Gary Ridgway is thought to be the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States. In total, this man has confessed to about 71 crimes, but only 48 of his victims have been discovered. All of his victims were female, most of them were prostitutes. He claimed he chose to murder prostitutes because no one would necessarily notice that they were gone. You may also know Ridgway as the Green River Killer, because his first five victims were discovered in a river. Ridgway chose to pick up his victims and strangle them in order to kill them.
What led Ridgway to commit such heinous murders? After reading exactly what he did to his victims and how many there were, I started to wonder where this man came from and what led him to do these things. Turns out Ridgway came from a somewhat troubled home, and showed some early signs of strange behavior. There are hints that Ridgway may have observed his parents violently fighting often and he also had a habit of wetting the bed. He would wet his bed often in his early teens and his mother would constantly belittle him because of this. He often argued with his parents, especially his mother. As a young child, Ridgway had an IQ of 82, which is extremely low and he did very poorly in school. In high school, his classmates described him as friendly but he didn’t really stand out from the crowd. His father who worked at a mortuary also often talked about necrophilia and inappropriate subjects with his son. Some of these things indicate antisocial behavior and could have attributed to his actions he later committed.
He committed his first serious crime at 16 when a he stabbed a young boy who was only 6-years-old. The young boy fortunately survived the attack, but the rest of Ridgway’s victims weren’t so lucky. After he attempted killing this young boy he walked away laughing saying, “I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone.” Ridgway went on his big killing spree in the 1980s and 1990s, but authorities say it could have even been up until 2001.
Of course, it is important to memorialize the victims in this case and to not just talk about Ridgway. Many of them were very young women and were prostitutes, but regardless of their occupation it was completely wrong for Ridgway to take their lives. Ridgway mentioned in the past that his father had a strong hatred for prostitutes and noted that he felt the same. The hatred seemed to manifest into Ridgway and was one of the reasons he decided to go after these young girls. Another big reason mentioned previously, is because no one would notice these young girls would be missing due to their occupation which ended up being true.
Once he was arrested, Ridgway openly admitted to killing 71 women. Ridgway avoided the death penalty by leading police to the locations of the missing women he had murdered. Based on interviews with Ridgway, he seems to show no guilt for the crimes he committed. It seemed like these women weren’t humans to him and he felt as though they didn’t deserve to live.
What can explain why Ridgway decided to commit these crimes starts with his childhood. His complicated relationship with his parents may have affected him greatly and it seems like Ridgway always wanted to kill. His hate for prostitutes was overpowering, probably due to his father. This can show us that the way children are brought up in this world greatly effects their future actions. We may never know exactly what drives people to kill, but it can be assumed that Ridgway had a horrible mental illness and was inherently evi
