Coverage of the execution of serial killer Ted Bundy in 1989

The state of Alabama is just hours away from the scheduled execution of Alan Miller. He was convicted of the murders of three colleagues in 1999. His scheduled execution is expected to be the second in the country for a death from nitrogen hypoxia. Alabama conducted the first one back in January. Kenneth Smith reportedly thrashed on a stretcher in Alabama in January. Miller's scheduled execution is one of five scheduled for the U.S. this week. And this isn't the only high-profile execution in the US. In 1989, I was assigned to cover the electrocution of serial killer Ted Bundy. Here is a review of this story.

“Even though it's kind of the eve of the Superbowl, people are just excited for it to happen there,” said Mayor Gerald Witt of Lake City, Florida. “It says it hasn’t happened that often. Everyone can’t believe this is going to happen.”

It's January 1989. I'm 28 years old and working for the NPR station in Orlando. I was sent to cover the execution of serial killer Theodore Bundy. He was just hours away from dying in the electric chair in Florida for the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. She was abducted outside Lake City Junior High in 1978. Bundy is said to have confessed to killing thirty women. But Leach's murder landed him in the Florida State Prison in the town of Starke.

“They want to give the impression that they have been electrocuted,” said Mayor Witt. “The whole city is eagerly awaiting the event.”

My job was to collect interviews in Lake City and then drive to Starke, where the execution was scheduled to take place just before dawn on January 24th.

“I didn’t run alone for a long time,” said Kathy Harrell of Lake City. “It could have been my sister. My sister went to this school with her.”

Like many of the people I spoke to in 1989, she didn't know Kimberly Leach, but she knew someone who knew her.

“My grandmother was friends with her mother, but I didn't know her because I was much younger than her,” Kathy Harrell added.

After Lake City, my next destination was the crowd in front of the Florida State Prison. Some wore T-shirts with slogans like “Burn Bundy Burn” or signs that read “It's Friday ted.”

“Okay for the people on the radio. What are your son’s withdrawal symptoms like here?” I asked a viewer.

“It's a burning grill sign…a little gift from FPL to Ted,” he replied. “And I think it just expresses how we feel about Ted and all the obviously heinous crimes he committed against so many families across the United States. It's just unbelievable that one person can kill so many people, and if they don't, then they will.” “Don't kill him here today or they'll kill him somewhere else because he admitted to so many crimes.”

As the crowd began to disperse, a spectator comes to mind. He only wanted to be identified as Ricky.

“Sales are going really well. It seems like there are a lot of people here who support the death penalty in the Florida justice system,” he said.

Ricky sold Florida State Prison electric chair pins known as Old Sparky. He said the proceeds will benefit his motorcycle club.

“The pins are beside the point of why I’m up here. “I’m here to support the criminal justice system and the death of this Bundy guy, and I’m glad this is being enforced,” he said.

The state of Alabama is once again preparing to execute Alan Miller with nitrogen gas for the 1999 murders of three co-workers.