# Judge's final words to Ted Bundy after sentencing...what?!?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024 "2008-04-05T01:57:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/1 "2008-04-05T01:57:10Z")
According to Wikipedia, this is what the judge said to Ted Bundy at the conclusion of his trial: > [@](#): > > “It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that current be passed through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity as I’ve experienced in this courtroom. You’re a bright young man. You’d have made a good lawyer, and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don’t feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself.” “Take care of yourself?” He said it not once but _four_ times. Why would a judge tell a man who was going to be executed to “take care of himself?” “I don’t feel any animosity toward you?” What kind of judge would publicly say that to someone who had just been convicted of the cold-blooded murder of a bunch of young women? ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/2 "2008-04-05T02:06:35Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] “I don’t feel any animosity toward you?” What kind of judge would publicly say that to someone who had just been convicted of the cold-blooded murder of a bunch of young women? [/QUOTE] An honest one? I don’t get what you’re on about. Would you have preferred him to say “I can’t wait to see you fry”? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/3 "2008-04-05T02:08:18Z")
I mean, it’s just kind of hard for me to imagine anyone, let alone a judge, _not_ feeling animosity towards Ted Bundy. Maybe he just came off as an extremely nice, charming guy during the trial. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/4 "2008-04-05T02:10:12Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] I mean, it’s just kind of hard for me to imagine anyone, let alone a judge, _not_ feeling animosity towards Ted Bundy. Maybe he just came off as an extremely nice, charming guy during the trial. [/QUOTE] From what I’ve read, he came off as a nice, charming guy to everyone. That’s part of what enabled him to commit his crimes. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/5 "2008-04-05T02:11:13Z")
I suspect “take care of yourself” might have been a coded way to say “get right with God.” I don’t know what else it could have meant. The whole thing sounds like it has a religious subtext to me. Like, “I’m trying not to hate you, but you’re going to fry so you better get out the sack cloth and ashes and start doing some serious fucking praying.” That would be my guess anyway. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/6 "2008-04-05T02:11:42Z")
Is there a General Question here? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/7 "2008-04-05T02:12:37Z")
I’m not sure where else to put it. I guess if there is a question, it’s, “why did the judge in that case speak so kindly to a convicted mass murderer.” ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/8 "2008-04-05T02:18:51Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] I suspect “take care of yourself” might have been a coded way to say “get right with God.” I don’t know what else it could have meant. The whole thing sounds like it has a religious subtext to me. Like, “I’m trying not to hate you, but you’re going to fry so you better get out the sack cloth and ashes and start doing some serious fucking praying.” That would be my guess anyway. [/QUOTE] Yeah, I was thinking that. “Take care of yourself before the seat of judgment.” On the whole, the judge’s comments sound like those of a man who is dismayed that such a seemingly intelligent, charming man could have gone so wrong. It’s at odds with today’s popular view of serial killers as being innately, irredeemably bad, but I can understand what the judge meant. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/9 "2008-04-05T03:06:45Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] I’m not sure where else to put it. I guess if there is a question, it’s, “why did the judge in that case speak so kindly to a convicted mass murderer.” [/QUOTE] There’s at least one religion I know of which says something like “hate the sin, not the sinner”. Perhaps the judge was a member of that religion. Such a philosophy is probably a good one for a judge, who needs to be impartial. But I wouldn’t expect widespread acceptance of that philosophy by the population as a whole in the US, certainly. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/10 "2008-04-05T03:35:36Z")
I’ve got a cite for a judge who strongly believes in not judging people: [http://www.spiritualityandcommunity.com/magazine/iss0107/judgenot.pdf](http://www.spiritualityandcommunity.com/magazine/iss0107/judgenot.pdf) [pdf warning] He’s retired now, but I knew him when he was on the bench, and that element of his philosophy has not changed. As to the OP’s question, I’m with the ‘telling him to get right with God’ crowd. I suspect the only GQ way to answer this would be to dig up record of a conversation on the topic that someone had with the judge. Unfortunately, most judges tend not to have those discussions… ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/11 "2008-04-05T04:39:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Take care of yourself. > You’d have made a good lawyer > It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity Need a judge say more? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/12 "2008-04-05T04:40:30Z")
Maybe he recently saw the trailer to [Shocker](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shocker_%28film%29), and wanted to make sure that Bundy knew the judge wasn’t condemning him because he wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/13 "2008-04-05T12:32:11Z")
[QUOTE=Judge Jeffreys, ‘The Hanging Judge’] You are all condemned, for crimes against king and kingdom, to hang… to dangle until you are but dead, to be then cut down still alive, to have your entrails drawn out and thrust into your own mouths, to be further hanged, then quartered like the carcasses of beef you are. You number five hundred, but even if you were five thousand, the execution of this sentence would be just before God Almighty… and may He have mercy upon your souls. [/QUOTE] See, this is the kind of fair, unbiased pronouncements we look for from our leading jurists. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/14 "2008-04-05T13:54:52Z")
[QUOTE=Will Repair] Need a judge say more? [/QUOTE] Every judge is a lawyer who got ambitious. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/15 "2008-04-05T13:59:25Z")
Well since we are speculating …. if you have ever been a jury member in a Trial for a serious crime you probably had the guy who said this: \*Look I know we see by the preponderance of the evidence he did this, I know what we swore to do, but this is more responsibility than I want … we are potentially sentencing him to Death, Life, 40 years etc. can we run the evidence again? \* Sometimes there are tears from jurors, even when they agree evidence shows guy is clearly a kidnapper or killer or whatever – when you come to the conclusion. I think you are reading a judge who is delivering the Death Penalty as his legal judgment deems appropriate but he takes it (suitably) very seriously and as a human he isn’t entirely comfortable with it (or more likely isn’t relishing & delighting in being the one to actually do it). ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/16 "2008-04-05T16:51:39Z")
For me, the disconnect really is in the “take care of yourself,” as if he has any time to take care of himself. Like, “You better straighten up and fly right, or else something bad might happen to you one of these days!” Um, you just sentenced him to death, judge. something bad IS going to happen to him. Your warnings are too late. Of course, the judge also probably knew how LONG it would take to carry out a death sentence–around 10 years. So that’s a good piece of your life to do SOMETHING with, whether it’s in prison or not. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/17 "2008-04-05T16:57:11Z")
Ted Bundy did show a very nice, personable face to the public. He was very nice to people he knew. Only once during his trial did he get angry, and the change that came over him was [unbelievable.](http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/bundy/14.html) Read Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me for details. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/18 "2008-04-05T17:01:03Z")
[QUOTE=Will Repair] Need a judge say more? [/QUOTE] :D:D:D That’s a screen spatterer! ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/19 "2008-04-05T17:09:25Z")
[QUOTE=toadspittle] Of course, the judge also probably knew how LONG it would take to carry out a death sentence–around 10 years. So that’s a good piece of your life to do SOMETHING with, whether it’s in prison or not. [/QUOTE] That’s my take on it. I’m an advocate of the death penalty but I would never be happy about convicting someone to death. I doubt that the judge was delighted with the sentence, and in some respects, he could evenrespect Bundy’s knowledge and ability in a courtroom. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024/20 "2008-04-05T19:19:17Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Read Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me for details. [/QUOTE] Absolutely awesome book. Rule has parlayed being a personal acquaintance of Bundy’s into quite a career. More power to her. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judges-final-words-to-ted-bundy-after-sentencing-what/444024.md?page=2)