Gary Ridgway

Who is Gary Ridgway?

Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders and later confessed to nearly twice that number. As part of his plea bargain, an additional conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49. He murdered numerous women and girls in Washington State and California during the 1980s and 1990s. Most of his victims were alleged to be prostitutes. The press gave him his nickname after the first five victims were found in the Green River; his identity was not known. He strangled the women, usually with his arm but sometimes using ligatures. After strangling them, he would dump their bodies throughout forested and overgrown areas in King County, often returning to the dead bodies to have sexual intercourse with them.

On November 30, 2001, as he was leaving the Renton, Washington, Kenworth truck factory where he worked, he was arrested for the murders of four women whose cases were linked to him through DNA evidence.