Life imprisonment
Ridgway was placed in solitary confinement at Washington
State Penitentiary in Walla Walla in January 2004. On May 14, 2015, he was transferred to the USP
Florence, a high-security federal prison east of Cañon City, Colorado. In
September 2015, after a public outcry and discussions with Governor Jay Inslee,
Corrections Secretary Bernie Warner announced that Ridgway would be transferred
back to Washington to be "easily accessible" for open murder
investigations. Ridgway was returned by
chartered plane to Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla from the High
Security Federal Prison in Florence, Colorado, on October 24, 2015.
Victims
Before Ridgway's confession, authorities had attributed 49
murders to the Green River Killer. Ridgway confessed to murdering at least 71
victims.
Confirmed
At the time of Ridgway's December 18, 2003 sentencing,
authorities had been able to find at least 48 sets of remains, including
victims not originally attributed to the Green River Killer. Ridgway was
sentenced for the deaths of each of these 48 victims, with a plea agreement that
he would "plead guilty to any and all future cases (in King County) where
his confession could be corroborated by reliable evidence."
On Tuesday, December 21, 2010, hikers near the West Valley
Highway in Auburn, WA found a skull in the vicinity of where Marie Malvar's
remains had been found in 2003. The skull was identified as belonging to
Rebecca "Becky" Marrero, who was last seen leaving the Western Six
Motel at South 168th Street and Pacific Highway South on December 3, 1982. The
King County Prosecutor confirmed that Ridgway would be formally charged with
her murder on February 11, 2011. On
February 18, 2011, he entered a guilty plea in the murder of Rebecca Marrero,
adding a 49th life sentence to his existing 48. Ridgway confessed to murdering
Marrero in his original plea bargain, but due to insufficient evidence, the
charges could not be filed. Therefore, there is no change in his current incarceration
status.
The remains of Tracy Winston were found, without a skull, in
Kent's Cottonwood Grove Park in March 1986. Winston's skull was found in
November 2005 near Tiger Mountain, miles away from the discovery site of the
rest of her body. Police assume someone carried it to the location.
Sandra Denise Major was not identified until June 2012. A
family member asked the King County Sheriff to investigate after seeing a TV
movie about Ridgway. DNA confirmed Major's identity.
Jane Doe B-10, discovered on March 21, 1984, is currently
unidentified. Ridgway claimed that she was a white female in her early 20s and
possibly had brown hair. Examination of the remains suggested that she was
actually between 12 and 18, most likely around 15. Analysis of the victim's skeleton indicated
she was probably left-handed, and had at one point in her life suffered a
healed skull fracture to the left temple.
Jane Doe B-17, also unidentified, was discovered on January
2, 1986; remains that had been found in another area February 18, 1984 were
later matched to this victim. In 2003, Ridgway claimed responsibility for her
death.
Jane Doe B-20, a female between 13 and 24, was discovered in
August 2003. Because the remains were partial, her face could not be
reconstructed and her race could not be determined. She was murdered between
the 20-year span of 1973 to 1993, but is believed to have been murdered during
the first decade of Ridgway's murder spree.
Task force victims
list
Ridgway is suspected of—but not charged with—murdering the
remaining six victims of the original list attributed to the Green River
Killer. In each case, either Ridgway did
not confess to the victim's death, or authorities have not been able to
corroborate their suspicion with reliable evidence.
Ridgway denied killing Amina Agisheff. Agisheff does not fit
the profile of any of the victims of the Green River Killer considering her
age, and she was not a sex worker or a teenage runaway.
Although he has never been charged with her murder, during
police interrogations in 2003, Ridgway did confess to killing Kasee Ann Lee
(née: Woods). He stated that he strangled Lee in 1982 and left her body near a
drive-in theatre off of the Sea-Tac Strip. Law enforcement officials have been unable to
locate Lee's remains at the dumpsite that Ridgway indicated.
Evidence exists to suggest that Ridgway murdered Kelly Kay
McGinniss. Shortly before her disappearance, McGinniss was questioned by a Port
of Seattle police officer while "dating" Ridgway near the SeaTac
Strip. Furthermore, during the summer of 2003, Ridgway led authorities to the
bodies of several of his victims. One of those bodies, later identified as that
of April Buttram, was initially identified by Ridgway as being that of
McGinniss. According to Ridgway, he often confused McGinniss with Buttram
because of their similar physiques.
Ridgway is a suspect in the deaths of Angela Marie Girdner
and Tammie Liles. Their bodies were discovered within a mile of the bodies of
known victims Shirley Shirell and Denise Bush. Liles remained unidentified
until 1998 and Girdner until October 2009.
Suspected
Ridgway has been considered a suspect in the
disappearances/murders of five other women not attributed at the time to the
Green River Killer. No charges have been filed.
An unidentified black female, possibly bearing the first
name Michelle, was a possible victim of Ridgway. She has never been located or
identified.
Cora McGuirk was the mother of NBA player Martell Webster.
McGuirk disappeared when her son was four years old.
Ridgway was long suspected for the 1987 murder of Rose Marie
Kurran, a 16-year-old addict and prostitute,[59] but was recently ruled out as
a suspect.
Popular culture
In artwork
In 2004, Phil Hansen created and displayed artwork depicting
Gary Ridgway's face, composed of 11,792 portraits of the 48 victims.
In documentaries and
films (fiction and non-fiction)
The 1984 documentary Murder,
No Apparent Motive, about serial killers and FBI Profilers, mentioned that
the (then-ongoing) Green River Killer's murders were one of the latest examples
of serial murders that go on in America without any apparent motives.
Unsolved Mysteries
Season 8, episode 11, Green River Killer segment.
The ninth episode of the 2010 American documentary show Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? features
his story and his third wife's side of it.
The Riverman is
based on the true story of Ted Bundy assisting investigators trying to identify
and catch the Green River Killer. It is based on the book of the same name by
Robert D. Keppel.
The direct-to-DVD movie Green
River Killer was released in 2005.
A 2006 episode of the TV series Crimes That Shook the World focuses on Gary Ridgway (played by Frank
Violi).
In 2008, the Lifetime Movie Network aired The Capture of the Green River Killer, a
TV movie loosely based on his crimes. John
Pielmeier portrays Ridgway. In 2014, they aired a documentary called My Uncle is the Green River Killer which
featured Ridgway family members.
The Court TV (now
TruTV) television series Mugshots
released an episode on Ridgway
titled Gary Ridgway: The Green River
Killer, aired in 2013.
In 2005, A&E series Cold
Case Files aired an episode called obsession: Dave Reichert and the Green River Killer. (Season 5, Episode 1)
On June 2, 2017, HLN
(Headline News) premiered the true crime series Beyond Reasonable Doubt with the episode The Green River Killer. The one-hour episode reports on the
advanced trace evidence that directly link tiny paint particles from the
victims' clothing to Ridgway, lay summary - CNN.
Bundy and The Green
River Killer a 2019 Horror film by Andrew
Jones (filmmaker) in which Jared Nelson
stars as Gary Ridgway.
In print (non-fiction)
Search for the Green
River Killer by Carlton Smith
with help from Tom Guillen (March 5,
1991)
The Riverman: Ted
Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer by Robert D. Keppel (November 27, 1995)
The Green River Killer
by the King County Journal Staff
(November 23, 2003)
Chasing the Devil
by Sheriff David Reichert (July 28,
2004)
Green River, Running
Red by true-crime author and former police officer Ann Rule (September 27, 2005)
Serial Killers: Issues
Explored Through Green River Murders by Tomas Guillen (January 14, 2006)
Green River Serial
Killer: Biography of an Unsuspecting Wife by Pennie Morehead, telling the story of his third wife and her
struggles with the truth (April 1, 2007)
Case of the Green
River Killer by Diane Yancey
(April 27, 2007)
Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River
Killer by Mark Prothero with help from Carlton Smith (May 25, 2007)
Green River Killer: A
True Detective Story, a 2011 graphic novel by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan
Case. Jensen's father was Tom Jensen,
one of the detectives who worked on the case for 20 years.
The Thirty-Ninth
Victim by Arleen Williams,
sister of Maureen Sue Feeney (April
6, 2008)
In print (fiction)
The Green River
murders are discussed in the Jodi
Picoult novel House Rules.
The novel River by
Roderick Thorp is subtitled "A Novel of the Green River
Killings" (ISBN 044990704X).
Discussed in Stephenie
Meyer's third Twilight book, Eclipse,
when there are murders in Seattle
In music
The seminal grunge band Green
River was named in reference to the murders. As well, the title track of
their 1985 debut EP Come on Down
discusses the murders from Ridgway's point of view.
In 1989, the UK EBM band M.D.M.A (featuring two future members of Utah Saints) released the
single "Green River Waves."
The lyrics directly reference the murders.
The 2002 song "Deep
Red Bells" by Neko Case was
inspired by her own life growing up as a teenager near the metropolis during
the time of the murders.
In 2003, Philadelphia power electronics duo Deathpile released G.R., a concept album about Ridgway and his murders.
In television
(fiction)
In a May 2013 interview, Veena Sud stated her inspiration for The Killing season 3 (2013) came from Streetwise, Mary Ellen Mark's
book of photographs about teenaged runaways in Seattle that was made into an
eponymous 1984 documentary. One of the
street kids Mark documented in that and later books, 21-year-old Roberta Joseph
Hayes, fell victim to The Green River Killer (Gary Ridgway). Sud said she was
"very fascinated" with Ridgway, the serial killer of numerous women
and girls near Seattle and Tacoma, Washington in the 1980s and 1990s.
Ridgway is
mentioned by his nickname, "the
Green River Killer", in the fourth episode of the first season of the
American comedy show The Last Man on
Earth, when Kristen Schaal's
character mentions having attended a class from the police sketch artist whose
"drawings led to the capture of the Green River Killer."
Ridgway is
repeatedly mentioned in episodes of the American crime drama show Criminal Minds.
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