Theodore Robert Bundy (né Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989), also known as the Lady Killer, was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered dozens of young women and girls between 1974 and 1978. His modus operandi typically consisted of convincing his target that he was in need of assistance or duping them into believing he was an authority figure. He would then lure his victim to his vehicle, at which point he would bludgeon them unconscious, then restrain them with handcuffs before driving them to a remote location to be sexually assaulted and killed.
Bundy killed his first known victim in February 1974 in Washington, and his later crimes stretched to Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. He frequently revisited the bodies of his victims, grooming and performing sex acts on the corpses until decomposition and destruction by wild animals made further interactions impossible. Along with the murders, Bundy was also a prolific burglar, and on a few occasions he broke into homes at night and bludgeoned, maimed, strangled and sexually assaulted his victims in their sleep. All of Bundy's known victims were white females, most of middle-class backgrounds. Almost all were between the ages of 15 and 25 and most were college students.
In 1975, Bundy was arrested and jailed in Utah for aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. He then became a suspect in a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in several states. Facing murder charges in Colorado, Bundy engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults in Florida, including three murders, before being recaptured in 1978. For the Florida homicides, he received three death sentences in two trials and was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989.
Bundy is one of several high profile killers that Dexter Morgan idolizes and looks to for inspiration as he paves his way out as a fresh serial killer himself. He was also mentioned in Dexter: Resurrection as a part of Leon Prater's collection. He is represented in Prater's collection with the driver's seat from Bundy's VW Bug connected to his murders, this seat sits on a pedestal by itself in the space where three empty alcoves are seen behind it.