Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - "The Green River Killer" - Gary Ridgway

Episode Date: September 4, 2017

Struggling with a low IQ, Gary Ridgway always wanted to be the best at just one thing. That one thing turned out to be serial murder. The most prolific American serial killer, Ridgway claims to have killed almost eighty women. Greg and Vanessa discuss the formative events and possible Oedipal complex behind the Green River Killer.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Earning the title of Most Prolific is usually something to be celebrated. In 2016, Michael Phelps solidified his spot as the most prolific Olympic athlete with 23 gold medals. Incredible. I can't say it enough. It's a dream. You know, I thought about this stuff growing up as a kid. As of the 2017 Academy Awards,

Merrill Streep beat her own record as the most prolific actor with 20 Oscar nominations. I really understand I'll never be up here again. I really want to thank all my colleagues, all my friends. And by the end of his life in 1973, Pablo Picasso would become the most prolific painter in history with about 13,500 paintings. hundred paintings.

The appetite amongst both collectors and museums to buy a work of this type has never been higher. Gary Ridgeway, on the other hand, prolific, yet certainly not one to be lauded or admired. Gary Ridgeway is an evil creature whom I would condemn to many, many long years of anguish and despair. I can only hope that someday someone gets the opportunity to choke you unconscious, 48 times. So you can live through the horror that you put our daughters, our sisters, our mothers through. Ridgeway had the same job for 30 years, painting trucks, and some co-workers knew he had been investigated in the 1980s in the serial killings. During his 16-year stint in the 1980s and 90s, Gary Ridgeway murdered more people.

than any serial killer in the history of the United States. The vicious psychopath may celebrate himself as the most prolific serial killer in the history of the United States, but to the rest of us, he will be detested as the evil murderer, rapist, necrophiliac. I hate your guts, Gary Ridgeway, and your day is coming soon. You are a waste of space, and your day is coming soon. That's all, Your Honor, and I thank you for allowing me to speak for the whole Marrero family after 29 years of pain. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson, and welcome to serial killers, a podcast diving into the minds and motives of some of the most infamous and notorious murderers. This is part one in our series covering the serial killer Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer.

If you want to listen to any episodes of serial killers, you can find them all in your favorite podcast directory. Don't forget to subscribe. You can also listen on our website, parkast.com, spelled p-a-r-r-c-a-s-t-t-com. A new episode comes out every Monday. Visit our Facebook page, Parcast, to join the conversation. Gary Ridgway was a serial killer, active in Washington State from the rather recent years of 1982 to 1998. In that extensive period of time, Ridgeway strangled 49 women to death. Well, it confirmed 49. that is. He was convicted for the murder of 49 women, but he actually confessed to killing 71,

and many believe he killed over 90. All of Ridgeway's victims were female sex workers and runaways. Most of them were teenagers. I wanted to kill as many women I thought were prostitutes as I possibly could. Is that true? Yes. In 1982, after the first five young women were found dead in the Green River, The Seattle communities began fearing this mysterious Green River killer. And as dozens of women continued disappearing for 16 years, Ridgeway maintained a rather consistent M.O.,

or in other words, his characteristic patterns and habits of killing. He targeted vulnerable young women, primarily sex workers, who you would have sex with and then strangle to death. Then he dumped their bodies into the nearby woods and rivers, being sure to remember these locations. In fact, he'd often return to admire his work and sometimes even rape their dead bodies. To help us dissect Ridgeway's deeply complex background in psyche,

I'd like to welcome back my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, Vanessa. Hi, Greg. She's our resident serial killer expert. Though she isn't a psychologist or a psychiatrist, she's done much research on the trends and motivations of serial killers. She'll be providing us with in-depth, insights into Ridgeway's explicit confessions, as well as the subtext beneath his actions.

Thanks, Greg. In taking a look at this man as a whole, we will see that Ridgeway is a character of vast contradiction. He was a weak and timid son, easily manipulated by his mother. Yet he was simultaneously an obsessive control freak who liked to dominate women. He's considered mentally slow with a low IQ, yet he managed to outsmart dozens of women and police. He was a devout Christian, who used sex workers rather frequently, while also passionately despising them. And though he was an ordinary and congenial neighbor by day, he was a heartless, cold-blooded murderer by night. Considering Ridgway has such a complex life story,

let's begin our examination starting with his childhood. As we've discussed previously, serial killers' psychological disturbance most often begins at a very young age. Ridgeway was born in 1949, the second of three sons. At 11 years old, his family moved to a quaint middle-class suburb in King County, Washington, about 15 miles outside of Seattle. His parents' house was very close to the Pacific Highway South, a street notorious for prostitution.

This would also be the area where police would later find most of Bridgeways victims. Vanessa, is it unusual for serial killers to murder so close to their childhood homes? Well, no, it's actually very common. Though some of the most famous serial killers like Ted Bundy and Paul John Nguyen, Knowles were transient murderers who spanned the country, most serial killers stay in clearly defined areas of operation that they know very well. The fact that Ridgeway's murders took place so close to home actually does not surprise me. Well, wouldn't the killer worry that an unchanging location only increases his likelihood of being caught? Surely investigators could more easily track him down.

While that may be true, the pros of a familiar comfort zone outweigh the cons that you stated. Typically, serial killers prefer an area that they are in. intimately acquainted with. That way they can more easily follow, kill, and dispose of their victims. Think of it this way. If you're going to get away with many high-profile crimes, you better be very confident of your surroundings. And since Ridgeway primarily targeted sex workers, perhaps he developed his hatred toward them from an early age, as he saw them around his community. That is definitely possible. But first, it's important to note that no past could ever justify Ridgeway's horrific crimes. Rather, a deeper look into his childhood could

simply shed light on Ridgeway's distorted perspective and motivations. With that, Ridgeway's upbringing was certainly not a happy one. No, it wasn't. Though some of the neighbors of the Ridgeway family have described them as appearing amiable and normal, we'll see that they were very different behind closed doors. Given Ridgeway's future violence directed solely towards women, I find his early relationship with his mother especially important. Ridgeway's mother, Mary, was, well, let's say, very,

pleasant? As the dominating head of the household, Mary endlessly screamed at her boys and enacted unusually militant rules, such as forbidding after-school snacks. She constantly ridiculed and embarrassed Ridgeway, leaving him with a fiery rage that he continued to speak of 40 years later. But Ridgeway and his brothers weren't the only ones to receive her wrath. Mary frequently yelled at Ridgeway's father, Thomas, a very timid man who supposedly never stood up to his wife. At one family dinner, when Mary was especially furious, she smashed a plate over Thomas's head. Obviously shocking Thomas and his three kids, yet Ridgeway's father did not even respond. He just got up and silently left the table.

This piece perfectly fits into the puzzle of Ridgeway's future MO. Firstly, Ridgeway's violent aggression seems to be the polar opposite of his father's passivity. His father quietly walked away from the table, so rather than fighting back, Thomas submissively allowed his wife to abuse him. It's likely that Ridgeway so deeply hated his father's powerlessness and weakness that he subconsciously gravitated to the opposite extreme, violently abusing women himself. And could Ridgeway's desire for power over women also stem from his mother's cruelty?

Definitely. A desire for control and power is a very common trait among most serial killers. And since Ridgeway was raised by a hyper-controlling mother, it makes sense that he became vengeful and, desperate for any sense of control in his own life. And even deep into Ridgeway's adulthood, Mary would micromanage Ridgeways and his wife's finances and continue buying Ridgeway's clothes. So clearly, Ridgeway always felt powerless

against the most important woman in his life. And after tolerating much verbal abuse and controlling manipulation from his mother, he developed a festering hatred that he eventually directed toward an entire gender. Though disturbing, there is hardly a greater demonstration of power, than violently taking a vulnerable person's life. So are you saying that Ridgeway, in a sense,

was using the murder of dozens of women to, well, to take vengeance on his own mother? Well, whether conscious or subconscious, that seems likely to me. Perhaps he used murder as a sort of release for his deep-rooted rage toward his mother. This redirected revenge is actually a studied phenomenon among serial killers.

It's known as displaced matricide. Some serial killers, including Ridgeway, channel their anger originating from their mother, toward all females in general. This concept of displaced matricide usually stems from abuse, and it also oftentimes corresponds with incestuous sexual feelings about one's mother. This makes sense, then, because his mother's abuse

did not end with verbal domination, but it actually breached into sexual abuse as well. This disturbing aspect of this mother-son relationship actually all began with Ridgeway's frequent bedwetting. Until Ridgeway was about 13 years old, he was a chronic bedwetter. bedwetter. Which, by the way, is very common among serial killers. In fact, over 57% of serial killers were persistent bedwetters throughout their childhood. Well, in Ridgway's case, his bedwetting definitely created more problems in his childhood. His mother would not only embarrassingly chide him

in front of his brothers, but she'd also force him into a cold bath. And as Ridgway sat in the bath, his mother was the one to wash him. She would scrub his whole body, especially focusing on his quote dirtiest parts, his genitals. To make matters worse, Ridgeway's mother would hand wash Ridgeway's genitals while she herself was barely clothed. Other times, she disturbed her young son with sexual stories. She frequently described her job as a saleswoman at a men's department store as she fitted customers into suits. She would tell young Ridgeway the gruesome details of how the customers became turned on when she fitted them. Mary seemed to gain. personal pleasure from these stories, and she bragged to Ridgeway about her ability to arouse men.

She would even describe to Ridgeway what the customer's genitals smelled like. That abuse surely took a toll on Ridgeway's development. So much so that in as early as fourth grade, Ridgeway thought about the following. I thought about hurting her, so she shut up and leave me alone. How did you think about hurting your mom? killing her. And how would you do that? With my hands or, I didn't have no guns or anything or so I didn't.

It hasn't been hands or maybe use a knife. What would you do with the knife? I'd probably stab her with it. She was the big problem in my head. Ridgeway claimed that killing his mother would finally allow him to release his front of her. frustration over never satisfying her. But it didn't end there. He didn't dream only of killing her.

He also desired to torture her, to scar her for life, claiming that he thought about mutilating her, cutting her throat with a knife, burning down the house with her inside. Despite these disturbing fantasies, Richway would never actually harm his mother, or even stand up to her. He did, however, develop another perverted fantasy about her.

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murdering his mother. Yet murder wasn't the only fantasy he had about his mom. No, it wasn't. He soon developed an Oedipus complex. Ridgeway wanted to have sex with his mother. He has stated that at age 14, he grew an increasing attraction to her. She was always in two pieces, and she'd come off work. She'd go in the backyard, so he was inviting to fantasize with her because she was there, sunbathing and tan. And it was something to really intrigue me. It's all women like this. They're different and it roused me to,

I get a hard on sometimes. And it was the only time I had an opposite sex. in class of everybody's clothes and stuff like that. This was a woman that was sometimes laying down with no bra on them. I mean you couldn't see anything but bear's skin there was a turn on the way

and I enjoyed looking out of the window at her when she wasn't watching. There's a fantasy of wanting to have sex touch her, feel of body have her show me how to have sex because your mother's teaching a lot of things, you know. It's just I loved the part of her being a sex object,

but I didn't like the part of her being the mother and working with me is trying to help me in reading. And I like the sex part better than I liked the mother that was always trying to hurt. Be little me because I wasn't, wasn't learning. Ridgway further stated that he knew it was, quote, not right having sex with your mother, end quote. But nevertheless,

he couldn't stop this fantasy. As we've heard, there existed this paradoxical mixture of lust and rage toward the women who abused him. Vanessa, I'm wondering how Ridgway's perverted sexual desire ties into the abuse he faced. Well, in order to analyze that, we should

first understand Sigmund Freud's theories about Oedipus complexes. Well, being attracted to your mother, right? Well, in short, yes, though it's a highly debated psychoanalytic concept. It does seem to apply very well to this situation. The name originates from the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, in which the protagonist kills his father and marries a woman who is unknowingly his mother. However, the famous psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud,

first used the term Oedipus complex to refer to boys' natural and normal development as they are attracted to their mothers and view their fathers as rivals. Natural and normal development, as in this attractional, happens for all boys? Well, yes, according to Freud. And for this reason, it is one of the most controversial psychological theories. But remember, these stages of psychosexual development are not all necessarily conscious. Some may lie deep beneath the surface. I understand. So not every boy consciously fantasizes about his mother. Perhaps the instinctive attraction and suppression of that attraction could maybe even happen simultaneously. Exactly. Much of our development happens without

us even realizing it. It does, however, still affect our personalities and future desires. Let's take a deeper look at Freud's theory. According to Freud's psychosexual stages of personality development, when a boy begins to associate feelings of pleasure with his penis, he develops a sexual desire towards his mother. As a result, he perceives his father as a rival, who is in the way of him having sex with his mother. So how does this attraction end? When is it suppressed? According to Freud, the boy must identify with his father in order to resolve this conflict. The boy's attraction ends when he sees his father as a respected, intimidating superior. He realizes his father is an unbeatable rival.

In other words, the boy accepts that his mother will only have sex with his father. The boy sees that his mother is sexually unattainable. The boy then suppresses his instinctive attraction toward his mother. That is how Freud, at least, believes a normal and healthy boy develops. Which clearly did not happen for Ridgeway. Right. And in applying Freud's theory to Ridgeway's abusive childhood, Ridgeway's conscious sexual fantasies about his mother actually make more sense. Firstly, we've already discussed how Ridgeway did not respect his father as a superior.

Rather, his father was very weak and timid. And secondly, Ridgeway, understandably, would not have perceived his mother as sexually unattainable. She not only described her extramarital sexual desires to Ridgeway in detail, but she also engaged in sexual acts with him. him. Thus, Ridgeway may never have gone through the normal phase of suppressing his instinctive attraction to his mother. Rather, the sexualized attention she gave Ridgeway may have even heightened his inherent desire for her. Definitely. And even if not everyone agrees with Freud's theories, it's rather clear that Ridgeway's mother severely damaged your son's psychological and sexual

development. Absolutely. And we've already discussed how Ridgeway's timid father Thomas wasn't much of a role model either. True. And Thomas's negative influence goes, even beyond his lack of power and respect in their household, Ridgway's father was actually the one to introduce Ridgway to the concept of necrophilia, having sex with dead bodies. Ridgway's father worked in a mortuary, and he oftentimes came home to tell young Ridgway stories of a co-worker who engaged in necrophilia. Though Thomas didn't necessarily glorify necophilia, the fact that he'd even explain and personalize this act to his young, developing son is rather unhealthy. And lo and behold, necrophilia would become a focus of much of Ridgeway's

teenage sexual fantasies. I love the idea of having sex with someone who was dead because you wouldn't get caught. No feelings. She wouldn't feel it. Clearly, his father's graphic stories were not the sole cause of Ridgeway's disturbing fantasies, but they certainly did not help the situation either. We'll take a closer look at Ridgway's necrophilia and serial murders next episode. But first, let's continue dissecting his childhood. Right, so Ridgeway was clearly a disturbed teenager, but this wasn't how he was perceived at school. That's right. His classmates actually described him as congenial, well-liked. And this is a bit unusual. Serial killers as adults are often masters of being cordial and good neighbors. However, when most serial killers

were children. They were quiet and lonely. They usually displayed antisocial behavior, lacked the ability to create a lasting positive impression, and were often bullied. Even if he was generally liked by his classmates, Ridgway did struggle with other problems in school. With dyslexia and the low IQ of 82, Ridgway was always a slow learner and a poor reader. An IQ of 82 is not quite low enough to signify mental disability, but it is below the average intelligence range from 90 to 109. Though movies and urban legend may mythicize serial killers as geniuses with high IQs, the truth is that most serial killers fall in the average range of intelligence. Only a few standouts like Ted Bundy have exceptionally high IQs. In fact, according to a

2016 Radford University study, the mean IQ of serial killers is 94.5. Still, given that Ridgeway avoided detection for such an extensive period of time, I have a I'm a bit surprised that his intelligence level falls below even the average of serial killers. After all, it took clever manipulation and careful planning to not only enact the most serial murders in American history, but also to evade the police for so long. True. However, his lack of academic intelligence did contribute to his general anger, and it possibly fueled his future rage. Even as his 64-year-old in 2013, Ridgway vented about his low IQ. Here I am, Gary Ridgeway. the guy who everybody thought was slow since elementary school,

somebody who couldn't hold a candle to Ted Bundy. But here I am, and I'm best at something. Clearly, Ridgeway's poor performance in school negatively affected his lifelong self-esteem. It almost seems as if a driving factor of his murders was to prove himself capable and intelligent to finally impress people with his accomplishments. I agree. As a struggling student, he was,

was held back twice and his mom frequently threatened to place him in a state institution for mentally challenged people. This only further embarrassed and enraged Ridgeway, factoring into his fantasies of killing his mother. The dad wasn't around that much. He was working all the time when she was on one of us at control and she was constantly trying to get me to do better in school and I just couldn't do better. I wanted to have her stop and the only way was to kill her to her group. Yet, Ridgway's disturbance soon went far beyond these murderous fantasies in his mind. Ridgeway became physically violent.

In his early teenage years, Ridgeway experimented with arson and other forms of violence. That's what I took my aggression on. I couldn't take it on my mom. I had to take it on my animals and... How many animals did you kill? Oh, I killed a lot of birds, but one cat. One cat suffocated in his chest, shot babies at dogs to hurt him and threw a lot of rocks at my brother about that time.

I think I was getting out of that, though. Unfortunately, those cruel acts are very common amongst serial killers. Lighting fires and torturing animals oftentimes allow them to release their violent urges before they graduate to harming and murdering humans. animal abuse would be at the top of my list for warning signs that a child may become a violent adult. Well, in Ridgway's case, extreme aggression towards humans would begin much sooner than adulthood. Ridgway has admitted to stalking girls in as early as elementary school, and when he was aroused by girls at his junior high school,

Ridgeway would secretly follow them home, noting where they lived. Foreshadowing his future with sex workers, Ridgeway, as a teenager, paid a young girl to let him fondle her genitals. But things especially escalated when Ridgeway tried forcing sex on a young woman. He'd offered to drive the girl home, but once she was in the car, Ridgeway pulled off the road and fondled her. According to Ridgeway, he allowed her to leave the car without raping her. Yet perhaps Ridgeway's most violent childhood crime occurred when Ridgeway was only 16 years old. I stabbed a kid one time.

Stabbed a kid with a knife. Down by Chinook or a... I used to go to school. Boy was playing. I stabbed him inside. Didn't kill him. In another interview, Ridgeway explained his motivation

for this incident as he, quote, wanted to see how to stab somebody. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I was at the right place at the right time, I guess what you'd call it. End quote. The six-year-old victim spent several weeks in the hospital with a foot-long incision required to repair his stabbed liver.

and if Ridgeway's version of the story was not horrifying enough, the victim had his own account. Ridgeway said to the little boy, quote, you know, there's people around here that like to kill little boys like you, end quote. And after Ridgeway stabbed him, blood poured down the boy's side, and Ridgeway, quote, started laughing, and he had a smile on his face, and he stood there for a minute, and he had his knife in his hand, and he just wiped the knife off, both sides of the blade. so he wiped it once across my shoulder and twice across my shoulder on the other side of the blade, end quote. The boy was left bleeding out as Ridgeway, quote, started walking down that knoll and he was laughing, you know,

kind of putting his head in the air, you know, and laughing real loud, end quote. The six-year-old boy had never met Ridgeway before this incident, so he was unable to identify his attacker to the police. And the same goes for the woman Ridgeway tried to rape. So even despite his horrifying violence, Ridgeway would not be arrested or charged for any of his childhood crimes. Though never confirmed, Ridgeway also claims to have clear memories of drowning a boy in a specific lake. And according to public records of that year, two young boys did drown in that same lake.

But unfortunately, beyond these records, there is no proof that Ridgeway murdered those boys. Now that we have a clear understanding of Ridgeway's disturbed childhood and early descent into violence, let's now move forward to Ridgeway's young adulthood. At age 20, he finally graduated from high school. He enjoyed his first ever steady girlfriend, Claudia Craig, a local girl who was a year younger than Ridgeway. And about a year after graduation, Ridgeway and Claudia got married at the quaint Fort Lawton Chapel. For better or for worse, their marriage would not last long. Their relationship began suffering when Ridgeway joined the Navy.

But before we analyze Ridgeway's divorce, I'm curious about Ridgeway's intensive military training. Vanessa, do you think that his time with the Navy might have impacted his future MO? Actually, I don't. A 2016 study found that only 20% of American serial killers were ever in the military, and a 2012 study found that military training had no effect on making serial killers more malicious. Especially in the case of Ridgeway, he didn't use guns to kill his victims, nor was he especially effective in his murders. So it seems there was only really one negative consequence of his service in the military. service in the military. It was during his deployment in the Philippines that he first hired a sex

worker. Of course, he was still married to Claudia while he engaged in this extramarital sex, and all the while, Ridgway claimed he despised the sex workers and often use racial slurs to describe them. Apparently, his six-month separation from Claudia was too much for him to bear. Even though Ridgeway claimed to detest the sex workers, he continued using them. And matters only worsened when Ridgeway returned home to learn that Claudia had been cheating on him as well. She was still 19 and similarly had a difficult time with their separation. Nevertheless, Ridgway was enraged about her affair, and he filed for divorce. They'd been married for less than two years. Given Ridgeway's affinity towards extreme violence, I suppose Ridgeway simply

filing for divorce initially surprised me a bit. Their relationship actually never took an abusive turn, according to Ridgeway. In fact, Ridgeway has even stated that he still loves Claudia. Ridgeway's next marriage, however, did become violent. We'll return to our story in just a moment. You tell yourself, no one wants your college-era band teas, but on Deepop, people are searching for exactly what you've got. You once paid a small fortune for them at merch stands. Now, a teenager who calls them vintage will offer that same small fortune back.

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In 1973, Marcia became Ridgway's second wife, and their marriage, though peculiar, was not violent from the get-go. A couple of years into their marriage, Ridgeway and Marcia had a son together, named Matthew. Ridgeway was 26 years old at the time, and Matthew would be as one and only child. Soon, after Matthew's birth, Ridgway joined a Baptist and Pentecostal church, and he became fanatically religious. Ridgeway went door to door, trying to convert his neighbors. Ridgeway frequently cried during church services.

He compulsively read the Bible aloud at work, and he even watched television at night while clutching the Bible in his lap. Vanessa, what do you make of this religious turn for Richway? It seems rather contradictory for such a violent and sexually perverted man to become obsessed with religion. Though Ridgeway himself has not explained this contradictory phase of his life, I would guess that religion was his attempt to suppress his violent urges. With a new marriage and the birth of his son, perhaps Ridgway sought an

alternate path for himself. Rather than killing the sex workers he both used and despised, Ridgeway maybe tried to focus on religion to suppress his disturbed sexuality in this more healthy way. Another aspect of his religiosity that interests me is his obsessive tendencies. Ridgeway is a man of great extremes. He despises his mother so much that he wants to murder her. He desires sex so desperately that he rapes women. and becomes addicted to prostitution, and now in trying out religion, he becomes madly fanatical and obsessive,

hardly able to sit on the couch without his Bible. It seems as though Ridgeway is unable to act in moderation, to enact a level of normal self-control. This extreme behavior surely factored into his prolific murdering spree as he took on his new, for lack of a better word, hobby. And this religious phase did not last long. He became angry at his inability to convert his neighbors. his neighbors, as doors were frequently shut in his face. Soon, Ridgeway began coming home later

and later from his job as a painter. He never had any explanation for his wife, but he'd returned dirty and wet, and Marcia began suspecting something devious. This possibly marks the beginning of Ridgeway's killings. Though the identity and date of Ridgeway's first victim is unknown, Ridgway told detectives that it was very possible that he murdered women during this time when he lived with Marsha and was frequently out late at night. Ridgway described one date with the woman when, quote, "'Summan went wrong with the date, and I killed her.'" End quote. Ridgway was simultaneously sexually devious with his wife, Marsha.

She stated that Ridgway demanded sex several times every day and was especially interested in bondage and sex outdoors. They even had sex by the banks of the Green River. Where several of his victim's bodies would be found years later. Exactly. And on other occasions, Ridgeway would lead Marsha deep into the woods. Ridgeway would suddenly disappear from the path. He'd hide behind trees. Marsha would look around, not sure where Ridgeway went.

Then he'd creep up behind her. Ridgeway would jump out, scaring her. And according to Marsha, Ridgeway frequently practiced walking silently as he pretended to attack her. Ridgway clearly used these outings with his wife as training for his future murders. This is the earliest indication of him refining the details of his MO in the months leading up to his first kills. And Ridgeway also choked his wife on at least one occasion. One night as they returned home from a party, Marcia stepped out of their car and stumbled toward their house when, bam,

suddenly someone was grabbing her, choking her. She felt a police-type hold around her neck, a forearm and upper-arm, squirt. Weezed tightly, cutting off her airflow. Marcia fought back and panicked, not yet realizing the assailant was her own husband. But a moment later, Ridgeway let go and dashed to the other side of the car. Then he hopelessly tried to convince her someone else had done it. Not surprisingly, their relationship soon deteriorated after this. Causing more damage to their marriage, Marcia decided to have a gastric bypass surgery,

resulting in extreme weight loss. Ridgway worried that other men would now find her attractive, so he became increasingly jealous. Though he clearly had no problem cheating on his wives with many other women, Ridgeway could not bear the thought of his wife with anyone else. And so, seven years into their marriage, they finally got divorced. Ridgeway's religious years were far gone, and his rage was about to reach new heights. I don't believe in man, God, or the devil. I hate the whole damned human race, including my son.

To give you a sense of timing, Ridgway's marriage with Marcia ended in 1981, and its first known victim's body would be found around a year later, the summer of 82. And as Ridgeway inched closer and closer to murder, this marriage ended more aggressively than his first. Yes. Marsha received custody of their son Matthew, and Ridgway was forced to pay child support, $275 a month. A notoriously cheap man. Ridgway was so furious at this that, he actually claims he considered killing Marcia. However, he actually never followed through.

Vanessa, does it surprise you that Ridgeway never killed anyone close to him? Well, it doesn't. Though Ridgeway was clearly very violent and malicious towards women, he was also manipulative and smart about his crimes. If he'd actually killed his wife, he would have been more likely caught. Investigators usually treat the husbands of murdered women as prime suspects. Ridgeway thus knew that he would have to restrain himself, A rare occurrence for him if he wanted to remain under the radar.

His future victims would be strangers that investigators would have a hard time tying back to Ridgeway. That makes sense. Ridgeway had to create a normal seeming life, so his neighbors and peers wouldn't be suspicious. The following is from a reporter who interviewed Ridgeway's neighbors after his eventual arrest. Neighbors described the 52-year-old as ordinary. His arrest and search that included digging up his yard shocked the neighborhood south of Seattle. Ridgway had the same job for 30 years. After his divorce with Marcia, Ridgway did, however, become more engrossed in the local

prostitution scene. With an insatiable sex drive, he began soliciting sex workers rather frequently, while simultaneously developing an even greater hatred toward them. He felt the sex workers judged him as disdainful. Whether or not the sex workers actually judged him, it's likely that Ridgeway was simply projecting his own insecurities onto them. In other words, he might have been judging himself as disgusting for using sex workers, and so he transferred his self-hatred onto others around him.

And as he continued soliciting sex workers, he also tried dating again. He joined a Parents Without Partners Group, which would prove to be a fertile breeding ground for several short relationships. Ridgway's sexual demands persisted into these new flings. Even as he slept with several of these women concurrently, Ridgway constantly demanded sex from them. He preferred having intercourse outdoors and tying the women up. And as Ridgeway edged closer to the starting point of his killing spree,

he seemingly became less interested in long-term relationships and instead focused on as much sex as possible. That's right. He was even arrested but not charged for suspicion of soliciting an undercover deputy disguised as a sex worker. With several girlfriends and frequent use of sex workers, Ridgeway couldn't satisfy his sex drive. Vanessa, would you hypothesize that he had developed Well, some sort of sex addiction, right?

Well, yeah, it seems likely. We already know that Ridgeway has a very addictive and obsessive personality. A sex addiction, specifically, is characterized by compulsive thoughts and actions surrounding sex. Like with most addictions, the sex addict must increase the frequency and intensity of the behavior to achieve the same high, per se. And in Ridgeway's case, he likely became unsatisfied with simply having sex with sex workers, and in a desperate search for his next high, he resorted to violent sex with the sex. sex workers, and eventually...

Murder. Ridgeway's first confirmed victim was 16-year-old Wendy Lee Coffield. Wendy had been living with a foster family in Tacoma, Washington, where she worked as a street sex worker. On July 8, 1982, Wendy would leave her foster home to never be seen alive again. The plan was, I wanted to kill as many women I thought were prostitutes as I possibly could. Next week, we'll continue our examination of notorious serial killer, Gary Ridgeway. His prolific murder spree has only just begun. And so we'll study the motives and

methods of his gruesome crimes, including his obsession with necrophilia. And we'll learn of his twisted methods of avoiding detection for almost two decades. Not only did he deceive his community and the police, but he even tricked his own wife for 10 years of their marriage as he became the man known as the Green River Killer. Don't forget to subscribe to serial killers on iTunes, Stitcher or any other podcast directory or through our website, parkast.com. That's p-a-r-r-c-a-s-t-t-com. A new episode of serial killers comes out every Monday. Please let us know what you think and join the conversation on our Parcast Facebook page. You can tweet us at Parcast Network. That's P-A-R-C-A-S-T network.

As always, we thank you for listening. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler and developed by Ron Cud. It is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Ron Shapiro, with production assistance by Joel Stein and Maggie Admire. Serial Killers is written by Ryan Elkins and stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Our amazing voice actor is Mike Caposy. Want to hear something spooky.

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Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts,

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