caption country states imprisoned conviction alias birth_place name sentence birth_date victims beginyear spouse image article_title endyear birth_name apprehended
mugshot of his arrest in november 2001 . of gary ridgway , taken at the day united states washington united states penitentiary , florence high murder solicitation the man green river killer green river gary the river salt lake city , utah , u.s. gary ridgway life imprisonment without parole 18 february 1949 convicted to be at least 90 + of 49 , confessed to 71 , presumed 1982 claudia ; div . january 14 , 1972 -rrb- marcia lorene kraig brown -lrb- m. december 14 , 1973 ; div . barrows may 27 , 1981 -rrb- judith lorraine lynch -lrb- m. -lrb- june 12 , 1988 ; div . september 5 , m. 2002 -rrb- august 15 , 1970 gary ridgway mugshot 11302001.jpg gary ridgway
 1998 2001 confirmed , but could be as recent as gary leon ridgway november 30 , 2001
gary ridgway

gary leon ridgway -lrb- born february 18 , 1949 -rrb- 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 , making him the most prolific american serial killer in history according to confirmed murders .
he murdered numerous women and girls in washington state during the 1980s and 1990s .
most of his victims were alleged to be prostitutes and other women in vulnerable situations , including underage runaways .
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 area 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 .
