When I was four years old, the first pieces of human bodies that had been slain by a young man in his twenties were slowly being found by the police. They were just beginning to discover the severity and scope of killings committed by Theodore Robert Bundy. After numerous murders that spanned across several states, everyone began to learn more about the serial killer, Ted Bundy. For months and years thereafter, he gained a great deal of attention throughout his arrest, trial, guilty conviction and execution. What motivated this intelligent, former Boy Scout to commit such horrendous acts of murder? Why do some people kill and others who come from similar environments do not? Why was Bundy motivated to conduct several interviews while on death row, including the one on the eve of his execution? These questions will be the basis for this reflective review of Ted Bundy’s life and behavior that led to unthinkable tragedy for many families. Ted Bundy granted an interview to Dr. James Dobson the night before his scheduled death. In this interview, he tells Dr. Dobson that he grew up in a Christian home with two parents and was not the subject of any form of abuse. Then, what could have possibly motivated him to abduct and murder the children and young women he so carefully selected? According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, after we satisfy our biological needs we move on up the pyramid to satisfy our personal and social needs. I believe when Bundy reached level 3, satisfying his love and belonging needs, things started to unravel in his life. He was plagued by fears and doubts of himself through grade school, into high school and on into college. I believe Ted Bundy may have killed because of jealousy and out of vengeance due to never really having a social group to fit into. He killed for a kind of love no one could give him. It probably started with the love of a sister which was really the love of his mother. Ted only dated once during high school and was described as being very shy. He was quoted as saying that he had trouble knowing what appropriate behaviors were. I believe this was the basis for the pornography and deviant behaviors that filled his life. He used the porn material to help satisfy his inner emptiness which stemmed from his lack of love and affection. During his last interview, Bundy said, “The pornography didn’t cause me to murder, but it did contribute to my desire to take the sexuality that I saw in magazines and on film to the next level.” According to him, the pornographic material satisfied his sexual needs for a while, but later in life he needed more to fulfill his fantasies. “Slowly, throughout the years, reading pornography began to become a deadly habit.” Bundy also admitted that porn was like an addiction, you keep craving something that is harder, something which gives you a greater sense of excitement. Bundy said, “ You reach a point where the pornography only goes so far, you reach that jumping off point where you begin to wonder if maybe actually doing it would give you that which is beyond just reading or looking at it.” So later on, those latent desires turned into murdering young women. Since Bundy could not find love and affection in his life, he was unable to fulfill Maslow’s levels 4 and 5. I believe he made attempts to fulfill his esteem needs by mimicking the normal emotions that he learned from others. For example, it has been said that he participated in many respectable behaviors such as: catching a purse snatcher, saving a drowning toddler, and working for a suicide prevention hotline by talking others out of killing themselves. But, in the end, he could not overcome the fact that his needs and desires were all that mattered. If Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory explains Ted Bundy’s motivation to become a serial killer, then does everyone who struggles with fulfilling a particular needs’ level become like Bundy? I don’t think so. People tend to prioritize, and we all view satisfying these needs in different ways. For example, to satisfy my esteem needs, I may have set much higher standards or goals than my friends have set for themselves. Another possible reason people who are “Ted Bundy” types do not carry out the act of murder is because not everyone chooses to let their addictions rule their lives. Some individuals seek professional help that allow them to overcome these addictions. They have a great deal of support from family and friends which Ted Bundy may not have had. I believe Ted Bundy granted this last interview because he was obsessed with control. This was the only way he could be in control of the last few hours of his life. He loved the grandiosity and manipulation he was still able to maintain even as the minutes were ticking by leading up to his execution. In providing this information to Dr. Dobson, he was attempting to manipulate his situation of impending death. I believe this last interview was Bundy’s final chance to talk about himself and he gained great pleasure in talking about his crimes. Another motivation for this interview might have been that it enabled him to relive and record his fantasies thus providing him one last chance to reduce the value of his victims. There will always be a mystery as to whether or not Ted Bundy’s actions were due to psychological or environmental influences. No matter what conclusions we all have about what made Ted Bundy engage in such violent behaviors, the fact is, life is an endless state of emotional and social development. We can only make assumptions as to what makes the mind of each unique individual work as it does. Thank goodness, most people have life experiences that teach them to meet their needs in non-aggressive ways. Unfortunately, society will always have to deal with those persons who, like Ted Bundy, compensate for their lack of emotional development by meeting various needs from sexual aggression and violence.