Gary Leon Ridgway was a serial killer known as the Green River killer that killed many victims in the Seattle, Washington area he was born February 18, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was convicted of killing 48 separate murders. Gary grew up in a poor environment with parents that were very harsh. Gary married 3 times and during his third marriage starting his killings. He was abusive to his wives. He was not good in school and would wet his bed until the age of 14. At the age of 16 he stabbed a 6 year old in the wood and laughed while the boy was injured. The boy survived. His parents were strict and violent towards each other. His father hated prostitutes and made it known when he was growing up. This cause many different …show more content…
He didn’t feel any pain when he committed the murders. His mother ran the household and was very strict. “One of Ridgway's girlfriends said he was close to his mother but could never please her. Mary Ridgway "wore the pants in the family," according to a statement in court documents from Marcia Winslow, Ridgway's second wife”(Robinson 2001). The abusive parents were part of the equation that made him not emotional when he killed. Being used to seeing violence in the home made it normal. The signs of a serial killer were there about Gary since he abused his wives and was also abused as a child. He was not very good in school meaning there were mental issues going on. The mental issues added from the abusive parents and fantasy thoughts about his mom. Problems in school and abused animals were signs of a killer. “In one of the tapes Ridgway says, “To me, women are something to have sex with — kill and take the money back” as well as “Because they were prostitutes and I killed them because I wanted to kill them.” These statements are very honest; he almost seems to be proud of himself for it. This may come from Ridgway’s childhood; relatives described his mother as controlling and have said that as a young boy he witnessed more than one violent argument between his parents. She would belittle him and embarrass him in front of his family”(Greene
Is it necessary for a serial killer to have a dark past? There have been many serial killers in the history of humanity, and “inhumanity” (as some like to describe those who have the heart to kill another human) over the time. However, in the history of serial killers, there is not another like Ed Gein, “The Plainfield Ghoul”. He was known with this peculiar and sinister nickname because he grew up on a farm a few miles outside of the town of Plainfield, Wisconsin where he exhumed corpses, body-snatched, and assassinated. Although very mentioned and feared when people hear his name, with fewer than three murders attributed, it is said that Ed Gein does not meet the traditional definition of a Serial killer.
He did have some close calls. In 1983, a victim named Maria was taken off the strip where her boyfriend saw her being taken. The boyfriend followed the pickup truck, yet the truck got away from him(Harthorne, 2013). The police questioned Gary Ridgway because the boyfriend recognized it to be his truck. Gary Ridgway convinced the police that it was not his truck.
Gary Ridgway went on a killing spree for about 19 years. He would strangle young female runaways and prostitutes after having
When he returned home it was obvious none of it worked as they hoped. He would start to cut class constantly and his grades dropped drastically. In the years 1978-1984 he was arrested multiple times for possession, breaking and entering, theft, and auto theft. On June 28th 1984 he committed his first homicide. He entered through a window that had been ajar and violently stabbed a woman named Jenny Vincow (age 79) while she had been sleeping.
History (Montaldo, 2017). Who is this man and what would drive an individual to kill innocent woman and young girls who were for lack of better term prostitutes? Born in Utah and raised in Seattle Washington, he was not considered an intelligent man but someone with a low IQ and a person who tortured animals (Gary Ridgway, n.d.). Gary’s mother, who he was infatuated with was mentally and physically abusive causing him to wet the bed frequently (Gary Ridgway, n.d.). “In 1963, aged 14, Gary attempted to kill a six-year-old boy by stabbing him, but wasn’t caught” (Gary Ridgway, n.d.).
Gary Ridgway, aka the “Green River Killer” was born on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the second son of Mary and Thomas Ridgway and has two brothers, Thomas Jr, and Gregory Ridgway. As a young boy, Gary would witness violent arguments between his parents. When Gary was growing up, he had a bed-wetting problem and his mother would wash his genitals after every time. His problem didn't end until he was thirteen years old.
Case Study 1: BTK In 2005, serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as BTK (bind, torture, and kill), was arrested and convicted of murdering 10 people in Kansas between the years of 1974 and 1991. Rader sent numerous notes to the police, but they couldn’t prove for sure that he was the one committing the murders. In 2004, he began sending things to the police once again. However, this time Rader sent a document created in Microsoft Word on a floppy disk.
Psychologist, Patrick Ewing, the author of “Kids Who Kill” provides information that “Knighton has only vague memories of beatings by his father” suggesting that Knighton was always surrounded by abuse (Traver 2). Since Knighton and other kids are raised poorly, it shouldn’t be a shock that they treat others horribly due to their challenging childhood. “Young people committing seemingly motiveless killings were themselves sexually or physically abused,” says Patrick Ewing, suggest that many of these kids are victims to abuse (Traver 2). We see these kids as cold hearted and ruthless when in all actuality, they need help to recover. Only the chance to rehabilitate is offered when it’s to late and they have committed a crime.
Many people have minor qualities but do not have the label of serial killer. John Wayne Gacy is an excellent example of a human monster because of his actions of murder and rape while demonstrating that nurture can shape a person's personality proving human monsters are more terrifying than those we read about in fiction. The life of Gacy began in Chicago, Illinois where he and his family lived. He was born on the 17th day of march in 1942. He grew up with
John Wayne Gacy is a serial killer who killed 33 people in total. He was born on May 17th 1942 in Chicago where he was physically and verbally abused by his father. Since this age he showed unusual behaviours and avoiding society, but then was determined that he has a psychological disorder. He moved to Los Angeles and was living a normal life however he started showing his real face in 1968 where he raped a young, male employee.
The juvenile had the mindset to inflict pain upon on another person, therefore there is no plausible reasoning to excuse his crime. He murdered innocent people to feel a sense of satisfaction with himself and fulfil his demonic needs. The A&E Documentary presents another case in which the perpetrator intended to kill an innocent life was Nathaniel Abraham who was 11 years old at the time when he killed 18 year old Ronnie Greene with a gunshot wound to the head. Abraham, having a disruptive path, stole the rifle he used to kill Greene from a neighbor. While shooting at trees, Abraham claimed to have allegedly missed the intended tree as it hit Greene in the head.
Gein had the following symptoms that were stated in the DSM-IV-TR: failure to conform to social norms, reckless disregard for safety of others, and lack of remorse. To be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, the said person had to possess three of the symptoms that were listed. Even after multiple occasions of robbing graves, that did not stop him from doing it on multiple more instances. Not only would he rob their bodies, but he also proceeded to rob the deceased of their body parts including their skin. He stated that when he would enter the cemetery, he was in a daze-like state.
In this paper I will be applying the psychological theories to serial killer Ed Gein. Ed Gein was a prolific serial killer in the 1950’s. He murdered and robbed graves for body parts to make furniture and clothing. He was apprehended in 1957, where he stood trial and was institutionalized. Edward Theodore “Ed” Gein was born August 27th, 1906 to George and Augusta Gein.
His favorite way to murder is victim was to tie a tourniquet around their neck and then sit there and watch the die slowly. Not every one of his victims were murdered, some of them he let go and a few of them escaped (Gacy 's Murders Consisted of Thirty Three Murders,
Ted Bundy was a notorious serial murderer who’s reign of terror lasted from 1974 to 1978. Bundy was convicted of three homicides and was sentenced to death for all three charges. However, at the time of his execution, Bundy confessed to 30 murders however the exact number of victims is still unknown. Bundy’s crimes evolved over time but he was both a sexual sadist and a necrophiliac serial killer. At the beginning of his rampage, Bundy would sneak into the victims house in the middle of the night, violently attack them while they were sleeping with a blunt object and then Bundy would usually sexually assault them.