I’m sure I am not the only one who has noticed the recent uptick in Ted Bundy-related material. I’m also sure that I’m not the only one who is sick of it. I’ve known of Ted Bundy for a while — just like I’ve known of Jeffrey Dahmer, Dennis Raider, David Berkowitz, Ed Gein, and John Wayne Gacy for a while. All of them (including Bundy) are serial killers and all of them took the word “heinous” to a shockingly dangerous level. Yet — for some reason — it is Ted Bundy that has remained in the public eye despite the fact that he was executed over two decades ago; it is Ted Bundy that had the Netflix special Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, as well as Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring Zac Efron in 2019; it is Ted Bundy that had an Amazon Prime documentary series in 2020; it is Ted Bundy that is having a theatrical release coming out this August.
For some reason, there has been this obsession surrounding Ted Bundy since he was caught. At the root of that obsession is this desperate attempt to “figure him out”. Figure out what, exactly? Well, the answer to that says more about society than it does about Bundy.
Why Are We Still Talking About Ted Bundy?