Gary Ridgeway Essay

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Gary Ridgway-Essay #1 Sacha R Gary Leon Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer (McCarthy, 2002), is known as one of the most infamous and notorious serial killers to have prowled the United States. Gary Ridgway killed at least 49 women, and some investigators believe he killed up to 90 (McCarthy, 2002). Gary’s preferred method of killing was through strangulation, often using his hands, or sometimes using ligatures. How did a boy named Gary come to become the highly feared and very hard to trace Green River Killer? This essay will describe and assess Gary Leon Ridgway’s story, from childhood to his darker days. Robert Hare’s theory of crime and psychopath categories will be taken into consideration and used to more appropriately understand the man dubbed the Green River Killer. At the end of this essay, whether or not Gary Ridgway can be classified as a primary, secondary, or dissocial psychopath. Gary Ridgway began murdering women in the 1980’s and continued into the 1990’s, he murdered so many that his court statements state that he had lost count (Guillen, 2006). The majority of the murders took place between 1982-1984 (Guillen, 2006). Ridgway’s murders all began in the same way: by picking up a woman, usually a prostitute, after gaining their trust, sometimes by showing them a picture of his son, he would have sex with the woman, strangle her from behind and would dispose of the body (Guillen, 2006). At times, Ridgway would also return to his victim’s bodies and engage in sexual acts with them (McCarthy, 2002). Ridgway was born on February 18th, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah (McCarthy, 2002). Gary grew up in a poor family with two brothers, Greg and Tom (McCarthy, 2002). Gary’s father drove trucks as a living, and was not often away from the house (McCarthy, 2002). Gary’s mother was the

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