Over forty five years ago, on January 15th, 1978 two sorority sisters were murdered in their home while they were asleep. Their names were Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman.
These two sorority sisters attended Florida State University in 1978 and they were both members and living in the Chi Omega sorority house at the time.
In 1978 there was a rampant serial killer tormenting the states of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, and Florida. Unknowingly at the time, these two girls became this psychopath’s next tragic victims. Exactly one month after their heinous murders, he would be caught for good and go down in history as one of America’s worst and most well-known serial killers, Ted Bundy.
Lisa Levy was just 20 years old at the time of her death in 1978. She was originally from St. Petersburg, Florida.
Lisa grew up in St. Petersburg and attended Dixie Hollins High School. During her high school years, she played the flute in the school band, was apart of the majorettes, was a member of the Civinettes service club, and she was also a staffer for the school yearbook.
After high school, Lisa decided to attend college at Florida State University which wasn’t too far from her hometown. She began attending the college in the Fall of 1976.
At Florida State University, better known as “FSU”, Lisa studied fashion merchandising and even decided to join the Chi Omega sorority on campus.
On top of being a full time student and now in a sorority, Lisa also worked part time at the Colony Shop in Tallahassee, Florida.
There isn’t much more information available to the public about Lisa’s early years, but we do know that her mother, Henny, has described Lisa as being an incredibly dedicated and bright young girl. Henny has said that Lisa was always willing to help others and she knows that if her life wasn’t tragically taken from her, she would’ve went on to live an extremely successful and happy life one day.
Margaret Bowman was only 21 years old at the time of her death. She was also from St. Petersburg, Florida just like Lisa. However, Margaret actually grew up for most of her life in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Margaret’s father was in the United States Air Force so they lived on a base in Honolulu for the majority of her childhood. However, when she was a teenager in 1973 her father decided to retire and that’s when they decided to make the move to Florida.
Margaret began attending St. Petersburg High School and she seemed to really enjoy her new life in Florida. During high school she was the president of the French National Honor society. She was also a member of various clubs including tennis, scuba, drama, and the Civinettes service club.
After she graduated from high school, she also decided to attend Florida State University to further her education. She was studying art history and classical civilizations.
Just one weekend before her tragic murder, Margaret traveled home to St. Petersburg to celebrate her 21st birthday with her family. Her father recalls the last time he ever spoke to his daughter being when she returned back to school after visiting because he wanted to make sure she made it back safely.
Margarets family and friends have described her as being extremely kind and genuine. She was a religious woman, who loved reading and just enjoyed life as much as she possibly could. Margaret’s sudden death really took a toll on her family, especially her younger brother Jackson who was still in high school at the time.
Her family was pretty outspoken following the tragedy. Their goal was to ensure that their daughter’s name was never forgotten and they wanted to share what a wonderful person she was with the world.
In the early hours of the morning on January 15th, 1978 the Chi Omega sorority house located at 661 W. Jefferson St. at Florida State University was quiet as normal. It was around 3 a.m., and all of the sorority girls living in the house at the time were fast asleep at this point, but little did they know all of their lives were about to change forever.
Unknowingly to the girls asleep inside of the house, a masked intruder had entered through their broken back door carrying a piece of firewood as a weapon. This intruder snuck upstairs and entered the first bedroom he saw and found Margaret Bowman laying asleep in her bed.
Without even a second though, this intruder began beating Margaret to death with that piece of firewood, and when she was finally unconscious he proceeded to strangle her to death with a pair of nylon stockings.
The intruder then quickly made his way to the bedroom across the hall where he found Lisa Levy asleep in her bed as well. He proceeded to do the same to Lisa that he had just done to Margaret, but in this case she was also sexually assaulted after she was killed. This intruder also left a deep bite mark behind on Lisa’s body which ended up being his biggest mistake later on.
The intruder then proceeded on to another bedroom across the hall which was room number eight. This room had two roommates sleeping inside, Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler. Both girls were awoken when the intruder entered their bedroom and accidentally tripped over a trunk that sat in between their twin beds.
He began beating both girls with the same piece of firewood he used in the first two murders. However, before he could finish what he had started, light from headlights in the parking lot outside shined into the girls bedroom and he got scared so he decided to quickly flee because he didn’t want to be caught.
These headlights saved Kathy Keliner and Karen Chandler that night. Despite sustaining serious injuries to their skulls and jaws, both girls survived. They were able to live on and tell the tragic story of what happened in the Chi Omega house that night. They even were able to later help police put the person responsible for this in prison.
At the time, the police weren’t sure if the Chi Omega murders were just random, or connected to the string of murders that had been happening in recent years. However, 30 days later on February 15th, 1978 when the serial killer tormenting the country for years was finally caught, the police became certain that the Chi Omega murders and attempted murders could be connected back to him.
This serial killer finally caught and arrested after all of these years was Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy is considered to be one of the worst serial killers the United States has ever had. After being arrested and interrogated, Bundy confessed to murdering over 30 women in seven different states over a four year period.
The police were eventually able to connect Ted Bundy with the Chi Omega murders and attacks because of the bite mark that he left behind on Lisa Levy’s body that night. This bite mark when later tested against Bundy’s teeth was an exact dental match so there was no way he could deny being the intruder that night.
When it finally came time for Bundy’s trial, he was being tried for many murders. However, in the case of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler both were able to testify against him at trial and help to get the justice that not only they deserved, but also that their sorority sisters deserved.
Ted Bundy has become a household name at this point, but of course for horrifying reasons. It would take way too much time to go into all of his murders and life leading up to them in depth, but there is a lot of information about them online if you ever feel up to doing your own research on the topic.
Despite the fame that Ted Bundy got as being the worst ever serial killer, a lot of times when talking about his crimes the victims tend to get lost. Almost anything you can find online about Ted Bundy focuses a lot on him and how twisted of an individual he was, however; I think it’s really important to talk about the victims just as much.
These two women lost their lives that day, and for seemingly no reason other than someone being just pure evil. It’s important to remember the names of victims, even if their killer tends to outshadow them in the media.
Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman weren’t just two more of Ted Bundy’s victims. They were young women with their entire lives ahead of them. They were loved and cherished, and they were taken far too soon.
It’s always positive to see killers being brought to justice and cases finally being closed, but that doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t recognize the victims and remember them for who they were at every chance we get.
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