1. Gary Leon Ridgway The Green River Killer

2. The Green River Killer  Born Gary Leon Ridgway on 2.18.49  Born in Salt Lake City, Utah  Homelife was troubled; mom was domineering  Gary wet the bed often & mom would immediately bathe him & belittle him; he was angry towards her and sexually aroused by her

3. The Green River Killer  As a child, tested with an 82 I.Q.  Repeated a grade twice  Classmates in high school describe him as friendly but forgettable  At the age of 16, he lured a 6 yr old boy into the woods & stabbed him through the ribs…boy survived & GRK was quoted as saying, “I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone.”

4. Green River Killer  At age 18, he joined the Navy  After hs graduation, he married his hs girlfriend, Claudia Barrows  Went to Vietnam & saw combat  Began spending a lot of time with prostitutes; developed an std & blamed prostitutes but kept seeing them anyway  Claudia was also “dating” & they divorced after a yr of marriage

5. Green River Killer  Second marriage to Marcia Winslow also ended in divorce  He became a religious fanatic- reading Bible obsessively, going door- to-door proselytizing, & crying after sermons  He seemed to be torn between his desire for prostitutes & his love of God  Had a love-hate relationship with them; complained about their presence in his neighborhood but continued to be a client  1975, his wife Marcia gave birth to their son, Matthew

6. Green River Killer  On July 15, 1982, the body of Wendy Lee Coffield was found in the Green River in a rural area of the City of Kent in King County, Washington  4 more bodies of young women were soon discovered, and thus began one of the longest & largest serial murder investigations in United States history  Eventually, the deaths of 48 women would be linked to the GRK

7. Green River Killer  Throughout the 1980s & 1990s, Ridgway is believed to have murdered at least 71 women near Seattle & Tacoma, Washington  He claims he killed so many that he lost track  Victims were believed to be either prostitutes or runaways  He would pick them up, show them a picture of his son to relax them, have sex with her, and manually strangle her from behind

8. Green River Killer  He would dump most of the bodies in wooded areas around the Green River (except for a couple he moved to Oregon)  Bodies were left in clusters, sometimes posed, usually nude  He would sometimes return to have intercourse with the dead bodies  In the early 1980s, King County Sheriff’s Office formed the Green River Task Force to investigate the murders

9. Green River Killer  Actually asked for help from incarcerated Ted Bundy, but to no avail  Ridgway was arrested in 1982 & 2001 on charges of prostitution  He became a suspect in 1983  In 1984, he passed a polygraph test  In 1987, police took hair & saliva samples from him

10. Green River Killer  In 1985, he began dating Judith Mawson, who became his 3 rd wife in 1988  He claimed his urge to kill was reduced while he was in a relationship with Mawson & that he truly loved her  Judith said “I feel I have saved lives…by being his wife and making him happy.”  His DNA provided evidence for an arrest warrant  Arrested on Nov. 30, 2001 at work

11. Mrs. Gary Leon Ridgway (#3)

12. Judith Mawson Ridgway

13. I married a serial killer

14. Happy couple in 2001

15. Green River Killer  On November 5, 2003- entered a plea of guilty to 48 charges of aggravated 1 st degree murder as part of a plea bargain that would spare him execution in exchange for his cooperation in locating the remains of his victims & providing other details  On December 18, 2003, King County Superior Court Judge Richard Jones sentenced GRK to 48 life sentences with no possibility of parole & 1 life sentence to be served consecutively. He was also given an additional 10 yrs for tampering with evidence for each of the 48 victims, adding 480 more years to the 48 life sentences

16. Green River Killer  GRK confessed to more confirmed murders than any other American serial killer  He admitted he targeted prostitutes because they were easy to pick up & he hated most of them.  He tried to make his victims comfortable before he killed them. “I would talk to her…and get her mind off of the sex, anything she was nervous about. And think, you know, she thinks, ‘Oh this guy cares’…which I didn’t. I just want to, uh, get her in the vehicle and eventually kill her.”

17. Green River Killer’s Victims  #1 Wendy Lee Coffield, 16  Disappeared 07.08.82…found 07.15.82

18. GRK’s Victims  #2 Gisele Ann Lovvorn, 19,  Disappeared 07.17.82….found 09.25.82

19. GRK’s Victims  #3 Debra Lynn Bonner, 25  Disappeared 07.25.82…found 08.12.82

20. GRK’s victims  #4 Marcia Fay Chapman, 31  Disappeared 08.01.82…found 08.15.82

21. GRK’s victims  #5 Opal Charmaine Mills, 16  Disappeared 08.12.82…found 08.15.82

22. GRK’s victims  #6 Terry Rene Milligan, 16  Disappeared 08.29.82…found 04.01.84

23. GRK’s victims  #7 Mary Bridget Meehan, 18  Disappeared 09.15.82…found 11.13.83

24. GRK’s victims  #8 Debra Lorraine Estes, 15  Disappeared 9.20.82…found 05.30.88

25. GRK’s victims #9 Linda Jane Rule, 16 Disappeared 09.26.82…found 01.31.83

26. GRK’s victims  #10 Denise Darcel Bush, 23  Disappeared 10.08.82…found 06.85

27. GRK’s victims  #11 Shawnda Leea Summers, 16  Disappeared 10.09.82…found 08.11.83

28. GRK’s victims  #12 Shirley Marie Sherrill  Disappeared 10.22.82…found 06.85

29. GRK’s victims  #13 Colleen Renee Brockman, 15  Disappeared 12.24.82…found 05.26.84

30. GRK’s victims  #14 Alma Ann Smith, 18  Disappeared 03.03.83…found 04.02.84

31. GRK’s victims  #15 Delores LaVerne Williams, 17  Disappeared 03.14.83…found 03.31.84

32. GRK’s victims  #16 Gail Lynn Mathews, 23  Disappeared 04.22.83…found 09.19.83

33. GRK’s victims  #17 Andrea M. Childers, 19  Disappeared 04.14.83…found 10.11.83

34. GRK’s victims  #18 Sandra Kay Gabbert, 17  Disappeared 04.17.83…found 04.01.84

35. GRK’s victims  #19 Kimi-Kai Pitsor, 16  Disappeared 04.16.83…found 12.14.83

36. GRK’s victims  #20 Marie M. Malvar, 18  Disappeared 04.3083…found 09.29.03 (my 33 rd bday)

37. GRK’s victims  #21 Carol Anne Christensen, 21  Disappeared 05.04.83…found 05.08.83

38. GRK’s victims  #22 Martine Theresa Authorlee, 18  Disappeared 05.22.83…found 11.14.84

39. GRK’s victims  #23 Cheryl Lee Wims, 18  Disappeared 05.23.83…found 03.22.84

40. GRK’s victims  #24 Yvonne Shelly Antosh, 19  Disappeared 05.31.83…found 10.15.83

41. GRK’s victims  #25 Carrie A. Rois, 15  Disappeared 06.02.83…found 03.10.85

42. GRK’s victims  #26 Constance Elizabeth Naon, 19  Disappeared 06.08.83…found 10.27.83

43. GRK’s victims  #27 Kelly Marie Ware, 22  Disappeared 07.18.83…found 10.29.83

44. GRK’s victims  #28 Tina Marie Thompson, 21  Disappeared 07.25.83…found 04.20.84

45. GRK’s victims  #29 April Dawn Buttram, 16  Disappeared 08.23.83…found 08.31.03

46. GRK’s victims  #30 Debbie May Abernathy, 26  Disappeared 09.05.83…found 03.31.84

47. GRK’s victims  #31 Tracy Ann Winston, 19  Disappeared 09.12.83…found 03.27.86

48. GRK’s victims  #32 Maureen Sue Feeney, 19  Disappeared 09.28.83…found 05.02.86

49. GRK’s victims  #33 Mary Sue Bello, 25  Disappeared 10.11.83…found 10.12.84

50. GRK’s victims  #34 Pammy Avent, 15  Disappeared 10.26.83…found 08.16.03

51. GRK’s victims  #35 Delise Louise Plager, 22  Disappeared 10.30.83…found 02.14. 84

52. GRK’s victims  #36 Kimberly L. Nelson, 21  Disappeared 11.01.83…found 06.14.86

53. GRK’s victims  #37 Lisa Yates, 19  Disappeared 12.23.83…found 03.13.84

54. GRK’s victims  #38 Mary Exzetta West, 16  Disappeared 02.06.84…found 09.08.85

55. GRK’s victims  #39 Cindy Anne Smith, 17  Disappeared 03.21.84…found 06.27.87

56. GRK’s victims  #40 Patricia Michelle Barczak, 19  Disappeared 10.17.86…found 02.93

57. GRK’s victims  #41 Roberta Joseph Hayes, 21  Disappeared 02.07.87…found 09.11.91

58. GRK’s victims  #42 Marta Reeves, 36  Disappeared between 03.05.90-04.13.90…found 09.20.90

59. GRK’s victims  #43 Patricia Yellowrobe, 38  Disappeared 01.98…found 08.06.98

60. GRK’s victims  #44 Unidentified white female, 12-17  Died prior to 05.83…found 03.21.84

61. GRK’S victims  #45 unidentified white female, 17-19  Disappeared- unknown…found 04.22.85

62. GRK’s victims  #46 unidentified black female, 18-27  Disappeared between 82-84…found 12.30.85

63. GRK’s victims  #47 unidentified white female, 14-18  Disappeared between 12.80-01.84…found 01.02.86

64. Green River Killer  Gary Leon Ridgway is incarcerated at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.  “Most of the time I killed them the first time I met them and I do not have a good memory of their faces. I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight.”  “I picked prostitutes as my victims because I hate most prostitutes & I did not want to pay them for sex…I pick prostitutes b/c I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.  “Choking is what I did and I was pretty good at it.”

65. Green River Killer  At his sentencing in Dec. 2003, some of the victims’ families say they hope he’ll be killed in prison. He breaks down as he listens to them & then reads out a note he’s prepared in which he references his other victims whose bodies have not been found: “I am very sorry for the ladys (sic) that were not found. May they rest in peace. They need a better place that what I gave them.”  Ridgway has been in solitary confinement since 2003.