Ted Bundy being escorted while in handcuffs.
Photo Courtesy Tallahassee Democrat.
The Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event on television. Many sports fans wake up eater to see which team will be victorious — and which commercials will be the talk of the country the following day.
However, on Super Bowl Sunday in 1978, the city of Tallahassee woke to a repugnant discovery.
The news spread like wildflower: two Florida State University sorority sisters, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, had been murdered and three other students had been severely beaten. North Florida residents had been left shaken.
Mike Vasilinda, News Channel 8 Tallahassee reporter, broke the news in 1978. "He was a guy that was hiding in plain sight," he said.
Vasilinda said that after the two murders, the lively college nightlife came to an immediate stop. "This town really shut down. People stopped going out at night. Students un-enrolled from FSU, their parents made them come home," he said.
Serial killer Ted Bundy was soon arrested and convicted on murder counts in Florida. January 24 marks the 30th anniversary of his execution.
Ironically, three decades later Bundy’s name has reemerged.
A new Netflix documentary has brought Bundy back into the spotlight. “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” is an American documentary television series that premiered on Jan. 24 in remembrance of Bundy’s horrific actions that took place 30 years ago.
Dyesha McCord, a Florida A&M University senior and Netflix connoisseur, shared her thoughts on the Ted Bundy Netflix show.
“I thought it was crazy and suspicious that he was able to get this far. Coming from up north all the way down to Tallahassee without being caught,” said McCord.
McCord is a veteran of Netflix films. Suspense and mystery films are her favorite type to watch. “Although the situation is very unfortunate, I do enjoy watching the show. It is very interesting to see how Bundy was able to get away with so much in such a short about of time. My heart still goes out to all the victims families,” McCord said.
With a new Netflix docu-series and movie coming out, the story of Bundy’s horrific murders is resurfacing.
Ed Hula, Florida PBS correspondent, shared his thoughts in the Netflix series: “There had never been a crime like this before in Tallahassee. There was a tenseness in the air and a nagging question that could not be just pushed aside.”
At the time, Hula was a journalist at WFSU-TV which was located across the street from the Chi Omega sorority house. “Nobody knew who did it, we just knew they were still out there,” said Hula.
The Netflix documentary also featured Capt. Burl Peacock, from the Tallahassee Police Department, who served as police captain in 1978. “Well, I’d rather say we’ve got a very disturbed sick individual,” Peacock said in a flashback interview with local Tallahassee news station.
January 24 ended the life of horrid serial killer Ted Bundy, but today the story continues. A new movie about Bundy premiers this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah It's titled “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile 1.”