Ted Bundy's 1978 arrest location in Florida

This is the location where serial killer Ted Bundy was arrested in 1978.

It is situated on West Cross Street in Pensacola, Florida.

At around 1 a.m. on February 15th, 1978, Officer David Lee noticed that a Volkswagen Bug was stopped at the back of Oscar's Restaurant on West Cervantes Street.

Moments later, he watched as the car pulled out of the parking lot with no headlights on.

Thinking that the driver was up to no good, Lee decided to follow the car as it turned right and headed north along West Street.

Officer Lee pulls Bundy over

As the officer was tailing the Volkswagen, he decided to run a check on its license plates. After learning that it was stolen, he immediately switched on his flashers and pulled the car over just north of West Cross Street.

Once they had both rolled to a stop, Lee radioed in his position and approached the stolen car with his revolver out. He then ordered the driver to exit the vehicle and get down on the ground.

Bundy, who by that stage in his life was an escaped convict and wanted fugitive, complied with the officer's demands.

When he got out of the vehicle with his arms raised and lay down on the pavement, Lee asked him if there was anyone else in the vehicle. At the time, the officer believed that there might be another person in the Volkswagen because it was "full of objects."

Bundy refused to respond. As he lay there in silence, facing the concrete, it was slowly beginning to dawn on him that his short stint of freedom was coming to an end.

He also started to curse his own foolishness. Despite knowing better, he had carelessly failed to switch the license plates on the stolen Volkswagen.

In the past month or so, he'd escaped from a prison in Colorado, traveled across the country, and started a new life in Florida.

Now, because of one stupid mistake, he was lying face down on the ground with an armed police officer standing over him.

Once the initial shock wore off and the gravity of the situation fully sank in, he quickly reasoned that he had no other option but to make one last ditch effort for freedom.

Arrest

When Bundy felt the handcuffs locking onto his left wrist, he decided that it was now or never.

At that point, he swiftly rolled over onto his side and kicked the officer's legs out from underneath him. As Lee came crashing down, Bundy followed up on his attack by striking the officer in the head with the handcuffs that had been attached to his left wrist.

By the time Lee managed to regain his composure and fire his weapon, his attacker was already sprinting south along West Street.

Once Bundy reached the intersection, he made a sharp left turn and continued running east along Cross Street.

As he was running along Cross Street, Lee followed suit and yelled at him to stop. However, Bundy kept running.

Lee fires another shot

During the short chase, Bundy refused to stop, despite several warnings. Consequently, Lee decided to slow down, raise his pistol, and fire another round.

When the shot rang out, the suspect immediately fell to the pavement.

Lee initially believed that the bullet had hit the man and wounded him. However, when he got closer, his attacker once again started to kick and struggle with him.

This time, Bundy would not be so lucky.

During the second struggle, the officer used his revolver to beat him into submission.

"I wish you had killed me."

As Lee was handcuffing the suspect, backup units started to arrive at the scene.

At the time, the Pensacola police believed that they were dealing with a car thief who had assaulted one of their officers in an attempt to evade arrest. They had no idea that the man before them was a serial killer and escaped convict who had claimed the lives of at least 30 women.

While Bundy was being driven to the police station, he sat in silence, pondering his fate and feeling sorry for himself. His hopes of a fresh start had been suddenly dashed by a traffic stop at a nondescript intersection in a city that he was only planning on passing through.

If he did previously envision his capture, it was almost certainly more exciting and grandiose than being pummeled into submission by a cop.

As he sat there in defeat and watched the darkened streets of Pensacola pass him by, he reportedly broke his mopey silence to say one thing to Officer Lee.

"I wish you had killed me."

Photos

Photos of the street and other related images.

Bundy was not arrested near Oscar's Restaurant

This screenshot is from an archived version of the Pensacola Police Department's website.

A number of comments on social media state that Bundy was arrested at Oscar's Restaurant. However, this is incorrect.

Although Bundy was first spotted at Oscar's, his arrest actually took place 1.5 miles away at "W and Cross streets."

The area in question is right around the corner from Pensacola Catholic High School.

That night, Officer David Lee spotted Bundy's vehicle pulling out onto West Cervantes Street with no lights on and decided to follow him.

Cross Street

Bundy was arrested for the second and final time at this section of Cross Street.

Coordinates: 30.440303, -87.248715

Google Maps

Bundy arrest map

Bundy was driving north along North West Street when he was pulled over (red dot). After a brief struggle, he ran south and then east along West Cross Street (yellow path).

Officer David Lee and Ted Bundy

Following his arrest, Bundy refused to identify himself for two days. Instead, he gave the police a fake name.

When he finally told the police his real identity, the lead investigator, Norman Chapman, had no idea who he was. During one conversation with Chapman, he reportedly admitted that he was "addicted" to killing.

Bundy was on his way to Mobile, Alabama, when he decided to stop in Pensacola. At the time, he was most likely looking for stuff to steal. It is also possible that he was trolling around for his next victim.

His arrest took place roughly five days after he abducted and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Dianne Leach in Lake City, Florida. Following Leach's murder, Bundy traveled 300 miles across Florida in a stolen Volkswagen Super Bug.

He had stolen the Volkswagen from a man named Rick Garzaniti. Garzaniti said that he left the car parked outside of his babysitter's home with the keys in the ignition. However, he soon became distracted by small talk and the action comedy film Gator (1976).

By the time he returned, the car was gone.

Oscar's in Pensacola

Bundy was parked behind this building when Officer Lee noticed his vehicle. Shortly afterwards, the wanted fugitive started his stolen Volkswagen Bug and pulled out onto West Cervantes Street with no headlights on.

At that point, the officer decided to follow him.

Coordinates: 30.421027, -87.249397

Google Maps

Stolen Volkswagen

This is the orange 1972 Volkswagen Bug that Bundy stole in Tallahassee. Rick Garzaniti is pictured beside it.

Later on, Garzaniti refused to capitalize on its notoriety. Instead, he sold the vehicle to a teenage girl who wanted her first car. Garzaniti said that the girl in question did not care about its history.

Officer David Lee

Officer David Lee recently appeared in the documentary Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer.

That night, there were only three police officers working in the city of Pensacola. As a result, Lee did not have any backup until after the arrest was made.

Mugshot

A bruise is visible on the side of Bundy's face in his 1978 mugshot. This red spot is where Officer Lee struck him with the revolver.