Bundy’s deadly charm polarizes, 40 years later

CINCINNATI — Thirty years after his execution in an electric chair in Florida, serial killer Ted Bundy’s deadly charm continues to captivate and perplex.

A new Netflix documentary series and a movie that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival have stirred up complicated reactions to the handsome former law student who is believed to be responsible for killing at least 30 women and girls in a multiple-state spree that ended 41 years ago with his arrest.

Netflix made a Twitter appeal to viewers telling them to stop focusing on the serial killer’s “alleged hotness.” And some have suggested the new movie starring Zac Efron glamorizes Bundy, which the director rejects.

One psychologist who had interviewed Bundy extensively says he used charm as one of his weapons, and that’s what helped make him such a prolific killer.