True crimes solved and unsolved

ted bundy part 4

Ted Bundy Escapes Jail In Aspen

But arrest didn't stop Bundy from killing.

He was soon able to, for the first of two times in his life, escape from custody.

In 1977, he escaped from the law library at the courthouse in Aspen, Colorado.

Because he was serving as his own lawyer, he had been allowed into the library during a break in his preliminary hearing. Nominally, he was researching the laws pertaining to his case. But the fact that he was his own counsel also meant he was unshackled — and when he saw his chance, he took it.

He jumped from the library's second-floor window and hit the ground running, disappearing into the trees before the guard returned to check on him.

He planned to make his way toward Aspen Mountain, and he broke into a cabin and later a trailer for supplies. But resources were scarce, and it wasn't long before he scrapped his plan to vanish into the wilderness.

Back in Aspen, he stole a car, thinking to put some distance between himself and the jail cell he was fleeing.

But the reckless speed with which he left Aspen made him conspicuous, and police officers spotted him. He was recaptured after six days of being on the run.

The Chi Omega Murders At Florida State

Bundy's next escape took place just six months later, this time from a jail cell.

After carefully studying a map of the prison, Bundy realised that his cell was directly beneath the living quarters of the prison's chief jailer; the two rooms were separated only by a crawl space.

Bundy traded with another inmate to get a small hacksaw, and while his cellmates were exercising or showering, he worked away at the ceiling, scraping away layer after layer of plaster.

The crawl space he made was small — very small. He began deliberately cutting back on meals in an effort to lose weight.

He also planned ahead. Unlike last time, when his escape had failed because he was without resources in the outside world, he stowed away a small pile of money smuggled to him by Carole Ann Boone, the woman who would later marry him in prison.

When he was ready, Bundy finished the hole and crawled up into the chief jailer's room. Finding it unoccupied, he swapped his prison jumpsuit for the man's civilian clothes and strolled out the jail's front doors.

This time, he didn't dawdle; he stole a car immediately and got out of town, making his way to Florida.

It had been Bundy's intention to keep a low profile, but Florida life was presenting unexpected challenges. Unable to produce identification, he couldn't get a job; he was back to gifting and stealing for money. And the compulsion toward violence was simply too strong.

On January 15, 1978, two weeks after his escape, Bundy broke into a Chi Omega sorority house on the Florida State University campus.

Within the span of just 15 minutes, he sexually assaulted and killed Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, bludgeoning them with firewood and strangling them with stockings. He then assaulted Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler, who both suffered horrific injuries, including broken jaws and missing teeth.

He then broke into the apartment of Cheryl Thomas, who lived several blocks away, and beat her so badly she lost her hearing permanently.

Still on the run on February 8, Bundy abducted 12-year-old Kimberly Diane Leach from her middle school and murdered her, concealing her body on a pig farm.

And then, once again, his reckless driving caught the attention of the police. When they realised that his plates belonged on a stolen car, they pulled him over and found the IDs of three dead women in his vehicle, linking him to the FSU crimes.

"I wish you had killed me," Bundy the arresting officer.