The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History by Kevin M. Sullivan Page A

The Tacoma News Tribune. He also cut yards with three other boys, a venture Bundy later referred to as having a "lawn cutting company."" Although he would grow up to become known as America's premier serial killer, he was also a petty thief from a very young age. Living in a family where money was often tight, Bundy would learn to steal what he needed, including much of the ski equipment he used on his frequent weekend excursions. It is interesting to note what one evaluator had to say concerning his felonious activities during this time: "Ted indicated that although he did not do may [sic] things of a social nature with friends, he was consistently involved with a skiing group who went to the resorts on weekends. They put together a `forgery ring' where they made their own tickets. This was done by bleaching the letters off the old tickets and through using a rubber stamp and different colored stamp pads, they could recreate new tickets. Ted said he saved a lot of money this way. 1113

    Theodore Bundy graduated from Wilson High School in 1965. In the fall of that year, he would, like some of his peers at Wilson, enroll at the University of Puget Sound, but he did not declare a major. During this period he continued living at home. He felt the need to bond with a female, apparently in a normal fashion (or at least as close to normal as he could possibly muster), but as he would later reveal to a psychologist, he "had a longing for a beautiful coed [but] didn't have the skill or social acumen to cope with it.""
    That "skill" or "social acumen" would never really come to him. He would, however, become very skilled at wearing what is best described by Dr. Hervey M. Cleckley as a mask of sanity" a condition prevalent in psychopaths, both violent and non-violent. The sociopath (today's version of the psychopath), does not have a conscience, and so does not react to situations in the same way as those who do possess a conscience. The guilt, shame, or remorse felt by the majority of humans when they have done something wrong is simply never a part of their lives. They can't relate to such baggage; to the sociopath, to be concerned about such things is pure foolishness, laughable, and a complete waste of time. This is why sociopaths in professions which (for the most part) require them to lie to their customers on a daily basis tend to be very successful. They may never commit murder, but they'll never lose a wink of sleep over defrauding people. If you can say anything you want, and do anything you want, without any internal controls being placed upon you, every day becomes a no-holds-barred kind of adventure. Everything is yours for the taking. If you happen to leave a pile of bodies in your wake (metaphorically speaking) as you scramble to the top, you'll be relatively unnoticed by others in our society. Many of those who do notice you may not like you, but that doesn't bother you.
    But with murder, the very worst expression of the sociopath, total concealment is everything. Without that, the entire house will come tumbling down, perhaps bringing an end forever to the very thing in life that is most worthwhile to such a person: the ability to kill another human being. The sociopath in such a state of being understands what the acceptable moral standards of a civilized society are. He just doesn't accept them for himself. And so an appropriate mask must be created - an outward life, which isn't really a life at all, yet is one people can see, be around, get to know, and be comfortable with, because, for the deceived, that is the genuine person. They could never believe that what was standing before them was actually a mirage. For the sociopath who lives and draws his strength from what's going on inside, it is important to perform like an actor on stage, creating a fictional outer life. Detection of such people is often difficult. When they are appre hended, many of those considered friends or family will run to their aid, naturally