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Gary Leon Ridgway was raised in a seemingly stable household in Washington. Born in February 1949 to Mary Rita Steinman and Thomas Newton Ridgway, his mother was very controlling of him. His wife, says she has many fond memories “of the man I knew, not that man they took away.”

While Ridgway’s official victim count stands at 44, he is believed to have killed as many as 50 women, mostly prostitutes and runaways, but has claimed numbers as high as 75 during some interviews. Ridgway would pick his victims up along the Pacific South Highway in Washington State. After picking them up, he says he would have sex with them and then strangle them. Ridgway said he started burying bodies to resist the urge to return and have sex with the corpses later.

Ridgway was arrested in 1981 and 2001 on prostitution related charges. It wasn’t until 1983 that the King County Sheriff Department’s Green River Task Force actually considered him a suspect. However, he passed a polygraph test in 1984 and was released. It wouldn’t be until 1987, and many victims later, that the police would take hair and saliva samples from Ridgway.

These samples wouldn’t lead to an arrest until almost 20 years after the killings began. Due to DNA testing, Gary Ridgway was arrested on November 20, 2001. He was initially arrested on four counts of murder, but would later confess to 48 murders. Due to his confession and subsequent plea bargain, he would be spared the death penalty. Instead, King County Superior Court Judge Richard Jones would sentence Ridgway to 48 life sentences on December 19, 2003.

Ridgway would eventually lead police to many of his unfound victims. He also confessed to murders as recent as 1998. To watch an A&E Biography on the Green River Killer, check out page 2 of this article (link after the list of victims).

Ridgway’s victims ranged from 15 to 38 years of age:

via Wikipedia

Further Reading:

• Letter from Ridgway to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• Green River Killer Avoids Death Penalty
• Crime Library Article on Green River Killer
• Wife of Green River Killer Breaks Silence
• Prosecutor’s Summary of Evidence Update

This article is licensed under the GFDL.

On Page two – A&E Biography on Gary Ridgway aka Green River Killer

Pages: 1 2

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 11:55 am and is filed under Monday Maniacs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.