" For the first 23 years of his life, Ted believed that his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his sister. He was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946 to 22- year-old Eleanor Louise Cowell (Bell 2). Throughout his entire life, Ted never knew his real father, Lloyd Marshall. The confusion that Ted lived his life through came into play shortly after his birth. He and his mother moved back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to live with her parents. Soon enough, Ted began referring to his grandparents as mother and father, not knowing the truth. His mother allowed this because it aided her in escaping " any harsh criticism and prejudice for being an unwed mother," (Bell 2). Not knowing otherwise, Ted only knew and thought of Eleanor as his big sister, not his mother like she truly was. Ted did not get too much time to settle in his new surroundings in Philadelphia. He was just four years of age when he and his birth mother moved again. This time, the move was across the country, to Tacoma, Washington. Ted was severely distraught by leaving his beloved grandfather, who he thought was his father. This "was a traumatic experience, from which Ted never quite recovered," (Sears 2). Again they moved in with relatives, except this time they changed their names. "Ted became Theodore Robert Nelson and his mother Eleanor became Louise Cowell," (Bell 2). It was here, in Washington, where Eleanor would wed again. She married a man " by the name of Johnnie Culpepper Bundy, whose last name Ted would assume for the rest of his life, a name that would later become synonymous with murder," (Bell 2). Ted never really liked the idea of being a Bundy, " he thought of himself as more of a Cowell- (Bell 2). Ted attributed not feeling socially adept to what he referred to as, " the 'lack of IQ' of the entire Bundy clan," (Sears 3). He grew up as a very shy child. During gym classes in junior high, " he insisted on showering in privacy," (Sears 2).