Criminal Profile: Gary RidgwayGARY RIDGWAY Green River killer Gary Leon Ridgway seen at an unknown location. Photo by King County Prosecutor's Officer via Getty Images.
By Chris Opfer He claimed he murdered prostitutes because he thought he could get away with the crimes -- and for nearly two decades, Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, did. Ridgway murdered at least 49 people in and around Washington state's King County, a number that, according to CNN, makes him the most prolific known serial killer in American history. Early Troubles Born in Salt Lake City in 1949, Ridgway's family moved to the state of Washington in 1958. In the prosecution’s summary of evidence, Ridgway told investigators he was sexually attracted to his mother and also fantasized about killing her. While in his mid-teens, he approached a first-grader on a street corner and stabbed him in his side without provocation. Ridgway joined the Navy in 1969 and visited a prostitute for the first time while serving a tour in Vietnam -- it was a practice he would continue. Court records show that during his second marriage, he tried to strangle his wife with his bare hands. He also said he might have committed his first murder sometime in the 1970s, though the claim has not been confirmed. In July 1982, the bodies of Ridgway's first victims were discovered in and around Washington's Green River, prompting authorities to dub the then-anonymous culprit the Green River Killer. Ridgway approached prostitutes and runaways along a segment of Pacific Highway South near his King County home. He would typically have sex with the women, kill them via strangulation and dump their bodies. He murdered at his greatest frequency in 1983, killing at least 24 women that year alone. According to Ridgway's statement, filed with the Superior Court of Washington for King County, he targeted prostitutes because he thought their disappearances would go unreported. The prosecutor's summary of evidence says Ridgway partially blamed his 1981 divorce from his second wife for the killings, though a New York Times article indicates that Ridgway's last confirmed murder took place in 1998 — well into his third marriage. |
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