Gary Ridgway: Serial Killers

In today’s world, murderers aren’t a surprising thing, as long as they are fictional. Plenty of TV shows and movies have plot lines around murder, but what about real life? As Scott Bonn states in his writing, of the approximate 15,000 murders in the United States, only 1 percent are serial killings, amounting to about 150 victims per year, with between 25 and 50 serial killers active at any given time. There are plenty of statistics on serial killers. 1 in 20 had the same three characteristics as a child: bedwetting, fire setting, and torturing animals. Animal torture is a common indicator that the child will be violent in the future. Also, over 30 percent of murderers use killing as a way for their sexual arousal (Stone). A murderer

The mind of a serial killer is not right and is considered a psychopath. This can be caused by brain damage. “After Henry Lee Lucas was convicted, he underwent numerous neurological tests that revealed fairly extensive brain damage. Small contusions indicated a frontal lobe injury, and there was damage to his temporal lobe and pools of spinal fluid at the base of his brain” (Vronsky, 2005). Lucas’s brain damage is just one cause. Another common reason is that the serial killer would of had an abusive childhood. “Traditionally, the answer has been a horrific upbringing. Most serial killers were abused as children, many hideously so.” (Sandi, n.d) This can have a range of different abusive activities. One example would be an abusive mother. The killer’s mother would have abused him therefore making him hate women. That would be an example of how a man killing female serial killer would relate. He would physically abuse the women just like his mother abused him. Another form of abuse is an alcoholic parent. The serial killer would wait outside of a bar and look to see of his potential victims were under the influence. If they were then they would most likely kill the person. A serial killer can also have a euphoric moment. He could see his

way had glasses and a mustache and for the most part he looked normal. His nickname was The Green River Killer because some of the bodies of his killing were fished out of the Green River in King County, Washington. The killings took place from the 1982 to 2001 (Newton, 2000, p.223). It is known that Ridgway had sexual intercourse with the prostitutes before he killed them. After a while, he would also have sex with them after they were dead. Another interesting fact is that sometimes, after Ridgway had sex with the already dead victims, he would put rocks in their vaginas (Philbin, 2011, p.199). Ridgway may have easily killed up to 90 women, but it will never be known because in videos, he says that he is not completely sure exactly how many

Serial murder is one of the most baffling crimes that occur in the U.S. and all over the world. Knight (2006) defines serial murder as the killing of three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant cooling-off period. The cooling off period may be weeks, months or even years long. Researchers have proposed various psychological, biological and sociological theories that offer a partial understanding of the nature of serial murder. Some propose that the basis for criminal behavior is a predisposition to violence as well as a mix between environment, personality traits and biological factors. Serial killers are predominantly male. Only 3 percent of serial murders are committed by women (U.S. News and World Report,

He was a major alcoholic and was forced to join the army by his father which he hated and left. After he left his drinking got worse. Then he went out to party and got hookups all the time with dudes. The amazing Jeffrey Dahmer not only got his victims drunk and drugged and raped them, he murdered them then cut them up, ate certain body parts and kept the genitals for sex toys, because it gave him ’power’ also take pictures and masturbate to the photos. Murdered 17 males starting at June 6, 1978 and he was 18, his last victim was in July 19,1991 and he was 31.

Theodore Bundy was an infamous American serial killer who preyed upon numerous young women during the 1970s and possibly earlier. He was associated with at least 30 counts of homicide and suspected of an estimated one hundred or more. Beyond homicide, he also made it apparent that he was capable of other sinister crimes such as rape, kidnapping, and necrophilia. His most frequent method of killing was an attack with a blunt weapon to the head. However, he did not merely kill his victims; evidence concludes that each were also sexually assaulted and sodomized. It is reported that he even revisited his crime scenes to further engage in sexual acts with the decomposing corpses. Moreover, at least 12 of his victims had been decapitated .

When he realized that he was a homosexual, the thoughts of naked men, with dead things would arouse him even more. It would not be until the age of eighteen, when Dahmer would lure his first victim, and then take his life. He picked up a hitchhiker, they drank alcohol, had sex, and then when Dahmer did not want the man to leave, he would hit him over the head with a dumbbell. In an interview he once had with a FBI profiler, he stated “the guy wanted to leave, and I did not want him to.” He now had a dead human being lying on his floor, for him to have his way with. He would masturbate on to the body; he cut him up, put him into trash bags, and dumped the bags into a ravine. His parents would soon be settling for a divorce, which did not go over well with Dahmer, especially with his abandonment issues. He started drinking, which would cause him to steal to get money to buy more alcohol, which led him to drop out of college, and down a path of self-destruction. With no other choices, he joined the army where he became a cook, which is where he picked up his butchery skills. The alcohol once again got the best of him, and he was discharged from the army. A few years later his urge to kill had grown stronger and could not resist it any longer. He started luring men to him apartment, where he would drug and disremember them. He would start to experiment with trying to

Serial killers are the byproduct of many different things: trauma, death of loved ones, abuse, neglect, adoption, and even witnessing abuse (Are Serial). Serial killers have had to endure a massive amount of something such as trauma or abuse to an unimaginable extent to become what they are; the extent of the abuse, the trauma, the psychological damage they endure is incomprehensible to many. The destruction of one’s innocence can occur at any given time in his or her life, but he or she is more impressionable in his or her youth by the negativism of someone else’s actions (Scott, Shirley L. What Makes Serial Killers Tick ~ Childhood Event). People are susceptible to what they endure in their adolescence, and cruel upbringings, such as

Ever heard of the zodiac killer? He was a serial killer who operated in northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The killer's identity remains unknown. The Zodiac murdered victims in 5 states between December 1968 and October 1969. The general profile for a serial killer is a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern. There are many types of serial killers. There are natural born killers who are born willing to kill someone, insane killers which have mental and physical disorders and criminaloids who do not exhibit specific traits. The childhood of a serial killer would typically be someone who is neglected by their family mainly their mothers. They tend to be antisocial and have anger issues. Poor families often cannot provide what the child always wants so they might commit crimes to get want they want. Abused children have a higher chance of being killers also because they have a lot of built up aggression and anger. All can lead to substance abuse which is never a good thing to mix in with a potential serial killer in the making. General behavioral progression from pre-crime to post-crime are that they use killing as a source of relief. Before committing a serious crime they could have built up anger and hatred. They is a high possibility that they are suffering from depression and anxiety too. After killing someone the killer feels relieved. They also feel

There are 4 major typologies of serial murders. One type is referred to as visionary type. A visionary type serial killer murders due to pressure from delusions, hallucinations or visions. They exhibit extreme psychopathy and do not clean up their crime scene. They often report that they have committed the crime because voice in their head told them too. Another type is power and control serial killers, they tend to enjoy their victim’s suffering and torture. They often sexually abuse their victims, but they are not interested by feelings of desire. Mission orientated serial murders feel as through they are doing society a favor by murdering certain people such as prostitutes, drug dealers, or homosexuals, people they feel that society could do without. These murders are very seldom psychopathic. Last, but not least is known as trill-orientated motive type,

Gary, five years younger than Michael, left school to seek work due to a hearing impairment. His interests for cars at a young age lead to multiple car thefts before the murder. He was also known to have a very violent temper.

Serial killers is a person that kill three or more people in a short amount of time. He or she murder one after another in a similar way with an inactive period between each murder. The motivation for murdering an adult or child is based on psychological gratification. The serial killer is normally an adult white male in his late twenties, who has killed four or more individuals in separate incident with an inactive period between. It is impossible to tell just by looking at a person who will become a serial killer, the traits of some criminals or serial killers appear to be similar most of the time. The types of behaviors

Described as “THE execution” (Lyons & Trei, 1989, p. Ia) serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy was put to death by the State of Florida at 7.16 A.M. January 24, 1989. During his life he had been convicted of the 1978 rape and murder of a 12 year old, Kimberly Leach in Lack City; and the death of Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, sorority sisters at Florida State University. Just two days before his execution Bundy also admitted to killing a number of other females of various ages in Washington, Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Florida although he was never tried or convicted for those (Rule, 1989, p. 479-480). In total it is estimated that he killed between 25 and 30 women (Rule, 1989).

After being betrayed by yet another woman in his life, this could have had a psychological meaning to Ridgway. He could have categorized all women as being selfish and disrespectful to him. After learning the news of his wife cheating on him, Ridgway divorced her and then married Marcia Winslow. During this relationship he began choking his wife. It is also told by Minzie and Shields (2007) that, “Ridgway enjoyed sexual bondage and taking her to secluded places, like the banks of the Green River, to have sex outdoors” (p.79).

Ridgway’s childhood is more straight forward when it comes to affecting his future behavior. His mother was an intimidating woman who constantly asserted her dominance over both her son and her husband. She never did sexually abuse him, but he later admitted that her demeanor and dress made him feel some sexual attraction towards her. In high school, he was a D student who did not go on to college after graduating. After graduating he had a couple odd jobs and would eventually marry three women, on separate occasions, and then be divorced by all of them. His ex-wives and ex-girlfriends all reported him being abusive and sexually insatiable throughout all his relationships. He was not only like that with his significant others, but also with the prostitutes he used, explaining his victim type. He seemed to be judgmental about the prostitutes and their way of life because he frequently complained about them, but he still continued to use their services. While he was going from girlfriend to girlfriend after his second divorce was also when he performed the majority of his killings (Lackey, Jones, Johnson).