Gary Ridgway
Encyclopedia
Gary Leon Ridgway is an American
serial killer
known as the Green River Killer. He murdered numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s, earning his nickname when the first five victims were found in the Green River
. He strangled them, usually with his arm but sometimes using ligatures. After strangling the women, he would dump their bodies throughout forested and overgrown areas in King County
.
On November 30, 2001, as he was leaving the Renton, Washington
Kenworth Truck factory where he worked, he was arrested for the murder
s of four women whose cases were linked to him through DNA
evidence. As part of a plea bargain
wherein he agreed to disclose the whereabouts of still "missing" women, he was spared the death penalty
and received a sentence of life imprisonment
without parole
.
, to Mary Rita Steinman and Thomas Newton Ridgway. He has two brothers—Gregory Leon and Thomas Edward. He was raised in the McMicken Heights neighborhood of SeaTac, Washington
.
Ridgway's homelife was somewhat troubled; relatives have described his mother as domineering and have said that young Ridgway witnessed more than one violent argument between his parents. As a boy Ridgway had a habit of wetting the bed. His mother would often be the one to discover the accidents and would bathe him immediately. She would belittle him and embarrass him in front of his family. From a young age, Ridgway had conflicting feelings of sexual attraction and anger toward her.
As a young 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. He had led the boy into the woods and then stabbed him through the ribs into his liver. According to the victim and Ridgway himself, Ridgway walked away laughing and saying, "I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone."
. After graduation, he married his high school girlfriend, Claudia Barrows, and was sent to Vietnam
, where he served onboard a supply ship and saw combat. During his time in the military, Ridgway began spending a lot of time with prostitutes and contracted gonorrhea
for the second time. This angered him, but he continued to have unprotected sex with prostitutes. Meanwhile, his wife Claudia, alone and 19 years old, began dating again, and the marriage quickly ended within a year.
When questioned about Ridgway after his arrest, friends and family described him as friendly but strange. His first two marriages resulted in divorce because of infidelities by both partners. His second wife, Marcia Winslow, claimed that he had placed her in a chokehold
. Ridgway had become fanatically religious during his second marriage, proselytizing door-to-door, reading the Bible aloud at work and at home, and insisting that Marcia follow the strict teachings of their church pastor. Ridgway would also frequently cry after sermons or reading the Bible. Ridgway continued to solicit the services of prostitutes during this marriage and also wanted Marcia to participate in sex in public and inappropriate places, sometimes even in areas where his victims' bodies had been discovered.
According to Time Magazine writer Terry McCarthy, Ridgway had an insatiable sexual appetite. His three ex-wives and several old girlfriends reported that Ridgway demanded sex from them several times a day. Often he would want to have sex in a public area or in the woods. Ridgeway himself admitted to having a fixation with prostitutes, with whom he had a love-hate relationship. He frequently complained about their presence in his neighborhood, but he also took advantage of their services regularly. It's possible that Ridgway was torn between his uncontrollable lusts and his staunch religious beliefs.
In 1975 his second wife gave birth to his son, Matthew.
2001) near Seattle and Tacoma, Washington
. His court statements later reported that he had killed so many, he lost count. A majority of the murders occurred between 1982 and 1984. The victims were believed to be either prostitutes or runaways picked up along Pacific Highway South (International Blvd. 99
) whom he strangled. Most of their bodies were dumped in wooded areas around the Green River
except for two confirmed and another two suspected victims found in the Portland, Oregon
area. The bodies were often left in clusters, sometimes posed, usually nude. He would sometimes return to the victims' bodies and have intercourse with them (an act of necrophilia
). Because most of the bodies were not discovered until only the skeletons remained, four victims are still unidentified. Ridgway occasionally contaminated the dump sites with gum, cigarettes, and written materials belonging to others, and he even transported a few victims' remains across state lines into Oregon
to confuse the police.
Ridgway began each murder by picking up a woman, usually a prostitute. He sometimes showed the woman a picture of his son, to help her trust him. After having sex with her, Ridgway strangled her from behind. He initially strangled them manually. However, many victims inflicted wounds and bruises on his arm while trying to defend themselves. Concerned these wounds and bruises would draw attention, Ridgway began using ligatures to strangle his victims. Most victims were killed in his home, his truck, or 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 has since written much on the subject of the Green River Killer.
Ridgway was arrested in 1982 and 2001 on charges related to prostitution. He became a suspect in 1983 in the Green River killings. In 1984, Ridgway took and passed a polygraph test, and on April 7, 1987, police took hair and saliva
samples from Ridgway.
Around 1985, Ridgway began dating Judith Mawson, who became his third wife in 1988. Mawson claimed in a 2010 television interview that when she moved into his house while they were dating, there was no carpet. Detectives later told her he had probably wrapped a body in the carpet. In the same interview, she described how he would leave for work early in the morning some days, ostensibly for the overtime
pay. Mawson speculated that he must have committed some of the murders while supposedly working these early morning shifts. She claimed that she had not suspected Ridgway's crimes before he was contacted by authorities in 1987, and in fact had not even heard of the Green River Killer before that time because she didn't watch the news.
Author Pennie Morehead says that when she interviewed Ridgway in prison, he said his urge to kill was reduced while he was in a relationship with Mawson, causing him to commit fewer murders than he otherwise would have, and that he truly loved her. Mawson told a local television reporter, "I feel I have saved lives ... by being his wife and making him happy."
The samples collected in 1987 were later subjected to a DNA analysis, providing the evidence for his arrest warrant
. On November 30, 2001, Ridgway was at the Kenworth
Truck factory, where he worked as a spray painter, when police arrived to arrest him. Ridgway was arrested on suspicion of murder of four women nearly 20 years after first being identified as a potential suspect when 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 a forensic scientist identified microscopic
spray paint spheres as a specific brand and composition of paint used at the Kenworth factory during the specific time frame when these victims were killed.
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 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, the 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. 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 having had sex with them prior to killing them, a detail which he did not reveal until after his sentencing. In his confession, he acknowledged that he targeted prostitutes because they were "easy to pick up and that he hated most of them." 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 could resist the urge to commit necrophilia
.
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
.
In addition to movies, many books have been written about the Green River murders and Gary Ridgway himself. Along with these known novels, there are countless numbers of books that Green River killings are featured in. Renown thriller novelist Ann Rule
wrote Green River, Running Red. Others include The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer by Robert D. Keppel
; Chasing the Devil by Sheriff David Reichert; Case of the Green River Killer by Diane Yancey; Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer by Mark Prothero
with help from Carlton Smith; Search for the Green River Killer by Carlton Smith with help from Tom Guillen; Green River Serial Killer: Biography of an Unsuspecting Wife by Pennie Morehead, telling the story of his third wife and her struggles with the truth; The Green River Killer by the King County Journal Staff; Serial Killers: Issues Explored Through Green River Murders by Tomas Guillen; and a graphic novel, Green River Killer by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
known as the Green River Killer. He murdered numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s, earning his nickname when the first five victims were found in the Green River
Green River (Washington)
The Green River is a long river in the state of Washington in the United States, arising on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains south of I-90....
. He strangled them, usually with his arm but sometimes using ligatures. After strangling the women, he would dump their bodies throughout forested and overgrown areas in King County
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....
.
On November 30, 2001, as he was leaving the Renton, Washington
Renton, Washington
Renton is an Eastside edge city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington. Founded in the 1860s, Renton became a supply town for the Newcastle coal fields...
Kenworth Truck factory where he worked, he was arrested for the murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s of four women whose cases were linked to him through DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
evidence. As part of a plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
wherein he agreed to disclose the whereabouts of still "missing" women, he was spared the death penalty
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
and received a sentence of life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
without parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
.
Early life
Ridgway was born in Salt Lake City, UtahUtah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, to Mary Rita Steinman and Thomas Newton Ridgway. He has two brothers—Gregory Leon and Thomas Edward. He was raised in the McMicken Heights neighborhood of SeaTac, Washington
SeaTac, Washington
SeaTac is an American city in southern King County, Washington, and an outlying suburb of Seattle, Washington. Incorporated in February 1990, the City of SeaTac is ten square miles in area and has a population of 26,909 according to the 2010 census...
.
Ridgway's homelife was somewhat troubled; relatives have described his mother as domineering and have said that young Ridgway witnessed more than one violent argument between his parents. As a boy Ridgway had a habit of wetting the bed. His mother would often be the one to discover the accidents and would bathe him immediately. She would belittle him and embarrass him in front of his family. From a young age, Ridgway had conflicting feelings of sexual attraction and anger toward her.
As a young 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
Tyee Educational Complex
Tyee Educational Complex is a public high school campus located in SeaTac, Washington, USA. It was founded originally as Tyee High School, a single public high school, in 1962. It is operated by the Highline School District....
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. He had led the boy into the woods and then stabbed him through the ribs into his liver. According to the victim and Ridgway himself, Ridgway walked away laughing and saying, "I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone."
Adult life
At age 20, after graduating from high school, Ridgway joined the NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. After graduation, he married his high school girlfriend, Claudia Barrows, and was sent to Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, where he served onboard a supply ship and saw combat. During his time in the military, Ridgway began spending a lot of time with prostitutes and contracted gonorrhea
Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The usual symptoms in men are burning with urination and penile discharge. Women, on the other hand, are asymptomatic half the time or have vaginal discharge and pelvic pain...
for the second time. This angered him, but he continued to have unprotected sex with prostitutes. Meanwhile, his wife Claudia, alone and 19 years old, began dating again, and the marriage quickly ended within a year.
When questioned about Ridgway after his arrest, friends and family described him as friendly but strange. His first two marriages resulted in divorce because of infidelities by both partners. His second wife, Marcia Winslow, claimed that he had placed her in a chokehold
Chokehold
A chokehold or choke is a general term for grappling hold that critically reduces or prevents either air or blood from passing through the neck of an opponent. The restriction may be of one or both and depends on the hold used and the reaction of the victim...
. Ridgway had become fanatically religious during his second marriage, proselytizing door-to-door, reading the Bible aloud at work and at home, and insisting that Marcia follow the strict teachings of their church pastor. Ridgway would also frequently cry after sermons or reading the Bible. Ridgway continued to solicit the services of prostitutes during this marriage and also wanted Marcia to participate in sex in public and inappropriate places, sometimes even in areas where his victims' bodies had been discovered.
According to Time Magazine writer Terry McCarthy, Ridgway had an insatiable sexual appetite. His three ex-wives and several old girlfriends reported that Ridgway demanded sex from them several times a day. Often he would want to have sex in a public area or in the woods. Ridgeway himself admitted to having a fixation with prostitutes, with whom he had a love-hate relationship. He frequently complained about their presence in his neighborhood, but he also took advantage of their services regularly. It's possible that Ridgway was torn between his uncontrollable lusts and his staunch religious beliefs.
In 1975 his second wife gave birth to his son, Matthew.
Murders
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ridgway is believed to have murdered at least 71 women (according to Ridgway, in an interview with Sheriff ReichertDave Reichert
David George Reichert is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously served as Sheriff of King County, Washington.-Early life, education and career:...
2001) near Seattle and Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
. His court statements later reported that he had killed so many, he lost count. A majority of the murders occurred between 1982 and 1984. The victims were believed to be either prostitutes or runaways picked up along Pacific Highway South (International Blvd. 99
Washington State Route 99
State Route 99, abbreviated SR 99, commonly called Highway 99, is a numbered state highway in the U.S. state of Washington extending just under from Fife in the south to Everett in the north, with a gap in Tukwila.-Southern division:...
) whom he strangled. Most of their bodies were dumped in wooded areas around the Green River
Green River (Washington)
The Green River is a long river in the state of Washington in the United States, arising on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains south of I-90....
except for two confirmed and another two suspected victims found in the Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
area. The bodies were often left in clusters, sometimes posed, usually nude. He would sometimes return to the victims' bodies and have intercourse with them (an act of necrophilia
Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia or necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses,It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from the ancient Greek words: νεκρός and φιλία...
). Because most of the bodies were not discovered until only the skeletons remained, four victims are still unidentified. Ridgway occasionally contaminated the dump sites with gum, cigarettes, and written materials belonging to others, and he even transported a few victims' remains across state lines into Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
to confuse the police.
Ridgway began each murder by picking up a woman, usually a prostitute. He sometimes showed the woman a picture of his son, to help her trust him. After having sex with her, Ridgway strangled her from behind. He initially strangled them manually. However, many victims inflicted wounds and bruises on his arm while trying to defend themselves. Concerned these wounds and bruises would draw attention, Ridgway began using ligatures to strangle his victims. Most victims were killed in his home, his truck, or a secluded area.
In the early 1980s, the King County Sheriff's Office
King County, Washington Sheriff's Office
The King County Sheriff's Office is a local police agency in King County, Washington. It is the primary law enforcement agency for all unincorporated areas of King County, as well as 12 cities, and 2 transit agencies, which contract their police services to the KCSO. KCSO also provided Police and...
formed the Green River Task Force to investigate the murders. The most notable members of the task force were Robert Keppel and Dave Reichert
Dave Reichert
David George Reichert is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously served as Sheriff of King County, Washington.-Early life, education and career:...
, who periodically interviewed incarcerated serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy was an American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women during the 1970s, and possibly earlier...
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
John E. Douglas
John Edward Douglas , is a former special agent with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation , one of the first criminal profilers, and criminal psychology author.-Early life:...
, who has since written much on the subject of the Green River Killer.
Ridgway was arrested in 1982 and 2001 on charges related to prostitution. He became a suspect in 1983 in the Green River killings. In 1984, Ridgway took and passed a polygraph test, and on April 7, 1987, police took hair and saliva
Saliva
Saliva , referred to in various contexts as spit, spittle, drivel, drool, or slobber, is the watery substance produced in the mouths of humans and most other animals. Saliva is a component of oral fluid. In mammals, saliva is produced in and secreted from the three pairs of major salivary glands,...
samples from Ridgway.
Around 1985, Ridgway began dating Judith Mawson, who became his third wife in 1988. Mawson claimed in a 2010 television interview that when she moved into his house while they were dating, there was no carpet. Detectives later told her he had probably wrapped a body in the carpet. In the same interview, she described how he would leave for work early in the morning some days, ostensibly for the overtime
Overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:*by custom ,*by practices of a given trade or profession,*by legislation,...
pay. Mawson speculated that he must have committed some of the murders while supposedly working these early morning shifts. She claimed that she had not suspected Ridgway's crimes before he was contacted by authorities in 1987, and in fact had not even heard of the Green River Killer before that time because she didn't watch the news.
Author Pennie Morehead says that when she interviewed Ridgway in prison, he said his urge to kill was reduced while he was in a relationship with Mawson, causing him to commit fewer murders than he otherwise would have, and that he truly loved her. Mawson told a local television reporter, "I feel I have saved lives ... by being his wife and making him happy."
The samples collected in 1987 were later subjected to a DNA analysis, providing the evidence for his arrest warrant
Warrant (law)
Most often, the term warrant refers to a specific type of authorization; a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is...
. On November 30, 2001, Ridgway was at the Kenworth
Kenworth
Kenworth is an American manufacturer of medium and heavy-duty Class 8 trucks based in Kirkland, Washington, United States, a suburb of Seattle. It is a subsidiary of PACCAR, and is also a former manufacturer of transit buses and school buses.-History:...
Truck factory, where he worked as a spray painter, when police arrived to arrest him. Ridgway was arrested on suspicion of murder of four women nearly 20 years after first being identified as a potential suspect when DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
evidence conclusively linked semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
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
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
after a forensic scientist identified microscopic
Microscopic
The microscopic scale is the scale of size or length used to describe objects smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye and which require a lens or microscope to see them clearly.-History:...
spray paint spheres as a specific brand and composition of paint used at the Kenworth factory during the specific time frame when these victims were killed.
Plea bargain, confessions, sentencing
Early in August 2003, Seattle television news reported that Ridgway had been moved from a maximum securityMaximum security prison
Maximum security prison and Supermax are grades of high security level used by prison systems in various countries.*For the United States see Incarceration in the United States#Security levels...
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
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
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
Norm Maleng
Norm Maleng served as the King County, Washington, Prosecutor for 28 years. He was also an architect of Washington's Sentencing Reform Act.-Career:Maleng was born in Acme, Washington, and grew up on a dairy farm...
explained his decision to make the deal:
On December 18, 2003, King County Superior Court
King County Superior Court
King County Superior Court, the largest trial court in Washington state, is based at the King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue, in downtown Seattle, Washington. It also operates a juvenile facility and a Regional Justice Center in Kent, southeast of Seattle....
Judge Richard Jones sentenced Ridgway to 48 life sentences with no possibility of parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
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, the remains of a 16-year-old female found near Enumclaw, Washington
Enumclaw, Washington
Enumclaw is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,669 at the 2010 census.The Enumclaw Plateau, on which the city resides, was formed by a volcanic mudflow from Mount Rainier approximately 5,700 years ago....
, 40 feet from State Route 410
Washington State Route 410
State Route 410 is a long state highway that traverses Pierce, King, and Yakima counties in the U.S. state of Washington. It begins at an interchange with SR 167 in Sumner and travels southeast across the Cascade Range to a junction with U.S. Route 12 in Naches...
, 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
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported that a weekend hiker found the skull
Human skull
The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
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
Northgate Mall (Seattle)
Northgate Mall is a shopping mall in the Northgate district of north urban Seattle, Washington. It is currently anchored by Bed Bath & Beyond, Toys "R" Us, JCPenney, Macy's and Nordstrom.-History:...
on September 12, 1983, was found by a man hiking in a wooded area near Highway 18 near Issaquah
Issaquah, Washington
Issaquah is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 30,434 at the 2010 census.Based on per capita income, Issaquah ranks 25th of 522 areas in the State of Washington to be ranked....
, 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. 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 having had sex with them prior to killing them, a detail which he did not reveal until after his sentencing. In his confession, he acknowledged that he targeted prostitutes because they were "easy to pick up and that he hated most of them." 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 could resist the urge to commit necrophilia
Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia or necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses,It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from the ancient Greek words: νεκρός and φιλία...
.
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
Washington State Penitentiary
Washington State Penitentiary is a Washington State Department of Corrections men's prison located in Walla Walla, Washington...
in Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
.
Victims
Before Ridgway's confession, authorities had attributed 49 murders to the Green River Killer. As mentioned above, Ridgway confessed to murdering as many as 71 victims.Confirmed
At the time of his December 18, 2003 sentencing, authorities had been able to find 48 sets of remains, including victims not originally attributed to the Green River Killer. Ridgway was sentenced for the deaths of each of these 48 victims, with a plea agreement that he would "plead guilty to any and all future cases (in King County) where his confession could be corroborated by reliable evidence."| # | Name | Age | Disappeared | Found |
| 1 | Wendy Lee Coffield | 16 | July 8, 1982 | July 15, 1982 |
| 2 | Gisele Ann Lovvorn | 17 | July 17, 1982 | September 25, 1982 |
| 3 | Debra Lynn Bonner | 23 | July 25, 1982 | August 12, 1982 |
| 4 | Marcia Fay Chapman | 31 | August 1, 1982 | August 15, 1982 |
| 5 | Cynthia Jean Hinds | 17 | August 11, 1982 | August 15, 1982 |
| 6 | Opal Charmaine Mills | 16 | August 12, 1982 | August 15, 1982 |
| 7 | Terry Rene Milligan | 16 | August 29, 1982 | April 1, 1984 |
| 8 | Mary Bridget Meehan | 18 | September 15, 1982 | November 13, 1983 |
| 9 | Debra Lorraine Estes | 15 | September 20, 1982 | May 30, 1988 |
| 10 | Linda Jane Rule | 16 | September 26, 1982 | January 31, 1983 |
| 11 | Denise Darcel Bush | 23 | October 8, 1982 | June 12, 1985 |
| 12 | Shawnda Leea Summers | 16 | October 9, 1982 | August 11, 1983 |
| 13 | Shirley Marie Sherrill | 18 | October 20–22, 1982 | June 1985 |
| 14 | Rebecca "Becky" Marrero | 20 | December 3, 1982 | December 21, 2010 |
| 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 | March 8–14, 1983 | March 31, 1984 |
| 18 | Gail Lynn Mathews | 23 | April 10, 1983 | September 18, 1983 |
| 19 | Andrea M. Childers | 19 | April 14, 1983 | October 11, 1989 |
| 20 | Sandra Kay Gabbert | 17 | April 17, 1983 | April 1, 1984 |
| 21 | Kimi-Kai Pitsor | 16 | April 17, 1983 | December 15, 1983 |
| 22 | Marie M. Malvar | 18 | April 30, 1983 | September 26, 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 Ann Rois | 15 | May 31–June 13, 1983 | March 10, 1985 |
| 28 | Constance Elizabeth Naon | 19 | June 8, 1983 | October 27, 1983 |
| 29 | Kelly Marie Ware | 22 | July 18, 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 Annette 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 | Marta Reeves | 36 | March 5, 1990 | September 20, 1990 |
| 45 | Patricia Yellowrobe | 38 | January 1998 | August 6, 1998 |
| 46 | Unidentified White Female | 12–17 | Died prior to May 1983 | March 21, 1984 |
| 47 | Unidentified Black Female | 18–27 | 1982–1984 | December 30, 1985 |
| 48 | Unidentified White Female | 14–18 | December 1980 – January 1984 | January 2, 1986 |
| 49 | Unidentified Female | 13–24 | 1973–1993 | August 2003 |
- Before Ridgway's confession, authorities had not attributed the Green River Killer with the deaths of victims Rule, Barczak, Hayes, Reeves, Yellowrobe and 'victim 49'.
- Ridgway's confession and directions lead police search crews to find the bodies of Avent, Buttram, and Malvar in August and September 2003.
- On Tuesday, December 21, 2010, hikers near the West Valley Highway in Auburn, WA found a skull in the vicinity of where Marie Malvar's remains were found in 2003. The skull was identified as belonging to Rebecca "Becky" Marrero, who was last seen on December 3, 1982. The King County Prosecutor confirmed that Ridgway would be formally charged with her murder on February 11, 2011. On February 18, 2011, he entered a guilty plea in the murder of Rebecca Marrero, adding a 49th life sentence to his existing 48. Ridgway confessed to murdering Marrero in his original plea bargain, but due to insufficient evidence, the charges could not be filed. Therefore, there is no change in his current incarceration status.
- The remains of Tracy Winston were found, without a skull, in KentKent, WashingtonKent is a city located in King County, Washington, United States, and is the third largest city in King County and the sixth largest in the state. An outlying suburb of Seattle, Kent is also the corporate home for companies such as REI and Oberto Sausage...
's Cottonwood Grove ParkCottonwood Grove ParkCottonwood Grove Park is a .77 acre park in the city of Kent, Washington. It is located on the banks of the Green River off Frager Road, at approximately 238th Ave South....
in March 1986. Winston's skull was found in November 2005 near Tiger Mountain, miles away from the discovery site of the rest of her body. Police assume someone carried it to the location.
Task force victims list
Ridgway is suspected of — but not charged with — murdering the remaining six victims of the original list attributed to the Green River Killer. Either Ridgway did not confess to the victim's death, or authorities have not been able to corroborate with reliable evidence.| Name | Age | Disappeared | Found |
| Amina Agisheff | 35 | July 7, 1982 | April 18, 1984 |
| Kasee Ann Lee (Woods) | 16 | August 28, 1982 | not yet found |
| Tammie Liles | 16 | June 9, 1983 | April 1985 |
| Keli Kay McGinness | 18 | June 28, 1983 | not yet found |
| Angela Marie Girdner | 16 | July 1983 | April 22, 1985 |
| Patricia Osborn | 19? | October 20, 1983? | not yet found |
- Ridgway denied killing Amina Agisheff. Agisheff does not fit the profileVictimologyVictimology is the scientific study of victimization, including the relationships between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system — that is, the police and courts, and corrections officials — and the connections between victims and other social groups...
of any of the victims of the Green River Killer considering her age, and she was not a prostitute or a teenaged runaway. - Although he has never been charged with her murder, Gary Ridgway did confess to killing Kasee 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 that Ridgway indicated.
- Ridgway is a suspect in the death of Tammie Liles. Her body was discovered within a mile of the bodies of known victims Shirley Shirell and Denise Bush. Liles remained unidentified until 1998.
- 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 SeaTacSeaTacSeaTac may refer to:*SeaTac, Washington*Seattle metropolitan area, which includes Tacoma, Washington*Seattle–Tacoma International Airport*Federal Detention Center, SeaTac See also:*Seatack, Virginia...
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 of their similar physiques. - Ridgway is a suspect in the death of Angela Marie Girdner. Her body was discovered within a mile of the bodies of known victims Shirley Shirell and Denise Bush. Girdner remained unidentified until October 2009.
Suspected
Ridgway has been considered a suspect in the disappearances/murders of five other women not attributed at the time to the Green River Killer. No charges have been filed.| Name | Age | Disappeared | Found |
| Kristi Lynn Vorak | 13 | October 31, 1982 | not yet found |
| Patricia Ann Leblanc | 15 | August 12, 1983 | not yet found |
| Rose Marie Kurran | 16 | August 26, 1987 | August 1987 |
| Darci Warde | 16 | April 24, 1990 | not yet found |
| Cora McGuirk | 22 | July 12, 1991 | not yet found |
- Cora McGuirk was the mother of National Basketball AssociationNational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
player Martell WebsterMartell WebsterMartell Webster is an American professional basketball player currently a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA. The 6' 7" , 235 lbs small forward–shooting guard was nicknamed "The Definition" as a play on his surname , given to him by a personal friend...
. McGuirk disappeared when her son was four years old.
Popular culture
- In 2008, the Lifetime Movie NetworkLifetime Movie NetworkLifetime Movie Network is a cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A&E Television Networks, LLC. A&E Television Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corporation and NBCUniversal. LMN offers women-oriented movies...
aired The Capture of the Green River KillerThe Capture of the Green River KillerThe Capture of the Green River Killer is a 2008 2-part TV movie that first aired on Lifetime Television and tells the story of the Green River killer serial murders between 1982 and 1998....
, a TV movie loosely based on his crimes. John PielmeierJohn PielmeierJohn Pielmeier is an American playwright and screenwriter.Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Pielmeier earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Catholic University of America in 1970 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1978...
portrays Ridgway. - The movie Green River Killer was released in 2005.
- Green River was released on May 8, 2008. This nonfiction film closely parallels events with the Green River case. It was directed by Sam Taybi.
- The TV series Crimes That Shook the WorldCrimes That Shook the WorldCrimes That Shook the World is a 2006 Discovery Channel television series.-External links:* *...
featured Gary Ridgway in a biography (starring Frank Violi) (narration by Tim Pigott-SmithTim Pigott-SmithTim Pigott-Smith is an English film and television actor.-Early life:Pigott-Smith was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, the son of Margaret Muriel and Harry Thomas Pigott-Smith, who was a journalist. He was educated at Wyggeston Boys' School, Leicester, King Edward VI School Stratford-upon-Avon, and...
) of the Green River Killer. - The Seattle grungeGrungeGrunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
band Green RiverGreen River (band)Green River was an American rock band from Seattle, Washington that was active from 1984 to 1988. Although the band had little commercial impact outside of its native Seattle, Green River proved to have significant influence on the genre later known as grunge, both with its own music and with the...
was named after the Green River Killer, who was, at the time, at large. Green River song "Ozzie" references the killer directly. - The Julie RuinJulie RuinJulie Ruin is the independent record produced by Kathleen Hanna under the name Julie Ruin in 1997, while taking a break from Bikini Kill. It touches upon feminism, crocheting, aerobics and resisting police abuse. It was mostly produced in Kathleen's apartment in Olympia, Washington...
song "I Wanna Know What Love Is" references the Green River Killer. - Aggrotech group Combichrist made mention of Ridgway in their song "God Bless."
- The Jakprogresso song "Dumpsites" references Gary Ridgway.
- The song "Deep Red Bells" by Neko CaseNeko CaseNeko Case is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her solo career and her contributions as a member of the Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers....
was inspired by her growing up as a teenager in the area during the time of the murders.
In addition to movies, many books have been written about the Green River murders and Gary Ridgway himself. Along with these known novels, there are countless numbers of books that Green River killings are featured in. Renown thriller novelist Ann Rule
Ann Rule
Ann Rule is an American true crime writer.-Personal life:Ann Rule was born on October 22, 1935 in Lowell, Michigan to Chester R. "Stack" Stackhouse and Sophie Hansen. Her mother was a school teacher, specializing in developmentally disabled children and her father was a basketball, football and...
wrote Green River, Running Red. Others include The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer by Robert D. Keppel
Robert D. Keppel
Robert David Keppel is a retired American law enforcement officer and detective best known for his work investigating serial killers Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway.-Early life:...
; Chasing the Devil by Sheriff David Reichert; Case of the Green River Killer by Diane Yancey; Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer by Mark Prothero
Mark Prothero
Mark W. Prothero is an American attorney in Washington State. He gained widespread attention after serving as the lead defense counsel for confessed serial killer Gary Ridgway, who is better known as the Green River Killer...
with help from Carlton Smith; Search for the Green River Killer by Carlton Smith with help from Tom Guillen; Green River Serial Killer: Biography of an Unsuspecting Wife by Pennie Morehead, telling the story of his third wife and her struggles with the truth; The Green River Killer by the King County Journal Staff; Serial Killers: Issues Explored Through Green River Murders by Tomas Guillen; and a graphic novel, Green River Killer by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case.