Gary Ridgway

1. “The Green River Killer” Gary Ridgway

2. Background • Born February 18, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. • Troubled home life. • Mother and Father would have violent fights all the time right in front of him. • Mother was also abusive to him, and she also made him walk outside naked in front of his brothers and made him stand in a tube of ice for long periods of time. • Cruel to animals growing up. • Ex: He locked a cat in the refrigerator until it died. • Fought in Vietnam. • Returned home and got a job as truck painter for 30 years. • Married 3 times. • A frequent customer of prostitutes. • Would kill young women hitch hikers and prostitutes. • Active in religion, specifically Christianity.

3. Crimes • As a teenager he drowned a boy but was never convicted of it. He latter confessed to it when in prison. • He was arrested November 30, 2001. • He was convicted of 52 murders and sentenced to 48 consecutive life sentences. He later confessed to other unsolved murders which totaled to 90 women he has murdered.

4. The way he did it. • He would lure women into his house; he would have sex with them and then kill them, usually by strangulation. He would then take the bodies to remote areas and leave them, and sometimes he would leave the bodies along the Green River in Washington. He mostly murdered prostitutes. Finally, most shockingly he would sometimes return and engage in sexual activity with the dead corpses. He began murdering in 1982 and was finally arrested in2001.

5. Evidence • Finger prints and DNA taken from the crime scenes were finally examined in 2001, which linked him to many of the murders. • He was know to be attracted to prostitutes. • He named many places the dead bodies were found, and led investigators to unfound bodies. • He doesn’t have a distinct recent crime due to the fact there were many, many murderers in a 20 year period, and his last killing before being arrested is unkown.

6. Quote • “I killed so many women, I cant keep straight how many. “ – Gary Ridgway This quote right here shows you how cold blooded and down right evil this man is.

7. Sociological Theory • I believe that Gary Ridgway falls under the Labeling Theory. I believe this because I feel that he thought he was better and more important than the people he killed. Even though he was a frequent customer of prostitutes, I think that he felt that they were a detriment to society due to his believing in the Christian faith. He was obviously a sex addict and I feel that after he engaged in sexual activity with them he felt dirty and that he broke the Christian faith. To make it all better he would get rid of them by murdering them. He would keep doing it over and over because each time he did it he felt bad. Then within the realm of the labeling theory I believe that he falls under primary deviance. I believe this because he was engaging in activity with deviant people but he was never labeled as a deviant with them. They are the ones doing it, and he felt that he wasn’t the one committing the deviant acts until he after and then he had to kill them to erase that memory and try to make good again. Overall this man was a major deviant person in society, and he doesn’t deserve another chance. He had a option, to commit the deviant acts with them, or not even do it. Instead of turning his check to this type of life, he faced forward and went straight with it. This man is a major deviant and detriment to society.

8. Punish • I believe that Gary Ridgway should be detained for the rest of his life. He took the lives of young women who had their whole life ahead of them. Even if they were committing deviant acts then, they had their whole life to change. I believe this man is very evil and should never be aloud back into society. He murdered 90 women, and probably more. If he gets out, who knows he may kill another 90 women. This man should be locked up for the rest of his life. If you ask me, I believe that he got easy. If I was the judge during his sentencing I would have no doubtedly have give him the death penalty, he never deserves to see the light of day again.