Hi it’s me, PEDESTRIAN.TV‘s resident weirdo who talks too much about serial killers. It’s a problem, but it’s also kind of on-brand considering I am the co-host of P.TV’s true crime podcast, All Aussie Mystery Hour. If you hear me talking about Harold Holt‘s disappearance or the Wanda Beach murders or Ivan Milat, it’s work-related, I swear!
If you don’t believe me, check out the podcast on iTunes HERE, or on Spotify HERE. Or, you can just listen / download below.
Anyway, shameless plug aside, one person I talk about far too often is Ted Bundy, the notorious US serial killer who was responsible for the brutal murders of at least 30 women between 1974 and 1978.
[jwplayer IKUFcjlE]
Can I just make it clear that I don’t condone what Bundy did, but I just find his whole story fascinating. By all accounts Bundy was a very “normal” kind of bloke: good-looking, smart, friendly and laid-back. Which made those who knew him doubt that he could be responsible for such reprehensible acts, even when he was in the slammer on death row and the damning evidence was piling up against him.
There’s even a book called The Stranger Beside Me written by his former workmate Ann Rule, an ex-cop and crime writer who worked closely with Bundy at a suicide crisis call centre. They were great friends and the book is an incredible insight into how this sexual sadist and psychopath mastered the art of hiding in plain sight. (Definitely read it, it’s a true-crime classic.)
And now, Netflix are getting their slice of the Bundy action with a new docuseries set to premiere on January 24. Entitled Conversations With A Serial Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, the series will be a deep dive into the mind of Bundy via interviews conducted while Bundy was on death row, some of which have never been released to the public before.
After protesting his innocence throughout his trial and conviction, Bundy finally agreed to speak once on death row — often using third person to distance himself from the crimes — and gave police detectives, psychologists and FBI more details about the crimes he’d committed and also, insight into why he committed them.
He also spoke to journalists Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, who collected over 100 hours of audio, including Bundy describing himself as “the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you’ll ever meet” and the series is named after the book they published in 1989.
The Netflix series will feature some of these interviews, spanning four episodes. It’s not the only Bundy content dropping next year, with the film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile — starring Zac Efron as Bundy — set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival which also, coincidentally, kicks off on Jan 24.
And why is Jan 24 significant? Well, it will be the 30-year anniversary of Bundy’s execution — he died in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on that day in 1989. Shocking stuff.
