Gary Ridgway

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Gary Ridgway

Mugshot of Gary Ridgway from his arrest in 2001.
Background information
Birth name: Gary Leon Ridgway
Alias(es): Green River Killer
Born: February 18, 1949
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Penalty: Life
Killings
Number of victims: 48 - 90
Span of killings: 1982 through 1998
Country: United States
State(s): Washington
Date apprehended: November 30, 2001

Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949), known as the Green River Killer, is one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. On November 30, 2001, as he was leaving a Renton, Washington factory where he worked, he was arrested for the murders of four women whose cases were linked to him through DNA evidence.[1] Two years later he pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated murder, although he says he actually killed 90 women, almost all prostitutes. The murders occurred in the early 1980s. As part of a plea bargain, he was spared the death penalty and received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Ridgway has been married three times and has one son. He carried his son's photo in his wallet to show to victims to put them at ease. He also carried some of his son's toys in his pickup truck for the same reason. He took some victims to his house and often showed them his son's room to demonstrate they had nothing to fear.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Ridgway was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Mary Rita Steinman and Thomas Newton and was the middle child of three sons. He was raised in McMicken Heights, Washington. His mother reportedly dominated the household and was especially controlling towards her middle son. Relatives remember that she was never content with him and was constantly yelling at her husband.

As a child Ridgway was tested with an IQ of 82, signifying "low-average intelligence". His classmates at Tyee High describe him as congenial but largely forgettable. His teenage years, however, were troubled: Ridgway was 16 when he stabbed his first victim, who was six.

Friends and family, questioned about Ridgway following his arrest, described him as friendly but strange. The same man who went door to door for his Pentecostal[2] church was also obsessed with prostitutes and had dysfunctional relationships with women; his first two marriages were riddled with infidelities by both partners. Both a prostitute and his second wife testified that, in 1982, he had placed them in choke-holds.

[edit] The murders

During a two-and-a-half-year period in the early 1980s, the Green River Killer is believed to have murdered as many as 50 women near the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. Most of the victims were either prostitutes or teenage runaways picked up along Pacific Highway South (State Route 99) and strangled. Most of their bodies were dumped in and around the Green River in Washington, except for two victims in the Portland, Oregon area. The bodies were often left in clusters, sometimes posed, usually nude. As the bodies were often not discovered until skeletonized, four victims are still unidentified. Ridgway would occasionally contaminate the dump sites with gum, cigarettes, and written materials that belonged to others to confuse the police.

In the early 1980s, the King County Sheriff's Office formed the Green River Task Force to investigate the murders. The most notable members of the task force were Robert Keppel and Dave Reichert, who periodically interviewed incarcerated serial killer Ted Bundy from 1984; their interviews with Bundy were of little help in the Green River investigations, but elicited confessions from Bundy on unsolved cases.

Ridgway was arrested in 1982 and 2001 for charges related to prostitution. He became a suspect in 1983 for the Green River killings. In 1984 Ridgway took and passed a polygraph test, and on April 7, 1987, police took hair and saliva samples. These were later subjected to a DNA analysis, providing the evidence for his arrest warrant.

On November 30, 2001, nearly 20 years after first being identified as a potential suspect, Ridgway was arrested on suspicion of murder for four deaths after DNA evidence conclusively linked semen left in the victims to the saliva swab taken by the police. The four victims named in the original indictment were Marcia Chapman, Opal Mills, Cynthia Hinds and Carol Ann Christensen. Three more victims, Wendy Coffield, Debra Bonner, and Debra Estes, were added to the indictment after forensics laboratories detected microscopic paint particles similar to those used at Ridgway's place of work.

[edit] Plea bargain, confessions, sentencing

Early in August 2003, Seattle television news reported that Ridgway had been moved from a maximum security cell at King County Jail to an undisclosed location. Other news reports stated that his lawyers, led by Brian Hochstetter, were closing a plea bargain that would spare him the death penalty in return for his confession to a number of the Green River murders.

On November 5, 2003, Ridgway entered a guilty plea to 48 charges of aggravated first degree murder as part of a plea bargain, agreed to in June, that would spare him execution in exchange for his cooperation in locating the remains of his victims and providing other details. In his statement accompanying his guilty plea, Ridgway explained all of his victims had been killed inside King County, Washington, and that he had transported and dumped the remains of the two women near Portland to confuse the police.

Public opinion remains divided on whether a confessed murderer of 48 people should be spared execution in a state that has the death penalty and imposes it on people who have killed far fewer victims. Deputy prosecutor Jeffrey Baird noted in court that the deal contained "the names of 41 victims who would not be the subject of State v. Ridgway if it were not for the plea agreement."[citation needed] King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng explained his decision to make the deal:

"We could have gone forward with seven counts, but that is all we could have ever hoped to solve. At the end of that trial, whatever the outcome, there would have been lingering doubts about the rest of these crimes. This agreement was the avenue to the truth. And in the end, the search for the truth is still why we have a criminal justice system ... Gary Ridgway does not deserve our mercy. He does not deserve to live. The mercy provided by today's resolution is directed not at Ridgway, but toward the families who have suffered so much ..."[3]

On December 18, 2003, King County Superior Court Judge Richard Jones sentenced Ridgway to 48 life sentences with no possibility of parole and one life sentence, to be served consecutively. He was also sentenced to an additional 10 years for tampering with evidence for each of the 48 victims, adding 480 years to his 48 life sentences.

Ridgway led prosecutors to three bodies in 2003. On August 16 of that year, remains of a 16-year-old female found near Enumclaw, Washington, 40 feet from State Route 410, were pronounced as belonging to Pammy Annette Avent, who had been believed to be a victim of the Green River Killer. The remains of Marie Malvar and April Buttram were found in September. On November 23, 2005, The Associated Press reported that a weekend hiker found the skull of one of the 48 women Ridgway admitted murdering in his 2003 plea bargain with King County prosecutors. The skull of Tracy Winston, who was 19 when she disappeared from Northgate Mall on September 12, 1983, was found by a man hiking in a wooded area near Highway 18 near Issaquah, southeast of Seattle.

Ridgway confessed to more confirmed murders than any other American serial killer. Over a period of five months of police and prosecutor interviews, he confessed to 48 murders, 42 of which were on the police's list of probable Green River Killer victims, plus 6 more murders.[4] On February 9, 2004, county prosecutors began to release the videotape records of Ridgway's confessions. In one taped interview, he told investigators initially that he was responsible for the deaths of 65 women, but in another taped interview with Reichert on December 31, 2003, Ridgway claimed to have murdered 71 victims and confessed to have had sex with them prior to killing them, a detail which he did not reveal until after his sentencing.[5] He also confessed that he had sex with his victims' bodies after he murdered them, but claimed he began burying the later victims so that he would resist the urge to revisit them.[6]

Ridgway talked to and tried to make his victims comfortable before he committed the murders, in his own words, "I would talk to her ... and get her mind off of the, sex, anything she was nervous about. And think, you know, she thinks, 'Oh, this guy cares,' and which I, I didn't. I just want to, uh, get her in the vehicle and eventually kill her."[citation needed]

Later in a statement Ridgway said that murdering young women was his "career."[7]

Ridgway is incarcerated at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.

In 2008, the Lifetime Network aired The Capture of the Green River Killer, a TV movie loosely based on his crimes. John Pielmeier portrayed Ridgway.

[edit] Victims

# Name Age Murdered Found
1 Wendy Lee Coffield 16 July 8, 1982 July 15, 1982
2 Gisele Ann Lovvorn 19 July 17, 1982 Sept. 25, 1982
3 Debra Lynn Bonner 23 July 25, 1982 Aug. 12, 1982
4 Marcia Fay Chapman 31 Aug. 1, 1982 Aug. 15, 1982
5 Cynthia Jean Hinds 17 Aug. 11, 1982 Aug. 15, 1982
6 Opal Charmaine Mills 16 Aug. 12, 1982 Aug. 15, 1982
7 Terry Rene Milligan 16 Aug. 29, 1982 April 1, 1984
8 Mary Bridget Meehan 19 Sept. 15, 1982 Nov. 13, 1983
9 Debra Lorraine Estes 15 Sept. 20, 1982 May 30, 1988
10 Linda Jane Rule 16 Sept. 26, 1982 Jan. 31, 1983
11 Denise Darcel Bush 23 Oct. 8, 1982 June, 1985 & Feb., 1990
12 Shawnda Leea Summers 17 Oct. 9, 1982 Aug. 11, 1983
13 Shirley Marie Sherrill 18 between Oct. 20 and Oct. 22, 1982 June, 1985
14 Colleen Renee Brockman 15 Dec. 24, 1982 May 26, 1984
15 Alma Ann Smith 18 March 3, 1983 April 2, 1984
16 Delores LaVerne Williams 17 between March 8 and March 17, 1983 March 31, 1984
17 Gail Lynn Mathews 23 April 10, 1983 Sept. 19, 1983
18 Andrea M. Childers 19 April 14, 1983 Oct. 11, 1989
19 Sandra Kay Gabbert 17 April 17, 1983 April 1, 1984
20 Kimi-Kai Pitsor 16 April 16 or April 18, 1983 Dec. 14, 1983 & Dec. 30, 1985
21 Marie M. Malvar 18 April 30, 1983 Sept. 29, 2003
22 Carol Ann Christensen * 21 May 3, 1983 May 8, 1983
23 Martina Theresa Authorlee 18 May 22, 1983 Nov. 14, 1984
24 Cheryl Lee Wims 18 May 23, 1983 March 22, 1984
25 Yvonne Shelly Antosh 19 May 31, 1983 Oct. 15, 1983
26 Carrie A. Rois 15 between May 31 to June 15, 1983 March 10, 1985
27 Constance Elizabeth Naon 20 June 8, 1983 Oct. 27, 1983
28 Kelly Marie Ware 22 July 18, 1983 Oct. 29, 1983
29 Tina Marie Thompson 22 July 25, 1983 April 20, 1984
30 April Dawn Buttram 17 between Aug. 18 & Sep. 1, 1983 Aug. 30 and Sept. 2, 2003
31 Debbie May Abernathy 26 Sept. 5, 1983 March 31, 1984
32 Tracy Ann Winston 19 Sept. 12, 1983 March 27, 1986
33 Maureen Sue Feeney 19 Sept. 28, 1983 May 2, 1986
34 Mary Sue Bello 25 Oct. 11, 1983 Oct. 12, 1984
35 Pammy Avent 16 Oct. 26, 1983 Aug. 16, 2003
36 Delise Louise Plager 22 Oct. 30, 1983 Feb. 14, 1984
37 Kimberly L. Nelson 21 Nov. 1, 1983 June 14, 1986
38 Lisa Yates 19 Dec. 23, 1983 March 13, 1984
39 Mary Exzetta West 16 Feb. 6, 1984 Sept. 8, 1985
40 Cindy Anne Smith 17 March 21, 1984 June 27, 1987
41 Patricia Michelle Barczak 19 Oct. 17, 1986 Feb., 1993
42 Roberta Joseph Hayes 21 Last seen leaving a Portland, Ore., jail on Feb. 7, 1987 Sep. 11, 1991
43 Marta Reeves 36 between March 5th and April 13, 1990 Sep. 20, 1990
44 Patricia Yellowrobe 38 Disappeared 1998 Aug. 6, 1998
45 Unidentified White Female 12-18 Died prior to May 1983 March 21, 1984
46 Unidentified White Female 17-19 Unknown April 22, 1985
47 Unidentified Black Female 18-28 Between 1982 and 1984 December 30, 1985
48 Unidentified White Female 14-19 From December 1980 to January 1984 January 2, 1986
  • Carol Christensen was the only victim who wasn't a prostitute. She worked at a diner frequented by Ridgway.

Ridgway has also been considered a suspect in the following disappearances, although no bodies have been recovered and no charges have been filed:

Name Age Disappeared
Patricia Osborn 19 October 20, 1983
Keli Kay McGinnis 18 June 28, 1983
Kristi Lynn Vorak 13 October 31, 1982
Patricia Ann Leblanc 15 August 12, 1983
Kase Ann Lee 16 August 28, 1982
Rebecca Marrero 20 December 3, 1982
  • There is very strong evidence to suggest that Keli Kay McGinnis is deceased and that she was murdered by Gary Ridgway. Shortly before her disappearance, McGinnis was questioned by a Port of Seattle police officer while "dating" Ridgway near the Sea-Tac Strip. Furthermore, during the summer of 2003, Ridgway led authorities to the bodies of several of his victims. One of those bodies (which later turner out to be April Buttram) was initially identified by Ridgway as being that of Keli Kay McGinnis. According to Ridgway, he often confused McGinnis with Buttram because their physiques were similar. (Prothero, M. and Smith, C. Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2006. Page 376).

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rule, 563
  2. ^ http://www.karisable.com/greenrivergr.htm
  3. ^ Maleng, Norm (2003-11-05). "Statement of Norm Maleng on Ridgway Plea". Retrieved on 2008-06-23. 
  4. ^ "Anitra Mulwee". karisable.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  5. ^ Cold Case Files: "Obsession: Dave Reichert and the Green River Killer (Original Air Date: 12/15/2005) on A & E.
  6. ^ Ridgway Reveals Gruesome Details In Chilling Confession - Video - KIRO Seattle
  7. ^ Green River Killer

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ridgway"
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