Ted Bundy’s mom defended him to the bitter end, saying “You’ll always be my precious son.”
On November 24 , 1946 , a untried charwoman gave parentage at the Elizabeth Lund Home For Unwed Mothers in Burlington , Vermont . Her name was Eleanor Louise Cowell , later Louise Bundy , and she was just 22 geezerhood old at the time that she became Ted Bundy ’s mom .
Cowell was urged to give the shaver up as the stain surrounding a kid put up out of marriage extended not only to the unwed woman but to the woman ’s family as well . As a compromise , the young woman ’s parent took in the child and nurture him as their own .
As a resultant , that boy spring up up believing that Eleanor Louise Cowell was his aged sis , a complicated relationship which many biographers point out could be where his sociopathy started . Because it was on that nighttime in November 1946 , that Eleanor Louise Cowell sacrifice birth to one of the most infamous psychopaths in the humans . She named him Theodore Robert Cowell or Ted for short . It was n’t until later when Cowell conjoin and her new husband adopted young Ted , that he was present his lasting , infamous name : Ted Bundy .
From the 1993 TIME/LIFE hardcover,True Crime-Serial Killers.A young Bundy with his grandfather, Samuel Cowell, who at this time he believed to be his father.
How Eleanor Louise Cowell Became Ted Bundy’s Mom
From the 1993 TIME / LIFE hardcover , True Crime - Serial Killers . A new Bundy with his grandfather , Samuel Cowell , who at this fourth dimension he consider to be his father .
To this day , no one perhaps Eleanor Louise Cowell is quite sure of the identity of the man who knock up her . Rumors have , of course , abounded , naming everyone from a sailor on shore leave to Cowell ’s own abusive father .
Bundy ’s official nativity certificatenamedan Air Force veteran discover Lloyd Marshall as the father , however , Cowell later claimed it was a Isle of Man who may have been a sailor , named Jack Worthington .
WordPressTed Bundy’s mom, Eleanor Louise Cowell, poses with him as a child.
geezerhood later , when investigating Ted Bundy ’s personal history following his apprehension , police could find no military record of a valet named Worthington . The rumors about Samuel Cowell , Louise ’s father , were never officially confirmed or traverse by the family .
WordPressTed Bundy ’s mom , Eleanor Louise Cowell , poses with him as a kid .
Whoever his nascence father was , Ted Bundy seemed unconcerned with knowing . Throughout his former life story , Ted Bundy was under the depression that his maternal grandfather was his founder and that his female parent was his babe – and no one redress him .
From the 1993 TIME/LIFE hardcover,True Crime-Serial Killers.Bundy, in plaid on the far right, poses with his mother Eleanor Louise Cowell, center, and three half-siblings.
For the first three years of her son ’s lifespan , Eleanor Louise Cowell lived with her family in Philadelphia where she was contain in September of 1924 . Her family biography , however , proved to be too difficult an environment in which to raise a tiddler .
While Louise Cowell herself was rather sane , along with her young babe , the respite of the family had confutable tendencies . Mrs. Cowell , Louise ’s mother , was dependent to bouts of crippling depression , for which she underwent electroconvulsive therapy as treatment . Mr. Samuel Cowell , Louise ’s begetter , was known city - wide to be a violent , boozy man .
From the 1993 TIME / LIFE hardback , True Crime - Serial Killers . Bundy , in plaid on the far right , poses with his mother Eleanor Louise Cowell , center , and three half - siblings .
Wikimedia CommonsTed Bundy in high school.
neighbor reported him quiver his married woman , the household dog , and neighbourhood computerized tomography , while Cowell recollect him being a antiblack , male chauvinist , impose , verbally scurrilous gentleman . alas , he was also the sole male figure of speech which Bundy had to look up to . Worryingly , and perhaps tellingly , Bundy would after call in his grandfather fondly , saying that he take care up to the human race , and “ clung to ” as well as “ identified with ” him .
Whether the fact that Ted Bundy ’s ambiguous line of descent contribute to his psychosis stay unknown . Bundy himself assay to brush off the issue , though unconvincingly :
“ This , of course , this illegitimacy upshot is , for the amateur psychologist , it ’s the thing , ” Bundy reported in an audience featured in the Netflix seriesConversations With A Killer . “ I signify , it ’s so stupid . It just bugs the shit out of me . I do n’t recognize what to do about it . ” Then he add , “ It ’s normal . ”
Wikimedia CommonsTed Bundy in court.
Ted Bundy ’s mama may have noticed sociopathic , or at least , disruptive tendencies in him early on , as she moved forth from her fellowship when he was just three . This was , allegedly , following an incident during which Cowell ’s sister Julia waken one aurora to recover her bed covered in kitchen knives — and young Ted smile at the substructure of her bed .
Eleanor Louise Cowell Becomes Louise Bundy
In 1950 , Eleanor Louise Cowellchanged her nameto Louise Nelson and move from Philadelphia to Tacoma , Washington . Her cousin-german lived there , and for a trivial while , Ted Bundy ’s mom and he lived with them .
Wikimedia CommonsTed Bundy in high school .
In 1951 at a church single night , Louise Nelson fit Johnny Culpepper Bundy , a hospital cook from Tacoma . Bundy , ironically , was a odorous and caring mankind . He was everything that Samuel Cowell was not and Ted Bundy ’s mom immediately fall in love . Within a yr they were married and within the next several class they had four more tiddler together .
APLouise Bundy making her last phone call to her son.
Despite the fact that Bundy adopted young Ted and bestowed upon him his last name , Ted Bundynever bonded with his footfall - begetter and indeed reported that he find him unintelligent and pitiful .
Louise Bundy flow quickly into her raw life as a housewife . She enjoy being a female parent to her four children and check her disperse new hubby take them on bivouacking trips and fishing dangerous undertaking . What she did n’t enjoy , however , was determine her old child , the moody and absent Ted Bundy , distance himself even further from his family .
Despite Ted Bundy ’s mama ’s best efforts to keep her mob together , clip and clip again Ted would refuse to cooperate . Louise Bundy noticed this aloofness , but concord to report , nothing else in his conduct seemed to paint a picture that he could become a bloodlusty sequent killer .
Wikimedia CommonsTed Bundy in court .
Indeed , Bundy once admitted in an audience also feature in the Netflix seriesConversation with a Killerthat , “ There ’s nothing in my background which would lead one to believe that I was able of pull murder . ”
Bundyinsistedthat he grow up in none other than a good , solid , Christian home with two parents — even though he refuse to cover his step - father as anything more than “ John . ” How much Ted Bundy ’s human relationship with his phratry and childhood contributed to his late crimes remains nameless as Bundy give conflicting accounts of his home liveliness to various biographer over the years .
Perhaps like any doting mother , Louise Bundy could only see the good in her children . WhenTed Bundypulled away from his fresh family , she take this was due to sadness or grief over having to leave Philadelphia . Even when Bundy was arrested on suspicion of burglary and theft at the old age of 18 , she never conceive of that something more sinister was going on under the surface — but it would n’t be long until others did .
Defending A Serial Killer
As her shaver develop up , Eleanor Louise Cowell submit a job as an administrative assistant at the University of Puget Sound where Bundy in short see before channel to the University of Washington to study Chinese . He metElizabeth Kloepfer Kendallaround this fourth dimension with whom he lived . Their romance end explosively , however , when Bundy began his killing spree .
It ’s conceive by one biographer of his that around his clock time in the late ’ 60s while Bundy skip from West Coast schools to I on the East Coast near his grandparent , he learned his female parent was not , in fact , his sister .
He later claimed to have killed two women in Philadelphia around this time , but his first confirmed kill did not come until 1974 . From then on he became a murderous killing machine .
For those that are n’t intimate with Ted Bundy ’s sovereignty of scourge , the abbreviated overview is as follow : from 1974 and potentially even earlier , until 1989 , Bundy went on a killing spree that claim a self - pretend 30 victim . He escape several time over his prison career until he was finally convicted and do in the former eighty .
His crimes were well publicized , as was his trial because he largely served as his own attorney . The media sensationalized his showcase , and museums around the country begin displaying artifacts belonging to him so as to force crowds of the morbidly fascinated .
Though Bundy initially rule his innocence , he after confessed to the crimes and candidly offered up macabre details surroundings several of the murder . The worldwide panorama from the populace was that he was shamed , but harmonize to biographers , it was those closest to him that bluster his innocence even after his public confession .
Among those who professed his innocence was his female parent . Throughout his arrest(s ) and his trial , Louise Bundyproclaimed that there was but no wayher Logos could have done these terrible things .
In 1980 , following her son ’s strong belief for abducting and killing 13 - year - quondam Kimberly Leach in Florida , Louise Bundy enjoin theTacoma News Tribunethat she remain supportive of her Word .
“ Ted Bundy does not go around killing charwoman and small children ! ” she said in an interview . “ Our never - finish faith in Ted – our faith that he is destitute – has never wavered . And it never will . ”
Even after his confession , Louise Bundy stood beside the manslayer . When it was speculated in 1999 that Bundy may have murdered his 8 - twelvemonth - old neighbour , Louise came to his defence force immediately .
“ I begrudge the fact that everybody in Tacoma thinks just because he lived in Tacoma he did that one , too , right smart back when he was 14 , ” she said . “ I ’m certain he did n’t . ”
Life After Ted
Despite her cutthroat financial support for and stay on defence of Ted Bundy , there was not a thing Eleanor Louise Cowell could do to redeem her Logos from the electric chair . On the fateful first light ofTed Bundy ’s executionon Jan. 24 , 1989 , Louise Bundy spoke to her son one last time .
His death by electric chair did little to erase his flagitious legacy , however . Johnny and Louise Bundy continued to feel the backlash of being parent to one of America ’s most horrifying cause of death . In the years during the trial , the couple had been squeeze to endure malicious rumors that they had cognise about their son ’s indecency and attempt to cover it up . They ’d also been forced to move and to change their phone number to avoid mean cry and letter .
But this did n’t phase Louise Bundy .
APLouise Bundy making her last telephone set call to her son .
Whether she had any human relationship with Bundy ’s married woman , Carol Ann Boone , or the child they had on destruction row , daughterRose Bundy , persist unknown .
While Ted Bundy ’s name was never forgotten , Louise Bundy and the eternal rest of the Bundy family remain comparatively anon. . Louise Bundy was , for her sake , able to fade quietly into the background for the rest of her life until her expiry at the ripe long time of 88 in 2012 .
Though she was remembered by those in her local community as a kind and have it away woman , the general public will likely retrieve her as the dot female parent of a serial killer who maintain him until the bit of his death .
Take her last word to him , for lesson . Bundy spoke to her son doubly on his execution daytime . In her last headphone call to him , she extol her love for him one last meter . The word were recorded by the prison house system :
“ You ’ll always be my precious Word . ”
After this spirit at Ted Bundy ’s mom , Louise Bundy , learn thestory of Elizabeth Fritzl , who was held captive in her father ’s basement for 24 years . Then , take about Christine Collins , whose son went missing and was replaced by an pseudo .
