Throughout history there have been many cases in which defiant people commit horrendous acts that one cannot even fathom. Often times if these individuals perform acts in violation of moral laws and regulations, they are subject to confinement in a jail or prison. Of these non-obedient individuals are those who are known as serial killers, who murder innocent lives, due to their desire to receive relief. A famous example of a devious serial killer who raped, tortured, and fed the remnants of human flesh to his captives was Gary Heidnik. Like most criminals, his story is revolved around the achievement of a particular goal, which in his case was to create a ‘baby factory’ from the women he kidnapped.
Gary Leon Ridgway, the infamous "Green River Killer", was born in February of 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. According to biography.com, for around 30 years he lived a normal, every day life. He had a steady job painting trucks. He was married to three different wives in that time. Growing up in a troubled neighborhood, his mother was abusive and his father never stood up to her violent tendencies.
Gary Leon Ridgway was 52 years old when he was arrested in connection to seven murders of prostitutes, drug addicts, and young female runaways in the Seattle, Washington area (Hickey, p. 32, 2016). He was a painter that ultimately helped police link him to the murders by using microscopic paint particles. In addition, DNA evidence was also used to help connect him to the murders. Police also suspected him in committing over 40 more murders of women working or living on the streets (Hickey, p. 32, 2016). All of his victims were between the ages of 15 and 26, with the exception of three women who were in their 30’s (Hickey, p. 32, 2016).
Gary Ridgway began each of his murders by picking up a women, who was usually a prostitute (Gary Leon Ridgway). Most of the victims were prostitutes or young runaways who worked or hitchhiked, along an area of Pac Highway (Highway 99) which had regressed into being a two lane strip of topless bars and cheap hotels (Gary Ridgway-The Green River Killer). This patch of area was constantly used by Gary Ridgway when he was committing his murders. Gary would sometimes use a picture of his son, from his second marriage in order to get the prostitute to trust him (Gary Leon
His first kill victim was stabbed and was hidden in the house crawl space. Since his first known victim, Gacy goes on to kill a total of 33 young men. He would rape torture and then strangle his victims and would throw bury them in his crawl space. The typical victims he had were young boys and men that were in need of a job, home, or money. He had also started a new “method” in which he would torture rape and then drop them at a nearby park.
Also known as the “Genesee River Killer” Shawcross killed 11 women and 2 children before being sent to prison for life. He was sent to prison for the murder of 8 year old Karen Hill in 1972. Although police were sure that he had murdered young Jack Blake as well they were unable to convict him on this crime due to lack of evidence. Although sentenced to 25 years he served less than 15 years before being released.
In his preteen years he had a habit of wetting the bed, when he did so his mother would be embarrassed by it and humiliates him in front of his brothers and father. His father would often tell coworkers he wanted engage in acts of necrophilia to his son. The author of the bridgeway to ridgeway on Gary Ridgway says “As a 16 year-old high school student, Gary performed his first attempted murder. He had led a 6 year-old boy into the woods and stabbed him through his ribs. According to both the victim and Ridgway, Ridgway walked away laughing and saying, “I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone.”
John Wayne Gacy was one of America’s most notorious serial killers. Born and raised in Chicago, Gacy would go on to kill thirty-three boys within the Des Plaines area of Chicago, Illinois. He would rape, torture, then finally suffocate every single one of his thirty-three victims within the very walls of his own home. Having killed that many people, he became the serial killer with the most amount of confirmed kills in the United States at the time. He would be caught in early 1978 and sentenced to twenty-one life sentences, twelve death sentences, and to be executed by lethal injection, which would not happen until over a decade later in the middle of 1994.
Serial killers have many motives on why they kill the people they do. Many serial killers come from a dark childhood where they could have been molested by either a mother or a father and that could lead them on to molest and murder other small children. A serial killer known as Gary Ridgway killed and murdered over what is to believe seventy eight prostitutes. I was able to look through many articles and background information on many different credible websites. These sources gave me credible and honest information on how and why Gary Ridgway killed the people he did and why in general serial killers kill the people they do.
John Gacy is most notably known as a serial killer. In 1980 he was charged with the murder of thirty-three young men and sentenced to death (“John Wayne Gacy,” 2013). He became well known for the deviant sexual nature of his crimes (Morrison, 2004; Sullivan, 1984). While these seem like the acts of a crazed man, he was able to commit such a high number of murders by successfully integrating himself into society (Sullivan, 1984). He displayed emotional instability, and a personality characterized by conscientiousness.
Gary Ridgway would as a rule get his casualties along the South Pacific Highway in Seattle,Washington. He would demonstrate the casualty a photo of his child with a specific end goal to pick up their trust. Gary would engage in sexual relations with the casualty and afterward pay a while later. Taking after sex, Gary would choke his casualties to death. He concealed their bodies away in timberlands and other remote territories around King County, Washington.
John Wayne Gacy or "Pogo the clown" as many knew him, remains as one of today's most popular serial killers. Gacy was raised quiet boy who worked odd jobs for money. At the age of 11, Gacy hit his head while playing on a swing set causing a blood clot in his brain that was not discovered till the age of 16. A year later he was diagnosed with a heart condition that he was hospitalized for several times during the period of his life. After dropping out of high school during his senior year just prior to graduation, John Wayne Gacy flew to Las Vegas where he was employed part-time as a janitor in order to save up enough money to buy a ticket to fly to Chicago.
John Wayne Gacy is a serial killer who killed 33 people in total. He was born on May 17th 1942 in Chicago where he was physically and verbally abused by his father. Since this age he showed unusual behaviours and avoiding society, but then was determined that he has a psychological disorder. He moved to Los Angeles and was living a normal life however he started showing his real face in 1968 where he raped a young, male employee.
Facts: In 1961, a fifteen-year-old boy had extreme fantasies about sexually assaulting seven girls in his community. He attempted to carry out his plans to assault one of the girls with ester but failed due to getting stuck in her chimney while breaking into her home. Three weeks later, he changed course and decided that bringing the girls to his home would be better, but he reasoned that he would need to get rid of his mother. He obtained an axe handle from his garage, and he hid it under his mattress. Soon after obtaining the axe handle, in late evening, he proceeded to try to strike his mother from behind when she turned to ask what he was doing; he said he was doing nothing.
Thestate.com Most people have never even heard of the American serial killer Donald Gaskin but his story is truly frightening. Gaskin was a career criminal and gun for hire who claims to have killed at least 100 people during a nearly thirty period between the 1950’s and the 1980’s. He killed both for pleasure and for money, and often raped and tortured his victims too. Most of his victims were hitchhikers, both male and