Happy Birthday Ted Bundy!
The Execution of Ted Bundy
Time finally ran out for Ted Bundy on January 24, 1989 when he was executed in the electric chair.
One of Bundy’s final acts was to permit James Dobson, a Californian psychologist and host of a syndicated radio show, to videotape an interview to be broadcast after his death. Dobson described Bundy was “feeling great remorse.” He quoted Bundy saying his crimes “should serve as a warning to the dangers of pornography.” Bundy appeared frightened when he was escorted into the death chamber. But he moved easily to the chair, nodding to his attorney, James Coleman, and Gainesville minister Fred Lawrence, who had counseled him earlier.
“Jim and Fred, I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends,” he said in a strong voice that trailed off at the end. “He was calm but visibly shaken,” said state Rep. Randy Mackey of Lake City, an official witness. Bundy stared straight ahead and his jaw tightened when workers adjusted a chin strap and fitted a hood over his shaven head. When the switch was thrown by the executioner, who is paid $150 for the job, Bundy’s body surged back against the chair. His fists clenched. A doctor pronounced him dead at 7:16 a.m. EST. Gene Williams, owner of the Williams-Thomas Funeral Home, said he accepted custody of the body but would not give any details on arrangements, including whether there would be burial or cremation. But he said no funeral was planned. John Tanner, a prosecutor who arranged for Bundy’s confessions with investigators from the four Western states, said Bundy had no finished “telling the names and locations of the bodies. He just ran out of time.” The governor had insisted that Bundy would not be allowed to use a protracted litany of confessions to delay his execution a fourth time.
“Just read it. C’mon, let’s go. Aren’t you up for re-election this year, Ken? Isn’t it an election year?”
One of the worst random killing sprees in modern history struck the city of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, in June and July of 2007. After an intense investigation, it was revealed that the culprits of the brutal crimes, labeled the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs, were two teenage boys named Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck. The duo was arrested and charged with the murder of 21 people in a 4 week span. The murders began on June 25 when two people were bludgeoned to death with a hammer. One of the victims was killed while sleeping on a bench across from the Public Prosecutors office. Over the next four weeks, 21 people were selected, and killed at random. Many of the victims were vulnerable to attack, including pregnant women, children, elderly, vagrants and citizens under the influence of alcohol. The teenage boys murdered multiple victims on most days, with two bodies being discovered every day, from July 14 through 16, 2007. Most of the people were killed with blunt objects, including hammers and steel construction bars. The attacks were often directed at the victims’ faces, leaving them unrecognizable. Many people were also mutilated and tortured, and some had their eyes gouged out while they were still alive. The investigation was initially kept secret and no official information on the murders was released. The Ukrainian people were not warned or provided with descriptions of the suspects. However, the ramped rumors of the crimes kept most of the local population home at night. On July 14, Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck were witnessed committing a murder and identified by an investigating unit, which had grown to over 2,000 officers. The pair was arrested and charged with the murder spree. Sayenko and Suprunyuck were sentenced to life in prison, as Ukraine has no capital punishment law. The prosecution in the case did not establish a specific motive behind the killings, but interviews with the pair show that they were concerned with videotaping and photographing their crimes. In fact, a snuff film showing the brutal murder of a 48-year-old disabled Ukrainian man, named Sergei Yatzenko, was released to the Internet. The clip shows Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck repeatedly beating Sergei Yatzenko with a hammer and stabbing him with a screwdriver. The video has been removed from many websites, but still makes appearances on the net.
Ted Bundy: I don’t sit around and worry about it, no. If it’s going to happen it’s going to happen. I’ve always had the death penalty. It’s just a matter of knowing when you’re going to die.
Hugh Aynesworth: Well here’s a good sign: Two men were scheduled to be executed in Louisiana last week and both got stays.
Ted Bundy: Well, that may last for a while, but they’re eventually going to get Congress to pass legislation whereby state prisoners have limited access to federal habeas corpus. It’s coming, but it doesn’t worry me that much. Not like being on a plane. Does the thought of, you know, crashing on an airliner worry you? It’s in the back of your mind, but….
Hugh Aynesworth: Yeah, but when you board a plane you haven’t already been told that you are going to die-maybe not this year or this month, but soon.
Ted Bundy: Yeah.
Hugh Aynesworth: But I guess if you knew, it would make you not enjoy your remaining days.
Ted Bundy: Sure. Or to take advantage of them. That’s precisely what I’d like to do. Well, thaks for coming by, Hugh, and…
Hugh Aynesworth: Yeah, I’ve enjoyed visiting with you more today than ever before. I hope to see you again, but I don’t know if I ever will or not.
Ted Bundy: Yeah, uh, the pressure, that element of pressure separated us because you always felt you had to get something from me and I felt that your interests were not my interests, so we floundered a bit all the way.
Hugh Aynesworth: Well, we both learned some things, I believe. I was glad to hear you say that in the rediscussing and reliving…going back over some of these years…you made an important breakthrough for yourself.
Ted Bundy: Yes, and I’m glad, too. I think it was important. That’s why I feel that all this was not a waste. It started to put me on the path to where I am now. Just thinking about this business was so terrible, so horrible. You really jarred me a couple of times, knocked me back from where I thought I was to where you thought I ought to be. I don’t recall exactly when it happened, but while I was facing all this from you-which wasn’t easy for any given session-I slowly began to understand what I had to do next, how I had to restructure my life. I’m in a lot better shape now. Oh well, who’ll remember either of us in a hundred years?
