Ted Bundy for the Defense – Part One: Beginnings
Once Upon A Crime
Esther Ludlow
4.6 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Ted Bundy for the Defense: Part One, we examine the earliest confirmed crimes of Ted Bundy and the investigation that led to his first conviction.
This episode follows Bundy’s documented attacks beginning in 1974, starting with the brutal assault of Karen Sparks and the murder of University of Washington student Lynda Ann Healy. As young women continue to disappear across Washington State, investigators begin to notice a disturbing pattern—college-aged victims with similar physical characteristics, abducted under similar circumstances.
We track Bundy’s movements from Washington to Utah and Colorado, including the Lake Sammamish abductions that introduced the “Ted” suspect and his relocation to Utah as law enforcement closed in. The episode details the disappearances and murders of Nancy Wilcox, Melissa Anne Smith, Laura Aime, and others, highlighting how Bundy’s crimes escalated while investigators struggled to connect cases across state lines.
Part One also explores Bundy’s personal life and psychology—his unstable academic career, rejection from elite law schools, political ambitions, and turbulent romantic relationships—and how these failures fueled a growing sense of entitlement and resentment.
The episode concludes with the attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch, her survival and identification of Bundy, his arrest in Utah, and his 1976 conviction for aggravated kidnapping—marking the first time Ted Bundy was held criminally accountable.
Sources:
The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History, Kevin M. Sullivan, McFarland and Company, 2020 (Second Edition).
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers, Caroline Fraser, Penguin Press, 2025.
The Devil’s Defender, John Henry Browne, Chicago Review Press, 2016.
A Light in the Dark: Surviving More than Ted Bundy, Kathy Kleiner Rubin and Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Chicago Review Press, 2024.
https://www.aetv.com/articles/most-bizarre-moments-ted-bundy-murder-trials
https://youtu.be/KcBBevSoOmQ?si=jU9iGq1m0dfwP-2c
https://johndrogerslaw.com/ted-bundys-criminal-trials-a-detailed-examination/
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/10/archives/allamerican-boy-on-trial-ted-bundy.html
https://www.crimelibrary.org/criminal_mind/psychology/defending_oneself/7.html
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a27375563/ted-bundy-trial-lawyer-true-story/
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About This Series:
Ted Bundy for the Defense examines Ted Bundy’s criminal cases through the lens of his courtroom behavior and his insistence on controlling his own fate. This series separates myth from fact, focusing on documented evidence, trial records, and survivor testimony.
Coming Next:
In Part Two, investigators uncover crucial forensic evidence linking Bundy to additional murders, while Bundy grows increasingly confident in his ability to outsmart the justice system—setting the stage for his most reckless decision yet.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast details true crime cases. It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence. |
| 0:07.4 | It is not intended for children. Listener discretion is advised. |
| 0:19.1 | Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime. |
| 0:23.6 | I'm Esther, and this is our new series, Ted Bundy for the Defense. |
| 0:27.6 | If you're joining me for the first time, or if it's been a few days since the introduction, |
| 0:32.6 | welcome back. |
| 0:33.6 | In the last episode, I introduced this series by dismantling the mythology surrounding Ted Bundy, |
| 0:40.4 | the idea that he was some uniquely brilliant legal mind, that he outsmarted the justice system, |
| 0:46.5 | and that his charm was his greatest weapon. |
| 0:49.3 | What we'll see over the course of this series is something far less cinematic and far more disturbing. Instead, |
| 0:57.0 | you'll learn about a man driven by grievance, entitlement, and fantasy, who believed he was |
| 1:03.0 | exceptional, even as his own failures stacked up around him. Today we begin at the point where |
| 1:09.3 | fantasy becomes violence. |
| 1:12.1 | Before we dive in, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast by hitting the follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. |
| 1:20.1 | This story will be told over several episodes, so subscribe so you won't miss an episode. |
| 1:26.0 | Now let's begin the story of one of the most infamous killers in true crime history. |
| 1:30.9 | Theodore Robert Bundy. |
| 1:50.4 | By the early 1970s, Ted Bundy was a man deeply invested in how he appeared to others. |
| 1:53.7 | On paper, he looked like someone on the rise. |
| 2:00.3 | He'd graduated from the University of Washington in 1972 with a degree in psychology earning honors. He worked in politics, volunteered at a suicide |
| 2:03.9 | crisis hotline, and was appointed to Seattle's Crime Prevention Advisory Committee. But beneath |
| 2:10.6 | that carefully managed image was a pattern of rejection and disappointment. Bundy had always |
... |
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