Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Romance in Seattle

Seattle, 1969. Ted Bundy, a law student, meets Liz Kendall, a young secretary who is a divorced mother raising her daughter Molly. Ted and Liz begin dating, and their relationship develops seriously. Ted helps Liz raise Molly, essentially taking on a stepfather role. The family unit appears normal and loving, with Ted presenting himself as a caring, responsible partner and parental figure.

The film initially presents Ted from Liz's perspective—as charming, supportive, and devoted. The audience sees the relationship as Liz experienced it: a seemingly ideal romantic partnership with a man who accepted her daughter and integrated himself into their lives.

Murders and Suspicion

By 1974, news reports throughout the Pacific Northwest announce a disturbing pattern: multiple young women have been murdered or disappeared. Two women vanished in broad daylight at Lake Sammamish, a popular recreational area. Several witnesses reported seeing a man resembling Ted Bundy asking women to help him load a kayak onto a Volkswagen Beetle—offering a pretext to isolate potential victims.

Authorities release a composite sketch of the suspected attacker based on witness descriptions. The sketch resembles Ted closely enough that hundreds of people call police to report him as a possible suspect. Based on these tips and other evidence, Ted is arrested in 1975.

Carol DaRonch, a young woman, picks Ted out of a police lineup. She identifies him as the man who kidnapped her, impersonated a police officer, and threatened to kill her before she managed to escape from his vehicle. Her identification and testimony provide the evidence authorities need to charge Ted.

Ted is released on bail and returns home to Liz. She is upset after reading newspaper articles about Ted's arrest and the accusations against him. Ted provides an explanation that Liz wants to believe: he claims Carol DaRonch was shown his photograph before the lineup occurred, which is why he looked familiar to her during the identification. Ted insists he is being framed or mistaken for the actual perpetrator.

Conviction and Transfer

After a four-day bench trial—heard by a judge without a jury—Ted is found guilty of aggravated kidnapping of Carol DaRonch. The judge sentences Ted to serve one to fifteen years in Utah State Prison. The conviction validates the prosecution's case but leaves ambiguity about the murder accusations.

A few weeks after Ted begins serving his sentence, Colorado authorities charge him with the murder of Caryn Campbell, a young woman killed in Colorado. Ted is transferred to Aspen, Colorado in 1977 to face trial for murder.

Liz refuses to believe Ted is guilty of murder despite the mounting evidence. However, the stress of Ted's legal troubles, the suspicion surrounding him, and the possibility that the man she loves might be a serial killer takes a severe emotional toll on Liz. She begins drinking heavily to cope with the situation.

First Escape

While at Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen for pre-trial hearings, Ted elects to serve as his own attorney—representing himself in the murder case. This status grants him certain privileges: as his own lawyer, he is excused from wearing handcuffs or leg shackles in the courtroom because he needs to access legal documents and move freely during proceedings.

During a court recess, Ted exploits these freedoms to escape. He jumps out of a second-story courthouse window and runs into the mountains surrounding Aspen. The escape demonstrates both his cunning and his desperation to avoid the murder trial.

Ted remains at large for six days, surviving in the wilderness while authorities search for him. He is eventually recaptured and returned to custody in Colorado.

During this period, Liz visits Ted. The accumulation of evidence, his escape attempt, and the ongoing stress finally break through her denial. Liz ends their relationship, unable to continue supporting Ted while facing the overwhelming likelihood of his guilt.

Second Escape and Florida Murders

Ted escapes from custody again, this time by sawing a square hole into his jail cell's ceiling over an extended period. He crawls through the ceiling and makes his way out of the facility, successfully fleeing Colorado.

Ted travels to Florida, where he commits some of his most brutal crimes. In January 1978, he breaks into a sorority house at Florida State University and murders two women: Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. During the same attack, he viciously assaults three other women who survive but suffer severe injuries. Days later, Ted abducts and murders twelve-year-old Kimberly Leach.

Ted is arrested again after a traffic stop in Florida. He attempts to contact Liz from custody, but she hangs up on him, maintaining the boundary she established by ending their relationship.

Celebrity and Romance

In jail awaiting trial, Ted begins receiving attention from women who are fascinated by him. Some women write letters, visit him, and even claim to love him despite knowing he is accused of brutal murders. This phenomenon—where serial killers attract admirers—demonstrates how Ted's charisma and appearance allowed some people to deny or romanticize his crimes.

Carole Ann Boone, an old friend of Ted's, visits him. Unlike Liz, Carole Ann believes Ted is innocent. She moves to Florida to be near him during his upcoming murder trial, demonstrating commitment to supporting him.

Rejected Plea Deal

Before trial, prosecutors offer Ted a plea bargain: if he pleads guilty to murdering the two sorority women (Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman) and twelve-year-old Kimberly Leach, he will receive a 75-year prison sentence instead of facing possible execution. The deal would spare his life but imprison him for the rest of his natural life.

Ted refuses the plea bargain. His refusal suggests either genuine belief in his innocence, narcissistic confidence he can win acquittal, or inability to admit his crimes even to save his own life.

Ted and Carole Ann grow closer during the trial proceedings. Their relationship develops romantically despite—or perhaps because of—the intense circumstances. Ted continues attempting to reach Liz, who follows his trials via television news coverage. Liz carries enormous guilt because she was the person who first gave Ted's name to Seattle authorities in 1975 after seeing the composite sketch and recognizing his resemblance to the suspect.

During the trial, Ted proposes to Carole Ann in the courtroom by asking her to marry him during his direct examination of her as a witness. Due to a Florida legal peculiarity, this declaration before a judge constitutes a legal marriage. They are married in the courtroom mid-trial.

Conviction

The prosecution presents overwhelming physical evidence against Ted. Most damning is a forensic odontologist's testimony: a plaster cast of Ted's teeth matches the impressions of bite wounds left on Lisa Levy's buttocks during the sorority house attack. The bite mark evidence uniquely links Ted to the murder through his distinctive dental pattern.

After less than seven hours of deliberation, the jury convicts Ted on all counts: two counts of first-degree murder (Levy and Bowman), three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of burglary.

Trial judge Edward Cowart sentences Ted to death for the murders. The judge's sentencing remarks famously include telling Ted that he is intelligent and capable, and that under different circumstances Ted could have been a successful lawyer arguing cases before the judge—but instead, Ted will be executed for his crimes.

Final Confession

Ten years later, with Ted's execution date approaching, Liz receives a letter from him. She decides to visit Ted on death row, bringing with her a photograph that a detective had given her years earlier.

During the visit, Liz demands the truth. Ted continues denying involvement in the murders and proclaiming his innocence, maintaining the lies he has told throughout their entire relationship and all his legal proceedings.

Liz then shows Ted the photograph she brought: a crime scene image of one of his decapitated victims. Confronted with graphic evidence of his brutality and realizing Liz already knows the truth, Ted finally admits to at least one murder. He writes the word "hacksaw" in the condensation on the glass window separating them in the visiting room—admitting he sawed off the victim's head.

Liz leaves the prison in shock, having finally received the confession she needed but also having the horror of Ted's crimes confirmed beyond any remaining doubt. Outside the prison, she is met by Jerry, her new husband, and Molly, now a teenager. Despite the traumatic visit, Liz tells them she is finally okay—suggesting that knowing the definitive truth, however horrible, provides closure that years of uncertainty and denial could not.

Execution

Archival footage and on-screen text inform the audience of Ted's ultimate fate: he was executed by electric chair on January 24, 1989, at age 42.

In the days before his execution, Ted finally confessed to over 30 murders—providing details about crimes authorities had suspected him of but lacked evidence to prove. The number is likely a minimum; many investigators believe Ted's actual victim count was significantly higher, possibly over 100 victims.

Ted requested that his ashes be scattered in Washington's Cascade Mountains—the same mountain range where he had deposited the remains of numerous victims, creating a final disturbing connection between himself and the women he murdered.

The ending validates Liz's need for truth over comfortable denial, with Ted's "hacksaw" confession providing closure despite—or because of—its horrifying specificity. Liz's statement that she is "finally okay" suggests that uncertainty and self-doubt about whether she had loved a serial killer was more psychologically damaging than knowing the definitive truth, however brutal.

Ted's final confession to 30+ murders only days before execution demonstrates that maintaining his innocent persona mattered more to him than truth, justice, or the victims' families' need for closure. His lifetime of lying ended only when lies no longer served any purpose—when execution was inevitable and confession could not worsen his fate but might create a final illusion of cooperation or remorse.

The request to scatter his ashes in the Cascade Mountains where he dumped victims reveals Ted's narcissism and lack of genuine remorse even in death—wanting to be memorialized in the location where he committed atrocities, treating murder sites as personally significant locations rather than showing respect for victims or their families.

The film's ending completes its narrative structure of presenting Ted through Liz's gradually evolving perspective—from charming boyfriend to suspicious defendant to confirmed serial killer. The audience experiences the same journey of denial, hope, doubt, and ultimate acceptance of Ted's guilt that Liz experienced over fifteen years.

The archival footage and execution details ground the cinematic narrative in historical reality, reminding viewers that this was not fiction but actual events that destroyed dozens of lives. The factual ending prevents any romanticization of Ted by confirming that despite his charisma and the women who loved him, he was ultimately executed for being exactly what the evidence always showed: an extremely wicked, shockingly evil and vile serial killer.

How many people did Ted Bundy actually kill?

Ted Bundy confessed to 30 murders before his execution, but this number is widely considered an undercount. Investigators believe the actual number may exceed 100 victims. Bundy operated across multiple states over many years, and many victims were never identified or connected to him. He likely took the true count to his grave, withholding information as a final exercise of control.

Did Ted Bundy really marry Carole Ann Boone during his trial?

Yes. During the penalty phase of his Florida trial, Bundy proposed to Carole Ann Boone while she was on the witness stand, and she accepted. Under an obscure Florida law at the time, a declaration of marriage before a judge in court constituted a legal marriage. They married in court in 1980 and later had a daughter, conceived while Bundy was in prison through conjugal visits or other means.

Was Liz Kendall really the person who first reported Ted to police?

Yes. Elizabeth Kendall (real name Elizabeth Kloepfer) called the Seattle police hotline and named Ted Bundy as a possible suspect after seeing the composite sketch and learning details about the suspect's Volkswagen Beetle. However, her tip was one among hundreds, and police did not initially prioritize it. She struggled with guilt for years about whether reporting him betrayed someone innocent or whether she should have reported him sooner.

How accurate is the film's portrayal of Ted Bundy's trials and escapes?

The major events depicted—the two escapes from Colorado custody, representing himself at trial, the Florida State University sorority house murders, the bite mark evidence, his marriage to Carole Ann Boone during trial, and his conviction and execution—are all historically accurate. However, the film presents events from Liz's limited perspective and condenses a decade of legal proceedings into manageable narrative. Some details and timelines are simplified for dramatic purposes.