Latest / Luke's English Podcast / An evening with Mike Helms and his first-hand experience protecting Ted Bundy

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An evening with Mike Helms and his first-hand experience protecting Ted Bundy · Luke's English Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In Tragedy a true crime podcast, we discuss crimes that
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: may be violent in nature. At times, we may cover homicides,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: missing people, and other topics that may be unsettling. Listener
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  Speaker 1: discretion is advised. In January nineteen seventy eight, Ted Bundy
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  Speaker 1: made his way to Tallahassee, Florida, after escaping custody for
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  Speaker 1: the second time. His charm and deception hid the danger
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  Speaker 1: he posed until the night of the Cayomega Sorority House attack.
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  Speaker 1: But Bundy's run didn't end there. Weeks later, in Pensacola,
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  Speaker 1: a routine traffic stop by police finally brought him down.
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  Speaker 1: In this episode, we'll hear a unique and first hand
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  Speaker 1: account of the time, beginning with Bundy's assault at the
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  Speaker 1: Cayomega House and ending with his transfer to death row
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  Speaker 1: from someone who is intimate familiar with Bundy. Welcome to Tragedy,
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  Speaker 1: a true crime Podcast. I'm Alisa and I'm Michael, and
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  Speaker 1: today we're joined by Mike Helms. Mike was a deputy
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  Speaker 1: with the Leon County Sheriff's Office in Florida during one
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  Speaker 1: of the most infamous trials in American history. He was
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  Speaker 1: part of the teen tasked with guarding Ted Bundy while
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  Speaker 1: he was in custody awaiting trial, and thank you for
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  Speaker 1: being with us tonight.
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  Speaker 2: Mike.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, you're so very welcome. All right.
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  Speaker 2: So, Mike, you know, we've talked to a couple of
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  Speaker 2: people about kind of what your you know, what your
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  Speaker 2: role was during the cud Bundy trial, and I just
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  Speaker 2: kind of wanted to start but maybe hearing a summer
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  Speaker 2: of your story.
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  Speaker 3: Will It's on that given night, so short of the
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  Speaker 3: very beginning, I was working three to eleven shift. I
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: was on my way home when the call went out
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  Speaker 3: that they had been a tragic beating at Florida sac
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  Speaker 3: University at the Kyle Mega House, and the dispatcher requested
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  Speaker 3: all units to proceed to that area and hopefully more
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  Speaker 3: information would follow. We'd have some kind of idea who
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  Speaker 3: we were looking for, but at the time driving to
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  Speaker 3: the scene, I had no idea who I was even
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  Speaker 3: looking for. A little bit later in the morning, we
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  Speaker 3: had a young lady call and she lived on Dunwoody Street.
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  Speaker 3: Dunwoodie was going to say, on the south west side
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  Speaker 3: of the campus and not too far from Mega. So
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  Speaker 3: the lady that lived on dunwood called and said someone
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  Speaker 3: had tried to break into her house, and I wanted
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  Speaker 3: to say that she'd called, but I'm not sure whether
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  Speaker 3: he actually got into her residence or not. So we
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  Speaker 3: then had a description. We were looking for a white male,
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  Speaker 3: right and hopefully he'd be running give us some kind
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  Speaker 3: of clue, and we started just simply patrolling. Now, in
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  Speaker 3: thirty eight years of law enforcement, never heard a call
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  Speaker 3: that the sergeant put out over the radio. And the
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  Speaker 3: call was pretty simple, but like I said, I've never
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  Speaker 3: heard it before or after. And it said stop every
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  Speaker 3: car that is moving a while, and yes, every car
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  Speaker 3: that is moving. Forget about probable calls to stop a vehicle.
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  Speaker 3: If you see a vehicle moving, stop it identify the
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  Speaker 3: drivers or passengers in the vehicle. So that's what we did.
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  Speaker 2: As you can tell already, we're kind of in a
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  Speaker 2: situation where there's an all hands on deck right now
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  Speaker 2: going on the Sheriff's office. It sounds to me, according
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  Speaker 2: to what Mike's saying, he doesn't really have a good
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  Speaker 2: understanding of what they're looking for yet, other than we're
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  Speaker 2: looking for anything suspicious.
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  Speaker 1: And I would imagine that this would be fairly chaotic, right.
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  Speaker 1: We have FSU has its own police department, which we
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  Speaker 1: have the Sheriff's department. I would assume Tallahassee has a
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  Speaker 1: city police department, and so I would imagine it was
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  Speaker 1: pretty chaotic with who was taking the lead and their steps,
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  Speaker 1: next steps moving forward.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, Mike kind of starts going town. I
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  Speaker 2: know that's where we're at. We're at the traffic stops,
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  Speaker 2: and then he's going to get in here to talk
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  Speaker 2: about a little bit about a weapon search. Let's find
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  Speaker 2: out more about that.
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  Speaker 3: As time went on that morning, and I will say
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  Speaker 3: it was a very very cold morning in Tallahassee, we
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  Speaker 3: fended or fanned out, I should say, and started looking
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  Speaker 3: for a weapon. The best they could come up with
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  Speaker 3: was some type of wooden object, like a tree, limb,
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  Speaker 3: tree branch. I've heard people say a log. So that's
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  Speaker 3: what we started looking for. And we were we spread
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  Speaker 3: out in a single file and walked what seems to
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  Speaker 3: be miles looking for the murdered weapon. We went into
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  Speaker 3: garbage cans, any place that you may throw or maybe
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  Speaker 3: try to conceal or hide a weapon. But we did
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  Speaker 3: not ever find that weapon, and to my knowledge, it
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  Speaker 3: was never found. The sun Rose and we are still looking.
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  Speaker 3: And it was only then that we were learning the
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  Speaker 3: tragedy that had happened only hours earlier.
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  Speaker 1: And what did you hear?
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  Speaker 2: What was being told at that point that.
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  Speaker 3: There was an attack that transpired at Kyle Mega, and
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  Speaker 3: that the perpetrator had obviously left the scene and they
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  Speaker 3: were pretty dead. A gentleman by the name of Jack Pottinger.
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  Speaker 3: He was a captain with the Leon County Sheriff's Office,
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  Speaker 3: and he was in charge of the Criminal Investigative Bureau,
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  Speaker 3: and he was the lead investigator for the Sheriff's office.
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  Speaker 3: He was the one that was actually in charge right.
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  Speaker 3: FSU police department was not equipped to handle that type
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  Speaker 3: of situation that occurred on the campus, so the investigation
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  Speaker 3: was turned over to the Sheriff's office and then the
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  Speaker 3: hunt for Bundy, deal unknown began.
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  Speaker 1: It was later discovered in the quiet of the night
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  Speaker 1: that Ted and Bundy had slipped into the cay Omega
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  Speaker 1: sorority house and killed twenty one year old Margaret Bowman
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  Speaker 1: and twenty year old Lisa Levy. Two more women, Karen
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  Speaker 1: Chandler twenty one and Kathy Kleiner, twenty were beaten and
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  Speaker 1: left clinging to life. Bundy vanished into the darkness, but
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  Speaker 1: not before striking again nearby, leaving another woman, Cheryl Thomas,
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  Speaker 1: permanently disabled at only twenty one years of age.
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  Speaker 3: We foilnd Bundy. We being actually the Pensacola Police Department
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  Speaker 3: film Bundy and after a brief footchase, was able to
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  Speaker 3: apprehend him. I'm not sure how they were able to
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  Speaker 3: tie Bundy to Commega, but they charged Bundy and was
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  Speaker 3: able to put him in custody until we could get
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  Speaker 3: to him.
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  Speaker 2: So you went to Pensacola to basically picked him up.
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  Speaker 2: After Pensacola Police Department picked him.
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  Speaker 3: Up, that's right, okay, And they took him into custody,
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  Speaker 3: and we were able to tie Bundy to Commega. And
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  Speaker 3: how we've done that, I have no idea. Only a
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  Speaker 3: few privileged people knew that. All right.
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  Speaker 2: At this point, Florida has to be thinking about the
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  Speaker 2: two escapes now that we have Bundy in custody.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, that's right. He escaped for the first time in
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  Speaker 1: June of nineteen seventy seven. He jumped from a second
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  Speaker 1: floor window in a courthouse in Aspen, Colorado, and he
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  Speaker 1: was able to evade being recaptured for six days, and
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  Speaker 1: then several months later, while he was locked inside of
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  Speaker 1: a jail Englnwood Springs, he lost a bunch of weight
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  Speaker 1: and he was able to escape again near the very
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  Speaker 1: end of December, and it wasn't until he was apprehended
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  Speaker 1: in Florida that he was caught again.
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  Speaker 3: In the early days, Bundy was allowed to go outside
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  Speaker 3: on the second floor and it was completely encircled by
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  Speaker 3: bob wire in a kind of a holding pin was
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  Speaker 3: a deputy with a shotgun, and on the ground was
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  Speaker 3: a canine officer, and they were in place the whole
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  Speaker 3: time Bundy was outside exercising it run around the cubicle
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  Speaker 3: of fence wire and walk around and really truly just
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  Speaker 3: get some sunlight. His sail there at the jail was
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  Speaker 3: on the second floor, and I was told that he
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  Speaker 3: knew how many footsteps it was from his sale to
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  Speaker 3: the elevator. Interesting, if guests, very interesting because he had
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  Speaker 3: escaped custody so many times before, he was never allowed
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  Speaker 3: outside of his jail cell without guards around him.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was my understanding. I mean, obviously, at this
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  Speaker 2: point in Bundy's history, he had escaped from Colorado twice,
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  Speaker 2: and so when Florida apprehended him. Everything I've read, there
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  Speaker 2: was like absolutely zero intention of allowing that to happen
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  Speaker 2: a third time.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely during the time that he was at the Leon
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  Speaker 3: County jail, a special brace that went over his left
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  Speaker 3: leg and it was padlocked closed onto his leg where
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  Speaker 3: he could not run. So even if he were able
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  Speaker 3: to get away from the guards, it still couldn't go
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  Speaker 3: nowhere because it couldn't run.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is the thing that kind of famous
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  Speaker 2: became known as the Bundy Brace because it was correct
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  Speaker 2: developed specifically for Ted Bundy.
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  Speaker 3: That is correct, it was built by the Sheriff's office
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  Speaker 3: for Ted Bundy.
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  Speaker 1: Now, before we go any further, we do want to
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  Speaker 1: let everyone know that we're about to get into some
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  Speaker 1: sensitive topics, so please be mindful of who is around
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  Speaker 1: you as you continue to listen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike's going to go into some of the things
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  Speaker 2: that were found when it comes to the evidence that
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  Speaker 2: was being discovered with the Ted Bundy case. And it's
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  Speaker 2: very clear based on the picture that he paints how
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  Speaker 2: much of a monster he was.
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  Speaker 3: Sheriff King Cassarras came to the jail and Bundy met
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  Speaker 3: him on the first floor and their Bundy was red
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  Speaker 3: an arrest warrant for the killings of the two are
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  Speaker 3: chriction three Colemega Sorority girls. I was told about the
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  Speaker 3: bike marks and where they actually removed and placed it
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  Speaker 3: on a board to show his teeth impressions to the jury.
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  Speaker 3: And this was something that forensic scientists testified to that
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  Speaker 3: they were indeed Ted Bundy's teeth prints. Other ted bits
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  Speaker 3: of information that I received. Ted Bundy drove an old
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  Speaker 3: model Volkswagon Beetle and in that vehicle he had removed
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  Speaker 3: the right passenger's front seat. The reason he did that
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  Speaker 3: was that's where he would tie up to the floor.
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  Speaker 3: His victims. Now, when asked about the quote victims, he
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  Speaker 3: would not refer to them as victims. Rather he would
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  Speaker 3: refer to them as cargo, not victims.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll recall that the attacks and the assaults happened
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  Speaker 1: in Tallahassee. Bundy got out of Tallahassee and he was
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  Speaker 1: apprehended in Pensacola on February fifteenth of nineteen seventy eight.
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  Speaker 1: And this happened because a patrol officer noticed a suspicious
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  Speaker 1: vehicle driving erratically and he ran the plate and the
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  Speaker 1: car had been stolen. Now, a brief scuffle ensued, Bundy ran,
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  Speaker 1: the officer was able to catch up with him, and
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  Speaker 1: it was there that he was apprehended, and so he
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  Speaker 1: needed to go back to Pensacola to face these charges.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. One of the things that I learned during this
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  Speaker 2: conversation with Mike that I didn't know at the time
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  Speaker 2: was everyone was confused by these lesser charges. And you
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  Speaker 2: know what Mike explained to us is they hadn't really
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  Speaker 2: met or hadn't really been faced with anything quite like
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  Speaker 2: Ted Bundy, and so they wanted to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: if their case in Tallahassee was having any problems, that
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  Speaker 2: there'll be no way that Ted Bundy could walk Regardless.
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  Speaker 3: He was able to stay at the Leon County Jail
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  Speaker 3: until which time he was to go to Pensacola to
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  Speaker 3: stand trial on some lesser charges. And a lot of
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  Speaker 3: people said, well, we have him on murder charges here
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  Speaker 3: in Legon Counting, why would you take him back to
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  Speaker 3: Pensacola to stand trial on lesser charges? And I was
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  Speaker 3: told that if for some reason something happened in Tallahassee
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  Speaker 3: and the charges were not made or found innocent or
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: whatever the case, may be they still wanted the ability
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  Speaker 3: to arrest him for the Pensacola fleeing in tempting to
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  Speaker 3: elude or other charges, maybe battery on an Loo law
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: enforcement officer, I'm not real sure, but they were nothing
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  Speaker 3: like the seriousness of what had occurred in Tallahasseck. So
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  Speaker 3: that was the reason Buddy went to Pensacola. I was
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  Speaker 3: one of I think five or six officers that went
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: to Pensacola. We went in a caravan to Pensacola, and
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  Speaker 3: he was immediately placed in the jail there in Pensacola,
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  Speaker 3: and a guard was stationed outside of his jail cell
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  Speaker 3: the entire time that he was in the actual jail.
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  Speaker 1: I think we can all agree that we know a
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  Speaker 1: lot about If you watch a documentary or anything like that,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: they talk about how he was charming and he was
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: intelligent and he was likable. But on the flip side,
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  Speaker 1: you know, he was manipulative and narcissistic and sadistic, and
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: he used his charisma to lure women, and he was
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: real smart. He used his intelligence to escape the law,
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  Speaker 1: and you know that he was able to leave this
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: trail of devastation across the country. But we were really
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: interested in finding out what was Ted Bundy like after
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: he was caught for the last time.
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  Speaker 3: Quiet man had very little to say at all, if
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: he spoke at all, but it was something to me
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  Speaker 3: about his physical facial expression. It was like looking into
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  Speaker 3: a empty weil and the lights wereroam, but nobody was home.
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  Speaker 3: And that was my take on him.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty, Mike was part of the team that
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: transported Bundy to Lake City to face charges for the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: abduction and murder of twelve year old Kimberly Leach. This
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: assault and murder on this child happened in between the
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: time of the assault at the Kyomega house and when
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Bundy was picked up in Pensacola.
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  Speaker 2: What I found really compelling about Mike's story here is
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  Speaker 2: we've all heard about how diabolical Ted Bundy was and
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: how he seemed like he was ten foot tall and bulletproof.
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  Speaker 2: This is the first time I've really heard someone talk
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  Speaker 2: about a weakness or even that he feared for his life.
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  Speaker 2: So it was really interesting to see Mike show us
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: what that looked like.
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  Speaker 3: And we took Bundy in caravan once again to Pennsylco
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: to Lake City, Florida. As we pulled in there in
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: front of the courthouse, I looked around and you could
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: see people on top of the rooftops trying to catch
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: a glimpse of Bundy. And once out of the patrol car,
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  Speaker 3: if I took a step, Bundy bumped into me because he,
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: in my mind, was feared to death that one of
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: those people on that rooftop was going to take a
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: shot at him. I felt so comfortable that Bundy would
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: not try to escape because the people of Lake City
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: would have killed him before he could have got ten
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: foot away from us. It was not an angry mob,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: but it was people that wanted to make sure that
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: he went in that courthouse and did the trial which
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: he was found guilty of. And he exited that courthouse
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: and went back to Tallassee, Florida. To my knowledge, that
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: was the last time that I saw him. Now he
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: went on to trial with TOYM. Megakillings in Miami, Florida.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: A change of venue put the trial because of publicity,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: I'm sure in Miami, and he was convicted and sentenced
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: to die for the killings of not only Kimberly Leech,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: but also of the Commega ladies, it is hard to
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: believe that such a horrendous act would have occurred in Tallahassee.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: But the amount of manpower time that was used was
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: astronomical because every resource that we had was put on
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: that case. They invoked a rule that if we during
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: this time, if we went on a dispatched call, we
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: would write a report on it. Now understand that a
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: lot of police reports are written every day, but not
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: a lot of them are written on a barking dog,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: someone jaywalking or whatever. The most minute possibility was every
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: call view went on without without call was a report written.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: So thank goodness, after Bundy was apprehended, that ended that practice.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: But I just wanted to let your viewers know how
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: serious this situation was, not only for the families of
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: the slain people, but also the citizens of Tallahassee, the
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: police department, the Sheriff's office, the highway patrol, all law
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: enforcement agencies. How tragic it was. And people that used
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: to laugh and joke and cut up, they didn't do
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: it anymore. Every day I saw them and they had
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: a serious look on their face during this time. So
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: there was, like I said, at a trial held he
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: was convicted, he was sentenced to die. He was sentenced
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: to Rayford Correctional Institution in Rayford, Florida, which is where
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Florida's Death Row sits. And there was a bunch of
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: law enforcement officers there the night that they actually excuted him,
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: and they said, and it was at the same given time,
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: believe it or not, that the seat belt laws were
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: coming into effect where you could actually get a ticket
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: for not where a seat belt, but that was the
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: beginning part of it. And they were saying, I will
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: not buffle up until Bundy does. That was a given phrase.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: And there was quite a few officers at Rayford Prison
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: the night that he was executed.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: When I'm listening to all this and I think about
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: the Lake City portion of your story, did you ever
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: fear for your own life while guarding Ted Bundy? Were
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: you afraid that you would be kind of got caught
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: in the crosshairs of an attack.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: No, not really, And I just my concentration was on
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: Bundy and to make sure that I knew where he
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: was every second that he was with us. My full
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: attention was on him and not my own safety. I
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: would hope that they were a good shot.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Admitted to killing more than thirty women, but he wouldn't
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: give a final number. He toyed with investigators, hinting at
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: more victims scattered across the country, women whose names and
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: stories may never be known. But the truth died with
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Bundy in the electric chair, and to this day we're
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: left wondering just how many lives he really took.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: During an interview, they asked Bundy said, mister Bundy, if
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: I was to say that you had killed, would it
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: be a double digit number?
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: No?
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: A single digit number? And Bundy said no, okay, mister Bundy,
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: would you say it was a double digit number. It
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: paused for a moment and said no. So to the
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: investigators that were listening to this, he was telling them
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: that he had killed over one hundred people. Now was
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: that true? No one will ever know. There's so many
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: missing females that could have car off his path and
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: just simply disappeared. We'll never know. But according to Bundy,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: he had killed more than a hundred.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: As Elsa and I wrapped up this interview with Mike,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: we couldn't help but start to wonder how this impacted
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: him and how he felt. And it was really interesting
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: hearing the words that he shared.
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: I just really want to thank you so much for
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: sharing this story and the perspective that you've given it
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: just gives us a rare glimpse into like, not the mythical.
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: Media figure you know, ooh serial killer kind of phenomenon
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: that's out there, but you really spoke about him like
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: as just an inmate.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: Well, I spoke of him as what I've seen firsthand
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: and some some of the things that I was privileged
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: to know. So it you know, it's just a sad
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: who is the winner? No one? No one wins, the
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: girls at Coy Mega, Kimberly Leech, even Ted Bundy. Uh,
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: no one won in this tragic, tragic story. These types
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: of stories are supposed to occur somewhere other than the
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Great State of Florida, and sometimes they don't.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: As we close, Bundy's story leaves us with a stark
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: reminder of how fragile safety can be and how important
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: it is to remember the lives behind the headlines. If
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: you found this episode meaningful, don't forget to like and
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: subscribe to Tragedy It's True Crime Podcasts so you never
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: miss a story. Share it with friends who follow to crime,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and help us keep these important conversations alive until next time.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening.