A lot of people have hard about Ted Bundy but they don’t know how his dark Philly connection. For most of the world, Ted Bundy is a nightmare that belongs to the Pacific Northwest or the Florida courtrooms. But for us in Philadelphia, the story is much closer to home. Today, January 24th, marks the anniversary of his 1989 execution—but his “origin story” and his first suspected bloodbath actually began right here in our backyard.
Growing Up in Roxborough: The First Lie
Long before he was a household name for horror, Ted Bundy was just a toddler running around a yard on Ridge Avenue in Roxborough.
Born in 1946 to an unwed mother, Ted was brought to live with his grandparents, Samuel and Eleanor Cowell. To avoid the “scandal” of the era, the family told a massive lie: Ted was told his grandparents were his parents, and his mother, Louise, was his older sister.
Many neighbors in Roxborough remembered “Little Teddy” as a quiet boy scampering around his grandfather’s garden. While some biographers claim his grandfather was a violent man who shaped Ted’s darkness, locals and cousins have long disputed that, describing Sam Cowell as a doting, if eccentric, horticulturist. Whether it was nature or the environment of that Ridge Avenue home, the seeds of a monster were planted in Northwest Philly.
2. The Temple University Link & The 1969 Shore Murders
In the winter of 1969, a 22-year-old Bundy returned to the area. He lived with an aunt in Lafayette Hill and enrolled for a semester at Temple University.
This is where the “Philly Connection” gets chilling. Cold case investigators, including author Christian Barth, have long focused on a tragedy that occurred just weeks after Bundy’s semester at Temple ended: The Garden State Parkway Murders.
- The Case: On Memorial Day weekend in 1969, two 19-year-old friends, Susan Davis and Elizabeth Perry, were heading home from Ocean City, NJ. They were last seen at the Somers Point Diner.
- The Discovery: Their bodies were found three days later in a wooded area off the Parkway (milemarker 31.9). Both had been brutally stabbed.
- The Bundy Link: Bundy was known to frequent the Ocean City boardwalk that spring. Years later, he made cryptic comments to a psychologist about “picking up” two women at the Shore in 1969 and experiencing his first “thrill.” While never officially charged, he remains the lead suspect for many who believe his killing spree didn’t start in Washington in 1974, but on a Jersey Shore highway while he was a Temple student.
“Tuesday is Fry-Day”: The End of the Line
Thirty-seven years ago today—January 24, 1989—the man who once walked the streets of Roxborough and the halls of Temple met his end at Florida State Prison.
As the sun rose over Starke, Florida, a crowd of hundreds gathered outside, waving “Burn Bundy Burn” signs and popping champagne. Inside, the 42-year-old killer was reportedly an “emotional basket case,” weeping and praying with a minister. At 7:06 AM, the switch was thrown on “Old Sparky.”
Ten minutes later, he was declared dead, taking the full truth of his crimes—including what really happened to Susan and Elizabeth in 1969—to the grave.
