November 24, 2003

The Green River Killer has haunted me for more than twenty years.

In a sense I was very nearly one of his victims, as working this case was a big part of the workload that put me in a coma in December of 1983. I know the toll the investigation has taken on those who have mourned his victims, on the Green River Task Force, and on the citizens of the Pacific Northwest (and beyond) who have been haunted by the threat that he was still out there and might strike again.

Gary Leon Ridgway may not have killed all the women whose deaths were attributed to the Green River Killer, but he has been convicted for killing most of them. So in answer to your question: Yes, I’m relieved. More than that, I am grateful that the friends and families of his victims can breathe a little easier, grateful this serial killer is off the streets.

The Plea

It’s been nearly two years since Gary Leon Ridgway was arrested and charged with the murders of Marcia Chapman, Cynthia Hinds, Opal Mills, and Carol Christensen—four of the victims attributed to the Green River Killer. Ridgway originally pleaded not guilty.

But on November 5, in a deal he cut to avoid the death penalty, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 murders—all in King County, Washington over a sixteen-year period, from 1982 to 1998. He will serve life in prison without parole for these murders.

As part of his plea deal, Ridgway has accompanied investigators to over fifty dump sites, most of them known, but several new to investigators. Visiting the known sites, Ridgway has corroborated his confessions with knowledge of the crime scenes. At new sites, the bodies of four victims have been discovered, three of whom were on the original Green River Task Force list of 49 potential victims, and one who has not been identified.

If his confessions are credible, and prosecutors clearly believe they are, Ridgway is the most prolific convicted serial killer in history.

The Profile

The Green River Killer targeted prostitutes and runaways along the Sea-Tac strip, a section of highway between Seattle and Tacoma. The first victim attributed to the Green River Killer was a sixteen-year-old girl whose body was found in July of 1982 in the Green River, hence the killer’s nickname. Four more bodies were found within a month of the first. Within two months, my unit was called in to assist, and we developed a profile of the killer. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this original profile, as there has been some commentary to the effect that it was either overly general or inaccurate.

I don’t know if this is an effort to deflect attention from investigators who have been criticized for failing to bring Ridgway in when they polygraphed him in 1984 or when they searched his house in 1987. Regardless, I believe our profile was accurate. We missed on one point: he was not underemployed, but surprisingly held the same truck painting job for 20 years. However, on the following points we got it right:

• White male
• In his twenties to thirties
• Physically strong
• Familiar/ comfortable with the river
• Inadequate personality
• Would consider it his mission to rid the world of prostitutes, and be self-righteous in this mission (Ridgway went door-to-door in his neighborhood, campaigning against prostitution in the area.)
• Would collect souvenirs from the victims (He took jewelry from victims but did not give it to any woman in his life, instead leaving it in the ladies’ room at work—he got a kick out of seeing women wearing the jewelry at work.)
• Would inject himself into the investigation (more on this below)
• Would follow the press closely
• Would feel no remorse

Generally, as was true here, a profile is a thumbnail sketch of the UNSUB, and many people may fit the profile. We develop as specific a profile as possible given the behavioral evidence we have to work with. Believe me, if we could divine an address and social security number from the evidence, we would. We work with what we have, and in this case even though the body count was getting higher and higher, the behavioral clues weren’t getting much more specific.

The victimology made it more difficult (not just for us, but for everyone on the investigation), because we didn’t have much of an idea about the lives these women had been leading. These were high-risk victims, more or less invisible to most of society, and trying to walk backward in their shoes is a lot harder than it is for low-risk victims.

Beyond the Profile

As you know, the profile is only part of the job. You have to have ways to narrow the field, especially with a profile that could fit many people. In this case, we came up with good proactive techniques and interview/interrogation techniques, which are usually suggested verbally in the course of an investigation and not passed around on paper.

I felt they were looking for someone who was not a genius, but who could be lured into vulnerable contact with the police by proactive techniques. We suggested several such techniques to investigators. For instance, I said they should stake out the crime scenes, which I believed the killer would revisit. With all the media attention the cases were getting, this was understandably a logistical challenge. But Ridgway did revisit sites where bodies were found, bringing women (his wife and others) with him—and having sex with them at the sites. The women were of course unaware that victims’ bodies were nearby. A disturbing corollary to this: Ridgway took his son with him on some of the kills, leaving the kid asleep in the vehicle while he was off in the woods with his current victim.

Despite not catching him at any of the dump sites, investigators had a fair amount of contact with Ridgway. As mentioned above, we indicated the UNSUB would inject himself into the investigation. Ridgway did so by providing information about one of the victims, whom he knew. That victim was killed differently than the others. A bag was placed over her head, an empty wine bottle and a pair of dead fish placed on her body. My analysis to police was that the killer knew this victim due to how the killer posed her after death. Ridgway came forward to “volunteer” information on this one because I'm sure he was afraid police would come across his name during the investigation.

It was his own proactive technique.

The “Lie Detector”

I advised investigators early on not to bother with polygraph testing because their results would be, at best, inconclusive. They decided to test Ridgway anyway, and he passed. As mentioned, our profile indicated a person who thought he was doing the world a favor by getting rid of prostitutes. Someone with no guilt about what he’s done can easily lie about it.

The polygraph is a current issue as well—the Task Force has polygraphed Ridgway to determine whether he is telling the truth in his confessions. As long as he exhibits specific knowledge of the murders only the killer would have, and/or there is evidence to corroborate his confessions, then I wouldn’t doubt him. But to the extent anyone is relying heavily on the results of these polygraph tests, I would be less sure about those confessions. As you know, sometimes killers take credit for homicides they did not do, particularly when a deal to avoid the death penalty is involved. And Ridgway’s proven himself to be, as we predicted, a very good liar.

At Large for Twenty Years

A lot of people are trying to cast blame here, wondering how Ridgway repeatedly slipped through investigators’ fingers. While I definitely intend to defend the work we did by stating the facts of our involvement, I’m not interested in blaming anyone. There was so much pressure, so many suspects—and keep in mind this all began before the police were even using computers. Some of the guys were very young and everyone was frustrated. As I’ve said before, we could’ve all done a better job.

Everyone who contributed to Ridgway’s arrest and convictions deserves a commendation. Many friends and families of his victims who have waited a long time for closure have it now. And Ridgway, who says he killed as recently as five years ago, will never kill again.

I take my hat off to the Green River Task Force. They had to live with this guy for five months in their headquarters while undergoing the unnerving process of interviewing and re-interviewing him, asking him to relive the murders, going over crime scenes. Imagine going to work every day knowing the man you’ve been hunting for twenty years will be there when you arrive and will be there when you leave.

But is this a Conclusion?

The Green River Task Force says their job is not done. Ridgway’s confessions solve 48 murders. All of them are King County cases, as the plea only covers murders that took place there. Of those 48 victims, 42 were on the original Green River Task Force list. Six were not.

The bodies of four of the victims who remain on the list were discovered in Oregon. Ridgway could face the death penalty if he is charged with and convicted of any of those murders. And he could face murder charges in another Washington county as well.

Beyond that, Ridgway has told police he has killed at least sixty women. If this is true, who and where are his other victims? Prosecutors all over the Pacific Coast are reapproaching cold cases, looking for connections to Ridgway.

The Radio Show

I’ve spent a good deal of time talking about Ridgway and the Green River Killings, from the profile to the plea, on my radio show on KFI-AM 640 out of Los Angeles. Co-host Eric Leonard and I are on each Saturday night from 7 - 10 P.M. Pacific (10 P.M. - 1 A.M. Eastern). We talk about current crime topics, like the trial of D.C. sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad and the trial and sentencing of Michael Peterson.

It’s been a lot of work, but well worth it so far. Feedback for my commentary has been very good, and I’ve enjoyed being able to add some informed opinions to the airwaves, which can be over-saturated with misinformation and plain old hot air.

If you can’t tune in on your radio, you can hear us over the internet. Go to www.kfi640.com and follow the links. For those of you who’ve had trouble streaming the show, my best advice is to try the technical support staff at the website, and keep at it.

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Thanks. I hope you all have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.