Gary Ridgway

Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders and later confessed to nearly twice that number. As part of his plea bargain, an additional conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49, making him the most prolific American serial killer in history according to confirmed murders. He murdered numerous women and girls in Washington State during the 1980s and 1990s. Most of his victims were alleged to be prostitutes and other women in vulnerable situations, including underage runaways. The press gave him his nickname after the first five victims were found in the Green River before his identity was known. He strangled the women, usually by hand but sometimes using ligatures. After strangling them, he would dump their bodies in forested and overgrown areas in King County, often returning to the dead bodies to have sexual intercourse with them.

Ridgway was born the second of three boys in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1949. His home life was somewhat troubled relatives have described his mother as domineering and have said that young Ridgway witnessed more than one violent argument between his parents. As a young child, Ridgway was tested with an IQ of 82, signifying below average intelligence. He did very poorly in school and his classmates described him as being quiet and largely forgettable. His teenage years were troubled he wet the bed up until the age of 14. When his mother found out about the incidents, she would have him march naked all the way into the bathroom. There, she would bathe him. This both aroused and embarrassed Ridgway, which caused him to have both sexual and violent fantasies about his mother. When he was 16, he stabbed a sixyearold boy, who survived the attack. He had led the boy into the woods and then stabbed him through the ribs into his liver. According to the victim and Ridgway himself, Ridgway walked

Source: Wikipedia