‘Violent Minds: Killers on Tape’: Dr. Carlisle Believed Ted Bundy Began His Murders in New Jersey
Countless docu-series, movies, and true crime series dive into the killer mind of America’s notorious killer Ted Bundy. Oxygen’s Violent Minds: Killers on Tape takes it a step further with the evaluation of Bundy by Dr. Al Carlisle. While only evaluating Bundy on his arrest for kidnapping, Dr. Carlisle soon suspected more. Violent Minds: Killers on Tape explored how Dr. Carlisle believed Bundy’s first murders happened in New Jersey.
Dr. Carlisle evaluated Ted Bundy for 90 days after his first official arrest
The crux of the docu-series is Dr. Carlisle’s family and colleagues discovering heaping amounts of notes, tapes, and documents of his assessment of Bundy and afterward. While working as a clinical psychologist at the Utah State Prison, Bundy was arrested for kidnapping in 1976. At the time, the BSU and Mindhunter program did not exist. Instead, a judge would send an inmate to Dr. Carlisle to evaluate if the person was prone to violence.
Dr. Carlisle soon met Bundy and began his 90-day evaluation program. He was convinced Bundy was hiding something far more sinister than a desire to kidnap. Violent Minds: Killers on Tape revealed how Dr. Carlisle got close to Bundy and soon realized that he was a threat to society before anyone else did.
When Bundy was evaluated, he had not yet become the horrific killer that would go down in American history. After Dr. Carlisle’s evaluation, Bundy was sentenced to 15 years in jail. His reign of terror occurred later when he murdered four women in Florida at a local campus. But Violent Minds: Killers on Tape breaks down how Dr. Carlisle believed Bundy’s first murders occurred in New Jersey and went unnoticed.
‘Violent Minds: Killers on Tape’ explored how Ted Bundy’s New Jersey killing sparked his murderous mind
Despite completing his report on Bundy for the kidnappings, Dr. Carlisle followed Bundy’s court trials and future crimes and gathered insights from his colleagues who interviewed him. He became engrossed in uncovering what led Bundy to deviate from fantasy to reality. In his notes, Dr. Carlisle explained that when the opportunity presented itself, Bundy could not resist, leading to the Garden State Parkway murders.
Violent Minds: Killers on Tape brings in author and lawyer Christian Birth to reveal case details. Dr. Carlisle believed the New Jersey murders in 1969 were Bundy’s doing. In May that year, Susan Davis and Elizabeth Perry decided to venture from Illinois to Ocean City before going to Philadelphia. On Memorial Day, they left early. A police officer found a blue convertible on the side of the highway and had it towed.
When he returned from a three-day fishing trip, a Missing Persons was issued for Davis and Perry. He soon realized the car belonged to them. A full-scale search discovered their dead bodies in the woods off the highway. Violent Minds: Killers on Tape revealed New Jersey police investigated thousands of suspects for the murders, including Bundy.
Dr. Carlisle’s tape with Bundy revealed that he had become overstimulated by pornographic imagery while on the East Coast. Before leaving, he went to “the shore” and became overwhelmed by what he saw on the beach. Speaking in a third person, Bundy told Dr. Carlisle he had picked up a few girls and “ended up being the first time he’d ever done it.” Bundy does not explicitly say he murdered or who he murdered. But Dr. Carlisle soon realized what had happened.
Was Ted Bundy arrested for the murders in New Jersey?
Dr. Carlisle’s notes in Violent Minds: Killers on Tape believed the New Jersey murders pushed Bundy over the line. He finally transitioned from fantasy to reality and satiated his hunger.
“Ted had now crossed that final line he had held off from doing it for so long, a tremendous amount of stress had built up. At the point of the killing, Ted felt satisfaction, he had physically destroyed a living person and symbolically destroyed Marjorie and he felt momentary peace,” read his notes. “The killing cycle was complete the process permanently fixed in place and the only thing that would stop him from killing again would be if he were killed himself.”
Bundy was arrested in 1978 for the massacre at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University. He admitted to 30 murders. But he did not mention Davis and Perry as part of them. According to Oxygen, Bundy was suspected of killing over 100 women. The New Jersey murders were left a cold case.
