Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > The Stranger Beside Me > Status Update

‘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?’

‘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.‘

‘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’

‘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.”‘