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.
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.
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.
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.
Gary Ridgway was born on February 18th, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a child, he grew up in a troubled family and witnessed violent arguments between his parents. At the age of 16, he led another boy his age into the woods and stabbed him in the ribs "just to see what it felt like to kill someone" as Ridgway described why he did it, fortunately, the boy survived. The first murder of his was on July 7th, 1982, when a waitress named Amina Agisheff got out of work and was never seen again. The day after he took Amnina, Ridgway murders a runaway teen named Wendy Coffield.
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).
A Timeline On the Green River Killer July 15, 1982: Children found Wendy Coffield(16 years old), strangled in the Green River Aug. 16: After the bodies of four more young women are found in or near the Green River, King County police set up the biggest police task force since the Ted Bundy murders of the 1970s. April 30, 1983: The first apparent police attention to Gary L. Ridgway occurs when victim Marie Malvar disappears.
In 2001, Ridgway’s DNA, along with others, was sent into a lab to compare to semen found at some of the victim sites. A few weeks later, the results came back and identified that Ridgway’s semen was a match with those on the victim’s bodies and would now gain the name the Green River Killer. Ridgway was arrested shortly after and would end his killing spree and begin his new life on trial and in prison. From the years of 1982 to 1998 Ridgway would murder women prostitutes. In 1984, the authorities saw a decrease in murders and this is believed to be because of Ridgway’s relationship with his third wife.
During the times of 1972 to 1978, John Wayne Gacy Jr. killed 33 people in the Chicago area. He was known for raping, torturing, then strangling his victims (SC4). Then he would dispose of the bodies by either dumping them into a river or hiding them beneath his house. He wasn't caught until after the murder of his final victim in 1978. Then he became one of the most famous serial killers in American history.
Abstract This paper goes over the successful yet cringing details of John Wayne Gacy’s life on results from research found from various internet websites. Most of the websites found had very similar details throughout but some are more valued. Some websites talked mainly on the subjects of Gacy’s victims, going over the relationship to the victims and age of the victims. Other sources are more directly focused on John Wayne Gacy’s biography and trial as a whole.
This murder occurred in November. 10, 1990, then 18 days later, Dillon stalked and killed a man named Kevin Loring, who lived in Duxbury, Massachusetts Kevin Loring was shot while he was deer hunting. Dillon now has 3 kills and he is still baffling the authorities. Dillon was baffling authorities until his next victim. Thomas Dillon stalked his next victim Claude Hawkins until March 14 1992 when Thomas Dillon killed Mr. Hawkins on Federal property.
Arthur Shawcross The interview and Documentary I focused on was Arthur Shawcross who was known as the Genesee River Killer because he dumped a lot of bodies around the river. He killed 11 women Victims, including two children who he raped before he murdered them in and around Rochester, New York. Shawcross was the type of Killer who enjoys mutilate his victims and committed to acts of cannibalism. Most of the murders Shawcross committed took place when he was imprisoned and released for the child murders he did.
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.
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.
In this paper I will be applying the psychological theories to serial killer Ed Gein. Ed Gein was a prolific serial killer in the 1950’s. He murdered and robbed graves for body parts to make furniture and clothing. He was apprehended in 1957, where he stood trial and was institutionalized. Edward Theodore “Ed” Gein was born August 27th, 1906 to George and Augusta Gein.
