At least until
Hannibal Lector, Bundy was the popular public image of a serial killer in the USA; every direct-to-video film which features a handsome, smooth, homicidal villain terrorising a disbelieved heroine owes a debt to Bundy. Along with
Denis Nilsen and
Charles Manson he forms part of the triumvirate of fundamental serial killer types - the cannibal, the cultist, and the seemingly-normal woman-hating rapist/murderer (
Charles Whitman was, of course, a
spree killer).
Ted Bundy is the most obvious model for the character of Patrick Bateman of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho - another murderous, woman-hating psychopath who managed to avoid detection because of his apparent normalcy. A constant thread of discussion surrounds the book as to whether Bateman's killings are real or imagined, fuelled by the belief that they are too extreme to occur in real life; the extremity of Bundy's mania gives weight to the former opinion.
Ellis' theme was that a well-presented, disturbed, violent killer could survive and thrive in a culture which values presentation above all else; Bundy was the living proof of this. Had he embarked on a killing spree and been caught, he would merely be infamous - but the ease with which he escaped from the police, twice, to rebuild his life from scratch in Florida, beggared belief.
The Bundy affair was ammunition for both sides in the death penalty debate; on the one hand, nobody could argue that he should live - hundreds of people cheered his eventual execution with slogans such as "Burn, Bundy, Burn" and "You're Dead, Ted" - but his ten-year stay on death row through multiple appeals, arguing that he was addicted to pornography and that an 'entity' within him had caused the murders, ended up costing Florida over $6 million and untold anguish to the relatives of the deceased. Bundy's history of escaping from custody fuelled the argument that the death penalty prevents killers from striking again, yet at the same time Bundy was in no way deterred by the thought of death, as he did not expect to be caught, or care if he was.
In the UK Bundy's notoriety was overshadowed by the contemporaneous killings of Peter Sutcliffe, 'The Yorkshire Ripper'. A curious wind must have been blowing in the late-70s, as Sutcliffe conducted a similar murder spree against women, albeit women who were, or who he believed to be, sex workers. Bundy's crimes were topped in the infamy stakes by those of Jeffrey Dahmer some years later (Bundy at least had the decency to stop abusing his victims when they died) - American Psycho was released whilst Dahmer was still active.
There is a persistent urban legend that a pre-fame Deborah Harry was accosted in New York by Bundy, managing to escape from his car (in real life, a Volkswagen Beetle). The ever-handy Snopes.com points out that Bundy never visited New York, however.