A Perverse Origin to the Green River Killer
Not that many people have ever been as obsessed with prostitutes as was Gary Ridgway (1949 – ). Sadly for the prostitutes he came in contact with, his obsession was of the worst possible kind: that of a homicidal stalker and prolific serial killer with his target population. Ridgway, also known as “The Green River Killer”, was convicted of the murder of 48 women, and pled guilty to another murder. Most of his victims were prostitutes. He eventually confessed to the murder of 71 women. It was a horrific for Ridgway, who was born in Salt Lake City, grew up in a poor neighborhood, and was raised by parents who often argued violently.
Ridgway wet his bed until he was thirteen. Whenever he did so, his mother washed his genitals. He informed psychologists that in his teens, he had been attracted to his mother, and simultaneously fantasized about killing her. Ridgway’s father often complained about the proliferation of prostitutes in and around the neighborhood. Between that, the humiliation of his bed wetting into his teens, what his mother did with his genitals whenever he did, and other dysfunctions as he grew up, something went wrong. It did not help that he was dyslexic, with an IQ in the 80s.