Ridgway Shooting Essay

Ridgway was a white male that was the second of three boys born into a family in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1949. His home life was on the troubled side. Relatives pointed out that his mother was dominating. They have also said that, when Ridgway was young, he witnessed more than one act of domestic violence between his mother and father. When Ridgway’s IQ was tested he received a score of 82, signifying below average intelligence. He performed poorly in his academics and his classmates described him as being quiet and largely forgettable.

Ridgway’s teenage years were no better and were also troubled. He would frequently and often wet the bed up until the age of 14. When his mother would discover he had done so she would force him to march naked

Ridgway would have sex with the victim and then dump them in the wooded areas around the Green River. Ridgeway would place the bodies in clusters and pose them nude. He would even sometimes return to the bodies to have sex with them.

His victims were usually prostitutes or runaways. He picked up his victims on Route 99 in south King County, Washington not too far from the Seattle airport. Ridgeway never used a weapon; he strangled all of his victims. Ridgeway was always a suspect but after passing a polygraph test in 1984 and was not convicted. Three years went by and police, with Ridgway still as a suspect, collected hair and saliva samples from Ridgeway. At the time he was getting away with murder.

It wasn’t until 2001 when his hair and saliva was pulled from storage and there was a match to three of the victims. In 2003 he went to trial and confessed to 48 murders. Prosecutors chose not to convict him with the death penalty. Prosecutors sentenced him to 48 consecutive life sentences. He is currently living and serving his sentences at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla Washington. Once imprisoned he confessed to twice as many murders than he was convicted for. He claimed to be remorseful for what he had