Hunting Ted Bundy: The chase to capture one of America’s most notorious serial killers is profiled on ID

Theodore Robert Bundy, otherwise known as Ted Bundy, was one of America’s most notorious serial killers who abducted, raped, and murdered numerous women throughout the 1970s, and possibly earlier in the 1960s.

He was active in various parts of the country and committed his crimes in numerous states from Washington to Florida.

Just days before he was executed in 1989, he finally confessed after years of denial. He admitted to 30 homicides in seven states, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Florida, between 1974 and 1978.

Although he may have killed many more, estimates generally range from 29 to 100, although it’s usually accepted that he murdered approximately 35.

Bundy was considered to be handsome and charismatic, a trait he used to lure his victims. He would sometimes gain their trust by pretending to be a figure of authority, such as a police officer.

On other occasions, he would pretend to need help by feigning an injury or disability. He owned a pair of crutches which he used to trick women.

He tended to approach his victims in a public place before tricking and abducting them. He would then take them to a secluded spot where he would rape and then kill them by strangulation or striking them with a blunt object.

Ted Bundy kept his victim’s heads as souvenirs

Bundy decapitated fourteen of his victims and kept their heads as souvenirs in his apartment. He would often return to his crime scenes to have sex with the corpses.

He first arrested in Utah in 1975 after a failed abduction attempt. A search of his Volkswagen Beetle revealed a ski mask, pantyhose with eyes cut out, gloves, rope, a crowbar, and handcuffs. He was subsequently convicted of kidnapping a woman, Carol DaRonch, and sentenced to up to 15 years.

In 1977 he escaped by jumping out a prison library window but was quickly recaptured, only to escape again. While on the run, he continued to murder women until he was finally collared again in 1978.

He was 42-years-old when he was executed by electric chair.

More from Investigation Discovery

Follow the links to read about more serial killers profiled on ID.

Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins was convicted of nine murders spanning the 1960s to the 1980s in South Carolina, but he claimed to have killed up to 110 people. His attacks were particularly sadistic as he liked to keep his victims alive and torture them for as long as possible.

Keith Jesperson became known as the Happy Face Killer because of the smiley faces that he drew on his letters to the media where he bragged about his murders. He is known to have killed at least eight women between 1990 and 1995 in six states.

Hunting Ted Bundy airs Saturday at 8/7c on Investigation Discovery.