Green River ... I don't know where to start

[Tiassa]

Seattle Times: The victims of the Green River Killer

BBC: Text of Gary Ridgway confession

"I killed the 48 women listed in the state's second amended information.

"In most cases when I killed these women I did not know their names.

"Most of the time I killed them the first time I met them and I do not have a good memory of their faces.

"I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight.

"I have reviewed information and discovery about each of the murders with my attorneys and I am positive that I killed each one of the women charged in the second information." (BBC/AP)

And yet tonight the members of the Green River Task Force do not yet sleep well. Ridgway has confessed to 48 murders; the Task Force at one point attributed over 100 murders to the Green River Killer. A twenty-year investigation, and they finally get their man. What of the rest? Perhaps someday we'll find out.

The Green River Killer is pretty much a folk legend to my generation. Our childhood was haunted by grim reports of a killer stalking prostitutes. There is something abstract and bizarre in my mind about the memory of riding in the car at 11 years old and hearing of another victim discovered and thinking, "What's new? This guy's good at what he does."

Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway ... and to think we grew up envying, in that silly child's way, the legend of Jack the Ripper.

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng appeared on Dan Abrams' MSNBC show via satellite yesterday to explain why Ridgway does not face the death penalty. I hope to bring you that transcript soon.

Our Green River Task Force deserves our respect, our admiration, and our thanks. To borrow a phrase: May God hold them in the palm of Her hand.

For the families ... let them heal, let them heal.

If I go away,
What would still remain of me?
The ghost within your eyes,
The whisper in your sighs.
You see,
Believe,
And I'm always there.

(Savatage, "If I Go Away")

 

[goofyfish]

I cannot imagine the shock and horror one must feel at learning that a man who has simply been living in your community may in fact be one of the worst serial-murderers in the U.S. The unfolding of details is both mesmerizing and horrifying. At least with John Wayne Gacy, who buried most of his victims in and around his home, we were spared the long process of finding bodies and wondering who was doing it. That's not true for the family members of those Gary Ridgway is accused of killing.

One thing that struck me while watching interviews with his co-workers, was that at work he was known as a real bible-loving guy. He would read the bible at work and talk about it at work. I do not mean this comment to imply that all people who read and discuss the bible extensively at work and other places are potential serial killers, or that the fact that this man did so means others who follow those habits are dangerous and should be suspected and avoided. Rather, I mean that I have often experienced bible-oriented people in my own life to be condescending and patronizing when I do not accept their habits as my own. It gives me a small sense of satisfaction to note that the crazies of the world are proven to exist in that cultural sub-group as well as in other categories of our society. It re-affirms my belief that true faith and good behavior come from examining one's own life in relation to one's belief system and trying to live accordingly; that following any fundamentalist lifestyle does not necessarily mean that a person is fundamentally good.

Ridgeway has been cooperating with the authorities in attempting to recall who he killed and where he left their bodies. The chilling thing is he's killed so many women that he's not sure he can remember them all. Is it appropriate for a serial murderer to be able to bargain information on who he has killed, and where the bodies are, in exchange for having the death penalty taken off the table? The State of Washington has agreed to the plea bargain in order to discover as much as possible about the victims and the locations of their remains, and to save the State the $3-5 million it is estimated it would cost to actually have him put to death.

Many of the family members have a real problem with this; they think he should stand trial; they think he should be put to death.

:m: Peace.

 

[Tiassa]

Forgive the lack of comment. It's hard to know what to say.

"The Abrams Report" (MSNBC, November 5, 2003): http://www.msnbc.com/news/990059.asp

ABRAMS: Deputy prosecutor Baird went on to list the other 20 victims, detailing how they were each murdered. Ridgway stipulating to killing every one of them. So, how could a monster like this not face the death penalty after admitting such horrible crimes? With me now in this exclusive interview is the man who had to make that very difficult decision, the agreement that spared Ridgway’s life, King County prosecuting attorney Norm Maleng. Mr. Maleng, thank you very much for coming on the program.

NORM MALENG, KING COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: Dan, it’s good to be on the program. And the question that you posed was the question that I asked also.

ABRAMS: So go ahead. Answer it for us. Why no death penalty for this guy?

MALENG: The story starts in April of this year. At that time we had seven charged counts. We really had come to the end of the line and it did not appear that we could add any more cases to the Ridgway case. It was at that time that the defense counsel came to me with a proposal that Ridgway would accept responsibility for all of these cases and provide us with specific information that would tie him to each victim as you heard in court today.

I can tell you my first reaction was no, and it was a strong, emotional reaction. And the question I asked myself is how could we consider setting aside the death penalty in this case for one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers or state it in another way-if any case screamed out for consideration of the death penalty, it was this case. But I did know that this case deserved thoughtful consideration because you had other victims, you had families of victims, and you had the task force involved. And so I thought about it over a three-week period of time.

And during that period of time, every time I thought about this case, all I could see was Gary Ridgway’s face and he deserved no mercy. But then after a period of time I started seeing other faces, and they were the faces of the other victims. And now it’s 41 and possibly more, the families of the victims, the people on the task force. And we started thinking about another principle of the justice system, and that is the need to know and to seek the truth. And it was that that caused me to go forward with this agreement.

Gary Ridgway doesn’t deserve mercy and he doesn’t deserve to live. But it was the families and the victims that deserved mercy, that their case could be solved and to be put to rest. And that’s why I made the decision I did.

 

[Flores]

I support the death penalty, but I agree with the decision in this case. I sure hope that this monster will not get better health care, nutrition, ect than our poor law abiding citizens.....He should be sent to a facility in death valley and get placed in a small isolated block cell. At the least he should be strapped down all day in a metal chair with a hole for pee poop, ect, and a metal dish for his food. I got this idea from watching a video of a respectable chinease orphanage center that offers kids for adoption for a small price of $30,000.

 

[CounslerCoffee]

Flores,

Since when was it right to treat prisoners like dogs? I agree that what he did was horrible, and I agree somewhat with the death penalty. However, treating our own prisoners like crap is something that the Canadians would do. We don't want to sink to their level, do we?

Anywho, check out today's something awful article: http://www.somethingawful.com/

 

[Flores]

Originally posted by CounslerCoffee
Flores,

Since when was it right to treat prisoners like dogs?

Fine, pick another animal that we can agree on.

Originally posted by CounslerCoffee
We don't want to sink to their level, do we?

No we don't, because unfortunately there are many innocent souls in the prisons, and many others who are just there because they didn't get the right representation. So I do agree that our prisons should be very humane, Can't we just single out those few bastards and torture them on a reality TV sitcom....

 

[nico]

However, treating our own prisoners like crap is something that the Canadians would

Righhttt.... I won;t even touch with a 50 ft long stick, we don't even have the death penalty.:bugeye:

 

[Tiassa]

Devericks, Mary Magdalene, B-Class Hollywood, and Frosties

"For this reason he loved her more than us"


Eric Devericks, Seattle Times, November 7, 2003

This is, in fact, what I wanted to say. "If I Go Away" is, in fact, a suicide song.

This is Gary Ridgway's legacy.

Mr. Ridgway read the Bible at work, says at least one article, and performed evangelical work.

Peter said to Mary, "Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than other women (cf. John 11:5, Luke 10:38-42). Tell us the words of the Savior which you have in mind since you know them; and we do not, nor have we heard of them." (The Gospel of Mary Magdalene)

Levi . . . said to Peter, "Peter, you are always irate. Now I see that you are contending against the woman like the adversaries. But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the Savior knew her very well. For this reason he loved her more than us. And we should rather be ashamed and put on the Perfect Man, to form us as he commanded us, and proclaim the gospel, without publishing a further commandment or a further law than the one which the Savior spoke." When Levi had said this, they began to go out in order to proclaim him and preach him. (The Gospel of Mary Magdalene)

"It's not saying that (Mary Magdalene being a prostitute) would have been bad," she said. "The criticism is that the church for almost 2,000 years has used that to relegate Mary of Magdala to a lesser status." (Louise McAllister, Seattle Times, July 14, 2001)

Too bad it's apocrypha at best. It could have saved forty-eight lives, at least.

There is a ... relatively bad film called Angel that came out when I was 11. I saw it when I was 13. It's a terrible film, but I grew up knowing of the Green River Killer, and so an awful film could break my heart. A better film to break your heart by is goes by the less-than-inspiring title of Whore 2.

The Green River Task Force has finally won. They have cornered the Devil, and made him plead for his life. A friend of mine, whose father worked for a period with (not on) the task force, called his father the moment he heard of Ridgway's arrest. The Task Force knew they had their man, but nobody was holding their breath. And it's a good thing. It took a while to wrap it up.

I can't imagine how the Task Force, our Prosecutor, or most of all the victims' families might feel at this moment. But this time since Ridgway's confession has left me numb. I had no idea I still carried it all with me, and I have no idea what to think about that.

Grim humor, but humor nonetheless: Ridgway may be a pivotal figure in fashioning my bleeding liberalistic sympathies. I wonder what the ripple effect is. I never saw the idea of prostitution the same way as people around me, not even when "Frosty the Prosty" was all the rage. (Seriously, you go to Wendy's with some friends, order frosties, then drive around Pacific Highway near Fort Lewis looking for hookers, and nail 'em with a frosty. I didn't invent the game. Is it any wonder my mother didn't like my friends?)

 

[Tiassa]

1984

In February, 1984, Mike Barber of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer received a letter from the Green River Killer. Gary Ridgway has confirmed that he wrote that letter.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/147324_ridgewaypenpal07.html

Mr. Barber discusses the letter in this article, and there is a PDF available if you'd like to see it.

. . . . Mary Exzetta West, a month shy of her 17th birthday, disappeared Feb. 6, 1984, from South Seattle. Her remains would be found in September 1985 in Seward Park, making her 48th on the Green River list. Cindy Smith, 19, last among the original 49 Green River victims, had a month to live in February 1984. She would disappear March 21, 1984, from Pacific Highway South. Her skeleton was found in June 1987 near Auburn.

Back in 1984, of course, neither I nor the task force, with whom I and then-Assistant Managing Editor Art Gorlick shared the letter, knew who the author was. The writer claimed to have found it in a cop's notebook left at a Denny's. It was signed "callmefred." But the long list of details seemed chillingly significant . . . .

. . . . I never wrote about the letter, being unable to prove who wrote it.

The task force shied away from its significance, too.

Court documents now say the task force was misled after an FBI "expert" examined the letter and proclaimed that the killer had not written it.

Yesterday, sources close to the task force said investigators did a slow burn after Ridgway told them the letter was from him. Sources said the FBI expert, a psychological profiler, essentially had blown off the letter, dismissing it as the work of "someone inside the task force seeking undue attention" . . . .

. . . . Even so, the task force kept the letter on file. So did I. Its detail seemed to contain possible slivers of truth. It was precious evidence known only to police, the killer and to me.

Ridgway, too, had kept the letter on file, in his memory. It was a kind of road map to his crimes, he admitted this summer.

"He brought up the letter during interviews" when he began unraveling his own horrors, Sheriff Dave Reichert told me Wednesday. "He first mentioned it. He took credit for writing it and sending it. He went through and explained what each comment meant." (Mike Barber, Seattle P-I)

 

[CounslerCoffee]

Originally posted by Flores
Fine, pick another animal that we can agree on.

Oops, I found one. It's the Washington Sniper Guys!

Before Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad became make-believe son and father, before the youngster and his mentor crisscrossed the United States on an allegedly murderous meander culminating in the Washington area sniper attacks, there were other role models in Malvo's young life. And there were roads not taken.


In Jamaica, where Malvo was born 18 years ago and was often abandoned for long stretches by his mother, there was his homeroom teacher at York Castle High School, Winsome Maxwell. In 1999, she took pity on the student in dirty clothes, the teenager who seemed quietly desperate for a guiding adult, and invited him to move in with her family.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15219-2003Nov8.html

He still ain't got my sympathy, burn em'.

So I do agree that our prisons should be very humane, Can't we just single out those few bastards and torture them on a reality TV sitcom.... [/B]

Agreed. (Sometimes prison justice works, just look at Jeffrey Damer)

Tiassa, send that PDF my way, via PM if you have to.

 

[Tiassa]

The file ....

Click Here!

I've dropped it into a public folder at my homepage. It's "ridgwayletter.pdf".

 

[Tiassa]

Interview: Sue Peters of Green River Task Force

"Saturday Q&A: Detective Peters stays the curse with Green River case" (Seattle P-I)

Hector Castro of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer interviews Green River Task Force detective Sue Peters.

"When I leave the office, I attempt to block out everything I've heard from Gary Ridgway, but it's oftentimes difficult, and I don't know if I have really taken the time to get away from the case yet because I'm still so heavily involved in the investigation. I continue to interview Gary Ridgway daily. This case pretty much takes up all my time and my thoughts. I haven't got away from it yet. It's not over yet." (Detective Sue Peterson)

Twenty-one years Detective Peters has spent on this case, pretty much her entire law-enforcement career.

With good fortune, perhaps she can put this case to rest before she goes to her own.

 

[zanket]

The main question I have about this case is, why did it take so long to do the DNA testing? It was done in 2001 on archived semen evidence; I think they had that technology down pat a decade earlier.

Originally posted by goofyfish
Is it appropriate for a serial murderer to be able to bargain information on who he has killed, and where the bodies are, in exchange for having the death penalty taken off the table?

I think yes, this was an example of excellent bargaining. Consider that there was a chance he’d go free if it went to trial. Or if convicted, that he’d never talk. The law in Washington State is that every murder be tried. Without new legislation there could have been many subsequent expensive trials even if Ridgway was convicted in the first one. As a resident of King County, I wasn’t looking forward to having maybe 1% of my property taxes go to the Ridgway case, including half of that for his taxpayer-funded defense.

I think the prosecutor did the justice system a disservice when he originally said he’d never bargain with the death penalty. I don’t think he changed his tune; I think he was lying to begin with.

I wouldn’t support the death penalty even in this case. To get criminals like him to open up, I think bargaining with the threat of solitary confinement would be appropriate and effective.

 

[Tiassa]

Bureaucracy?

Zanket

According to a Seattle Times "timeline" of the Green River case, the DNA techniques that broke the case were not implemented at the state crime lab until 2001.

Another article, this from Kari Sable notes:

DNA typing became available in the early 1990s but required large samples. 2 or 3 years ago, finding a match to the DNA in his saliva would require a sample the size of a quarter sized stain to narrow a suspect down to only one in about 20,000 people.

It would appear that the technique was not refined enough to deal with the Green River DNA samples until more recently.

And if that's not it, then frankly I haven't a clue.

 

[zanket]

Thanks for the research on that tiassa. I buy it.

 

[Tiassa]

It's over

Well ... it's over, folks. The job is done. Raise a glass, put out the lights.

In the end, what may be remembered most about yesterday's sentencing of the Green River killer won't be the tearful, awkward apology that Gary Leon Ridgway offered before he was handed 48 consecutive life terms . . . . (Ith, Times)

Forty-eight consecutive life sentences. This evil is over.

• Ith, Ian. "'Emissary of death' sentenced to life." Seattle Times, December 19, 2003. See http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001819216_ridgway19m.html

Other articles:

• Ridgway, Gary. "Ridgway's statement." Seattle Times, December 19, 2003. See http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001819225_ridgwaystatement19m.html
• Ith, Ian. "With heavy work over, Green River team dispersing." Seattle Times, December 19, 2003. See http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001819224_ridgwayside19m.html

 

[Tiassa]

We might pause to ask, What is justice?

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng recently answered to the Washington State House Judiciary Committee regarding the deal he struck with Gary Ridgway, the "Green River Killer." The Associated Press reports:

The plea bargain prompted Rep. Mike Carrell to ponder whether prosecutors should have such leeway, and whether the young women Ridgway killed would have approved of the deal.

"Would that be where they believe justice should be?" Carrell, R-Lakewood, asked as the House Judiciary Committee heard his four-bill package. Two bills would increase victim input in plea-bargain decisions, a third would expand the types of murders that are subject to the death penalty and the fourth would ban plea bargains and require prosecutors to seek the maximum penalty in capital murder cases with more than one victim.

The bills likely have no future in the Democrat-controlled House, but the hearing made for a lively discussion on the death penalty and its application in Washington. (Queary)

Maleng apparently remained steadfast in his defense of the bargain:

"It was based on mercy," Maleng said. "Not mercy for Gary Ridgway, he doesn't deserve to live, but it was mercy directed to the victims and to the families and friends of the victims."

And yet this answer seems unsatisfactory to some:

"God says that the value of a human life can only be measured by the value of another human life, and that the blood of murder victims cries from the ground until the blood of the murderer is shed," said Rep. Lois McMahan, R-Olalla. "So I would like to know how you feel that justice has been done in God's eyes."

"There's all sorts of ways to measure justice," Maleng replied.

And so we come to the central question: What is justice?

Having grown up with this spectre haunting the news daily for years during my childhood, I wholeheartedly support Maleng. If you can get the criminal behind bars forever and still hold hope for future confessions so that victims' families might have some sense of peace in knowledge, you just have to make the deal.

You'd see their pictures on the news, or in the papers. They looked like people you knew. Their mothers aren't so different from mine, and I would hope that she could know for sure in similar circumstances.

The beast is broken, the rest is about those who have to pick up the pieces of their own life. Crime and punishment makes for great headlines, and great issues during an electoral year, but our county prosecutors need to be able to deal when the occasion calls for it.

Norm Maleng brought us the freaking Green River Killer, on a silver platter, no less. The HJC needs to get off his back and stop jerking people around for the benefit of the cycle.

• Queary, Paul. "Maleng passionately defends deal that spared Ridgway's life." Associated Press/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 24, 2004. See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/157972_deathpenalty24.html

 

[Tiassa]

Her Name Was Rebecca Marrero

Her Name Was Rebecca Marrero
Ridgway pleads to forty-ninth slaying

And this is why we kept him alive.

Becky Marrerro was twenty years old. She left behind a three year-old daughter in December, 1982.

Ridgway had long admitted to killing Marrero, but her remains weren't found until December in an Auburn ravine. The discovery allowed King County prosecutors to charge the so-called Green River killer with aggravated murder in her slaying.

With Marrero's family seated nearby in the courtroom at the Maleng Regional Justice Center, Ridgway was sentenced to an additional count of life in prison. Because of his previous confession, the new murder charge falls under the terms of the 2003 plea agreement that spared him from a potential death penalty, King County prosecutors said.

Following Ridgway's arrest in 2002, then-King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng agreed he would not seek the death penalty against him in exchange for his cooperation in locating the remains of dozens of victims. Ultimately, Ridgway admitted to nearly 70 slayings, but at the time prosecutors said they only had evidence linking him to 48 cases.

(Sullivan)​

Levi Pulkkinen notes:

During a lengthy police interrogation following the 2003 agreement, Ridgway admitted to killing Marrero and other Seattle-area women but was not charged in those disappearances. Prosecutors were not convinced Ridgway was being truthful or -- as he admitted -- able to remember all the women he killed.

Ridgway eventually led investigators to the remains of four missing women but could not remember where he'd left Marrero's body or give an accurate description of her.

"I killed so many women, I have a hard time keeping them straight," Ridgway said in a statement he wrote for the court.​

The face of evil? Gary Leon Ridgway in court at Kent, Washington, February 18, 2011.​

Only twenty-some to go. Or maybe a hundred. We're never going to know all of the women he killed.

But this one: Her name was Becky Marrero, and she was twenty. She had a daughter. After unloading nearly three decades of frustration in court yesterday, her sister, Mary Marrero admitted, "It's been a long 29 years without Becky ...."

Becky Marrero: I guess it took a while to remember where he dumped her body.​

Forty-nine. And if we're lucky, we're just getting started.
____________________

Notes:

Sullivan, Jennifer. "Green River killer Ridgway pleads guilty to 49th murder". The Seattle Times. February 18, 2011. SeattleTimes.com. February 19, 2011. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014270096_greenriverkiller19m.html

Pulkkinen, Levi. "Ridgway pleads guilty in 49th slaying, sentenced to life". February 18, 2011. SeattlePI.com. February 19, 2011. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/435763_greenriver18.html