When Ted Bundy was do work as a crisis hotline voluntary in Seattle while attend to the University of Washington in the former 1970s , he would sometimes get a drive home from a atomic number 27 - worker . Some fourth dimension later that same carbon monoxide - worker , future truthful crime writer Ann Rule , found it odd that descriptions of a serial killer haunting the Washington area seemed to match Bundy ’s height and features .
What helped alleviate her mind was that skirmish with the killer whale often included mentions of a Volkswagen Beetle . The assailant oftenluredhis distaff victim to the car under the make-believe of needing help carrying bags , with a fake cast on his weapon system or stage to diminish suspicion . The killer would then hit them with a crowbar and stuff them into the passenger side of the elevator car , where he had ripped out the seat to well hold their unconscious and prostrate frames .
Although the physical description seemed to match Bundy and one attestator overheard the aggressor say his name was “ Ted , ” Rule know that the Bundy she had once worked aboard — and was still friendly with — didn’t own a car . Still , she entertain doubts . So sheaskeda friend on the police force to check his railway car registration , and was surprised to learn Bundy possess a tan 1968Volkswagen Beetle .
By the meter he was capture for good in 1978 ( he had twice previously escaped police force custody ) , Bundy had kill at least30 womenacross multiple states . In the legal age of cases , the Volkswagen act as a sort ofaccomplice , providing a portable shelter for Bundy ’s kidnapping and killings , house his murder tools , and even offering illumination for Bundy ’s crime panorama .
The Beetle undoubtedly aided him in his human action , a fact that has led to the manakin ’s continued infamy some 80 twelvemonth after its initial introduction ( though the automaker recentlyindicatedthat , for a second time , it may cease production on it ) . But it was also a confessional . The Beetle and the closed book it bear would finally deliver Bundy direct to the galvanizing hot seat .
There is nothing inherently malign about the Volkswagen Beetle , a compact German car first introduced in 1938 that became exceedingly popular in the United States begin in the 1960s . Its devoted proprietor often characterized it as cunning , with an expressive front chassis and canny advertizing campaigns that underscore its impertinent feature . But Volkswagen has often found itself attach to some rather ghoulish chronicle .
The motorcar was nudged along by Adolf Hitler , whowantedan affordable vehicle for German consumers ( although no railcar were delivered to customers until after WWII )
. Much afterwards , a Volkswagen microbus — a multi - passenger derivation — was used by Jack Kevorkian toeuthanizeterminally - ominous patients , earning it the label “ Deathmobile . ”
Bundy purchased his Beetle used and was driving it for the continuance of his execution spree across Colorado , Washington , and Utah in 1974 and 1975 , when he was conceive to have averaged one murder per month . attestator who assure victims enter the car say police force about it , who in good turn get down scanning roadways for the tan Volkswagen that may have been nurse a cause of death .
Being a rider in Bundy ’s Volkswagen often involve being only semiconscious , handcuff to the car ’s frame , and remaining prone on the auto floor so passersby would n’t be able to see the dazed or hard-pressed victim inside . Bundy had alsoremovedthe privileged door handle so it could n’t be unfold from within . Some dupe were strangled while still in the fomite ; others were sweep up out in front of the car ’s headlights so Bundy could better see what he was doing . In Bundy ’s hand , the car was a various tool : It provided a false sentiency of comfort , protection from pause , and theatrical staging .
On August 15 , 1975 , Bundy was in Granger , Utah when policespotted himdriving the vehicle without the headlights on and breezing through two stay signs . They stopped him for a routine traffic assault . When constabulary saw the dislodged front passenger seat , they ask to look for his machine . Bundy consented . They find an Methedrine pick , a yoke of handlock , two masks , charge plate bags , and gloves . Although he was released , Salt Lake authorities hold him six days later when the Salt Lake district lawyer decide to charge him with will power of burglary tools .
smell out trouble and out on bond , Bundy spend the following day thoroughly cleaning the car , and sold it to a stripling in Sandy , Utah a few weeks later . That October , a victim , Carol DaRonch , name himin a lineup as the man who had tried to handcuff her in his auto after telling her he was a police tec . She had managed to flee .
saddle Bundy with DaRonch ’s attempted kidnapping , law seize the Beetle from the teenager Bundy had sell it to and began an exhaustive forensics written report . Bundy had n’t strip the car thoroughly enough : It was a treasure trove of evidence . inwardly , investigatorsfound hairsmatching three of Bundy ’s victims , along with blood grunge . The car was permanently impounded .
Incredibly , it was not the end of either Bundy or his preoccupation with the model .
Bundy was expedited to Colorado to stand up trial , where he escaped not once , but twice : First from a courthouse , where he managed to remain costless for six days , and another time from his clink cell in December 1977 . After fleeing the second time , he set on and obliterate several more victims in a Florida State University sorority house . At some point around this time he also slip a Volkswagen Beetle — orange this time — and was detained by constabulary for a traffic encroachment in February 1978 while drive in Pensacola , Florida .
Bundy ’s fate was sealed . He was convicted in July 1979 for two of the FSU execution ( and subsequently the murder of a 12 - twelvemonth - erstwhile girl )
and sentenced to destruction , though it would take another 10 year for that decree to be carried out .
Bundy ’s Beetle get along better . In the recent 1970s , a former Salt Lake Sheriff ’s Deputy bring up Lonnie Anderson purchased the railcar for $ 925 at a law vendue . The transaction , conducted several years before the rise of the controversial “ murderabilia ” market for collectible associated with criminals , parent a few eyebrows within the department . In mouth with theDeseret News , Andersonsaidhe purchased it “ as an investment . ”
The car , which had long been stripped of most of its interior by forensics research worker , sit in a storage K for the well part of 20 years before Anderson make up one’s mind to assay and realize a payoff . In July 1997 , he placed a classified ad inThe New York Timesselling the car for $ 25,000 . Relatives of the victims were dispirit , order theNewsthat it seemed timeserving . Don Blackburn , whose girl Janice was one of the murder Bundy confess to , enjoin the attempted sales event “ force back me . ”
In 2001 , the car wound up in the collection of crime memorabilia collector Arthur Nash . Nash , in round , lease the machine to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington , D.C. , where it went on video display in the lobby in 2010 . When the Museum close over alease disputein 2015 , the railcar transmigrate over to the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge , Tennessee , where it currently reside . It is still owned by Nash , who project to one day test it for DNA that may have been missed by confidence the first prison term around . Although Bundyconfessedto 30 slaying , some believe he may have been responsible for for more than 100 .
As for the “ other ” Bundy Beetle , the one he steal following his dodging : Policereturned itto its proprietor , massage therapist Rick Garzaniti , in 1978 . No longer well-situated owning the vehicle , he sell it four months later to a father and his 16 - year - old daughter . That it was once function by one of the most dangerous serial sea wolf in American chronicle did n’t seem to weigh to them , Garzaniti said . The adolescent was just excited to have her first railcar .
Additional Source : The Stranger Beside Me
