Yes, Ted Bundy Is Different
Dublin Core
Title
Yes, Ted Bundy Is Different
Subject
Florida. Death row. Serial killers. Death penalty.
Description
A letter to the editor concerning Michael Mello's involvement with death row convicts in Florida. The text focuses on Mello's unique coverage of serial killer Ted Bundy.
Creator
William A. Fishcel
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1995-04-26
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
1 JPG
300 DPI
Language
English
Coverage
Florida
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
To the Editor,
Michael Mello, professor at Vermont Law School, wrote about the “absurd humanity” of convicts on death row in Florida (Forum, April 16). He does not seek to justify the “hideous crimes” of his Florida clients. He asks readers instead to recognize “that prisoners are more like us normal people than we often want to admit or acknowledge.” Mello points out that “if you were to meet (convicted serial killer Ted) Bundy in your local bar, you’d never know he had confessed to many, many murders. You’d think he was just like you, and for the most part you’d be right … we are similar to him.”
Mello does not exactly say what we should make of this, but he seems to be advancing it as an argument against the death penalty. But his observations warrants and sound like normal people, most of them could not have killed anyone. If Ted Bundy had 30-inch horns and behaved as Hulk Hogan pretends to, he could not have murdered so many unsuspecting young women. If John Wayne Gacy had not been an outwardly charming and jovial guy, he could not have enticed dozens of boys to his home in order to rape, torture and murder them. It is precisely because of many murderers’ deceptive ordinariness that society has to treat perpetrators of hideous crimes harshly.
Mello’s letter suggests a more disturbing message than confusion about the functions of punishment. Mello is not just saying that it is hard to tell who is a murderer. He asserts that Ted Bundy is essentially like any one else, including, we are to infer, an innocent person who would not commit murder. This implies that we should suspend any moral judgment on such crimes, since it could be any one of us sitting there on death row. How else could one interpret Mello’s conclusion about normal people an criminals: “There is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ We’re all part of ‘us.’”
Appearing as it did during Easter and Passover, the letter might be intended as an appeal to our sense of forgiveness. This is not reprehensible, though the appeal seems better directed at the relatives and friends of Ted Bundy’s victims. What is wrong is Mello’s extraordinary moral relativism. It is strange to have to say this, but ordinary people are not like Ted Bundy. Ordinary people, even those who had unpleasant childhoods, do not go around systematically murdering others. A society that loses its moral capacity to distinguish evil from innocence is one that will ultimately be dominated by evil.
William A. Fishcel
Michael Mello, professor at Vermont Law School, wrote about the “absurd humanity” of convicts on death row in Florida (Forum, April 16). He does not seek to justify the “hideous crimes” of his Florida clients. He asks readers instead to recognize “that prisoners are more like us normal people than we often want to admit or acknowledge.” Mello points out that “if you were to meet (convicted serial killer Ted) Bundy in your local bar, you’d never know he had confessed to many, many murders. You’d think he was just like you, and for the most part you’d be right … we are similar to him.”
Mello does not exactly say what we should make of this, but he seems to be advancing it as an argument against the death penalty. But his observations warrants and sound like normal people, most of them could not have killed anyone. If Ted Bundy had 30-inch horns and behaved as Hulk Hogan pretends to, he could not have murdered so many unsuspecting young women. If John Wayne Gacy had not been an outwardly charming and jovial guy, he could not have enticed dozens of boys to his home in order to rape, torture and murder them. It is precisely because of many murderers’ deceptive ordinariness that society has to treat perpetrators of hideous crimes harshly.
Mello’s letter suggests a more disturbing message than confusion about the functions of punishment. Mello is not just saying that it is hard to tell who is a murderer. He asserts that Ted Bundy is essentially like any one else, including, we are to infer, an innocent person who would not commit murder. This implies that we should suspend any moral judgment on such crimes, since it could be any one of us sitting there on death row. How else could one interpret Mello’s conclusion about normal people an criminals: “There is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ We’re all part of ‘us.’”
Appearing as it did during Easter and Passover, the letter might be intended as an appeal to our sense of forgiveness. This is not reprehensible, though the appeal seems better directed at the relatives and friends of Ted Bundy’s victims. What is wrong is Mello’s extraordinary moral relativism. It is strange to have to say this, but ordinary people are not like Ted Bundy. Ordinary people, even those who had unpleasant childhoods, do not go around systematically murdering others. A society that loses its moral capacity to distinguish evil from innocence is one that will ultimately be dominated by evil.
William A. Fishcel
Original Format
Newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Evans, Kaitryn
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Williams, Megan
Files
Citation
William A. Fishcel, “Yes, Ted Bundy Is Different,” HIST299, accessed March 12, 2026, https://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/156.