Gary Ridgeway Research Paper

Gary Leon Ridgeway was born on February 18th, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is known to be one of the most infamous serial killers in American history. His nickname was “The Green River Killer” because he was known to dump many of the bodies in the wooded areas around the Green River (formally named the Duwamish River) in Washington State. He was convicted of 48 separate murders, but one more was added to that number as part of a plea bargain. Making 49 confirmed kills the most of any American serial killer ever. At one point he confessed to almost twice as many kills. He did most of his killing in Washington State and California during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Ridgeway killed mainly prostitutes through methods of strangling. He would often

He lived with parents whom constantly fought, those fights ending up physical many times. Ridgeway maintained an IQ of 82 throughout his childhood, much below average. He was a bed wetter up until the age of fourteen, and once he had an episode, she would make him march naked to the bathroom. She would then hand wash him and his genitals, causing Ridgeway to be frustrated and aroused. This lead to sexual and violent dreams about his mother. At age sixteen Ridgeway attempted to kill a six year old boy, but failed. He led the boy into the woods, and stabbed him through the ribs into the liver. According to both boys, Ridgeway walked away laughing and said “I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone”. After graduating high school at age 21, he married his high-school girlfriend Claudia Kraig. Ridgeway was soon sent to Vietnam after joining the navy, where he was serving on a supply ship. While in Vietnam, he had sexual relations with many prostitutes, and contracted gonorrhea. While angered, he did not stop having relations with prostitutes. Back at home, his wife was having an affair as well, and their marriage ended within a

While this number is record setting as is, he has confessed to 71 murders done by his own hand, while the presumed number is estimated to be at 90+ killings. According to his court statements, Ridgeway lost count of all of the murders that he committed due to the fact that he had murdered so many. Most of his victims were prostitutes picked up along International Blvd 99. While the majority of his victims were found along the Green River area, there were two of his victims that were located in Portland, Oregon. The bodies would be posed, usually naked, as he would have sexual intercourse with them after they were dead. The bodies were found many years after the crimes were committed, and three of the bodies were so decomposed, they have yet to be identified. Ridgeway’s process was to pick up a prostitute, show them a picture of his son in order to gain their trust, go through the business end of things, and then strangle them from behind. After doing this many times and receiving bruises from the self-defense of the prostitutes, Ridgeway started using ligatures to strangle them, such as a rope or