Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer (Signet)

(Author), Hugh Aynsworth (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Michaud and Aynesworth spent weeks interwiewing psycho sex killer Bundy before Florida authorities executed him. Bundy's story was detailed by the duo in their chilling volume The Only Living Witness (Classics Returns, LJ 11/1/99). The best portion of that title was the excerpts from those interviews. Originally released in 1989, the book contains the full transcripts from those conversations. Without ever admitting that he performed any of these acts (he maintained his innocence until hours before his execution), Bundy offers a matter-of-fact, third-person account of how "someone" performing kidnappings, rapes, and murders might go about it and how that person might act under these circumstances. His frankness offers perhaps the most unfettered look into the mind of a serial killer, and many of his observations are quite surprising, as Bundy reveals himself to be clever, insightful, and intelligent--far from how most would picture a psychosexual killer. His revelations on the nature of the instinct to kill, where it comes from, how it grows, how victims are selected, etc., are invaluable to psychologists and investigators. This updated edition contains a new foreword by Robert Keppel, president of the Institute for Forensics.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Based on 150 hours of taped interviews with the gruesome serial killer, this book presents Bundy as he really was. Here, Bundy himself explains how and why he murdered up to forty women in cold blood. Endlessly fascinating, the authors delve into the mind of a monster. Original. Available in late May.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Signet (October 2, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451163559
• ISBN-13: 978-0451163554
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,563,933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars TED BUNDY SPEAKS ABOUT THE PATHOLOGY OF THE KILLER INSTINCT, October 11, 2005

By	TheLiteraryMaster (Keansburg, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ted Bundy : Conversations with a Killer (Paperback)

Ted Bundy murdered over 30 women in the late 70's and has a kind of cult status among people who are obsessed with serial killers and voilence, which is not why I read this book. I read this book because I was hoping it would shed light on a problem which seems to be a product of modern American society.
The First half of this book is very interesting. Ted creates a hypothetical psychological model of a killer and in the third person describes how this person developed from a regular guy with deep emotion issues into a full fledged mass murder. That part of the book is very frightening and thought provoking. Ted describes the killer's initial fascination with alcohol and violent pornography. From there he describes the slow progress of the killer instict: how his trips to the pornographic book stores became more frequent and urgent, how he spent a year spying in women's house before almost attacking a woman one night, followed months later by an actual attack, then a rape and killing.He also describes the killer's remorse between killings and his frequent promises that this would be the last one.
Toward the middle of the book it gets pretty boring. The second interviewer takes over and keeps trying to get Ted to admit his guilt, which he won't do. Most of the answers in this half of the book are evasive and tiringly repetitive.
It is redeemed in the last interview in which Ted makes some rather interesting statements about how it is our society which creates the serial killer. He also talks about how this a problem which manifests itself rather early in the life of these sick men,and what's even more frightening, he states that for every man arrested for multiple homicide there are five or six more that are not caught. With a little money, Ted states, a man can kill indiscriminately for the rest of his life without fear of detection. This book is a must read for anyone interested in Abnormal Psychology.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Been there, done that..., May 20, 2002

By	Rhiannon Bishop (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ted Bundy : Conversations with a Killer (Paperback)

For some reason people believe that this book - "Ted Bundy: conversations with a killer" - was the first time Bundy had discussed his crimes. It wasn't. Bundy talked in the third person about his crimes with Michaud and Anyesworth for their book "The Only Living Witness".

Bundy also spoke with Keppel about his crimes in "Riverman- Ted Bundy and I hunt for the Green River Killer", which again has Ted speaking in the 'third' person about his own crimes as well as the Green River killings.

In my opinion Keppel's book is far superior than this one. This book is the same old same old that was presented in Witness. It's nothing more than edited versions of the notes and interviews that Michaud had from the making of Witness. They'd been there -- and done this before.

Conversations does have some interesting twists and turns to it, but mainly is nothing more than Bundy playing the games he has always played. Bundy the master manipulator all the way to the end.

If you are interested in Bundy there are other books out there that fit the bill better: The Stranger Beside Me, The Deliberate Stranger, and The Only Living Witness.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside the mind of a serial killer!, April 4, 2001

By	R. Wright (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ted Bundy : Conversations with a Killer (Paperback)

The authors used an interesting ploy to get Bundy to confess and describe his killings. Whether he was unwilling to admit guilt for psychological reasons or due to legal concerns, no one had reached "first base" with Bundy. The authors cleverly got him to describe his thoughts and feelings in the third person! So his comments were more detached, such as, "The killer would have taken her..." To my mind, that makes it even more chilling. Great reporting and a must read by those who want to understand the obsession and motive of serial killers.