WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Gary Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, was transferred back to the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla Friday evening.
Ridgway is currently serving 49 life sentences for murders he committed starting in 1982. On Monday, Sept. 9, he was booked into the King County Jail after spending approximately two decades in Walla Walla.
Ridgway was booked on Monday on an institutional hold. However, not much was released about why he was transferred to the Seattle jail in the first place.
The judge granted a seal of the transport order, which is effective until Aug. 22, 2025.
According to court documents, the judge granted the order to protect any ongoing homicide investigations. Additionally, no objections were noted by the DOC, the order could protect the privacy of potential victims and their families and the timeline of one year is "no broader in its application and duration than necessary."
Green River Killer case background
Ridgway terrorized the Pacific Northwest for decades until his eventual arrest in 2001. He was first questioned by police for his involvement in 1983. He targeted young, vulnerable women and girls. Many of the victims were prostituted people or young girls who ran away from home.
Detectives were unable to prove his role until 2001, when advancements in DNA technology allowed them to link a saliva sample they had obtained from him in 1987 to semen found on several victims. In 2001, he was charged in the deaths of four women: Marcia Chapman, Opal Mills, Cynthia Hinds and Carol Ann Christensen.
For a complete list of the women and girls who lost their lives at the hands of Ridgway, click here.
Ridgway confesses to murders
In exchange for the prosecutor not seeking the death penalty, Ridgway pleaded guilty to the 48 murders he was charged with in King County in June 2003. As part of the agreement, he also had to lead investigators to where he left the bodies of the women and girls he murdered. Then, he pleaded guilty to the 49th charge in February 2011 for the 1982 killing of 20-year-old Rebecca Marrero. He received his 49th life sentence.
“Gary Ridgway does not deserve our mercy, and Gary Ridgway does not deserve to live," Republican King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng said in November 2003. “The mercy provided by today's resolution is not directed toward Gary Ridgway, but toward the families who suffered so much and to the larger community.”
Ridgway claimed responsibility for dozens of other crimes, but none have been definitively linked to him.
