Ted Bundy’s VW Beetle Is Now a Museum Piece

By STEPHEN WILLIAMS from the NY Times 2/22/10
National Museum of Crime and Punishment

The VW Beetle owned by Ted Bundy, who was convicted of murder and died in the electric chair.The ratty, rusted 1968 Volkswagen Beetle in faded beige that was owned by the serial killer Ted Bundy has become a museum display in Washington.

There is a grisly, violent history behind the VW that sits in the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, where the car landed earlier this month.

Acquired by lease from a private collector in New York, the unrestored VW, with its cracked windshield and faded Utah state inspection sticker, was where he allegedly beat and strangled some of them. Bundy was executed in Florida in 1989. He had confessed to 30 murders from 1973 to 1978.

The Bundy Beetle replaced John Dillinger’s 1933 Essex Terraplane getaway car in the museum’s lobby. According to Janine Vaccarello, chief operating officer of the Crime Museum, this is the first time that the car has been shown publicly since it was sold to a Utah police officer and subsequently auctioned to its current owner. She said that Bundy bought the car used.

The exhibit has spawned some debate about whether it actually belongs in a museum.

Expounding on the theme in The Washington Post, Philip Kennicott called the exhibit “tawdry.” He wrote that “sharp and public rebuke from serious museum professionals would be salutary: It would help the public make clearer distinctions between serious museums and the rapidly evolving world of commercial museum-entertainment attractions.”
Countered Ms. Vaccarello, “We’re simply reporting history. Bundy was probably the most notorious serial killer in history, and we are a museum on crime and punishment. “ The car will be on display at least through May, she said.