Gary Ridgway has confessed to the Green River killings. For those of you who aren’t unhealthily obsessed with serial killers, the Green River Killer was for years the unsolved mystery in the American serial-murder demimonde; like Jack the Ripper several times over, “he” was deemed responsible for so many slayings (mainly of prostitutes) that it was widely believed (and by legendary FBI serial-killer expert Jack Douglas) that “he” was actually a “they,” two or more different serial killers with roughly the same M.O. and area of activity.
Actually, I still wonder whether “they” is the real deal here. Ridgeway pled guilty to 48 counts of first-degree murder mainly so he could avoid the death penalty, and I’d imagine there are many, many law enforcement officials happy to see this case closed. (Since the Green River killings stopped years ago, there’s not even really an issue of “we got the wrong guy!” to worry about.) It’s also worth noting that there are at least 7 “official” Green River slayings that Ridgeway did not plead guilty to, and God knows how many other killings took place that didn’t make it onto law enforcement’s tally (Ridgeway pled to six such cases himself).
At any rate, if you’re interested in this case you could do worse than to read over CrimeLibrary.com‘s thorough run-down of the Green River Killer. The site has recently been redone, and it’s user-friendly and fascinating. Let’s just hope they’re able to add an epilogue to this story that will stand the test of time.