Ted Bundy, a failed law student and lone drifter, was one of the most notorious serial killers of the twentieth century, also a rapist and necrophiliac.
In spite of his apparent charm and intelligence and seemingly normal relationships with women, during a killing spree between 1974 and 1978, he raped and murdered at least thirty girls and young women in five different US states.
This was the decade during which 'criminal profiling' was initially developed and the term 'serial killer' was first used by law-enforcement agencies. Bundy's trial was the first in the United States to be nationally televised. His resulting 'celebrity' has spawned many films and TV dramas, including Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, in 2019, starring Zac Efron. His many victims have received rather less attention.
Bundy was sentenced to death in 1979 and executed in Florida in 1989, in the electric chair.