Titled “Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes,” Netflix’s four-part series combines archival footage and Bundy’s own words in an effort to gain understanding of the man.
“There’s a lot of serial killing in this country, and yet the name ‘Bundy’ always floats to the top,” director Joe Berlinger told Rolling Stone. “I wanted to dive into that and understand why. Why is it Bundy with this perverse, almost rock star-like status?”
“My goal was to give people the emotional ride of being inside of the mind of this killer,” Berlinger added. “But we quickly realized that Bundy is an unreliable narrator, and certain stuff needed to be contextualized.”
The new series utilizes 100 hours of Bundy interviews conducted by journalist Stephen Michaud in 1980, shortly after Bundy landed on Florida’s death row. Bundy eventually confessed to the murders of 36 women and young girls throughout the ’70s. The documentary also talks to women who escaped Bundy’s grasp in an effort to provide further insight into his approach.
The previously unheard conversations are the foundation upon which Berlinger builds a stirring recap of the infamous killer’s story. The series goes through Bundy’s upbringing, carnage and prosecution, which spanned numerous states, resulted in over 30 official deaths, involved two separate prison breaks, and ended with a trip to the electric chair on Jan. 24, 1989.
By: Maytinee Kramer
