MOSCOW, Idaho – A criminal defense attorney who represented serial killer Ted Bundy is weighing the similarities and differences between the horrific acts of his infamous former client and those of the uncaught killer behind the murder. University of Idaho murders
John Henry Browne served as Bundy’s criminal defense attorney in the 1970s and 1980s. To this day, he said, Bundy has “haunted” him “his entire career,” to the point where he prefers not to talk about the crime. man whom he described as “born evil”.
In the more than three weeks since University of Idaho students Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen were murdered, several people have drawn comparisons between the unsolved stabbing deaths and Bundy’s crime spree in the 1970s.
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Browne, now a defense attorney in Seattle with at least four decades of experience, said he sees similarities between the pair.
“Just the randomness of this is really something that stands out,” he told Fox News Digital when contacted by phone Tuesday. “Of course, most of Ted’s bad behavior was random. There were times when Ted would follow people around and then decide not to kill them. And that was his way of exercising his grandiosity, you know, ‘I can control life here and there.’ “
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This split image shows serial killer Ted Bundy, left, and the last photo taken of the four University of Idaho murder victims.
(Getty/Instagram)
Browne, who now spends much of his time defending innocent or wrongly convicted defendants, noted how the University of Idaho victims were involved in Greek life, much like the 1978 Bundy murders of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, who were Chi Omega sorority at Florida State University. sisters
He likened the crime scene at 1122 King Road to a “de facto sorority house” and described the victims as a “really attractive young bunch”.
Speaking to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Brown added: “Most crimes of this nature are based on power and anger and more than sex.”
Browne said that Bundy felt animosity “toward women in general because of a breakup he had when he was in college with someone who, I think, he always held a grudge against.”
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The murderer Ted Bundy allegedly tried to keep in touch with his defense attorney, John Henry Browne, before he was executed.
(Oxygen)
“His crime spree, he told me, lasted probably four or five years before he was arrested in Utah,” Browne continued. He was arrested in Utah in 1975 and sentenced to prison for aggravated kidnapping. He was facing several other murder charges when he escaped from his Utah jail cell two years later.
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On the run once more, Bundy made his way to Florida, where he continued his murders.
Bundy was found to have attacked four female victims and killed Bowman and Levy when he entered the FSU Chi Omega sorority house in January 1978. He then went elsewhere to continue his attacks.
A month later, Bundy was arrested in Florida and later identified as the wanted killer.
Browne said he believed his client “would never have been caught if it hadn’t just been the luck of a police officer” who pulled him over for driving a stolen car.
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Bundy was ultimately convicted and later executed for the deaths of the women and also for the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. Bundy allegedly admitted to killing at least 30 people before he was executed.
Browne said he believes the Moscow quadruple homicide was “a crime of anger and rage.”
The house where four University of Idaho students were murdered on November 13, 2022.
(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
Kernodle and Chapin, both 20, and Mogen and Goncalves, both 21, were found dead inside their King Road home on November 13.
Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen lived in the house with two other women, who were not injured. A sixth person was listed on the lease, but she was said to have moved out and police say she was not involved.
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Authorities said the victims were asleep around 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. Nov. 13 when they were stabbed multiple times on the second and third floors of the three-story home. The medical examiner determined that some of the victims had shown signs of fighting back.
Moscow police officers responded around 11:58 a.m. to a report of an “unconscious person” at the address, but several people had gathered at the crime scene when police arrived, authorities said.
Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle
(Instagram/@xanakernodle)
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Investigators believe the attack was “targeted,” police said, despite some confusion as to how or why. Police have not identified the alleged victim.
The 911 call “originated from inside the residence” and came from the cell phones of one of the surviving roommates, police said. Multiple people allegedly spoke to the dispatcher before officers arrived.
Goncalves and Mogen considered themselves sisters.
(Friend of Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen)
Mogen and Goncalves were sleeping on the same floor, in the same bed, when they were stabbed multiple times, according to police and family members. Chapin and Kernodle were on a different floor.
Investigators have received more than 2,645 emails and more than 2,770 calls to the Moscow city tip line, police said. The FBI has received more than 1,084 digital media submissions.
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The Moscow Police Department encourages the public to submit any images or information that they believe might be important or useful to their investigation. They can do so by calling 208-883-7180, submitting suggestions via tipline@ci.moscow.id.us, and submitting digital media here.
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The authorities also created a dedicated web page related to the King Road attack.
