http://apnews.myway.com/article/20031105/D7UKK06G0.html
Suspect Admits 48 Seattle-Area Killings
By GENE JOHNSON
SEATTLE (AP) - Gary Ridgway, the former truck painter long suspected of being the Green River Killer, admitted in court Wednesday to 48 murders. "I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight," he said in a confession read aloud by prosecutors.
"I wanted to kill as many women as I thought were prostitutes as I possibly could," Ridgway said in the statement.
Some relatives of victims wept quietly in the courtroom.
Ridgway, 54, struck a plea bargain that will spare him from execution and result in a sentence of life in prison without parole. The agreement signed June 13 would put more murders on his record than any other serial killer in U.S. history.
Since signing off on the deal, Ridgway has worked with investigators to recover still-missing remains of some victims in the case.
The deal would all but close one of the most baffling and chilling serial killer cases the nation has ever seen.
The Green River Killer's murderous frenzy began in 1982, targeting women in the Seattle area, mainly runaways and prostitutes. The first victims turned up in the Green River, giving the killer his name. Other bodies were found near ravines, airports and freeways.
The killing seemed to stop as suddenly as it started, with prosecutors believing the last victim had disappeared in 1984. But one of the killings Ridgway admitted to occurred in 1990 and another in 1998.
In court Wednesday, Ridgway was presented with the details of each slaying, one by one, and was asked to confirm them. After that, he was expected to plead guilty.
He said in his statement that he killed all the women in King County, mostly near his home or in his truck not far from where he picked them up.
"In most cases, when I killed these women, I did not know their names," Ridgway said in the statement. "Most of the time I killed them the first time I met them, and I do not have a good memory of their their faces."
He said he had several reasons for preying on prostitutes.
"I hate most prostitutes and I did not want to pay them for sex," he said. "I also picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught."
Ridgway, of the Seattle suburb of Auburn, was arrested in 2001 as he left his longtime job as a painter at a truck company. Prosecutors said advances in DNA technology had allowed them to match a saliva sample taken from Ridgway in 1987 with DNA samples taken from the bodies of three of the earliest victims.
In many cases, the killer had sex with his victim and then strangled her.
Ridgway had been a suspect as early as 1984, when Marie Malvar's boyfriend reported that he last saw her getting into a pickup truck identified as Ridgway's.
But Ridgway told police he didn't know Malvar, and investigators cleared him as a suspect. Later that year, Ridgway contacted the King County sheriff's Green River task force - ostensibly to offer information about the case - and passed a polygraph test.
Suspect Admits 48 Seattle-Area Killings
By GENE JOHNSON
SEATTLE (AP) - Gary Ridgway, the former truck painter long suspected of being the Green River Killer, admitted in court Wednesday to 48 murders. "I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight," he said in a confession read aloud by prosecutors.
"I wanted to kill as many women as I thought were prostitutes as I possibly could," Ridgway said in the statement.
Some relatives of victims wept quietly in the courtroom.
Ridgway, 54, struck a plea bargain that will spare him from execution and result in a sentence of life in prison without parole. The agreement signed June 13 would put more murders on his record than any other serial killer in U.S. history.
Since signing off on the deal, Ridgway has worked with investigators to recover still-missing remains of some victims in the case.
The deal would all but close one of the most baffling and chilling serial killer cases the nation has ever seen.
The Green River Killer's murderous frenzy began in 1982, targeting women in the Seattle area, mainly runaways and prostitutes. The first victims turned up in the Green River, giving the killer his name. Other bodies were found near ravines, airports and freeways.
The killing seemed to stop as suddenly as it started, with prosecutors believing the last victim had disappeared in 1984. But one of the killings Ridgway admitted to occurred in 1990 and another in 1998.
In court Wednesday, Ridgway was presented with the details of each slaying, one by one, and was asked to confirm them. After that, he was expected to plead guilty.
He said in his statement that he killed all the women in King County, mostly near his home or in his truck not far from where he picked them up.
"In most cases, when I killed these women, I did not know their names," Ridgway said in the statement. "Most of the time I killed them the first time I met them, and I do not have a good memory of their their faces."
He said he had several reasons for preying on prostitutes.
"I hate most prostitutes and I did not want to pay them for sex," he said. "I also picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught."
Ridgway, of the Seattle suburb of Auburn, was arrested in 2001 as he left his longtime job as a painter at a truck company. Prosecutors said advances in DNA technology had allowed them to match a saliva sample taken from Ridgway in 1987 with DNA samples taken from the bodies of three of the earliest victims.
In many cases, the killer had sex with his victim and then strangled her.
Ridgway had been a suspect as early as 1984, when Marie Malvar's boyfriend reported that he last saw her getting into a pickup truck identified as Ridgway's.
But Ridgway told police he didn't know Malvar, and investigators cleared him as a suspect. Later that year, Ridgway contacted the King County sheriff's Green River task force - ostensibly to offer information about the case - and passed a polygraph test.
