Featured Image Credit: Bettmann via Getty
Topics: Ted Bundy, True crime, Crime, Science
Emily Brown
Scientists were left unnerved after research on the brain of serial killer Ted Bundy yielded unexpected results.
Bundy's brain was handed over to researchers in the wake of his death in January 1989, after he confessed to a murder spree involving at least 30 women in the 1970s.
Having gone unsuspected largely thanks to his charm and looks, the horrific truth of Bundy's crimes left people shocked when he was accused of kidnapping, murder and necrophilia; crimes which ultimately led him to the electric chair.
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After Bundy's death, scientists had the chance to study his brain to try and figure out what led him to become the monster capable of such heinous crimes.
Neuroscientists initially hypothesized Bundy, who came across as confident and successful, may have had some form of brain damage; an assumption which has been proven in other serial killer cases.
Arthur Shawcross, AKA the Genesee River Killer, for example, was found to have a large cyst pressing up hard against his temporal lobe after his death, as well as having suffered a number of blows to the head during his childhood.
So, when the team got their hands on Bundy's brain, scientists expected to see lesions, growths, deformities or generally any sign of injury.
What they actually found, however, was much more surprising.
As far as they could see, there was nothing abnormal about Bundy's brain. There were no indications Bundy had suffered any brain damage, offering no scientific insight into why he may have gone on his killing spree.
But while the organ offered no insights post-mortem, Bundy's brain may have told a different story while he was alive.
Using a technology known as brain SPECT imaging, researchers have been able to determine that the prefrontal cortex, which deals with empathy and judgement, is not as active in most killers' brains as it is in the average human.
Often this lack of activity is due to some kind of brain damage, but the absence of damage to Bundy's brain contradicts those findings.
There were other details about Bundy's brain that are more in line with other findings about serial killers however, one of which was his intelligence.
Bundy was found to have an IQ of 136 - one much higher than the average score of 100.
It takes an IQ score of 160 to be considered a genius, but Bundy shares his higher-than-average intelligence with a number of other killers, including Edmund Kemper and Jeffrey Dahmer, both of whom had an IQ of 145.
While his brain went to science, the rest of Bundy's remains were cremated and scattered in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, as per one of his final wishes. At least four of his victims were found in the same area.