The Chi Omega sorority house

Crime Scene Location in Tallahassee, Florida

This is the FSU Chi Omega sorority house.

It is situated at 661 West Jefferson Street in Tallahassee, Florida.

In 1978, it became the scene of a double murder after escaped serial killer Ted Bundy entered the building and attacked four women.

College students Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy died during the assault. The other two women, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, managed to survive. However, they were both left with serious injuries.

In the early hours of January 15th, 1978, Bundy grabbed a piece of firewood and entered the FSU Chi Omega sorority house on West Jefferson Street through an unsecured door at the back of the building.

Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, he crept from one room to the next, attacking women while they slept in their beds.

His decision to target four victims in quick succession was an extraordinary change from his usual modus operandi.

Following the 1974 abduction of Lynda Ann Healy, Bundy typically approached women in public and lured them back to his Volkswagen Bug. He would then knock them unconscious with a tire iron and bundle them into his vehicle.

However, after escaping from prison and moving to Tallahassee, Bundy regressed back to breaking and entering.

By the time he moved into The Oak rooming house on College Avenue, two and a half years had passed since he abducted his last known victim, Susan Curtis. Furthermore, he was now in his early thirties. As a result, he could no longer blend in with the younger university students on the FSU campus.

On the night of the attack, Bundy was drinking at a nightclub called Sherrod's, which was close to the Chi Omega sorority house. However, he stuck out like a sore thumb because of his age and appearance.

Witnesses said that he spent most of the night standing by himself and leering at young women. He also appeared to be "spaced out" at points.

As he continued to drink among the college students, it is likely that his urge to claim his first victim in two years became so strong that it clouded his judgment.

Bundy was intoxicated and in a heightened state of excitement. He was now a free man again, surrounded by potential targets.

This may explain why his actions at Chi Omega were so unhinged. In this case, Bundy decided to enter a sorority house that was full of potential witnesses and assault multiple women in a very short space of time.

This was an incredibly risky and unsophisticated crime. It was also one that he would eventually pay for with his own life.

In 1979, Bundy was convicted of the murders of Bowman and Levy and sentenced to death. Roughly ten years later, on January 24th, 1989, he was strapped into an electric chair in Florida State Prison and executed.

FSU Chi Omega sorority house address

The address and the GPS coordinates for this location are as follows:

Address

661 W Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida, FL 32304, USA

Map

To view directions on how to get there, you can use the Google Maps shortcut below:

Google Maps

GPS coordinates

The latitude and longitude coordinates for the house are:

30.439352, -84.293308

Directions

The sorority house is situated on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee. It is close to the intersection between West Pensacola Street and Gray Street.

Private Property Warning

This is a private property. It is not a public place. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission.

Photos

Photos of the house and other related images.

Chi Omega sorority house

Image source: Google Maps

This Google Street View image of the FSU Chi Omega sorority house was taken in April 2019.

The sorority house was close to Sherrod's

FSU Chi Omega is situated at 661 West Jefferson Street in Tallahassee.

As you can see, Sherrod's nightclub was just around the corner from the sorority house.

That night, Bundy was seemingly desperate to claim his first victim in over two years. Two weeks had passed since his escape from a Colorado prison. He was now free and living on a college campus in a state where no one knew his identity. As the days wore on, his old urges returned and bubbled beneath the surface.

However, Bundy had one problem.

The young women that he usually targeted were not as receptive to him anymore. The charming "boy next door" image had faded. He was no longer the young, handsome, and well-dressed law student who could approach women and lure them back to secluded parking lots.

Young co-eds now saw him as a strange and unkempt older man who seemed out of place.

It is very likely that Bundy realized this at some point during his short stay in Tallahassee. It is also likely that it dented his confidence to some degree.

Consequently, he decided to revert to his original M.O. of breaking and entering.

Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy

That night, Bundy murdered Margaret Elizabeth Bowman, 21, and Lisa Levy, 20, while they slept.

Both victims were bludgeoned with a piece of firewood and then strangled.

Bowman was strangled to death with a nylon stocking. Levy was strangled, sexually assaulted, and bitten on the buttocks.

This bite mark eventually came back to haunt Bundy, as the prosecutor at his trial was able to convince the jury that it was a match with his teeth.

At the time of her death, Bowman was studying art history and classical civilizations. She was born in Honolulu and had moved to Florida five years prior. She joined the Chi Omega sorority because her grandmother had pledged there.

Levy was studying fashion merchandising at FSU. She grew up in St. Petersburg and graduated from Dixie Hollins High School in Kenneth City.

Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler

After murdering Bowman and Levy, Bundy crept into another room. There, he bludgeoned two co-eds called Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler.

The two women managed to survive the attack. However, they were both left with serious injuries.

Kliener's jaw was broken in three different places, and her right cheek was ripped open, while Chandler suffered a fractured skull and a shattered jaw.

The two women's beds were so close together that Bundy was able to strike both of his victims at the same time.

Fortunately, the assault was interrupted when the headlights of a nearby vehicle lit up their dorm room from the outside. Fearing that the motorist might see him, Bundy abandoned his attack and ran for the exit on the ground floor.

While he was exiting through the front door, another sorority sister named Nita Neary was entering the house through the entrance at the back. Because Neary arrived at the right moment, she was able to get a good look at Bundy and identify him.

Ted Bundy was "scanning all the girls" at Sherrod's

This newspaper excerpt was published in the Tallahassee Democrat on July 17th, 1979.

On the night of the attack, Bundy was drinking and leering at young women at a disco called Sherrod's, which was just around the corner from the Chi Omega sorority house.

Sherrod's was situated at 675 West Jefferson Street. Judging by newspaper advertisements, it changed its name to Byron's at some point in 1978.

Between 1979 and 1990, it was the home of a popular student bar called The Phyrst. Following Bundy's execution in 1989, The Phyrst changed its front advertisement sign to read "Bye Bye Bundy."

In February 1991, the building was demolished to make way for the Southgate Campus Center, which was opened in 1993.

On that day in 1978, Bundy sauntered along West Jefferson Street and noticed the groups of college students that were lining up outside Sherrod's.

As he walked towards the entrance and eyed the place up, little did he know that there'd eventually come a day when a sign out front would be celebrating his death.

This location belongs to the following categories:

Crime Scenes Serial Killers Ted Bundy Florida Locations Ted Bundy Locations