MAN ADMITS TO 48 MURDERS; SPARED EXECUTION!

My Way ^ | Nov 5, 1:23 PM (ET) | By GENE JOHNSON

[ConservativeMan55]

Suspect Admits 48 Seattle-Area Killings

(AP) Gary Ridgway in court on Wednesday November 5, 2003 in the King County Courthouse in Seattle... Full Image

SEATTLE (AP) - Gary Ridgway, the former truck painter long suspected of being the Green River Killer, admitted in court Wednesday to 48 murders. "I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight," he said in a confession read aloud by prosecutors.

"I wanted to kill as many women as I thought were prostitutes as I possibly could," Ridgway said in the statement.

Some relatives of victims wept quietly in the courtroom.

Ridgway, 54, struck a plea bargain that will spare him from execution and result in a sentence of life in prison without parole. The agreement signed June 13 would put more murders on his record than any other serial killer in U.S. history.

(AP) Gary Ridgway, at left, listens as individual guilty pleas are read on Tuesday, November 5, 2003 in... Full Image

Since signing off on the deal, Ridgway has worked with investigators to recover still-missing remains of some victims in the case.

The deal would all but close one of the most baffling and chilling serial killer cases the nation has ever seen.

The Green River Killer's murderous frenzy began in 1982, targeting women in the Seattle area, mainly runaways and prostitutes. The first victims turned up in the Green River, giving the killer his name. Other bodies were found near ravines, airports and freeways.

The killing seemed to stop as suddenly as it started, with prosecutors believing the last victim had disappeared in 1984. But one of the killings Ridgway admitted to occurred in 1990 and another in 1998.

In court Wednesday, Ridgway was presented with the details of each slaying, one by one, and was asked to confirm them. After that, he was expected to plead guilty.

(AP) Mona Joyner, of Seattle, stands at the King County Courthouse in Seattle Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2003... Full Image

He said in his statement that he killed all the women in King County, mostly near his home or in his truck not far from where he picked them up.

"In most cases, when I killed these women, I did not know their names," Ridgway said in the statement. "Most of the time I killed them the first time I met them, and I do not have a good memory of their their faces."

He said he had several reasons for preying on prostitutes.

"I hate most prostitutes and I did not want to pay them for sex," he said. "I also picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught."

Ridgway, of the Seattle suburb of Auburn, was arrested in 2001 as he left his longtime job as a painter at a truck company. Prosecutors said advances in DNA technology had allowed them to match a saliva sample taken from Ridgway in 1987 with DNA samples taken from the bodies of three of the earliest victims.

In many cases, the killer had sex with his victim and then strangled her.

Ridgway had been a suspect as early as 1984, when Marie Malvar's boyfriend reported that he last saw her getting into a pickup truck identified as Ridgway's.

But Ridgway told police he didn't know Malvar, and investigators cleared him as a suspect. Later that year, Ridgway contacted the King County sheriff's Green River task force - ostensibly to offer information about the case - and passed a polygraph test.

[ConservativeMan55]

If ever there was one needed...this is it.

"Just Damn!!!"

[ConservativeMan55]

This guy is just freaky!

[ConservativeMan55]

[5veingrafts]

I guess two or three more and they would have considered the death penalty.

[jmcclain19]

The worst part about this plea bargin, besides the horror the families have to deal with, knowing this murder got a second chance when their daughters, sisters and mothers did not, is that it effectively renders Washington's death penalty nil.

Every lawyer worth his salt, will now argue that, hey, if the state gave someone with 48 murder counts a plea, how can they kill someone with 1 or 2 or whatever murder counts.

Sad Day for Washington Justice.

[ConservativeMan55]

Oh my! I never thought about that!

[StatesEnemy]

Don't worry - some jailbird vigilante will dispatch Mr. Ridgeway in a much more violent and apropos manner.

[Afronaut]

You bring shame to the conservative cause with your idiot post.

[ConservativeMan55]

I was kind of wondering about that as well.

But don't these guys get solitary confinement?

[ConservativeMan55]

I'm not sure if its the number. I believe it is more closely related to who was killed.

[StatesEnemy]

Ask Jeffie Dalmer.

[5veingrafts]

re 7, separated at birth?

[Heyworth]

The problem is that this guy had something to trade by leading them to bodies they hadn't discovered. He's also saved the state millions upon millions of dollars in court costs and legal fees it would take to go through the years of appeals a death penalty case requires.

[5veingrafts]

How many whores = how many normal folks?

[Not A Snowbird]

The whole thing boiled down to Ridgeway helping investigators find the remains of all these women so their families could have "closure" (shudder... I hate that word.) They're still finding sites, rather close to where I live.

That's why he was spared execution, he cooperated. Not saying it was right, but...

[bitcon]

Yes but at the same time the police didn't know where some of these bodies were hidden. By giving a plea bargain they forced Ridgeway to admit to more murders and turn over the bodies. I would like to see death for him but I think that it's better for the families of victims who didn't have remains to have the remains. There is a chance that he could still get death but only if they find another victim who he didn't confess to murdering.

[Lucky2]

Since he was spared he should now live in the general prison population. He'll be some big guy's boyfriend and subject to the prison way of punishment. If he lasts a year in the "big house" it will be a miracle.

[Norse]

>How many whores = how many normal folks?

What do you mean??