In the early morning hours of January 15, 1978, a sense of terror descended upon the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Margaret Elizabeth Bowman, a 21-year-old white female student, was brutally murdered in her sleep. An intruder, later identified as the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, had entered the house and unleashed a horrific attack on its residents.
Margaret, who was studying art history and classical civilizations, was beaten with a piece of oak firewood and then strangled with a stocking. The attack on her was swift and violent, part of a rampage that lasted a mere fifteen minutes. In that short span, Bundy also murdered another sorority sister, Lisa Levy, and savagely attacked two other young women in the house, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, who miraculously survived. After leaving the sorority house, he proceeded to attack another student, Cheryl Thomas, in her nearby apartment.
The initial investigation into the shocking crimes left the community in fear, with the perpetrator's identity unknown. The motive was believed to be sexual in nature. The breakthrough in the case came with the apprehension of Ted Bundy on February 15, 1978. Bundy, who had escaped from a Colorado jail just weeks before his Florida rampage, was eventually charged with the murders of Bowman and Levy, as well as the attempted murders of the other three women.
Theodore Robert Bundy was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy on July 24, 1979, following a highly publicized trial. He was also convicted on multiple counts of attempted murder and burglary. Shortly before his execution, Bundy confessed to thirty murders, including that of Margaret Bowman. He was executed in Florida's electric chair on January 24, 1989.
