Gary Ridgeway

Gary Ridgeway

Gary Ridgeway, son of Mary and Thomas Ridgeway, was born on February 18, 1949, in Salt City, Utah (Tikkanen, 2020). His childhood was troubled in that he witnessed multiple scenarios of domestic violence between his parents. The mother was domineering while the father was a bus driver who was agitated by the existence of harlots. Ridgeway experienced a bedwetting problem until his early adolescence years and is mother washed his genitalia after every episode. He narrated to his defense psychologists that this brought about conflicting feelings for his mother like anger, sexual attraction towards her, and fantasies of killing her. Ridgeway had dyslexia that affected his learning capabilities. At the age of 16, he led a 6-year old-child into the forest and jabbed him. The child later recovered from the attack. In 1969, Ridgway graduated from High School.

Ridgway married Claudia Kraig, immediately after high school, but the marriage lasted only for a year. Ridgeway enrolled in the United States Navy and was sent to Vietnam to serve onboard a supply vessel. While he was in the military, he started participating in unprotected sexual activities with harlots even though he had a love-hate attitude towards them. Ridgeway later married Marcia Winslow, who bore him a son. He became religious during this second marriage, reading the bible aloud, crying after sermons, and missionizing from door to door. Also, Ridgeway insisted that Marcia had to follow the preaching of their pastor to the latter. Despite Ridgeway’s religious ideologies, he continued to seek the services of harlots and asked Marcia to have sex in inappropriate places. The marriage didn’t last long. The women in his life claim that he had an insatiable sexual appetite and the same pattern of wanting sex in inappropriate places. Some suspect that Ridgeway was torn between his desires and strict religious convictions.

Ridgeway killed over 71 women and teenage girls between the 1980s and 1990s, who were either harlots or delinquents. He collected them along the Pacific Highway South, had sex with them, and then strangled. The murders occurred in his truck, house, or secluded areas and disposed of their bodies naked in the woods and dumpsites of South King County. Sometimes, he would go back to the corpses to have coitus with them. Necrophilia wasn’t quenching his sexual needs but reduced the need to acquire a new victim, thereby reducing the risk of getting caught (Tikkanen, 2020). Ridgeway would use other people’s things to contaminate the “dumpsites,” and move the deceased remains across state borders to alter with the police investigations.

Investigations of the murders by the King County Sheriff’s Office began in the early 1980s. Members of the task force worked alongside Ted Bundy, an imprisoned serial killer that offered insight on the motivations and mannerisms of the murderer. The police were to find a fresh grave since the killer would revisit the dumpsites for sex, and wait for him to return to the site. In 1982, he was arrested for prostitution. Then in 1988, Ridgeway married Judith Mawson as his third wife. During this marriage, he says that his crime rate reduced. Only three of the known victims were killed around this time. Ridgeway was arrested on November 30, 2001, on the basis that the DNA of semen left in the victims’ bodies 20 years before matched the saliva swab taken. He confessed to his crimes and acknowledged targeting sex workers since they were “easy.” He admitted to having sex with the deceased bodies, claiming that he started burying them to resist the desire to commit necrophilia.

Crimes committed by Ridgeway may be classified as disorganized. This is because, he had a below-average IQ of low eighties (William E. Benet, 2019), he lived in the same county in which committed the crimes and was socially inadequate. His family and friends described him as friendly but strange. Also, he had sex with the corpses of his victims, and the victims were unknown to him. Ridgeway belonged to the Hedonist type, lust-killers sub-group of serial killers. This is because his victims were strangers and were either harlots or runaways. They were geographically concentrated within South King County. Besides, he followed a consistent sequence of fetching them, having sex with them, killing them, and then dumping their bodies.

Lust murderers can be related to an addict and their addiction to drugs. They have insatiable sexual desires that turn out to be their greatest motivation. Therefore, they have to continually keep on quenching their craving, which results in a series of victims. In my opinion, these hedonistic serial killers can only be prevented from killing more people by isolating them from society. Therefore, protecting people from falling prey to such and depriving the hedonistic person of their lusts.

However, they can decide to stop by themselves either consciously or unconsciously. Consciously is by noticing the harmful effects that their activities have on other people and choosing to stop. It may be challenging, thus the need to note down the triggers and avoiding them. The criminal has to intentionally fill up his time with constructive activities to release neurochemicals that elicit feelings of happiness without really having to slip back into the old habits. Besides, seeking a support group assists in the walk through the recovery journey is crucial.

For subconsciously quitting, the intervals between the killings gradually decrease. Alternatively, the quantity of sexual stimulation may need to increase. For example, how Ridgway’s sexual desires decreased gradually. Well, they may go through periods of dormancy due to factors such as finding new avenues to express their feelings—an example of how Dennis Radar engaged in autoerotic activities in place of killing people. Also, moving away from the epicenter of their activities increases the stretch between killings.

Works Cited

Gary Ridgway. Crime Museum. (2017). https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/gary-ridgway/.

Gary Ridgway. Criminal Minds Wiki. https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Gary_Ridgway.

Tikkanen, A. (2020, February 14). Gary Ridgway. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gary-Ridgway.

William E. Benet, P. D. (2019). IQ Classifications. http://www.assessmentpsychology.com/iqclassifications.htm.