Netflix Review: Conversations with a Killer (Ted Bundy Tapes)

Ever since middle school, I have been fascinated by famous serial killers and it all started with a research assignment in social studies class in seventh grade that I did on Jeffrey Dahmer.

Dahmer was such an interesting killer to research about because he had different components to his killings. There was a bit of a sexual deviance to it with the fact that he was choosing mostly runaway teenage homosexual boys.

On the other hand, over the course of years, I have learned bits and pieces of the Manson and Bundy stories and how they rose to fame. Netflix has made it easier to learn about Bundy by coming out with a series of  four 55 minute shorts that had material in it that hadn’t been released before.

The material is conversations with Ted Bundy that were recorded by many interviewers over the course of years while he was in prison. The tapes that he provided before his execution in my eyes are some of the most interesting psychological and psychiatric material for individuals who research serial killers.

He was a one of a kind serial killer because he was just like any of us. He was educated, intelligent and handsome so he used that to lure most of his female victims. The series did a tremendous job highlighting the Seattle, Colorado and Florida victims in the tapes by going back to when he committed those crimes. The descriptions and responses he gave to the interviewers were fascinating to hear, and it really showed his deviant self.

Since he was very smart, he broke out of prison in Colorado and somehow made his way to Florida after using a couple of methods of transportation to get there. And that was when he murdered the girls at the Chi Omega house at Florida State University in the late 1970s.

The show did an excellent job of making him a polarizing figure in America at the time of his indictment in Florida because the departments of Salt Lake, Seattle, and Tallahassee connected the dots on the missing girls in each of the areas. The media got wind of this and Ted Bundy became a sensation overnight by how many murders he was connected to.

The Chi Omega trial was one of the most watched trials ever because of the media surrounding it. It was a great to see how the media handled this trial and how they conducted business. It was somewhat loose in the courtroom from what I saw. The members were very close to him and he gave himself opportunities to talk to the media. I thought that the series did a great job in showing who he truly was, the manic episodes, the sadistic behavior and the massive ego that he had came out in every aspect of the tapes.

If you are interested in learning more about one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, watching this series is just the one for you.

-Nicholas Sutherland (@Sudsy8)