Seattle Serial Killer

[bloodrayne]

Life sentence for worst US serial-killer
Posted Fri, 19 Dec 2003

A US truck painter who became the most prolific serial killer in American history was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Thursday for murdering 48 young prostitutes and runaways.

Relatives of some of the victims wept in the Seattle court as Judge Richard Jones sentenced Gary Ridgeway to life in prison on each of the 48 charges he admitted.

"As you spend the balance of your life in your tiny cell surrounded only by your thoughts, please know that the women you killed were not throwaways or pieces of candy in a dish placed upon this planet for the sole purpose of satisfying your murderous desires," Jones said.

The judge told Ridgway, who last month struck a plea bargain with prosecutors that allowed him to escape the death penalty, to look at the many relatives and friends of his victims gathered in the courtroom.

He said he hoped Ridgway would remember those faces in his "dreams and the private thoughts of your grisly deeds. If you have a drop of emotion, you will be haunted for the balance of your life."

Ridgway weeps

Ridgway also wept, publicly showing emotion for the first time since his 2001 arrest. He faced the families and apologised for the murders, committed over two decades starting in the early 1980s, that earned him the moniker of Seattle's ‘Green River killer’.

"I tried for a long time to keep from killing any ladies," he said.

"I'm very sorry for the ladies that were not found. May they rest in peace, they need a better place than where I gave them.

"I'm sorry for killing these ladies. They had their whole lives ahead them still. I'm sorry for causing so much pain for so many people," he said.

Ridgway also apologised for putting his family "through this hell. I hope they can find a way to forgive me."

In his plea in which he admitted 48 charges of premeditated aggravated murder, Ridgway (54) confessed to conducting a reign of terror in the north-western city by strangling women in a murder spree that began 21 years ago.

“I killed so many women”

"I killed so many women, I have a hard time keeping them straight," Ridgway said in a statement read in court in November.

"I agree that each of the murders I committed was part of a common scheme or plan." it said. "The plan was, I wanted to kill as many women I thought were prostitutes as I possibly could.

"I picked prostitutes as my victims because I hate most prostitutes and I did not want to pay them for sex," the statement said, adding that he felt his victims would not be reported missing immediately, if at all.

"I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted to without getting caught."