Ted Bundy Interview

One of the most infamous sex criminals of all time is Ted Bundy. According to his own words, Bundy believed his descent into the horrible pit of sexual assault and murder was fueled by an addiction to violent obscenity. What makes Bundy's case of immense interest to evangelical Christians is an execution-eve interview conducted by Dr. James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family. This interview took place Monday, January 23, 1989, 2:30 P.M. EST, at the State Penitentiary in Starke, Florida. Bundy called Dobson and offered the interview with the understanding that it would be used to warn the public of how his horrible downfall actually took place.

Portions of this 30-minute interview are transcribed here, from "Ted Bundy Interview Transcript," Copyright C, 1989, Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, CO 80995. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

At the end of the interview, Bundy gives his personal testimony of faith in Jesus Christ:

Dobson:
"Ted, as you would imagine, there is tremendous cynicism about you on the outside, and I suppose for good reason. I'm not sure that there's anything that you could say that people would believe, some people would believe. And yet, you told me last night, and I heard this through our mutual friend John Tanner, that you have accepted the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and are a follower and a believer in Him. Do you draw strength from that, as you approach these final hours?"

Bundy:
"I do. I can't say that being in the valley of the shadow of death is something that I've become all that accustomed to and that I'm strong and nothing's bothering me. Listen, it's no fun. You know, it gets kind of lonely and yet, I have remind myself that every one of us will go through this some day, in one way or another, and countless millions who have walked this earth before us have so this is just an experience which we'll all share. Here I am."

There are several important points made during the interview. These points are reinforced with direct Bundy quotes.

Point 1: Bundy was not born a monster. He began life as a normal person.

". . . that's part of the tragedy of this whole situation. Because I grew up in a wonderful home with two dedicated and loving parents, one of five brothers and sisters; a home where we as children were the focus of my parents lives, where we regularly attended church--two Christian parents who did not drink, they did not smoke, there was no gambling, there was no physical abuse or fighting in the home. . . I led a normal life . . . And part of the shock and horror for my dear friends and family years ago when I was arrested was that there was just no clue. They looked at me and they looked at the all-American boy.

". . . there were very strong inhibitions against criminal behavior or violent behavior that had been conditioned into me, bred into me in my environment, in my neighborhood, in my church, in my school. Things which said 'No, this is wrong.' You know, even to think of it is wrong, but certainly to do it is wrong.

". . . I was a normal person. I wasn't some guy hanging out at bars or a bum, I wasn't a pervert in the sense that people look at somebody and say, "I know that there's something wrong with him, you can just tell." I was essentially a normal person."

Point 2: obscenity is progressively addictive.

". . . the most damaging kinds of pornography are those that involve violence, and sexual violence. Because the wedding of those two forces, as I know only too well, brings about behavior that is just too terrible to describe.

"My experience with pornography that deals on a violent level with sexuality, once you become addicted to it--and I look on this as a kind of addiction--like other kinds of addition, I would keep looking for more potent, more explicit, more graphic kinds of material. Like an addiction, you keep craving something which is harder, something which gives you a greater sense of excitement until you reach the point where the pornography only goes so far. You reach that jumping off point where you begin to wonder if maybe actually doing it will give you that which is beyond just reading about it or looking at it."

Point 3: There is a cause-and-effect relationship between using obscenity and criminal sexual behavior.

"Listen, I'm no social scientist and I haven't done a survey. I don't pretend to know what John Q. Citizen knows about this. But I've lived in prison for a long time now and I've met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence just like me. And without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography; without question, without exception, deeply influenced and consumed by an addiction to pornography. There's no question about it -- the FBI's own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornography.

"And what scares and appalls me, Dr. Dobson, is what I see what's on cable TV-- some of the movies, I mean, some of the violence in the movies that come into homes today, the stuff that they wouldn't show in X-rated adult theaters thirty years ago. . .There are kids sitting out there switching the TV dial around, and come upon these movies late at night or I don't know when they're on but they're on, and any kid can watch them. It's scary, when I think what would have happened to me if I had seen-- it was scary enough. I just ran into stuff outside the home, but to know that children are watching that kind of thing today--.

"I think society deserves to be protected from itself, because as we've been talking there are forces at loose in this country, particularly, again, this kind of violent pornography where, on the one hand well-meaning, decent people will condemn behavior of a Ted Bundy while they're walking past a magazine rack full of the very kinds of things that send young kids down the road to be Ted Bundys."

Point 4: Bundy was eventually driven by an evil supernatural force. Although he never named this force as demon possession, his descriptions of it, and the obvious results, point to a classic case of intermittent (time-sharing) demon possession.

". . . this one small but very potent and very destructive segment of it that I kept very secret and very close to myself and didn't let anybody know about . . .

". . . something which is almost like a separate entity inside.

". . . that's one way to describe it-- a compulsion, a building up of destructive energy.

"It's a very difficult thing to describe. The sensation of reaching that point where I knew that it was like something had snapped, that I knew that I couldn't control it any more, that these barriers that I had learned as a child, that had been instilled in me, were not enough to hold me back with respect to seeking out and harming somebody.

"It was like coming out of some kind of horrible trance or dream. I can only liken it to . . . have been possessed by something so awful and so alien, and then the next morning wake up from it, remember what happened . . .

". . . it was like a black hole. It was like a crack and everything that fell into that crack just disappeared."

Point 5: Despite the influences of obscenity and demonic forces, Bundy recognized his need to be accountable to society and God for his behavior.

". . . it's important to me that people believe what I'm saying, to tell you that I'm not blaming pornography, I'm not saying that it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility for whatever I've done, and all the things that I've done.

". . . and then the next morning wake up from it, remember what happened and realize that basically, in the eyes of the law certainly and in the eyes of God, you're responsible. To wake up in the morning and realize what I had done, with a clear mind and all my essential moral and ethical feelings intact at that moment, absolutely horrified that I was capable of doing something like that.

"I deserve, certainly, the most extreme punishment society has and society deserves to be protected from me and from others like me, that's for sure."

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