Ted Bundy's cousin recalls chilling moment she realized he was a serial killer
Topics: Crime, Ted Bundy, True crime, Books, US News
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Prime Video/Bettmann via Getty
Topics: Crime, Ted Bundy, True crime, Books, US News
Ted Bundy's cousin, Edna Cowell Martin, has spoken out about growing up with one of America’s most notorious serial killers and said there was a particular moment when she realized the rumors about him were true.
Martin said she initially saw Ted Bundy as an older brother figure despite them being cousins, with Bundy 5 years her senior.
But for the rest of the world, most people came to know Ted Bundy as the vile serial killer who kidnapped and raped several women throughout the 1970s.
Bundy confessed to killing as many as 30 victims in just a four-year period - but it's widely believed that his kill count was higher.
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He was eventually caught for his crimes but repeatedly denied murder and had long dismissed the rumors about him.
He was executed by electric chair in 1989.
In a new book, Dark Tide: Growing up with Ted Bundy, Martin has given details about her relationship with Bundy and explained how he was an expert at deceiving people.
She suggested there were signs that Bundy was not as he appeared to people and even noted that she noticed he found enjoyment from making her uncomfortable.
Before his arrest, she even confronted Bundy about the allegations against him.
and said at one point during a car ride she outright asked him: "So, Ted, did you do it?"
"He didn't respond at first, and in that silence, a part of me died. It struck me then, for the first time, that he could answer yes, and if he did, I had no idea what I'd do. I took my eyes off the road to look at him," Martin explained.
"He smiled, a very familiar Cowell smile, and shrugged. 'Edna, of course not.'" Completely relaxed, he went on to explain that it was all a case of mistaken identity, and that the truth would come out eventually."
As well as this daunting realization, she also had a moment where she discovered a different side to Bundy.
After some accusations came to light, she and Bundy decided to meet at a bookstore. It was here that she said she saw what she most feared in the killer.
She saw a group gathering outside the store and ran out after paying for her items to see them all surrounding Bundy.
"Somehow, I pushed through them, and there I got my first good look. This is the image that probably haunts me most, the image that still, fifty years later, makes my heart rate surge. Ted's arms were outstretched wide, a street-corner messiah, and he was slowly turning in a circle," she wrote.
Standing there smiling and chanting over and over, he repeated the phrase: "I'm Ted Bundy. I'm Ted Bundy. I'm Ted Bundy."
She continued: "I knew then with certainty, as I watched him speak those horrible words, that Ted had another side, a darker side, and it was that Ted whom I was seeing. If, up to that point, I'd been viewing the world through rose-colored glasses, this was the moment they shattered."