Ted Bundy is a notorious serial killer who had a sinister and controversial life. He terrorized American women during the 1970s and 1980s, and is known to have killed at least 30 women, but that number is often a point of speculation and can never be confirmed. Several biographies focus on Bundy’s life and murders. Two stand out: Ted Bundy, by Laura Dobson and The Life and Crimes of One of America’s Most Notorious Serial Killers, by Zed Simpson. Dobson and Simpson agree Bundy had a peculiar childhood, yet disagree on the psychological effect Bundy's childhood had on the rest of his life.
One of the first things Dobson and Simpson explains is as an adolescent Bundy was raised as the child of his biological grandparents and was told his biological mother was his sister. Dobson and Simpson agree that Bundy’s grandparents had many mental illnesses that went untreated.Dobson and Simpson also agree that Bundy’s grandfather was known to be one of Bundy’s favorite people. Dobson and Simpson portrays Bundy’s grandfather as being tyrannical and often bullied other family members, as well as beat his wife. Simpson believes Bundy’s grandparents illnesses were passed on to him as he grew up with them. However, Dobson believes their
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Simpson portrays Bundy as being a very confident and merciless killer. Similarly, Dobson presents Bundy as being a cocky and relentless monster. Dobson is good at explaining the details of many of Bundy’s killings but lacks on details of his life and police encounters.On the contrary, Simpson skims over many of Bundy’s murders by only focusing on more significant murders and gives more details about Bundy’s life. However, Simpson’s writing is more focused and detailed than Dobsons thus seems a more accurate portrayal of Bundy. Finally, both Dobson and Simpson show how relentlessly evil Bundy truly was, yet depict this in different