Advertisement

Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer documentary turns the infamous case on its head

Photo credit: Amazon Prime
Photo credit: Amazon Prime

From Digital Spy

The tale of Ted Bundy is one that has been told time and time again, and yet – over 30 years after his death – it is one that still manages to grip audiences.

Just last year, Netflix released its four-part true-crime series Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes which was a chilling deep-dive into the FBI's audio interviews with Bundy while he was incarcerated. It was both fascinating and disturbing but, despite its clear intention to lean in on psychological aspects and criminal profiling, its approach was met with some criticism for failing to give enough of a voice to Bundy's victims.

Director Joe Berlinger complemented his documentary series with the movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which came at the subject from a different perspective and was based on the experience of Bundy's longterm girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall (also known as Elizabeth Kloepfer).

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Related: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile's biggest 'flaw' is actually its biggest draw

Extremely Wicked actor Lily Collins met with Kendall to help prepare for this role, but the movie was, of course, still a dramatisation and didn't pay close attention to Bundy's 30+ other victims.

Although the film (quite rightly) didn't portray any of the violent acts or show Bundy's true colours until he let his own mask slip at the very end, this decision allowed the filmmaker to come through on his intention to portray "the psychology of deception and betrayal."

Amazon's brand new documentary series Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer, which launched on the streaming platform on Friday (February 1) tackles things from a completely different viewpoint and gives Kendall, who was in a relationship with Ted Bundy from 1969 until the mid to late '70s, a voice of her own.

Photo credit: Amazon Prime
Photo credit: Amazon Prime

"This story has been told many times by men," she said in the opening moments of episode one. "I want to tell this story because I think there are some lessons to be learned."

Falling for a Killer is, for the most part, a collaboration of female voices. Liz Kendall's story is interspersed with testimony from other women each with their own account to tell, including survivors, friends and family of victims and police officers.

Carol DaRonch, who famously testified against Bundy in the attempting-kidnapping case, detailed her escape and experience on the witness stand. As if her encounter with Bundy hadn't been traumatic enough, she described having the validity of her account undermined both by Bundy's lawyers as well as women that she knew.

Because, as we're always reminded, many just didn't believe that Bundy fit the mould of what a dangerous and violent man looked like.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Related: One big criticism of the Ted Bundy Tapes, according to former FBI agent John Douglas

Karen Epley, thought to have been the first to suffer an attack at the hands of Bundy, told her story for the very first time in Falling for a Killer. She was a young student at the University of Washington when Bundy broke into her room while she slept and viciously attacked and sexually assaulted her, leaving her for dead. It was around 18 hours before her roommate discovered her, in her bed, covered in blood.

Detailing the horrific incident in the true-crime series, Epley revealed that she was left with permanent brain damage after having her skull smashed, and also suffered a loss of 50 percent of her hearing and 40 percent of her vision.

Epley argued that she does not want to be labelled as a victim, and had not spoken out about her encounter with the infamous serial killer until now because she had not wanted that moment to define her life.

"You know, I just wanted to do normal things, be a normal person," she said. "I didn’t want to be marked as a victim ever."

One month later, in February 1974, Lynda Healy went missing from the home she shared with four other women. Healy disappeared from her bedroom seemingly, at first, without a trace. Housemate Joanne Testa recalled "having to be very insistent that something was wrong", offering an indication into the initial attitude of the authorities.

Crucially there were a number of women on the creative team, including director and producer Trish Wood. The five-part series successfully flips the Bundy narrative on its head, forcing viewers to rethink everything they thought they knew. By pointing the lens at the women whose lives Bundy absolutely destroyed, it takes the spotlight back from the celebrity that he ended up becoming and as a result shatters any lore that continues to circle him.

What's more, Falling for a Killer offers critical context around the time in which this was all taking place. Archive footage showing the anti-war movement, the fight for autonomy over women's own bodies and the push for equality – starkly juxtaposed with these horrendously violent crimes that were being perpetrated against young women – was poignantly peppered throughout.

During one particularly exasperating moment, viewers are shown a clip from a 1973 educational film entitled Rape: A Preventative Enquiry. In the footage, one man says that "The best thing to do if you're in a rape situation is submit, submit, submit until it hurts, because it's going to hurt a lot less in the long run."

On the subject of women taking self-defence classes, they said "it wouldn't help" and would "get her killed." The message is clear: women should be helpful, kind and not fight back, or else they risk coming to greater harm.

Photo credit: Amazon Prime
Photo credit: Amazon Prime

This is the backdrop for the focus of Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer which, as the title might suggest, is the account of Liz Kendall and her daughter Molly. They were, for all intents and purposes, Ted Bundy's family for much of the time that he was (unbeknown to them) abducting, assaulting and murdering women.

Kendall first met Bundy in a bar in Seattle in 1969. The chain of events that followed, for anyone even remotely familiar with the story, is not new information – but it is the first time that we've heard it directly from the mouth of the woman that lived it.

Liz described how she and Bundy fit together instantaneously, like two pieces of a puzzle. He jumped right into the family role, making breakfast for her young daughter Molly on their first morning together.

Photo credit: Amazon Prime
Photo credit: Amazon Prime

Molly Kendall, now an adult, reflected on this first meeting during the series, describing that she had found Ted "delightful" as a child.

It is quite clear very early in the documentary that Bundy had a strong hold over Liz. In episode one she described the "many, many" letters that she received from Bundy while he was in prison and, having read an extract from one, her emotional response at revisiting that was palpable.

It is something that many might struggle to understand, now knowing the full weight of the person that Bundy truly was, and yet it is intrinsic of having been in a toxic relationship with a narcissistic personality.

It is widely recognised that there are many reasons as to why people don't immediately leave a relationship that might be codependent, coercive or unhealthy – and, among the many other threads, this documentary series is also a powerful commentary on the lasting effects of processing such a situation.

The attack on Epley and the disappearance of Healy both happened a few streets away from where Liz Kendall was living with her daughter, and it was around this time in 1974 that Liz recalls Ted had started "acting differently" around her.

Photo credit: Oxygen Cable LLC
Photo credit: Oxygen Cable LLC

He would "drop out" of her life for days at a time, leaving Liz agonising over what she might have said or done wrong. "[I thought that] I'd become boring, that I was predictable, and that I needed to be somebody else," she said. "Then he popped back in, and it was like nothing ever happened."

This emotional manipulation only got more severe and Liz continued to channel her blame inward when things unravelled further. She later also said, "Every time things started to get weird with Ted, I convinced myself that the problem was me. I think it had a lot to do with self esteem."

Liz described the feeling of holding on and wishing for the "good years" that were "really fun, and intense, and wonderful", likening the relationship to "any addiction or drug" whereby you hope to get things back to how they were initially.

When the police sketch was released, along with the suspects name of 'Ted', Liz described how she was "gripped by fear" and couldn't shake the feeling that it resembled her boyfriend so closely. She entered into numerous conversations with authorities, providing personal details of their relationship as well as photographs of Ted, but was routinely lead to believe that he had been looked into and dismissed.

Even after Ted's eventual arrest, Liz said that she "was still hoping it wasn't true."

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

Throughout Falling for a Killer, Liz's clear back and forth between what she believed her reality to be was agonising. She said she was "in and out of denial", and started to drink a lot.

It wasn't until Bundy was arrested in Florida, after the Chi Omega murders, that he finally confessed the truth to Liz in a cryptic telephone call.

"I mean so many women died, and I just felt like why am I still alive and miserable? I think about the fear they must have felt once this charming man turned into the monster that he was," Liz said. "I just felt decimated, that I was a complete failure as a human being and as a mother. And that I really didn't deserve to be alive."

Before his execution, Bundy had attempted to contact Liz one last time. It was in fact Molly that found the letter, and she burned it without telling her mother. Talking about this decision in the documentary, Molly explained that she was concerned "he would somehow get his hooks into her" again.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

WATCH NOW on Amazon Prime Video

Another woman pulled into Bundy's story was Carole Ann Boone, who he famously ended up marrying during one of his court appearances. Asked how Liz felt about that, she told filmmakers that she was "glad it wasn't me".

"I just felt like she's going to be roped in, just like I was, she's going to be used, just like I was," she said.

Carol, who had a child with Ted Bundy while he was on Death Row, passed away in 2018. Her point of view was represented by close friend Diana Smith, who said that Carole believed in his innocence and was planning to build a life with him if they were successful in getting him out of prison. Stemming from the loss of her brother as a child, Carole was said to have an intense wish to "save" Bundy – a saviour complex that he might have exploited for his own gain.

Molly, Liz Kendall's daughter, found it hard to know how Boone was able to listen to all of the details at trial and still believe in Bundy, but she underlined the fact that she "can't judge" anyone that is part of the story. In a powerful move to stand by all victims, Molly stated that they all did the best they could do in the face of those circumstances.

Falling for a Killer leaves behind a sense that Bundy's time controlling the narrative is over. Its purpose is perfectly summed by through the words of the younger sister of Lynda Healy, one of Bundy's victims.

"The only reason to really poke at [this story] again is to try to learn something [and] to rise above it."

Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video now.


Digital Spy now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.

You Might Also Like