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Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer

1475 Words6 Pages

The crimes, methods, and bizarre thought behaviors of serial killers never cease to amaze us. Sadly, the most interesting cases are typically the ones that baffle authorities, allowing the killer to execute his insidious plans, upping the body count as the days tick on. The name of this case comes from the Green River, a river that meanders its way through Washington State. The river runs through King County, an area that once was a bustling business area but slowly transformed into a dingy club, sleazy motels, and prostitute filled area. During the early 1980’s, this ghost town of abandon businesses, houses, and shops, became the scene of one of the most perplexing and iconic serial killings the county has ever witnessed. The notorious Green River Killer is Gary Ridgway, born on February 18th, 1949. HE is the middle son of Mary Rita Steinman and Thomas Newton. From a young age, Ridgway displayed that he was sexually attracted to his mother. Ridgway moved to King County, the area which all the murders took place in, when he was 11. He went to …show more content…

After several days of intense questioning, he admitted to experimenting several times with necrophilia. The encounters with the dead and decomposing bodies to make sure no one had discovered them soon turned to having sex with them. Ridgway explained that his motives for having sex with the dead bodies, some at the point where maggots began to appear on the bodies, was simple: “Just wanted sex, and it was free. I did not have to pay for it. I killed her.” He implied that having sex with the dead women was not his preference, but a matter of economics and convenience. Ridgway’s compulsion for sexual intercourse was so strong that he would take any risk necessary to satisfy his craving. An example of this would be he left his sleeping son in his truck while he went to have sex with a decomposing body, 30 feet away from each

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On a cool day in Salt Lake City Utah, Gary "Green River Killer" Ridgway was born. July 7th 1982 was a day that would start the change of history in forensic science, this was the day waitress Amina Agisheff would leave for work and never be found alive again. This event started a killing spree that stretched potentially 19 grueling years. The very next day Ridgway kills Wendy Coffield a runaway teen. About one month later Debra Estes reported a man in a blue and white pickup truck who offered the girl a lift but then brandished a pistol and forced her to pleasure him sexually.

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Background: Gary Ridgway remains one of the most prolific serial killers in history. He haunted police for years, earning the nickname “The Green River Killer” when investigators uncovered five of his victims near Green River. As a child Ridgway was determined to have a low IQ and was the target of abuse at school and at home. At only 16 years old, Ridgway exhibited violent behavior, stabbing a 6-year-old boy. Sexual Depravities: Mary Ridgway, Gary’s mother, often told her son inappropriate stories about her work in the men’s section of a department store.

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Donald Henry Gaskins (The hitchhikers killer) was born on March 13, 1933 in Florence County, South Carolina, SC and died at age 58 on September 6, 1991. At age 11, Gaskins quit school and started working on cars at a local garage. While working in the garage, he met two boys the same age. They’re both out of school too. When they met, they started calling themselves “The Trouble Trio”.

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November 2001, Gary was arrested as he was leaving his job. Now being linked to the murder of 48 women, although Gary believes he killed 61 to 71 women. Most of these were committed between 1982 and 1983, although he believes he killed one around 1985. Most of these women were prostitutes, and Gary believed they aren’t worth mentioning about since they’re dead. When Gary would meet these hookers, he’d begin by showing them pictures of his son to gain their trust.

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Arthur Shawcross, otherwise known as “The Genesee River Killer”, was a serial killer most famous for the murder of eleven women in the upstate New York area from 1988 to 1990. However, these were not his only crimes. In the year 1972, he was also arrested for the murder of two children. Shortly after his arrest, Shawcross was released on parole and had his criminal records sealed in order to prevent a public panic at this newly released child murderer.

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Gary Ridgway went on a killing spree for about 19 years. He would strangle young female runaways and prostitutes after having

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Ridgway's killings started in July 1982, when young runaways and prostitutes began disappearing. That is when the first five bodies were found floating in the Green River, the first victim was 16-year-old Wendy Lee Cofield teenage runaway, then Deborah Bonner and then more. The body count kept growing and hit double digits in a short amount of time. The majority of the murders Ridgeway committed were between 1982 and 1984.By that time, Seattle’s residents became custom to looking over their shoulders, fearing for their lives, knowing that there is a dangerous killer on the loose.

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She was also found in the green river. Ridgway was addicted to killing and dumping the bodies in the river. His other victims began to blur together, in a short time period he would kill so many women. He once killed six girls in a four week period. He thought of them as garbage and would cover there bodies with tree branches and commented “they are garbage and should be covered up with garbage.”

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Rachel Bierle Mrs. Neuberger Composition II 9 March 2023 Word Count: 1,882 Tommy Lynn Sells’ Portfolio Serial killers have been around since the beginning of time and their tactics have evolved greatly throughout each decade. Most serial killers’ motive for killing people is to seek the feeling of power over other people. These people are all around the world, but the United States has the highest number of serial killers (Moskovska). One of them was Tommy Lynn Sells.

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Today, there is nearly a total of three thousand serial killers and ten thousand victims of their violent rampage in the United States. Part of those ten thousand victims are the eight, casualties of Dayton Leroy Rogers, aka The Molalla Forest Killer. Although their deaths were unfair and tragic, Roger’s experience allowed for more information to be contributed to help solve and prevent future crimes. Born in Idaho on September 30, 1953 and quickly moved to Oregon, Rogers was enrolled into a life full of crime, already shooting cars with BB guns in the seventh grade. By the time he was nineteen his desire for crime was fulfilled when he reached over to kiss a girl on their second date, but “according to police reports, he stabbed her in

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Gary Ridgway, aka the “Green River Killer” was born on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the second son of Mary and Thomas Ridgway and has two brothers, Thomas Jr, and Gregory Ridgway. As a young boy, Gary would witness violent arguments between his parents. When Gary was growing up, he had a bed-wetting problem and his mother would wash his genitals after every time. His problem didn't end until he was thirteen years old.

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Thirteen years ago the F.B.I.’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes first formed a task force of federal state and local investigators that numbered twenty-five personnel assigned exclusively to the serial killer investigation. When the killings apparently stopped eleven years ago the task force was reduced, but not disbanded. Two years ago the murderer struck again and then again.

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Gary Ridgway is known as the most prolific serial killer in the United States. Over the course of approximately ten years (1980s-1990s), Ridgway self-reported that he killed at least 71 women, if not more, claiming in his court statements to having “lost count”. Gary Ridgway was convicted for the murders of 49 women despite his confessions. The victims of these murders were found to be mostly prostitutes and sex workers that were drawn in to Ridgway’s car, raped, strangled, and dumped into the woods near the Green River (hence the alias name provided to Ridgway by law enforcement). In an interview conducted by police, Ridgway stated how unfair it was that “everyone knows about Ted Bundy, but not about the Green River Killer”, leaving police

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1187 Words | 5 Pages

“Kneeling there between the girl’s legs he undid his buckle and lowered his trousers” (88). Ballard possess full power over the woman’s corpse, and because she cannot tell him no, he believes that he has the ability to objectify the corpse as a sex object. Necrophilia is a taboo is society; it is seen as something that barbaric and uncivilized people do. Because of his rampant practice of necrophilia through the novel, Ballard cannot be called one of “us”. He lacks the physical restraint to not have sex with corpses and even kills to fulfill his bodily

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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.

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