Seattle's Green River Killer to plead guilty to 48 murders (1 Viewer)

[AllanN]

I have never heard about this until now, being only 5 years old and living in PA when it all got started. Its good to hear that this person has been brought to justice, that the missing bodies are being found and there loved ones can have more closure. Also the more of these individuals we capture and can study the easier ti will be for our law enforcement agencies to capture the next criminal in a timely manner. As far as what I think should happen to Gary Ridgway, i'll keep that to myself as to not make this thread to religious/political.

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

Also the more of these individuals we capture and can study the easier ti will be for our law enforcement agencies to capture the next criminal in a timely manner.

Part of the plea agreement is that he will answer all questions between now and the sentencing, which can be up to 6 months away. As Brian pointed out, however, he breaks the mold of the typical serial killer, so I'm not sure if that will help us catch more bad guys in the future, or teach us that our models are useless. Either way, this guy has been a suspect for a long, long time, but has continued to prolifically even while under police scrutiny.

So really, I don't know what we can really learn from this guy. Even if it helps us develop better psycological profiles to add suspects, it also proves that a suspect can continue to commit crime since we don't arrest based on psychological profiles alone (and it's a good thing, because Ridgeway would not have been the one we arrested based on the profiles alone).

 

[Brian W.]

I wish I could have seen the live coverage, but they weren't showing it in Califorhnia. But I was surprised to hear he'd killed most of the victims in his house... before he was married, I presume. He said he killed some in his house, some in his truck, and a few in the woods.

The reason? He said he hated prostitutes and wanted to kill women he thought were prostitutes because he didn't want to pay them for sex. He said it had been his goal to kill as many prostitutes as possible, and he thought he would never get caught because people wouldn't notice a prostitute was missing right away, or sometimes not at all.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

I knew about the Green River killer even though I lived in Sweden, but that was just because I liked the band Green River

ah yes, the roots of pearl jam

if i were in his position (scary to even think about) i would rather have the death penalty than spend the rest of my life in prison. i dont know, i'm not sure this guy is a real rational thinker anyway. i'm glad this guy isnt on the streets, so to speak, anymore.

CJ

 

[LarryDavenport]

I'm as much for revenge as anybody, but the life expectancy for someone like Ridgeway is higher on death row than in general population. He would probably be on death row for 15-20 years while appealing his case (all 48 of them) where as, since these weren't considered sex crimes, he could be put in general population, and someone might snuff him on the inside.

On top of that, when Ridgeway was caught two years ago, it was in the news that if we tried him for all 50+ murders, and the State asked for the death penalty, and we won, Ridgeway's appeals could have bankrupted the state. It's already been one of the most expensive prosecutions in history (at least in this state).

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Recall my favorite line from Casablanca:
"We haven't decided whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape."

 

[LarryDavenport]

The local Seattle news reported that Ridgeway confessed to 48 murders commited in King County. However he is the suspect in over 90 murders nationwide, as far away as Florida, so he could get the death penalty yet.

 

[Scott Barnhart]

For those of you who are interested, there is streaming video of Ridgway's guilty plea, along with all of the other statements here:

http://www.metrokc.gov/ctv/

PDF's of the court documents are here:

http://www.metrokc.gov/kcsc/ridgway.htm