Document Type
Thesis
First Faculty Advisor
Michael Bryant
Keywords
Theodore Bundy; serial murder; trial; impact; perceptions; serial killing; FBI
Publisher
Bryant University
Rights Management
CC 4.0 BY-NC-ND
Abstract
The famous trial of serial killer Ted Bundy has been portrayed throughout the years since it took place in the late-1970s. This famous serial killer has regained popularity, spurred by our curiosity and fascination with serial killers today versus the shocking truth about serial murder it instilled in people back in the 70s. By looking into the case of Ted Bundy in detail, this paper provides a greater understanding of why his case took the world by storm and how it impacted society at the time. Through a traditional research thesis, it was my goal to analyze the effects the Bundy trial had on people’s perceptions of serial murder back in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and how those views differ from today with the documentaries and films made about this brutal criminal. I conducted my research through a survey to address my three main hypotheses. I predicted that people believe the case of Ted Bundy to have increased awareness about serial killing and made society more scared, people who witnessed his trial would view it as having a positive impact in 1979 but not today, and people not alive during Bundy’s trial would perceive it to have had a positive impact both then and now. All of my hypotheses were supported by my results and statistical significance was found.
