Ted Bundy 30 Years After Execution
January 24th, 2019 by Jake StofanToday, January 24th, marks the 30th anniversary of the execution of one of the nations most prolific and intriguing serial killers.
Mike Vasilinda had a front row seat to the Ted Bundy saga from the beginning, and now an exclusive interview with the man who put Bundy on death row.
Ted Bundy’s path to execution began here, at this Sorority house early on the morning of Super-Bowl Sunday, 1978.
“Well over two hundred calls a day are coming into the co-ed murder command center,” Vasilinda said in a news report in 1978.
Two were dead, three injured, the viciousness shocked a sleepy little city.
“I’ve got new locks on every door on the house,” said one resident at the time.
Three weeks later the fear level skyrocketed.
12-year-old Kimberly Leach disappeared from her middle school 90 miles away in Lake City.
Bundy fled the area, was stopped and arrested in Pensacola.
Found in the stolen VW, murder indictments followed.
“I plead not guilty right now,” Bundy said to the court.
Bundy negotiated a plea deal that would have saved his life, then dropped it.
During a rare visit to death row from the Sheriff who put him there, Bundy came close to a confessing to the Tallahassee murders.
“He said that when you find the person wanted for these murders, that person will be wanted for the murders of three girls in the three digits in six states,” said former Leon County Sheriff Ken Katsaris. “Now, we know about 36 in four states.
The Sorority house was remodeled shortly after the murders, and to this day sisters there aren’t allowed to speak about Ted Bundy.
The field across from the prison resembled a circus as dawn, January 24th 1989 broke.
Bundy’s knees buckled as he was escorted into the execution chamber.
Afterwards a celebration with the crowd singing, ”Hey hey hay, goodbye.”
So ended the life of one of the nations most prolific serial killers, but not the story that continues to fascinate.
A new movie about Ted Bundy premiers this weekend at the Sundance File Festival in Park City Utah. It title: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.
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