Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

Life and Crimes of Ted Bundy (Part III)

Florida

From Chicago, Bundy traveled by train to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was present in a local tavern on January 2. Five days later, Bundy stole a car and drove to Atlanta, where he boarded a bus and arrived in Tallahassee, Florida, on the morning of January 8. He rented a room under the alias Chris Hagen at the Holiday Inn near the Florida State University (FSU) campus. Bundy later said that he initially resolved to find legitimate employment and refrain from further criminal activity, knowing he could probably remain free and undetected in Florida indefinitely as along as he did not attract the attention of police, but his lone job application at a construction site was abandoned when he was asked to produce identification and instead, reverted to old habits of shoplifting and stealing credit cards from women's wallets left in shopping carts.

In the early hours of January 15, 1978, one week after his arrival in Tallahassee—Bundy entered FSU's Chi Omega sorority house through a rear door with a faulty locking mechanism. Beginning at around 2:42 a.m., Bundy bludgeoned Margaret Bowman, 21, with a piece of oak firewood as she slept, then garroted her with a nylon stocking. Bundy then entered the bedroom of 20-year-old Lisa Levy and beat her unconscious, strangled her, tore one of her nipples, bit deeply into her left buttock, and sexually assaulted her with a hair mist bottle. In an adjoining bedroom Bundy attacked Kathy Kleiner, breaking her jaw and deeply lacerating her shoulder; and Karen Chandler, who suffered a concussion, broken jaw, loss of teeth, and a crushed finger. Chandler and Kleiner both survived the attack, Kleiner later attributing their survival to automobile headlights illuminating the interior of their room and frightening away the attacker (Bundy). Tallahassee detectives later determined that the four attacks took place in a total of less than 15 minutes, within earshot of more than 30 witnesses who heard nothing. After leaving the sorority house, Bundy broke into a basement apartment eight blocks away and attacked FSU student Cheryl Thomas, dislocating her shoulder and fracturing her jaw and skull in five places. She was left with permanent deafness, and equilibrium damage that put an end to her dance career. On Thomas' bed, police found a semen stain and a pantyhose "mask' containing two hairs "similar to Bundy's in class and characteristic".

On February 8, Bundy drove 150 miles (240 km) east to Jacksonville, in a stolen FSU van. In a parking lot Bundy approached 14-year-old Leslie Parmenter, the daughter of Jacksonville Police Department's Chief of Detectives, identifying himself as "Richard Burton, Fire Department', but retreated Parmenter's older brother arrived and challenged him. Later that afternoon, Bundy backtracked 60 miles (97 km) westward to Lake City. At Lake City Junior High School the following morning, 12-year-old Kimberly Diane Leach was summoned to her homeroom by a teacher to retrieve a forgotten purse; she never returned to class. Seven weeks later, after an extensive search, her partially mummified remains were found in a pig farrowing shed near Suwannee River State Park, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Lake City.

On February 12, with insufficient cash to pay his overdue rent and a growing suspicion that police wer closing in on him, Bundy stole a car and fled Tallahassee, driving westward across the Florida Panhandle. Three days later, around 1:00 a.m., Bundy was stopped by Pensacola police officer David Lee near the Alabama state line after a "wants and warrants" check showed his Volkswagen Beetle was stolen. When told he was under arrest, Bundy kicked Lee's legs out from under him and took off running. Lee fired a warning shot followed by a second round, chased and tackled Bundy. The two struggled over Lee's gun before Lee finally subdued and arrested Bundy. In the stolen vehicle were three sets of IDs belonging to female FSU students, 21 stolen credit cards and a stolen television set. Also among the items was a pair of dark-rimmed non-prescription glasses and a pair of plaid slacks later identified as the disguise worn by "Richard Burton, Fire Department" in Jacksonville. As Lee transported Bundy to jail, unaware that he had just arrested one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, he heard Bundy say, "I wish you had killed me."