There are couples who kill together, and make their crimes two times as bad. Today’s couple were active for 10 weeks in 1980, they have six victims and have been dubbed the Sunset Strip Killers. Today we discuss Doug Clark and Carol Bundy.
Doug was born in 1948, he is currently 73 years old, and resides on Death Row in San Quentin State Prison. During his youth his family moved often, his father was in the US Navy and moved frequently for his position. Eventually he would graduate and join the US Air Force and was stationed in both Colorado and Ohio. After leaving the Air Force, Doug settled in California, and in 1980 he met Carol Bundy. After moving in together, Doug and Carol realized they shared a dark fantasy.
Carol Bundy was born in 1942, and her life was much different than Doug’s. Carol’s parents were both abusive alcoholics. After her mother died, her father sexually abused her. When her father remarried, Carol was put into foster homes; at the age of 17, she married a 56 year old man. In 1980, Carol had two young sons, and had just left her third abusive husband. She was having an affair with Jack Murray, who was a part time country singer. It was at one of the bars that he was performing in that Carol met Doug. After he moved into her apartment, they realized they shared a dark fantasy.
The first dark fantasy that Doug and Carol had was having threesomes with prostitutes that he would bring back to the apartment.
After this Doug took an interest in an 11 year old neighbor girl. Carol helped convince the girl into posing for pornographic photos.
Doug’s fantasies progressed from pedophilia to talking about killing a woman during sex and feeling her vaginal contractions during the death spasms. In June of 1980, Doug came home and told Carol about two teens who he had murdered after picking them up. He said he had them perform fellatio on him and then he shot them both in the head. Afterwards Doug said he raped their bodies before dumping their bodies off the Ventura Freeway. Their names were Gina Marano and Cynthia Chandler.
Less than 2 weeks later Doug killed two more women working as prostitutes. As with the first victims, they were lured into the car, shot, and dumped. But this time, he removed one of their heads. Doug came home with the head and stored it in the refrigerator. Carol when seeing the head, put makeup on it and Doug used it again for necrophilia. Two days later they dumped the head in the alleyway. Their names were Karen Jones and Exxie Wilson.
Three days later, a victim was found. Her name was Marnette Comer, and she is believed to have been Doug’s first victim as she was killed approximately three weeks earlier.
Carol continued to watch Jack Murray and would often share drinks with him after his performance. She let it be known as to what Doug and she had been up to, and Jack stated he might tell the police.
To prevent Jack from talking, in August 1980, Carol lured him into his van after a show for sex. Once they were in the van, Carol shot and decapitated Jack. She had left plenty of clues behind including shell casings.
Two days later, Carol confessed to co-workers that she had killed Jack. The co-workers called the police and she gave a full confession to the crimes that she and Doug had participated in.
Doug and Carol were arrested and the murder weapons were found at Doug’s work. Carol was charged with two murders. Doug was charged with six murders. During his trial, Doug acted as his own attorney and attempted to blame Carol for everything.
Doug was convicted and sentenced to death.
Carol made a plea deal and was sentenced to fifty-two years to life. She died in prison from heart failure on December 9, 2003. She was 61.
And that is the end of the story….Or is it?
There has been doubt about Doug’s involvement in the crimes. It is stated that Doug had provided alibis for five of the victims, and that the judge didn’t accept physical evidence that would have exonerated Doug in Exxie Wilson’s murder. Due to a total lack of evidence, Carol’s testimony formed the entire basis of Doug’s conviction. And her confession was very inconsistent.
Make good choices and stay safe my friends
Amateur Connoisseur 