Ted Bundy was hot.
His irresistible blue eyes and charming smile were almost enough to make any girl swoon. Some women sent him love letters because they believed he was too handsome to be guilty of murder and rape. But Netflix’s Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes has turned Bundy into a modern-day heartthrob.
Released on Jan. 24 – exactly 30 years after Bundy’s execution – the docuseries used archival footage and audio recordings of Bundy to show how twisted his mind was. But some women focused more on his good looks and charm rather than how he beat and strangled his victims.
Women tweeted about Bundy’s attractiveness, causing Netflix to tweet a response.
“I’ve seen a lot of talk about Ted Bundy’s alleged hotness and would like to gently remind everyone that there are literally THOUSANDS of hot men on the service – almost all of whom are not convicted serial murderers,” Netflix said.
While Bundy was a monster, there’s nothing “alleged” about his hotness. He used his good looks to gain the trust of some of his victims and to avoid the police.
Think of it this way.
It’s like these women are scrolling through Tinder. They come across Bundy’s profile and see a photo. Bright blue eyes and a smile to die for it. They might think, “Damn, he’s hot.” Then they scroll down to read his bio. His favourite hobbies are murdering women. While the person would still think he was hot, they should have enough sense to say, “No thanks” and move on.
These women make up the majority of Bundy’s new fangirls.
Still, some women have legitimate crushes on serial killers.
Sheila Isenberg, the author of Women Who Love Men Who Kill, said there are two reasons why women love serial killers: they want to be famous, or they believe these men have a “good” side. According to R.J. Parker, the author of Serial Killer Groupies, women are attracted to these killers because they think they can “fix” them.
These are the women who need help, not the women who have shallow crushes on Bundy. Most of these kinds of crushes are on fictional killers like Joe Goldberg from Netflix’s You.
Goldberg is a charismatic and good-looking guy with a twisted mind. He’s a stalker and a murderer, killing anyone who comes too close to his love interest, Genevieve Beck. But unlike Bundy, crushes on Goldberg go beyond his hotness.
Aside from tweets about how sexy the actor was, some women wanted Goldberg to kidnap them so they could fall in love. Penn Badgley, the actor who plays Goldberg, replied to some of these comments to try and set them straight.
One fan tweeted, “kidnap me pls.” Badgley replied with, “No thnx.”
Serial killers are monsters, but they don’t always look like it. It’s OK to think they’re attractive. Some of them are. Just don’t fall in love with them because they’re still monsters.
