Gary Ridgway — Green River Killer
Fast Facts:
- Born in 1949 in Utah
- Murdered at least 49 women
- Was discovered when a DNA test revealed a match
- Confessed to around 75 to 80 murders
- Received multiple life sentences
Ridgway was raised in a deprived neighbourhood. He wasn’t a good student and after finishin high school was sent to Vietnam. After his service he found a job painting trucks which he did for 30 years. Although he was married 3 times and was a religious fanatic he regularly frequented prostitutes.
Young runaways and prostitutes began disappearing from Route 99. He took many of them home before strangling them and dumping their bodies in the woods. The first few bodies were found in the Green River.
Ridgway managed to elude police for 19 years until the first officer originally assigned to the case organised the evidenced to be re-examined using the new DNA-testing technology. This provided a match between victims and Ridgway and he was charged with 4 counts of aggravated murder. Eventually, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder.
To avoid execution, Ridgway made a deal with investigators to reveal where the bodies of victims who hadn’t been found were. He was sentenced to life in prison. Another body was found 10 years later and he received another life sentence. He later claimed to have murdered 75 to 80 women.
April 7, 2018 at 11:47 am
Wow that’s a lot of people he killed. Very sad.
Dena
https://denapawling.blogspot.com/
April 9, 2018 at 9:21 pm
Dena, I wonder if they become immune to what they are doing after so many deaths?
April 7, 2018 at 8:38 pm
The number of murders is staggering. I shudder to imagine the additional murders Ridgway would have gotten away with if DNA evidence did not exist. And not just Ridgway of course. Many killers have been apprehended due to DNA testing. I assume many serial killers as well?
I’ve got an older post on my site that might be right up your alley, AJ. Have you heard of the Nutshell Studies? Here’s the link – https://profoundjourney.com/nutshell-studies-intricate-crime-scene-miniatures/
G is for (The) Gifts of Imperfection
April 9, 2018 at 9:27 pm
Yes, thank goodness for DNA testing. There have been quite a few serial killers caught because of DNA (I think I have at least one more this month).
And thanks for the link, Karen. I have read a bit about Frances Glessner before, but I didn’t realise Jessica Fletcher was thought to be based on her, and I haven’t watched the documentary.
April 7, 2018 at 9:36 pm
I can’t quite comprehend how many people he killed. It’s staggering.
Gold Forever by The Wanted
April 9, 2018 at 9:28 pm
What gets me is they never look remorseful in their mugshots. Such little regard for life.
April 8, 2018 at 12:15 am
Holy cannoli! Up to 80 people? I can’t even imagine that . . . killing a handful of people every year for much of your adult life.
April 8, 2018 at 1:29 am
I imagine a serial killer is pretty safe in prison. They’re nuts.
April 9, 2018 at 9:29 pm
Jacqui, I agree. I can’t imagine there would be too many i prison taking on someone with that many kills on their belt!
April 8, 2018 at 5:55 am
These posts are all so interesting! I’m not sure I would be able to do the research for them, though!
April 9, 2018 at 9:30 pm
There were some serial killers I didn’t include because I couldn’t read all the details about what they’d done. Some nasty, nasty people out there.
April 8, 2018 at 11:16 pm
There posts are intriguing and scary. Hard to believe one man could kill so many people!
Susanne from Living the Dream
April 9, 2018 at 9:31 pm
It’s hard to believe someone could kill that many people before being caught.
April 9, 2018 at 10:32 pm
Odd to think of someone religious not finding it inconsistent to kill people!
April 9, 2018 at 10:46 pm
I think that’s one of the true signs of a sociopath. They learn how to mimic behaviour because they can’t understand/express the same behaviour (and emotion) themselves.
April 10, 2018 at 11:09 pm
AJ I’m behind on commenting and life it seems. I remember reading about him. There was a huge sigh of relief when he was caught. It just boggles the mind that anyone can be so cold-blooded, but it’s happened throughout history.
Once again, a great article.
April 11, 2018 at 1:11 pm
Julie, don’t worry, I’m behind too (trying to catch up now). There must be something missing in their DNA, don’t you think, for them to be so cold-hearted?
April 11, 2018 at 12:15 am
It’s kind of mind boggling how long he got away with murder. I was watching Forensic Files a couple of weeks ago and there seem to be several cases that were once suspected of being Green River murders until other suspects were found and caught.
Tasha
Tasha’s Thinkings – Movie Monsters
April 11, 2018 at 1:13 pm
Tasha, I’ve just started watching Forensic Files so I’ll keep an eye out for those episodes. Thanks for the tip.
April 11, 2018 at 3:46 am
Mary and I watch a lot of “true crime” TV, and we’ve seen several shows about Ridgway. I think this might have been one of the first cases where profiling was a major part of the investigating.
Another good one for G would have been John Gacy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gacy). Nowhere near as many as this guy, but pretty awful anyway. I lived in Chicago when all that was going on and remember them digging the bodies out of the guy’s crawl space…
April 11, 2018 at 1:32 pm
I did consider including John Gacy (the Clown Killer if memory serves). He and Ridgway were equally nasty, so I tried to go with the one I thought had the more interesting story.