Charlie Fenton > Recent Status Updates

‘He seemed so together, and I felt so screwed up. He loved life but was locked away in prison. I hated life, yet I was free.’

‘When she came to one of Ted, she pulled it out of the stack and balanced it on her knee. When she was finished, she took Ted's picture and put it back in the stack. The man was too old, she explained.
"That's hardly a positive I. D." Hergesheimer said.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know what it means to you," he said, "but to me it
means I'm going to put Ted Bundy in my done·it·twice file and file him away."’

‘One characteristic of portraiture from this period is the production of multiple versions of portraits and the re-use of patterns over time. Patrons did not need to sit for each iteration of their portrait, particularly if there was widespread demand for their likeness. This process was exemplified in the many portraits of Elizabeth I’

‘“Besides," she went on, "if he was going to abduct someone, would he stroll up and introduce himself by his real name? Liz, you don't go with someone for four years and not know what they're about. You know Ted. You know his morals. Unless there's something you're not telling me about, then I don't know why this has you so upset."’

‘I bought the nightgown, admitting sadly to myself that if this was the only way I could be a part of Ted's life, I would settle for it.’

I feel sorry for her and just wish she had more self-esteem. I wish she had just left him when he said he was going out on a date with another woman and didn’t come back home that night, despite her dating him and them practically living together.

‘His name, he said, was Ted Bundy. I knew when I first looked at him, before we had even danced, that he was a cut above the rest of the crowd. His slacks and turtleneck certainly weren't from J.e. Penney, and the way he moved projected confidence. He seemed to be in control of his world.’

Purcell is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. I loved The Silent Companions and I am enjoying this one just as much.

‘But she brought little Ted, a sensitive, brilliant little boy, into a household dependent on the whims of a tyrannical patriarch. The fact that Ted Bundy could never remember his grandfather as anything less than a kindly, wonderful man indicates, I think, just how frightened Ted was. He must have repressed all those emotions, virtually wiping out normal responses.‘

Also been watching the Netflix documentary with my mum. Have to say she has a morbid sense of humour, watched way too many crime shows.

Mum: “You know, you would be on his list. You’re attractive, have long dark hair that is parted down the middle.”
Me: “I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment.”
Mum: “Well I did say you were attractive.”

‘There is, within all imperfect mechanisms, a tendency to self destruct, as if the machine itself realizes that it is not functioning correctly. When the mechanism is a human being, those destructive forces writhe their way to the surface from time to time. Somewhere, hidden deeply in the recesses of Ted’s brain, there is a synapse of cells that is trying to destroy him.’

‘But they all resembled Stephanie, that first woman who had pierced Ted’s carefully constructed facade and revealed the yawning vulnerability beneath. That damage to Ted’s ego could never be forgiven. None of the crimes filled the emptiness. He had to keep killing Stephanie over and over again, hoping that each time would be the time that would bring surcease. But the more there were, the worse it became.’

‘The front row, just behind Ted and the defense team, was jammed with pretty young women, as it would be each day. Did they know how much they resembled the defendants purported victims? Their eyes never left Ted, and they blushed and giggled with delight when he turned to flash a blinding smile at them, as he often did.‘

‘caught a man suspected of thirty-six murders, a figure they found hard to believe. When Chapman asked him about that during the post taping conversation, Ted had reportedly replied, “Add one digit to that and you’ll have it.” What had he meant? Was he being sarcastic? Did he mean thirty-seven murders? Or, no, it couldn’t be … did he mean a hundred or more murders?’

‘If I had been allowed to talk to Ted during those first days after his arrest in Pensacola, would things have been any different? Would there now be more answers? Or would I have flown to Florida only to be met with the same evasive, meandering statements that Ted gave to the detectives? I will never know.’

‘There was one little Volkswagen that he picked up, and realized at once that it must belong to some young girl. It was old and had a couple hundred thousand miles on it, but she’d had it souped up and polished and reupholstered. It was clearly somebody’s pride and joy and he couldn’t steal it. He made it a point to never steal from someone who couldn’t afford it.‘

‘For Elizabeth, Leicester’s death had been a grievous blow, but she could at least find some consolation in the company of Leicester’s twenty-two-year-old stepson, Robert, Earl of Essex. Vibrant, dashing and charismatic, Essex was tall, handsome... His pedigree was impeccable: on his father’s side he could trace his ancestry back to Norman times, while through his mother he was related to the Queen.’

‘Ton for ton, the Spanish galleons were roughly on a parity with those of the English, but the Spanish ships looked much more imposing, being heavily built up above the decks. They were also weighed down with quantities of supplies and ammunition needed for the projected campaign on land, and this affected their sailing performance.’

‘Puzzled, she stared after him for a few moments before entering the courthouse and heading for the sheriff’s office. Her first question galvanized the officers on duty into action. “Is it normal for people to jump out of windows around here?” Kralicek heard her, swore, and headed for the stairs. Ted Bundy had escaped.’

‘the cocky, witty Ted, the man so removed from the facts that the whole situation was ridiculous. It was a posture that would irritate several judges and juries in his future court wranglings, but it was seemingly an attitude necessary for the survival of his ego. I have always felt that Ted would, literally, rather die than be humiliated—would face life in prison or the electric chair before humbling himself’

‘If James had really wanted to save his mother, he could of course have sent Elizabeth an ultimatum to the effect that he would at once declare war if she went ahead with Mary’s execution, but he was never prepared to go so far as this.‘

‘the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index) consisting of hundreds of questions that can be answered “yes” or “no,” with some deliberate “lie” questions repeated at intervals. I spotted the lie questions when I was a freshman in college, particularly, “Do you ever think about things too bad to talk about?” The “correct” answer is “yes”—everybody does—but many people write “no.”‘

‘It is interesting to note that through all the trials, through all the years of black headlines that would label Ted a monster, and worse, he would always have at least one woman entranced with him, living for the few moments she could visit him in jail, running errands for him, and proclaiming his innocence. The women would change as time passed. Apparently, the emotions he provoked in them would not.’

‘Had the man who approached these young women divined somehow that he had come upon his victims at a time when they were particularly vulnerable, when they were not thinking as clearly as they usually did? It would almost seem so. The stalking, predatory animal cuts the weakest from the pack, and then kills at his leisure.’

‘No, it couldn’t be. It was ridiculous. Ted Bundy would never hurt a woman. He wouldn’t even make an off-color remark to one. A man whose life’s work was oriented toward helping people, toward eliminating the very sexual violence that marked the crimes, couldn’t be involved, no matter how much he resembled the composite.’

‘No, it couldn’t be. It was ridiculous. Ted Bundy would never hurt a woman. He wouldn’t even make an off-color remark to one. A man whose life’s work was oriented toward helping people, toward eliminating the very sexual violence that marked the crimes, couldn’t be involved, no matter how much he resembled the composite.’

‘In all, one hundred and eighty-three Catholics were executed during Elizabeth’s reign. One hundred and twenty-three of them were priests, and of the sixty lay victims three were women. By no means all captured priests were put to death, for in about three out of four cases they were either imprisoned or banished.’

‘In theory, Burghley’s efforts to cut costs had Elizabeth’s wholehearted backing, but she herself had some extravagant habits which did not make his task any easier. Twice a week the Court was supposed to serve only fish, but Elizabeth frequently deviated from this rule, and the cost of the additional meat dishes prepared for her on those days amounted to £646 a year.’

‘Lynda … Donna … Susan … Kathy … Brenda … Georgeann. All gone as completely as if a seam in the backdrop of life itself had opened, drawn them in, and closed without leaving so much as a mended tear in the tapestry.’

She had forty feet left to go until she was home, yet she didn’t make it. I really should not be reading this at this time, makes you never want to leave the house again.

‘If, as many people believe today, Ted Bundy took lives, he also saved lives. I know he did, because I was there when he did it.’

I can see why a lot of people believe he had multiple personality disorder. The way he is described during their first meeting is just so normal and, I hate to say it, kind. It is terrifying.