Ted Bundy Research Paper

Murder is a man’s world, well supposedly. There's an established gender blueprint consisting of the male killer, and the female victim at work in both books and hollywood films. The traditional view has always been that female killers are rare, that those of the “gentler sex” have to be provoked into murder by men. We all have read or watched these works of fiction that star the female serial killers portrayed as sexy femme fatale on a revenge plot while killers like Freddy Krueger, Patrick Bateman and Jason Voorhees are the bloodthirsty knife wielding murderers. While both are just works of pure fiction created for screams and laughs it raises the question; are there any actual differences between a male and female serial killer ? By examining

Between Ted Bundy and Nannie Doss there is not much difference between their backgrounds. Both individuals were abused mentally and physically. Ted Bundy however grew up with a natural hate for women which would be a catalyst for his later life. Nannie Doss a.k.a “The Giggling Nanny” born on November 4, 1905 in Blue Mountain, Alabama, grew up with an abusive father that had little respect or regard for her education. Nancy was pulled out of school during the sixth grade to help work on the farm. Nancy was a prisoner in her own home. She wasn't allowed to have friends, wear nice dresses or makeup, and was prohibited to talk to boys. She spent her nights working in the factory and reading romance magazines.(Murderpedia the Encyclopedia of Murderers. 2016). She finally began to have a social life when she got her first job in 1921. Moreover, Ted Bundy, born Theodore Robert Cowell, grew up living a lie. Ted’s mother, Louise Cowell, was single when she gave birth to him and in the 1940’s which was a serious taboo. Ted’s grandparents took their daughter in, telling young Ted that his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his sister. This lie expelled his hate for women. Aside from the debated status of his paternity, Samuel Cowell ,Bundy’s grandfather was considered by many to be a tyrannical bully and a bigot. When describing his violent nature, historians

The publication estimates that “80 percent of female serialists have employed poison by itself or with other means" (Geringer, 2). While on the other hand male serial killers tend to be more physical and face to face. It is more common for a male serial killer to shoot, stab, or strangle their victims (Geringer, 2 ).” Nearly all of the people women killed were people they knew, often their own family members. While men kill in order to assert their dominance use weapons of violence whether that be sexaul assault, torture or murder. This is shown in Nannie doss who killed two of her daughters through poisoning their food with arsenic. After her first husband left her, Nancy became obsessed with romance and started the search for her next husband using the personal sections in the local newspaper. She met Frank Harrelson and they got married in 1929. While married to Frank, Nancy's oldest daughter had two children, one in 1943 and one in 1945, both of whom Nancy is accused of killing. Seven months later Frank was dead after Nancy accused him of forcing sex on her. She vowed to get even with him for that and did so by poisoning his liquor bottle with rat poisoning. Nancy got remarried to Arlie Lanning, an alcoholic womanizer. Soon after they got married, Arlie was killed and his house . She got remarried yet again to