Gary Leon Ridgway: Serial Killer

He consistently fought for his life against the courts, giving confessions in an attempt to receive less of a penalty, or at least delay his death. He confessed to 8 killings in Washington that had taken place in 1974(“Bundy Details…”), and indicated that he had killed anywhere from 40 to 50 women(Tilstone). Although the actual number of his victims is unknown, it is believed that Ted Bundy could have killed up to 100 women, 36 of which he admitted to(Biography.com). In the book Serial Murder, by Ronald M. Holmes, it is stated that Ted was questioned about whether he had killed the 36 women, to which he replied “Add one digit to that and you’ll have it.” This could mean a number of things, like which digit do we have to add, and where? Did he murder 136 women? 361? We might not ever find out. His last minute confessions would help to close up to 23 pending cases of women that were either missing or had been found dead(Lamar). Of all of the open cases, there were three major investigators surrounding the killings of Ted Bundy. Bob Keppel of the King County Police Department in Seattle, Jerry Thompson of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, and Michael Fisher of the Glenwood Springs District Attorney’s Office in Colorado. Fisher and Thompson noticed similarities in the disappearances and murders that they both had in their areas, and connected them to the same suspect(Holmes). After all of his arrests and all of the evidence piling up against him, Ted Bundy was sure to lose the many cases against

Arthur Shawcross is a man that committed his life to killing people. He was born on June 6, 1945 in Kittery, Maine. “Serial killer Arthur Shawcross was born on June 6, 1945, and died on November 10, 2008 while serving a life sentence for the murder of 11 women” (Arthur Shawcross 2015). Arthur is what is called a serial killer/murder. The term “serial murder” from our class notes means, “The killing of several victims in three or more separate incidents over time (separated by weeks or more)” (Miyuki 2017: Chapter 9, 27). Soon after Arthur was born, his family moved to Watertown, New York. Shawcross claims when he was a child, he was abused by his mother and the relationship he had with his father was not much better. Also, he claimed that this

way had glasses and a mustache and for the most part he looked normal. His nickname was The Green River Killer because some of the bodies of his killing were fished out of the Green River in King County, Washington. The killings took place from the 1982 to 2001 (Newton, 2000, p.223). It is known that Ridgway had sexual intercourse with the prostitutes before he killed them. After a while, he would also have sex with them after they were dead. Another interesting fact is that sometimes, after Ridgway had sex with the already dead victims, he would put rocks in their vaginas (Philbin, 2011, p.199). Ridgway may have easily killed up to 90 women, but it will never be known because in videos, he says that he is not completely sure exactly how many

Crime occurs every day, all over the world. Most crime is unreported or is unknown to the vast majority of the populations. Over time, crime has grown to become a normal part of society and typically people are not surprised to hear that a crime has been committed. Most crimes are dealt with and forgotten, however a few crimes grab the media’s attention and are highly publicized, ultimately giving the criminal their 15 minutes of infamy. Ted Bundy was one of these criminals. Bundy was a law student in Utah and during the 1970’s, he assaulted, raped and murdered at least 30 known women with some criminologists suspecting as high as nearly 100 victims. The tactics he used along with the extent of his killings is how Bundy acquired his long lasting infamy and notoriety as one of America’s top 10 most wanted during his time. Our true focus here is explaining why these murders occurred; truly understanding the motivation behind Bundy’s actions and finding the roots of causation which could lead a person to commit such serious crimes.

Gary Ridgway was a truck painter and he had a special place where he would go and dump his victims; in and around the green river. The first body was discovered in the green river by passing pedestrians in spring of 1982 it was the body of young 16 year old Wendy Lee Coffield and she was strangled to death. (Seattle times 2003) It seems that the green river killer didn’t care what age a girl was he was cynical enough to have sex with her and kill her. Age was defiantly not a factor; he viewed women as objects

Theodore Bundy was an infamous American serial killer who preyed upon numerous young women during the 1970s and possibly earlier. He was associated with at least 30 counts of homicide and suspected of an estimated one hundred or more. Beyond homicide, he also made it apparent that he was capable of other sinister crimes such as rape, kidnapping, and necrophilia. His most frequent method of killing was an attack with a blunt weapon to the head. However, he did not merely kill his victims; evidence concludes that each were also sexually assaulted and sodomized. It is reported that he even revisited his crime scenes to further engage in sexual acts with the decomposing corpses. Moreover, at least 12 of his victims had been decapitated .

His first murder is believed to have occurred in 1974, when a young woman was kidnapped from her basement apartment in Seattle. The only evidence that remained was a few blood stains (Salem Press, 2008). Upsurges in abductions of young women, in their college years, around the King County area in Washington followed suit. As time progressed, skeletonized remains of those missing women were later discovered amongst the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. After kidnapping his victims, Bundy would often rendered them unconscious, take them to a remote location where he would then strangle and assault them (Salem Press, 2008).

Trauma can be defined as an event or experience that hinders an individual’s ability to cope (Covington, 2008). These experiences have the power to alter biology and brain function, especially earlier on in life. Trauma can change an individual’s world-view, impacting their sense of self. This can lead to difficulties with self-regulation and higher incidences of impulsive behavior (Markoff et al., 2005). Often, individuals who have endured traumatic incidences turn to self-medication as a form of coping (De Bellis, 2002).

The serial killer I chose to do my report on was Dennis Rader. Rader was born on March 9, 1945 in Pittsburg, Kansas and as of today he is still alive. Rader was the oldest of four sons. When Dennis was a child he hung stray cats. He grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Rader served our country by joining the U.S Air Force which he served from the mid to late 1960’s. He got married to Paula in 1971 and he work for a company that sold camping gear but he only worked there for a few years. He worked for ADT services in 1974.

Ted Bundys murders took place in the years of 1966-1978. His first victim went by the name of Lonnie Trumball. She was killed in Seattle on June 23, 1966. He began a killing spree around the year 1972. Bundy said he first murder was like a “horrible dream.” Bundys last known victim went by the name Ann Leach. She was believed to be killed on February 9, 1978 in Salt Lake City, Florida. Some people believe that his first victim may have been an eight year old girl from Tacoma. If that was true he would have been fourteen at the age of his first murder, but that statement was not proven true. The majority of his victims were young women who looked like a girl that had ended a long-term relationship with him. Bundy said that when he committed these horrific murders, it felt like being possessed by something awful and alien. Ted Bundy blamed nothing but himself and pornography for his murders.

Dennis Rader murdered 10 people over a 17-year period from 1974 to 1991 in the Wichita, Kansas area (Hickey, 2016). He was called BTK for blind, torture, and kill. He lived a pretty normal life by serving four years in the military. Then he worked for ADT Security Services giving him the knowledge to disarm home alarm systems. He targeted mostly women who he stalked, and often waited for them in their own homes. He referred to the people he killed as projects and bragged about keeping trophies such as rings and lingerie (Tresniowski & Comander, 2005). He also used a squeeze ball in order to strengthen his hand muscles so he could strangle his victims more easily. He kept some of his victims alive longer so he could continue to torment them. He even planned an 11th murder however, he was captured before he could carry it out.

Gary Ridgway grew up like any other ordinary suburban kid. He had a problem of wetting the bed which his mother would make fun of him and embarrass him in front of family and friends. As a young teen, he was always getting into trouble such as stabbing a six year-old boy in the ribs when he was a young teen. In high school Gary continued to go down hill and get bad grades. Gary graduated high school and joined the Navy. While he was in Vietnam, he discovered prostitutes and ended up getting sexually transmitted diseases. Soon after being home from Vietnam, Gary was killing and raping prostitutes on the streets of Seattle, Washington. Gary would go on to murder about 71 young women who he targeted because they were either prostitutes or runaways.

Many people wonder it takes to make a serial killer. Is there something inherently defective in that person that means that they have the ability to commit murder without remorse or somehow enjoy the suffering or others, or doses childhood abuse and other mistreatment mean that someone will grow up to commit these atrocities? Unfortunately, the conflicting information about Bundy's childhood does little to help answer these questions. On the surface, Bundy's childhood does not appear to feature the level of child abuse or neglect that one normally associates with a serial killer. He was born to a single mother in 1946, a time in which there was a tremendous social stigma attached to being born out of wedlock. However, Bundy did not experience that stigma, as his grandparents raised him as their son. Bundy's own accounts of his childhood vary tremendously. At times, he seems to indicate that he was raised in a stable and loving home, but at other times he

Ted Bundy is known to be the worst serial killer in U.S. History. In the 1970's, Ted raped and murdered women in at least five different states. Bundy eventually confessed to thirty murders, although the actual total remains unknown. Theodore Robert Bundy was born on November 24th, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont to Eleanor Louise Cowell, a 22 year old single woman. Ted's mom never told him much about his father other than that he was in the armed forces and that they never were really together. Bundy had a difficult childhood and was pretty much an wanted by his mother. After being left in foster care for two months, Eleanor decided to have her parents raise Ted and make him and everyone believe that they were his adopted parents and

Described as “THE execution” (Lyons & Trei, 1989, p. Ia) serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy was put to death by the State of Florida at 7.16 A.M. January 24, 1989. During his life he had been convicted of the 1978 rape and murder of a 12 year old, Kimberly Leach in Lack City; and the death of Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, sorority sisters at Florida State University. Just two days before his execution Bundy also admitted to killing a number of other females of various ages in Washington, Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Florida although he was never tried or convicted for those (Rule, 1989, p. 479-480). In total it is estimated that he killed between 25 and 30 women (Rule, 1989).