Eleanor Louise Cowell's Infamous Serial Killer: Ted Bundy

From a shamefully unwed twenty-two-year old’s illegitimate child to a twenty-eight-year old serial killer and serial rapist, Ted Bundy became one of the most notorious criminals of the late 20th century. On November 24, 1946, Eleanor Louise Cowell gave birth to her illegitimate child Theodore Robert Cowell in Burlington, Vermont in a house for unwed mothers. Although his biological father is unknown, it is rumored that Samuel Cowell (his grandfather whom he believed was his father) may have in fact been his biological father. For most of his life, Theodore “Ted” believed that his grandparents were actually his parents, making Louise out to be his older sister. Something he didn’t find out until later in his life (no one knows for sure the

Between his mentally unstable grandmother, abusive grandfather and intensely secretive mother, the Cowell/Bundy family tree was uniquely disturbing. In 1951, Theodore moved to Tacoma, Washington, with Louise and Johnny Bundy, (whom she married May 19th of that year). This would in turn give Theodore the name he would be stuck with. He became the guy we know today as Ted Bundy. After his mother married Johnny Bundy, they had several kids. It seemed as though, Ted grew up in a content, working-family. No matter how much Johnny tried to include Ted into things, Ted never was able to get close to his step-father, nor anyone of his half-siblings. He would even insist on calling Johnny, John. After his high school graduation in 1965, for a year Ted went to the University of Puget Sound (UPS) before he transferred to the University of Washington (UW) in 1967 to study Chinese. Now in 1967 he started to become involved romantically with a fellow classmate who is identified by many different pseudonyms, most commonly she was known as “Stephanie Brooks”. Brooks was a dark-haired girl from California, who had everything Ted wanted: money, class, and influence. By 1968, he dropped out of college, and started working different jobs (the jobs would never last more than about a month) He was later dumped by “Stephanie” because of “his immaturity”, and “lack of direction”. After their breakup, Ted, was devastated. Many of his later victims would resemble