys" still out there in the world.
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