Gary Ridgway

Name: Gary Ridgway (The Green River killer)

Born: February 18, 1949 (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Died: Alive

Cause and Effect:
According to witnesses, his mother was a domineering woman and as a child he witnessed several violent fights between his parents. As a child, Gary Ridgway was tested and scored an 82 on the IQ test. This would place him at the very low end of average. Also, Ridgway grew up in a neighborhood that was considered deprived.

Living a normal life, he married three times and had several girl friends while seeking the company of prostitutes, whom he eventually began killing. Ridgway disposed of the bodies in remote woodsy areas. A few of the bodies started turning up along the Green River.

Before the Killings:
On August 18th, 1969, just shortly after graduating high school, Ridgway enlisted in the Navy. According to Navy doctors, he was diagnosed with gonorrhea, and later he told a girlfriend he especially did not like Filipino prostitutes because of his contact with them during his stint in the Navy.

Gary Ridgway married three times. After a courtship of outdoor and in-car sex, he married Claudia Kraig on August 15, 1970. Soon after the marriage, Ridgway left his bride alone as he set out on a 6 month Navy cruise. While away, she had an affair and he returned home to find her living with a female and a male roommate. Their divorce was finalized in January of 1972 and Ridgway stayed bitter about it.

After a year of living together, Gary married Marcia Winslow in December of 1973. In 1975, his son Matthew was born. They tended church and according to Marcia, he had become a fanatical over religion, but as time went on, the church going tapered off. On July 4. 1980, they separated and Marcia moved out.  On July 21st, Marcia filed for a divorce that included a restraining order and Gary countered with one of his own. Both restraining orders said they were afraid the other would become violent.  In May of 1981, the divorce was finalized and Marcia gained custody of their son Matthew.

Gary Ridgway had a few girlfriends after his second divorce. With his first girlfriend, he followed suit as his first two wives and had sex outdoors and in cars. Becoming too domineering in pushing for sex too much, his first girlfriend broke up with him.  His second girlfriend learned he had another girlfriend and broke things off with him. He was arrested for soliciting an undercover deputy posing as a prostitute and according to his present girlfriend she knew about that and said he considered prostitutes as "things" to be used. After she broke up with him, he swiftly went on to another girlfriend.

The Killings:
In 1983, County officers spotted Ridgway on February 23, with a prostitute by the name of Keli McGinness. In June, she turned up missing. Her body has never been found.

On May 4, 1983, Des Moines police spoke to Gary Ridgway about another missing prostitute, Marie Malvar. She was last seen in a truck that resembled Ridgway's. Then in Novemeber, a detective of the Gren River Task force interviewed him again about Malvar and he denied any knowledge of her. She is also listed on the list of Green River victims, but her body has never been found.

In 1984 and 1986, two prostitutes, Dawn White and Paige Miley, spoke to dethe Task Force and told detectives about Ridgways behavior in 1983. Miley said Ridgway had asked her about another prostitute, Kim Nelson, whose remains were discovered near Interstate 90 in 1986.

Gary Ridgway was interviewed several times in the mid-1980's and finally his status as a suspect was cleared after passing a polygraph test in 1984.  Later however, when detectives had a renewed interest in him, he had told them he had a fixation on prostitutes. He said he believed that prostitutes may have the same effect on him as alcohol did on an alcoholic. In 1987, detectives searched his home and found no evidence that was connected to the Green River Victims. They did obtain a saliva sample that they saved for 14 years.

In 1988, Ridgway married Judith Lynch. They bought a house and lived in it until 1997. During those years, Gary Ridgway was outgoing and talked to the neighbors a lot and took excellent care of his home. He became almost obsessed with gardening.

In 2001, a King County Sheriff called a meeting to re-examine the evidence of the Green River killings. Using the new technology of DNA, they found a connection between the victims and Gary Ridgway. They charged him with four counts  of aggravated murder in December of 2001. Rigway eventually pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first degree murder.


The Sentence:
Facing a possible death sentence, Ridgway began trying to work with the investigators and told them he had killed as many as 60 women. As part of a plea bargain to be spared the death penalty, he revealed where he had hidden the bodies of four women who were never found. In December of 2003, Gary Ridgway was sentenced to 48 life sentences with no possibility of parole.

In tapes of his confessions, Ridgway first admitted to killing 48 woman, of which 42 were on the detectives list of possible Green River Murders. Later, in another tape, he claimed to have killed 71 women. He also claimed (after his sentencing) to have had sex with all of his victims and later started burrying them to take control of his necrophiliac urges.

At the time of writing this, he is serving his sentence at the Washington State  Penitentiary. Gary Ridgeway has confessed to more confirmed murders than any other serial killer in United States history.

Total Kills:
Confirmed - 42
Confessed - 71
Possibly as many as - 90+

John Wayne Gacy

Name: John Wayne Gacy

Born: May 17, 1942 (Chicago Illinois)

Died: May 10, 1994

Cause and Effect:
John Wayne Gacy was often beaten by his father, whom he was named after. At the age of 11, John was knocked unconscious by a vicious swing and through out his teen years would have black outs.

John Wayne Gacy left school without graduating and traveled to Las Vegas in hopes of making his fortunes. Instead, he ended up working in a mortuary where he showed an unhealthy interest in the bodies.

Model Citizen:
In 1964, John married Marlyn Myers, whose father owned a string of Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises. Soon after, Gacy joined the family business and became a restaurant manager. Soon the couple had a child and John became very active in local charities and community groups around their new home in Waterloo, Iowa. By all accounts, John Wayne Gacy was the model citizen, but underneath that image was a monster waiting to be let out. That monster first showed its face in May of 1968 when Gacy was charged with raping Mark Miller, a young employee. John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to 10 years for sodomy and his wife divorced him.

Released from prison after only 18 months for good behavior, his mother helped him get back on his feet. His father died while he was in prison. John bought a new house in the Chicago Suburbs and in June of 1972 he got married again, this time to a divorcee, Carole Hoff, who had two daughters of her own. John, Carole and her daughters became very popular in the neighborhood as they would throw parties with Western or Hawaiian themes and became active in Democratic politics.

The Monster begins to show again:
As time went on, rumors began to spread about Gacy's conduct with teenage boys he would hire. By 1975, his marriage began to deteriorate as Carole started finding homosexual pornography around the house. John refused to apologize and even told her he preferred men over women. They divorced in 1976.

The Killings:
Little did anyone know, while John was married to Carole, he had been picking up strangers in Chicago's gay bars and after killing them, would bury the bodies under their house. Even the neighbors had made complaints about the horrible smells coming from their house. With his marriage over, John's lust for killing was in full force.

Gacy would either pick up strangers, or lure men from his work force back to his home where he would offer them alcohol and marijuana. He would then offer to show them a magic trick where he would have them put on a pair of handcuffs. His victims, now subdued, were at his mercy as he tortured them then strangled them to death as he had sex with them.

The Clown:
Gacy continued to lure men to his home and kill them, burying them under the house. Though his neighbors still continued to complain about the smell, they never suspected what was happening. John continued to throw parties and dressing up as "Pogo the Clown" to visit sick kids in hospitals. He became such a valued member of the Democratic Party that he even had his picture taken shaking hands with the First Lady Roslyn Carter.

His Mistake:
In February of 1978, Gacy abducted Jeffrey Rignall. He chloroformed him, raped him and tortured him, but rather than killing him, Gacy dropped him off in a park. When Rignall went to the police, they showed little interest and the young man managed to act alone as he tracked Gacy down and made an official complaint.

On October 16th, Gacy still had not been charged with a crime when he killed 15 year old Robert Piest. When the young man turned up missing, his parents found that he was going to meet John Gacy to see about a job. When the police questioned Gacy, he played ignorant, but the officer was not satisfied and checked his house. Finding suspicious evidence like handcuffs, pornography and drugs, along with the smell coming from the house, they confronted Gacy who eventually confessed to a single murder.

When the police went back and started digging, they were shocked to find not one body, but dozens buried underneath his house. In all, there were 28 victims buried under the house. Gacy's 5 most recent victims had been dumped in nearby rivers as he had run out of space under the house.

The Sentence:
Gacy tried to plea insanity, however the jury decided that any man who would dig graves ahead of time for his victims was not the act of a man taken by uncontrollable sudden urges. Finding the murders to be in premeditation, John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to death.

Gacy obtained a sort of celebrity status as his admirers were able to call a premium rate number and listen to his refute of the charges against him. He gave frequent interviews and showed his fans his paintings. Toward the end of his time on Death Row, Gacy began to claim that he had never killed at all, but was the victim of an elaborate conspiracy.

On May 10, 1994, John Wayne Gacy was put to death by lethal injection.

Total Kills:
Confirmed - 33

Jeffrey Dahmer

Name: Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer

Born: May 21, 1960 (Wisconsin)

Died: November 28, 1994

Cause and Effect:
There seems to be no true explanation as to why Dahmer turned to killing and cannibalism. Other than his parents arguing a lot, his home life was by all apparent reasons, normal. At a young age he simply began to become fascinated by dead animals. As a teen he began to ride around on his bike, looking for road kill to dismember.

The Killing:
During the summer of 1978, Dahmer's parents went through a divorce and as he was about to graduate, they both moved out of the house and left Jeffrey there alone. His response was to go out and pick up a hitch hiker, Stephen Hicks, take him home and have sex with him. When the Hicks tried to leave, Dahmer picked up a bar bell and hit him in the head then strangled him to death. Jeffrey then dismembered the corpse and buried it nearby.

Jeffrey had become an alcoholic and trying to stop it, his Father forced him to enlist in the Army in 1979 at the age of 18. His army life did not last however as he was discharged for habitual drunkenness. Jeffrey then moved in to his grandmother's basement. In 1982, Dahmer was arrested for indecent exposure and then again in 1986. The second time, he was ordered to counseling. However, the counseling did not help as the next year he went out and killed three people.

The first of those victims was Steven Tuomi, who he met in a gay bar. He murdered Tuomi in a hotel, put the body in a suitcase, then took it home. At home he had sex with the body then dismembered it. The next victim was James Doxtator, a 14 year old Native American boy. The third was a Mexican youth by the name of Richard Guerrero. Dahmer's grandmother could no longer stand his drunkenness nor the strong smells coming from his living quarters and evicted him.

In 1988, Jeffrey Dahmer moved into his own flat in Milwaukee. The next day after moving in, he lured a 13 year old Loation boy to his place and paid the boy to let him photograph him nude. Dahmer drugged the boy and fondled him, but did not harm him physically. The boy's parents turned Dahmer in and he was sentenced to one year in prison for sexual assault. While Dahmer was waiting for his sentencing date however, he killed Anthony Sears.

Final Killing Spree:
After 10 months in prison, Dahmer was released and he went on to kill some more. Between June of 1990 and July of 1991, Dahmer killed 12 more men. In the end he was killing nearly a victim per week and his treatment of them became stranger as he went. Dahmer would drill holes into his victims heads and pour acid into them. Jeffrey would place some body parts in his refrigerator and their skulls on an altar in his bedroom.

One of the more bizarre stories is the killing of Konerak Sinthasomphone, who was the brother of the Loation boy Dahmer had molested. After being drugged, Konerak was able to escape from Dahmer's home and ran outside where two young African American women found him and called the police. However, Dahmer was able to convince the police officers that the drugged and bleeding Konerak was his boyfriend and the officers released Konerak back into Dahmer's possession. Dahmer took Konerak home and murdered him. Dahmer went on to kill his last four victims inside of the next few weeks.

An End to the Killings:
On July 22, 1991, Tracy Edwards, and adult black man escaped Dahmer's apartment and waved down a police car. Taking the officers back to the apartment, they found a human head in the refrigerator. By August 22, Dahmer was charged with 15 counts of murder and in 1992 he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences.

Death of the Killer:
In prison, Jeffrey Dahmer refused to be placed in solitary confinement. In 1994, an inmate smashed Dahmer's skull with an iron bar and killed him.

Ted Bundy

Name: Theodore Robert Cowell - At the age of 5 years old, he took his step-father, John Bundy's name.

Born: November 1946 - (Vermont)

Died: January 24, 1989

Cause and Effect:
While in college, Bundy met Stephanie Brooks, who had long dark hair that was parted in the middle. As Bundy became obsessed with her, she lost interest in him and when she left for college, she broke it off with him. His obsession with Stephanie Brooks and his devastation at losing her would explain why his victims had long dark hair parted in the middle. This could also explain why his most violent spree was in a sorority house.

The Killing Spree:
On February 1974, in Seattle, Ted Bundy killed Lynda Healy, whom he had abducted from her basement flat. Over the next few months, Bundy went on to kill five more women. All with long dark hair, parted in the center. On July 14th, Ted Bundy killed two more women, Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. Bundy liked to place his arm in a cast and act innocent as he asked women to help him do something at his car.

When witnesses came forward, one of whom was a young woman who had declined to help him, police put out a description of him and calls began to come in. One of these calls was from Meg Landers who feared it was her boyfriend who had alarmed her with his sudden interest in violent sex and bondage. Her boyfriend was Ted Bundy. However, when the police investigated him, Ted being a young republican law student, seemed to harmless and the lead was dropped. Over the next few months, the bodies of Denise and Janice were found with a third unidentified woman. The following month, two more bodies were found.

Ted Bundy then moved to Utah where he abducted and killed three more women in the month of October. Then on November 8th, he tried to abduct Carol DaRonch from a shopping mall in Salt Lake City. Impersonating a police officer, Ted lured her to his car, but when she became suspicious of his car being a Volkswagen Beetle, she struggled then escaped. Later that night Bundy abducted and murdered 17 year old Debbie Kent.

The Arrest:
In the new year of 1975, Ted Bundy moved again, this time to Colorado. In the first 6 months he killed four more women. Just before the fourth body was found, a police officer stopped Bundy in Salt Lake City and finding a stocking mask and handcuffs, he arrested Ted Bundy. Carol DaRonch who had escaped him at the shopping mall was brought in and picked Bundy out of a police line-up. The evidence was enough to convict him of attempted kidnapping. As evidence came up to link Bundy to other murders, he was taken to Aspen Colorado and tried for the murder of Caryn Cambell.

The Escape:
Then during a court appearance, Ted Bundy escaped and spent 8 days hiding out in Aspen before being recaptured. Then Bundy managed to escape yet again as he cut a hole in the roof of his cell and crawled out through the ceiling, cutting another hole and dropping into a janitors room to simply stroll out of the jail unchallenged.

Bundy fled to Tallahassee, Florida and two weeks after his escape he killed again. Subtlety aside, Bundy simply broke into a college sorority house and brutally raped and murdered two young women and left another badly injured. The following month, Ted Bundy murdered his final victim; 12 year old Kimberly Leach.

The Final Capture:
Three days after killing Kimberly Leach, Ted Bundy was caught again and convicted of 1st degree murder. The overwhelming evidence against him was the matching of his teeth to the bite marks in his victims. In July of 1979, he was sentenced to death by the electric chair.

Celebrity Status:
Being a law student, Ted Bundy launched several appeals and began to gain some celebrity status. While he was in prison, he confessed to over thirty murders. Women began to propose marriage to him. One woman even succeeded in exchanging marriage vows with him when she appeared as a defense witness at an appeals hearing.

On January 24th, 1989, Theodore Robert Bundy was put to death. He was 42 years old.

Total Kills:
Confirmed - 20
Confessed - 30
Possibly as many as 100