Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Mega Edition: Gary Ridgway And The Green River Murders (Part 1-4) (9/20/26)

Transcript

Mega Edition: Gary Ridgway And The Green River Murders (Part 1-4) (9/20/26) · Beyond The Horizon

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. Today,
0:03
Speaker 1: we're diving into one of the most infamous and haunting
0:06
Speaker 1: cases in American criminal history, and that's the Green River Killer,
0:11
Speaker 1: Gary Ridgway. For nearly two decades, the Green River Killer
0:15
Speaker 1: terrorized the Pacific Northwest, preying on vulnerable young women and
0:19
Speaker 1: evading capture. The sheer number of victims and the length
0:22
Speaker 1: of time it took to catch him make this case
0:25
Speaker 1: particularly disturbing and complex. In today's episode, we're going to
0:30
Speaker 1: dissect the meticulous and often harrowing investigation that ultimately brought
0:36
Speaker 1: Ridgeway to justice. We'll explore the forensic breakthroughs, the tireless
0:40
Speaker 1: efforts of detectives, and the critical pieces of evidence that
0:43
Speaker 1: built the case against him. From DNA profiling to eyewitness
0:47
Speaker 1: accounts and the psychological profiling that painted a grim picture
0:51
Speaker 1: of Ridgeway's M.O., and we'll cover it all. The story
0:55
Speaker 1: begins in the early 1980s when the bodies of young
0:58
Speaker 1: women began turning up along the Green River in Washington State.
1:02
Speaker 1: The initial investigation was fraught with challenges, a lack of technology,
1:06
Speaker 1: few leads, and a growing list of victims. Authorities were
1:10
Speaker 1: racing against time, trying to catch a predator who seemed
1:14
Speaker 1: always one step ahead. As we delve deep into the evidence,
1:18
Speaker 1: we'll discuss the painstaking collection and analysis of forensic samples,
1:22
Speaker 1: including the groundbreaking use of DNA technology that would eventually
1:26
Speaker 1: play a crucial role in Ridgway's arrest. You'll hear about
1:30
Speaker 1: the tireless work of detectives who sifted through mountains of data,
1:34
Speaker 1: followed countless leads, and never gave up hope, even when
1:38
Speaker 1: the trail seemed to go cold. We'll also touch on
1:40
Speaker 1: the significant role that psychological profiling played in narrowing down
1:45
Speaker 1: the suspect list. Behavioral experts provided insights into the killer's
1:49
Speaker 1: mind helping to piece together patterns and predict his next moves.
1:53
Speaker 1: This was not just a physical investigation. It was a
1:56
Speaker 1: psychological battle to understand the darkness driving Ridgeway's actions. Additionally,
2:02
Speaker 1: we'll cover the collaborative efforts between multiple law enforcement agencies
2:06
Speaker 1: whose combined resources and shared information were pivotal in solving
2:10
Speaker 1: the case. The Green River Task Force, formed specifically to
2:14
Speaker 1: address this serial killer, became a symbol of law enforcement
2:17
Speaker 1: dedication and tenacity. But what ultimately led to Ridgway's capture?
2:22
Speaker 1: It was a combination of old-fashioned police work and modern
2:25
Speaker 1: scientific techniques. DNA evidence from early victims, meticulously preserved over
2:31
Speaker 1: the years, was finally matched to Ridgway, who had managed
2:34
Speaker 1: to stay under the radar for so long. We'll discuss
2:37
Speaker 1: the dramatic moment of his arrest and the overwhelming evidence
2:40
Speaker 1: that was presented in court. Finally, we'll examine Ridgway's confessions,
2:45
Speaker 1: his motivations, and the chilling details he revealed about his crimes.
2:49
Speaker 1: These confessions not only provided closure for many families, but
2:53
Speaker 1: also offered critical insights into the mind of one of
2:57
Speaker 1: the most prolific serial killers in American history. So, grab
3:01
Speaker 1: your headphones, settle in, and prepare yourself for a journey
3:05
Speaker 1: into the dark mind of Gary Ridgway and the evidence
3:08
Speaker 1: that sealed his fate. The Prosecutor's Summary of the Evidence
3:13
Speaker 1: Introduction Beginning in 1982, dozens of young women in King
3:17
Speaker 1: County simply disappeared. Some were murdered and unceremoniously discarded, often
3:23
Speaker 1: in groups around King County. The fate of others remained unknown.
3:28
Speaker 1: Many of these young women were teenagers. Almost all were
3:31
Speaker 1: involved in street prostitution, and they met their fates while
3:34
Speaker 1: working the street. These disappearances and deaths remained unsolved. They
3:39
Speaker 1: terrified and intimidated the community. For 20 years, these deaths
3:44
Speaker 1: and disappearances continued. were attributed to the so-called Green River Killer,
3:48
Speaker 1: an unidentified serial murderer. Despite the efforts of scores of
3:53
Speaker 1: detectives and forensic scientists who reviewed hundreds of items of
3:56
Speaker 1: physical evidence and interviewed thousands of witnesses, the cases remained unsolved.
4:02
Speaker 1: In 2001, based in large part on DNA evidence, the
4:06
Speaker 1: King County prosecuting attorney charged the defendant, Gary Leon Ridgeway,
4:11
Speaker 1: with four of these murders. In the following year, additional
4:14
Speaker 1: forensic evidence led to three more murder charges. These seven
4:18
Speaker 1: charges implicated Ridgway in only a fraction of the Green
4:21
Speaker 1: River homicides. He was linked to only one of the
4:25
Speaker 1: eight major areas where the victim's remains were discovered. Even
4:29
Speaker 1: after Ridgway was charged with these seven murders, it was
4:32
Speaker 1: speculated that another killer remained at large. Little evidence connected
4:36
Speaker 1: Ridgway to any of the 42 homicides. Now, after months
4:41
Speaker 1: of interviews with detectives and experts, Ridgway has confessed to
4:45
Speaker 1: most of the original Green River homicides and to a
4:48
Speaker 1: number of other murders in King County. He admitted to
4:51
Speaker 1: killing six women whose deaths were unsolved and had never
4:54
Speaker 1: been attributed to the Green River killer. And he led
4:57
Speaker 1: police to the bodies of four of his victims, remains
5:00
Speaker 1: that would otherwise never have been recovered. These confessions were
5:05
Speaker 1: accompanied by evidence that only the killer would know. Ridgway
5:09
Speaker 1: identified the sites where he left the victims' bodies, including
5:13
Speaker 1: sites with previously undiscovered remains. It was widely believed that
5:17
Speaker 1: the Green River Killer stopped his murderous spree in 1984.
5:21
Speaker 1: Ridgway has admitted that he did not stop killing. He
5:24
Speaker 1: continued to kill, a bit at a slower pace, until
5:27
Speaker 1: at least 1998. The Green River Killer has finally been identified.
5:33
Speaker 1: His name is Gary Ridgway. 2. This Document The purpose
5:38
Speaker 1: of this document is to provide a full account of
5:40
Speaker 1: the murders described as the Green River killings. This is
5:44
Speaker 1: as close as is known to the truth about the
5:47
Speaker 1: Green River homicides. These crimes are unspeakably cruel and depraved
5:52
Speaker 1: and cannot be described in an antiseptic manner. Language in
5:56
Speaker 1: this document is graphic and disturbing because the crimes are horrific.
6:01
Speaker 1: The authors of this document are sensitive to the suffering
6:04
Speaker 1: of the victims, their families, and survivors. With a full
6:08
Speaker 1: account of these terrible crimes, we hope that our community
6:11
Speaker 1: can find some resolution to the Green River case and
6:14
Speaker 1: can take steps to prevent unnecessary suffering by its most
6:17
Speaker 1: vulnerable members. Background. The Green River Killer. An Overview. In
6:23
Speaker 1: July and August of 1982, five women were strangled to
6:27
Speaker 1: death and left in or near the Green River in
6:30
Speaker 1: King County, Washington. All five had a history of prostitution
6:34
Speaker 1: and at least four had disappeared from Pacific Highway South,
6:38
Speaker 1: an area notorious for prostitution activity. These murders were the
6:43
Speaker 1: community's first notice that a serial killer was preying on
6:46
Speaker 1: young women. Four of the five women had been found
6:49
Speaker 1: in territory covered by the King County Sheriff's Office, the
6:53
Speaker 1: agency that would take responsibility for investigating and solving these murders.
6:57
Speaker 1: Over the next several years, more and more murder victims,
7:00
Speaker 1: most of them teenage girls, were found in wooded or
7:04
Speaker 1: remote parts of King County. Most were found with no
7:07
Speaker 1: clothing or possessions. In many cases, months or even years
7:11
Speaker 1: had passed since the victim's disappearance, and all that police
7:14
Speaker 1: recovered were skeletal remains. Identification of the victim sometimes took years. Eventually,
7:21
Speaker 1: 49 victims were listed as victims of the Green River Killer.
7:25
Speaker 1: The murders spanned a two-year period From 1982 through 1984,
7:30
Speaker 1: seven of these victims were listed as missing, no body
7:33
Speaker 1: had ever been found, and numerous frequently contradictory tips flowed
7:38
Speaker 1: in claiming that they were still alive. The King County
7:41
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office created the Green River Task Force, the task
7:44
Speaker 1: force comprised of detectives from law enforcement agencies throughout the county,
7:49
Speaker 1: to investigate these murders. Its size grew as more murders
7:53
Speaker 1: were discovered, the task force investigated the murders and numerous
7:57
Speaker 1: missing cases, and thousands of tips. It collected evidence regarding
8:01
Speaker 1: hundreds of suspects, yet nothing definitive was uncovered that identified
8:06
Speaker 1: the killer of even one of the Green River victims.
8:10
Speaker 1: During its investigation, the task force employed the most recent
8:13
Speaker 1: advances in forensic science. In 1988, detectives sent evidence associated
8:19
Speaker 1: with several victims to a private laboratory for DNA typing. However,
8:23
Speaker 1: based upon the existing technology's No DNA profiles could be obtained.
8:28
Speaker 1: In the meantime, budget demands resulted in a reduction of
8:31
Speaker 1: the task force. By 1992, one detective, Tom Jensen, remained
8:35
Speaker 1: to handle the cases and review new tips. In 2001,
8:39
Speaker 1: Detective Jensen, hoping to take advantage of recent developments in
8:43
Speaker 1: DNA typing, sent biological evidence from several victims to Washington
8:48
Speaker 1: State Patrol Crime Laboratory for DNA typing. This time, a
8:53
Speaker 1: profile was developed. It matched Gary Leon Ridgway. B. Ridgway,
8:58
Speaker 1: General Background Gary Ridgway was born on February 18, 1949.
9:04
Speaker 1: When he was 11, Ridgway and his family moved to
9:06
Speaker 1: King County, Washington. His parents' house was a short distance
9:09
Speaker 1: from PHS, the area where he later found most of
9:12
Speaker 1: his victims. Ridgway was held back two grades in school
9:16
Speaker 1: and graduated from Thai High School in 1969. After he
9:20
Speaker 1: graduated from high school, Ridgway worked briefly at Kenworth Motor
9:24
Speaker 1: Truck Company. In July of 1969, he entered the military.
9:29
Speaker 1: In August of 1970, while in the military, Ridgway married
9:33
Speaker 1: his first wife, whom he had known and dated for
9:35
Speaker 1: several years. While in the Navy, Ridgway spent some time
9:39
Speaker 1: in the Philippines where he claims he first used prostitutes.
9:43
Speaker 1: In July of 1971, Ridgway was honorably discharged from the
9:48
Speaker 1: Navy and returned to King County. While Ridgway was overseas,
9:52
Speaker 1: his wife became involved with another man. When Ridgway returned,
9:56
Speaker 1: she sought a divorce, which became final on January 14. 1972.
10:02
Speaker 1: Ridgway later claimed that his first wife had become a
10:04
Speaker 1: whore while he had been overseas. In August of 1971,
10:09
Speaker 1: Ridgway began working as a painter at Kenworth. He worked
10:13
Speaker 1: at the Kenworth plant located on East Marginal Way South,
10:17
Speaker 1: a few miles north of the stretch of PHS where
10:19
Speaker 1: he later picked up many of his victims. Ridgeway worked
10:23
Speaker 1: continuously for Kenworth as a painter and taper for over
10:27
Speaker 1: 30 years until his arrest on November 30, 2001. In 1972,
10:32
Speaker 1: Ridgeway met his second wife. In December 1973, they married.
10:38
Speaker 1: During their marriage, they lived in several residences in Renton,
10:41
Speaker 1: Federal Way, and West Seattle. A son was born on
10:45
Speaker 1: September 5, 1975. His second wife reported that Ridgeway enjoyed
10:50
Speaker 1: having sex outdoors and was interested in bondage. She stated
10:54
Speaker 1: that Ridgeway would often be gone during the evenings for
10:57
Speaker 1: long periods of time, sometimes returning to the house dirty
11:00
Speaker 1: or wet. She said that during the latter years of
11:04
Speaker 1: their marriage, Ridgeway began coming home later and later without
11:07
Speaker 1: logical explanations. She reported that Ridgway, while walking with her
11:12
Speaker 1: in the woods, liked to hide from her and then
11:14
Speaker 1: creep up behind her and frighten her. He liked to
11:17
Speaker 1: practice walking noiselessly. On at least one occasion, as Ridgway
11:20
Speaker 1: acknowledged he choked her using a police-type hold with his
11:24
Speaker 1: forearm and upper arm, their relationship deteriorated. Ridgway and his
11:28
Speaker 1: second wife separated in July of 1980, and the divorce
11:32
Speaker 1: became final on May 27, 1981. She took primary custody
11:34
Speaker 1: of their kid. Ridgeway had custody of the boy on
11:40
Speaker 1: alternate weeks. In November of 1981, Ridgeway purchased a house
11:45
Speaker 1: at 21-859-32nd Place, South King County, Washington. This house was
11:51
Speaker 1: a few blocks from PHS. In 2003, Ridgeway admitted that
11:55
Speaker 1: he killed dozens of women at his residence, except for
11:59
Speaker 1: six months in 1982 when he had renters living at
12:02
Speaker 1: the house. Ridgeway lived there alone until 1985. For the
12:07
Speaker 1: next several years, Ridgeway had relationships with a number of
12:10
Speaker 1: different women, many of whom he met at organizations for
12:13
Speaker 1: single parents, parents without partners. He became engaged to one
12:17
Speaker 1: woman and they planned to be married in the June
12:20
Speaker 1: of 1984. The woman broke up with him after she
12:23
Speaker 1: met someone else. In February 1985, Ridgway met his third wife.
12:28
Speaker 1: Several months later, she moved into his house and in
12:31
Speaker 1: June of 1988, they were married. Ridgway subsequently moved several
12:36
Speaker 1: times although he always stayed in the South King County area.
12:40
Speaker 1: From 1989 to 1997, Ridgway owned a residence in Des Moines, Washington.
12:46
Speaker 1: He then moved to Auburn, Washington, where he lived until
12:49
Speaker 1: his arrest in 2001. All right, that's going to do
12:53
Speaker 1: it for part one. In the next episode, we're going
12:55
Speaker 1: to pick up with part two, and that's the investigation
12:59
Speaker 1: into Ridgway. All of the information that goes with this
13:03
Speaker 1: episode can be found in the description box. What's up
13:07
Speaker 1: everyone and welcome back to the program. In this episode,
13:10
Speaker 1: we're picking back up where we left off with the
13:13
Speaker 1: evidence against Gary Ridgway. Part C, the investigation into Ridgway.
13:19
Speaker 1: In 1983, Ridgway came to the attention of the task
13:23
Speaker 1: force as a result of the disappearance of Marie Malvar,
13:27
Speaker 1: a case initially investigated by the Des Moines Police Department.
13:30
Speaker 1: As discussed more fully below, a man reported that Ridgway's
13:34
Speaker 1: truck appeared similar to the one which he had seen
13:37
Speaker 1: Marie Malvar on the night she disappeared. However, the man's
13:40
Speaker 1: descriptions of the driver and the vehicle were very general.
13:44
Speaker 1: Ridgeway denied picking up Malvar, and with no evidence to
13:48
Speaker 1: implicate him in her disappearance, the case stalled. Ridgeway resurfaced
13:52
Speaker 1: several times as a possible Green River suspect. During the 1980s,
13:57
Speaker 1: task force detectives investigated Ridgeway and interviewed him on multiple occasions.
14:01
Speaker 1: He was generally cooperative. He admitted dating prostitutes, including at
14:06
Speaker 1: least one of the missing victims. He admitted assaulting a prostitute,
14:10
Speaker 1: Rebecca Gard Guay, claiming he did so because she bit him.
14:14
Speaker 1: After one interview, Ridgway successfully passed a polygraph examination in
14:19
Speaker 1: which he denied killing any of the women. On April 8, 1987,
14:22
Speaker 1: the task force served a search warrant on Ridgway's residence,
14:27
Speaker 1: his work locker, and several vehicles. Detectives seized hundreds of
14:31
Speaker 1: items of evidence, such as carpet fibers, ropes, paint samples,
14:37
Speaker 1: and plastic tarps. They submitted these items to the Washington
14:40
Speaker 1: State Patrol Crime Laboratory, which compared them to evidence found
14:45
Speaker 1: with the victims. Detectives obtained and analyzed Ridgeway's financial records.
14:51
Speaker 1: None of the evidence collected appeared to link Ridgeway with
14:53
Speaker 1: any particular scene or victim. However, one item of evidence
14:58
Speaker 1: seized would prove to be significant. a saliva sample taken
15:01
Speaker 1: from Ridgeway during the execution of the warrant. More than
15:06
Speaker 1: 14 years later, in March of 2001, Detective Tom Jensen
15:10
Speaker 1: submitted biological evidence from several victims to WSPCL for DNA typing.
15:17
Speaker 1: In September of 2001, WSPCL forensic scientist Beverly Himmick analyzed
15:22
Speaker 1: the vaginal swabs from victim Marcia Chapman, She discovered that
15:27
Speaker 1: a partial male DNA profile on the swab was consistent
15:31
Speaker 1: with Ridgway's DNA profile. Hemmick also analyzed pubic hairs from
15:35
Speaker 1: victim Opal Mills and discovered a male DNA profile which
15:40
Speaker 1: matched Ridgway's. At around the same time, WSPCL forensic scientist
15:46
Speaker 1: Jean C. Johnston analyzed the vaginal swabbing from victim Carol Christensen.
15:52
Speaker 1: She discovered that the DNA profile obtained from sperm fraction
15:56
Speaker 1: on the vaginal swab was consistent with Ridgeway's DNA. She
16:01
Speaker 1: calculated that not more than one individual in the entire world,
16:05
Speaker 1: excluding an identical twin, would exhibit this DNA profile. This
16:10
Speaker 1: DNA linked Ridgeway to only one dump site and only
16:13
Speaker 1: one lone victim. As a result, the King County Sheriff's
16:16
Speaker 1: Office made preparations for his arrest. The police put together
16:20
Speaker 1: a multi-agency task force the Green River Homicide Investigation Task Force,
16:25
Speaker 1: to prepare the cases against Ridgway and review the remaining
16:29
Speaker 1: unsolved murders. On November 16, 2001, Ridgway attempted to pick
16:34
Speaker 1: up an undercover King County Sheriff's officer posing as a
16:38
Speaker 1: prostitute on PHS. He asked if she was dating and
16:42
Speaker 1: agreed to meet her down the road. He was arrested
16:44
Speaker 1: and released later that day. Ironically, when being interviewed at
16:48
Speaker 1: the King County Jail during his booking, Ridgeway requested that
16:52
Speaker 1: they not contact his wife. Instead, he stated, You can
16:55
Speaker 1: contact the Green River Task Force. They know me real well.
16:59
Speaker 1: Two weeks later, on November 30, 2001, police arrested Ridgeway
17:03
Speaker 1: for murder as he left work at the Kenworth plant
17:07
Speaker 1: in Renton. D. Arrest and Charging On December 5, 2001,
17:12
Speaker 1: the King County prosecuting attorney charged Ridgeway with four counts
17:16
Speaker 1: of aggravated murder in the first degree for the murders
17:19
Speaker 1: of Carol Christensen, Cynthia Hines, Marcia Chapman, and Opal Mills.
17:24
Speaker 1: In three of the four counts, DNA evidence linked Ridgeway
17:27
Speaker 1: to the victims. The body of Cynthia Hines was discovered
17:30
Speaker 1: within a few feet of two other victims, leaving no
17:33
Speaker 1: doubt that the same killer was responsible. On April 15, 2002,
17:38
Speaker 1: the King County prosecuting attorney provided written notice that he
17:42
Speaker 1: would seek the death penalty. Over the next year, prosecutors
17:46
Speaker 1: and detectives carefully reviewed and investigated the the uncharged Green
17:50
Speaker 1: River cases, for further forensic work and possible charging. Investigators
17:56
Speaker 1: sent hundreds of items from the cases to both public
17:58
Speaker 1: and private forensic laboratories for analysis. In the meantime, in
18:03
Speaker 1: an effort to ensure the case against Ridgeway would go
18:05
Speaker 1: to trial in a timely manner, the King County Superior
18:09
Speaker 1: Court set a charging deadline of March 28, 2003. Shortly
18:14
Speaker 1: before this deadline, a private laboratory, Microtrace, reported finding tiny
18:18
Speaker 1: spheres of sprayed paint on the clothing of two uncharged victims,
18:22
Speaker 1: Wendy Cofield and Deborah Estes. The paint was identical to
18:26
Speaker 1: the highly specialized DuPont Imran paint used at Kenworth Truck
18:30
Speaker 1: Plant where Ridgeway worked. A total of five murdered women
18:34
Speaker 1: were left in or near the Green River within one
18:37
Speaker 1: month time period in July and August of 1982. Wendy
18:41
Speaker 1: Cofield was the first, and Ridgeway had already been charged
18:45
Speaker 1: with killing the last three victims Opal Mills, Cynthia Hines,
18:49
Speaker 1: and Marcia Chapman. It was obvious that the same person
18:52
Speaker 1: who killed these four women had killed Deborah Bonner, whose
18:55
Speaker 1: body was found at the Green River a few weeks
18:57
Speaker 1: after Cofield's and only a few days before Mills and Chapman's.
19:02
Speaker 1: On March 27, 2003, the King County prosecuting attorney filed
19:07
Speaker 1: three additional counts of aggravated murder in the first degree
19:10
Speaker 1: for the murders of Wendy Cofield, Deborah Bonner, and Deborah Estes.
19:15
Speaker 1: Ridgeway entered pleas of not guilty to the additional counts.
19:19
Speaker 1: The court set a trial date for July of 2004. E.
19:23
Speaker 1: The plea agreement. In April of 2003, prosecutors and detectives
19:27
Speaker 1: completed their review of all cases potentially linked to the
19:31
Speaker 1: Green River Killer. These reviews consisted of hundreds of witness
19:35
Speaker 1: interviews and they were done with an eye towards any
19:38
Speaker 1: physical evidence that might yield information if subjected to state-of-the-art
19:43
Speaker 1: forensic examination. despite extensive examination of the physical evidence by
19:48
Speaker 1: many different laboratories, around the country, there was little new evidence.
19:53
Speaker 1: The only new evidence of significance, the finding of Imran
19:56
Speaker 1: paint on the clothing of several victims, resulted in the
19:59
Speaker 1: filing of three additional accounts of aggravated murder in the
20:02
Speaker 1: first degree. 42 Green River cases remain uncharged and there
20:08
Speaker 1: was little physical evidence or circumstantial evidence connecting Ridgeway to
20:11
Speaker 1: any of them. The dearth of any evidence pointing to
20:15
Speaker 1: any suspect meant, in all likelihood, that absent a confession,
20:19
Speaker 1: the cases would remain unsolved. Gary Ridgeway faced seven counts
20:23
Speaker 1: of aggravated first-degree murder, but he could not be charged
20:26
Speaker 1: with more than a fraction of the Green River killings.
20:30
Speaker 1: Shortly after his arraignment on the amended information, Ridgeway's attorneys
20:34
Speaker 1: contacted the King County Prosecuting Attorney and asked whether the
20:38
Speaker 1: prosecutor would forego seeking the death penalty against Ridgway in
20:42
Speaker 1: exchange for pleas of guilty to the charged counts and
20:45
Speaker 1: a number of additional cases. They subsequently prepared a proffer
20:50
Speaker 1: declaring that Ridgway was willing to plead guilty to seven
20:53
Speaker 1: charged counts and 40 to 47 additional counts of murder
20:57
Speaker 1: in exchange for the prosecutor's agreement to forego the death penalty.
21:01
Speaker 1: Ridgway offered to provide a completely candid account of his
21:05
Speaker 1: criminal activity in King County to direct investigators to the
21:08
Speaker 1: undiscovered remains of a number of his victims. In April
21:12
Speaker 1: of 2003, the prosecutors faced a decision. He could reject
21:16
Speaker 1: Ridgway's proffer and proceed to trial on the seven charged
21:19
Speaker 1: counts alone. This would allow a jury to decide whether
21:22
Speaker 1: Ridgway was guilty of the charged crimes, and if so,
21:26
Speaker 1: whether he should be sentenced to death. A jury verdict
21:29
Speaker 1: of death would create the possibility that, after Ridgway had
21:32
Speaker 1: exhausted decades of appeals, he might be executed before he
21:36
Speaker 1: died of natural causes in prison. A fraction of the
21:39
Speaker 1: Green River killings would be avenged. Or, the prosecutor could
21:43
Speaker 1: deprive the jury of an opportunity to sentence Ridgeway to death.
21:47
Speaker 1: If he did so, the truth about the Green River
21:49
Speaker 1: killings would be known, and the community's most enduring nightmare
21:53
Speaker 1: would be over. The Green River killings would no longer
21:56
Speaker 1: be a tragic enigma in the history of our county.
21:59
Speaker 1: The families and survivors of the dozens of victims of
22:02
Speaker 1: the uncharged killings would find a measure of justice and
22:05
Speaker 1: resolution at last. Ridgway would be held accountable for all
22:09
Speaker 1: the murders he committed, not just a select few. He
22:12
Speaker 1: would not be executed, but his convictions would not be appealed,
22:16
Speaker 1: and he would die in prison. On June 13, 2003,
22:19
Speaker 1: the King County prosecuting attorney and Ridgway entered into an
22:24
Speaker 1: agreement where in exchange for avoiding the possibility of execution,
22:28
Speaker 1: Ridgway agreed to provide complete, truthful, and candid information concerning
22:33
Speaker 1: his crimes in King County and answer all questions during
22:36
Speaker 1: interviews conducted by the police or the prosecuting attorney. Ridgway
22:41
Speaker 1: agreed to disclose the existence and precise location of all
22:44
Speaker 1: undiscovered physical remains of his victims. Ridgway agreed to plead
22:48
Speaker 1: guilty to aggravated murder in the first degree for all
22:52
Speaker 1: murders he committed in King County. The terms of the
22:55
Speaker 1: contract specifically required Ridgway to address not only the official
22:59
Speaker 1: list of 49 victims, but any and all other victims
23:03
Speaker 1: he may have committed before 1982 or after 1984. In
23:08
Speaker 1: addition to the finality this would provide the victims' families
23:11
Speaker 1: and the community at large, the contract served another purpose.
23:15
Speaker 1: By identifying unsolved murders for which Ridgway was not responsible,
23:19
Speaker 1: police could investigate these cases with an eye towards developing
23:23
Speaker 1: other viable suspects. The contract provided that if Ridgway was
23:28
Speaker 1: not completely candid, he could face the death penalty for
23:31
Speaker 1: any murders which he had failed to disclose. For example,
23:34
Speaker 1: if Ridgway failed to confess to a murder that he committed,
23:37
Speaker 1: and it was later learned that Ridgway was responsible, the
23:40
Speaker 1: prosecutor could be free to seek the death penalty against
23:44
Speaker 1: Ridgway for that crime. Ridgway acknowledged this consequence during the
23:48
Speaker 1: course of interviews. Alright, we're going to wrap this one
23:51
Speaker 1: up here, and in the next episode dealing with the topic,
23:54
Speaker 1: we're going to pick up with those interviews. All of
23:57
Speaker 1: the information that goes with this episode can be found
24:01
Speaker 1: in the description box. What's up everyone and welcome back
24:04
Speaker 1: to the program. In this episode, we're going to get
24:07
Speaker 1: right back to the evidence collected against Gary Ridgway. F.
24:12
Speaker 1: The Interviews In June of 2003, continuing over the next
24:17
Speaker 1: five months, the task force interviewed Ridgway extensively. Detectives confronted
24:22
Speaker 1: him with all of the Green River murders and similar
24:25
Speaker 1: unsolved homicides. In all, Ridgeway claimed he had killed over
24:29
Speaker 1: 60 women in King County. As part of the process
24:32
Speaker 1: of testing his claims to be the Green River Killer,
24:35
Speaker 1: Ridgeway led the police to the places he left bodies
24:39
Speaker 1: and described what he did there. His memory for these
24:42
Speaker 1: locations surpassed all the information provided to his attorneys and
24:46
Speaker 1: the knowledge of detectives who had worked on the case
24:49
Speaker 1: for decades. In addition, he identified several dump sites on
24:53
Speaker 1: cases that were never considered Green River cases. Information about
24:57
Speaker 1: these cases had not been provided to the defense. Ridgway
25:02
Speaker 1: led the task force to numerous sites where he claimed
25:05
Speaker 1: to have left undiscovered bodies. To date, four sets of
25:08
Speaker 1: human remains have been discovered at those sites, including three
25:12
Speaker 1: of the missing victims on the original Green River list,
25:16
Speaker 1: Pammy Avant, April Buttram, and Marie Malvar. Detectives continue to
25:21
Speaker 1: try and identify the fourth set of recovered remains. During
25:25
Speaker 1: more than four months of interviews, detectives questioned Ridgeway about
25:29
Speaker 1: specific homicides, as well as delving into Ridgeway's general habits
25:33
Speaker 1: and thoughts related to the killings. Detectives quickly learned that,
25:38
Speaker 1: as predicted by experts on serial killers, the information from
25:41
Speaker 1: Ridgeway came in bits and pieces. Initially, despite his obvious
25:46
Speaker 1: incentive to be truthful in the interviews, Ridgeway greatly minimized
25:50
Speaker 1: his behavior and acknowledged that he was a pathological liar.
25:54
Speaker 1: In candid moments, Ridgway acknowledged that it was difficult for
25:57
Speaker 1: him to be truthful after being so successfully deceptive about
26:00
Speaker 1: the killings for decades. Ridgway also suggested another reason why
26:06
Speaker 1: he would lie or minimize his conduct. He believes that
26:09
Speaker 1: a popular true crime author will write a book about
26:11
Speaker 1: him and he wanted to portray himself in the best
26:14
Speaker 1: possible light. Early in the interviews, Ridgway made a number
26:17
Speaker 1: of self-serving claims. He said that he had not planned
26:20
Speaker 1: to kill any of his victims. He claimed that he
26:22
Speaker 1: killed in a rage when something about the encounter with
26:25
Speaker 1: the women, e.g. failure to feign orgasm with sufficient enthusiasm
26:29
Speaker 1: or hurrying him, provoked him. He attributed his anger to
26:33
Speaker 1: a variety of issues, including work, where women used manipulation
26:37
Speaker 1: to get easier jobs, his purchase of a home, all
26:40
Speaker 1: the light bulbs were removed before he moved in, late
26:43
Speaker 1: payments by his tenants, his divorces, poor sleep, failure to
26:47
Speaker 1: stick up for himself, and child support payments. He said
26:51
Speaker 1: that killing released the pressure from these and other problems. Eventually,
26:55
Speaker 1: he acknowledged that many of these claims were false, and
26:58
Speaker 1: he admitted that once he managed to get a woman
27:00
Speaker 1: to his house, he killed her regardless of how she
27:03
Speaker 1: acted or how she felt. Likewise, Ridgway initially insisted that
27:08
Speaker 1: he stopped killing in 1985, when he met his present wife.
27:12
Speaker 1: As the interviews progressed, the last year he killed changed
27:15
Speaker 1: from 1985 to 1987 to 1991 to 1998. to some
27:21
Speaker 1: indefinite time before his arrest in 2001. Ridgway had a
27:25
Speaker 1: very strong incentive, avoiding the possibility of execution, to confess
27:29
Speaker 1: to every murder for which he could possibly be charged. Nevertheless,
27:34
Speaker 1: he did not admit every killing, every victim originally attributed
27:37
Speaker 1: to the Green River Killer. For instance, he said he
27:40
Speaker 1: did not kill Amina Agashef, although this may be because
27:45
Speaker 1: he had heard that she was shot. and he denied
27:47
Speaker 1: that he killed two other Green River victims found near Portland,
27:51
Speaker 1: Tammy Lyles and an unidentified woman. To date, he has
27:54
Speaker 1: provided no specific information about missing victim Becky Marrero, whom
27:59
Speaker 1: he claimed not to recognize from a photograph. Additionally, Ridgway
28:03
Speaker 1: rejected detectives' determined efforts to suggest that he had committed
28:07
Speaker 1: numerous other unsolved and similar homicides. On one such occasion,
28:12
Speaker 1: he declared, You can put her on the list of mine.
28:15
Speaker 1: But I'm not going to. I'm not going to say
28:17
Speaker 1: that I killed her because I didn't kill her. Ridgeway
28:20
Speaker 1: made it clear that he would not claim to have
28:22
Speaker 1: killed a woman unless he did so. He explained his reasons.
28:25
Speaker 1: Why if it isn't mine? Because I have pride in
28:28
Speaker 1: what I do. I don't want to take it from
28:30
Speaker 1: anybody else. In the end, Ridgeway admitted to committing most
28:34
Speaker 1: of the murders on the official list of Green River
28:36
Speaker 1: cases and six unsolved homicides. G. Memory for Specific Victims
28:43
Speaker 1: Ridgway claimed that his memory of specific victims is poor.
28:46
Speaker 1: Some of this is apparently a consequence of the sheer
28:49
Speaker 1: number of women he murdered. For example, during a period
28:52
Speaker 1: of less than four weeks in the spring of 1983,
28:55
Speaker 1: Ridgway killed at least six women. Yet Ridgway's inability to
28:59
Speaker 1: recall the details of the killings is also the product
29:02
Speaker 1: and symptom of his psychopathy. Simply put, the women had
29:06
Speaker 1: no meaning as individuals to him. For Ridgway, his victims
29:10
Speaker 1: existed simply to satisfy his needs. Like I said before,
29:14
Speaker 1: they don't mean anything to me. And once I've killed them,
29:17
Speaker 1: I didn't keep them in my memory. I just knew
29:20
Speaker 1: where they, where I dumped them. When shown photographs of
29:23
Speaker 1: the victims, Ridgway almost invariably said he did not recognize them. It's,
29:28
Speaker 1: I don't, the woman's faces, don't mean anything to me.
29:31
Speaker 1: There were the bodies, if they had, had a pussy
29:34
Speaker 1: I would screw and that was it. He did, however,
29:37
Speaker 1: often remember where he placed the victims' bodies, and he
29:30
Speaker 1: Ridgeway's memory problems, it became apparent, were highly selective. For example,
29:32
Speaker 1: he had detailed memory of every vehicle he had ever owned,
29:36
Speaker 1: nor did he have any trouble describing the various residences
29:38
Speaker 1: he occupied in the first 30 years of his life.
29:59
Speaker 1: He readily recited a detailed narrative of his employment history,
30:03
Speaker 1: including the shifts he worked at Kenworth, his various responsibilities there,
30:07
Speaker 1: and the dates during which his work there was interrupted
30:10
Speaker 1: by a stint in the Navy. In particular, Ridgway demonstrated
30:14
Speaker 1: an extraordinary memory for those things which meant something to him,
30:18
Speaker 1: particularly his possessions and how much he paid for them.
30:21
Speaker 1: For example, Ridgway described breaking a taillight on his pickup
30:25
Speaker 1: truck while dumping one of the bodies at Exit 38,
30:28
Speaker 1: on I-90 in the early 1980s. He also remembered that
30:32
Speaker 1: he waited to replace the light until he was able
30:35
Speaker 1: to purchase two of them after responding to a classified ad.
30:39
Speaker 1: A review of a check Registry seized in 1987 corroborated
30:43
Speaker 1: Ridgway's account. When frustrated investigators reminded Ridgway that he seemed
30:47
Speaker 1: to have a fine memory for virtually everything except information
30:51
Speaker 1: about his victims, Ridgway said, That's the way, that's the
30:54
Speaker 1: way when I put them In there, it's a place
30:57
Speaker 1: where I locked it in there. My mind doesn't want
30:59
Speaker 1: to give it up. Despite these pernicious memory problems, Ridgway
31:04
Speaker 1: correctly identified a large number of areas where the remains
31:08
Speaker 1: of his victims were discovered and led investigators to four
31:11
Speaker 1: sets of undiscovered remains. 4. General Admissions During interviews, Ridgway
31:16
Speaker 1: explained his general methods of finding and killing his victims.
31:20
Speaker 1: In virtually all of the murders he committed, Ridgway claimed,
31:23
Speaker 1: he used the same techniques for hunting, killing, and hiding
31:26
Speaker 1: the bodies. A. Choosing Victims Ridgway acknowledged that he devoted
31:31
Speaker 1: considerable time and effort to finding appropriate victims. He would
31:35
Speaker 1: spend hours before work and after driving through areas of prostitution.
31:40
Speaker 1: Ridgway referred to these efforts as patrolling. Among the areas
31:43
Speaker 1: Ridgway patrolled regularly were the Riverton area, the Tukwila area
31:49
Speaker 1: along PHS, according to Ridgway, the area where he found
31:52
Speaker 1: most of his victims, the Kent-Des Moines area of PHS,
31:56
Speaker 1: Rainier Valley, Seattle International District, downtown Seattle, North Seattle along
32:02
Speaker 1: Aurora Avenue, and PHS South to Federal Way. One of
32:07
Speaker 1: the areas that Ridgway found many prostitutes was PHS, between
32:11
Speaker 1: his house at 218 and South 188th Street. Ridgway estimated
32:16
Speaker 1: that he picked up and killed around 15 women from
32:19
Speaker 1: that stretch of highway. Ridgway would back up his truck,
32:22
Speaker 1: into the parking lot of the 7-Eleven store on PHS, where,
32:26
Speaker 1: as he said, he could watch the traffic. Sometimes, as
32:29
Speaker 1: a ruse, he would raise the hood of his truck.
32:32
Speaker 1: This allowed him to pretend to work on his truck
32:34
Speaker 1: while he watched the highway. Ridgway claimed that he only
32:37
Speaker 1: killed street prostitutes. There may be psychological reasons that explain
32:41
Speaker 1: why Ridgway elected to kill prostitutes, but his principal reason
32:45
Speaker 1: was the relative ease with which these women could be murdered. Uh, prostitutes.
32:50
Speaker 1: They were the easiest. I went from having sex with
32:53
Speaker 1: them to just plain old killing them. Ridgway claimed that
32:56
Speaker 1: he also picked these young women up because he believed
32:58
Speaker 1: police would not look as hard for a missing prostitute. Also,
33:02
Speaker 1: he claimed that because prostitutes were frequently on the move,
33:06
Speaker 1: it was more difficult for police to determine where and
33:08
Speaker 1: when they had been killed. Ridgway's assessment was correct. Police
33:13
Speaker 1: were often delayed in their investigation because no missing report
33:16
Speaker 1: was filed, And even when a disappearance was reported, it
33:20
Speaker 1: was difficult for investigators to pin down where the victim
33:23
Speaker 1: had last been seen. Complicating matters were numerous alleged sightings
33:27
Speaker 1: of the missing victims long after they had been killed.
33:30
Speaker 1: Ridgway denied killing any men. He claimed there was a
33:33
Speaker 1: simple reason, because they didn't give no sexual gratification to me.
33:38
Speaker 1: Ridgway appeared indifferent to the race of his victims. Most
33:41
Speaker 1: of his victims were white, but he also killed many
33:44
Speaker 1: African American women and several Asian women. He declared, I'd
33:47
Speaker 1: much rather have white, but black was fine. It's just,
33:50
Speaker 1: just garbage, just something to screw and kill her and
33:53
Speaker 1: dump her. Most of Ridgway's victims were in their teens.
33:57
Speaker 1: Ridgway seemed to prey on the younger women. According to Ridgway,
34:00
Speaker 1: these girls were not adults, were relatively innocent and less
34:04
Speaker 1: likely to con them than women in their early 20s.
34:07
Speaker 1: On the other hand, he seemed to suggest they may
34:10
Speaker 1: have pled more earnestly for their lives. I talked to
34:12
Speaker 1: them before I had sex with them, and she'd say
34:15
Speaker 1: I have only done this a few times before. I mean,
34:17
Speaker 1: if she's 13 or 14 years old, you figure that's true.
34:21
Speaker 1: If you get one that's 20 or 25 that talks
34:23
Speaker 1: the slang and everything and they say I've only done
34:26
Speaker 1: this a few times, they probably have an arrest record
34:29
Speaker 1: and they're lying. But the young ones stood out more
34:32
Speaker 1: when they talked when they were dying. Ridgway made it
34:35
Speaker 1: clear to investigators and prosecutors that these were carefully planned
34:40
Speaker 1: premeditated killings not sudden impulses. When I get in the truck,
34:44
Speaker 1: when I'm driving, and might pick up a woman, want
34:47
Speaker 1: to be in the mood to kill. I don't have
34:49
Speaker 1: the mood like I don't get her in the truck
34:51
Speaker 1: and drive down the road and all of a sudden,
34:53
Speaker 1: you know, jump on her and start choking her. No.
34:57
Speaker 1: Ridgway was fully committed to killing any women he could.
35:00
Speaker 1: I always had it in my mind to kill him.
35:02
Speaker 1: During his most active period, Ridgway said, he killed virtually
35:06
Speaker 1: all the prostitutes he could. During the killing spree, there
35:09
Speaker 1: were a few women, I didn't for some reason, I
35:12
Speaker 1: didn't kill, but they were far and few between. Ridgway
35:15
Speaker 1: said that during this period, he slept only a couple
35:18
Speaker 1: of hours per night and devoted the rest of his
35:20
Speaker 1: free time to hunting for victims, killing them and disposing
35:24
Speaker 1: of their bodies. Ridgway was not always able to kill
35:27
Speaker 1: a victim he selected. He invested considerable time and energy
35:31
Speaker 1: on victims that he was ultimately unable to murder and
35:34
Speaker 1: failure enraged him and fueled his desire to kill. I'm
35:38
Speaker 1: really mad at some of them because I didn't get
35:41
Speaker 1: a chance to pick them up. They want too much.
35:44
Speaker 1: They had a pimp following me or something. So I
35:48
Speaker 1: just lost one. The next one, I'm going to do
35:50
Speaker 1: everything I can to sweet talk her. I'm going to
35:52
Speaker 1: talk her into getting her out so I can kill
35:55
Speaker 1: the bitch. Kill the first one. I didn't get a
35:57
Speaker 1: chance to kill today. I'm going to kill this one
36:00
Speaker 1: and I'm going to strangle her head, strangle her neck
36:02
Speaker 1: so it breaks. All right, we're going to wrap this
36:04
Speaker 1: episode up here. And in the next episode, we're going
36:06
Speaker 1: to pick up with B, gaining the confidence of the women.
36:11
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
36:13
Speaker 1: be found in the description box. What's up, everyone? And
36:17
Speaker 1: welcome back to the program. In this episode, we're going
36:20
Speaker 1: to pick up where we left off with the evidence
36:23
Speaker 1: against Gary Ridgway. B, gaining the confidence of the women.
36:28
Speaker 1: Ridgway developed a number of ruses to gain the confidence
36:31
Speaker 1: of his victims. These methods, although simple, enabled him to
36:34
Speaker 1: continue killing long after news of the Green River Killer
36:38
Speaker 1: had reached the street. Ridgway admitted that many of the
36:41
Speaker 1: women he contacted asked him if he was the Green
36:44
Speaker 1: River Killer. Ridgway said he used his small stature to
36:47
Speaker 1: suggest that he could not be the killer. Detective, did
36:51
Speaker 1: any of them ever ask whether you were the Green
36:54
Speaker 1: River Killer? Gary Ridgway, all the time. They always ask.
36:58
Speaker 1: Even the ones I didn't kill. A lot of them did. Detective,
37:02
Speaker 1: what'd you say? Gary Ridgway? No, I'm not. Uh, do
37:06
Speaker 1: I look like the Green River Killer? Ann says, no,
37:09
Speaker 1: you don't. They always thought it was a big tall guy,
37:11
Speaker 1: about six foot. A big guy, so 6'3, 185 pounds,
37:16
Speaker 1: or something like that. Ridgway estimated that 50 women asked
37:19
Speaker 1: him if he was the Green River Killer. He never
37:21
Speaker 1: told any of them that he was, although he admitted
37:24
Speaker 1: telling a couple of his victims, as he strangled them,
37:27
Speaker 1: that he was going to kill them. In contrast, some
37:29
Speaker 1: prostitutes were reluctant to date Ridgway because they suspected that
37:33
Speaker 1: he might be an undercover police officer. To allay these concerns,
37:37
Speaker 1: Ridgway carried beer with him in the truck, which he
37:40
Speaker 1: would offer to the women, who would then know I
37:43
Speaker 1: wasn't a cop and relax with me. Ridgway developed a
37:46
Speaker 1: number of ruses to get women to trust him. He
37:49
Speaker 1: offered to become a regular customer, to lend them his vehicles,
37:53
Speaker 1: to get them jobs, to feed them. He didn't have
37:55
Speaker 1: to worry about keeping these promises because, as he said,
37:59
Speaker 1: they were already dead. And I would talk to her
38:02
Speaker 1: about that and get her mind off of the, you know,
38:06
Speaker 1: anything she might have been nervous about. And think, you know,
38:09
Speaker 1: she thinks this guy cares. And which I didn't. I
38:12
Speaker 1: just wanted to get her to the vehicle and eventually
38:15
Speaker 1: kill her. Even when conditions were not right for killing
38:18
Speaker 1: a particular woman, if, for example, the woman was with
38:22
Speaker 1: a companion, Ridgway would often give the women a ride.
38:25
Speaker 1: He was investing in the future to get them used
38:28
Speaker 1: to me in case I see one of them at
38:30
Speaker 1: a time alone. If a woman was afraid to go
38:34
Speaker 1: with him to a remote location, Ridgway would sometimes go
38:38
Speaker 1: through with the date, hoping to exploit her increased sense
38:40
Speaker 1: of security at their next encounter. Ridgway's methods enabled him
38:45
Speaker 1: to get his victims in situations where he could kill
38:47
Speaker 1: them without arousing their suspicions. He would offer a prostitute
38:52
Speaker 1: more than she might usually make to go on a date,
38:54
Speaker 1: to get her to go to a remote location with him.
38:57
Speaker 1: After all, he knew he would not lose out on
38:59
Speaker 1: any money, and in fact might turn a profit if
39:01
Speaker 1: the woman had any cash. First thing you do is
39:04
Speaker 1: we talk about what I want, how much I'm gonna pay,
39:07
Speaker 1: knowing I was gonna kill her. I agreed on whatever
39:10
Speaker 1: she wanted, cause I had the money. When Ridgway planned
39:13
Speaker 1: to kill a woman, he was faced with having to
39:16
Speaker 1: convince the woman to leave the cab of the truck
39:18
Speaker 1: for the date. Ridgway explained that he would carry the
39:21
Speaker 1: spare tire in the front seat area and claimed that
39:24
Speaker 1: there was no room to have sex there. Another way
39:27
Speaker 1: that Ridgway lulled his victims into trusting him was by
39:30
Speaker 1: using his son in a variety of ways to gain
39:33
Speaker 1: the confidence of the women that he killed. So every
39:36
Speaker 1: time I opened up my wallet, there would be a
39:38
Speaker 1: picture of my son on one side. You know, behind
39:41
Speaker 1: the ID. Here's my ID, I hide my name, I
39:44
Speaker 1: flip it over, and there's my ID and my son's
39:47
Speaker 1: picture on the back side. and they'd see that, and
39:50
Speaker 1: they would lower any big defenses, and just, you know,
39:53
Speaker 1: kids' toys, eight-year-old toys on the dash. Ridgway preferred to
39:57
Speaker 1: kill the women at his home. When he managed to
40:01
Speaker 1: persuade a woman to come to his house for a date,
40:03
Speaker 1: Ridgway said he would use his son's room as a
40:06
Speaker 1: means of reassuring the woman that he was not dangerous.
40:09
Speaker 1: They look around and everything, and they're getting more secure
40:12
Speaker 1: as you go. They look in the bedrooms, nobody's there, nothing,
40:16
Speaker 1: you know, there's my son's room. Hey, this guy has
40:18
Speaker 1: a son. He's not going to hurt anybody. His name's
40:21
Speaker 1: written on the door, and it's empty, and it's got
40:24
Speaker 1: his bunk bed in there. Toys are on the floor.
40:27
Speaker 1: Ridgway acknowledged that he sometimes had to hide his emotions
40:30
Speaker 1: about a missed kill. There were times when he was
40:33
Speaker 1: unable to persuade a woman to have sex with him
40:35
Speaker 1: in his situation where he could kill her and had
40:38
Speaker 1: to release her unharmed. He would become so frustrated and
40:41
Speaker 1: angry and so eager to kill that he would have
40:44
Speaker 1: to calm down before he could begin hunting for another victim.
40:48
Speaker 1: I couldn't all of a sudden pick up another woman
40:50
Speaker 1: and still be in that frustration. I'd be in the
40:52
Speaker 1: mood then right to get her in the car and
40:55
Speaker 1: choke her. But with that, I had to calm down
40:58
Speaker 1: to get so, you know, I wouldn't look like I was,
41:00
Speaker 1: you know, scared and shaking. If traces of that anger
41:04
Speaker 1: and frustration remained, Ridgway said he would offer the woman
41:08
Speaker 1: a non-threatening explanation. Well, sometimes, like, I'd be anxious because
41:12
Speaker 1: of the frustration with the first one, and I'd be shaking,
41:15
Speaker 1: but I'd have to bring in The side and I
41:18
Speaker 1: just arrested a couple of people weeks ago for prostitution
41:22
Speaker 1: and you can see I'm a little bit nervous. I've
41:25
Speaker 1: just been arrested a while back and they can see
41:27
Speaker 1: any kind of nervousness is because of that instead of
41:30
Speaker 1: nervousness and wanting to be strange. C. Killing the women.
41:36
Speaker 1: Ridgway claims he negotiated with women to give him a
41:39
Speaker 1: half and half oral intercourse followed by genital intercourse. He
41:43
Speaker 1: wanted them as naked as possible. When Ridgway took women
41:47
Speaker 1: to his house, he would encourage them to use the
41:49
Speaker 1: bathroom before they had sex. This was not for their benefit.
41:53
Speaker 1: He knew from experience that victims of strangulation frequently become incontinent.
41:58
Speaker 1: I don't... I was in the idea of getting them
42:01
Speaker 1: in there in the bed and killing them. I didn't
42:02
Speaker 1: want them to shit in the bed, so that was
42:04
Speaker 1: the main reason. Ridgway related that he murdered virtually all
42:08
Speaker 1: of his victims with the same simple but effective method.
42:12
Speaker 1: During the sex act, he would tell the woman... that
42:14
Speaker 1: he could only have an orgasm while entering her from behind.
42:17
Speaker 1: When the woman was on her knees, doggy style, he
42:20
Speaker 1: would get behind her. At the appropriate time, Ridgway claimed
42:24
Speaker 1: that he would wait for his victim to raise her
42:26
Speaker 1: head and attack. As Ridgway told a psychiatrist, And after
42:30
Speaker 1: I got behind them, penis, vagina, I would climax, and
42:34
Speaker 1: usually the woman would raise her head because, you know,
42:36
Speaker 1: the guy's through. I can get dressed. Usually, when she
42:39
Speaker 1: raised her head, I would wrap my arm around her
42:42
Speaker 1: or put something under her neck and I'd choke her.
42:45
Speaker 1: Other times he employed a variation on that ruse. I'd
42:48
Speaker 1: tell them, here's a car coming, so guess what? She
42:52
Speaker 1: lifts up her head like that. She's not thinking anything
42:54
Speaker 1: of it. Her hands are down normal and it's my
42:57
Speaker 1: time to wrap my arm around her neck and to
42:59
Speaker 1: choke her and not have my hand get in the
43:03
Speaker 1: way of her mouth. I got bit in the hand
43:05
Speaker 1: with a mouth one time, but it's my idea to
43:07
Speaker 1: get her head up so I could get a clear
43:09
Speaker 1: shot of her neck to kill her. Ridgway described one
43:13
Speaker 1: technique he said was particularly effective. When he began to
43:17
Speaker 1: strangle the woman, he told them that if they stopped struggling,
43:20
Speaker 1: he would let them go. Apparently, a number of women
43:23
Speaker 1: ceased to struggle when he said this and were easier
43:26
Speaker 1: to kill. But I wasn't going to let go. It
43:29
Speaker 1: was just my way of lying to her to keep
43:30
Speaker 1: her from fighting. She stopped fighting, and I kept on choking.
43:34
Speaker 1: Ridgway arrived at this solution to the fighting problem by
43:37
Speaker 1: trial and error. If they sensed he was going to
43:40
Speaker 1: kill them, he said, his victims often would plead with
43:43
Speaker 1: him to spare their lives. Among the entreaties that they used,
43:47
Speaker 1: he said, were Don't kill me. I'm too young to die.
43:50
Speaker 1: I've got a family I'm taking care of. I've got
43:52
Speaker 1: a daughter at home. I don't want to die. These
43:55
Speaker 1: pleas did not persuade him, but Ridgway said he soon
43:58
Speaker 1: settled on telling the women that if they stopped struggling,
44:01
Speaker 1: he would release them. Ridgway denied ever using a firearm
44:05
Speaker 1: to kill his victims. Similarly, Ridgway explained, he did not
44:09
Speaker 1: use the knife because it would have been messy and
44:11
Speaker 1: because his victim still might be able to scream. When
44:14
Speaker 1: asked why he chose to choke his victims, Ridgway replied,
44:17
Speaker 1: because that was more personal and more rewarding than to
44:20
Speaker 1: shoot her. Most often, Ridgway reported, he strangled women by
44:24
Speaker 1: compressing their necks in the crook of his arm, using
44:27
Speaker 1: his other arm to add leverage. On many occasions, he
44:30
Speaker 1: demonstrated his technique for the detectives. He started with his
44:34
Speaker 1: right arm, He said because he's right-handed. Sometimes he said
44:38
Speaker 1: if the right arm got tired and the victims were
44:41
Speaker 1: not struggling too much, he would use his left arm.
44:44
Speaker 1: To prevent the women from writhing around in his grip,
44:47
Speaker 1: Ridgway said, he would wrap his legs around them. Some
44:50
Speaker 1: of the struggles were protracted, Ridgway said, and he had
44:53
Speaker 1: to roll over onto his back while squeezing the women
44:56
Speaker 1: with his legs and his arms. Sometimes to finish the
44:59
Speaker 1: woman off, he would roll them on their backs and
45:02
Speaker 1: stand on their throats. According to Ridgway, these struggles never
45:05
Speaker 1: lasted more than two minutes. He claimed that whether or
45:08
Speaker 1: not the woman struggled, he had no effect on his gratification. Later,
45:13
Speaker 1: after some of his victims had scratched him while he
45:15
Speaker 1: strangled them with his hands, Ridgway said that he started
45:18
Speaker 1: to use ligatures. Ligatures included towels, a belt, a bathrobe tie,
45:24
Speaker 1: extension cord, rope, necktie, socks, jumper cables, a tie bag
45:28
Speaker 1: from a curtain, and a t-shirt. According to Ridgway, He
45:32
Speaker 1: killed his victims at his home, in the back of
45:34
Speaker 1: his pickup truck, under a canopy, or outdoors. He said that,
45:38
Speaker 1: of the women he killed in the house, all were
45:40
Speaker 1: killed in his bedroom, with the exception of one woman
45:43
Speaker 1: who escaped long enough to reach the front door. Ridgway
45:46
Speaker 1: said he killed her in there, in the living room.
45:49
Speaker 1: Ridgway denied that he ever tortured his victims or caused
45:52
Speaker 1: them any unnecessary pain. He admitted that once he attempted
45:56
Speaker 1: to set one of his victims' hair on fire after
45:59
Speaker 1: her death, he said he abandoned this experiment, when he
46:02
Speaker 1: became concerned that someone might see the smoke. Ridgway admitted
46:06
Speaker 1: that once, after killing a woman in the back of
46:09
Speaker 1: his truck, he tried to bring her back to life,
46:11
Speaker 1: you know, pumping on her chest, and these efforts, he said,
46:14
Speaker 1: were unsuccessful. Had he been able to revive her, Ridgway said,
46:19
Speaker 1: he might have tried some kind of torture and be
46:22
Speaker 1: limited in the back of the truck. Ridgway denied experimenting
46:26
Speaker 1: with novel ways of murdering his victims. When an interviewer
46:30
Speaker 1: asked him why he did not, He had a simple answer.
46:33
Speaker 1: I didn't because my method's working pretty good, he explained.
46:36
Speaker 1: Choking is what I did, and I was pretty good
46:38
Speaker 1: at it. All right, folks, we're going to wrap up
46:40
Speaker 1: this episode here. And in the next episode, talking about
46:43
Speaker 1: the topic we're going to pick up with D, necrophilia.
46:47
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
46:49
Speaker 1: be found in the description box.