Bundy was born to a single mother in Vermont in 1946 and raised by his grandparents. To avoid the stigma at the time, Bundy was told his grandparents were his real parents and this his mother was actually his older sister. Bundy eventually found out the truth and never forgave his mother for it. From a young age, Bundy was described as having strange tendencies. When Bundy was three years old, his aunt Julie awoke from a nap to find herself surrounded by knives from the kitchen with the young Bundy standing by her bed smiling. In 1950, Bundy and his mother moved from the family home in Philadelphia to Tacoma, Washington. Growing up in Tacoma, accounts of Bundy's childhood vary from biographer to biographer, but it's generally thought that it was relatively uneventful. Former classmates and teachers would later describe Bundy as an awkward child who had a hard time understanding social interactions.

Bundy's first murders were said to have happened around 1974 after he ended his first long-term relationship. Six college women in the Seattle area disappeared all in a row, which left police baffled. Bundy's preferred method of attracting his victims was to impersonate an authority figure or pretend that he was injured. For example, around the time of Bundy's first murders, people reported seeing a man with a broken arm asking people for help carrying books to his car.

The abductions continued in the Seattle area until July 1974, when Bundy tried to abduct four women in broad daylight. They fled and gave his description to the police. Despite a full-scale manhunt, Bundy was not caught. In August 1974, Bundy moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to study at the University of Utah Law School. Shortly after he arrived, a new string of murders began. Bundy continued his signature technique of impersonating authority figures. His victims were all young women whom he beat, strangled, and raped. By 1975, Bundy had moved his murder spree to Colorado (though he was still living in Salt Lake City) operating out of the rooming house.

In August 1975, Bundy was arrested for the first time after he failed to pull over for a traffic stop. After seeing that the front seat of Bundy's 1968 Volkswagon Beetle was missing, the officer searched the car. This is what he found... A ski mask, a second mask fashioned from pantyhose, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, a coil of rope, and an ice pick. Police first thought that maybe these were burglary tools and placed Bundy under surveillance while they investigated. They noticed that Bundy's description matched that of the suspect being sought for the 1974 Seattle murders. A detective flew from Salt Lake City to Seattle to interview Bundy's long-distance girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer. Kloepfer told the detectives in detail about all of the strange things she had noticed about Bundy, including his odd habit of examining her with a flashlight under the covers while she slept.

In September 1975, Bundy sold his Volkswagen trying to stay one step ahead of police. However, it was impounded shortly after the sale. Inside, police found hair matching three different victims. While detectives couldn't tie Bundy to any of the murders in Seattle, Utah, or Colorado, they had enough to charge him with the kidnapping and assault of one victim who got away. In March of 1976, Bundy was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, Bundy wasn't done quite yet.

In 1977, Bundy managed to escape from prison in Colorado not once, but twice. The first time he was caught almost immediately, but the second time he remained at large for several months. After his second prison break, Bundy headed from Aspen, Colorado, to Tallahassee, Florida, through a combination of hitch hiking, trains, and stolen cars. Once he arrived in Tallahassee, Bundy resolved not to keep murdering, but that didn't last long. Soon, bodies were turning up on the Florida State University campus. Bundy was again arrested during a traffic stop in Florida after the officer discovered Bundy's car was stolen.

In June 1979, Bundy stood trial for the Florida murders he committed. Following a lengthy trial for the numerous murders he committed, Bundy received three death sentences. Bundy and his legal team appealed the sentence for the next nine years before it was finally carried out. After exhausting the appeals process, when it became clear that he would be executed, Bundy decided to confess to all of his murders and cooperate with investigators. He also shared details of how he killed his victims and what he did with them afterwards. During the final months of his life, Bundy confessed the full range of his crimes to Special Agent William Hagmaier. One of the things he admitted to was returning to the sites where he had dumped his victim's bodies to have sex with them until decomposition forced him to stop.

On January 24, 1989 Bundy was executed by electric chair. One of the last pictures taken of Bundy before his execution. The man he is sitting with is Agent Hagmaier. While Bundy ultimately confessed to 30 murders, some researchers have put that number as high as 100 or more. Clearly, Bundy was a very sick man, but he was also very smart. He knew how to manipulate people and the system to get away with his crimes. He was one of the most psychopathic serial killers to ever live.