Gary Ridgway
Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949) is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders committed between the early 1980s and late 1990s. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49, making him the second-most prolific serial killer in United States history according to confirmed murders.
Gary Ridgway | |
|---|---|
Ridgway's mugshot, November 2001 | |
| Born | Gary Leon Ridgway February 18, 1949 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
| Other names | The Green River Killer |
| Spouses | Claudia Kraig Barrows
(m. 1970; div. 1972)Marcia Lorene Brown
(m. 1973; div. 1981)Judith Lorraine Lynch
(m. 1988; div. 2002) |
| Children | 1 |
| Conviction(s) |
|
| Criminal penalty | 49 life sentences without the possibility of parole |
| Details | |
| Victims | 49 convicted, 71–90+ confessed and suspected |
Span of crimes | 1982–1998 confirmed (possibly as recent as 2001) |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Washington, Oregon |
Date apprehended | November 30, 2001 |
| Imprisoned at | Washington State Penitentiary, Walla Walla, Washington |
Most of Ridgway's victims were alleged to be sex workers and other women in vulnerable circumstances, including underage runaways. Before his identity was known, the media gave him his nickname after the first five victims were found in the Green River. He strangled his victims, usually by hand but sometimes using ligatures. After strangling them, he would dump their bodies in forested and overgrown areas in King County, often returning to the bodies to engage in acts of necrophilia.
Ridgway had been a suspect in the murders since 1982 when he was arrested for prostitution; however, investigators were unable to link him to the murders at that time. Later advances in DNA profiling allowed investigators to definitively link Ridgway to the murders, and he was arrested on November 30, 2001, as he was leaving the Kenworth truck factory where he worked in Renton, Washington. As part of a plea bargain wherein he agreed to disclose the locations of still-missing women, he was spared the death penalty and received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.