Notorious Criminals & Outlaws Codexery

Gary Ridgway

The Green River Killer: America's most prolific serial killer at the time of his arrest.

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He was known as the Green River Killer or Green River Strangler, named for the location where his first five victims' bodies were found.[1] Upon his 2001 arrest, confirmed murders led authorities to consider him the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history at that time.[2]

Key facts and history

He joined the United States Navy, was deployed to Vietnam, and frequently had sex with prostitutes, contracting gonorrhea.[3] Ridgway became religious during his second marriage, reading the Bible aloud and proselytizing door-to-door.[4] He continued soliciting prostitutes despite his religious beliefs.[4] Mawson claimed she had not suspected his crimes before being contacted by authorities in 1987.[5]

Thomas and Mary Ridgway had three sons; their second child, Gary, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah.[6] By 1985, Ridgway was seeing Judith Mawson, whom he married in 1988.[7] Ridgway typically killed his victims by manual strangulation, though he occasionally employed ligatures.[8] He would deposit the bodies in wooded or overgrown locations and frequently went back to them to perform necrophilia.[8]

Through a plea agreement, Ridgway avoided capital punishment and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.[8]

What the cited sources add

An NBC News investigation reported that the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory overlooked microscopic spray paint spheres on victims' clothing that could have linked Ridgway to the murders in the 1980s.[9] The spray paint was not sold to the public and was used only in the Seattle area by Kenworth Truck Co., where Ridgway worked.[9] Retired prosecutor Jeff Baird stated that if the paint spheres had been examined earlier, the investigation might have taken an earlier turn pointing directly to Ridgway.[9] Razpotnik's remains were found in December 1985 near a second set of remains in Auburn after police investigated a car over an embankment.[10]

Ridgway led investigators to the location where both sets of remains were found and admitted placing the victims there.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Gary Ridgway" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Haglund, "Recovery of decomposed and skeletal human remains in the "Green River Murder" Investigation. Implications for medical examiner/coroner and police", The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, 1990, (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Gary Ridgway" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bell, "Green River Killer: River of Death", Crime Library; Kershaw, Sarah (November 6, 2003). Truck painter admits he's the Green River strangler. The Post-Standard. Retrieved May 22, 2025. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Gary Ridgway" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Montaldo, "Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer", About.com, February 14, 2011; Prothero, "Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer", Jossey-Bass, 2006, p. 117; McCarthy, "River Of Death", June 3, 2002 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Gary Ridgway" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McCarthy, "River Of Death", June 3, 2002; Montaldo, "Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer", About.com, February 14, 2011; McCarthy, "River Of Death", June 3, 2002; Montaldo, "Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer", About.com, February 14, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Gary Ridgway" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Married to a Monster"; "Married to a Monster" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Gary Ridgway" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Janos, "The Childhood of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway", A&E; Anglis, "The Gruesome Story Of The Green River Killer — And How Ted Bundy Helped Catch Him", All That's Interesting, 2024-02-11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Gary Ridgway" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Married to a Monster" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Gary Ridgway" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Prothero, "Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer", Jossey-Bass, 2006, p. 264–265, 317 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "How missed evidence helped a serial killer evade capture for nearly two decades", NBC News, 2023-03-08. facts only, no text reused. nbcnews.com
  10. Elamroussi, "For decades, human remains tied to the 'Green River killer' were known only as Bones 17. Now, DNA testing has unveiled a name", CNN, 2023-12-21. facts only, no text reused. cnn.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Gary Ridgway (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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