Ted Bundy: The Charming Killer

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In nineteen seventy nine, a courthouse
in Miami overflowed with a captivated audience.

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Those who couldn't fit inside sat and
watched from their televisions at home, but

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those fortunate to make it into the
courtroom that day witnessed first hand one of

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the most notorious and infamous criminals in
our collective history brought to justice. He

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stood between the judge and the jury, confidently representing himself against his multiple charges

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of brutal and callous first degree murder. His name was Theodore Robert Bundy.

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Ted Bundy came into the world as
Ted Cowell on November twenty fourth, nineteen

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forty six, at the Elizabeth Lundholme
for Unwed Mothers. Given the name of

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the facility, it's perhaps no surprise
that Ted Bundy never found out who his

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biological father really was, but his
birth certificate stated that his father was a

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salesman and a United States Air Force
veteran. Ted actually spent the first three

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years of his life living with his
maternal grandparents. The Cowles raised him as

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their own so their daughter and his
mother, Louise Cowell, could avoid the

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scandal of everyone knowing that she'd had
a child out of wedlock. For all

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Ted knew himself, his grandparents were
his parents, and his mother was actually

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his older sister. Ted Bundy's story
has been through various stages of embellishment,

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but if accounts are to be believed, he began showing signs of his future

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tendency for violence at a very young
age. His aunts recounted a time when

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he was only three years old and
she woke up from a nap to find

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herself surrounded by kitchen knives while her
nephew smiled down at her. Perhaps this

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is a case of truth being stranger
than fiction. But where Ted's childhood begins

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to get a little bit clearer is
when it comes to his grandparents. Ted

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adored his grandparents, the people who
at the time he still believed to be

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his parents. But if rumors and
accounts are to be believed, Ted's particular

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attitude towards women could have been something
that he picked up from his maternal grandfather,

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Samuel Cowell. Ted and other members
of the family would later admit that

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Samuel had a mean and vicious temper. He was allegedly racist and xenophobic.

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He was known to beat his wife
Eleanor, and their dog and to swing

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neighborhood cats around by their tails.
Literally. He once reportedly threw his younger

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daughter Julia down a flight of stairs
and would sometimes talk to people in the

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room that no one else could see. In comparison, his wife Eleanor was

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quiet and timid, and was known
to go for electrotherapy to cure her depression.

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In nineteen fifty, when Ted was
around three years old, his mother

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Louise, changed her surname to Nelson
and took Ted to Tacoma, Washington for

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a fresh start. There, she
met a hospital cook named Johnny Culpeper Bundy

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and that was that. A year
later, the two were married and Johnny

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officially adopted Ted. That was how
Ted Cowell became Ted Bundy, But he

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still had a long way to go
before he would become the infamous serial killer

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that the world would come to know
again. Ted's childhood growing up in the

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Bundy household has been subjected to years
of gossip and rumor, many of which

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started with Ted himself. Some accounts
say that he had a picturesque childhood.

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Some say that Ted would stalk the
streets and the dead of the night and

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seek out opportunities to spy on neighborhood
women. A friend and neighbor, Sandy

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Holt, claimed that Ted was a
bully. She later said that he would

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take younger neighborhood children into the woods. There he would allegedly strip them down

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and take their clothes. She said, quote, you'd hear them screaming for

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blocks. I mean, no matter
where we were, we could hear them

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screaming. In nineteen sixty five,
Ted studied at the University of Puget Sound

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for one year before transferring to the
University of Washington, and it was there

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that he would meet a woman that
would change Ted Bundy forever. Diane Edwards

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was, in Ted's own words,
the only woman I ever really loved.

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Bright and sweet, Diane got a
hold of Ted's heart, and the young

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man was smitten. For three years. They were joined at the hip until

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nineteen sixty eight, when Diane left
for San Francisco. Still deeply in love,

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Ted dropped out of his his own
studies and followed Diane. He worked

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a series of odd jobs and even
volunteered at the Seattle office of Nelson Rockefeller's

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presidential campaign. But for Diane,
things had changed now that she had graduated

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from her own studies, she found
Ted's lack of direction and ambition frustrating and

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infuriating, and she called the relationship
off. For many who have studied Ted

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Bundy and his life, this was
the pivotal point of his story, because

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the breakup absolutely devastated Ted. Untethered, Ted left to travel the States,

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and it was during this period of
relentless change that some biographers believe that Ted

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was hit with one more unsettling piece
of information. Some accounts say that it

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was only now that Ted found out
about his real parentage. The story goes

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that Ted had been trying to track
down his biological father and had recovered his

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birth certificate, only to find out
the truth about Louise. His childldhood had

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been a complete lie that Ted could
never really forgive. Ted's world had now

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officially turned upside down, and many
believed that his anger and resentment towards his

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biological mother, Louise, is what
spurred on his later actions. By the

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autumn of nineteen sixty nine, Ted
had returned to Washington, where he met

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and began dating a secretary and single
mother, Elizabeth Klepfer. Elizabeth's daughter,

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Mollie, was only three years old
when she was introduced to Ted, a

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man who would stay in her life
for the next seven years. According to

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Molly, Ted began abusing and molesting
her shortly after she'd turned seven, although

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these were accusations that he would never
be officially charged with from the outside looking

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in. Returning to Washington and his
relationship with Elizabeth seemed to put Ted back

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on track. He graduated from college
and managed to find work as an assistant

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to the chairman of the Washington State
Republican Party, Ross Davis, and it

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was then that Ted was in California
on official party business that he met Diane

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Edwards. Once again. What Diane
saw in Ted then was a man completely

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changed. Ted had an education,
a good job, and he was as

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characteristically charismatic as ever. This time
it was Diane who fell head over heels

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for Ted. The two of them
picked up right where they left off,

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with Ted conveniently failing to mention his
girlfriend Elizabeth back in Washington. He kept

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both of his romantic relationships going for
a long while, and even introduced Diane

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as his fiancee to his boss,
Ross Davis, and then overnight Ted stopped

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all contact with Diane. A month
went by of missed calls and unanswered letters,

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and finally Diane managed to get Ted
on the phone. He then denied

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ever having rekindled their relationship. Before
hanging up. He later said, quote,

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I just wanted to prove to myself
that I could have married her.

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After that, Ted began missing classes
at the law school he had recently enrolled

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in, and young women began vanishing
across the state. The first one that

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investigators can officially attribute to Ted was
on February first, nineteen seventy four,

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shortly after Ted had called things off
with Diane. Her name was Linda Ann

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Healy, a twenty one year old
student at the University of Washington. According

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to testimony, Ted broke into her
apartment in the middle of the night.

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He beat her until she lost consciousness, dressed her in blue jeans and a

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white shirt before driving her to a
remote and secluded area. There, Ted

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claimed he raped and murdered her.
This was a cycle that would continue four

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years. Ted Bundy showed an incredible
capacity for evading law enforcement and suspicion.

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His crimes were committed across states and
over a huge area, making it harder

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for law enforcement offices to communicate and
compare notes. It was actually only when

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the victim count ranged in the twenties
that multiple sets of investigators realized they were

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actually looking for the same perpetrator.
Ted also had a knack for eliminating forensic

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evidence. He killed his victims either
through strangulation or with blunt force trauma,

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specifically to avoid ballistics. His technique
was silent and usually involved common household items,

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items that no one would find suspicious
or unusual at first glance. He

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also often lured his victims in by
feigning injuries or asking for help in busy

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and highly populated areas, making himself
look harmless and unassuming. He was also

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known to use accents to further throw
and disorientate witnesses, who would then give

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misleading descriptions to law enforcement. In
the first half of nineteen seventy four alone,

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about one female college student students disappeared
every month. One witness remembered seeing

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a man with his leg in a
cast and using crutches while trying to carry

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a briefcase. Another recalled a man
matching that description to help her carry his

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briefcase to his car in a light
brown Volkswagen Beetle with the news of missing

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girls spreading across Washington and Oregon.
The news began to tighten. Women were

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on high alert. They stopped hitchhiking
and traveled together to watch out for each

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other. Ted tried to cover his
tracks and sold his Volkswagen Beetle to a

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local teenager. By then, the
investigators had him on their radars and impounded

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the car. Inside it, they
found hair samples that matched evidence found on

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one of the victims. Ted was
arrested and a whirlwind of trials and several

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states began. Ted flip flopped between
denying all charges and making startling detailed confessions

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that shocked the nation and shone a
light on even more of his crimes.

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He became infamous for his charm and
charisma. He made waves and media headlines

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as the man with a career in
politics and the beginnings of a law degree

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who was adamant about defending himself at
trial. There were escape attempts, a

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rumored child sired from behind bars,
and a media frenzy that would put modern

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media scandals to shame. And by
the end of it all, Ted Bundy

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had confessed to over thirty homicides.
His true victim count is still unknown,

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as is the true date that he
became an active serial killer. Some say

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that, as possible, he started
as soon as Diane broke up with him

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back in nineteen sixty eight, but
as it always seems to go with Ted

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Bundy, it's difficult to separate fact
from fiction. The truth is that,

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even though there was forensic evidence that
tied Ted to several of the victims,

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he never left any fingerprints or any
other kind of defining forensic evidence on any

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of their remains or at the scenes
that they would later be found, despite

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his constant self incriminating confessions. This
was a fact that Ted would often use

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in his own defense, both at
trial and when talking to the media.

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Many believed that it was his insistence
on defending himself that led to his sentence,

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and that this fact could have actually
spared him from his fate if it

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had only been used properly. But
Ted did insist on defending himself, and

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he was sentenced to death for his
crimes. He was executed by electric chair

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on Tuesday, January twenty fourth,
nineteen eighty nine. Outside the prison,

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people gathered, played music and set
off fireworks to celebrate the occasion. That

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is ten minute Murder for today brief
and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe.

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I'm the host, and thank you
so much for taking the time to listen

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to ten Minute Murder. If you're
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sure you hit subscribe wherever you are
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media links for that on the show
notes of this episode, or just go

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to whatever platform you want to follow
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If you'd like to get in contact
with me, you can send me

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an email Joe at ten minute murder
dot com and here is one. Hi,

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Joe, I have a question.
Have you ever met or talked to

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a serial killer? If not,
would you be interested in doing that?

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That is Louise Npa and Louise No, I have not, not to my

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knowledge anyway, And if you are
a serial killer or a killer and you've

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talked to me, please don't tell
me. I do enjoy the little bit

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of sleep that I do get so
no, I haven't, and no I

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don't want to. I know that
there are some podcasters and there's some people

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that do what I do. They
are interested in talking to these killers themselves

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and getting to the bottom of what
they've done and getting inside their minds and

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things like that. I'm cool with
just reading about it, so Louise,

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that is a big inn oh from
me. Thank you for the email,

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and like I said, if you'd
like to get in touch with me Joe

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at ten minute Murder dot com.
And that's it. That's your episode for

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today. Thank you so much for
listening to ten Minute Murder. Bye.