Ted Bundy (film) - Differences Between Film and Real Events

Differences Between Film and Real Events

The film's fictionalized narrative takes many creative liberties, changing or conflating events and shifting their timing, as is common in Hollywood re-tellings of real-life events. Examples include:

• In the movie, Bundy says he flunked out of law school and psychology classes. In real life, while Bundy was indeed a poor law school student, he graduated with honors from the University of Washington as a psychology major.
• The "cheerleader" victim's name was Jane Gilchrist and in real life, the cheerleader's name was Nancy Wilcox, who was leaving a cheerleading competition at her school when Bundy snatched her.
• The film includes the murder of Caryn Campbell (in the ski resort) and Bundy's first arrest both taking place in 1976, when both those events took place in 1975.
• In the first prison escape, Ted is seen in the film exiting a window and onto a lower roof. He actually jumped directly from the window to the ground according to The Stranger Beside Me.
• In the film Bundy says Colorado authorities are "asking for the death penalty"; in actuality prosecutors there had decided not to ask for the death penalty in his case.
• During a scene in which Bundy took a victim from her home, the movie shows Bundy wrapping the victim in a large sheet and carrying her to his car. In the film, this was done in front of other witnesses on the street. Bundy stated to authors Michaud & Aynesworth that he was always careful about witness identification.
• In the film, Bundy's Volkswagen is yellow. In real life, it was tan.
• The final arrest of Bundy in 1978 for driving a stolen vehicle in Florida is shown happening beside a field in broad daylight. In real life, it took place in a residential neighborhood at 1:00 am.
• Bundy's execution in the film is carried out with inaccuracy, though it was accurate that Old Sparky was the electric chair used in both real life and film. In the film, Ted Bundy's colon was packed with cotton to avoid soiling, when in real life, at the time, this practice by the guards was discontinued. A flipped switch was used to operate the electric chair in the film for Bundy's execution, when in real life, the switch was actually a push of a button. While the film shows the hooded executioner as a female guard with long hair, the identity was anonymous in real life.
• The executioner depicted in the movie is a uniformed corrections officer and is visible to the condemned in the death chamber. The Florida Corrections Commission Report watched the film and said that the executioner was indeed a private citizen paid $150 for the execution and was present in the death chamber behind a screen obstructed from the view of the witnesses.
• Bundy hotwires a car in the film. In real life, he only found the keys inside it to steal the vehicle.
• Bundy's final victim was a girl doing rope skipping in a park named Susan Moore. In real life, the girl was Kimberly Leach. At the time Bundy murdered her, she was returning to the school gymnasium to retrieve her forgotten purse.
• The executioner gave Bundy one application of lethal current during the execution in the film. Florida procedures said that current is applied three times in real life.