Research Paper on Gary Ridgeway the Green River Killer

Introduction

At first, Gary Leon Ridgeway seemed to be a perfectly normal person. Being at his working age, he did not seem to pose any threats, but the background of his upbringing molded him to be one of the most feared people. Even though he was profiled to be one of the dangerous people, he was too smart and was able to convince the police otherwise. Garry Ridgeway was the society, or their families would not miss a 52-year-old who focused his crime on transient people who he thought. Amongst these transient people, a huge percentage were women. In his crimes, he left DNA samples behind, but the result did not have any effect in him being caught. At such a period, forensic science had not grown to the level of tracing a DNA sample to the doer of a crime and hence he had an upper advantage. Moreover, Gary was too smart for the policemen as he was able to pass polygraph tests that made him less of a suspect, keeping him off the police radar. Many crime victims conduct criminal offenses and murder far from their area of residence to avoid being caught. Contrary to this fact, Gary Ridgeway killed people in his area of residence only making him more lethal and feared. The dreadful thing was he was never caught as he conducted many killings. He believed that burying his victims in the same burial site would only expose him. Thus, after killing, Ridgeway opted to bury the dead bodies independently to avoid raising suspicion that may eventually unmask his dirty deeds. Even so, just like most murder victims, he ended up being caught. But in his apprehension, he chose to confess his killings to the policeman.

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Born in 1949, Gary Ridgeway was brought up in a home characterized by intense domestic violence. He was the second son of Mary and Thomas Ridgeway in a family of five that resided in Salt Lake City in Utah. Ridgeway relatives deemed his mother as oppressive, and they witnessed the frequent violent argument between his mother and father. As a result, he was brought up under such circumstances, in which he later fell short of love to his mother. Ridgeway father was a bus driver who deeply hated sexual workers, he often complained about. From a young age to when he was 13, Gary Ridgeway had a problem of bed wetting. After every occasion he bedwetted, Ridgeway mother would wash his genitals despite his age. At a later stage, he confessed to defense psychologists that he often had conflicting feelings of sexual attraction and anger to his mother (Bell, 7). He also confessed fantasizing of killing her. As a result, people suspected him to be mentally unsound. Reports show that his IQ was in the low eighties.

Ridgeway grew with a troubled mind filled with malicious warnings and signs. He started getting obsessed with true crime stories, often set fires and killed animals, contrary to children of his age. After being arrested for the Green River Killings, he confesses to the investigator that he might have killed before, but he was not quite sure. Even though Ridgeway seemed to be of unsound mind, he completely knew what he was doing. He once claimed of having vivid memories of drowning a boy in a particular lake in their area of residence. Furthermore, records illustrate that two teenage boys had previously drowned in that particular lake that Ridgeway conducted the killings. Another memory reminds him of how he stabbed a 16-year-old boy in the woods, after having a confrontation in school. The incidence took place immediately after school, but amazingly the young boy survived the attack. Oddly enough, Ridgeway was never suspected nor arrested for this offense. The offense went by without any affirmative action being taken.

As Ridgeway continued to grow into adolescence, he started stalking women in his neighborhood. He usually stalked women that he had been with before but rejected him. As he continued to grow, the hunger to kill women grew in him. The first victim of strangulation was his second wife Marcia Winslow, whom he loved taking out to secluded places such as the banks of the Green River. He used to chock her, and the second wife admitted that Ridgeway started to have sexual bondage in which he enjoyed. After his second marriage ended through divorce, Ridgeway hunger for women grew, and he started to solicit more prostitutes. The rage of being left with his wife manifested into several killings. He always hated prostitutes who viewed him as distain and disgusting.

Ridgeway was a strange individual. He frequently fantasized of having violent sex with his mother. Ridgeway claimed that he wished to slay his mother's throat with a knife out of deep frustration of not making her proud as he grew up. His teenage life was not exciting as most teenagers may confess. He graduated from Tyree High school and married Claudia Kraig, his high school girlfriend (Bell,12). Ridgeway, later on, joined the US Navy and was sent to serve on board a supply ship. While at service, he engaged in numerous sexual intercourse with prostitutes and later on contracted gonorrhea. Even though the sexually transmitted disease angered him, Ridgeway continued having sexual encounters without protection. While he was serving abroad, her wife Claudia had an extramarital affair that saw the marriage ending within a year.

In the year 1985, Ridgeway embarked on dating his third wife Judith Mawson whom he later married in 1988. As she moved into his house, she noticed that the living room had no carpet. The police suspected that the carpet might have been used to wrap victims' bodies as he strangled them to death. In a television interview in 2010, Mawson explains how Ridgeway would leave for work early in the morning and come very late in the name of overtime pay. Mawson had her suspicions that, some of the murder conducted were during the supposedly early mornings and evening shifts. Mawson claims that she had not begun to suspect her husband of any killings and murder, not until the authorities contacted her in 1987. Mawson had not heard about the Green River Killer before, because she was not used to watching the news.

Different views from women suggest that Ridgeway had an abnormal appetite for sex. Some even deem his hunger insatiable. His ex-girlfriends and housewives complained that Ridgeway wanted sex several times a day. Many at times he wanted to have sex in the woods to quench his thirst of having sex in public places. At one point, Ridgeway admitted of having a fixation with prostitutes whom he shared a love-hate relationship. Frequently, Ridgeway complained about sex workers presence in their neighborhood, the same way his father did. The only difference is that Ridgeway will still be found taking advantage of prostitutes services to quench his undying urge for sex. Some critics suggest that maybe Ridgeway was torn between his sexual desires and strong religious beliefs.

Even so, as time progressed, Ridgeway sexual desires grew to an immense level, and he began to lose the sexual urge for women who are breathing and full of life. He opted to have sex with dead women whose bodies were still warm. As a result, he starts killing and raping the dead victim bodies to satisfy his sexual desire. If he felt he was not fully satisfied, he returned to the dead bodies, wiped of the maggot and have sex with them again. Later on, in his killings, he decided to dispose of the bodies his own house to avoid engaging in necrophilia (Bell, 17). It thus reached a time when he was so disgusted with his fantasies that he wished not to have them again.

In the year the 1980s to 1990s, Gary Ridgeway conducted most of his killings. The First five of his 48 killings were practiced in Green River that further led to the name the Green River Killer. He deployed the strategy of strangulation to murder victims, after which he spread them over the forest or to developed areas of King County. In an interview conducted in 2001, Gary Ridgeway confesses to the police that he had killed 71 women showing his savageness and lack of humanity. Many of the 71 killed were prostitutes and runaway who he thought had no impact on the society and deserved to die. The massive 71 killings were conducted in two years in the period 1982 to 1984. Ridgeway sourced his targets in the Pacific Highway before strangling them to death. Gary Ridgeway embarked on his quest to kill as many as possible by picking women up who at most times were prostitutes. He was intelligent knowing that women are emotional creatures and hence used his son's pictures to gain their trust. At first, he used to strangle his victims manually. After having sex with his victims, he strangled them from behind prior to their knowledge until they were dead. He considered strangling the females to death was a way in which he could have had sex with them without being caught. Most of the times, it was considered a rape case. Ridgeway was inhuman enough to say having sex with a dead person whom he strangled to death is not bad, as the person would not feel it. However, as he continued with this killings, he regularly faced strict opposition as the victims tried to defend themselves. As a result, Ridgeway was left with a lot of bruises and wounds that he feared would draw attention. As a result, he embarked on a new way of strangling his victim to death, through the use of ligatures as opposed to manual means. Gary carried out killings in his home, truck, or a secluded place.

The constant murders raised a red flag, and as a result, the Sheriff's Office of King County formed the Green River, Task Force. The primary objective of the Task Force was to investigate the murders and establish findings that would link to the possible killer. Amongst well-acknowledged members of the task force were Robert Keppel and Dave Reichert who gave Ted Bunny, an incarcerated serial killer sleepless nights from the periodical reviews they conducted from 1984. The constant interviews of Bundy gave the task force more insights into catching the Green River Killer. As a result, in the year 1982 to 2001, Ridgeway was arrested on charges relating to prostitution. Ridgeway further became a prime suspect in the Green River Killings in the year 1983. However, the following year, Ridgeway was able to outsmart the task force as he passed the polygraph test used to determine if a person is telling the truth. The task force had no other option but to take saliva and hair samples of Ridgeway for further analysis.

Furthermore, the samples were collected for DNA analysis in the year 1987 which later provided grounds for Ridgeway arrest warrant by the Sheriff's department. Following the issuing of the order, Ridgeway was arrested at his area of work in 30th November 2001 on four accounts of murder. Ridgeway worked in Kenworth Truck factory as a spray painter. His arrest followed the suspicion of murdering four women, twenty years after being considered a potential suspect. The DNA evidence was linked to the semen left in victims to the saliva sample taken by the police. Apart from the four victims, three other victims were added to the indictment, after forensic scientists found paint fragments on these victims that were traced to Kenworth Truck factory. He, later on, confessed on 48 murders he did. Additionally, he was charged with tampering with evidence of the 48 murder cases. Lack of DNA analysis enabled Ridgeway to get away with murder for so long as he knew there was no way to link evidence to him. However, he was finally caught.

To ensure that no attention was drawn to him, Ridgeway always focused on his day to day life without minding other people's lives. He had a deep love for his wife as he confessed the urge to murder people was less when he was at his wife company. In an interview conducted by Pennie Morehead in prison, Ridgeway acknowledges how he held a deep love for his third wife, who significantly played a crucia...