Bundy Confession Tapes Revealed For The First Time

It's a haunting voice from beyond the grave: Serial killer Ted Bundy tells all, and you'll hear it for the first time.

KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne recently obtained nearly four hours of raw, uncensored audio cassettes of Bundy taped just before his execution.

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We want to warn parents that some material we're about to air may be unsuitable for children.

The FBI has been using these Bundy tapes to train criminal psychologists in Quantico, Virginia since they were recorded in 1989. A confidential source handed them to KIRO Team 7 Investigators recently in hopes that local police and the public could benefit.

Despite overwhelming evidence, Ted Bundy maintained his innocence nearly to the end.

However, it's clear from these rare audio tapes that Bundy didn't take all his secrets to the grave.

Bundy: "I just wrote, like I said, that the Hawkins girl's head was severed and taken up the road about 25, 50 yards and buried."

We asked several nationally-recognized criminal psychologists, including Dr. Ken Muscatel, to listen to the audio tapes.

"Pure performance. Pure manipulation. Utterly narcissistic and there was no emotion expressed there, no feelings," Dr. Muscatel said.

A few snippets (less than one minute's worth) of these tapes have leaked out over the years. Detectives kept them sealed, saying the details were too disturbing.

The unabridged, four-hour confessions, however, are not heavy on the gruesome.

Bundy brags and laughs while admitting to murdering 11 young women here in Washington.

Bundy: "I was just absolutely, again, just shocked, scared to death, shocked, horrified. And I went down the road, throwing everything I had, the briefcase, out the window. Throwing the briefcase, the crutches, the rope, the clothes."

He spends an hour talking about Georgann Hawkins, a young UW student who turned up missing June 12, 1974.

Bundy: "Hah. It's funny. It's, it's not funny, but it's odd the things people will say under those circumstances. She thought, she said she thought she had a Spanish test the next day and she thought I had taken her to help tutor me for the Spanish test. Kind of odd. Odd thing to say."

Former King County detective Bob Keppel is the guy interviewing Bundy. We asked for -- but he did not provide -- his audio tapes of Bundy's confession. He did, however, agree to talk with us about that day.

"His eyes are shut. He's trying to relive this kind of videotape going in his head of what happened. It's hard for him to describe it," Keppel said.

Keppel: "Did you ever bury anybody?" Bundy: "Oh yes. In my more coherent, when I was really going all out and took my time, yeah. I did."

But it's this particular audio tape -- the fifth and last in the set -- that is indeed rare. It was recorded just hours before Bundy was executed.

Bundy: "I don't want to beat around the bush with you anymore. I'm just tired."

Listen to the difference in Bundy's voice. He is no longer negotiating, no longer in control.

"The only thing I can say is that there's probably some satisfaction to the victims' families to hear how scared and intimidated and how much he's lost the cockiness because he's facing that penalty," said Dr. Muscatel said.

On this last tape, Bundy claims to have cremated the skulls of several victims in his girlfriend's fireplace.

Detective: "Burned it all up?" Bundy: "Down to the last ash."

He also denies a police theory that detectives had a fuzzy photo of Bundy's light colored VW bug at Lake Sammamish the day two girls disappear.

Bundy: "I don't want to burst your bubble. It is an interesting coincidence."

He also tells detectives where he dumped Evergreen College student Donna Gail Manson's body.

Bundy: "Oh yeah, right. She's up in the mountains."

Attorney Mark Prothero listened to all Green River Killer Gary Leon Ridgway's confessions. He says future victims can benefit from understanding that successful murderers don't look or sound like killers.

"Even when they are on the prowl and their hunger to kill is past the boiling point, their victims weren't alarmed or concerned," Prothero said.

In the end, Bundy kept one secret for himself.

Detective Keppel's last question was about the murder of young Ann Marie Burr, Bundy's neighbor when he was a teenager. Bundy coolly shut down the interview for good.

Detective: "When and where was your first murder?" Bundy: "One more question right?" Detective: "Yeah. I'm sorry. I was just curious." Bundy: "We'll have to bring that up, do that some other time. If there is another time."

We recently contacted Ted Bundy's mother, who still lives in Tacoma, asking that she break a 25-year silence in speaking about her son. She declined.