  gary leon ridgway (born february 18, 1949) is the american serial killer known as the green river killer. he was initially convicted of 48 separate murders and later confessed to nearly twice that number. as part of his plea bargain, an additional conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49. he murdered numerous women and girls in washington state and california during the 1980s and 1990s. most of his victims were alleged to be prostitutes. the press gave him his nickname after the first five victims were found in the green river; his identity was not known. he strangled the women, usually by hand but sometimes using ligatures. after strangling them, he would dump their bodies throughout forested and overgrown areas in king county, often returning to the dead bodies to have sexual intercourse with them. on november 30, 2001, as he was leaving the kenworth truck factory where he worked in renton, washington, he was arrested for the murders of four women whose cases were linked to him through dna evidence. as part of a plea bargain wherein he agreed to disclose the whereabouts of still-missing women, he was spared the death penalty and received a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. ==early life== ridgway was
1949_births 20th-century_American_criminals American_male_serial_killers American_military_personnel_of_the_Vietnam_War American_murderers_of_children American_people_convicted_of_murder American_prisoners_sentenced_to_life_imprisonment Crimes_against_sex_workers Criminals_from_Utah Living_people Necrophiles People_convicted_of_murder_by_Washington_(state) People_from_Salt_Lake_City,_Utah People_from_Seattle,_Washington Prisoners_sentenced_to_life_imprisonment_by_Washington_(state) United_States_Navy_sailors