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A serial killer is often thought of as someone “who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern.” “Serial killers tend to be white, heterosexual males in their twenties or thirties who are sexually dysfunctional and have low self-esteem.” The requirement to be considered a serial killer is to have killed more than one person. Taking one’s life is a huge crime as each one makes a large difference in the world. Gary Ridgway claimed to have taken 70-80 lives, although only 49 of these have been confirmed and sentenced.
People’s lives are always influenced by the environment of their childhood. Ridgway was born on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He had a hard time in school growing up due to having dyslexia and an IQ in the low eighties. At 11 years old he moved to Washington. This could have affected his personality, leading to when his friends and family stated he was “quiet and forgettable.” He peed in his bed until age 13 and afterward his mom would wash his personal area by hand, which aroused him, causing him to have sexual and violent fantasies about her. This was a precursor to his killings and sex crave. Gary Ridgway grew up as the middle child of three kids and his parents often had violent arguments. At age 16, Ridgway took a six-year-old boy into the woods and stabbed him through the ribs and into the liver. The boy survived and said that Ridgway walked away laughing and saying, “I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone.” This could have been his way of releasing his violent fantasies about his mother, or it could have been symbolic for him defending his mom against his dad in one of their fights.
As Ridgway grew older, he finished high school and married his girlfriend when he was 21. He then joined the Navy and got sent off to Vietnam. While there, he started sleeping with prostitutes and contracted gonorrhea. This did not bother him, and he continued to have unprotected sex with prostitutes. His first marriage ended because both of the partners slept with other people, and it ended within its first year. Ridgway’s second marriage was when he was very religious. He would cry at sermons and read the Bible out loud wherever he was, however, he continued to sleep with prostitutes. He would also make his wife have sex with him in public and inappropriate places, such as the woods where his murder victims were later found. They had a child, Matthew, together in 1975. She claimed that he had placed her in a chokehold, after all of the strange things that happened during this marriage, it ended in divorce because both partners cheated. He married his third wife in 1988 after he was already a suspect in the killings. Gary Ridgway had sex several times a day in every relationship, in public or the woods. He had a love/hate relationship with sex workers because he hated them being in the neighborhood but he called on them for sex a lot. He painted trucks for 30 years although he later stated that murdering young women was his career.
Society typically deems serial killers as mentally ill people to try to somewhat justify or try to understand what and why they did what they did. Although Ridgway was never officially diagnosed, many specialists have observed him and suspect that he has Antisocial Personality Disorder, psychopathic personality traits, and atypical paraphilia, meaning he has high gratuitous and sadistic violence. He has never been officially diagnosed, meaning that it is unknown, but unlikely, that he has received treatment for it. This may make it easier for some to comprehend why he felt the need to do what he did.
“Beginning in 1982, young runaways and prostitutes began disappearing from Washington State Route 99 in South King County, Washington.” Ridgway picked up women and would attempt to gain their trust by showing them an image of his son. He would have sex with her and then strangle her from behind, this often occurred in his house, truck, or a secluded area. He would strangle her with his hands and any wounds he had from the girls would be covered up by excuses about work, etc. Sometimes he would have to switch to using ligatures. He would then leave them in a woodsy and remote area and would return later to have sex with the corpse until it began to rot. He explained later that he did not find necrophilia sexually satisfying but this merely decreased his need to have sex with someone living, therefore reducing the risk of him being caught. The first few bodies turned up along the Green River, leaving the media to deem him the “Green River Killer.”
Ridgway was arrested on November 30, 2001, for four murders of women whose cases were linked to him through DNA evidence. The first officer on the case decided to re-examine evidence using new DNA technology, and after the match was confirmed between Ridgway’s saliva collected in 1987, and evidence off of the victims, he was charged with four counts of aggravated first-degree murder. He had a plea bargain that spared him the death penalty if he agreed to share the locations of missing women, but Ridgway continued to have life imprisonment without the chance of parole. He eventually pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder between the confirmed years of 1982-1998 but potentially until 2001. Ridgway confessed to 70-80 murders along Route 99 in South King County, Washington, but pleaded guilty to 48, he stated that at some point he had killed so many that he lost count. Most of the murders occurred between 1982 and 1984 coming to 42 murders over 3 years, the majority of which were prostitutes or runaways and left naked.
Ridgway was first brought in for questioning in 1983 because one of the victims was seen in a truck that looked like his before she was discovered, but was cleared when he passed a polygraph test in 1984. Police collected hair and saliva samples in 1987 from Ridgway, and semen, saliva, and spray paint off of the victims. The DNA test was a match and the spray paint composition matched Ridgway’s special spray paint from his job. He was also arrested in 1982 and 2001 in relation to prostitution. While being interviewed, Ted Bundy suggested that Ridgway could be revisiting the bodies for sex, which turned out to be true, and if they found a fresh grave they should stake it out and expect him to come back.
Congressman Dave Reichert was assigned to the first Green River Killer’s murder. When he showed up to the site, he was only 45 minutes behind Ridgway, however, it took them 19 more years to be able to catch him. Ridgway was apologetic and cried but was just found to be filled with arrogance and hatred, therefore, able to withstand trial. He was eventually convicted and had 48 life sentences without the possibility of parole with one consecutive life sentence added in 2011. Along with the murders, he tampered with evidence for 48 murders, adding 10 years each for a total of 480 years onto the pre-existing 49 life sentences. Ridgway is now 70 years old, in USP Florence in Colorado. He will no doubt be spending the rest of his life in jail.
In conclusion, Gary Leon Ridgway had a low IQ but somehow managed to outsmart the police for 20 years and 70-80 murders. He moved a few of the bodies to Oregon to try to confuse officials. Ridgway was the classic serial killer type, he was in his early thirties when he started killing, he had a violent and embarrassing childhood, and he was sexually driven. He is a white, heterosexual male and was described as being quiet. Being quiet can sometimes be perceived as having low self-esteem, which is another classic serial killer characteristic. The ages of the victims ranged from 13-38, however, most of the victims were in their early twenties.
Ridgway did turn out to be apologetic and sorry for what he had done but he kept going for 20 years. This shows that not all serial killers are stone cold and have no emotion, however, this was planned out over the years and not one impulsive time. The fact that he killed young women could have been him projecting his feelings about his mother toward others that he did not feel emotionally attached to.
Ridgway was not solely focused on murdering women. Although he did consider it to be his true career, he loved his child and third wife. He would show women a picture of his son to try to gain their trust but part of him must have thought it was a good idea because he was proud of his son. He knew in his heart that they would love his son, just as he does. He had murdered a lot of people but while he was married to his third wife, he only killed 3 people. Ridgway was married to her for 17 years and she never saw any signs that would show her he was not authentic. This shows how scary the world can be. We could be in classes with these people or even married to them for years, and never know that they are not who they say they are.
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