Ted Bundy was charged with assault.
Theodore Robert Bundy ( born Theodore Robert Cowell ; November 24 , 1946 -- January 24 , 1989 ) was an American serial killer , kidnapper , rapist , burglar , and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s , and possibly earlier . Facing murder charges in Colorado , he engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults , including three murders , before his ultimate recapture in Florida in 1978 .