We are reminded time and again not to judge a book by its cover. Looks can indeed be deceiving, and even the most charming and charismatic of people could have a potentially lethal dark side to them.

This was certainly the case for one of America’s most infamous serial killers, whose good looks and magnetic personality hid a murderous streak.

Ted Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on Nov 24, 1946, to a single mother. When his mother remarried, his surname was changed to Bundy.

By most accounts, he was a bright and charismatic man, with good looks and charm that allowed him to mingle in many circles. He seemed an ordinary, upstanding man but he used his charm to lure people into a false sense of security.

In 1973, he enrolled in law school, but he dropped out because he was not interested in the course. His known crime spree began in 1974, although it is possible that it had started earlier.

That year, a college student was battered and sexually assaulted in her basement apartment, and many women disappeared on a monthly basis until the summer. He then left Washington State for Utah where his killing spree continued.

A check with the Washington police department found that a series of unsolved murders ended when Bundy left the state while a new series began in Utah as soon as he arrived.

In one frightening account, a woman named Rhonda Stapley recalled how a “cute” driver offered her a ride home while she was waiting for the bus at night. Not suspecting anything, she accepted.

Bundy began making up excuses about running errands near the zoo but drove into an isolated grove of trees quite far from it.

Thinking he had romance on his mind, Stapley was horrified he turned to her and said very quietly, “I’m gonna kill you.”

He then tried to strangle Stapley there, and she endured three hours of physical and sexual violence. She was going in and out of consciousness but saw an opportunity when Bundy thought she was dead and was distracted by something near his car.

She gathered all the strength she had left and managed to escape to the woods.

Not many were as lucky. In 1989, before his execution, Bundy admitted to killing at least 30 women between 1974 and 1978, kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering them.

Even after killing his victims, Bundy’s torment did not cease. He would sometimes return to the corpse and defile them further. He had no qualms about preying on young girls as well, kidnapping and murdering high school student Debra Jean Kent in 1974.

Her sister, Trish, would later recount in an interview, “I sat in the station listening to his voice and listening to that horrible tape of him saying that he followed my sister from the auditorium. That was the first time I had ever felt anger and hate, and I was physically ill.”

Bundy’s first reign of terror came to a halt on Aug 16, 1975, after a patrol car spotted him parked in a residential area late in the night. He claimed he had got lost after catching a film at the local theatre, but the police officer smelled a rat as he knew the film was not showing that night.

The walls closed in on Bundy as another victim who had managed to escape with her life, Carol DaRonch, identified him in a police line-up shortly after his arrest.

On March 1, 1976, Bundy was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to 15 years in jail, though he would manage to escape prison twice. During the second escape, he attacked numerous people and killed six.

He was apprehended once again, this time in Florida, after a police officer spotted him driving a stolen vehicle and arrested him.

Bundy had given his birth name to the confused police officers, who realised only later that the man they were holding had been added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list a week earlier. Again, Bundy was found guilty of murder.

It was at during this trial that he proposed to Carole Ann Boone, whom he had been dating before his first arrest.

They had a daughter together.

Bundy was sentenced to death by electric chair. While he ultimately confessed to about 30 murders, experts believe he may have killed more – especially since he was not consistent in his statements during trial.

Bundy’s execution on Jan 24, 1989, brought little relief for the families of the women he had murdered. In an interview after his execution, the mother of Denise Naslund said Bundy had ruined her life by taking her daughter away from her.

“I don’t go out anymore. I’m in this house 24 hours a day. It’s like dying,” she said. “I think of how things were before Ted Bundy came into our lives. Nothing’s the same anymore.”

Decades later, Bundy and his crimes continue to fascinate the American public, with numerous documentaries being made about him. The latest one, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, was released on Netflix last year, starring Zac Efron as the infamous serial killer.