He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders committed between the early s and late s. As part of his plea bargain , another conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49, making him the second-most prolific serial killer in United States history according to confirmed murders. Most of Ridgway's victims were alleged to be sex workers and other women in vulnerable circumstances, including underage runaways. Before his identity was known, the media gave him his nickname after the first five victims were found in the Green River.
After strangling them, he would dump their bodies in forested and overgrown areas in King County , often returning to the bodies to engage in acts of necrophilia.
Ridgway had been a suspect in the murders since ; however, investigators were unable to link him to the murders at that time. Later advances in DNA profiling allowed investigators to definitively link Ridgway to the murders, and he was arrested on November 30, , as he was leaving the Kenworth truck factory where he worked in Renton, Washington.
His home life was somewhat troubled; relatives have described his mother as domineering and have said that, while young, he witnessed more than one violent argument between his parents. His father was a bus driver who would often complain about the presence of sex workers. Ridgway had a bed-wetting problem until he was 13, [ 6 ] and his mother would forcefully wash his genitals after every episode, and would inflict physical punishment on him and his brothers using belts or sticks for minor offenses.
Ridgway is dyslexic , and was held back a year in high school. Ridgway had led the boy into the woods and then stabbed him through the ribs into his liver. Ridgway graduated from Tyee High School in and married his year-old high school girlfriend, Claudia Kraig. He joined the United States Navy [ 8 ] and was sent to Vietnam , where he served on board a supply ship [ 9 ] and saw combat. The marriage ended within a year. When questioned about Ridgway after his arrest, friends and family described him as friendly but strange.
