Ridgway was born on February 18th 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah to mother Mary Steinman and father Thomas Ridgway. Gary was raised in McMicken Heights, Washington and had a peculiar childhood overshadowed by a domineering and unsavory relationship with his mother.
Gary was a bed-wetter and was believed to be of very low intelligence, with an approximate I.Q. of 82. He had trouble in school with poor academic standing and attempted his first homicide in around 1966 at the age of sixteen years old by luring a six year old boy into the woods and stabbing him.
The intended victim survived and Ridgway began to spiral to stranger heights by developing an obsession with pornography, which is a common denominator in nearly all serial killers historical profiles. He was described by others as strange by friendly.
A Serial Killer Earns His Name
Sixteen years after attempting his first murder, Gary began a campaign of destruction to eliminate the world of as many prostitutes as he possibly could. It's believed he committed his first killing in 1982 but really there is no way to be sure.
Ridgway began murdering working girls and dumping their bodies into "The Green River" in Washington State. He admitted to especially choosing prostitutes because he hated them and didn't want to pay them for their services. He also believed that because they were "second class" citizens that he would not be caught and would be able to continue the killings, which he referred to as "his job."
The body count began to pile up and the case gained national attention. Ridgway was known as "The Green River Killer" because he liked to dump many of the victims into the river. He later started dumping the victims in special sites he referred to as "clusters."
He enjoyed visiting these dump sites and it was discovered later that he engaged in the morbid practice of necrophilia so he could relive the murder and gloat in his violence and sexual perversion. He often posed the bodies and left weird articles on the bodies, such as fish, and stones, the significance of which were never understood.
The Green River Task Force
The King County Sheriff’s office formed “The Green River Task Force” to investigate the string of murders and was comprised of notable detectives Robert Keppel, Dave Reichert, and John E. Douglas. The detectives in the case consulted with death row inmate “Ted Bundy” who was awaiting execution for his crimes in Florida.
The Green River Killer was very similar in his methods and investigators thought Bundy could help with insights and be able to help them catch their man. Unfortunately Bundy provided little real help and seemed to be using the attention as a way to benefit himself and bargain for a commuted sentence by confessing to several of his own murders and offering to reveal the dump sites.
Although the task force was made up of the most experienced and serious investigators, “The Green River Killer “ remained elusive and continued to add to his already sadly staggering kill number. Clues that would ultimately be of paramount importance were however collected at this time including paint chips, and later a DNA swab was taken from Ridgway that would be the key item of evidence that would convict him.
The Monster is Finally Caught
Ridgway had been arrested several times for soliciting prostitutes and during one of these arrests in 1987 hair and saliva sampled were taken into evidence. Ridgway was considered a serious suspect and passed a polygraph test in 1984 insisting he had no involvement in the slayings.
Investigators began having serious doubts about Ridgway’s innocence and decided to take another closer look at all the data relating to him. Miraculously the DNA evidence had been preserved and was a positive match for at least four of the murders being investigated.
On November 30th 2001 police arrested Ridgway on suspicion of murder nearly twenty years after being first identified as the prime suspect in the case. When it became apparent that the evidence surrounding his guilt was indisputable, Ridgway agreed to confess to forty-eight murders in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.
It seems strange that an individual who murdered so prolifically and mercilessly would fear death so much. Experts believe that the death toll far exceeded the settled upon count of forty-eight but Ridgway was no different then other butchers like Bundy and his word could not be believed or trusted.
The Green River Killer had been found and the slaughter had been stopped, but not before he was convicted of more serial murders then any other person in U.S. history.
Check out my article on THE SHOE FETISH KILLER:JERRY BRUDOS here!
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