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Reichert, David Chasing The Devil; My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer, Little, Brown and Company, 2004.

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An escapee from a mental hospital attempts to abduct David

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An escapee from a mental hospital attempts to abduct David

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When David Reichert was 7-8 years old, an escapee from a state mental hospital tried to kidnap him and almost shoved him into his station wagon. When he was halfway in the car his mother came out and saved him, "I was seven or eight on the day when, as I was shooting marbles with a friend, a man pulled up in a station wagon and tried to abduct me. An escapee from a state mental hospital, had me halfway into the car when my mother ran up and grabbed me by the feet."

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When David Reichert was in high school, he tried to intervene in a fight between his mother and father. This fight was especially bad, and caused him to leave home and live in a 1956 Mercury for 2 months, "After one especially bad fight, I left home and lived for two months in a 1956 Mercury, which I had recently bought with money from my after-school jobs."(4)

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After being motivated by wife, David decided to become a cop in 1972, " I started work in 1972 and would stay on the job for more than thirty-two years as Julie and I established a home and made a family that included our children, Angela, Tabitha, and Daniel" (6)

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Sam Hicks was Davids senior officer for 7 years, his friend, and a mentor to him. On June 24, 1982 Sam was looking for a murder suspect with another officer and was shot, "In the split second that his body was exposed to the tree line, a shot was fired. The bullet hit Sam in the chest, and he fell to the ground." (10)

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7 weeks after the death of Sam Hicks it was Davids daughters ninth birthday. There was about 40 family members were coming to their house for the birthday party, but David was called out to the Green River because two dead bodies were found, "The bodies of two young women had been found submerged near the shore. It would fall to me to lead the investigation to discover who they were, how they got there, and who was to blame." (13)

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News reporters ruin the cops hiding spot

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News reporters ruin the cops hiding spot

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After finding many more bodies, the police decided to hide unmarked cars near the river. They were hidden well for about a day, but then the media discovered them by helicopter and ruined it, "It worked for about a day. Then, as the local TV stations prepared to broadcast the evening news, a reporter flying over the river saw our unmarked cars, which, through hidden on the ground, were visible from above. Our surveillance must have been an irresistible new angle on the story. Whatever the reason, when the anchors turned to their reporter in the sky for an update on Green River, our cover was blown." (45)

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Profilers make an assumption about the killer

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Profilers make an assumption about the killer

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Profilers looked at the killers activity and even though they were still in the early stages, they were able to make assumptions about him, "What profilers had to say about the motivations of serial killers was often very interesting. We could expect that our guy had been abused, humiliated, maybe even tortured as a child. As an adult he would be driven to fulfill his grisly fantasies, which were all about overcoming his lack of control as a child." (47)

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After a while of working on the case, two kids from the streets of Seattle came to Davids partner to report a man named "Melvyn Foster" This would lead to David having lots of surveillance on him and having many conversations with him, "On September 6, a couple of street kids name Pinkie and Shannon came into our downtown Seattle office and spoke with Detective Bob LaMoria. Bob, who had gone with Sam Hicks and me on that long hike to recover a body in the mountains, was easy to talk to. Pinkie and Shannon opened up to him, sharing their concern about two men they knew from the streets." (54)

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David Reichert has to take shifts watching Melvyn

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David Reichert has to take shifts watching Melvyn

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After lie detector tests, questioning, and searching Melvyn's house, they decided to keep surveillance on him. David took many shifts sitting in a car outside his house, and enjoyed having conversations with another detective named Fae Brooks, "My first few shifts watching Melvyn were unremarkable, except for some of the heart-to-heart conversations I had witch fellow detective Fae Brooks when we spent a couple of cold dark nights in the car together." (69)

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After hearing reports of a girl getting into a truck and going missing, people looked for the truck. They turned down a road and found it. After reporting it to police, police came to the house and met Gary Ridgway. Although unknown at the time, this man was the green river killer, " Nevertheless, the cops knocked on the door of the house. The man who answered said his name was Gary Ridgway. Like thousands of men in the area, he fit Woods's description of the man who picked up Marie- white, medium build, midthirties. He confirmed that the truck was his but added that he had no idea what Woods and the Malvars were talking about." (103)

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Gary Ridgway was taken in for a lie detector test. He did pass, but David felt like something wasn't quite right. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough evidence.

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David Reichert was recently promoted, when he was driving a sheriff department vehicle and was involved in a car crash. After the crash he felt okay, but a little while after he felt terrible and went to the doctor and found out surgery would be required.

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After recovering from his injuries, David Reichert came back to duty with refreshed motivation to catch the killer and make the community safer.

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The task force got bigger because the killer was still out there after years. This included bringing in more detectives and FBI. David became one of the main leaders in coordinating the case.

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After many many years of dead ends, even with the bigger team, David still was exhausted from his work and felt discouraged.

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After years filled with Green River murders, the case began to slow down. The media and public attention started slowing, but David Reichert didn't. Even on his own time, he still reviewed old evidence.

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In the late 90's new DNA recognizing technology gave David new hope. Luckily he preserved all the evidence from the 1980s and called for it all to be retested using the new technology.

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After test results confirmed that Gary Ridgway's DNA was on multiple pieces of evidence, he was arrested. David Reichert lead a team to arrest Gary at his workplace almost 20 years after the first encounter at his house.

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Sheriff David Reichert helped manage the long interrogation process of Gary Ridgway. Gary finally agreed to plead guilty to dozens of murders in exchange for not having to face the death penalty.

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Gary Ridgway was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Sheriff David Reichert attended the court, listened to victims families, and felt relieved that he had been caught, but grief for the victims and their families. David had finally ended the 21 year quest of capturing this monster. After this David wrote his book to share what it took.

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The Green River Killer and the man who chased him for decades

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How the serial murder case shaped Dave Reichert

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Reichert shares details of Green River Killer case with Kent students | Kent Reporter

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Former King County sheriff tells about Gary Ridgway and how the crime was solved

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Watch The Green River Killer: Mind of a Monster | HBO Max

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Watch The Green River Killer: Mind of a Monster on HBO Max. Plans start at $10.99/month. Gary Ridgway was convicted of 49 murders but admitted to dozens more. Exclusive interviews and evidence from the police archive reveals how this predator was able to elude capture for so long and exposes the real motives behind his heinous crimes.

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My Uncle is the Green River Killer | Special | Full Episode | LMN

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Gary Ridgway, in full Gary Leon Ridgway, byname Green River Killer, (born February 18, 1949, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.), American criminal who was the country's deadliest convicted serial killer. He claimed to have killed as many as 80 women-many of whom were prostitutes-in Washington during the 1980s and '90s, although he pled guilty (2003) to only 48 murders.

Ridgway grew up in what became SeaTac, Washington. His father was a bus driver and his mother a salesclerk. The younger Ridgway later claimed that his mother engaged in inappropriate behaviour. Notably, he alleged that after wetting the bed-a habit that persisted into his early teens-she would wash his genitals. At some point he began fantasizing about killing her, and in the mid-1960s he stabbed a young boy. After graduating from high school in 1969-at the age of 20-Ridgway served a two-year stint in the U.S. Navy and later settled in the Seattle area, where he worked as a truck painter. Over the next 30 years, he married three times and had a son.

In 1980 Ridgway was arrested for allegedly choking a prostitute, but no charges were filed after he claimed that the woman had bit him. Two years later he was arrested for solicitation. Ridgway was believed to have begun his killing spree shortly thereafter. His first victim was thought to have been a 16-year-old girl who went missing after leaving her foster home in July 1982. Her body was found a week later, in the Green River. Over the next two years, Ridgway raped and killed more than 40 women, many of whom were prostitutes or runaways. A number of Ridgway's early victims were later found in or near the river, giving rise to the nickname Green River Killer; other bodies were discovered in remote wooded areas. After 1984 he committed several more murders, the last occurring in 1998.

By August 1982 police believed that a serial killer was at work, and they eventually formed a special task force. Ridgway soon became a suspect. In 1983 he was questioned in the disappearance of a prostitute who a witness claimed had gotten into his truck. Ridgway denied the allegations and passed a polygraph in 1984. Detectives later discovered a 1982 report about police finding Ridgway with a prostitute in a parked car; two years later a body was found nearby. In 1987 law-enforcement officials obtained a search warrant for Ridgway's home and work. However, none of the items-including carpet fibres and ropes-could be linked to the victims. They also obtained a DNA sample from Ridgway, but the technology then available was unable to match it with semen recovered from the bodies. However, following the advent of more sophisticated tests, a match was made in 2001, and Ridgway was arrested later that year.

Although he initially proclaimed his innocence, Ridgway soon confessed to the crimes, stating that he wanted to kill as many prostitutes as possible. He targeted sex workers because he thought they might not be reported missing and because he "hated" most of them. In 2003 he accepted a plea deal in which he was sentenced to 48 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. In addition, he agreed to reveal the location of undiscovered bodies. Many speculated that he was responsible for more deaths, and in 2013 Ridgway said that he had murdered upwards of 80 women.

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Gary Ridgway | Biography, Mother, Childhood, & Murders

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Gary Ridgway, in full Gary Leon Ridgway, byname Green River Killer, (born February 18, 1949, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.), American criminal who was the country's deadliest convicted serial killer. He claimed to have killed as many as 80 women-many of whom were prostitutes-in Washington during the 1980s and '90s, although he pled guilty (2003) to only 48 murders.