Former
painter admits to Green River killings
SEATTLE
(AP) -- Gary Ridgway, the former truck painter
long suspected of being the Green River
Killer, admitted in court Wednesday to 48
murders. ''I killed so many women I have
a hard time keeping them straight,'' he
said in a confession read aloud by prosecutors.
"I
wanted to kill as many women as I thought
were prostitutes as I possibly could,"
Ridgway said in the statement.
Some
relatives of victims wept quietly in the
courtroom.
Ridgway,
54, struck a plea bargain that will spare
him from execution and result in a sentence
of life in prison without parole. The agreement
signed June 13 would put more murders on
his record than any other serial killer
in U.S. history.
Since
signing off on the deal, Ridgway has worked
with investigators to recover still-missing
remains of some victims in the case.
The
Green River Killer's murderous frenzy began
in 1982, targeting women in the Seattle
area, mainly runaways and prostitutes. The
first victims turned up in the Green River,
giving the killer his name. Other bodies
were found near ravines, airports and freeways.
In
court Wednesday, Ridgway was presented with
the details of each slaying, one by one,
and was asked to confirm them. After that,
he was expected to plead guilty.
''In
most cases, when I killed these women, I
did not know their names,'' Ridgway said
in the statement. ''Most of the time I killed
them the first time I met them, and I do
not have a good memory of their faces.''
He
said he had several reasons for preying
on prostitutes.
"I
hate most prostitutes and I did not want
to pay them for sex," he said. "I
also picked prostitutes as victims because
they were easy to pick up without being
noticed. I knew they would not be reported
missing right away and might never be reported
missing. I picked prostitutes because I
thought I could kill as many of them as
I wanted without getting caught."
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