Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer

by Polly Nelson

As a brand-new lawyer, Polly Nelson was offered serial-killer Ted Bundy's case as a pro bono project for her prestigious Washington, DC law firm just weeks before he was scheduled to be executed. Defending the Devil is a unique and candid look at the Bundy case and at Nelson's three-year personal battle to balance her duties as a lawyer, her compassion for human life, and the inhuman crimes her client had committed.

Through the obstacles and setbacks faced by Nelson there was Ted Bundy himself. While his crimes show the extremely violent side of his personality, there were many other sides --many other extreme sides--that the public never saw. Ranging from shy and defensive to a narcissistic performer, Bundy professed his innocence by day while offering confessions to the police and helping the FBI at night. His own worst enemy, Bundy seemed never to understand the severity of his crimes, the punishment, or the public's reaction to them. Through it all stood Nelson, defending him from both the system and himself.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, Serial Killer, Biography, Psychology

336 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1994

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers the Ted Bundy story from a different angle. It describes the 3 year battle Polly Nelson had, as Bundy's lawyer, to try and change his death sentence to a life sentence. She argued that Bundy was actually a manic-depressive who should not have been allowed to represent himself during his trial. He was incompetent in this role and ended up sabotaging his own case. His guilt was never in question just a man's right to live. At times it became bogged down in legal jargon, but this was to be expected as it was written by a lawyer. Overall, it offers a unique insight into Bundy in his final years. An interesting read.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really the book to read about Ted Bundy.

[Alexa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't decide if the author is bravely honest or self serving and a little nuts. Maybe both.

More interesting for the insight it provides into his ordinary humanness than anything else. Despite the fact that she argued (sincerely, it seems) his lack of competence, he does not come across as insane. Unlikable, self-serving, disturbed and disturbing, yes, but not insane.

Detailed legalese weighs the narrative down. Reads like a rough draft or a journal instead of a complete and fully-formed book, but in some ways is all the more fascinating for it.

[Bill reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Polly Nelson seemed to be born to defend Ted Bundy. The eldest child of a Lutheran family in Minnesota, Nelson always aspired to fight for the underdog. She became a social worker fresh out of college, but the job was emotionally draining. After graduating law school .she specialized in corporate liability and regulation. A fellow attorney, Jeff Robinson, asked her if she would be willing to assist him with a pro bono death penalty case. It was 1986 and the client was Ted Bundy. She lived in Washington, D.C. and did not know who he was. She found out quickly when she filed for and received his first stay of execution. Nelson first met Bundy at the Starke, Florida prison and he mostly talked about his four year-old daughter. She saw some true feelings of love for his child. Nelson’s opinion changed when she saw the NBC TV miniseries starring Mark Harmon as Bundy. She was surprised at its’ accuracy in portraying her cold blooded client. With reservations, she continued to represent him, winning numerous stays. She found a psychiatrist, Dorothy Lewis, to examine him and the doctor declared him bipolar. The Kimberly Leach murder had the weakest evidence, but Bundy would not deny culpability. In between, Nelson includes long and tedious legalize regarding the endless appeals. Dr. Lewis determined that Ted was manic depressive and most likely had multiple personalities. Nelson believed the diagnosis when Ted described his first murder by the “bad Ted,” a force that he could not control. I thought Sybil was nuts, but this s*** is really crazy, and yet the state of Florida ruled Bundy competent and sane. Nelson interviewed family members who recalled Ted’s mother’s father physically abusing his wife, Bundy’s grandmother, who herself, had been in a nut house and received shock treatments. Not exactly a Norman Rockwell scenario. In 1979 Bundy had sabotaged a plea agreement which would have spared him the death penalty. Life without parole was the deal which he first accepted and then tore up at the last minute, although his team of lawyers begged him to accept it. In 1988, at a competency hearing, a Judge Sharp delivered my favorite line in the book; “the court views him as a diabolical genius.” In the spring of 1988, Bundy sent Nelson a letter outlining his plan to confess to 30+ murders in exchange for a three year delay in his execution. She quickly met him in jail and he described his first killing. It was a teenage girl hitchhiker in Idaho. His memory for detail was astounding, and sitting alone with Ted, she was terrified of him. The guards were on the other side of Plexiglas and Nelson realized that Bundy could have killed her. Even after the chilling encounter with Ted, Nelson fought to keep him alive. Her last visit to death row was on the night before the execution, 1/23/89. She brought Dr. Lewis with her and he admitted to them that he realized that something was wrong when he was in high school. His words are the best part of the book and much too brief. Nelson must use the words “filing cert” one hundred times. Ten years of appeals would have sufficed. Bundy spoke of his other self, the “entity” with predatory instincts. It was strongest during the FSU murders, when, in a frenzy, he bit one of the victims. Nelson was convinced that the man was truly insane. She points out that the state of Florida spent well over $5 million to carry out the execution. A sentence of life without parole would have cost $1 million. The unintended consequence was to create a legendary, almost mythical figure. Just Google “Ted Bundy” and check out the number of results. As of December 2017, it is 528,000.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the things I've read and watched on Bundy, I didn't expect this book to contain the most graphic description of any of his crimes that I've encountered. Fucking YIKES.

Most of the book was boring, but the parts that were interesting were extremely interesting! Worth the investment of time!

Seems like the most honest and unbiased account of and by Ted that I've come across yet. It was fascinating to hear him trying to describe his own inability to feel love and empathy.

[Elizabeth Brophy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating and incredibly difficult read; rarely have a read a book that made me feel revulsion, sadness, and joy. The pull between the people and the law is hypnotic. A must for true crime fans and students of law.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting, informative read. The author writes well; this book is well-organized and even well-copyedited. Nelson explains the legal issues involved quite well and even though the courtroom terminology got pretty dense at times, she never lost me. This is a very-little-known corner of the notorious Bundy story, and the author's approach to Bundy's case was really thought-provoking, with a potentially huge impact on other cases if other attorneys started using it. Ted was never going to be saved -- he was a victim of his own glamor, as the story makes clear. Ah, but was he a victim of multiple personality disorder? Manic depression? Garden-variety psychopathy? And should those conditions, if you have them, get you out of anything? You be the judge after you read this one.

[Megan Toomey McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an interesting book, and very informative. The first half moved a little slow, but it gets better later. I do think the author has a tendency to get a little too into the various legal intracacies, but she generally does a pretty good job explaining Florida law.

I have read plenty of other books on this subject, but I never actually realized before just how little evidence there was against Ted Bundy and how many corners it appears that Florida cut in their haste to execute him. While I do not share the author's belief that he didn't deserve death, I do think that cutting corners is a dangerous precedent to set.

I have only two complaints with the book, both seemingly minor. I feel the title is misleading. Ms. Nelson was Bundy's appellate lawyer; she did not actually defend him. (In my mind, the lawyers who defended him were the ones who represented him during his trials.) Ms. Nelson was not trying to get him acquitted so much as she was trying to find a legal error to prolong his life. My second issue is with the preface. In it, she mentions the different sections of the book and details what is covered in each. Except she's wrong. Like, she loses track of which case is which, and which death sentence Florida is trying to carry out. It seems like a minor detail, but for someone who spends 300 pages painting herself as having totally immersed herself in the cause-- eating, sleeping and breathing it-- it was offputting to me.

[Kyriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the final book about Bundy that I plan to read. And I think it was best that I read it last. Obviously, Polly Nelson didn't get involved in the case until the last three years of Bundy's life, so the focus of the story was the end of the story. Nelson really cared for Ted, not in the way that other women did; that came across very clearly in her story. She recognized that he was a messed up individual who had done horrific things, and she defended him anyway. All the while knowing how the story would end, and knowing that Bundy was guilty as all get-out, I still found myself hoping that he would finally get that stay of execution. And in that sense, I suppose that Nelson delivered the emotions she was feeling. She cared for Bundy, and she humanized him enough that I almost found myself caring for him too. In all honesty, I only wanted their court cases to turn out favorably so that Nelson's hard work wouldn't go to waste. She drew his life out an extra three years - I won't believe there is a better lawyer out there.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a lot of books about Ted Bundy and this book gave me some insight into information that I had not read before. I didn't realize how bad he sabotaged his case or just how "crazy" he really was. I had always thought that he "allowed" himself to get captured in Florida because it was so different from his MO. I considered that it was getting to be too overwhelming for him in his head and the truth might be very close to that. I still think he was a narcissistic psychopath and used manipulation to the ultimate. Reading Ann Rule's The Deliberate Stranger is what got me so interested in reading true crime and I have followed other books about Ted Bundy since. This book gets a little too much into the legal jargon and the author does have some pity trips which takes away from the story but if you can get through those, it will give you a new look to some things. And not necessarily in Ted's favor.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult book to rate given that it's someone's lived experience! But a fascinating read. You'd wonder how on Earth someone could ever bring themselves to try and save Bundy's life - especially a woman - but Polly has such a strong moral code and such bravery to do the right thing I couldn't help rooting for her (even if ultimately that shitbag deserved what he got).

I read this on a colleague's recommendation (as in they practically begged me to read it so they'd have someone to talk about it to) and I was pleasantly relieved to see it isn't focused on sensationalising the murders, or just on Bundy himself. The book goes into the legal intricacies of the US death penalty system and appeals process, as well as the usage of Bundy's trial as a political factor and the lives of the lawyers and legal professionals who are left trying to regulate a complicated and emotionally fraught environment.

Overall just a really powerful read.

[Kelly Boekhout · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was hard to decide how I felt about this book. It was very interesting in some aspects. First, it was a look at Ted Bundy in a way that didn't just describe him as an evil psychopath, but rather almost some kind of humanity in him. The book was rife with legal jargon that you can't understand and wasn't always explained. I think the author lost sight of the fact that lawyers would not be the only people reading this. I also found it disturbing how she would refer to him as "my Ted" and at one point admitted to seeing him as a helpless baby bird that she needed to protect, completely disregarding who the man was. I think she wanted her audience to feel a sense of empathy for a man who had none for anyone. It was an interesting take on a story about Ted Bundy

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I was a little put off by Polly Nelosn's desire to represent Ted because I felt like she really wasn't thinking about the victims. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm assuming when lawyers have to represent people who have been accused of henious crimes, they have to, in a way, cast that aspect off when representing their clients. As the book progressed, it gave so much horrible insight to how bad Ted Bundy was. It sent chills down my spine and I can't imagine being Polly and having to experience all that first hand.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this!! While it wasn't what I hoped I was pleasantly surprised! It tended to focus on the law side, and on Mrs. Nelson's life at the time (which I should've expected) and not much on the crimes. It's a good read if you're interested in law or in the processes of law with true crime! I also loved the pictures throughout, the thank-you cards, death warrant, and the pictures of crowds from his execution.

[Rebecca- bookworm from Birmingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight and first hand account into the Bundy saga,
Polly Nelsons insider statement of her time as one of Ted Bundys many lawyers is very absorbing. Whilst it does include what you might call legal jargon, it really is an honest and detailed experience well worth reading.

[Miriam Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Believe it or not, this book gave me a completely new perspective on this man.

[Chad Montabon]

It doesn't add much to the Bundy file, but there are some insights into the legal wranglings that went into his last hours.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written, detailed account of this brave young lawyer’s legal efforts to save Bundy’s life. A fascinating inside look at the murderer.

[Merel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but hard to read for all the legal proceeding descriptions, I get this is what a lawyer focusses on but it was hard to follow at times

[Suzan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my cup of tea. Interesting though but to much legalese for me.....lots on repeat.

[Whitney Milam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but not for anyone but true Bundyphiles.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of all the books I have read on Ted Bundy it is the only one that actually shows that yes He Did Kill All Those Women. Other books allude to it, even the ones by Michaud Ted just always uses the third person when discussing the crimes but this one actually shows that he acknowledged in First Person that he did this. It also discusses the amount of month the state of Florida spent in trying to get him executed abt 6 millions dollars, whereas it would have cost abt 1 million to keep him alive for life in prison. (According to the book) but if this figure is true that's an astronomical amt of money back in 1989 imagine how much we spend now.

[Lucian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to read this because of a single but powerful quote I'd seen somewhere. In a lapse of judgment I forgot lawyers don't necessarily make good writers, or at least in the sense I understand someone to write well, i.e., to captivate me sufficiently so that I won't fall asleep. Ted Bundy, notwithstanding his heinous deeds, is an interesting enough fella and the fact Polly failed to get me to care about a chief chapter of his trajectory is to me a monumental failure.

[Judy Tarver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Tells the last few years of his life and the legal struggles of trying to beat the death penalty. Good information that you won’t find in any other book about how the legal system works in death penalty cases and some personal information about his relationship with his wife and daughter. Well written and informative. Highly recommend.