Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Mega Edition: Gary Ridgway And The Green River Murders (Part 5-8) (9/21/26)

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Mega Edition: Gary Ridgway And The Green River Murders (Part 5-8) (9/21/26) · Beyond The Horizon

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
0:03
Speaker 1: this episode, we're getting back to the evidence compiled against
0:07
Speaker 1: Gary Ridgway. D, necrophilia. In 1986, the only known survivor
0:13
Speaker 1: of an attack by the Green River Killer described her
0:16
Speaker 1: experience to a task force detective, Rebecca Garday-Guay, who Ridgway
0:21
Speaker 1: admitted in 2003 he attempted to murder, recounted that although
0:25
Speaker 1: Ridgway took her into the woods for a date and
0:28
Speaker 1: removed all his clothing... He had no apparent sexual interest
0:31
Speaker 1: in her at all and showed no signs of sexual arousal.
0:35
Speaker 1: Rebecca said she could not even understand why he had
0:38
Speaker 1: removed his clothes. Then he attacked her. At that point,
0:41
Speaker 1: she said his personality clicked. His face looked white, clammy
0:46
Speaker 1: and cold. His arms and everything was cold, his hands,
0:50
Speaker 1: he was a totally different person, and he kind of
0:52
Speaker 1: made me think that if he did kill me, since
0:55
Speaker 1: he wasn't interested in me sexually before that, he probably
0:58
Speaker 1: would have tried to have intercourse if I was dead. Initially,
1:02
Speaker 1: Ridgeway adamantly denied having post-mortem sexual contact with women. A
1:07
Speaker 1: few days into the interview's process, he acknowledged that he
1:10
Speaker 1: might have ejaculated right after choking them to death, A
1:14
Speaker 1: few days later, he admitted that he had post-mortem intercourse
1:18
Speaker 1: with some of his victims. Soon thereafter, he admitted that
1:21
Speaker 1: a few of these women had been decomposed enough that
1:24
Speaker 1: maggots had begun to appear on their bodies. Ridgway described
1:28
Speaker 1: his feelings about having sex with one of the dead victims.
1:32
Speaker 1: That would be a good day. An evening or after
1:35
Speaker 1: I got off work and go have sex with her.
1:38
Speaker 1: And that'd last for one or two days till the
1:42
Speaker 1: flies came. And then I'd bury them and cover them up.
1:45
Speaker 1: Then I'd look for another. Sometimes I killed one one
1:48
Speaker 1: day and I killed one the next day. There wouldn't
1:50
Speaker 1: be no reason to go back. Ridgway's desire for sexual
1:54
Speaker 1: intercourse with a corpse was apparently so strong that he
1:57
Speaker 1: would engage in risky behavior to accomplish it. Ridgway described
2:02
Speaker 1: an occasion where he drove back to visit the body
2:04
Speaker 1: of a woman he had killed with his son in
2:06
Speaker 1: the truck. While his son slept in the truck, Ridgway
2:09
Speaker 1: got out, had intercourse with the body some 30 feet away,
2:13
Speaker 1: and returned to the truck. Ridgway assured the detectives that
2:16
Speaker 1: his son was a hard sleeper. Ridgway claimed that he
2:20
Speaker 1: only had post-mortem sex with 10 or so of his victims,
2:23
Speaker 1: but as he explained to a psychiatrist, this was partly
2:26
Speaker 1: a matter of convenience because their bodies were close to
2:29
Speaker 1: his home. Ridgway's motives for post-mortem intercourse were, according to him, simple.
2:35
Speaker 1: Just wanted sex, and it was free. I didn't have
2:38
Speaker 1: to pay for it. I killed her. Ridgway implied that
2:41
Speaker 1: having sexual intercourse with a dead woman was not his preference. Rather,
2:44
Speaker 1: it was a matter of economics and convenience. D.R. What
2:49
Speaker 1: was it about having sex with a dead body that
2:52
Speaker 1: you preferred over just going out and getting another woman
2:55
Speaker 1: to kill? Ridgway. Well, for one thing, you'd have to
2:59
Speaker 1: pay for it, and she was already dead. Investigator. So
3:02
Speaker 1: you weren't going to be paying for it if you
3:05
Speaker 1: went out to get another woman, you killed her, you
3:07
Speaker 1: weren't going to be paying. Ridgway. That's why I spent
3:10
Speaker 1: hours looking, looking and looking for other women to kill,
3:13
Speaker 1: and a lot of gas and everything, looking for more
3:15
Speaker 1: people to kill. Ridgway admitted that it was more difficult
3:19
Speaker 1: for him to reach climax with a cold dead body
3:22
Speaker 1: than with a live victim. Eventually, Ridgway said, he stopped
3:25
Speaker 1: having sex with his victims after killing them because it
3:28
Speaker 1: became less satisfying. Investigator, you wanted a fresh kill, Ridgway?
3:33
Speaker 1: Something fresh instead of someone who is cold and hard
3:36
Speaker 1: to get a hard on with a cold body. Ridgway
3:39
Speaker 1: described one episode where he killed a woman in the
3:41
Speaker 1: back of his truck, then drove to work. At lunch,
3:44
Speaker 1: he said he drove the back to the site where
3:47
Speaker 1: he had dated her earlier with the body still in
3:49
Speaker 1: the back of the truck and had intercourse with the
3:51
Speaker 1: body in the back of the truck. Then he drove
3:54
Speaker 1: back to work with the body still in the truck.
3:57
Speaker 1: Ridgway did not seem to spend much time reflecting upon
4:00
Speaker 1: his own motives. When asked, for example, why he inserted
4:04
Speaker 1: rocks into two women's vaginas after he had killed them,
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Speaker 1: He replied by saying that the rocks were there. On
4:10
Speaker 1: another occasion, Ridgway seemed to suggest that he inserted the
4:13
Speaker 1: rocks to plug up his victims. According to Ridgway's second wife,
4:17
Speaker 1: he had threatened to sew up her vagina to prevent
4:19
Speaker 1: her from having an affair. The full extent of Ridgway's
4:22
Speaker 1: activities with his victims' bodies will likely never be known. Certainly,
4:27
Speaker 1: the interviews provided hints that Ridgway may have experimented with
4:32
Speaker 1: inserting other items into the vaginas of the women he killed. Otherwise,
4:36
Speaker 1: Ridgway only admitted that he could not deny that he
4:39
Speaker 1: placed the rocks in the vaginas of Marsha Chapman and
4:43
Speaker 1: Cynthia Hines. E. Disposing of the Bodies Ridgway claimed that
4:48
Speaker 1: he remembered few personal details about his victims, but one
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Speaker 1: thing he seemed to remember quite well, where he placed
4:54
Speaker 1: the bodies. He resented having to dispose of his victims
4:58
Speaker 1: after killing them. Ridgway, I have a burden of having
5:01
Speaker 1: to find a place to put it. The detective, you
5:04
Speaker 1: have a burden? Ridgeway, a burden, yes. Ridgeway claimed that
5:08
Speaker 1: when he killed a woman in his house, he quickly
5:10
Speaker 1: disposed of her body, usually within half an hour of
5:13
Speaker 1: killing her. In particular, Ridgeway said he had to be
5:16
Speaker 1: careful moving the victims out of his house. Ridgeway dragged
5:20
Speaker 1: the bodies through his house on a rug or a
5:23
Speaker 1: sheet of plastic. Soon, this became a routine. The girl's
5:27
Speaker 1: in the bedroom and then I pull her off the
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Speaker 1: bed to the rug and grab her by the feet
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Speaker 1: and I drag her around the corner so it was
5:34
Speaker 1: easy on the plastic because it slid so easy and
5:37
Speaker 1: I could wrap the plastic around her and take her
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Speaker 1: out that way. He would back his truck right up
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Speaker 1: to the door of his house, open the tailgate and
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Speaker 1: load the body into the back and close the canopy.
5:47
Speaker 1: Ridgway said he would unscrew the light by the window
5:50
Speaker 1: in his kitchen door during this process. Once, he said,
5:53
Speaker 1: he sneaked the body inside out of his house in
5:55
Speaker 1: his son's footlocker. Most of Ridgway's victims were naked when
5:59
Speaker 1: he dumped their bodies. He explained that he did so
6:02
Speaker 1: to get rid of any personal evidence that might be
6:05
Speaker 1: on them, and that he never kept any of their clothing.
6:07
Speaker 1: They were just rags to me, just rags. In addition
6:10
Speaker 1: to their clothes, Ridgway almost always stripped his victims of
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Speaker 1: their jewelry. Ridgway explained that this was his routine. They die,
6:18
Speaker 1: I take their jewelry. Ridgway said that he left some
6:22
Speaker 1: 20 or more items of jewelry he had taken from
6:24
Speaker 1: his victims in women's bathrooms at the Kenworth truck plant
6:28
Speaker 1: where he worked. He got certain thrills thinking about women
6:32
Speaker 1: at work wearing the jewelry. And my favorite thing was
6:34
Speaker 1: maybe if someone's walking around with a piece of that
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Speaker 1: jewelry that they found in the bathroom. Ridgway explained the
6:40
Speaker 1: simple but effective method of dumping the bodies. He would drive,
6:44
Speaker 1: usually at night, to a secluded spot, park his truck,
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Speaker 1: and quickly pull the body out of the vehicle and
6:50
Speaker 1: dump it just off the roadway. Then he would drive
6:52
Speaker 1: up the road and park just far enough away from
6:55
Speaker 1: the body so that if a vehicle was approached by
6:57
Speaker 1: a police officer, the body would not be discovered. Then,
7:00
Speaker 1: making sure no motorist would see him, he would walk
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Speaker 1: back through the woods to the body and drag it
7:06
Speaker 1: farther from the road. Ridgway was concerned that a victim
7:09
Speaker 1: might regain consciousness while he transported the body in the
7:12
Speaker 1: back of his pickup truck. He tied ligatures around the
7:15
Speaker 1: necks of some of these victims before putting them in
7:17
Speaker 1: the truck, and he would watch his mirror for any
7:20
Speaker 1: signs of movement. Of all of his secrets, the most
7:23
Speaker 1: precious to Ridgway were the as-yet-undiscovered bodies of his victims.
7:28
Speaker 1: When talking to a forensic psychologist, Ridgway explained what a
7:32
Speaker 1: victim's body meant to him. Ridgway, she meant A beautiful person,
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Speaker 1: that was my property, my possession. Psychologist, how did you feel, Gary,
7:41
Speaker 1: back in the 80s when the bodies were found and
7:43
Speaker 1: taken away by those times they were discovered? How did
7:47
Speaker 1: that make you feel? Ridgeway, it felt like they were
7:50
Speaker 1: taking something of mine that I put there. Ridgeway's sense
7:54
Speaker 1: of ownership and his need to retain possessions of these
7:56
Speaker 1: bodies drove him to pin his third river victim beneath
7:59
Speaker 1: the surface of the Green River. It was an ordeal
8:02
Speaker 1: to hold the body at the bottom of the river.
8:04
Speaker 1: and cover it with large rocks, but Ridgway did so
8:07
Speaker 1: because you had already found two of them by then,
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Speaker 1: and I wasn't going to let this other get away.
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Speaker 1: Ridgway told a defense psychiatrist about a recurring dream he
8:16
Speaker 1: had about being unable to recall the location of one
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Speaker 1: of his bodies and thereby losing control of her. I
8:23
Speaker 1: had control of her when I killed her, and I
8:25
Speaker 1: had control over her if she wasn't already found. I'd
8:28
Speaker 1: have control over her where she was still in my possession.
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Speaker 1: Ridgway explained to a detective why he had elected to
8:35
Speaker 1: take the drastic step of transporting victims' remains to Oregon
8:39
Speaker 1: to throw off the task force, because the bodies were
8:42
Speaker 1: already being found and I didn't want any more to
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Speaker 1: be found. Prosecutors and detectives had speculated for years about
8:49
Speaker 1: the significance of the positions in which the Green River
8:52
Speaker 1: Killer had left bodies of some of his victims. They
8:55
Speaker 1: appeared deliberately posed on their backs with their legs spread
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Speaker 1: in unnatural positions. This mystery was resolved when Ridgway acknowledged
9:03
Speaker 1: that he had post-mortem intercourse with a number of his
9:05
Speaker 1: victims and often had to forcibly spread their legs apart
9:09
Speaker 1: to accomplish this. Ridgway simply left the victims in the
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Speaker 1: position as they were when he was done with them.
9:16
Speaker 1: Ridgway explained that he covered many of the victims with brush, branches,
9:19
Speaker 1: or whatever was at hand. Sometimes this was just miscellaneous debris,
9:24
Speaker 1: Ridgway said. She's garbage, so I put stuff over her
9:27
Speaker 1: that was garbage. Ridgeway buried only a few of his victims,
9:31
Speaker 1: at least the ones that have been found. He explained
9:34
Speaker 1: that he placed some of them in shallow graves because
9:37
Speaker 1: he continued to use the general area, South Airport, to
9:40
Speaker 1: date prostitutes and did not want the smell of decomposing
9:43
Speaker 1: victims to lead to their discovery. Ridgeway appeared to favor
9:47
Speaker 1: dump sites that were remote, heavily wooded, and steep. Many
9:51
Speaker 1: of the victims' bodies were found in locations where a
9:54
Speaker 1: person casually walking by would not discover them. At some
9:57
Speaker 1: of these sites, detectives used ropes to lower them to
10:00
Speaker 1: the remains and to recover them. Ridgway explained to the
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Speaker 1: detectives how he managed to take the bodies down the slopes.
10:07
Speaker 1: I'd have one hand on her leg, using the tree
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Speaker 1: for stable. To keep me stable, wrap my arm around
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Speaker 1: a tree and pull her down. Go another place and
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Speaker 1: put my arm around another tree, grab a bush and
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Speaker 1: hold onto it while I'm pulling her down. Ridgway was
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Speaker 1: asked if he was ever injured while killing or disposing
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Speaker 1: of a victim. He acknowledged that he had reported some
10:26
Speaker 1: injuries such as shoulder pain to the infirmary at work.
10:30
Speaker 1: If I got hurt like pulling her because of her
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Speaker 1: weight and it bothered me, I just blame it on
10:34
Speaker 1: work so State Industrial pays for it. Prosecutors and detectives
10:39
Speaker 1: had long noticed that the Green River Killer would often
10:42
Speaker 1: dump consecutive bodies at different sites and wondered if there
10:45
Speaker 1: was some method to Ridgway's decision to dump a body
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Speaker 1: at one site or another. Ridgway said his decision on
10:51
Speaker 1: what site to use was random, but later explained he
10:54
Speaker 1: did not want to frequent one site consecutively for fear
10:57
Speaker 1: that he would be seen and associated with it. At
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Speaker 1: any given site, Ridgway explained why he did not dump
11:04
Speaker 1: the bodies in the same place. The reason why I
11:07
Speaker 1: put them so far apart is because if I wanted
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Speaker 1: to go back, there wouldn't be any smell. Ridgway complained
11:13
Speaker 1: about the time and the cost of moving the victims' bodies.
11:16
Speaker 1: I had to take them all the way out there.
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Speaker 1: Waste all of my time and my gas? He suggested
11:21
Speaker 1: that he might have killed more women if disposing of
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Speaker 1: the bodies had not been so much trouble. Then, if
11:28
Speaker 1: I could take them and drop them in the bottomless
11:30
Speaker 1: mine shaft, every one of them, I would have had
11:33
Speaker 1: a much clearer mind. At killing more women, not spending
11:36
Speaker 1: the time finding locations was a big burden. It took
11:40
Speaker 1: time away from the killings. Ridgway confirmed what investigators and
11:44
Speaker 1: prosecutors had long speculated. He often placed the bodies near
11:48
Speaker 1: physical objects visible from a distance, large trees, guardrails, hills,
11:53
Speaker 1: large fallen logs, which served as landmarks. It was useful
11:57
Speaker 1: for Ridgway to put his victims at dump sites for
11:59
Speaker 1: another reason. It made it easier for him to determine
12:03
Speaker 1: whether or not the bodies had been discovered and thereafter
12:06
Speaker 1: to avoid those sites. Clusters so I won't forget where
12:09
Speaker 1: they are. So I've done it before. And it's just easy.
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Speaker 1: When I drive by and think somebody's been, you know,
12:16
Speaker 1: found them, then I would stay away from them. All right,
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Speaker 1: we're going to wrap up this episode right here. And
12:21
Speaker 1: in the next episode, dealing with the topic, we're going
12:24
Speaker 1: to pick up with F, avoiding detection. All of the
12:27
Speaker 1: information that goes with this episode can be found in
12:30
Speaker 1: the description box. What's up, everyone? And welcome back to
12:34
Speaker 1: the program. In this episode, we're picking up where we
12:37
Speaker 1: left off with the evidence against Gary Ridgway, the Green
12:40
Speaker 1: River Killer, F. Avoiding detection. Ridgway's success at eluding police
12:46
Speaker 1: can be attributed in part to his remarkable ability to
12:49
Speaker 1: remain silent. For decades, Ridgway gave no one who knew him, relatives, spouses, girlfriends, co-workers, acquaintances,
12:59
Speaker 1: any hint that he was a murderer. Until his arrest
13:02
Speaker 1: in 2001, it seems Ridgway told absolutely no one that
13:05
Speaker 1: he had killed. And he never anticipated he would find
13:09
Speaker 1: himself in a situation where he would divulge his secrets.
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Speaker 1: He believed he would never be caught. 1. Being careful
13:16
Speaker 1: Ridgeway was extremely careful. Every step of the killing process,
13:19
Speaker 1: from picking up his victims to disposing of them, was
13:23
Speaker 1: deliberately calculated to reduce the risk of detection. Ridgeway was
13:27
Speaker 1: careful to avoid witnesses to the pickup. He was concerned
13:31
Speaker 1: about the police and about any witnesses, prostitutes, pimps, and
13:34
Speaker 1: co-workers in particular, who might later be able to associate
13:38
Speaker 1: him with a woman's disappearance. If another prostitute was present
13:42
Speaker 1: when he picked up his potential victim, he did not
13:44
Speaker 1: go through with the murder. Ridgway explained that he rarely
13:47
Speaker 1: picked up a woman at a curb where she was working. Rather,
13:51
Speaker 1: he would make eye contact with them and sometimes flash
13:54
Speaker 1: money at them as he drove by. Then he would
13:56
Speaker 1: pull off the road into the parking lot of an
13:59
Speaker 1: adjacent building where there would be fewer witnesses and wait
14:02
Speaker 1: for the woman to approach him. If there was a
14:05
Speaker 1: witness to a pickup and conditions were not right for
14:07
Speaker 1: a kill, Ridgway might date the woman anyway. This practice
14:11
Speaker 1: had the added benefit of establishing that he was a
14:14
Speaker 1: good date with the prostitutes. He reasoned that should he
14:17
Speaker 1: ever be caught, these women would serve as references to
14:20
Speaker 1: say he had not hurt them. Ridgeway also offered that
14:23
Speaker 1: another benefit to not killing every prostitute he dated was
14:27
Speaker 1: they served as sort of an alibi for him. Apparently,
14:30
Speaker 1: Ridgeway believed this sort of evidence would bolster a claim
14:33
Speaker 1: that he dated prostitutes but did not kill them. Ridgeway
14:37
Speaker 1: took several steps to avoid picking up undercover police officers
14:40
Speaker 1: posing as prostitutes. He would usually watch women from a
14:44
Speaker 1: distance to see whether or not they were picked up
14:47
Speaker 1: by other tricks. He often waited to agree to pay
14:51
Speaker 1: for a sex act until a woman got into his
14:53
Speaker 1: own vehicle. Ridgway would also request prostitutes to show him
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Speaker 1: their breasts or vagina before he could agree to pay
15:00
Speaker 1: for sex, believing that undercover officers would refuse to do so.
15:05
Speaker 1: Despite his precautions, Ridgway said he made some mistakes. By
15:09
Speaker 1: his account, twice he killed women after witnesses had seen
15:12
Speaker 1: him with them. Once, he said he was mistakenly took
15:15
Speaker 1: a date whom he intended to kill back to a
15:17
Speaker 1: scene where he had previously left the body. According to Ridgway,
15:21
Speaker 1: his date became quite disconcerted when she saw the body
15:25
Speaker 1: and insisted that they leave at once. Ridgway gave her
15:28
Speaker 1: a ride from the scene, then returned and buried the body.
15:31
Speaker 1: For a man who barely graduated from high school, Ridgway
15:35
Speaker 1: had what appeared to be an innate understanding of of
15:38
Speaker 1: forensic evidence. He took precautions to leave no evidence at
15:41
Speaker 1: a scene. If one of his victims scratched him, he
15:44
Speaker 1: would cut her fingernails before disposing of the body. He
15:47
Speaker 1: was able to elude detection precisely because he had left
15:51
Speaker 1: so little evidence behind. While I was in a way
15:55
Speaker 1: a little bit proud of not being caught, like removing
15:57
Speaker 1: the clothes, not leaving anything, any fingerprints on it, using gloves,
16:01
Speaker 1: not bragging about it, not talking about it. His cunning
16:05
Speaker 1: extended to other types of forensic evidence. Once, when he
16:08
Speaker 1: feared that he might have left tire tracks at a
16:10
Speaker 1: dump site, Ridgway replaced the tires on his truck. He
16:14
Speaker 1: threw the old ones in the river at two separate locations.
16:18
Speaker 1: Ridgway's bank records confirm that he purchased new tires for
16:21
Speaker 1: his truck shortly after the discovery of Carol Christensen's body.
16:25
Speaker 1: Ridgway's efforts to avoid detection did not stop after he
16:28
Speaker 1: dumped the body. He explained that if he killed a
16:31
Speaker 1: woman after arranging a date with her pimp via the telephone,
16:34
Speaker 1: he had a special technique. Using the same false name
16:37
Speaker 1: he employed to set up the date, he would telephone
16:40
Speaker 1: the pimp to arrange another date. In this way, he
16:43
Speaker 1: figured if the police ever figured out that Ridgway had
16:46
Speaker 1: dated the victim, Ridgway's subsequent calls for the woman after
16:50
Speaker 1: her death would suggest he thought she was still alive
16:53
Speaker 1: and therefore could not be the killer. Ridgway's commitment to
16:57
Speaker 1: what he called his career was considerable. One woman, Marie Malvar,
17:02
Speaker 1: left deep scratches in Ridgway's forearms and before he was
17:06
Speaker 1: able to strangle her to death. Ridgway disguised the long
17:09
Speaker 1: scratches by burning his flesh with battery acid. The scars
17:13
Speaker 1: are visible today. 2. Flying Under the Radar One reason
17:17
Speaker 1: that Ridgway avoided detection for so long was that he
17:20
Speaker 1: did not fit popular preconceptions of a serial killer. He
17:24
Speaker 1: was not a loner. He controlled his anger. He had
17:26
Speaker 1: no significant known juvenile or violent criminal history. He was
17:31
Speaker 1: either married or had a steady girlfriend during all of
17:34
Speaker 1: his adult life. He had steady employment at Kenworth for
17:37
Speaker 1: 30 years and received awards for perfect attendance. Even after
17:41
Speaker 1: his arrest in 2001, longtime co-workers, former girlfriends, and family
17:46
Speaker 1: members expressed sympathy for him and doubted that he could
17:49
Speaker 1: be a killer. His wife claimed their relationship was excellent.
17:54
Speaker 1: Even after his brother learned that Ridgway had admitted to
17:56
Speaker 1: killing dozens of women, the brother insisted that Ridgway had
18:00
Speaker 1: never displayed any abnormal behavior in his presence. Those who
18:05
Speaker 1: thought that they knew Ridgeway best did not know him
18:07
Speaker 1: at all. Ridgeway deliberately cultivated the innocuous aspects of his personality,
18:13
Speaker 1: his non-threatening, unimpressive appearance, meek demeanor, and small stature. In
18:18
Speaker 1: this way, he conned scores of victims who had survived
18:21
Speaker 1: years using street smarts. The women, they underestimated me. I
18:26
Speaker 1: looked like an ordinary person. I acted in a way
18:29
Speaker 1: with the prostitutes to make them feel more comfortable. and
18:33
Speaker 1: got on, got in their comfort zone, and got into,
18:36
Speaker 1: you know, here's a guy, he's not really muscle-bound, he's
18:40
Speaker 1: not a fighter, just an ordinary John, and that was
18:43
Speaker 1: their downfall. My appearance was different from what I really was.
18:48
Speaker 1: Ridgway killed for 20 years before he was charged with
18:51
Speaker 1: any of the Green River murders. He adopted the same unremarkable,
18:55
Speaker 1: non-threatening effect he used to lull his victims into complacency
18:59
Speaker 1: to avoid bringing himself to the attention of law enforcement.
19:03
Speaker 1: When interviewed by the task force, his apparent forthrightness and
19:06
Speaker 1: willingness to cooperate was disarming. Ridgway would admit everything he
19:11
Speaker 1: believed the task force already knew about him, and just
19:14
Speaker 1: a little bit more. For example, when he knew that
19:18
Speaker 1: he had been observed by a witness, he usually admitted
19:21
Speaker 1: that he had dated some of the victims. By admitting
19:24
Speaker 1: that he was addicted to prostitutes, Ridgway explained away a
19:27
Speaker 1: huge body of otherwise suspicious evidence. Unlike many serial killers,
19:31
Speaker 1: he seemed immune to an ego-driven desire to keep trophies
19:34
Speaker 1: of his kills, and searches of his residence yielded no
19:37
Speaker 1: evidence of any criminal activity of any kind. By agreeing
19:42
Speaker 1: to be interviewed without an attorney and to take a
19:44
Speaker 1: polygraph examination, Ridgway avoided suspicion all the more. Ridgway's psychopathy
19:51
Speaker 1: carried him through the polygraph examination, a test designed to
19:54
Speaker 1: detect stress. In 1984, when he passed the polygraph examination,
19:59
Speaker 1: Ridgway had already killed scores of women. He explained that
20:02
Speaker 1: he was completely unperturbed by taking a lie detector test.
20:06
Speaker 1: I just was, he yawns, excuse me, I was just
20:09
Speaker 1: relaxed and took the polygraph. I mean, I didn't practice
20:12
Speaker 1: or anything. Just relaxed and answered the questions, and whatever
20:15
Speaker 1: it came out, came out. I mean, they weren't precise,
20:19
Speaker 1: or I don't know what the deal was. Maybe I
20:21
Speaker 1: was too relaxed. 3. Active Deception As Ridgway became more successful,
20:28
Speaker 1: he moved from passive efforts to avoid detection, e.g. arousing
20:32
Speaker 1: no suspicion, to active steps to confuse and mislead investigators.
20:37
Speaker 1: Ridgway placed evidence at the dump sites, which was deliberately
20:40
Speaker 1: intended to mislead police. Cigarette butts, chewing gum. He neither
20:44
Speaker 1: smoked nor chewed gum. At one scene, scattered airport motel
20:49
Speaker 1: pamphlets and car rental papers to imply that the killer
20:52
Speaker 1: was a traveling salesman. He tossed a hairpick at one scene,
20:55
Speaker 1: hoping that if the body was discovered, investigators would suspect
20:58
Speaker 1: a pimp. He left one victim's driver's license at Sea-Tac
21:02
Speaker 1: Airport to suggest she had left town. One more elaborate scheme...
21:06
Speaker 1: eventually led to some highly incriminating evidence against them. In
21:09
Speaker 1: February of 1984, Ridgeway wrote a letter to a local newspaper.
21:14
Speaker 1: The poorly typed letter was entitled, What You Need to
21:16
Speaker 1: Know About the Green River Man. The letter contained references
21:21
Speaker 1: to the killings and a number of falsehoods about the
21:23
Speaker 1: killer's identity designed to throw off the task force. The
21:27
Speaker 1: letter suggested that the killer was a traveling salesman or
21:30
Speaker 1: a long-distance trucker and that the killings were motivated by
21:33
Speaker 1: profit or revenge. The letter mentioned that the victim's fingernails
21:37
Speaker 1: had been cut, a fact not known to investigators, until
21:40
Speaker 1: Ridgway told them this in 2003. The task force sent
21:44
Speaker 1: the letter to the FBI for analysis, and an expert
21:47
Speaker 1: there proclaimed that the letter was not written by the killer.
21:51
Speaker 1: In 2003, Ridgway provided details about crimes which had included
21:56
Speaker 1: in the letter, providing additional confirmation that he was indeed
21:59
Speaker 1: the Green River Killer. Ridgway also devised a plan to
22:03
Speaker 1: mislead the task force by suggesting that the Green River
22:06
Speaker 1: Killer might be operating in another state. As he admitted
22:10
Speaker 1: in 2003, the idea was to throw you guys off.
22:14
Speaker 1: In the spring of 1984, a few months after the
22:16
Speaker 1: task force had been dramatically expanded, Ridgway moved to the
22:20
Speaker 1: Portland area with his son and partial remains of Denise Bush,
22:23
Speaker 1: Shirley Sherrill, and he claims another woman. These latter remains
22:28
Speaker 1: have not been recovered. Ridgway deposited the remains of Denise
22:31
Speaker 1: Bush and Shirley Sherrill in Tigard, outside of Portland, where
22:35
Speaker 1: they were found in 1985. While in Oregon, Ridgway left
22:39
Speaker 1: no record of the trip, he used cash for all expenses.
22:42
Speaker 1: He later claimed that he hoped that the remains would
22:44
Speaker 1: be found, leading the police to believe that the killer
22:48
Speaker 1: had moved south. Indeed, when the remains were found a
22:51
Speaker 1: year later, there was considerable speculation that the Green River
22:55
Speaker 1: Killer was operating in Portland. and task force detectives went
22:59
Speaker 1: there to investigate. All right, we're going to wrap up
23:02
Speaker 1: this episode here, and in the next episode, dealing with
23:04
Speaker 1: the topic, we're going to pick up where we left off,
23:07
Speaker 1: and that's with G, the first victim. All of the
23:10
Speaker 1: information that goes with this episode can be found in
23:14
Speaker 1: the description box. What's up, everyone, and welcome back to
23:17
Speaker 1: the program. In this episode, we're going to get back
23:20
Speaker 1: to the evidence against Gary Ridgway, G, the first victim.
23:25
Speaker 1: During interviews, considerable effort was devoted to interrogating Ridgway about
23:29
Speaker 1: his first murder. He adamantly insisted that he could not
23:32
Speaker 1: remember his first kill. He variously claimed that Wendy Cofield
23:36
Speaker 1: was his first victim and that he killed someone several
23:39
Speaker 1: months before her, and he admitted that there might have
23:42
Speaker 1: been victims before that. As the interviews went on, Ridgway
23:46
Speaker 1: vaguely described two or three incidents in which before he
23:49
Speaker 1: killed Wendy Cofield and the other original Green River victims,
23:53
Speaker 1: he thought he had killed women. According to Ridgway, he
23:56
Speaker 1: left the bodies in places, the middle of a street,
23:59
Speaker 1: against a fence in a well-traveled park, lying against a
24:02
Speaker 1: newspaper shack beside the road, where he expected them to
24:05
Speaker 1: be discovered. Ridgway said that because he did not hear
24:09
Speaker 1: reports in the media about these murders, he concluded that
24:12
Speaker 1: the women regained consciousness after he left them and walked away.
24:16
Speaker 1: His logic was, you figure she'd wake up if she
24:18
Speaker 1: wasn't dead. In October of 2003, Ridgway told detectives that
24:23
Speaker 1: it was very possible that he killed women in the
24:26
Speaker 1: 1970s while living in Maple Valley with his second wife.
24:29
Speaker 1: He described one incident claiming that he could recall no
24:32
Speaker 1: detail and that something went wrong with the date and I, uh,
24:37
Speaker 1: killed her. Even after a rigorous interrogation and a review
24:41
Speaker 1: of potentially relevant cases, Ridgway's first homicides remain unknown. Although
24:46
Speaker 1: he never described his first murder, Ridgway acknowledged that that
24:50
Speaker 1: his interest in killing began early. He told interviewers that
24:54
Speaker 1: when he was 15 or 16 years old, he approached
24:56
Speaker 1: a first-grade boy near some bushes on a street corner
24:59
Speaker 1: and stabbed the boy in the side with a knife.
25:02
Speaker 1: According to Ridgeway, he never learned what happened to the
25:04
Speaker 1: boy who ran off clutching his side. He was playing with, like,
25:08
Speaker 1: a stick, cowboys and Indians or something like that, and
25:12
Speaker 1: he bent down to pick up something, and I just
25:14
Speaker 1: took the knife out of my pocket and stabbed him
25:16
Speaker 1: in the side. He grabbed his side and ran away.
25:19
Speaker 1: I ran up the hill. According to Ridgeway, he simply
25:22
Speaker 1: wanted to see how to stab someone. Ridgeway said the
25:25
Speaker 1: boy cried and ran, but he seemed remarkably unperturbed about
25:29
Speaker 1: the consequences to the boy or his own responsibility for
25:32
Speaker 1: the stabbing. Instead, he took a fatalistic view and suggested
25:35
Speaker 1: that the incident was a coincidence. He was in the
25:38
Speaker 1: wrong place at the wrong time, and I was at
25:41
Speaker 1: the right place at the right time, I guess you'd
25:43
Speaker 1: call it. A task force detective managed to locate the
25:47
Speaker 1: person Ridgeway stabbed some 40 years ago. Now living in California,
25:51
Speaker 1: the man confirmed Ridgeway's account of the incident without any
25:54
Speaker 1: prompting from the detective. He said that he was six
25:57
Speaker 1: years old at the time and in the first grade.
26:00
Speaker 1: He was playing near a wooded area close to his
26:02
Speaker 1: house and an adjacent school. He was wearing a cowboy hat,
26:05
Speaker 1: cowboy boots, two six-guns, and a toy rifle, and he
26:08
Speaker 1: was playing with a stick. The victim said he was
26:11
Speaker 1: approached by a boy whom he estimated was eight or
26:14
Speaker 1: ten years older than he was. The boy asked him
26:17
Speaker 1: if he wanted to build a fort, and the victim agreed.
26:19
Speaker 1: According to the victim, the boy who approached him said,
26:22
Speaker 1: you know, there's people around here that like to kill
26:25
Speaker 1: little boys like you. He led the little boy to
26:28
Speaker 1: the wooded area behind the school and stabbed him through
26:31
Speaker 1: the ribs and into his liver. The victim reported, and
26:35
Speaker 1: I asked him why he killed me. I watched too
26:37
Speaker 1: many cowboy movies, you know, and, you know, I saw
26:40
Speaker 1: the blood pumping out of me. It was profusely I mean,
26:44
Speaker 1: it was already running down my leg into my boots.
26:47
Speaker 1: And with every heartbeat, it was just pumping out. It
26:50
Speaker 1: was the whole front of my shirt and it was soaked.
26:53
Speaker 1: And he started laughing and he had a smile on
26:56
Speaker 1: his face and he stood there for a minute and
26:58
Speaker 1: he had his knife in his hand and I didn't
27:00
Speaker 1: want him to stab me again. But he reached towards
27:02
Speaker 1: me and just wiped the knife off both sides of
27:04
Speaker 1: the blade. So he wiped it once across my shoulder
27:07
Speaker 1: and twice across my shoulder on the other side of
27:09
Speaker 1: the blade. folded the knife back up, and he says,
27:13
Speaker 1: I always wanted to know what it felt like to
27:15
Speaker 1: kill somebody. According to the victim, Ridgeway seemed rather pleased
27:18
Speaker 1: with the experience. Then he started walking down the knoll
27:22
Speaker 1: and he was laughing, you know, kind of putting his
27:24
Speaker 1: head in the air, you know, and laughing real loud.
27:27
Speaker 1: The victim told the detectives that he was taken into
27:30
Speaker 1: an ambulance to a hospital where he remained for several weeks.
27:33
Speaker 1: He said the incision required to repair his liver was
27:36
Speaker 1: about a foot long. His assailant was never found, and
27:39
Speaker 1: he never returned to the grade school. He was tutored
27:42
Speaker 1: at home for several months, and then he moved to California. H.
27:46
Speaker 1: Ridgway's Last Victim Ridgway claimed that he could not recall
27:50
Speaker 1: his last victim either. Initially, Ridgway acknowledged killing two women
27:54
Speaker 1: in 1985 and then stopping completely. He acknowledged the killing
27:59
Speaker 1: continued only after he was confronted with unequivocal evidence to
28:02
Speaker 1: the contrary. He had informed detectives of a number of
28:06
Speaker 1: places on Highway 410 where he said he had dumped
28:09
Speaker 1: bodies that he was not sure had been recovered. At
28:12
Speaker 1: one of these sites marked on a map drawn by
28:14
Speaker 1: Ridgway for the detectives, a body had been previously recovered.
28:18
Speaker 1: That victim, who was never part of the official list
28:21
Speaker 1: of Green River victims, was Marta Reeves, who disappeared in 1990.
28:26
Speaker 1: As soon as he was confronted with this evidence, Ridgway
28:29
Speaker 1: readily admitted to killing the woman and admitted that he
28:31
Speaker 1: had continued to kill into the 90s. Later, when speaking
28:35
Speaker 1: to a psychiatrist, Ridgway suggested that this was an isolated incident.
28:40
Speaker 1: In 90, I went off the wagon and killed. Ridgway
28:43
Speaker 1: admitted later that he killed a woman in 1998, but
28:46
Speaker 1: he said she was an aberration. He admitted to a
28:49
Speaker 1: forensic psychologist that the urge to kill persisted into the 90s,
28:53
Speaker 1: although he said he could not resist it for months
28:56
Speaker 1: at a time. He acknowledged that he continued to seek
28:59
Speaker 1: out prostitutes until his arrest in 2001 and agreed that
29:03
Speaker 1: this was kind of like a hunt. He admitted that
29:05
Speaker 1: the sight of the prostitutes was, for him, like candy
29:08
Speaker 1: in a dish. Indeed, even after he was transferred in
29:11
Speaker 1: the late 1990s from the Seattle Kenworth plant near PHS
29:16
Speaker 1: to Renton plant, Ridgway continued to drive PHS and Rainier
29:20
Speaker 1: Avenue before and after work looking for prostitutes. The crack
29:25
Speaker 1: epidemic had arrived, and Ridgway found that sex with cocaine-addicted
29:28
Speaker 1: prostitutes was cheaper than ever. Ridgway finally admitted that although
29:32
Speaker 1: he slowed down, he never stopped killing, altogether, until his
29:36
Speaker 1: arrest in 2001. According to him, his last kill... were,
29:40
Speaker 1: in comparison to those of his more prolific period, the
29:44
Speaker 1: work of an amateur. In the 1990s, Ridgway said he
29:47
Speaker 1: was semi-retired. It was like, I said, like I was
29:51
Speaker 1: starting all over again, and I wasn't a well-greased machine.
29:54
Speaker 1: I was rusty. Although he admitted that his last kill
29:58
Speaker 1: was relatively close, In time to his arrest in 2001,
30:02
Speaker 1: Ridgway insisted in 2003 that he could recall absolutely nothing
30:06
Speaker 1: about it. Ridgway professed an inability to understand why he
30:10
Speaker 1: was withholding information from the interrogators. He alternatively suggested that
30:15
Speaker 1: he remembered the murder but did not want to disclose
30:17
Speaker 1: the details or that the facts were locked away in
30:20
Speaker 1: his head and he could not access them. Ultimately, Ridgway
30:24
Speaker 1: said that the last murder he could recall committing was
30:27
Speaker 1: in 1998. 5. Victims of previously charged cases. A. The
30:33
Speaker 1: victims placed in the Green River. Wendy Cofield, Deborah Bonner,
30:37
Speaker 1: Marsha Chapman, Cynthia Hines, and Opal Mills. Ridgeway is currently
30:42
Speaker 1: charged with seven counts of aggravated first-degree murder. Five of
30:46
Speaker 1: the seven charged victims were found at the first known
30:48
Speaker 1: dump site, the Green River. 1. Wendy Cofield. Count number one.
30:54
Speaker 1: In July of 1982, 16-year-old Wendy Lee Cofield was living
30:58
Speaker 1: with a foster family in Tacoma, Washington. She was known
31:02
Speaker 1: to work as a street prostitute along PHS in King County.
31:06
Speaker 1: On July 8, 1982, Wendy left her foster home and
31:10
Speaker 1: was never seen alive again. One week later, on July 15, 1982,
31:14
Speaker 1: two young boys bicycling along the Peck Bridge in Kent
31:18
Speaker 1: King County, Washington, noticed an object floating below them in
31:22
Speaker 1: the Green River. On further inspection, they discovered Wendy's body
31:26
Speaker 1: caught along one of the pilings under the bridge. Wendy
31:29
Speaker 1: was naked, with the exception of her shoes and socks.
31:32
Speaker 1: The remainder of her clothing, jeans, underpants, and shirt were
31:36
Speaker 1: knotted around her neck like a ligature. An autopsy confirmed
31:40
Speaker 1: that Wendy had been strangled. She suffered a fractured hyoid bone,
31:44
Speaker 1: as well as significant hemorrhaging in her neck muscles. In addition,
31:48
Speaker 1: her left humerus, the upper arm bone, was broken. The
31:51
Speaker 1: condition of her body was consistent with death, having occurred
31:54
Speaker 1: shortly after her disappearance on July 8, 1982. As noted above,
32:00
Speaker 1: in March of 2003, a private forensic laboratory, Microtrace, reported
32:05
Speaker 1: it had discovered tiny paint spheres on the jeans, which
32:08
Speaker 1: formed the ligature around Wendy's neck. The paint composition of
32:11
Speaker 1: the spheres was identical to the DuPont Imran paint used
32:16
Speaker 1: at the Kenworth truck plant where Ridgway worked in 1982.
32:20
Speaker 1: In March of 2003, the state charged Ridgeway with the
32:23
Speaker 1: murder of Wendy Caulfield. In subsequent interviews with the task force,
32:27
Speaker 1: he is admitted to killing her and placing her body
32:29
Speaker 1: in the Green River. 2. Deborah Bonner Deborah Bonner was
32:33
Speaker 1: last seen alive on the evening of July 25, 1982,
32:37
Speaker 1: when she left a motel on PHS in King County
32:40
Speaker 1: to catch some dates. Deborah was 22 and had a
32:44
Speaker 1: history of prostitution. During the previous 30 days, she had
32:47
Speaker 1: been arrested two times for prostitution on PHS. Two and
32:52
Speaker 1: a half weeks later, on August 12, 1982, Debra's body
32:56
Speaker 1: was discovered in the Green River. Debra's body had apparently
33:00
Speaker 1: floated downriver until it was caught in a logjam. There
33:03
Speaker 1: was no clothing on Debra's body. In March of 2003,
33:07
Speaker 1: Ridgeway was charged with murder of Debra Bonner. In subsequent
33:11
Speaker 1: interviews with the task force, He admitted to killing her
33:14
Speaker 1: and placing her body in the Green River. 3. Marcia Chapman,
33:19
Speaker 1: Cynthia Hines, and Opal Mills In August of 1982, 31-year-old
33:25
Speaker 1: Marcia Chapman was living with her three children in an
33:28
Speaker 1: apartment near PHS. She was involved in prostitution. On August 1, 1982,
33:34
Speaker 1: Marcia left her apartment and was not seen again. Ten
33:38
Speaker 1: days later, on the night of August 11, 1982, 17-year-old
33:42
Speaker 1: Cynthia Hines was out on PHS working as a prostitute.
33:47
Speaker 1: Her pimp last saw a man driving a black Jeep
33:49
Speaker 1: pick her up. She was never seen again. One day later,
33:52
Speaker 1: on August 12, 1982, approximately 1 p.m., 16-year-old Opal Mills
33:58
Speaker 1: placed a call to her parents from Angle Lake State
34:01
Speaker 1: Park just off PHS. After the call, she was never
34:05
Speaker 1: heard from again. Friends later reported Opal had been involved
34:09
Speaker 1: in prostitution. On August 15, 1982, a man rafting down
34:14
Speaker 1: the Green River spotted two bodies in the water approximately
34:17
Speaker 1: 600 yards from where Deborah Bonner's body was found a
34:20
Speaker 1: few days earlier. The police responded and discovered Marcia Chapman
34:24
Speaker 1: and Cynthia Hines. They were a few feet apart in
34:27
Speaker 1: the river, pinned to the bottom by several boulders, and nude.
34:31
Speaker 1: Police found Opal Mills' body on the banks of the
34:33
Speaker 1: river a short distance away. All three women had been strangled.
34:38
Speaker 1: As recounted above in 2001, an analysis of DNA evidence
34:42
Speaker 1: linked Ridgway to Opal Mills, Marcia Chapman, and he was
34:45
Speaker 1: charged with the murders of Chapman, Cynthia Hines, and Opal
34:49
Speaker 1: Mills in December of 2001. During interviews with the task
34:53
Speaker 1: force detectives, Ridgway admitted killing all three women and placing
34:57
Speaker 1: them in the Green River. Alright, we're going to wrap
35:00
Speaker 1: up this episode here, and in the next episode we're
35:02
Speaker 1: going to pick up with B, Deborah Estes. All the
35:06
Speaker 1: information that goes with this episode can be found in
35:09
Speaker 1: the description box. What's up everyone and welcome back to
35:13
Speaker 1: the program. In this episode, we're getting back to the
35:16
Speaker 1: evidence compiled against Gary Ridgway. B. Deborah Estes On September 20th, 1982,
35:23
Speaker 1: 15-year-old Deborah Estes disappeared. At approximately 3 p.m. that day,
35:28
Speaker 1: Deborah was last seen near the Stevenson Motel on PHS.
35:33
Speaker 1: She was known to engage in prostitution. Nearly six years later,
35:36
Speaker 1: on May 30, 1988, construction workers digging holes for a
35:41
Speaker 1: playground discovered Deborah's remains in a shallow grave in Federal Way.
35:45
Speaker 1: Buried with Estes were two items of clothing, a bra
35:49
Speaker 1: and fragments of a black knit sweater or shirt with
35:52
Speaker 1: metallic threads. An acquaintance of Deborah's confirmed that she was
35:55
Speaker 1: wearing this sweater or shirt on the afternoon that she disappeared.
35:59
Speaker 1: In March of 2003, Microtrace reported that it had recovered
36:03
Speaker 1: tiny paint spheres from clothing found with Deborah Estes' remains.
36:07
Speaker 1: The paint composition of the spheres is identical to the
36:10
Speaker 1: DuPont Imran paint that was used at the Kenworth truck
36:13
Speaker 1: plant where Ridgway worked in 1982. In March of 2003,
36:17
Speaker 1: the state charged Ridgway with the murder of Deborah Estes.
36:22
Speaker 1: In subsequent interviews with the task force, he admitted to
36:25
Speaker 1: killing her and burying her body. C. Carol Christensen On
36:30
Speaker 1: May 3rd, 1983, at approximately 2.30 p.m., 21-year-old Carol Christensen
36:35
Speaker 1: left the Barn Door Tavern in Sea-Tac where she worked
36:38
Speaker 1: as a waitress. She was due to return later that day,
36:41
Speaker 1: but she never came back. Carol was known to hitchhike.
36:45
Speaker 1: Five days later, on May 8th, 1983, her body was
36:49
Speaker 1: found in a wooded area in Maple Valley. She was
36:52
Speaker 1: still dressed and her body had been posed. She was
36:54
Speaker 1: lying on her back with two trout placed on her
36:57
Speaker 1: upper torso. an empty bottle of wine across her stomach,
37:00
Speaker 1: and sausage on her hands. She had been strangled with
37:03
Speaker 1: a ligature. In 2001, semen from Carol's body was matched
37:07
Speaker 1: to Ridgway. In December of 2001, he was charged with
37:11
Speaker 1: the murder of Carol Christensen. In interviews with the task
37:15
Speaker 1: force detectives, Ridgway admitted that he killed Carol. He said
37:18
Speaker 1: that he posed her body to throw off the task force.
37:22
Speaker 1: Ridgway explained, and then they had these experts come in
37:24
Speaker 1: and say it was for the Last Supper. And it
37:27
Speaker 1: was just basically, you know, the woman I killed put
37:30
Speaker 1: clothes back on her and posed her. It was just
37:33
Speaker 1: basically opposing. He claimed that the items he left with
37:37
Speaker 1: her had no deeper significance. They were items that he
37:40
Speaker 1: happened to have in his house when he killed her,
37:42
Speaker 1: which were of no value to him. The victim who escaped,
37:47
Speaker 1: Rebecca Guay. In December of 1998, Rebecca Guay reported that
37:53
Speaker 1: she had been the victim of a violent assault. According
37:55
Speaker 1: to Rebecca, the assault occurred in November of 1982. She
37:59
Speaker 1: was hitchhiking on PHS when a man in a truck
38:02
Speaker 1: offered her a ride. Rebecca asked him if he was
38:05
Speaker 1: dating and offered him a blowjob for $ 20. The man
38:08
Speaker 1: agreed and she directed him to a secluded area not
38:12
Speaker 1: far from PHS at approximately 2.04. Rebecca questioned the man
38:17
Speaker 1: about whether he was the Green River Killer. He assured
38:20
Speaker 1: her that he was not and showed her several items
38:22
Speaker 1: from his wallet, including an ID card from Kenworth Trucking Company.
38:27
Speaker 1: When they arrived, the man asked her to go into
38:29
Speaker 1: the woods for the sex act. Rebecca agreed and the
38:32
Speaker 1: two went into the woods. The man pulled his shorts
38:34
Speaker 1: down and Rebecca kneeled in front of him and began
38:37
Speaker 1: performing oral sex. However, the man's penis did not become erect. Suddenly,
38:42
Speaker 1: the man accused Rebecca of biting him. He knocked her
38:45
Speaker 1: to the ground, pushed her face in the dirt, and
38:48
Speaker 1: wrapped his arm around her neck in a police-style chokehold.
38:52
Speaker 1: Rebecca struggled and pleaded that all she had was her
38:55
Speaker 1: family and that she did not want to die. After
38:58
Speaker 1: 10 or 15 seconds, she broke free and ran to
39:01
Speaker 1: a nearby trailer for help. The man initially pursued her,
39:04
Speaker 1: but then gave up. He redressed and drove out of
39:08
Speaker 1: the area. Hysterical, Rebecca told the trailer occupants how she
39:12
Speaker 1: had been attacked. Her blouse was torn and there were
39:15
Speaker 1: abrasions on her neck. Rebecca was obviously terrified and was
39:19
Speaker 1: certain that the man had intended to kill her. Rebecca
39:23
Speaker 1: was initially reluctant to report the assault because she was
39:26
Speaker 1: engaging in prostitution when she was assaulted. Eventually, with the
39:30
Speaker 1: enormous publicity surrounding the Green River killings, Rebecca called the
39:33
Speaker 1: task force and reported what had happened. Rebecca gave a
39:37
Speaker 1: description of her attacker, a white male, 30 to 35
39:40
Speaker 1: years old, with light brown hair, possibly with a mustache.
39:44
Speaker 1: Although it was November, the man was wearing shorts, t-shirt,
39:47
Speaker 1: and tennis shoes. She thought his vehicle was a 1980
39:51
Speaker 1: burgundy or maroon pickup truck with a white canopy. Rebecca
39:55
Speaker 1: told police about the Kenworth identification that the man had
39:58
Speaker 1: shown her, and this information led police to link the
40:00
Speaker 1: attack to Ridgeway, her description of her assailant, and the
40:04
Speaker 1: vehicle generally matched Ridgeway and his pickup truck. Rebecca was
40:08
Speaker 1: shown a photographic montage of six men and immediately identified
40:12
Speaker 1: Ridgeway as the man who had attacked her in November
40:15
Speaker 1: of 1982. In February of 1985, a task force detective
40:20
Speaker 1: contacted Ridgway and confronted him about Rebecca's allegations. Ridgway admitted
40:25
Speaker 1: that he had dated Rebecca. He maintained, however, that he
40:28
Speaker 1: choked her as a reflexive reaction to her biting his penis.
40:32
Speaker 1: According to the detective, Rebecca told him that she did
40:35
Speaker 1: not wish to pursue the case and Ridgway was not charged.
40:39
Speaker 1: In 2003, Ridgway was questioned about strangling Rebecca. He admitted
40:43
Speaker 1: that he tried to kill her. He confirmed that Rebecca
40:46
Speaker 1: had selected the area for the date and that she
40:49
Speaker 1: wanted to do the date in the truck. Ridgway wanted
40:51
Speaker 1: to do the date outside. According to his account, it
40:55
Speaker 1: just went bad because she guaranteed sex, but she would
40:58
Speaker 1: only give me oral sex. Ridgway likened the situation to
41:03
Speaker 1: the circumstances that he claimed led him to kill Mary
41:06
Speaker 1: Meehan two months earlier. Ridgway reported he was unable to
41:10
Speaker 1: maintain a chokehold on Rebecca, who fought and scratched him.
41:13
Speaker 1: He recalled that his shorts, which were around his ankles,
41:16
Speaker 1: prevented him from wrapping his legs around her and subduing her.
41:20
Speaker 1: He accurately recalled that she said she did not want
41:22
Speaker 1: to die and she had a family. Ridgway cannot be
41:25
Speaker 1: charged with the attempted murder of Rebecca Gardy. The statute
41:29
Speaker 1: of limitations for the crime has expired. New charges. The
41:33
Speaker 1: following section sets forth the facts supporting the filing of
41:37
Speaker 1: 41 additional counts against Ridgway. The victims are listed in
41:41
Speaker 1: rough chronological order. based upon the area where their bodies
41:44
Speaker 1: were found. A. Giselle LaVorn In July of 1982, Giselle
41:50
Speaker 1: LaVorn was 19 years old. She worked as a prostitute
41:54
Speaker 1: on PHS. Around 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 17, 1982,
41:58
Speaker 1: Giselle left her apartment, saying that she planned to turn
42:02
Speaker 1: several tricks on PHS and would return later in the day.
42:06
Speaker 1: She was never seen again. Two months later, on September 25, 1982,
42:11
Speaker 1: Giselle's remains were found near an apple tree in a
42:14
Speaker 1: wooded area near South 200th Street and 18th Avenue, South
42:18
Speaker 1: King County, an area where Giselle was known to take
42:21
Speaker 1: her dates. She had been strangled with a pair of
42:24
Speaker 1: men's socks that were still wrapped around her neck. Apart
42:27
Speaker 1: from the ligature, there was no clothing on the body,
42:30
Speaker 1: although her jewelry remained in place. Giselle's body lay on
42:34
Speaker 1: its back, with the legs flexed wide at the hip
42:37
Speaker 1: and the knees bent at approximately 90 degrees. In 2003,
42:42
Speaker 1: Ridgway admitted killing Giselle LaVarne. He stated that he picked
42:46
Speaker 1: up Giselle on a Saturday night while his seven-year-old son
42:50
Speaker 1: was in the vehicle. Ridgway said Giselle directed him to
42:53
Speaker 1: the spot for the date. According to Ridgway, after he
42:56
Speaker 1: parked at the spot, he told his son to remain
42:58
Speaker 1: in the truck while he and the woman went for
43:00
Speaker 1: a walk. Ridgway then took Giselle out into the wooded
43:04
Speaker 1: area out of sight of his son. He and Giselle
43:07
Speaker 1: had sex doggy style. Once he climaxed, Ridgeway said, he
43:10
Speaker 1: told Giselle that he thought he heard his son coming.
43:13
Speaker 1: As he had hoped, she raised her head to look
43:16
Speaker 1: exposing her neck. Still behind her, Ridgeway pinned her neck
43:20
Speaker 1: between his upper and lower arm and choked her until
43:23
Speaker 1: she stopped moving. Ridgeway then took off his socks, tied
43:26
Speaker 1: them together, and wrapped them around Giselle's neck. He used
43:30
Speaker 1: a stick to fashion a tourniquet from the socks. Then
43:33
Speaker 1: he twisted the stick, tightening the socks around her neck
43:36
Speaker 1: until he was satisfied that Giselle would not regain consciousness.
43:40
Speaker 1: Ridgeway left the makeshift tourniquet on Giselle, put on his clothes,
43:44
Speaker 1: and returned to his truck. Ridgeway's son asked his father
43:48
Speaker 1: where the young woman had gone. Ridgeway replied that the
43:51
Speaker 1: woman lived nearby and had decided to walk home. Ridgeway
43:55
Speaker 1: then drove his young son back to his home. The
43:58
Speaker 1: next day, Ridgeway returned and moved the body a short
44:01
Speaker 1: distance to a more secluded area He collected Giselle's clothes
44:05
Speaker 1: and tried to take the socks off her neck. The
44:07
Speaker 1: socks were cinched so tightly around the young woman's neck
44:10
Speaker 1: that Ridgway could not get them over her head. He
44:14
Speaker 1: did not consider cutting the socks off because he explained
44:17
Speaker 1: he would not be able to wear them. Before he left,
44:20
Speaker 1: Ridgway engaged in sexual intercourse with the body. Ridgway admitted
44:24
Speaker 1: that he visited Giselle's body at least one more time
44:28
Speaker 1: He stated that he was uncertain whether he had intercourse
44:31
Speaker 1: with the body a third time, claiming that he may
44:33
Speaker 1: have been deterred by advanced decomposition. During the interviews, Ridgway
44:38
Speaker 1: was shown photos from the crime scene without being told
44:41
Speaker 1: what the photos were depicting. Ridgway accurately identified the area
44:45
Speaker 1: and the location of the body. Later, Ridgway led investigators
44:49
Speaker 1: without assistance to the area where he left Giselle's body. B.
44:55
Speaker 1: The Star Lake Victims Terry Milligan, Alma Smith, Dolores Williams,
44:59
Speaker 1: Gail Matthews, Sandra Gabbert, and Carrie Roys. In the early 1980s,
45:04
Speaker 1: the task force recovered the remains of six women designated
45:07
Speaker 1: the victims of the Green River killing along a short,
45:11
Speaker 1: approximately one-half mile, stretch of Star Lake Road in King County.
45:15
Speaker 1: The portion of Star Lake Road runs steeply uphill from
45:18
Speaker 1: South to 72nd Street, a main arterial heading south then
45:23
Speaker 1: looping west, then north and west again. the remains were
45:26
Speaker 1: actually closer together than the Serpentine Road would suggest, no
45:30
Speaker 1: more than a quarter of a mile separated any of them.
45:33
Speaker 1: The area is approximately three miles southwest, less than a
45:37
Speaker 1: 15-minute drive from the stretch of the Green River where
45:40
Speaker 1: five earlier victims were discovered and approximately the same distance
45:44
Speaker 1: southeast from Ridgeway's residence at the time. These women were
45:48
Speaker 1: murdered during a 10-month period from late August of 1982
45:51
Speaker 1: until mid-June of 1983. All six were working as prostitutes
45:57
Speaker 1: at the time they disappeared. Five of the six were
45:59
Speaker 1: last seen along PHS, where Ridgeway was known to hunt
46:03
Speaker 1: for his victims. The circumstances of the sixth woman's disappearance
46:07
Speaker 1: are not known, but she had previously been arrested for
46:10
Speaker 1: prostitution along that stretch of PHS. With the exception of
46:15
Speaker 1: a blouse found on one victim's remains, all the victims
46:18
Speaker 1: were naked when they were left at the Star Lake
46:20
Speaker 1: dump site. No biological evidence was ever developed. linking any
46:24
Speaker 1: suspect to the Starlake cases. It appeared that all the
46:27
Speaker 1: Starlake victims were killed by strangulation. All six women had
46:32
Speaker 1: been killed and left near the Starlake Road before the
46:35
Speaker 1: first remains were ever found. Obviously, the same person had
46:39
Speaker 1: killed and dumped all six women. The similarities between these cases,
46:43
Speaker 1: victim lifestyle, place of disappearance, time of disappearance, concentration of
46:47
Speaker 1: bodies at dump site, condition of body when dumped, and
46:50
Speaker 1: apparent cause of death compelled this conclusion. Ridgway had admitted
46:55
Speaker 1: killing the women found along Star Lake Road. The steep, secluded,
46:59
Speaker 1: wooded hillside falling away from the Star Lake Road greatly
47:03
Speaker 1: appealed to Ridgway. It was downhill, where I could put
47:06
Speaker 1: a woman, a bunch of women. It was fantastic. It
47:10
Speaker 1: was woodsy, secluded. It was a sight that I figured
47:13
Speaker 1: nobody would find her at, and if they did, it
47:15
Speaker 1: would be a couple years later. Wouldn't be anything, you know,
47:18
Speaker 1: nothing left of her. I could go down there during
47:21
Speaker 1: the day and have sex with her, Nobody to see
47:23
Speaker 1: me from the top. There was a road on the
47:25
Speaker 1: top there and the road at the bottom. They couldn't
47:27
Speaker 1: see me. And even if a car did come by,
47:29
Speaker 1: I could lay down. Not only was Star Lake secluded,
47:33
Speaker 1: it was remarkably convenient to PHS and to his house.
47:36
Speaker 1: Ridgway said he managed to dump all the bodies there
47:39
Speaker 1: within an hour of when he killed them. Ridgway was
47:42
Speaker 1: familiar with the area. His second wife reported they would
47:44
Speaker 1: go swimming in Star Lake. Ridgway said he did not
47:48
Speaker 1: keep track of exactly how many bodies he placed at
47:50
Speaker 1: the Star Lake site. His estimates range from five to seven.
47:54
Speaker 1: Once he said that all the Star Lake victims had
47:56
Speaker 1: been discovered. Another time he said that there was a
47:58
Speaker 1: seventh victim still along the road. He said, once I
48:01
Speaker 1: started dumping, I didn't care about the count. All right, folks,
48:05
Speaker 1: we're going to wrap up this episode here. And in
48:07
Speaker 1: the next episode, we're going to pick up with one
48:09
Speaker 1: Terry Milligan. All of the information that goes with this
48:12
Speaker 1: episode can be found in the description box.