The lovers who became known as the Sunset Strip Killers were both regulars in the seedy Los Angeles bar scene of the early 1980s. It was in these dive bars that Doug Clark gave him himself the nickname “the king of the one night stand.” Clark was an aimless drifter who worked menial jobs around southern California before he decided to dedicate his life to something he felt he could excel at: murder.
Doug Clark met his accomplice, Carol Bundy (no relation to Ted), at a bar they both frequented called Little Nashville in late 1979. Bundy also harbored a dark secret: She had the same dark, violent sexual impulses as Doug Clark. The two soon moved in together – and embarked on a murder rampage that shocked Los Angeles.
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After the two started living together, Clark began to bring prostitutes home for group sex. All too soon, however, Clark grew unsatisfied, and he began to tell Bundy how what he really wanted was to murder a woman during sex. Clark’s talk soon turned into action. In June 1980, he brought home two young runaways, 15-year-old Gina Narano and 16-year-old Cynthia Chandler. Clark engaged in sexual relations with the two young women before he shot and killed them. Once they were dead, he raped their corpses. Clark then dumped Narano and Chandler’s bodies on the side of the freeway, where they were discovered the following day.
Three days after Narano and Chandler were killed, the body of another young runaway female was found dead in the San Fernando Valley. The police estimated she had been dead for three weeks, which likely made her Clark’s first murder victim. Less than two weeks later, Clark murdered two more women, shooting them in the head and dumping their bodies. This time, Clark took a twisted trophy: He decapitated one of the women and brought her head home to store in his freezer. Bundy put makeup on the severed head, and Clark used it to perform oral sex on himself before the head was put into a cardboard box and dumped in an alley.
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The murders began to haunt Carol Bundy, and she decided to confide in a friend. Bundy met with an ex-boyfriend, Jack Murray, who sometimes sang country-western music at Little Nashville, the very same bar where she had met Doug Clark. Murray was understandably shocked by Bundy’s confession, and he told his ex-girlfriend that he believed it would be a good idea to notify the police. Bundy panicked. As much as she was disturbed by the crimes she had helped Doug Clark commit, she wasn't ready to go so far as to turn him, and herself, in to authorities.
Bundy spent more time with Murray and attempted to seduce him, eventually convincing Murray to have sex with her in his van. Once inside the van, Bundy shot and killed Murray and then decapitated him.
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Carol Bundy
Photo Credit: Murderpedia
The murder of Jack Murray made Carol Bundy even more paranoid and distraught. Only a couple of days after she killed her ex-boyfriend, Bundy confessed the murder to coworkers, who in turn alerted the police. Bundy immediately gave the police details of all the murders she and Doug Clark had committed over the course of several months throughout 1980. In August 1980, Clark was charged with six murders, and Bundy was charged with two.
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Clark tried to proclaim his innocence during his trial, but the jury had none of it. Doug Clark was sentenced to death, and today he still sits on California’s Death Row. Carol Bundy was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the gruesome string of murders. Bundy died in prison in December 2003 at the age of 61.
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All photos: Murderpedia
