Gary Leon Ridgway (born
February 18, 1949), known as the "Green River
Killer", is an American
serial killer. Ridgway murdered
numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s. He
strangled them, mostly with his arm, but he would also use
ligatures. After strangling the women, he would
dump their bodies throughout King County.
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. As part of a
plea bargain, he was spared the
death penalty and received a sentence
of
life imprisonment without
parole.
Early life
Ridgway
was born in Salt Lake
City
, Utah
to Mary Rita
Steinman and Thomas Newton Ridgway. He has two brothers –
George Leon and Thomas Edward.
He was raised in McMicken Heights
neighborhood of SeaTac, Washington
. Well into his teenage years, Gary Ridgway
was still a
bed-wetter.
As a child, Ridgway was tested with an
I.Q. of
82, signifying low intelligence, and his academic performance in
school was so poor that at one point in high school he had to
repeat a single school year twice in order to attain grades decent
enough to pass. His classmates at Tyee High School describe him as
congenial but largely forgettable. His teenage years, however, were
troubled; when he was 16, he stabbed a six year old boy, who
survived the attack. According to the victim and Ridgway himself,
Ridgway walked away laughing and saying, "I always wondered what it
would be like to kill someone." While in high school, Ridgway
joined the Navy, after graduation he was sent to Vietnam, where he
saw combat, while serving on a Navy patrol boat.
Friends and family, questioned about Ridgway following his arrest,
described him as friendly but strange. His first two marriages
resulted in divorce due to infidelities by both partners. Both a
prostitute and his second wife claimed that, in 1991, he had placed
them in choke-holds.
The Murders
Throughout
the 1980s and 1990s, Ridgway is believed to have murdered 48 (or
more) women near the cities of Seattle
and Tacoma
in Washington State. Most of the
murders took place during a two-and-a-half-year period in the early
1980s. 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 found in the Portland,
Oregon
area. The bodies were often left in
clusters, sometimes posed, usually nude. As most of the bodies were
not discovered until only the skeletons remained, 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.
Ridgway would begin each murder by picking up a woman, usually a
prostitute. He would show the woman a picture of his son, to help
them trust him. After having sex with her, Ridgway would strangle
her from behind, usually with his arm. Most of the victims were
killed in his truck, though some were killed in his home or in a
secluded area.
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. Also contributing was
John E. Douglas, who nearly died as he worked the
case; during the investigation, his stressed and overworked body
was unable to fight off
viral
encephalitis. He has since written much on the subject of the
Green River Killer.
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, Ridgway was at the Kenworth factory when
police arrived to arrest him. Ridgway was arrested on suspicion of
murder for four deaths, nearly 20 years after first being
identified as a potential suspect,
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 job at Kenworth.
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
Anthony Savage, 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 that 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.
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." King County Prosecuting Attorney
Norm Maleng explained his decision to make the
deal:
On December 18, 2003,
King
County Superior Court Judge Richard Jones sentenced Ridgway to
48
life sentence 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
six more murders. 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. 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.
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'... which I
didn't. I just want to, uh, get her in the vehicle and eventually
kill her".
Later in a statement Ridgway said that murdering young women was
his "career".
Ridgway is
incarcerated at Washington State Penitentiary
in Walla Walla, Washington
.
Fictional portrayals
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.
Victims
| # |
Name |
Age |
Disappeared |
Found |
| 1 |
Amina Agisheff |
35 |
July 7, 1982 |
April 20, 1984 |
| 2 |
Wendy Lee Coffield |
16 |
July 8, 1982 |
July 15, 1982 |
| 3 |
Gisele Ann Lovvorn |
17 |
July 17, 1982 |
September 25, 1982 |
| 4 |
Debra Lynn Bonner |
23 |
July 25, 1982 |
August 12, 1982 |
| 5 |
Marcia Fay Chapman |
31 |
August 1, 1982 |
August 15, 1982 |
| 6 |
Cynthia Jean Hinds |
17 |
August 11, 1982 |
August 15, 1982 |
| 7 |
Opal Charmaine Mills |
16 |
August 12, 1982 |
August 15, 1982 |
| 8 |
Terry Rene Milligan |
16 |
August 29, 1982 |
April 1, 1984 |
| 9 |
Mary Bridget Meehan |
18 |
September 15, 1982 |
November 13, 1983 |
| 10 |
Debra Lorraine Estes |
15 |
September 20, 1982 |
May 30, 1988 |
| 11 |
Linda Jane Rule |
16 |
September 26, 1982 |
January 31, 1983 |
| 12 |
Denise Darcel Bush |
23 |
October 8, 1982 |
June 12, 1985 |
| 13 |
Shawnda Leea Summers |
16 |
October 9, 1982 |
August 11, 1983 |
| 14 |
Shirley Marie Sherrill |
18 |
between October 20-29, 1982 |
June 1985 |
| 15 |
Colleen Renee Brockman |
15 |
December 24, 1982 |
May 26, 1984 |
| 16 |
Alma Ann Smith |
18 |
March 3, 1983 |
April 2, 1984 |
| 17 |
Delores LaVerne Williams |
17 |
between March 8-14, 1983 |
March 31, 1984 |
| 18 |
Gail Lynn Mathews |
23 |
April 10, 1983 |
September 19, 1983 |
| 19 |
Andrea M. Childers |
19 |
April 14, 1983 |
October 11, 1989 |
| 20 |
Kimi-Kai Pitsor |
16 |
April 17, 1983 |
December 14, 1983 |
| 21 |
Sandra Kay Gabbert |
17 |
April 17, 1983 |
April 1, 1984 |
| 22 |
Marie M. Malvar |
18 |
April 30, 1983 |
September 29, 2003 |
| 23 |
Carol Ann Christensen |
21 |
May 3, 1983 |
May 8, 1983 |
| 24 |
Martina Theresa Authorlee |
18 |
May 22, 1983 |
November 14, 1984 |
| 25 |
Cheryl Lee Wims |
18 |
May 23, 1983 |
March 22, 1984 |
| 26 |
Yvonne Shelly Antosh |
19 |
May 31, 1983 |
October 15, 1983 |
| 27 |
Carrie A. Rois |
15 |
Late May-Early June, 1983 |
March 10, 1985 |
| 28 |
Constance Elizabeth Naon |
19 |
June 8, 1983 |
October 27, 1983 |
| 29 |
Kelly Marie Ware |
22 |
July 19, 1983 |
October 29, 1983 |
| 30 |
Tina Marie Thompson |
21 |
July 25, 1983 |
April 20, 1984 |
| 31 |
April Dawn Buttram |
16 |
August 18, 1983 |
August 30, 2003 |
| 32 |
Debbie May Abernathy |
26 |
September 5, 1983 |
March 31, 1984 |
| 33 |
Tracy Ann Winston |
19 |
September 12, 1983 |
March 27, 1986 |
| 34 |
Maureen Sue Feeney |
19 |
September 28, 1983 |
May 2, 1986 |
| 35 |
Mary Sue Bello |
25 |
October 11, 1983 |
October 12, 1984 |
| 36 |
Pammy Avent |
15 |
October 26, 1983 |
August 16, 2003 |
| 37 |
Delise Louise Plager |
22 |
October 30, 1983 |
February 14, 1984 |
| 38 |
Kimberly L. Nelson |
21 |
November 1, 1983 |
June 14, 1986 |
| 39 |
Lisa Yates |
19 |
December 23, 1983 |
March 13, 1984 |
| 40 |
Mary Exzetta West |
16 |
February 6, 1984 |
September 8, 1985 |
| 41 |
Cindy Anne Smith |
17 |
March 21, 1984 |
June 27, 1987 |
| 42 |
Patricia Michelle Barczak |
19 |
October 17, 1986 |
February 1993 |
| 43 |
Roberta Joseph Hayes |
21 |
Last seen leaving a Portland, Oregon jail on February 7,
1987 |
September 11, 1991 |
| 44 |
Rose Marie Kurran |
16 |
August 1987 |
September 1987 |
| 45 |
Marta Reeves |
36 |
between March 5 and April 13, 1990 |
September 20, 1990 |
| 46 |
Patricia Yellowrobe |
38 |
January 1998 |
August 6, 1998 |
| 47 |
Unidentified White Female |
12-17 |
Died prior to May 1983 |
March 21, 1984 |
| 48 |
Unidentified White Female |
17-19 |
Unknown |
April 22, 1985 |
| 49 |
Unidentified Black Female |
18-27 |
Between 1982 and 1984 |
December 30, 1985 |
| 50 |
Unidentified White Female |
14-18 |
From December 1980 to January 1984 |
January 2, 1986 |
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 |
| Kristi Lynn Vorak |
13 |
October 31, 1982 |
| Patricia Osborn |
19 |
October 20, 1983 |
| Keli Kay McGinness |
18 |
June 28, 1983 |
| Patricia Ann Leblanc |
15 |
August 12, 1983 |
| Kase Ann Lee |
16 |
August 28, 1982 |
| Rebecca Marrero |
20 |
December 3, 1982 |
- Evidence exists to suggest that Ridgway murdered Keli Kay
McGinness. Shortly before her disappearance, McGinness 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 turned out to be April
Buttram) was initially identified by Ridgway as being that of Keli
Kay McGinness. According to Ridgway, he often confused McGinness
with Buttram because their physiques were similar.
- While he has never been charged with her murder, Gary Ridgway
did confess to killing Kase Ann Lee. During police interrogations
in 2003, Ridgway stated that he strangled Lee in 1982 and left her
body near a drive-in theatre off the Sea-Tac Strip. As of October
2008, law enforcement officials have been unable to locate Lee's
remains at the dump site Ridgway indicated. (Guillen, T. Serial
Killers: Issues Explored Through the Green River Murders.
Upper Saddle
River, NJ
: Pearson, 2007. Page 145).
- NBA player Martell Webster's
mother disappeared when he was 4 years old. Her body has never been
found and she is suspected to be a victim of Ridgway.
References
- Haglund, W.D.; Reichert, M.A.; Reay, D.G. & Donald, T.
(1990): Recovery of decomposed and skeletal human remains in the
‘‘Green River Murder’’ investigation. Am. J. Forensic Med.
Pathol., 11: 35-43.
- Time Magazine, "River of Death", Feb. 27, 2003.
- Cold
Case Files: "Obsession: Dave Reichert and the Green River
Killer (Original Air Date: 12/15/2005) on A&E.
- Ridgway Reveals Gruesome Details In Chilling
Confession - Video - KIRO Seattle
- Cold
Case Files #56 A&E Network
- Green River Killer
- Prothero, M. and Smith, C. Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind
of the Green River Killer. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2006. Page
376
- The Portland Tribune Ι News.
- Keppel, Robert. The
Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer.
2004, paperback. 624 pages, ISBN 0743463951. Updated after the
arrest and confession of Gary Ridgway.
- Rule, Ann. Green River, Running
Red. Pocket, 2005, paperback. 704 pages, ISBN 0743460502.
- Time Magazine. River of
Death Feb. 27, 2003
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