The Seattle serial killer would then dump their bodies in wooded areas around the Green River, which led to his chilling nickname. After luring his victims into his car, he’d often gain their trust by showing them photos of his son, then engage in sexual activity with them before strangling them to death, sometimes in the middle of intercourse. He also targeted sex workers, whom he picked up at truck stops and dive bars along Highway 99 outside Seattle. Gary Ridgway often preyed on vulnerable runaways. It’s widely believed that he first began his killing spree in 1982, starting with a 16-year-old girl who had run away from her foster home. As the years went on, his crimes escalated from there. Not long after Ridgway’s move, he started having a couple of encounters with the law, during which he got arrested for allegedly choking a sex worker and for solicitation. Shortly thereafter, he got a job painting trucks, which he held for about three decades. Navy for two years, Ridgway decided to settle down in the Seattle area. After graduating high school at the age of 20 and serving in the U.S. And while she was ultimately spared from Ridgway’s killing spree, some believe that his crimes may have amounted to a case of “displaced matricide” and that he was unconsciously “killing his mother over and over again.”īut for a long time, Ridgway put up a normal front. Some experts think that this may have been part of a larger pattern of inappropriate behavior on the part of Ridgway’s mother. He also confessed that he had a bed-wetting problem into his early teens - and that he had clear recollections of his mom washing his genitals after he wet the bed. Ridgway later told a psychologist that he was interested in stabbing because he was struggling with being sexually attracted to his own mother and wanted to kill her because of it. But then, at age 15, he stabbed a young boy - just to see how stabbing “worked.” Wikimedia Commons An early mugshot of Gary Ridgway from 1982, before he was identified as the Green River Killer.īorn on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Gary Ridgway had a seemingly happy and normal childhood. How Gary Ridgway Became The Green River Killer This is the gruesome true story of Seattle serial killer Gary Ridgway - and how Ted Bundy helped find him. In a move straight out of The Silence of the Lambs, investigators used Bundy’s inside knowledge of serial killing - and his familiarity with Washington State - to help them form a profile of Ridgway. In fact, by the time Bundy had already been captured in the mid-1980s, authorities were actively seeking his help in catching Ridgway, who at that point was still at large. While Ridgway is not as infamous as other serial killers like Ted Bundy, he took far more victims than Bundy ever did. If true, this would make him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history - and one of the most brutal.įrom bragging about his choking ability to explaining the cold-blooded efficiency of performing necrophilia on a victim’s corpse instead of finding a new victim to rape and kill, Ridgway’s story was nothing short of chilling. He murdered at least 49 women, but the real number could be as high as 71. Wikimedia Commons As the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway took more victims than Jeffrey Dahmer, Son of Sam, and BTK - combined.įrom 1982 to 1998, Gary Ridgway terrorized Washington State as the Green River Killer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |