The Most Prolific Killer in History Confesses
Geoffrey Oldmixon
Issue date: 11/20/03 Section: Campus News
"Choking is what I did and I was pretty good at it." This what the most prolific murderer in U.S. history said to the courts in October. Pleading guilty to 48 murders, Gary Leon Ridgeway claimed the name Seattle has given its plaguing serial homicidal maniac for twenty years - the Green River Killer.
Since 1982, Ridgeway lured young women - mostly prostitutes and runaways - into his truck, forced sex upon them and strangled them to death. He then dumped their bodies in what he called "clusters."
"I did this," he told authorities, "because I wanted to keep track of the women I killed. I liked to drive by the clusters around the county and think about the women I placed there." Alongside railroad tracks, rivers, ravines, airports, and freeways, Ridgeway's victims laid for years and, in some cases, decades. In a statement to investigators, Ridgeway admitted to returning to these sites not only to view the corpses but in some cases, to have sex with the expired bodies.
Like many serial killers, Gary Ridgeway seemed to be for the most part a normal man. He had a son, had been married, owned a home, and held the same job painting trucks for 32 years. While some suspected that he had a devious side, few knew how violent Ridgeway really was.
The majority of the Green River murders took place between the years of 1982 and 1984. Because Ridgeway's victims began to turn up in or around Green River in King County, south of Seattle, the name Green River Killer was used. In 1984, the killing subsided coinciding with Ridgeway being named as a suspect in the Marie Malvar case. Malvar's boyfriend witnessed the young woman getting into Ridgeway's truck. It was the last time that she was seen. Gary Ridgeway was questioned using a polygraph test. He passed the lie detector and was released. More killings occurred years later in 1986, 1990, 1998, and, by Ridgeway's own account, 2001.
"I picked prostitutes," the killer wrote, "because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught." Ridgeway considered killing his "career." Although Ridgeway confessed to 48 murders this month, he has made statements with numbers as high as 60.
Since 1982, Ridgeway lured young women - mostly prostitutes and runaways - into his truck, forced sex upon them and strangled them to death. He then dumped their bodies in what he called "clusters."
"I did this," he told authorities, "because I wanted to keep track of the women I killed. I liked to drive by the clusters around the county and think about the women I placed there." Alongside railroad tracks, rivers, ravines, airports, and freeways, Ridgeway's victims laid for years and, in some cases, decades. In a statement to investigators, Ridgeway admitted to returning to these sites not only to view the corpses but in some cases, to have sex with the expired bodies.
Like many serial killers, Gary Ridgeway seemed to be for the most part a normal man. He had a son, had been married, owned a home, and held the same job painting trucks for 32 years. While some suspected that he had a devious side, few knew how violent Ridgeway really was.
The majority of the Green River murders took place between the years of 1982 and 1984. Because Ridgeway's victims began to turn up in or around Green River in King County, south of Seattle, the name Green River Killer was used. In 1984, the killing subsided coinciding with Ridgeway being named as a suspect in the Marie Malvar case. Malvar's boyfriend witnessed the young woman getting into Ridgeway's truck. It was the last time that she was seen. Gary Ridgeway was questioned using a polygraph test. He passed the lie detector and was released. More killings occurred years later in 1986, 1990, 1998, and, by Ridgeway's own account, 2001.
"I picked prostitutes," the killer wrote, "because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught." Ridgeway considered killing his "career." Although Ridgeway confessed to 48 murders this month, he has made statements with numbers as high as 60.