Claiming to have murdered as many as 80 women, Gary Ridgway — known as the Green River Killer for the Seattle, Washington, location where many of his victims were discovered — was America’s deadliest convicted serial killer when, in 2003, he pleaded guilty to 48 counts of murder.
Over 20 years, Ridgway methodically raped and strangled scores of women, many of them prostitutes or runaways, dumping their bodies across a wide area of King County to confuse authorities. Investigators believe that, throughout his murderous spree, the seemingly mild-mannered Ridgway never spoke to anyone of his killings or kept trophies of the grisly crimes. All the while, he maintained his longtime job as a truck painter at the Kenworth Truck plant in Renton and married for the third time.
In July 1982, children found the strangled body of Wendy Caulfield, 16, floating in Seattle’s Green River. Over the following weeks four more bodies were discovered in or along its banks — all women, all strangled. On August 15, three more bodies were found and detective David Reichert was one of the first authorities to arrive at the scene. Marci Chapman, 31, was found in the shallow water alongside the naked body of 17-year-old Cynthia Hinds, and nearby in the undergrowth lay the body of Opal Mills, 16, blue trousers knotted around her neck, breasts exposed, bruises apparent on her arms and legs.
