Story: Reflection

The Green River murders are not all that different from other prolific murders. However, they are an interesting set. Ridgway’s M.O. did not compare to the M.O. of typical sexual predators. Most sexual predators are drawn to their victims based on certain characteristics such as hair color, age, height, ect. Ridgway targeted women that were grouped into a single class; prostitution. He targeted female prostitutes because they are used to being picked up so it wouldn’t have been too suspicious for them to get into a random. This was a smart move on Ridgway’s part. His obsession with them bordered on a love-hate relationship. If he simply hated them, he would have outright killed them instead of getting them comfortable like he later admitted to doing. He instead chose to engage in sexual acts and make them less nervous before actually killing them. This could be because of some psychological disorder that is associated with his insatiable desire. The fact that Ridgway’s conviction took 20 years is unusual but not shocking. Forensic and DNA technology was very unreliable and could have resulted in the loss of valuable evidence. So it was smart of detective Reichert to hold off on testing the evidence.