Gary Ridgway Interview: Green River Killer Claims to Have Killed 80 Women
Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, has given a new interview in which he asserts that he has killed close to 80 women, instead of just the 49 he was found guilty of murdering. He claims he wants to help the families of those unknown victims find closure.
"You can't go back and change the past; it's over with," Ridgway said in an interview with KOMO's Charlie Harger. "All we can do is try to make it better."
Ridgway began his killing spree in the early 1980s, targeting women and eventually admitting to killing 49 of them in exchange for life in prison instead of the death penalty. He allegedly tried to help investigators locate the bodies of more victims but said he was never let out of the van to show investigators the exact location.
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"They should have had me get out at every site to show them where I put those bodies. If I could do it all over again, I would say I want to get out at every single site," Ridgway said.
Professional investigator Rob Fitzgerald, who has studied Ridgway over the years, is actively searching for the missing victims. He wants to help families find closure.
"The victim's family get closure; they get to know what happened to their daughter, for certain. If we can find anything and they can get closure and say, 'We have our daughter back,' it means everything to me," Fitzgerald told KBOI2.com. "I want people to bury their daughters. Whatever that price is, I'm going to have to pay it. I can't stop now."
Some are skeptical about Ridgway's claims, including the man interviewing him.
"Gary Ridgway is absolutely playing me; he's playing everybody when he talks," Harger said. "I don't think Gary Ridgway can even comprehend the truth. I think he wants to show the world that, 'Here I am, Gary Ridgway, the truck painter from Kenworth, 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 the best at something.'"
Ridgway is currently serving 49 consecutive life sentences and will not be released anytime soon.
