WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.659 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. It's good to be 00:00:01.659 --> 00:00:05.139 here. Today we are looking at a set of numbers 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:08.560 that, quite frankly, they defy comprehension. 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:11.720 If you just glance at the stat sheet, it really 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:13.759 looks like a typo. We're talking about the number 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:18.600 49. 49. 49 confirmed murder convictions. That's 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:22.920 49 individual human lives. Mothers, daughters, 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:26.539 sisters, all extinguished by a single person. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:28.699 And that's just the official number, the one 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:31.070 that... The courts can prove beyond a reasonable 00:00:31.070 --> 00:00:33.509 doubt. Exactly. Because that is just what the 00:00:33.509 --> 00:00:35.250 court records show. When you actually sit down 00:00:35.250 --> 00:00:37.630 with the confession tapes and we have the transcripts 00:00:37.630 --> 00:00:40.829 right here, the numbers, they just spiral out 00:00:40.829 --> 00:00:44.420 of control. We're talking. 71, maybe 90, possibly 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:46.700 even more. He eventually lost count himself. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:50.020 And that's the truly terrifying baseline we have 00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:52.759 to start from today. I mean, it creates a scale 00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:55.939 of victimization that is just it's almost unprecedented 00:00:55.939 --> 00:00:57.960 in American criminal history, at least when you're 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.079 talking about confirmed convictions. You have 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:02.700 other killers who claim these huge numbers, you 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:04.540 know, Henry Lee Lucas or someone like that. But 00:01:04.540 --> 00:01:07.799 in terms of verified bodies, Gary Ridgway is 00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:10.290 at the. absolute peak. We are, of course, talking 00:01:10.290 --> 00:01:12.269 about Deary Leon Ridgway, the man they call the 00:01:12.269 --> 00:01:14.090 Green River Killer. And, you know, I want to 00:01:14.090 --> 00:01:16.530 start with a confession of my own here. When 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:18.689 I hear a phrase like prolific serial killer, 00:01:18.930 --> 00:01:22.150 my brain, and I'm guessing most people's brains, 00:01:22.269 --> 00:01:25.209 it immediately goes to Hollywood. Sure. We think 00:01:25.209 --> 00:01:28.090 of the evil genius, Hannibal Lecter type, you 00:01:28.090 --> 00:01:30.409 know, someone who is incredibly sophisticated, 00:01:30.609 --> 00:01:33.310 a high IQ, playing this game of four dimensional 00:01:33.310 --> 00:01:37.269 chess with the FBI. And that is the very first 00:01:37.269 --> 00:01:39.790 and probably the most important myth we have 00:01:39.790 --> 00:01:42.230 to dismantle right now. Because the reality of 00:01:42.230 --> 00:01:44.730 Gary Ridgway is infinitely more disturbing precisely 00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:48.650 because he wasn't a genius. Not even close. No, 00:01:48.730 --> 00:01:50.510 looking at his background here, I mean, his IQ 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:53.810 was low. In the low 80s, he was dyslexic. He 00:01:53.810 --> 00:01:56.010 was held back a year in school, barely made it 00:01:56.010 --> 00:01:58.090 through high school. He worked a simple blue 00:01:58.090 --> 00:02:00.590 collar job painting trucks at the Kenworth factory 00:02:00.590 --> 00:02:03.890 for 30 years. 30 years of the same job. Yep. 00:02:04.269 --> 00:02:07.030 He went to church. He was, by some accounts, 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:09.430 that guy next door who mowed his lawn and complained 00:02:09.430 --> 00:02:12.650 about the neighborhood kids. And yet this man, 00:02:12.810 --> 00:02:15.770 this incredibly average, unremarkable, low intellect 00:02:15.770 --> 00:02:18.930 man, managed to evade the largest police task 00:02:18.930 --> 00:02:22.150 force in the country for two decades. That's 00:02:22.150 --> 00:02:24.189 the whole question, isn't it? That is the central 00:02:24.189 --> 00:02:27.569 tension of this deep dive. Right. How? How does 00:02:27.569 --> 00:02:29.590 a guy who paints trucks, who isn't some kind 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:31.949 of criminal mastermind, get away with murder 00:02:31.949 --> 00:02:34.270 on an industrial scale for that long? Well, it 00:02:34.270 --> 00:02:37.189 forces us to look at the blind spots in our society. 00:02:37.590 --> 00:02:39.889 Ridgway wasn't a predator who outsmarted the 00:02:39.889 --> 00:02:42.229 system in some brilliant way. He was a predator 00:02:42.229 --> 00:02:44.430 who understood exactly who the system didn't 00:02:44.430 --> 00:02:46.430 care about. The vulnerable. The most vulnerable. 00:02:46.590 --> 00:02:49.389 He targeted sex workers, runaways, vulnerable 00:02:49.389 --> 00:02:51.569 teenagers who were estranged from their families. 00:02:51.770 --> 00:02:54.550 He operated in that gap where society tends to 00:02:54.550 --> 00:02:56.689 look away. He literally banked on our indifference 00:02:56.689 --> 00:02:58.770 to their fate. So here's our mission for today. 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:01.639 we have a massive stack of sources in front of 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:05.300 us criminal profiles from the FBI, the Green 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:08.539 River Task Force reports, the full details of 00:03:08.539 --> 00:03:11.599 his really controversial plea bargain, and some 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:14.699 very recent news from late 2025 regarding his 00:03:14.699 --> 00:03:17.199 health and his incarceration. A lot to get through. 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:19.759 A lot. We're going to unpack the psychology of 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:23.139 the man, the gruesome details of his methods, 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:25.800 the massive investigation that eventually caught 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.020 him, and this is the part I'm really interested 00:03:28.020 --> 00:03:30.020 to get into, the Ted Bundy connection. It's a 00:03:30.020 --> 00:03:32.539 true Silence of the Lambs moment. It really is. 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:35.379 asking one monster how to catch another. But 00:03:35.379 --> 00:03:37.000 before we get to the investigation, we really 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:39.520 have to understand the origin. Where does a monster 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:42.180 like this come from? So let's go back. Salt Lake 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:46.159 City, Utah, February 18th, 1949. Gary Leon Ridgeway 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:48.819 is born. What do we see in those early years? 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:51.139 You see the cracks forming almost immediately. 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:53.659 The family dynamic was, well, volatile is putting 00:03:53.659 --> 00:03:55.439 it mildly. His parents had a terrible marriage. 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:57.139 There was constant screaming, a lot of tension 00:03:57.139 --> 00:03:59.639 in the household. But the core issue, the one 00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:01.719 that forensic psychologists really focus on. 00:04:02.219 --> 00:04:04.659 is his mother. That's a recurring theme in criminology, 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:06.919 isn't it? The mother -son relationship. Unfortunately, 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:10.219 yes. It's a very common thread. Ridgway's mother, 00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:14.159 Mary, was described as incredibly domineering. 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:16.939 She controlled everything in the house. She inflicted 00:04:16.939 --> 00:04:19.040 corporal punishment on Gary and his brothers 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:23.100 for even the most minor infractions. But it wasn't 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:26.060 just about discipline. Ridgway later revealed 00:04:26.060 --> 00:04:29.629 a very, very disturbing internal conflict he 00:04:29.629 --> 00:04:32.009 had regarding her it's it's difficult to talk 00:04:32.009 --> 00:04:34.290 about but it's essential to understanding his 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:36.699 psychology this is where it gets dark fast It 00:04:36.699 --> 00:04:39.560 does. He admitted to investigators that he had 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:42.079 feelings of sexual attraction toward her. But 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:45.360 at the exact same time, he harbored intense fantasies 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:47.879 about killing her. That's wow. That's a lot to 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:50.100 unpack for a young boy. That is the nexus of 00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:52.439 the pathology right there. You have the fusion 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:55.259 of sexual desire and violent rage, and it's all 00:04:55.259 --> 00:04:57.779 directed at the primary female figure in his 00:04:57.779 --> 00:05:00.379 life. It creates a kind of wiring in the developing 00:05:00.379 --> 00:05:03.899 brain where sex and death or sex and violence, 00:05:03.939 --> 00:05:06.269 they become inextricably linked. He couldn't 00:05:06.269 --> 00:05:09.069 separate the two. He couldn't. And since he obviously 00:05:09.069 --> 00:05:11.889 couldn't act out that specific twisted fantasy 00:05:11.889 --> 00:05:14.750 on his own mother, he eventually projected that 00:05:14.750 --> 00:05:17.629 cocktail of lust and hate onto other women who 00:05:17.629 --> 00:05:20.529 he saw as acceptable targets. And his father 00:05:20.529 --> 00:05:22.769 wasn't exactly helping the situation? Not at 00:05:22.769 --> 00:05:25.750 all. His father, Thomas, was a bus driver. He 00:05:25.750 --> 00:05:28.129 would come home from his route and complain constantly, 00:05:28.410 --> 00:05:31.009 almost obsessively, about the sex workers he 00:05:31.009 --> 00:05:33.750 saw on the streets. He demonized them. He called 00:05:33.750 --> 00:05:36.639 them filth. So you've got this perfect storm 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:38.639 brewing. A perfect storm. You have the mother 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:41.620 creating this internal confusion of desire and 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:43.800 violence. And you have the father standing there 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:45.819 pointing a finger and telling him those women 00:05:45.819 --> 00:05:48.180 on the street, they are trash. They are less 00:05:48.180 --> 00:05:51.540 than human. It gave Gary Ridgway a target class 00:05:51.540 --> 00:05:53.959 for all of his repressed rage. And we see the 00:05:53.959 --> 00:05:56.439 first I mean, the first real explosion of this 00:05:56.439 --> 00:05:59.439 violence when he's just 16. I think a lot of 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:01.199 people assume the Green River killings in the 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:03.920 80s were his start, but there was a huge precursor. 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:05.899 A massive red flag that somehow gets overlooked. 00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:08.439 At 16 years old, he lures a six -year -old boy 00:06:08.439 --> 00:06:12.000 into the woods. Six years old. A child. And this 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:13.819 wasn't a playground fight that went too far. 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:16.779 This was predatory. He took this child into a 00:06:16.779 --> 00:06:19.959 secluded area and he stabbed him. The knife went 00:06:19.959 --> 00:06:22.000 clean through the ribs and punctured the boy's 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:25.279 liver. And the boy survived. Miraculously, yes, 00:06:25.339 --> 00:06:27.420 he survived. But just think about the psychology 00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:30.199 of a 16 -year -old who is capable of that. That 00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:33.560 is a premeditated, predatory attempt on a human 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:37.120 life. And for what? For nothing. There was no 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.920 motive other than the hatch itself. And yet he 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:43.550 just moves on. How does he not end up in the 00:06:43.550 --> 00:06:45.350 system after something like that? He graduates 00:06:45.350 --> 00:06:47.829 high school. He joins the Navy. He did. He served 00:06:47.829 --> 00:06:49.889 in the Navy during the Vietnam War on a supply 00:06:49.889 --> 00:06:52.230 ship. He even saw combat. And this is where the 00:06:52.230 --> 00:06:54.490 behavioral patterns we see later really start 00:06:54.490 --> 00:06:57.069 to lock in. While he's in the military, stationed 00:06:57.069 --> 00:06:59.490 in places like the Philippines, he is frequenting 00:06:59.490 --> 00:07:01.670 sex workers constantly. And he's married at this 00:07:01.670 --> 00:07:02.990 point. He married his high school sweetheart 00:07:02.990 --> 00:07:05.350 right out of school. That's right. He contracts 00:07:05.350 --> 00:07:07.709 gonorrhea and brings it home to his wife. And 00:07:07.709 --> 00:07:10.009 despite her being, you know, justifiably furious 00:07:10.009 --> 00:07:12.810 about the infection and the betrayal, he doesn't 00:07:12.810 --> 00:07:15.129 stop. He continues doing it, often without protection. 00:07:15.509 --> 00:07:19.149 It just shows a complete and utter lack of empathy 00:07:19.149 --> 00:07:22.029 or any concern for consequences. He simply didn't 00:07:22.029 --> 00:07:25.069 care. So what did his friends think of him? The 00:07:25.069 --> 00:07:26.930 people around him? The description that comes 00:07:26.930 --> 00:07:29.930 up over and over is friendly but strange. Friendly 00:07:29.930 --> 00:07:32.930 but strange. That's that uncanny valley feeling, 00:07:33.009 --> 00:07:35.110 isn't it? It's exactly that. It's the mask of 00:07:35.110 --> 00:07:37.490 sanity. He could function. He could hold a job, 00:07:37.589 --> 00:07:40.550 get married, go to family barbecues. But the 00:07:40.550 --> 00:07:43.050 wiring underneath it all was just completely 00:07:43.050 --> 00:07:45.550 fundamentally wrong. So let's move forward now 00:07:45.550 --> 00:07:48.230 into the 1980s. This is when the nightmare begins 00:07:48.230 --> 00:07:50.370 in earnest for the people of King County, Washington. 00:07:50.529 --> 00:07:53.670 The timeline generally starts around 1982. That's 00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:55.879 when the bodies start appearing. The peak of 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:58.399 his murderous activity was this absolute frenzy 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:01.360 between 1982 and 1984. I mean, we are talking 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:03.980 about women and teenage girls disappearing sometimes 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:07.019 every other week. The pace was staggering. And 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:10.160 he was hunting along a specific stretch of road. 00:08:10.680 --> 00:08:14.779 The Pacific Highway South. The Sea -Tac Strip. 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:17.579 He called it the strip. It was his territory. 00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:20.920 He knew that area intimately. He knew the women 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:22.819 working there were often estranged from their 00:08:22.819 --> 00:08:24.720 families or living on the margins of society. 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:27.120 He knew they wouldn't be reported missing immediately. 00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:29.459 That wasn't an accident. That was a calculated 00:08:29.459 --> 00:08:31.819 part of his modus operandi. Let's talk about 00:08:31.819 --> 00:08:34.879 that MO, because there is one detail in the police 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:37.639 reports that honestly just chills me to the bone. 00:08:38.329 --> 00:08:41.330 The prop he used. The picture of his son. It's 00:08:41.330 --> 00:08:44.590 so, it's diabolically manipulative. It is evil 00:08:44.590 --> 00:08:47.590 genius in its simplicity. He would pull up in 00:08:47.590 --> 00:08:50.429 his truck a potential customer, and to gain a 00:08:50.429 --> 00:08:52.549 woman's trust, he would show her a photo of his 00:08:52.549 --> 00:08:54.850 little boy that he kept in his wallet. It's a 00:08:54.850 --> 00:08:56.830 signal. It's a perfect signal. He was saying, 00:08:56.889 --> 00:08:58.929 look at me, I'm a dad, I'm a family man, I'm 00:08:58.929 --> 00:09:01.289 safe, I'm a nice guy. And it would lower their 00:09:01.289 --> 00:09:03.009 defenses completely. It would make them think 00:09:03.009 --> 00:09:04.809 he wasn't a threat. And once he had them in the 00:09:04.809 --> 00:09:07.049 truck, or took them somewhere secluded. Once 00:09:07.049 --> 00:09:09.169 he had them isolated, sometimes in his home, 00:09:09.250 --> 00:09:11.710 sometimes in his truck, often in the woods, he 00:09:11.710 --> 00:09:14.789 would engage in sexual activity. And then came 00:09:14.789 --> 00:09:17.169 the chokehold. He didn't use a gun. He didn't 00:09:17.169 --> 00:09:18.929 usually use a knife for the murders themselves. 00:09:19.190 --> 00:09:22.450 No, his preferred method was strangulation. He 00:09:22.450 --> 00:09:24.870 would attack from behind, wrap his arm around 00:09:24.870 --> 00:09:27.529 their neck in a sleeper hold. And strangulation 00:09:27.529 --> 00:09:31.419 is a very... It's a very intimate, personal way 00:09:31.419 --> 00:09:34.000 to kill someone. It's not quick. It's not quick. 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:37.059 It requires physical dominance. It takes time. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.399 You have to look at the person. You have to feel 00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:41.679 the life leaving their body. For him, that was 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:44.299 part of the ritual, the control. And then he 00:09:44.299 --> 00:09:46.759 would dump the bodies. Which is how he gets the 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:48.960 name, the Green River Killer. That's right. The 00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:50.860 first five victims that were discovered were 00:09:50.860 --> 00:09:53.840 found in or along the Green River. But he used 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:56.240 clusters of woods all over South King County, 00:09:56.360 --> 00:10:00.000 near the SeaTac Airport in remote areas. To him, 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.080 these women were disposable. He treated their 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:05.029 bodies like trash. But, and this is a... Really 00:10:05.029 --> 00:10:07.509 difficult part of the story to discuss, but it's 00:10:07.509 --> 00:10:09.370 essential to understanding his psychology. He 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:11.129 didn't just leave them there. No, he went back. 00:10:11.210 --> 00:10:13.389 He returned to the dump sites. Frequently, he 00:10:13.389 --> 00:10:15.330 would go back to the locations where he loved 00:10:15.330 --> 00:10:18.470 them, and he would engage in necrophilia with 00:10:18.470 --> 00:10:23.460 the decomposing bodies. God, I have to ask. Why? 00:10:23.460 --> 00:10:26.419 I mean, beyond the obvious depravity, was it 00:10:26.419 --> 00:10:29.500 just about sexual gratification or was there 00:10:29.500 --> 00:10:31.840 something else driving that particular behavior? 00:10:32.179 --> 00:10:33.940 Well, this is where it gets even more twisted. 00:10:34.259 --> 00:10:37.379 Ridgway had a sort of a pragmatic logic for it. 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:39.679 He later explained to investigators that having 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:42.000 sex with the body has actually reduced his urge 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.120 to go out and hunt for a living victim. Wait, 00:10:44.179 --> 00:10:46.559 wait. He saw it as a safety measure. In his mind, 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:49.679 yes. Necrophilia was a way to limit his exposure 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:52.679 to getting caught. It scratched the itch so to 00:10:52.679 --> 00:10:54.799 speak without the risk of abducting another person. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:57.019 That is one of the most horrifying things I have 00:10:57.019 --> 00:10:59.490 ever heard. He's risk managing his serial killing 00:10:59.490 --> 00:11:02.210 by sexually assaulting corpses. It is. It shows 00:11:02.210 --> 00:11:04.570 that his primary motivation above all else was 00:11:04.570 --> 00:11:07.169 self -preservation. He was also taking other 00:11:07.169 --> 00:11:09.590 forensic countermeasures. He would remove their 00:11:09.590 --> 00:11:12.470 clothing to delay identification. He would scatter 00:11:12.470 --> 00:11:14.769 gum wrappers or cigarette butts that didn't belong 00:11:14.769 --> 00:11:16.870 to him at the crime scenes to confuse investigators. 00:11:17.309 --> 00:11:19.629 He was trying to plant false evidence. Exactly. 00:11:19.789 --> 00:11:22.470 He was thinking, maybe not like a genius, but 00:11:22.470 --> 00:11:24.230 he was thinking about how to get away with it. 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:27.440 There is one specific anecdote about his countermeasures 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:31.100 that I found completely unbelievable. The trip 00:11:31.100 --> 00:11:33.940 to Oregon. This is one of the most chilling stories 00:11:33.940 --> 00:11:36.820 in the entire case file. He knew the police were 00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:39.240 on high alert in Washington. The Green River 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:42.299 Task Force was all over the news. So he decided 00:11:42.299 --> 00:11:45.500 he needed to move some of the evidence. He dug 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:48.039 up the remains of some of his victims and transported 00:11:48.039 --> 00:11:50.480 them across state lines to Portland, Oregon. 00:11:51.309 --> 00:11:53.809 His thinking was that it would confuse the jurisdictional 00:11:53.809 --> 00:11:56.009 boundaries between police departments. But he 00:11:56.009 --> 00:11:58.690 didn't go on this trip alone. No. He took his 00:11:58.690 --> 00:12:01.250 young son with him. Oh, my God. He told his son 00:12:01.250 --> 00:12:03.769 they were going on a fun camping trip. So you 00:12:03.769 --> 00:12:05.789 have to picture the scene. You have a man driving 00:12:05.789 --> 00:12:08.470 his truck down Interstate 5. His child is in 00:12:08.470 --> 00:12:11.330 the passenger seat, probably excited, sleeping, 00:12:11.750 --> 00:12:15.269 playing a game. And there are human remains in 00:12:15.269 --> 00:12:17.830 the trunk of the car. It's that compartmentalization 00:12:17.830 --> 00:12:21.409 again. The dating father. taking his kid camping, 00:12:21.570 --> 00:12:24.509 literally inches away from the evidence of his 00:12:24.509 --> 00:12:27.330 own monstrosity. It speaks to a complete and 00:12:27.330 --> 00:12:30.570 total lack of moral integration. There was no 00:12:30.570 --> 00:12:32.889 connection between those two parts of his life. 00:12:33.009 --> 00:12:36.450 He could switch roles instantly, flawlessly. 00:12:36.710 --> 00:12:40.789 So bodies are piling up, 1982, 1983. The police 00:12:40.789 --> 00:12:43.190 are obviously not blind to this. The King County 00:12:43.190 --> 00:12:45.990 Sheriff's Office forms the Green River Task Force. 00:12:46.129 --> 00:12:48.679 And this was a massive undertaking. At its height, 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:51.159 it was the largest, most expensive murder investigation 00:12:51.159 --> 00:12:53.639 in the country. Detectives like Dave Reichert 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:55.799 and Robert Keppel, they were working around the 00:12:55.799 --> 00:12:58.639 clock, but they were just drowning in information, 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:01.279 thousands of tips, thousands of potential suspects. 00:13:01.659 --> 00:13:03.379 And what's so frustrating looking back is that 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:05.340 they actually had a huge clue right at the very 00:13:05.340 --> 00:13:07.440 beginning, but the technology just wasn't ready 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:09.539 for it. The paint. The paint. Tell us about the 00:13:09.539 --> 00:13:12.200 paint. In 1982, on the clothing of one of the 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:15.100 very first victims, forensic teams found spray 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:17.240 paint. Not just paint, right? It was something 00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:19.480 specific. That's right, they were microscopic 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:23.460 spheres of spray paint and overspray. But here's 00:13:23.460 --> 00:13:27.379 the absolute tragedy of it. In 1982, forensic 00:13:27.379 --> 00:13:30.320 analysis wasn't advanced enough to pinpoint the 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.379 exact chemical composition or link it to a specific 00:13:33.379 --> 00:13:37.240 batch or company. So that... Evidence, that crucial 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:40.159 clue, it just sat in an evidence locker. And 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:41.860 if they could have tested it back then? If they'd 00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:44.059 had 21st century technology, they would have 00:13:44.059 --> 00:13:46.840 seen that it was a specific high -end industrial 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:50.480 paint, an Imran paint used at the Kenworth truck 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:52.820 factory. Where Gary Ridgway worked every single 00:13:52.820 --> 00:13:54.700 day. Exactly. He was spraying trucks with that 00:13:54.700 --> 00:13:56.940 exact paint. It would have been a direct physical 00:13:56.940 --> 00:13:59.299 link between him and a victim at the very start 00:13:59.299 --> 00:14:02.179 of the investigation. But that evidence, it lay 00:14:02.179 --> 00:14:05.700 dormant for 20 years. Unbelievable. force is 00:14:05.700 --> 00:14:07.980 struggling. They're getting desperate. And in 00:14:07.980 --> 00:14:10.779 1984, they do something that feels like it's 00:14:10.779 --> 00:14:12.720 straight out of a movie. They decide to go see 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:14.639 a consultant. This is the Hannibal Lecter moment. 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:17.419 Dave Riker and Robert Keppel, they get on a plane 00:14:17.419 --> 00:14:19.740 and they fly to Florida State Prison to interview 00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:22.440 Ted Bundy. Bundy is on death row at this point. 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:25.039 He is, without a doubt, the most famous serial 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:27.779 killer in America. And they basically ask him, 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:30.100 how do we catch this guy? What's he thinking? 00:14:30.490 --> 00:14:33.169 And Bundy was fascinated by the Green River Killer. 00:14:33.409 --> 00:14:36.549 He even gave him a nickname, the River Man. And 00:14:36.549 --> 00:14:39.470 Bundy, drawing from his own horrific experiences, 00:14:39.990 --> 00:14:43.009 offered some incredibly accurate insights. What 00:14:43.009 --> 00:14:45.070 did he tell them? He told the detectives that 00:14:45.070 --> 00:14:47.169 this killer wasn't done with the victims after 00:14:47.169 --> 00:14:49.529 they died. He was the one who suggested that 00:14:49.529 --> 00:14:52.070 the killer was probably revisiting the dump sites 00:14:52.070 --> 00:14:54.370 to have sex with the bodies. Which was exactly 00:14:54.370 --> 00:14:56.629 what Ridgway was doing. Bundy saw it immediately. 00:14:57.159 --> 00:15:00.259 He recognized his own pathology, his own brand 00:15:00.259 --> 00:15:02.460 of evil in the Green River Killers' actions, 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.379 and he gave them specific actionable advice. 00:15:05.460 --> 00:15:07.960 He told them, if you find a fresh grave, don't 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:10.059 dig it up, don't touch it, stake it out, wait. 00:15:10.220 --> 00:15:12.860 He will come back to his victims. It's just so 00:15:12.860 --> 00:15:16.419 eerie that Bundy could see into Ridgway's mind 00:15:16.419 --> 00:15:19.299 so clearly. Did the police actually use that 00:15:19.299 --> 00:15:21.940 advice? Did they try to stake out a grave site? 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:24.440 They tried. They set up surveillance on graves. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:27.720 But Ridgway was either lucky or just cautious 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:29.820 enough. He never walked into one of their traps. 00:15:30.379 --> 00:15:33.240 But Bundy's profile of the man they were hunting, 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:37.000 it was spot on. Now, we have to address the fact 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:38.960 that Ridgway was a suspect during this time. 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:40.860 This isn't a case where he was a total ghost 00:15:40.860 --> 00:15:43.580 until the end. Not at all. He was on the radar 00:15:43.580 --> 00:15:47.139 very early on. In 1983, a victim named Marie 00:15:47.139 --> 00:15:50.460 Malvar disappeared. Her boyfriend actually saw 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:52.460 the truck she got into. It looked like Ridgeways. 00:15:52.500 --> 00:15:54.539 He even followed it for a little bit. He gave 00:15:54.539 --> 00:15:57.779 that description to the police. So bring him 00:15:57.779 --> 00:15:59.820 in for questioning. They did. He was interviewed. 00:15:59.960 --> 00:16:02.240 But you have to remember, Ridgway's persona was 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:05.820 friendly but strange. He was cooperative. He 00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:07.759 seemed helpful. He denied everything, of course. 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:10.879 And then in 1984, he agreed to take a polygraph 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:13.200 test. The lie detector. We always hear about 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:15.559 how unreliable these can be, but in this case, 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:18.299 it literally let a monster walk free. It gave 00:16:18.299 --> 00:16:21.620 him a pass. He passed the polygraph test. And 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:23.679 in the eyes of the investigators at that time, 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:26.159 that was a huge deal. It allowed him to slip 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:28.159 back into the background. He went from being 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:31.559 a prime suspect to just one of thousands of potential 00:16:31.559 --> 00:16:34.500 leads. And all the while, the killing continued. 00:16:34.980 --> 00:16:37.360 Let's talk about that background he slipped into. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:40.600 Yeah. Because while he is committing these atrocities, 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:44.519 he is living this bizarrely normal, almost performative 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:47.320 double life. He gets married again, doesn't he? 00:16:47.519 --> 00:16:49.720 He does. And during the second marriage in the 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:53.059 mid 80s, he becomes fanatically religious. Fanatical 00:16:53.059 --> 00:16:55.100 really is the right word for it. The reports 00:16:55.100 --> 00:16:57.620 say he's going door to door, proselytizing for 00:16:57.620 --> 00:16:59.919 his church. He's reading the Bible out loud on 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:01.980 his lunch breaks at work. He's breaking down 00:17:01.980 --> 00:17:05.059 in tears after sermons. It's a massive overcompensation. 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:12.299 evil with this public display of holiness. But 00:17:12.299 --> 00:17:14.000 the contradiction is right there on the surface. 00:17:14.119 --> 00:17:16.640 He's demanding his wife follow these incredibly 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:19.359 strict religious teachings to be modest and pure. 00:17:19.539 --> 00:17:21.759 But then he's also demanding that they have sex 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:25.180 in public places in the woods, sometimes in the 00:17:25.180 --> 00:17:27.740 exact same wooded areas where he had dumped bodies. 00:17:27.980 --> 00:17:31.119 That is just it's sickening. It's like he was 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:33.619 getting off on the risk or the proximity to his 00:17:33.619 --> 00:17:36.059 own crimes, even with his wife. It's all about 00:17:36.059 --> 00:17:39.069 power and ownership of those. Those woods were 00:17:39.069 --> 00:17:41.549 his domain, his kingdom of death, and he was 00:17:41.549 --> 00:17:44.029 bringing her into it without her knowledge. Then 00:17:44.029 --> 00:17:46.450 we get to the third wife, Judith Mawson. They 00:17:46.450 --> 00:17:49.509 married in 1988. And this part of the story always 00:17:49.509 --> 00:17:51.910 fascinates people because you always have to 00:17:51.910 --> 00:17:54.599 ask that question. How did the wife not know? 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:57.059 And Judith Mawson has spoken about this extensively 00:17:57.059 --> 00:17:59.579 in interviews since his arrest. She honestly, 00:17:59.740 --> 00:18:02.779 truly did not know. She describes him as a loving, 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:05.019 attentive husband. She said he would leave for 00:18:05.019 --> 00:18:07.099 work early in the morning, telling her he had 00:18:07.099 --> 00:18:09.079 to work overtime shifts at the truck factory. 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:11.779 But he wasn't going to the factory. No, that 00:18:11.779 --> 00:18:14.640 was his hunting time. But she believed him. Why 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:16.880 wouldn't she? He was bringing home the paycheck. 00:18:16.940 --> 00:18:20.109 He was a good provider. Ridgway actually made 00:18:20.109 --> 00:18:22.230 the claim later that he killed less during his 00:18:22.230 --> 00:18:24.269 marriage to Judith because he truly loved her. 00:18:25.190 --> 00:18:28.250 That is a very hard pill to swallow, him claiming 00:18:28.250 --> 00:18:31.450 to love anyone. But Judith herself has said she 00:18:31.450 --> 00:18:34.670 feels that, in a way, she saved lives just by 00:18:34.670 --> 00:18:36.869 being with him. And if you look at the timeline, 00:18:37.069 --> 00:18:39.849 statistically, the murder rate did drop significantly 00:18:39.849 --> 00:18:42.809 during that marriage. But there were still cracks 00:18:42.809 --> 00:18:44.990 in the facade. There's the story of the missing 00:18:44.990 --> 00:18:47.210 carpet. Oh, right. When she was moving her things 00:18:47.210 --> 00:18:49.769 into his house, she noticed there was no carpet 00:18:49.769 --> 00:18:52.369 in one of the rooms. Just the bare floorboards. 00:18:52.730 --> 00:18:55.710 And years later, after his arrest, detectives 00:18:55.710 --> 00:18:57.869 told her, yeah, the reason there was no carpet 00:18:57.869 --> 00:19:00.009 in that room is because he almost certainly wrapped 00:19:00.009 --> 00:19:02.609 a victim's body in it and hauled it away. Can 00:19:02.609 --> 00:19:06.119 you even imagine that? Living in a house? walking 00:19:06.119 --> 00:19:08.440 on those floors every single day and not knowing 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:10.359 what happened right where you're standing. It's 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:12.599 the banality of evil all over again. He's just 00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:14.599 a regular guy with a missing carpet and a lot 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:17.539 of overtime hours. So how does this whole house 00:19:17.539 --> 00:19:20.400 of cards finally collapse? We have to jump forward 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:23.819 to the year 2001. Science finally caught up with 00:19:23.819 --> 00:19:27.539 Gary Ridgeway. Back in 1987, during that period 00:19:27.539 --> 00:19:30.039 when he was a suspect, the police had taken saliva 00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:32.500 and hair samples from him. They didn't have the 00:19:32.500 --> 00:19:34.819 technology to do much with them then, but they 00:19:34.819 --> 00:19:39.150 kept them. They put them in storage. DNA profiling 00:19:39.150 --> 00:19:42.029 technology had advanced light years beyond what 00:19:42.029 --> 00:19:44.289 they had in the 80s. It was a completely different 00:19:44.289 --> 00:19:46.869 world. They were able to go back into cold storage, 00:19:47.069 --> 00:19:49.730 pull out those old samples, and run them through 00:19:49.730 --> 00:19:52.230 new DNA tests. And they got a match. They linked 00:19:52.230 --> 00:19:54.410 his DNA directly to sperm that had been found 00:19:54.410 --> 00:19:56.670 on several of the victims. It was irrefutable. 00:19:57.029 --> 00:19:58.890 Irrefutable. And do you remember that paint? 00:19:59.089 --> 00:20:01.150 The microscopic spheres from the Kenworth truck 00:20:01.150 --> 00:20:03.430 paint. They retested it with modern equipment. 00:20:03.730 --> 00:20:06.049 And this time, they could identify the chemical 00:20:06.049 --> 00:20:08.650 composition perfectly. It was a one -to -one 00:20:08.650 --> 00:20:10.990 match for the specific paint used at his workplace. 00:20:11.349 --> 00:20:14.150 The circle was finally closed, the paint and 00:20:14.150 --> 00:20:18.170 the DNA. So November 30, 2001, he's leaving work 00:20:18.170 --> 00:20:20.950 at the Kenworth factory after his shift. And 00:20:20.950 --> 00:20:23.170 the Green River Task Force, they're waiting for 00:20:23.170 --> 00:20:25.529 him. They arrest him in the parking lot. After 00:20:25.529 --> 00:20:27.950 two decades, it was over. But it wasn't really 00:20:27.950 --> 00:20:30.529 over, was it? Because then the legal battle began. 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:33.920 And this is where the story gets incredibly controversial. 00:20:34.259 --> 00:20:37.619 Very controversial. Ridgeway was facing multiple 00:20:37.619 --> 00:20:40.740 counts of aggravated first degree murder. Washington 00:20:40.740 --> 00:20:43.079 state had the death penalty at the time. And 00:20:43.079 --> 00:20:44.839 if anyone in the history of the state qualified 00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:48.380 for it, it was a serial killer with dozens and 00:20:48.380 --> 00:20:50.259 dozens of victims. But he didn't get the death 00:20:50.259 --> 00:20:52.700 penalty. He didn't get lethal injection. He made 00:20:52.700 --> 00:20:54.960 a deal. He made the deal with the devil, as some 00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:57.160 of the victim's families called it. His defense 00:20:57.160 --> 00:20:59.119 lawyers approached the King County prosecutor 00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:01.740 with a proposal. A plea bargain. What was the 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:04.400 offer? The offer was this. Ridgway would plead 00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:06.599 guilty to every single murder they could charge 00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:09.380 him with. And, crucially, he would cooperate 00:21:09.380 --> 00:21:12.259 fully. He would tell them everything. He would 00:21:12.259 --> 00:21:14.220 help the police locate the bodies of the women 00:21:14.220 --> 00:21:16.640 who were still missing, whose families had no 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:19.140 answers. In exchange for all of that, they would 00:21:19.140 --> 00:21:21.500 take the death penalty off the table. He would 00:21:21.500 --> 00:21:23.940 get life in prison with no possibility of parole. 00:21:24.099 --> 00:21:27.000 This was a huge, huge decision for the prosecutor 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:29.759 at the time, Norm Malang. I remember the press 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:31.680 conference where he explained his reasoning. 00:21:31.900 --> 00:21:34.079 I do too. Malang stood up there and said, and 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:36.400 I'm paraphrasing, Gary Ridgway does not deserve 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:39.700 our mercy. He does not deserve to live. But he 00:21:39.700 --> 00:21:42.039 argued that this deal was the only avenue to 00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:44.799 the truth. He said the mercy wasn't for Ridgeway. 00:21:44.859 --> 00:21:46.920 It was for the families who had been waiting 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:49.460 20 years to know where their daughters were to 00:21:49.460 --> 00:21:52.519 bring their remains home. It's a purely utilitarian 00:21:52.519 --> 00:21:55.000 calculation, isn't it? Trade the death of one 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:57.500 man for the answers to dozens of unsolved mysteries. 00:21:57.859 --> 00:22:00.359 And in that sense, it worked. Ridgeway led them 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:03.039 to more remains. He sat with investigators for 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:06.319 months, for over 180 hours, detailing the crimes 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:09.579 in a cold, detached voice. He admitted he hated 00:22:09.579 --> 00:22:11.380 prostitutes and killed them so he wouldn't have 00:22:11.380 --> 00:22:14.130 to pay them. He admitted he killed so many he 00:22:14.130 --> 00:22:16.369 just lost count. And the sentencing was just 00:22:16.369 --> 00:22:20.369 a stack of life sentences. 48 consecutive life 00:22:20.369 --> 00:22:23.930 terms, plus another 480 years for tampering with 00:22:23.930 --> 00:22:26.490 evidence, one decade for each victim. And then 00:22:26.490 --> 00:22:29.069 a 49th life sentence was added a few years later 00:22:29.069 --> 00:22:31.289 when another victim was identified. Judge Richard 00:22:31.289 --> 00:22:33.849 Jones made it very clear that he would never, 00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:37.170 ever breathe free air again. Not for a single 00:22:37.170 --> 00:22:40.130 second. So he goes to prison. He sent to the 00:22:40.130 --> 00:22:42.269 Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, 00:22:42.269 --> 00:22:45.349 kept in solitary confinement. And for a long 00:22:45.349 --> 00:22:47.170 time, that was the end of the story for the public. 00:22:47.569 --> 00:22:49.650 But, and this is where we get to the really new 00:22:49.650 --> 00:22:52.170 information, the story didn't actually stop in 00:22:52.170 --> 00:22:55.369 2003. No, the work of a cold case detective never 00:22:55.369 --> 00:22:58.109 really stops. And in the last couple of years, 00:22:58.289 --> 00:23:02.339 specifically from 2024 through early 2026, We 00:23:02.339 --> 00:23:04.720 have seen some pretty significant movements in 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:06.700 this case. Let's start with the identifications, 00:23:06.740 --> 00:23:09.019 because for decades there were victims known 00:23:09.019 --> 00:23:12.619 only as Bone 17 or Jane Doe B10. That's right. 00:23:12.700 --> 00:23:15.259 And genetic genealogy has been an absolute game 00:23:15.259 --> 00:23:18.440 changer for these old cases. In late 2023 and 00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:21.359 into 2024, investigators finally identified Bone 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:24.000 17 as a young woman named Laurie Ann Raspotnick. 00:23:24.200 --> 00:23:26.400 She was just 15 years old when she ran away from 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:29.740 home in 1982, and Bones 20 was identified as 00:23:29.740 --> 00:23:32.339 Tammy Lyles. And Wendy Steele. She was the youngest 00:23:32.339 --> 00:23:34.980 confirmed victim, wasn't she? Yes, she was only 00:23:34.980 --> 00:23:38.380 14. For more than 30 years, she was just Jane 00:23:38.380 --> 00:23:40.799 Doe B -10. Giving these girls their names back 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:43.299 after all this time is a huge part of that ongoing 00:23:43.299 --> 00:23:47.200 mission for justice. But then... Things got really 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:49.640 weird with Ridgeway's incarceration status just 00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:52.380 recently. In September of 2024, there was this 00:23:52.380 --> 00:23:55.200 sudden, unexplained transfer. It raised a lot 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:57.220 of eyebrows in the media and among the victims' 00:23:57.359 --> 00:23:59.420 families. He was moved from the Supermax prison 00:23:59.420 --> 00:24:02.460 in Walla Walla to the much lower security King 00:24:02.460 --> 00:24:05.299 County Jail. And at the time, authorities were 00:24:05.299 --> 00:24:07.400 incredibly tight -lipped. They wouldn't say why. 00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:10.079 But documents that were unsealed in March of 00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:13.299 2025, just about a year ago now, they revealed 00:24:13.299 --> 00:24:15.779 the real reason for the move. And it was exactly... 00:24:15.849 --> 00:24:17.289 what the plea deal was all about. They brought 00:24:17.289 --> 00:24:19.210 him back to King County to help them locate more 00:24:19.210 --> 00:24:22.049 remains. Even in his mid -70s, even after all 00:24:22.049 --> 00:24:24.130 this time, they were still trying to wring every 00:24:24.130 --> 00:24:26.569 last drop of information out of him. And then, 00:24:26.690 --> 00:24:29.569 just a couple of months ago, in December of 2025, 00:24:30.029 --> 00:24:32.349 reports started circulating everywhere that Gary 00:24:32.349 --> 00:24:34.569 Ridgway was on his deathbed. The rumors were 00:24:34.569 --> 00:24:37.470 flying. that he was in hospice care, that he 00:24:37.470 --> 00:24:39.869 was receiving end -of -life treatment. Local 00:24:39.869 --> 00:24:42.569 radio stations were reporting it, citing anonymous 00:24:42.569 --> 00:24:44.930 sources within the prison system. But the Department 00:24:44.930 --> 00:24:46.829 of Corrections officially shut that down, didn't 00:24:46.829 --> 00:24:48.950 they? They did. They had to issue a formal statement 00:24:48.950 --> 00:24:51.049 saying the allegations were inaccurate. They 00:24:51.049 --> 00:24:53.130 acknowledged that he has health issues. I mean, 00:24:53.130 --> 00:24:55.809 he's an old man now in his late 70s. But they 00:24:55.809 --> 00:24:57.829 made it very clear that he is not in hospice 00:24:57.829 --> 00:25:00.809 care. The original sheriff, Dave Reichert, who 00:25:00.809 --> 00:25:02.650 was there from the absolute beginning, he had 00:25:02.650 --> 00:25:05.700 a pretty biting take on that whole rumor. Reichert 00:25:05.700 --> 00:25:08.240 has never been one to mince words about Ridgway. 00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:10.819 He suggested the rumors probably started because 00:25:10.819 --> 00:25:13.579 a photo had leaked in 2024 showing Ridgway in 00:25:13.579 --> 00:25:16.779 a wheelchair, but he flat out called Ridgway 00:25:16.779 --> 00:25:19.740 a pathological liar. He basically said, don't 00:25:19.740 --> 00:25:21.500 believe anything this guy says or that comes 00:25:21.500 --> 00:25:23.740 out about him unless we can verify it 10 times 00:25:23.740 --> 00:25:27.250 over. It is just wild to me that even now, in 00:25:27.250 --> 00:25:30.970 2026, he is still generating headlines. He's 00:25:30.970 --> 00:25:34.369 still this dark cloud that hangs over the Pacific 00:25:34.369 --> 00:25:37.390 Northwest. He is. And as long as there are still 00:25:37.390 --> 00:25:39.769 dozens of suspected victims who have never been 00:25:39.769 --> 00:25:42.509 found, that cloud isn't going to go away. The 00:25:42.509 --> 00:25:45.670 case is, in many ways, still open. So what does 00:25:45.670 --> 00:25:47.869 this all mean in the end? When we step back and 00:25:47.869 --> 00:25:49.930 look at the total legacy of the Green River Killer, 00:25:50.109 --> 00:25:53.059 what do we learn? I think, well, it's a legacy 00:25:53.059 --> 00:25:56.480 of almost unimaginable devastation. 49 confirmed 00:25:56.480 --> 00:25:59.740 dead, likely closer to 90, generations of families 00:25:59.740 --> 00:26:02.500 destroyed. But it's also a legacy of systemic 00:26:02.500 --> 00:26:05.099 failure. How so? Because the Green River case 00:26:05.099 --> 00:26:08.339 proved... In the most brutal way possible, that 00:26:08.339 --> 00:26:11.039 if you pick the right victims, women that society 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:14.779 has marginalized, women deemed less than, you 00:26:14.779 --> 00:26:17.259 can operate with near impunity for a very, very 00:26:17.259 --> 00:26:19.799 long time. It forced police departments across 00:26:19.799 --> 00:26:22.440 the country to completely rethink how they investigate 00:26:22.440 --> 00:26:25.140 crimes against sex workers and runaways. It changed 00:26:25.140 --> 00:26:27.519 how law enforcement databases talk to each other. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:29.819 And it brings us right back to that final difficult 00:26:29.819 --> 00:26:32.500 question about the plea deal. It does. It's the 00:26:32.500 --> 00:26:35.039 question that still gets debated today. The deal 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:37.849 saved his life. He is sitting in a cell right 00:26:37.849 --> 00:26:41.029 now, breathing, eating three meals a day because 00:26:41.029 --> 00:26:43.130 he traded the locations of his victims' bodies. 00:26:43.509 --> 00:26:45.849 It's the ultimate ethical dilemma for the justice 00:26:45.849 --> 00:26:49.230 system. Justice usually means punishment, an 00:26:49.230 --> 00:26:51.609 eye for an eye. In this case, they sacrificed 00:26:51.609 --> 00:26:53.890 the ultimate punishment in order to get the truth. 00:26:54.029 --> 00:26:57.240 So was it worth it? There's no easy answer. There 00:26:57.240 --> 00:27:00.259 isn't. If you ask the mother who finally got 00:27:00.259 --> 00:27:02.500 her daughter's bones back after 20 years and 00:27:02.500 --> 00:27:04.920 could finally give her a proper funeral, she 00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:06.880 might tell you, yes, it was absolutely worth 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:09.240 it. But if you ask someone who believes that 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:12.000 justice for 49 murders demands the ultimate price, 00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:14.880 they'll tell you that justice was denied. It's 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:17.779 a heavy thought to end on that we have this this. 00:27:18.789 --> 00:27:21.809 dyslexic truck painter, a man of low intelligence 00:27:21.809 --> 00:27:24.809 who used the simplest forms of manipulation and 00:27:24.809 --> 00:27:27.970 relied on society's indifference to become the 00:27:27.970 --> 00:27:30.210 most prolific convicted serial killer in American 00:27:30.210 --> 00:27:32.650 history. It reminds us that monsters don't always 00:27:32.650 --> 00:27:34.430 look like monsters. They don't have horns and 00:27:34.430 --> 00:27:36.150 a tail. They look like the guy painting a truck 00:27:36.150 --> 00:27:38.349 next to you or the guy sitting in the pew at 00:27:38.349 --> 00:27:42.250 church on Sunday. And that, perhaps, is the scariest 00:27:42.250 --> 00:27:45.920 part of this entire story. Thank you for listening 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:48.140 to this deep dive into the Green River Killer. 00:27:48.319 --> 00:27:51.059 Stay curious and stay critical. We'll see you 00:27:51.059 --> 00:27:51.420 next time.