Defending the Devil: My Story As Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer [Hardcover]

Polly Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1994

As a brand-new lawyer, Polly Nelson was offered serial-kiiler Ted Bundy's case as a pro bono project for her prestigious Washington, DC law firm just weeks before he was scheduled to be executed. Defending the Devil is a unique and candid look at the Bundy case and at Nelson's three-year personal battle to balance her duties as a lawyer, her compassion for human life, and the inhuman crimes her client had committed.

Through the obstacles and setbacks faced by Nelson there was Ted Bundy himself. While his crimes show the extremely violent side of his personality, there were many other sides --many other extreme sides--that the public never saw. Ranging from shy and defensive to a narcissistic performer, Bundy professed his innocence by day while offering confessions to the police and helping the FBI at night. His own worst enemy, Bundy seemed never to understand the severity of his crimes, the punishment, or the public's reaction to them. Through it all stood Nelson, defending him from both the system and himself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bundy, who admitted to at least 30 murders and was executed in Florida in 1989, was one of America's most publicized serial killers, which perhaps explains the publication of this rather tedious account of the legal maneuvering that preceded his death. Nelson, an inexperienced associate of a Washington firm specializing in corporate law, accepted the case without knowing what it might entail. Yet she came to believe, as she notes twice in the first two chapters, "I was born to represent Ted Bundy." She went to work on the litigation in 1985, six years after Bundy had been convicted, drafting and/or presenting numerous appeals to various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. But while the legal wrangling may interest lawyers, lay readers will not find it absorbing. The only material of general interest is Nelson's portrait of her client: she found him ingratiating but not especially bright, and adjudged him incompetent in legal matters, contrary to his own view. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

"I was born to represent Ted Bundy," writes lawyer Nelson, the reluctant heroine of this saga of serial killer Bundy's last three years of life. Assigned to the case as a "pro bono" project by her Washington law firm, Nelson details the tactics she used to keep Bundy off death row. The case was impossible to win, and the crimes against women would have repelled almost any female attorney except the humanitarian Nelson, who contends that "all human life is sacred, without judgment or distinction, and...the truly heinous cases...test whether we as a people and as a society really mean that." Like the heroines of the novels of old, Nelson plunges ahead in a battle that almost cost her sanity. Although often tedious, the book is useful as a legal study and a look at the motivations of a serial killer. An optional purchase.
--Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (July 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688108237
• ISBN-13: 978-0688108236
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( W ) > Williams, Ted

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kinda creepy, February 23, 2001

By 

jenbird "book and classic movie fiend" (Havertown, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Defending the Devil: My Story As Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer (Hardcover)

What got to me most about this book is how attached Nelson becomes to Bundy. Being passionate about your opposition to the death penalty is one thing; speaking of a monster like Bundy as "my Ted" and buying him a Mickey Mouse watch when you go to Disneyland is something else. However, this does give a detailed look at Bundy's case from the judicial perspective, which hasn't been covered much before. Most people seem to want to read about the details of Bundy's gruesome crimes; if you've read all those books and want a new perspective, this is a worthwhile read.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good behind-the-scenes look, May 22, 2001

By 

Paul Cerra - See all my reviews

This review is from: Defending the Devil: My Story As Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer (Hardcover)

In early 1986, a young attorney named Polly Nelson took on a case that would catapult her name into the headlines. Yet because the job was to save Ted Bundy from Florida's electric chair, the publicity wasn't favorable. Reporters would invariably ask "what about the victims?" and Nelson would have no answer. In the end, Nelson and her colleagues would fail to persuade the courts that Bundy deserved to live, and he would be put to death in January 1989. Even staunch death penalty foes refused to protest at the prison as Bundy, the very personification of evil, died in Old Sparky.

This is much more than a sob story for Ted Bundy, however. Nelson's book has an agenda, but it really doesn't involve deifying Bundy. Rather, Nelson believes that the American justice system is unfair to convicts facing death sentences, and her passion is clearly not for Ted Bundy but instead for justice. Keep in mind that she was a neophyte attorney with very little experience -- she didn't even know who Ted Bundy was when she took the case. Her story isn't just about a horrible serial killer; it's about the judges and court clerks and prosecutors and public defenders who together held a man's life in their hands. She does put forth some questionable theories, such as Bundy's being mentally ill (manic depressive) and being forcibly tranquilized on the day of his critical May 1979 plea hearing, but to her credit she appears to simply be acting as a good lawyer who is exploring all the evidence -- not as someone who thinks Bundy got a raw deal and should go free.

If you are a true crime fan who also has an interest in jurisprudence, this book will probably interest you. If instead you are primarily interested in Bundy himself, this book still has plenty of relevant information to offer. For example, Nelson exposes the role of Diana Weiner as being more than just Bundy's civil attorney. She discusses Bundy's meetings with psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Lewis. And she offers a great deal of insight into Bundy's Florida trials where Bundy sometimes acted as his own counsel, essentially signing his own death warrant with his grandstanding. This book is a very good supplement to the other books on Ted Bundy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lawyer for Ted writes well, December 3, 2008

By 

Forensic Student "FS" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Defending the Devil: My Story As Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer (Hardcover)

I was pleased with how well the author wrote the story. She came across very polished. Very insightful on Bundy. She did appear to have made a connecton with Ted, and he had her sympathies. She appeared to have seen his vulnerable side, or fell for his deception. She also remarks on things about Ted that shed light on how he could do his crimes. I received more insight from this book than on many others. What she described that Ted said about what really happened at the Seattle lake resort (I've been there and lived in Seattle) where he got two victims was interesting. Other writers claim that he said he put both victms together, in this version, he claims he didn't. Sometimes you think Ted is talking to these women (there was another woman in the book with his attorney) in a way that paints him in the best light, so you wonder if he's soft pedaling what he really did, which as we know was horrendous acts of necrophilia. But a very good read overall.