“The Green River Killer”
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Born February 18, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Troubled home life.
Mother and Father would have violent fights all the time right in front of
him.
Mother was also abusive to him, and she also made him walk outside
naked in front of his brothers and made him stand in a tube of ice for long
periods of time.
Cruel to animals growing up.
 Ex: He locked a cat in the refrigerator until it died.
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Fought in Vietnam.
Returned home and got a job as truck painter for 30 years.
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Married 3 times.
A frequent customer of prostitutes.
Would kill young women hitch hikers and prostitutes.
Active in religion, specifically Christianity.
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As a teenager he drowned a boy but was never convicted of it. He latter
confessed to it when in prison.
He was arrested November 30, 2001.
He was convicted of 52 murders and sentenced to 48 consecutive life
sentences. He later confessed to other unsolved murders which totaled
to 90 women he has murdered.
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He would lure women into his house; he would
have sex with them and then kill them, usually
by strangulation. He would then take the bodies
to remote areas and leave them, and sometimes
he would leave the bodies along the Green River
in Washington. He mostly murdered prostitutes.
Finally, most shockingly he would sometimes
return and engage in sexual activity with the
dead corpses. He began murdering in 1982 and
was finally arrested in2001.
Finger prints and DNA taken from the crime
scenes were finally examined in 2001, which
linked him to many of the murders.
 He was know to be attracted to prostitutes.
 He named many places the dead bodies were
found, and led investigators to unfound bodies.
 He doesn’t have a distinct recent crime due to
the fact there were many, many murderers in a
20 year period, and his last killing before being
arrested is unkown.
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“I killed so many women, I cant keep straight
how many. “ – Gary Ridgway
This quote right here shows you how cold
blooded and down right evil this man is.
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I believe that Gary Ridgway falls under the Labeling Theory. I believe this
because I feel that he thought he was better and more important than the people
he killed. Even though he was a frequent customer of prostitutes, I think that he
felt that they were a detriment to society due to his believing in the Christian
faith. He was obviously a sex addict and I feel that after he engaged in sexual
activity with them he felt dirty and that he broke the Christian faith. To make it all
better he would get rid of them by murdering them. He would keep doing it over
and over because each time he did it he felt bad. Then within the realm of the
labeling theory I believe that he falls under primary deviance. I believe this
because he was engaging in activity with deviant people but he was never labeled
as a deviant with them. They are the ones doing it, and he felt that he wasn’t the
one committing the deviant acts until he after and then he had to kill them to
erase that memory and try to make good again. Overall this man was a major
deviant person in society, and he doesn’t deserve another chance. He had a
option, to commit the deviant acts with them, or not even do it. Instead of
turning his check to this type of life, he faced forward and went straight with it.
This man is a major deviant and detriment to society.
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I believe that Gary Ridgway should be detained for the
rest of his life. He took the lives of young women who
had their whole life ahead of them. Even if they were
committing deviant acts then, they had their whole
life to change. I believe this man is very evil and
should never be aloud back into society. He murdered
90 women, and probably more. If he gets out, who
knows he may kill another 90 women. This man
should be locked up for the rest of his life. If you ask
me, I believe that he got easy. If I was the judge during
his sentencing I would have no doubtedly have give
him the death penalty, he never deserves to see the
light of day again.