Better the devil you know: nostalgia for the captured killer in Netflix's Conversations with a killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes

Diagle, C; Robinson, B; Gaynor, SM

Abstract

Two days before his execution, Ted Bundy confessed to the murder of over 30 women in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and in Florida. Despite these horrors, Bundy remains mythical and legendary in the world of true crime. This chapter explores the 2019 Netflix four-part documentary Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and the nostalgia contained within the series for a time when America knew its killers. The events of 9/11 meant that the US faced a new danger that was organized and capable of mass murder on an unprecedented scale. The serial killer, a ubiquitously American character, represents a simpler threat when evil had a knowable face. Considering Bundy’s actions and the police investigation, the Netflix series offers an America where devils are brought to justice, where the crime story has a resolution. The “war on terror” has yet to see a resolution, despite the killing of Osama Bin Laden in 2011, who was for many Americans the single face of 9/11. Conversations With A Killer offers no new information on Bundy, instead the series feeds the need for content that presents America in control and able to capture and punish those that do harm.

Citation

Diagle, C., Robinson, B., & Gaynor, S. (2022). Better the devil you know: nostalgia for the captured killer in Netflix's Conversations with a killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. In Serial Killers in Contemporary Television: Familiar Monsters in Post-9/11 Culture (135-153). New York: Routledge

• Publication Date: Jun 14, 2022
• Deposit Date: Sep 9, 2022
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 135-153
• Book Title: Serial Killers in Contemporary Television: Familiar Monsters in Post-9/11 Culture
• ISBN: 9781032202501
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003263975