"Doing You Guys a Favor": Gary Ridgway's Confession Tapes on KOMO 4, Part 1

Name: "Doing You Guys a Favor": Gary Ridgway's Confession Tapes on KOMO 4, Part 1
Uploaded: 2011-09-30
Duration: 3 min 33 s
Description: On the day the Green River Killer's taped confessions were released, KOMO 4 in Seattle aired the first excerpts: Ridgway explaining, without emotion, why he killed and how.

On the day the Green River Killer's taped confessions were released, KOMO 4 in Seattle aired the first excerpts: Ridgway explaining, without emotion, why he killed and how.

Subject: Gary Ridgway
Recorded: about June 13, 2003
Runtime: 3:33

Content warning: Ridgway describes strangling women; the report refers to the murders of dozens of women and to his young son being nearby during one killing.

The Interview

Beginning on June 13, 2003, Gary Ridgway spent months answering the questions of the Green River Task Force under an agreement that would spare him the death penalty if he told the truth about every killing and led detectives to remains. The sessions were videotaped. When King County prosecutors released the tapes, KOMO 4 News in Seattle led its evening newscast with them. In this first report, reporter Liz Rocca plays short excerpts in which Ridgway says he thought he was "doing you guys a favor" by killing prostitutes, describes strangling women, and guides investigators to a body site.

Historical Context

From 1982 the bodies of young women, many of them sex workers or runaways from the Pacific Highway South "Strip" near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, were found along the Green River and in wooded areas of King County. The case went unsolved for almost twenty years. On November 30, 2001, Ridgway, a truck painter at the Kenworth plant in Renton, was arrested for four of the murders after DNA testing linked him to three of them. In 2003 he agreed to plead guilty and to cooperate in exchange for his life.

Circumstances of the Interview

The interviews were conducted by task-force detectives, with FBI participation, over about six to seven months in 2003. They included "field trips" on which Ridgway led detectives to places where he had left bodies, and sessions with a forensic psychologist. On November 5, 2003, he pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder, and on December 18, 2003, he was sentenced to 48 consecutive life terms without parole. The release of the tapes followed in 2004.

What the Interview Covers

In the excerpts Ridgway says he thought he was doing the police a favor, because "you guys can't control them, but I can." He describes choking a woman to death and tying his socks around her neck, and says he agreed to plead guilty to the counts he committed, "not any others." The report says that in his first interview he put the number of women he had killed at at least 47, and possibly 53. On a field trip he directs investigators to a guardrail and says "this is definitely the spot." In the last excerpt he describes killing a woman in woods near SeaTac Airport while his son Matthew waited in his truck.

What Makes the Recording Significant

Ridgway did not stand trial, so there was no courtroom testimony from him. These tapes are the main record of his account in his own voice. The report shows how he spoke about the killings: the reporter describes it as a "robotic recitation" with "little or no emotion." It also shows the field trips that led investigators to remains that had not been found for about twenty years.

Archival Importance

Ridgway was convicted of 48 murders in 2003 and a 49th, Rebecca Marrero, in 2011, and is reported to have confessed to more confirmed murders than any other American serial killer. Hundreds of hours of his tapes exist, but only fragments have been widely broadcast. This report preserves excerpts as they were shown to viewers in Seattle, where the killings took place.

Important Caveats

Ridgway's statements about his motives and his counts are his own claims. The figures of 47 to 53 women are the report's summary of what he told detectives in his first interview, not established totals. The excerpts are short and chosen by KOMO; the clip is not a full interview. The broadcast date is not confirmed; it was the day of a release of the tapes, either in February 2004 or in August 2006. The upload's description, "after his arrest", is misleading: the tapes were made in 2003, about a year and a half after his arrest.

Anchor: Good evening. First for local news, the chilling confessions of Green River Killer Gary Ridgway. Today, investigators released hundreds of hours of videotape of their interrogation of Ridgway, his field trips showing police where he hid bodies, and intriguing discussions between Ridgway and a forensic psychologist. We have complete Team 4 coverage tonight. KOMO 4's Liz Rocca and Emily Langley have been poring through the hours and hours of video and the transcripts. We begin tonight with Liz and some of the most shocking revelations. Liz?

Narrator: Well, Kathy, much of this material is quite graphic. What is also startling here is that Gary Ridgway lays out his confession with little or no emotion. It's a robotic recitation of his brutal crimes and his twisted justification for mass murder.

Gary Ridgway: But I [unclear: "would say" / "was thought"] I was doing you guys a favor. Killing, killing prostitutes here. You guys can't control them, but I can.

Narrator: For the first time, we hear the twisted reasoning of the Green River Killer. He believed he was solving the prostitute problem.

Gary Ridgway: And I, I choked her to death. Then I took my socks off and, I, I [unclear: "got them in" / "tied them in"] in a knot and tied them around her neck, and tied them as tight as I could, and [unclear: "put your foot" (captions only)].

Narrator: In hundreds of hours of interviews with police over seven months, Gary Ridgway laid out his grisly confession, hoping to save himself from the death penalty.

Gary Ridgway: I agreed to, um, plead guilty to the counts that I committed, not any others.

Narrator: [unclear: "This date is" / "The date is"] June 13th, 2003. It's Ridgway's first interview with police. He tells them he's killed at least 47 women, but it could be as many as 53. He's just not sure.

Gary Ridgway: That's where the guardrail, at the end of the guardrail.

Investigator: So you, you want to...

Gary Ridgway: On the left-hand side.

Investigator: Left-hand side.

Gary Ridgway: On the left-hand side.

Narrator: In eerie field trips, the killer leads investigators to three of his victims.

Investigator: All right. Okay, let's start walking.

Narrator: For 20 years, police had been unable to find their remains.

Gary Ridgway: Could we walk down there? That [unclear: "tree looks" / "train looked"] familiar. And there's a...

Narrator: But despite what they gained, investigators tell me these trips troubled them, because they knew Ridgway was reliving his crimes, getting one more thrill at their expense.

Gary Ridgway: This is, this is definitely the spot.

Narrator: And it was sometimes difficult for police to listen to the killer's confession.

Gary Ridgway: And so she raised her head up, and that's when I, uh, put my arm around her, my right arm, and started choking her.

Narrator: Here, Ridgway describes how he killed one woman in the woods near SeaTac Airport. In a horrible twist, Ridgway left his young son waiting in his truck just a few hundred feet away.

Gary Ridgway: Matthew, you know, was sitting back in the truck. I don't know what he was, what he was doing. Told Matthew I'd be back in a couple minutes and, uh, go for a walk.

Narrator: We'll leave you right there, because we're coming back at 5:30 with more details about that chilling story. ---