Ted Bundy | Orange County Regional History Center
Posted: 11.12.2024 | Updated: 11.12.2024
What was once a living nightmare for many women in the 1970s has become a permanent scar on the Orange County Regional History Center. Serial killer Ted Bundy carved his name into the desk where he was tried in 1980. While it may seem like that is all that is left of the executed killer. But, many say, his soul still roams the courthouse where he was tried and sentenced to death.
The Orange County Regional History Center offers a look into the history of Orlando, Florida. The 1927 courthouse building is well suited for the job. The exhibits inside cover topics ranging from Florida’s indigenous peoples to the state’s citrus and cattle boom and the African-American experience.
Nearly two hundred years of Florida history are covered inside the museum. But many spirits from the Sunshine State’s turbulent past are also waiting in the shadows. Some are happy to see their living counterparts. Others, like the fiendish Bundy, are not as pleased.
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Why Is The Orange County Regional History Center Haunted?
Courthouses naturally carry the energy burdened souls. The Orange County Regional History Center is no exception. Ghosts ranging from the evil apparition of serial killer Ted Bundy to the innocent soul of a little girl named Emily inhabit this former courthouse. Visitors to this Florida history museum have seen items move on their own and hear terrifying screams.
Who Was Ted Bundy?
The most famous inmate who made their way to the old Orange County Courthouse has now become a household name: Ted Bundy. America’s most infamous and somehow beloved serial killer met the end of the line in Orlando.
Born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24th, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont, at the Elizabeth Lund Home For Unwed Mothers. His childhood was fraught with strange and violent tendencies. He was raised to believe that his mother was his sister, and many suspect she was.
His grandparents, whom he called “Mother” and “Father,” raised him in Pennslyvania until his mother moved to Washington State when Theodore was four.
Many experts point to these early years as fundamental in creating America’s most notorious serial killer. His Grandfather was an abusive person who would swing cats around by their tail and fight anyone who angered him. Some believe this monster of a man abused young Theodore.
Bundy told Psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, on the day before his execution, that he would often look at his grandfather’s pornographic magazines. Lewis also interviewed Bundy’s family, revealing even more horrifying tales.
His aunt, or possibly his sister, awoke one morning to find three-year-old Bundy staring at her. All around her, kitchen knives were placed in a menacing circle. Ted Bundy’s violent tendencies would only increase as he came of age.
Many law enforcement officials believe Bundy took his first life when he was only a teenager, killing a neighborhood girl. It was only the beginning.
Ted Bundy’s Killing Spree
The first documented Bundy murder took place on February 1st, 1974. Lynda Ann Healy was only 18 when Bundy broke into her apartment and kidnapped her.
Bundy’s murder spree would spread across the United States. He was arrested for the first time in Salt Lake City after Carol DaRonch escaped an attempted kidnapping. Police found an icepick, rope, and handcuffs in his car shortly after. They also found the hairs of 23-year-old Caryn Cambell, who had disappeared in Snowmass, Colorado, in February 1976.
After being sentenced to 15 years for aggravated kidnapping, he was quickly transferred from his Utah jail cell to Aspen, CO, for the murder of Cambell. He represented himself while on trial and, as such, was allowed to use the courthouse library. Seeing an opportunity, he made a quick escape out of a second-story window.
Six days later, he was captured and thrown back in jail. But after losing twenty pounds, Bundy escaped through a grate in the ceiling. For months, he picked away at the surrounding ceiling, making it just wide enough for him to slip through.
He made his way to Florida, where his most famous and final killings were just ahead of him.
How Many People Did Ted Bundy Kill?
Between 1974 and 1978, Bundy took the lives of an estimated thirty-four women. However, many place the number well closer to 100. The depths of his murderous intentions may never truly be known. The 1927 Neo-Classical Orange County Courthouse was one of many houses of justice Bundy had slipped in and out of across the US during his four-year killing spree.
So why not ask him yourself? Many believe Ted Bundy’s ghost has remained behind in the Orange County Regional History Center. It was here, back when it was the Orange County Courthouse, that he was sentenced to death for a second time.
The first sentence was laid down upon him in Pensacola for the murder of two Chi Omega Sorority sisters. This second death sentence was for the strangulation of twelve-year-old Kimberly Leach.
During this second trial, he proposed, yes, you read that correctly, to his girlfriend, Carol Ann Boone. Since the proposal took place in a courthouse, and she said yes, it was a legal marriage. She had his child, Rose Bundy, in 1981, but the two shockingly divorced in 1986 while Bundy was in jail.
Bundy was executed by an electric chair on January 24th, 1989, at the Florida State Prison. However, many in the Orange County Regional History Center claim he still remains in the old courthouse.
His apparition has been seen in the museum, stalking through the dark as he did in life. It seems the inflation that many young women across America had with a man who would just as soon murder as he would marry them them remains strong.
His name is eerily carved into a desk that is still on display. It has seemingly retained his terrifying energy.
The Other Spirits Of The Orange County Regional History Center
While Bundy’s spirit is the most famous at the Orange County Regional History Center, it is far from the only one. The building has a one-hundred-year-old history that traces its roots to Orlando’s most promising times. People have lost their lives, while others won significant victories in this courthouse. It is no surprise that the spirits have claimed it as their own.
There are many reports of a little girl whom many have named “Emily.” They say she possesses a doll rabbit on display in one of the exhibits. With so many artifacts filling the museum rooms, the possibility of spiritual energy is limitless. Others have seen objects rise, levitate, and even fly across the room.
Reports of phantoms, screams, and ghostly attorneys waiting for their cases have also come and gone throughout the years. Once the Courthouse Jail, Wall Street Plaza sits adjacent to the building. Many have seen spectral visions aimlessly wandering the plaza. Whatever is going on inside the old Orange County Courthouse has trapped many souls here for eternity.
Haunted Orlando
The Orange County Regional History Center is a haven for Orlando’s restless and griping souls. They seek retribution or peace in a world that has given them none. It is a place where Ted Bundy’s vile soul still stalks at night. The rest of Orlando’s spectral landscape is full of much of the same.
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Sources:
https://www.wkrg.com/true-crime/ted-bundy-infamous-serial-killer-arrested-in-pensacola
https://abcnews.go.com/US/notorious-serial-killer-ted-bundy-escape-custody/story?id=61032623
https://www.407area.com/entertainment/the-most-haunted-places-in-orlando.html
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