Ted Bundy: How KIRO 7 archive helped Netflix's 'Conversation With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes'

Nexflix debuted a new multi-part documentary Thursday called “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes."

Bundy, who grew up in Western Washington and attended school in Seattle and Tacoma, was a rapist and serial killer who confessed to 30 murders, though investigators believe the number he killed is higher.

Bundy killed multiple women in Washington State, but was never convicted here before his death in a Florida electric chair on Jan. 24, 1989.

If you watch “Conversations with a Killer," you notice footage is pulled from the KIRO 7 archives – including the first part of the series preview.

KIRO 7 archive footage of Bundy also is used in a CNN documentary expected later this year.

In the 1970s, KIRO 7’s Bundy footage was recorded on film and videocassettes. Those films include a conversation with Bundy behind bars, live reports from Florida where KIRO 7 sent a reporter, and details of his arrests and escapes.

In 2018, KIRO 7 finalized a partnership with the University of Washington Special Collections to preserve and digitize archive – and those recordings can be used for educational purposes and viewed at the UW by researchers.

Producers creating the documentaries for Netflix and CNN contacted the UW, where researcher Hannah Palin spent hours finding KIRO 7 footage that you’ll now see in both.

“The KIRO archive has been an enormous asset to tell an in-depth story, as have other holdings in the University collections,” Lizzy McGlynn, an archival producer for the Netflix documentary wrote to Palin. “You have been exceptionally helpful and offered me some fantastic material that will be vital to our story.”

You can see some of KIRO 7's bundy coverage from the 1970 -- and many other stories from our archive -- in the Throwback section of the KIRO 7 Smart TV apps, including Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Apple TV.

You also can watch coverage below, including his 1978 arrest in Florida, Bundy's execution in 1989, and KIRO 7 conversations with Ann Rule, a renowned crime writer who worked with Bundy in the 1970s.

The initial story below, with reporter Dave Wagner, was the first to share a local woman's story about her frightening ride with Bundy in 1972 -- and what she believes kept him from killing her.