Rating: 
Summary: The final justice was the best justice!
Review: There have been many volumes published about Ted Bundy over the past twenty six years, but this outstanding book written by two experienced investigative reporters stands the tallest. Why? Because of their compassion for the victims and the fact that they haven't included the exact graphic, lurid details of Bundy's devastating carnage in order to increase book sales. This book isn't exactly light reading, nor is it fun to read, but for young women like myself, it is a NECESSARY read. The messages it contains will save many lives - it could even save our own. One can also guess that Bundy's reasons for co-operating with the authors Michaud and Aynesworth weren't exactly altruistic either, for, locked away from vulnerable would be victims, exposed for the monster that he was, Bundy must surely have experienced great pleasure during his "speculation" sessions, because it was during these that he could fantasise and happily relive each of the brutal murders that he committed. Anyone who says that capital punishment is barbaric will surely have their opinions changed after reading this book, for the electric chair was exactly what Bundy deserved. You also have to wonder what good things his victims would have achieved had their lives been allowed to continue.
Rating:
Summary: how demonic can one man get
Review: There is something about the purely evil entity known as the serial killer that fascinates us endlessly, even as it repels us. Do these individuals inhabit the same world the rest of us live in? What is it that drives one to relentlessly stalk and murder other human beings like a tiger hunting prey? And even tigers kill only to satisfy a physical hunger; what kind of hunger drives the likes of Ted Bundy? Power? Sadism? Something so hideous that a "normal" mind can't begin to fathom it? We wonder what it would be like to live inside the head of such a person, but at the same time we pull back: it probably wouldn't be very nice in there.Hugh Aynesworth, an investigative reporter, and Stephen G. Michaud, a writer for Newsweek, have written an exhaustive, well documented account of Ted Bundy's rampage through four states that left at least thirty young women dead. They explore Bundy's life in detail from his problematic childhood to his college years, during which he developed his consummate skill as a con artist and pathological liar. He wasn't every teenage girl's dream, but he had his share of girlfriends; he came from a broken home but his mother clearly cared about him and tried to be a good parent. He didn't know his father, but neither did a million other boys who never went on to become serial murderers. So who or what made Bundy Bundy? Aynesworth and Michaud suggest that it doesn't matter, Bundy was Bundy, period, and as such, the blame and responsibility for his crimes rest with him alone. We follow Bundy in this book from his first murder in Washington State, through subsequent homicides in Utah and Colorado, his sensational escape from custody by jumping out of a second floor window, and his flight to Florida, where in a single explosion of homicidal rage he bludgeoned two girls to death and severely battered three more after invading their sorority house, before his final murder of a 12 year old who disappeared from a junior high school. The last killing represented a chilling turn: was Bundy going after younger and younger prey? One wonders if he might not have abducted children from elementary schools before he was finally caught. Like all psychopaths before him and those who will come after him, Bundy never had a shred of compassion or guilt in regard to any of his victims. When he related his crimes to Michaud and Aynesworth, he insisted on talking about himself in the third person, as if Bundy the killer was a separate entity unrelated to himself. Perhaps that's how he could live with himself during the four years his crime spree lasted: someone else was committing these murders, not him. However Bundy tried to rationalize, deny or explain away his actions, one gets through this excellent book emotionally drained, and feeling very grateful that he is no longer on this planet to remind us of the insanity he caused while he walked among us.
Rating:
Summary: Something wicked this way came
Review: There is something about the purely evil entity known as the serial killer that fascinates us endlessly, even as it repels us. Do these individuals inhabit the same world the rest of us live in? What is it that drives one to relentlessly stalk and murder other human beings like a tiger hunting prey? And even tigers kill only to satisfy a physical hunger; what kind of hunger drives the likes of Ted Bundy? Power? Sadism? Something so hideous that a "normal" mind can't begin to fathom it? We wonder what it would be like to live inside the head of such a person, but at the same time we pull back: it probably wouldn't be very nice in there. Hugh Aynesworth, an investigative reporter, and Stephen G. Michaud, a writer for Newsweek, have written an exhaustive, well documented account of Ted Bundy's rampage through four states that left at least thirty young women dead. They explore Bundy's life in detail from his problematic childhood to his college years, during which he developed his consummate skill as a con artist and pathological liar. He wasn't every teenage girl's dream, but he had his share of girlfriends; he came from a broken home but his mother clearly cared about him and tried to be a good parent. He didn't know his father, but neither did a million other boys who never went on to become serial murderers. So who or what made Bundy Bundy? Aynesworth and Michaud suggest that it doesn't matter, Bundy was Bundy, period, and as such, the blame and responsibility for his crimes rest with him alone. We follow Bundy in this book from his first murder in Washington State, through subsequent homicides in Utah and Colorado, his sensational escape from custody by jumping out of a second floor window, and his flight to Florida, where in a single explosion of homicidal rage he bludgeoned two girls to death and severely battered three more after invading their sorority house, before his final murder of a 12 year old who disappeared from a junior high school. The last killing represented a chilling turn: was Bundy going after younger and younger prey? One wonders if he might not have abducted children from elementary schools before he was finally caught. Like all psychopaths before him and those who will come after him, Bundy never had a shred of compassion or guilt in regard to any of his victims. When he related his crimes to Michaud and Aynesworth, he insisted on talking about himself in the third person, as if Bundy the killer was a separate entity unrelated to himself. Perhaps that's how he could live with himself during the four years his crime spree lasted: someone else was committing these murders, not him. However Bundy tried to rationalize, deny or explain away his actions, one gets through this excellent book emotionally drained, and feeling very grateful that he is no longer on this planet to remind us of the insanity he caused while he walked among us.
Rating:
Summary: Addictive and Informative
Review: This book for me personally was a real page turner. I wanted a book to help me understand the mind of a serial killer and also to relay to me in more detail the crimes of Ted Bundy. This book did indeed give us an insight to the serial killer's mind and indeed gave us the unanswered questions to those girls Bundy robbed of their lives. I found this book informative without going overboard on statistics and the like...I felt the style of writing and pace of the book had me gripped from the description of the weather in Florida at the beginning of the book and I was not dissapointed from then on in. I felt regret when I finished the book as it had stimulated me intellectually and made me do my own thinking as well as educating me. I came away with a sense of loss and waste not only for the families of the victims but also for the family and friends of Ted Bundy who it seemed were duped with his innocence until the last confession. A brilliant brilliant read!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: This book is very insightful in the comprehension of serial killers. Bundy's charisma mask, shielding his murderous lust is explicated extremely well. For all interested in understanding this man, I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: This book is very insightful in the comprehension of serial killers. Bundy's charisma mask, shielding his murderous lust is explicated extremely well. For all interested in understanding this man, I highly recommend this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping!!
Review: This book was a very exciting read. It gave extensive detail of Ted Bundy, and his crimes. In certin parts, I read it for hours, unable to put it down! The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars, is because the last few chapters before the Epilouge we all about his courtroom apperences, and his trial. It was rather boring in that part. But that only lasted for a few pages, 20 or so. I highly recomend this book to anyone. It gave great detail, so it is the perfect book to pick up and start reading, even if you don't have a clue about Ted Bundy, and his murders!
Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: This book was probally the best book I have read in years. I did a book report in high school on it, and got an "A". Women should be encouraged to read it, beacuse it can be a usefull tool to keep them safe. There's alot to learn from a monster.
Rating:
Summary: Still One of the Most Chilling Books You'll Ever Read
Review: This book, originally published in 1983, has been a bit overshadowed by later revelations, and it omits or ignores a lot of fascinating character detail about Bundy's victims, but still, as a chilling and unsettling look at the origins of homicidal mania, it has few parallels. I can't think of a work of fiction, or a clinical study, on the topic of murder that is as detailed, thought-provoking, and chilling as this true crime book.
Rating:
Summary: Ted Bundy Revealed!
Review: This classic gives insight into the mind of the Serial Sex Killer, Ted Bundy. Described variously as "handsome, smooth talking, erratic and charming" except one thing he killed women descriminately. This gives a detailed account (as Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth researched it and did interviews with family, friends, girlfriends, the sympathic wife who believed Bundy was innocent to the end and wouldn't hear otherwise.... and Bundy himself straight from Death Row in 1980. Bundy, himself, wouldn't discuss the murders as if he did it, he never said he was guilty of the crimes, he always claimed he was innocent (even as he went to the the executioner in 1989). So Michaud and Aynesworth made a deal with him that he didn't have to discuss them as if he did it, he could discuss them as if discuss a psychological case, and Bundy agreed to that. So Bundy discusses his crimes and his "entity" (as he called it) in third person throughout the book. Bundy was a textbook sexual psychopath who terrorized the College communities of Washington, Utah and Florida over a span of years. He left none if little evidence so he was very hard to catch. As all serial killers do, they get cocky and so self-assured they won't get caught that they make a mistake and Ted Bundy made his mistake in Florida around the University in Tallahassee where he was caught. The Only Living Witness answers all the questions about one of America's worst monsters. It is a timeless classic. It covers most of Bundy's life, including his youth and his years as a student and volunteer before murder became his primary occupation and after ... when the first 4 or 5 girls went missing and he volunteered to "help" the DES with the searches for the women as a credit for his law school course, or so he would have his girlfriend (at the time) believe. I finished the book with a sense of fright for those women never found, and sadness for the families that won't get to bury the missing women, and the family and friends of Ted Bundy who was so manipulated and conned by their son and friend so much they believed in his innocence until he at last confessed the murders. A brilliant brilliant read and research source into the mind of a mass serial killer and sexual defiant psychopath. His crimes are as vivid and studied today as they were when he was being hunted and caught!
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