The next serial killer we will be writing is Gary Ridgeway, The Green River Killer. He now has 49 confirmed kills. This number makes him one of the most prolific serial killers in United States History. I am really interested in hearing what he has to say. I started off the pen pal project by asking these guys to be a part of the project, allowing me to open their letters live on camera for all of you to hear, but giving them the choice to make their letters private. We will see what come of this, but it would be great to be able to correspond to as many of them as I can.
Gary Ridgeway was born on February 8, 1949, in Salt lake City Utah, making him a member of the Baby Boomers generation. He was born as the second son of Mary and Thomas Ridgeway, who ended with three sons in total. It is said that his childhood was rife with troubles, as he was a bed wetter born to a domineering mother. When he wet the bed, she would wash his genitals. Ridgeway is said to have a low IQ, and dyslexia which made for poor performance in school.
His childhood years, due to his mother's actions, confused him to the point that he teetered between having sexual feelings for his mother and wanting to kill her. He wet the bed, and each time until he was 13, she would inappropriately was his genitals. His first attempt at murder happened when he was only 16, where he stabbed a 6 year old boy. He was unsuccessful. He did go on to graduate high school in 1969, but not without being held back a year for his grades.
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| Gary Ridgway 1982 photo credit Wikipedia |
After graduation he married his high school girlfriend, Claudia Kraig. Ridgeway, then joined the Navy on a supply ship, where he did see some combat in Vietnam. While away in Vietnam, he managed to catch gonorrhea from prostitutes there. His first marriage fell apart within the first year due to his infidelity and probably the strain of him being away.
After leaving the Navy, Ridgeway made his home in the Seattle area of Washington. He remarried , and worked for a truck factory. He married a total of 3 times, and infidelity was a problem on both sides of the marriages. During his time with his second wife, and throughout the rest of his killing days, he had become extremely religious, including going door to door to spread the word. He also had a son with his second wife. People that knew him would describe him as very religious and his wives have described his sexual appetite as insatiable. He was also recorded to have an extremely low IQ,
Ridgway's killings began in 1983and continued on throughout the 1990's. His victims were mostly prostitutes and runaways, both making him an opportunistic killer, and a smart enough one to know that missing runaways and sex workers cases were rarely taken seriously by law enforcement . He earned the name the Green River Killer due to the location of his dump sites, along the Green River in Washington. He would troll for victims along the Pacific Highway that ran along the South.
Another thing about Gary Ridgway is that he practiced in necrophilia and would often revisit his victims to have sex. He admitted that having sex with his dead victims was not really ideal but did so to alleviate the stress of needing a new victim. Unlike Ted Bundy, who would rather have sex with his dead victims, Ridgeway used it as a means to evade getting caught, as those nights did not produce new victims.
He would get his victims to trust him enough to have sex, and once the act was underway he would grab them from behind and strangle them. One of the reasons he is considered one of America's prolific serial killers is that by the time he was caught in 2001, he was suspected of killing upwards of 70 victims, and his time between kills ranged between three victims going missing in just one day, to three years apart. He was originally convicted of 48 murders, with a 49th added later. He was said to have indicated that there were enough victims for him to lose count of the number.
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| Ridgway Booking Photo photo credit Wikipedia |
Upon examination of Ridgway's modus operandi it is evident that he would be labeled a sociopath, instead of a psychopath. The difference between the two classifications of antisocial personality disorder are pretty slim, but hinge on the organized serial killer and the disorganized one. BTK, Dennis Rader would have been considered an organized killer because of the care and planning he took before committing each murder. Gary Ridgway would be considered unorganized as he used his own body to kill his victims, and relied on easy targets of opportunity like prostitutes and runaways to fill his morbid needs. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say in his letters to say the least.
Tikkanen, A. (2021, May 27). Gary Ridgway. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gary-Ridgway
Wikipedia, (nd). Gary Ridgway. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ridgway#Confirmed
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