The Green River Killer

The Life and Crimes of Gary Ridgway

By: Mark Stokes

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Gary Ridgway—known to the public as the “Green River Killer”—was a man who hid in plain sight: a seemingly ordinary truck painter, a family man, and a familiar face in Seattle’s suburbs. Yet beneath the surface lay one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history. Between 1982 and 1998, he strangled dozens of vulnerable women—many of them sex workers or runaways—disposing of their bodies in remote wooded areas near the Green River and elsewhere. Only advances in DNA profiling finally unraveled his facade of normalcy, linking him to a killing spree that spanned two decades and claimed at least 49 confirmed lives, though he later claimed over 70 victims.

The Green River Killer reconstructs the chilling timeline—from the early disappearances and mounting investigative frustrations to the DNA breakthroughs and arrest that shook the nation. Drawing on a range of sources, this account delves into Ridgway’s twisted methodology: the deceptive use of trust, the obsessive revisitation of sites, and the necrophilic behaviours that horrified professionals and the public alike. Through vivid storytelling matched with meticulous research, the book shows how calculated cunning and investigative blindspots allowed evil to fester for years.

But this is more than a crime chronicle—it’s a sobering reflection on the fragility of societal safety, the biases that shield predators, and the persistence of victims whose names were long forgotten. It honors the lives of the women who disappeared, gives voice to the survivors of systemic failure, and illuminates how clusters of tragedy can shatter communities. Riveting, unflinching, and essential, The Green River Killer compels us to ask: how many monsters walk among us—and what must we do to see them for what they truly are?