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You're a loser, you're a coward, you're nobody, you're an animal.
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These are relatives of victims of the Green River Killer.
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May God have mercy on your pathetic soul because the
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rest of us who know the truth about you won't.
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The most prolific serial murderer America has ever known.
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The one thing that I want you to know, I
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was that daughter at home, waiting for my.
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Mom to come home.
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Whose 19-year reign of terror left the area surrounding Seattle
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littered with corpses.
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I don't wish for him to die.
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I wish for him to have a long-suffering.
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Cruel death. But who was the Green River Killer? And
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was he born to kill?
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When he went through the door and left to go
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to work, he wasn't the man that I knew.
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The old Highway 99, adjacent to Seattle's SeaTac Airport, 30.
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Years ago, a notorious spot.
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This area, back in the early 80s, had a very
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transient population. There were topless bars over here. There were
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a lot of hotels where you could rent rooms for
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an hour or two.
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Faye Brooks, then a detective assigned to sex crime cases,
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was regularly called to the street known simply as The Strip.
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There were a lot of young women who were working
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the streets.
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All the girls were young and some of them had
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troubled pasts, but all of them are somebody's daughter and
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somebody's sister.
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A lot of the young girls had grown up in
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abusive homes. That was why they were running away. And
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I could relate to that. I'm a survivor of child
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sex abuse, and there but for the grace of God
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were I. And so I could certainly empathize with them,
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and I also wanted.
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To help them.
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One such woman was Marsha Chapman, a street worker who
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claimed to have been raped.
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And the apartment building where she lived was raped.
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Marsha was a beautiful, statuesque black woman. She was 31.
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She had three children. She couldn't support them on the
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job she could get, and she was working as a prostitute.
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She was living in an apartment that was sparsely furnished,
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so I think she was down on her luck. Seemed
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to have a kind heart and was a nice person,
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but under the circumstances, she did what she had to do.
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To make ends meet.
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Marsha's alleged rape was typical of the hazards working girls
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on the strip faced. At the time, best-selling crime writer
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Anne Rule lived just blocks from the area.
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I would sometimes stop and warn them and say, do
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you know what I do for a living? I write
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about murder. and you don't have a chance out here,
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how do you know who you're getting in with? And
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usually they would just shrug and walk away.
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In 1982, the dangers of working the strip would be
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brought home by a discovery in the nearby Green River.
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There was a man on the water in a boat,
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and he saw underneath the water what he thought was
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a mannequin. It wasn't a mannequin, it was a human being,
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and there were two of them there. Well, one of
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the victims in the water, her hand was just waving
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with the current of the water. And it was like,
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here I am, please help me. but of course it
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was too late.
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As police investigated the crime scene, they made another grim find.
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Processing the scene where the victims were in the water
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was where we found the third victim on the banks.
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They were all within a few feet of each other,
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and so clearly the same killer had put all three
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of the bodies there.
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All three women had been picked up from around the
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strip by what the FBI dubbed an organized serial killer.
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The organized offender was more planned, more premeditated, was able
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to conceptualize crimes and carry them out very efficiently, mainly
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Load full transcript
because of the fact that they had very little feeling
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for another human being. They looked at a victim as
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an object for their excitement. Basically, you're talking about a
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sexual psychopath.
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The victims were 16-year-old Opal Mills, 17-year-old Cynthia Jean Hinds,
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and 31-year-old Marsha Chapman.
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When I found out that it was Marsha, I was,
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I don't think I had any words that I could say.
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It was like, oh my God, somebody killed her. It
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was really sad.
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We did not know this was only the beginning of
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a reign of terror, and we wouldn't know who was
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doing this for a very long time.
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On Seattle's strip, the Green River Killer had found a
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rich hunting ground that would enable him to amass a
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body count unrivaled by any serial killer in American history.
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By autumn of 1982, the bodies of five young women
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had been discovered in or beside Seattle's Green River. They
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had disappeared from a notorious highway known as The Strip,
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an area where prostitution was rife. And the Green River
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Killer had only just begun. On the 15th of September, 1982,
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18-year-old Mary Bridget Meehan vanishes.
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Bridget was the much-loved daughter of a Catholic family in Bellevue,
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a very rich suburb of Seattle. She skipped school a lot.
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She joined up with a boyfriend named Ray, and they
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were living in a cheap motel on Highway 99. She left.
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I think she was still possibly turning a few tricks.
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And she didn't come back. Her family was so upset
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because she was eight and a half months pregnant.
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To every serial killer, human beings are objects. There's no
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emotional connection. There's nothing there.
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On the 20th of September, another girl, 15-year-old Deborah Lorraine
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Estes disappeared. Yet police were still unable to identify a killer.
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This was the area that I was working in. This
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is the area where the bulk of the Green River
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victims were.
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Picked up from.
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And we would sit here and look, you know, trying
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to identify who might be the suspect. We had very
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dedicated detectives who were determined to solve this case.
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On the 26th of September, 16-year-old Linda Jane Rule vanishes.
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Linda Rule was a slender, blonde girl who lived up
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in the North End. She had been working the streets,
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and she had a boyfriend who kind of served as
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a pimp. She disappeared from an area near the Northgate Mall.
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Like all serial killers, he seemed to have the ability
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to sense vulnerability in potential victims. He didn't take the
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streetwise girls. He was looking for the younger women.
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By the end of 1982, 15 girls would be missing
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or found dead, and pressure was mounting. on the sheriff's
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task force.
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People hoped that law enforcement would be successful. There were
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different rumors that were passing around of who the person
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might be. There was rampant speculation that it might be
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even a law enforcement officer because of the easy access
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that the individual.
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Had to the number and variety of women in the community.
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You know, the unfortunate thing is some of the women
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of the street felt like the sheriff's office wasn't investigating
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the case as hard as we could have because they
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were street kids and runaways, and that's not true. Everybody
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assigned to that investigation was committed to solving it. committed
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to bringing this person to justice because these were, you know,
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somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, somebody's mother, and we cared about them.
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We cared about them like they were our own kids
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or our own family members, and we wanted to solve it.
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Then on the 30th of April, 1983, a young girl
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was spotted being taken from the strip.
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Maria Malvar, with her boyfriend, We're at a restaurant on
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the highway. Her boyfriend went to make a phone call.
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When
he came back, Maria wasn't in the restaurant. And
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he was very concerned, and he thought, well, I'll go
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on the highway and see if I can find her.
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And he realized that Maria was in the truck ahead
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of him. There was a man driving, and then she
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was talking to the man. And so he determined to
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follow the truck because he wasn't sure what was going on.
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He worried about her. And they got up to the
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stoplight at Highway 99 and 216th. But when he turned left,
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he couldn't see the car.
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Marie's boyfriend returned with her family to search the streets
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for the pickup truck she'd left in. And in a
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quiet cul-de-sac, just a few blocks from the strip, they
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found it. parked outside the modest home of a local
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truck painter.
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And they asked local police please to go there because
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they believed Maria was in that house. One of the
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sergeants did go there, knocked on the door. A man
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answered and he said, there's nobody here but me. And
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they didn't press it.
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All serial killers have the ability to appear so normal
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that they throw off even people who are considered experts.
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The serial killer is the Olympiad of the pathological liar.
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The man's details joined hundreds more in the task force's files.
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A saliva swab would later be added. Still, girls continued
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to vanish.
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And the list kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
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By June 1983, at least 26 girls had disappeared.
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They learned from their crimes. As their murders grow in number,
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their efficiency increases.
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The remains were being found in secluded, quiet, dark areas.
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That summer, five girls went missing.
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By the time they were up to five or six
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or ten homicides, they'd become very difficult to catch.
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The fear was tremendous and deep throughout the entire community.
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Autumn, five more vanished.
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Some of them were in the mountain foothills. Some of
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them were down in the Green River Valley.
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He was, you know, ahead of us. We wanted to
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catch him. We wanted to stop him.
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Winter and spring 1984, four more girls gone.
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There would be three or four or maybe even five
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in one spot.
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Unbelievable.
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He was outsmarting the homicide detectives. Everybody was looking for him.
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He was dumping women like they were garbage. This was
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a gun site. It's not far from the airport. It's
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not far from the strip where the young girls were missing.
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In the evenings, it was dark, very secluded, very few
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people came down here. You could come, dump something, and
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be gone. And that's what happened in this location here.
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They were just dumped.
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Among the dozens of bodies found was the 16-year-old Linda
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Jane Rule, her skeletal remains hidden under a bush. And
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in the scrubland south of the airport, the fate of
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the pregnant 18-year-old Mary Bridget Meehan was finally discovered.
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Someone raped her, killed her, and buried her and her
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unborn baby in a shallow grave on the west side
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of the highway.
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By spring 1984, the killer had amassed more than 40 victims.
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But then something changed.
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The killings continued. appeared to have stopped. Many thought that
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he was gone.
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It's incredibly unusual for a serial killer simply to stop killing.
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A serial killer will usually only cease murder when he's
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apprehended or when he dies himself.
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In 1985, the truck painter from The House in the
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Quiet Cul-de-sac, began dating 40-year-old divorced mother, Judith.
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When I first met him, I thought he was quite
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the gentleman and so polite and nice. He loved the
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country music and the dancing. And he was always smiling.
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He never got angry. And I just, Thought he was
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the greatest. It was like love at first sight.
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Within months, the house became Judith's home.
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He offered to help me move and that I could
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move in with him if I like. There was no
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carpet in his house, so he let me pick out
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some carpet. Because he had previous renters in there. And
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he had.
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Told me that....
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The little one had wet on the carpet. The house
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needed a woman's touch.
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After three years living together, the couple wed.
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We were married in 1988. It seemed like the perfect marriage.
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He was good to my daughters, played with my grandchildren.
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My dreams are coming true.
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Judith would enjoy 13 happy years of marriage, while most
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of the world forgot about the Green River Killer. Most,
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that is, except the men and women of the Green
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River Task Force. And in 2001, advances in DNA profiling
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enabled them to compare samples taken from the early victims,
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including Marsha Chapman, with swabs that had been taken from
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several men questioned during the investigation.
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This is the DNA from Marsha Chapman, and this is
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the DNA from the Green River Killer. And we looked
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at them and were like, they're the same. They're the same.
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Scary which way?
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MUSIC PLAYS.
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I just, I couldn't believe it. I was just devastated
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and in shock. I think I went into denial. I
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wasn't believing it.
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Only now would the world discover the shocking truth about
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Judith's husband, Gary Ridgeway, the most prolific serial killer in
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US history. During the 1980s, the mysterious Green River Killer
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00:19:17.299 --> 00:19:21.000
had prowled the red light district of Seattle strip unchecked,
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amassing a terrifying body count. In 2001, A DNA match
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had connected 52-year-old truck painter Gary Ridgeway with the first
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few victims.
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He had been identified as the most prolific serial killer
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in the history of the United States. Each of us
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recognized that this would be the biggest criminal case in
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the history of the state of Washington.
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The prosecution and defense teams would now be able to
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interview the man suspected of over four dozen homicides.
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I'm walking down a corridor and I'm going to open
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the door and be introduced to the supposed Green River Killer.
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a hundred things are going through your mind and wondering
263
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what is it going to mean? Is he going to
264
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be crying? Is he going to be crazy? And I
265
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walked in and, and like, wow, this isn't what I expected.
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All right.
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Pretty good.
268
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All of us kind of looked at each other and said,
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that's the guy that's been eluding everybody for 20 years.
270
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What was remarkable was that he was, he was so normal.
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Sleep okay?
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No, no.
273
00:20:39.029 --> 00:20:40.789
Well, that didn't look like the Hilton in there.
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I got a glimpse of it.
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Well, it had a posturpedic mattress in there, so it
276
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was good.
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A little bit.
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Hot in there, but.
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If you did not know what he had done, you
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would like him. The monster within him was well-hidden.
281
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People want to ascribe extraordinary traits and qualities to these people.
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These are, for the most part, very ordinary individuals, except
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for the extraordinary crime that they get involved in.
284
00:21:18.250 --> 00:21:22.569
So who was the suspected Green River Killer? Gary Ridgway
285
00:21:22.589 --> 00:21:31.259
was born in 1949, the middle of three boys. He
286
00:21:31.299 --> 00:21:34.359
lived in a small house not far from the strip.
287
00:21:35.640 --> 00:21:39.400
His mom was kind of stay-at-home and then part-time. She
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00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:42.730
worked at a department store. His dad drove a bus
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for the county.
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Gary sometimes would ride with him on the bus, and
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his dad would say, you know, see her, she's a prostitute, she's,
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you know, the scum of the earth, and would berate
293
00:21:52.650 --> 00:21:55.819
prostitutes and talk about how filthy and bad they were.
294
00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:59.609
And then there
are... a couple of episodes where Gary
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00:21:59.890 --> 00:22:04.809
recalls him leaving him in the vehicle while dad went
296
00:22:04.829 --> 00:22:06.670
and had sex with a prostitute.
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00:22:08.990 --> 00:22:13.400
School friend, Terry Rochelle, recalls that Gary Ridgway was more
298
00:22:13.500 --> 00:22:14.700
inward than his siblings.
299
00:22:16.970 --> 00:22:19.660
His brother was very outgoing and, you know, a bright
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00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:22.539
personality and Gary was more quiet and.
301
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:24.500
Withdrawn, I would say is a good word.
302
00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:27.900
He was just a little pipsqueak guy, just, you know,
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00:22:27.940 --> 00:22:30.680
somebody's little brother, basically, you know, you didn't pay a
304
00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:36.259
whole lot of attention to him. Just kind of in
305
00:22:36.279 --> 00:22:39.079
the shadows, I would say most of his life.
306
00:22:41.779 --> 00:22:46.369
At school, the struggling Ridgeway failed to make an impression. However,
307
00:22:46.490 --> 00:22:49.480
at parents' evenings, his mother Mary did.
308
00:22:51.339 --> 00:22:53.619
All the women kind of sat back and looked at her.
309
00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:56.140
It was strange because she would wear a big bouffant
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00:22:56.940 --> 00:23:01.170
hairdo and lots and lots of makeup, short skirts, which
311
00:23:01.230 --> 00:23:03.809
were not really the style in those days, especially for
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00:23:03.869 --> 00:23:07.410
a mom. She just always seemed like she was trying
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00:23:07.430 --> 00:23:11.140
to be very glamorous and not like our moms at all.
314
00:23:11.910 --> 00:23:16.210
I always remember her wearing kind of the tight shorts
315
00:23:16.349 --> 00:23:18.730
and low-cut tops.
316
00:23:18.390 --> 00:23:22.369
And longer hair. She was a very, very attractive lady.
317
00:23:24.049 --> 00:23:28.440
Ridgeway admitted wetting the bed throughout his childhood and well
318
00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:29.319
into his teens.
319
00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:33.539
When he would wet the bed, his mother would put
320
00:23:33.559 --> 00:23:35.759
him in the, have him get in the bathtub and
321
00:23:35.819 --> 00:23:37.700
wash him and wash his genitals.
322
00:23:39.960 --> 00:23:45.150
During one bath, um, her robe fell open and she
323
00:23:45.190 --> 00:23:48.769
was naked underneath and he felt arousal at that and
324
00:23:48.809 --> 00:23:52.150
at the same time knew that it probably wasn't that
325
00:23:52.190 --> 00:23:54.410
wasn't a good thing to feel but he felt.
326
00:23:54.130 --> 00:23:59.289
It he talked about having some sexual feelings towards her
327
00:23:59.410 --> 00:24:02.950
he described in some detail watching her when she was
328
00:24:02.990 --> 00:24:05.509
in a bathing suit and and looking at her and
329
00:24:05.869 --> 00:24:08.029
thinking that she dressed pretty provocatively this.
330
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:17.549
Overly sexualized person washing her son's genitals, and you realize
331
00:24:17.589 --> 00:24:21.650
that most teenage boys are having an awful time with
332
00:24:21.769 --> 00:24:25.789
dealing with their own emerging sexuality, has to have had
333
00:24:25.849 --> 00:24:27.390
an impact in some way.
334
00:24:27.750 --> 00:24:31.910
Boys need to see their mothers as asexual. It is very,
335
00:24:32.009 --> 00:24:35.869
very destabilizing for an adolescent boy to see his mother
336
00:24:35.910 --> 00:24:38.890
in a sexual manner. It's very hard for an adolescent
337
00:24:38.930 --> 00:24:42.950
boy to imagine his mother having sex with anybody, including
338
00:24:43.210 --> 00:24:45.970
his father. And so when a mother behaves in a
339
00:24:46.130 --> 00:24:51.619
sexualized or hyper-sexualized way, it's very unsettling for an adolescent boy.
340
00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:57.059
As Ridgway got older, he started showing signs of destructive behavior,
341
00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:01.619
starting fires. And as a teenager, he took his first
342
00:25:01.700 --> 00:25:03.140
step towards murder.
343
00:25:05.940 --> 00:25:09.160
He approached a first grader, a six-year-old boy that he
344
00:25:09.220 --> 00:25:12.470
saw playing in a lot near his house. The boy
345
00:25:12.509 --> 00:25:15.410
was dressed up playing cowboys and Indians, and he kind
346
00:25:15.450 --> 00:25:20.920
of lured him into the bushes and completely unprovoked stabbed
347
00:25:21.339 --> 00:25:24.690
the little boy in the stomach and nearly killed him.
348
00:25:28.119 --> 00:25:30.039
He told the boy that he just wanted to know
349
00:25:30.059 --> 00:25:32.380
what it felt like to kill somebody. And after he
350
00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:35.400
stabbed him, he took the knife and wiped the blade
351
00:25:35.460 --> 00:25:41.000
off on the little boy's shoulder and just walked away. Actually,
352
00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:42.660
nobody ever connected him to that.
353
00:25:43.940 --> 00:25:49.140
Serial killers need to have some concrete proof of what
354
00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:52.319
they're doing. I mean, you can think about something, but
355
00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:54.240
until you've done it, you don't know how it's going
356
00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:58.279
to turn out. And so what the serial killer does
357
00:25:58.460 --> 00:26:03.200
is experiment. Often they will commit an act like a
358
00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:03.940
trial run.
359
00:26:07.619 --> 00:26:10.940
Ridgeway eventually finished school two years late due to his
360
00:26:10.980 --> 00:26:16.220
slow progress. The following year, age 21, he married his
361
00:26:16.259 --> 00:26:18.559
steady girlfriend and joined the Navy.
362
00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:23.509
When he returned from his deployment to the Philippines, His
363
00:26:23.569 --> 00:26:25.430
wife admitted that she had had an affair with a
364
00:26:25.470 --> 00:26:28.529
friend of theirs. That was when he first started kind
365
00:26:28.569 --> 00:26:32.569
of referring to her as a whore
and using other
366
00:26:32.609 --> 00:26:36.220
derogatory terms. And that was kind of the beginning of
367
00:26:36.259 --> 00:26:39.410
a series of relationships that never quite panned out for him.
368
00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:45.319
During the early 1970s, Ridgway got a job spray painting
369
00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:49.920
at the Kenworth Truck Manufacturers. He then met and married his.
370
00:26:49.849 --> 00:26:55.490
Second wife, He was very much into having sex often, repeatedly,
371
00:26:55.710 --> 00:27:00.250
throughout the day, as frequently pretty much as women would agree.
372
00:27:00.509 --> 00:27:03.309
They would go out in the truck and he loved
373
00:27:03.329 --> 00:27:07.809
to have sex in public where they could be discovered
374
00:27:07.849 --> 00:27:08.569
at any time.
375
00:27:09.829 --> 00:27:13.049
But after having a child, their relationship deteriorated.
376
00:27:15.109 --> 00:27:18.430
His wife left him when his son was about five
377
00:27:19.259 --> 00:27:23.140
and that really hurt him. and that was when he
378
00:27:23.180 --> 00:27:25.799
started to go frequent prostitutes.
379
00:27:27.660 --> 00:27:32.140
Ridgway claimed he became addicted to prostitutes. He had in
380
00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:34.849
fact been quizzed by police about his activities on the
381
00:27:34.890 --> 00:27:39.529
strip several times during the 80s, even passing a lie
382
00:27:39.569 --> 00:27:42.769
detector test when grilled about the Green River murders.
383
00:27:45.619 --> 00:27:51.269
When you're subject to someone without a conscience, who has
384
00:27:51.369 --> 00:27:54.670
no regrets and no remorse and no real concern. They
385
00:27:54.710 --> 00:27:55.329
can pass them.
386
00:27:57.369 --> 00:28:00.210
He was a magnificent liar. He had an ability just
387
00:28:00.250 --> 00:28:02.670
to go and talk, and he would just talk and
388
00:28:02.710 --> 00:28:05.990
tell stories, and I, you know, for a while, I
389
00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:07.799
assumed they were true.
390
00:28:08.380 --> 00:28:10.099
And when I would go in to visit Gary at
391
00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:16.299
the jail, he would tell me that everything's okay. He
392
00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:20.279
didn't do it. He didn't hurt those women. He didn't
393
00:28:20.339 --> 00:28:29.990
kill them. He didn't... And... I would believe him.
394
00:28:32.650 --> 00:28:36.970
As he was questioned in 2001, Ridgway continued to protest
395
00:28:37.009 --> 00:28:37.569
his innocence.
396
00:28:38.549 --> 00:28:41.210
Up to this point, Gary had been maintaining that they
397
00:28:41.230 --> 00:28:44.359
had the wrong person, that he had had sex with
398
00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:47.579
many prostitutes, he hadn't killed any, and that was... essentially
399
00:28:47.619 --> 00:28:50.019
going to be the defense.
400
00:28:51.099 --> 00:28:55.319
But when forensic evidence surfaced, tying him to three more victims,
401
00:28:56.180 --> 00:28:57.660
Ridgeway's story changed.
402
00:28:58.119 --> 00:29:01.380
Myself and another attorney were in the meeting room waiting
403
00:29:01.420 --> 00:29:01.779
for Mr.
404
00:29:01.819 --> 00:29:02.259
Ridgeway.
405
00:29:02.460 --> 00:29:04.480
I don't recall what we were talking about, but we
406
00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:06.900
both had smiles on our faces when he walked in.
407
00:29:07.740 --> 00:29:11.920
And he said, oh, you won't be smiling when we're done.
408
00:29:11.940 --> 00:29:17.130
I've been lying to you all. I've been manipulating everyone
409
00:29:17.190 --> 00:29:19.849
for all these years. I killed them all.
410
00:29:22.950 --> 00:29:27.420
Only now would investigators discover the true shocking horror of
411
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:42.039
the Green River Killers' crimes. In 2003, 54-year-old truck painter
412
00:29:42.099 --> 00:29:46.079
Gary Ridgway admitted he was the Green River Killer that
413
00:29:46.119 --> 00:29:50.839
had eluded capture for almost two decades. A man responsible
414
00:29:50.900 --> 00:29:56.220
for the murder of more than four dozen women. Faced
415
00:29:56.259 --> 00:29:59.480
with the death penalty, Ridgway offered to tell the truth
416
00:30:00.029 --> 00:30:06.670
about all his crimes in return for his life. On
417
00:30:06.710 --> 00:30:09.769
behalf of the victims' families, who wanted to know the
418
00:30:09.829 --> 00:30:15.470
fate of their loved ones, the prosecution agreed. Ridgway would
419
00:30:15.509 --> 00:30:23.930
now reveal the true horror of his crimes. Investigators now
420
00:30:23.990 --> 00:30:27.039
learned how the Green River Killer had so easily abducted
421
00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:30.160
and killed his victims. even at the height of the
422
00:30:30.220 --> 00:30:30.920
public terror.
423
00:30:35.240 --> 00:30:39.200
He came across as being a very meek and mild,
424
00:30:39.619 --> 00:30:43.789
safe person. As a matter of fact, in one situation,
425
00:30:43.890 --> 00:30:46.829
he had his child in the car with him when
426
00:30:46.849 --> 00:30:47.950
he picked up a prostitute.
427
00:30:50.890 --> 00:30:53.640
He looks like a mousy little man. He doesn't look
428
00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:56.779
like the kind of person that if you were a
429
00:30:56.980 --> 00:30:59.460
prostitute that you would be afraid of.
430
00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:04.019
They thought, well, he's a family man. He's safe. And
431
00:31:05.980 --> 00:31:06.779
it turns out he wasn't.
432
00:31:10.470 --> 00:31:13.410
He preferred to take them to his house. Some said
433
00:31:13.430 --> 00:31:18.109
no to that. And they would drive to a remote location.
434
00:31:18.170 --> 00:31:20.809
And he had a pickup truck with a canopy on
435
00:31:20.829 --> 00:31:24.349
the back. And he would convince them to go into
436
00:31:24.390 --> 00:31:26.859
the back of the canopy so they could have more
437
00:31:26.890 --> 00:31:30.630
room to have But what he would do is once
438
00:31:30.670 --> 00:31:33.029
he got them in the position either in
his bed
439
00:31:33.069 --> 00:31:35.410
at home where he had pictures of his son on
440
00:31:35.430 --> 00:31:37.980
the wall and they felt a little more secure, or
441
00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:41.240
whether they were just hopping in the back of the truck,
442
00:31:41.900 --> 00:31:47.400
get naked, begin with oral sex. A missionary at some
443
00:31:47.460 --> 00:31:50.960
point convinced them that he would be able to finish
444
00:31:51.660 --> 00:31:56.829
sooner if they would agree to the rear entry position.
445
00:31:57.869 --> 00:32:00.309
When I got through having a climax with her, I
446
00:32:03.910 --> 00:32:04.529
jumped on her.
447
00:32:04.910 --> 00:32:07.890
He hit his arm around the girl's neck.
448
00:32:07.930 --> 00:32:09.170
How much are you pulling on her neck?
449
00:32:09.650 --> 00:32:11.309
I'm pulling really hard on her neck.
450
00:32:11.349 --> 00:32:11.730
How?
451
00:32:12.029 --> 00:32:12.710
Just like this.
452
00:32:13.170 --> 00:32:14.009
What are you saying to her?
453
00:32:14.130 --> 00:32:20.109
Don't, don't, don't fight, don't fight, and I'll let you go.
454
00:32:21.250 --> 00:32:23.309
And then choked him with his forearm.
455
00:32:23.890 --> 00:32:26.720
I'm feeling, I gotta kill her, I gotta kill her,
456
00:32:26.730 --> 00:32:27.279
I gotta kill her.
457
00:32:35.259 --> 00:32:36.960
You'll need to go up to kind of like on
458
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:40.200
the top of the hill and pull in.
459
00:32:41.390 --> 00:32:45.569
Ridgeway guided the investigators to where he dumped dozens of
460
00:32:45.609 --> 00:32:46.109
young women.
461
00:32:51.029 --> 00:32:55.799
I just drove in my pickup and camper and parked
462
00:32:55.880 --> 00:32:58.990
it brought her body over and put it a little
463
00:32:59.009 --> 00:32:59.650
bit over the hill.
464
00:33:00.130 --> 00:33:06.230
His method of recollection was where he had left their bodies.
465
00:33:06.430 --> 00:33:09.289
Between this one and that one up there, you think
466
00:33:09.329 --> 00:33:09.990
you put like five?
467
00:33:10.029 --> 00:33:11.269
Five of them in there.
468
00:33:12.089 --> 00:33:12.789
Okay.
469
00:33:13.490 --> 00:33:15.970
He essentially said the victims didn't mean anything. I have
470
00:33:16.009 --> 00:33:17.690
no idea who they are. I don't know if they're black,
471
00:33:17.710 --> 00:33:20.730
if they're white, how old they are, how young they are.
472
00:33:20.769 --> 00:33:24.190
I mean, they really meant nothing to me as an individual.
473
00:33:25.059 --> 00:33:26.839
What you're getting is what you're going to get, and
474
00:33:26.859 --> 00:33:29.140
that's all you can get because I don't remember.
475
00:33:29.480 --> 00:33:34.119
To every serial killer, human beings are objects. In the
476
00:33:34.180 --> 00:33:38.579
homicides that they commit, they're never going to remember the name.
477
00:33:38.619 --> 00:33:41.039
They're never going to remember the face. They'll remember the
478
00:33:41.119 --> 00:33:43.079
concrete action of where.
479
00:33:42.980 --> 00:33:49.349
Those bodies are. One of the dump sites that Ridgeway
480
00:33:49.410 --> 00:33:54.740
identified was that of Marie Malvar, the 18-year-old, whose boyfriend
481
00:33:54.779 --> 00:33:59.140
had spotted Ridgway abducting her. He admitted that when he
482
00:33:59.200 --> 00:34:02.779
strangled her, she had fought back harder than any of
483
00:34:02.819 --> 00:34:03.420
his victims.
484
00:34:04.970 --> 00:34:07.390
I put battery acid in myself right here and there
485
00:34:07.410 --> 00:34:10.750
to cover up scratches. There's a scratch here, scratches here
486
00:34:11.829 --> 00:34:13.909
from a mill bar.
487
00:34:15.429 --> 00:34:18.880
Ridgway claimed he was filled with rage and had wanted
488
00:34:18.920 --> 00:34:23.320
to hurt his victims even after their deaths. he admitted
489
00:34:23.389 --> 00:34:26.900
he'd tried to set the lifeless 16-year-old Linda Rule's hair
490
00:34:26.920 --> 00:34:28.159
on fire.
491
00:34:28.179 --> 00:34:33.000
You know, he seemed throughout the interviews to try to
492
00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:34.940
blame a lot of what had happened on the women
493
00:34:34.980 --> 00:34:38.760
in his life, that the women that he actually killed
494
00:34:38.780 --> 00:34:41.260
were kind of an extension of all the women before
495
00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:44.239
who had disappointed him in some way.
496
00:34:45.199 --> 00:34:47.659
All the pressure just built and built and built and built.
497
00:34:48.860 --> 00:34:52.360
My releasing was killing women.
498
00:34:57.639 --> 00:35:00.780
He did talk about a number of the victims that
499
00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:04.219
he would go back and have sexual relations with them
500
00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:06.570
for a number of days after he killed them.
501
00:35:08.409 --> 00:35:09.349
Gary, did you.
502
00:35:09.269 --> 00:35:10.550
Revisit any of these?
503
00:35:11.650 --> 00:35:12.949
I revisited at least one of them.
504
00:35:13.369 --> 00:35:15.070
And when we say revisit, what did you come back
505
00:35:15.110 --> 00:35:15.389
to do?
506
00:35:16.670 --> 00:35:17.289
Have sex with her.
507
00:35:17.809 --> 00:35:19.949
He's like, oh, yeah, you know, but then the flies
508
00:35:19.989 --> 00:35:22.099
would come and the maggots, and then I'd be like, oh,
509
00:35:22.159 --> 00:35:24.179
I don't, you know. Like he didn't want to do
510
00:35:24.219 --> 00:35:25.739
it after that. You know, you were just, I mean,
511
00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:28.360
that's the thing. He said it in this, like I'm
512
00:35:28.380 --> 00:35:32.199
talking to you, but as if it's totally normal.
513
00:35:36.070 --> 00:35:42.409
Now, why do individuals do this? The standard explanation for
514
00:35:42.449 --> 00:35:47.050
necrophilia had been sex with someone dead. You can have
515
00:35:47.150 --> 00:35:50.349
total control over it. There's no resistance at all. And
516
00:35:50.409 --> 00:35:54.989
so you can live out
those sorts of feelings with
517
00:35:55.050 --> 00:35:56.269
a dead, lifeless body.
518
00:35:58.010 --> 00:35:59.690
He's not the one that you're going to turn to
519
00:35:59.730 --> 00:36:01.820
and ask, why did you do this? And get the
520
00:36:01.860 --> 00:36:05.739
deep psychological answer. But one of the things that frequently
521
00:36:05.800 --> 00:36:07.699
came up was that he wouldn't have to pay for
522
00:36:07.739 --> 00:36:08.239
the sex.
523
00:36:13.639 --> 00:36:18.219
Ridgeway's murderous spree had continued unabated until he met his
524
00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:20.780
third wife, Judith, in the mid-80s.
525
00:36:23.320 --> 00:36:32.559
Gary was so straight, normal, and loving and gentle. He
526
00:36:32.599 --> 00:36:37.139
was so kind around me all the time. He didn't
527
00:36:37.159 --> 00:36:43.840
get mad or upset about anything. Seemed like the perfect marriage.
528
00:36:45.079 --> 00:36:48.489
When he first met her, he stopped patronizing prostitutes and
529
00:36:48.610 --> 00:36:52.280
stopped killing. And then, as he put it, he fell
530
00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:52.969
off the wagon.
531
00:36:55.980 --> 00:37:03.639
Gary would call home and say that, you know, he's
532
00:37:03.659 --> 00:37:06.659
going to be late coming home, so he's going to
533
00:37:06.679 --> 00:37:09.719
grab a bite to eat, grab a hamburger, and he'll
534
00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:13.760
be late. When I think back now, that was probably
535
00:37:13.840 --> 00:37:17.119
one time when he was out picking up someone off
536
00:37:17.199 --> 00:37:17.440
of the.
537
00:37:20.130 --> 00:37:22.130
Off of the Highway 99 strip.
538
00:37:22.949 --> 00:37:25.869
And then he killed again.
539
00:37:26.989 --> 00:37:28.280
Right in here is where I killed her.
540
00:37:28.300 --> 00:37:30.059
Right in here.
541
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:31.239
How far.
542
00:37:32.860 --> 00:37:32.980
In?
543
00:37:32.980 --> 00:37:33.260
20 feet.
544
00:37:34.659 --> 00:37:36.260
He would tell me he'd call home and say he's
545
00:37:36.280 --> 00:37:38.719
going to stop at the junkyard on my home from work.
546
00:37:40.599 --> 00:37:42.800
And then when he got home, he didn't really have
547
00:37:42.840 --> 00:37:46.449
any parts from that. So that may have been another occasion.
548
00:37:47.449 --> 00:37:55.269
And so after having killed maybe 60 girls from 82
549
00:37:55.269 --> 00:38:01.500
to 85. From 85 to when he was caught in 2001,
550
00:38:01.500 --> 00:38:08.079
the number of victims was more like 10 or 11.
551
00:38:09.079 --> 00:38:09.300
Mr.
552
00:38:09.340 --> 00:38:12.190
Ridgeway, how do you plead to the charge of aggravated
553
00:38:12.230 --> 00:38:15.289
murder in the first degree as charged in count one?
554
00:38:15.730 --> 00:38:16.010
Guilty.
555
00:38:19.079 --> 00:38:24.000
In 2003, Gary Ridgway made his plea to the 48
556
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:28.260
charges of murder that investigators could conclusively tie him to.
557
00:38:28.280 -->
00:38:31.079
How do you plead to the charge of aggravated murder
558
00:38:31.119 --> 00:38:33.760
in the first degree as charged in count five?
559
00:38:33.820 --> 00:38:34.159
Guilty.
560
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:38.840
When he confessed, and I sat when I sat and
561
00:38:39.590 --> 00:38:41.110
listened to him say guilty.
562
00:38:42.090 --> 00:38:42.289
Mr.
563
00:38:42.329 --> 00:38:44.630
Ridgway, how do you plead to the charge of aggravated
564
00:38:44.670 --> 00:38:48.070
murder in the first degree for the death of Marcia Chapman?
565
00:38:48.969 --> 00:38:49.329
Guilty.
566
00:38:50.170 --> 00:38:52.710
After every one of the names that they had said.
567
00:38:52.989 --> 00:38:55.159
For the death of Mary B. Meehan.
568
00:38:55.500 --> 00:38:55.860
Guilty.
569
00:38:56.860 --> 00:39:00.599
I just sat there and cried, and that's when it
570
00:39:01.199 --> 00:39:03.280
finally sunk in that.
571
00:39:04.760 --> 00:39:05.539
This is real.
572
00:39:06.039 --> 00:39:11.289
He did it. There's someone else inside of him. When
573
00:39:11.329 --> 00:39:15.269
he went through the door and left to go to work,
574
00:39:15.369 --> 00:39:16.710
he wasn't the man that I knew.
575
00:39:17.110 --> 00:39:19.369
Count 19 for the death of Linda Rule.
576
00:39:20.010 --> 00:39:20.389
Guilty.
577
00:39:22.070 --> 00:39:24.769
I would think back and think about all those years
578
00:39:24.829 --> 00:39:29.210
that I was with him. Were they real? Or was
579
00:39:29.250 --> 00:39:29.909
he just using me?
580
00:39:30.019 --> 00:39:30.139
Me?
581
00:39:30.159 --> 00:39:32.619
How do you plead to the charge of aggravated murder
582
00:39:32.699 --> 00:39:36.199
in the first degree as charged in count 48?
583
00:39:36.199 --> 00:39:38.179
Guilty.
584
00:39:38.199 --> 00:39:39.980
I lived.
585
00:39:41.550 --> 00:39:45.469
With him all those years. He could have killed me.
586
00:39:46.369 --> 00:39:48.949
He could have killed my daughters. He could have killed
587
00:39:48.989 --> 00:39:49.710
my grandbabies.
588
00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:56.960
So what made the monster? Was it his unusual upbringing?
589
00:39:58.429 --> 00:40:01.349
Or was Gary Ridgway born to kill?
590
00:40:03.550 --> 00:40:06.670
I still don't believe that any child is born to kill.
591
00:40:07.190 --> 00:40:12.090
But I think some children have a predisposition to violence.
592
00:40:12.429 --> 00:40:16.389
If the child grows up in a safe place for them,
593
00:40:17.289 --> 00:40:20.809
where they feel loved, where they attach, we're never going
594
00:40:20.829 --> 00:40:24.349
to know that that predisposition for violence is there. But
595
00:40:24.409 --> 00:40:28.510
if that child is born into a home where they're afraid,
596
00:40:28.610 --> 00:40:31.920
where they're neglected, where they're abused, then you have the
597
00:40:31.960 --> 00:40:35.300
perfect soil to grow a serial killer.
598
00:40:36.639 --> 00:40:39.400
I think that a boy and his mother have a
599
00:40:39.440 --> 00:40:45.769
certain relationship, and when that relationship is different, then I
600
00:40:45.809 --> 00:40:49.670
think that's when we start seeing those kind of switches
601
00:40:49.750 --> 00:40:50.630
turning on and off.
602
00:40:52.139 --> 00:40:56.099
This is one of my ominous signs. She was somewhat
603
00:40:56.280 --> 00:41:01.900
seductive and so on. These sorts of unhealthy relationships with
604
00:41:01.940 --> 00:41:02.860
a maternal figure.
605
00:41:03.760 --> 00:41:06.719
People that I've encountered that have prosecuted for murder, I
606
00:41:06.780 --> 00:41:10.719
think that their circumstances have driven them to do what
607
00:41:10.760 --> 00:41:14.079
they have done in the majority of cases that I
608
00:41:14.360 --> 00:41:18.130
have handled, I would say. I did not see that
609
00:41:18.170 --> 00:41:23.199
in Ridgeway. I truly believed that he was worn that way,
610
00:41:23.340 --> 00:41:25.699
hardwired that way, whatever you want to say.
611
00:41:26.280 --> 00:41:29.960
The Green River Killer was definitely born to kill. He
612
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:31.280
was an individual who.
613
00:41:31.539 --> 00:41:40.809
Has this changed gene and culminated in a tremendous number
614
00:41:41.590 --> 00:41:43.389
and intensity of homicides.
615
00:41:43.849 --> 00:41:48.690
His brain is definitely wired differently. He's a psychopath. That
616
00:41:48.730 --> 00:41:54.309
has to be a brain miswiring from the beginning.
617
00:41:54.849 --> 00:41:58.030
I don't know about the nurture nature piece. I think
618
00:41:58.090 --> 00:42:01.179
at some point it's a decision. And I think we
619
00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:04.780
all have some propensities for violence, but you can decide.
620
00:42:04.980 --> 00:42:09.599
You can control it. And he decided how he wanted.
621
00:42:09.400 --> 00:42:09.920
To control it.
622
00:42:13.039 --> 00:42:16.980
Nineteen years after Marsha Chapman's body was discovered beneath the
623
00:42:17.039 --> 00:42:20.719
surface of the Green River, Gary Ridgway was sentenced to
624
00:42:20.760 --> 00:42:25.449
serve 48 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
625
00:42:29.710 --> 00:42:32.449
In the end, Marsha got her justice because it was
626
00:42:32.489 --> 00:42:38.969
DNA found on her that they could match with Gary Ridgway.
627
00:42:40.510 --> 00:42:41.690
And Marsha got her day.
628
00:42:42.699 --> 00:42:43.500
That was a good day.
629
00:42:44.119 --> 00:42:44.739
It was a good day.
630
00:42:46.190 --> 00:42:49.969
Before Ridgeway was led away, Judge Richard Jones instructed him
631
00:42:50.070 --> 00:42:51.590
to face the victim's families.
632
00:42:52.409 --> 00:42:55.030
There's a tremendous amount of emotion that these family members
633
00:42:55.429 --> 00:42:58.639
wanted to pour out for Gary Ridgeway to hear.
634
00:42:59.059 --> 00:43:02.679
I can only hope someone gets the opportunity to choke
635
00:43:02.719 --> 00:43:06.500
you unconscious so you can live through the horror that
636
00:43:06.539 --> 00:43:09.840
you put our daughters, our sisters, our mothers through.
637
00:43:10.809 --> 00:43:13.519
The pain would not go away. but it brought them closure.
638
00:43:13.539 --> 00:43:19.519
The one thing that I want you, Jerry Ridgeway, to know,
639
00:43:20.800 --> 00:43:24.559
I was that daughter at home, waiting for my mom
640
00:43:24.599 --> 00:43:25.119
to come home.
641
00:43:27.900 --> 00:43:30.889
I think for all of us, as we brought the
642
00:43:30.929 --> 00:43:33.630
families up and introduced them, it was really emotional.
643
00:43:36.429 --> 00:43:40.630
I recall Linda Rule's father. There are people here that
644
00:43:41.789 --> 00:43:49.159
hate you I'm not one of them. A very sympathetic,
645
00:43:49.659 --> 00:43:53.409
very compassionate individual. What God says to do, and that's
646
00:43:53.469 --> 00:43:57.230
to forgive all. So you are forgiven, sir.
647
00:44:01.070 --> 00:44:03.750
On one hand, I'm sitting next to a person who's
648
00:44:03.789 --> 00:44:08.920
done the most inhumane things to other human beings, and
649
00:44:08.960 --> 00:44:12.579
then 15 feet away is a person doing the most
650
00:44:12.679 --> 00:44:14.300
humane and merciful thing.
651
00:44:14.900 --> 00:44:18.750
I wanted him to look out see the pain, see
652
00:44:18.769 --> 00:44:21.309
the anger, and see all the agony that he had
653
00:44:21.369 --> 00:44:23.929
caused in his lifetime. I wanted him to take that
654
00:44:23.969 --> 00:44:26.989
visual image with him back to prison. So for the
655
00:44:27.050 --> 00:44:30.269
balance of his life, that would be the last public
656
00:44:30.329 --> 00:44:31.369
image that he had.
657
00:44:31.989 --> 00:44:35.360
You took from me my firstborn child. May her soul
658
00:44:35.380 --> 00:44:38.699
and the soul of the other 47 victims rest in peace.
659
00:44:46.539 --> 00:44:54.909
I think that's a good thing. I think that's a
660
00:44:54.969 --> 00:44:56.250
good thing.