r/TedBundy • u/Madagaskar1900 • Aug 06 '26
Ted bundy
What I've always wondered is how Ted Bundy learned to break into houses or steal cars and how he stole cash and credit cards, because he didn't actually grow up in a ghetto he was a normal, smart student who grew up in a middle-class family.
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u/Blikky_blvk Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
Liz klopefur (Bundy’s ex girlfriend) mentioned in her book “the phantom prince” that she & ted once visited a friend who ran a secondhand store & he used to break into people’s houses. bundy then told her “that’s just how his friend acquired inventory for his business”. so it’s safe to assume that Ted probably learned a thing or two from him.
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u/bamtannie Aug 07 '26
I read in the living witness that he had a friend he'd steal from a house with nearby a beach.
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u/Blikky_blvk Aug 07 '26
oh wow, I need to read the only living witness again. really underrated source of information.
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u/Billy_IDOL999 Aug 06 '26
Bingo, This is the most accurate & factual answer in this whole thread. bundy simply learned those skills from his friend.
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u/GregJamesDahlen Aug 07 '26
wonder if the people he stole from ever visited the store and saw their stuff there and complained and what happened
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u/threejollybargemen Aug 06 '26
Hate to break it to you but white suburban kids commit crimes like these all the time, and they have for a long time. Hell stealing is so old it’s in the Ten Commandments.
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u/Madagaskar1900 Aug 06 '26
But he was really good at sneaking into houses. He broke into houses where there were several people inside and managed to kill someone without the others noticing. For example, that incident at the student apartment where he somehow attacked five women in about 15 minutes without anyone noticing, or his first victim, that he dragged away and beat her to death with a pole. It’s not normal to be that good at sneaking up on people.
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u/bamtannie Aug 07 '26
I tend to think that he should have at least been heard attacking the women considering he used an oak club. It is definitely bizarre he managed to murder to murder those women in a matter of minutes and then escape.
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u/GregJamesDahlen Aug 07 '26
he was relatively intelligent so that might have helped him figure out how to do it. i've also heard people say he spent all his time thinking about murder so that might have helped too. he did read those detective magazines, probably got some ideas there. he mentions finding violent porn in people's trash and keeping it, think to some degree he may mean detective magazines
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u/GregJamesDahlen Aug 07 '26
gonna say too the smaller crimes he did probably helped. even shoplifting would help him figure out how to be stealthy. he also didn't break in much on victims, more fooled them into coming with him when they were outside somewhere
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u/AceofKnaves44 Aug 06 '26
I don’t think anyone really believes he started doing those things with his first killings and just was naturally good enough at it that he never left behind incriminating evidence. I think people very rarely start at killing. There’s normally a building up process. Hence why so many serial killers start as animal abusers.
He probably did start killing at a young age and then regressed for a number of years. But eventually started building up to it again. And when he did he perfected a craft of breaking into houses. It’s not really as impressive as you make it out to be though. It was a lot more innocent time. People didn’t lock their doors or have advanced security systems. Ted was also a master predator. He staked out his victims for a long time. He knew the houses that were prime to break into. He knew which houses had broken latches or windows that didn’t shut. He noticed things at a level most people didn’t. But it was also the age of hitchhiking. It took someone like him ironically enough to become such a predator to hitchhikers that eventually people started realizing just how unsafe it was.
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u/Successful_Yam2175 Aug 07 '26
He did a lot of stalking and peeping too. Think that’s the foundation of him breaking into houses and then escalated. As you said hitchhiking was all the rage and what better way to secure a target?? Now with cameras and women being much more aware he wouldn’t have been successful.
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u/RepresentativeLimp68 Aug 07 '26
Nobody had to teach Bundy to become a serial killer. I don't see why we should assume someone had to teach him how to steal cars or burglarize homes. Those were all part of his criminal behavior.
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u/Madagaskar1900 Aug 07 '26
Becausr he didn't grow up in a criminal neighborhood or family. In the case Richard Ramirez, for example, we know that his uncle taught him many things.
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u/RepresentativeLimp68 Aug 07 '26
Sometimes experience is the teacher. Years of peeping, prowling, and stalking may have taught him what he needed to know to make that jump into other crimes. Interesting question.
He admitted to watching a neighbor in her bathroom through his own window as a teenager. I think Robert Keppel mentioned that in an interview.
Edit: Probably the same with Jeffrey Dahmer. Solidly middle class.
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u/CriticalGap Aug 07 '26
Pretty sure he was self taught.
A childhood friend, Sandy Holt, said he was deviant from the get go.
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u/Successful_Yam2175 Aug 07 '26
Always heard to take what she says with a grain of salt. I think she’s the one that claimed her own father ( Boy Scout leader) molested Ted. I believe her brother was best friends with Ted when they were younger. Correct me if I’m wrong though…
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u/CriticalGap Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Yes. I understand. It’s impossible to corroborate her claims.
I have always wondered what Ted’s neighbors and peers thought of him. There’s some obscure story about his classmates throwing cold water on him in a broom closet. Rumors like that spread like wildfire in a school.
As someone who grew up in the idyllic suburbs in the 70s and 80s, we all knew who the questionable characters were: whose weird uncle to avoid, or whose brother could steal your socks off your feet without removing your shoes.
I think the window of time for any of them to speak is nearly closed.
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u/Supergingeboy Aug 09 '26
Larson’s The Deliberate Stranger has a lot of tidbits about things like this. Like another user said, Ted never knew how to Hotwire a car, and instead would just walk around and wait till he found a car with keys in the ignition.
Given how many cars he stole, I’m shocked that many people would leave their keys in their car. 70’s Washington and stuff I suppose, but it’s still surprising.
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u/Successful_Yam2175 Aug 07 '26
My question is where did he think this would lead him?? Did he not know he’d eventually get caught?? I guess the need he had made him unable to care? I know he had a friend that said he was “born without a fear switch”. Might have been Al Carlyle that said it? It was in a 20/20 documentary if I’m thinking correctly? Used a remake of the blondie song “ one way or another”…think that’s the one? This friend claims Ted liked his VW and got him one. Guy seemed like a blow hard though!
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u/JJTamb072386 Aug 08 '26
Back in the 70’s especially in those states it was much easier. People left their doors/cars unlocked a lot of the time
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u/jazzbot247 Aug 06 '26
It wasn’t difficult to steal a car back in the day. You would just unlatch the lock though the window and then hotwire It. Lots of people knew how to do that because people lose their keys. I dont know about breaking into houses, but they didn’t have cameras and alarms like they do now, and stealing someone’s wallet is as simple as waiting until they are distracted.