This Innocent Baby Grew Up to Become One of America’s Most Evil Men

He tied the knot with his high school sweetheart and openly shed tears during church services.

But underneath the surface, a much darker reality lurked—a monster who would eventually evolve into one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.

“Just actually a nice guy” Every person begins life as a child—and this holds true even for ruthless murderers. One of the most terrifying and notorious individuals in this grim category came into the world on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City.

He was the middle of three boys and was frequently dubbed the favorite child in the family. Outwardly, his childhood appeared steady and perhaps even picture-perfect.

His dad, Thomas, was employed as a bus driver, and his mom, Mary, worked in sales. They resided in a humble house featuring a sprawling backyard—spacious enough for football matches and the sort of idyllic, carefree childhood moments that, at first look, seemed entirely normal.

However, family members characterized Mary as an overbearing figure who occasionally inflicted physical discipline on her sons for trivial misdeeds.

The middle child, destined to commit some of America’s most gruesome atrocities, harbored conflicted emotions of rage and sexual allure toward his mother, even visualizing her murder.

Yet, evidently, the young boy kept these sinister thoughts entirely to himself.

Peers and schoolmates recalled him as “just actually a nice guy,” a teenager who enjoyed sports and dating girls. Others echoed similar sentiments—amiable, passionate about cars, involved in freshman football, and basically a typical youth from a standard household.

“He didn’t really stand out,” remembered Tim Shinners, a former classmate at Tyee.

”The picture I keep getting in my mind is of a somewhat smallish kid – 5 feet 7 or 5 feet 8, 145 pounds, with wispy hair. Nondescript,” stated David Alfred, who served as the school’s biology teacher and football coach.

Dyslexic and low IQ Simultaneously, however, there were faint red flags.

Bruce Revard, the family’s next-door neighbor, remembered the parents being extremely harsh, especially toward the two younger brothers. He noted that the mother would constantly yell at the boys, while the father administered spankings.

“I could sit up in my treehouse and look in their yard,” Revard stated. “All I’d hear were cries of ‘No, Dad, no,’ as they were getting beaten with a belt or a stick or whatever.”

During his high school years, the future serial killer faced major academic difficulties. He suffered from dyslexia, was held back a grade, and reportedly scored in the “low eighties” on an IQ test.

One afternoon, his reckless impulses escalated into genuine, terrifying violence. At the age of 16, he enticed a six-year-old boy into a wooded area and plunged a knife into his ribs, barely missing vital organs. Miraculously, the young child survived the assault.

In 1969, at 20 years old and having recently finished high school with zero plans for college, he opted to enlist in the Navy instead of waiting to be drafted. During this exact period, he wed his 19-year-old high school sweetheart, Claudia Kraig.

He was subsequently deployed to Vietnam, where he served aboard a supply vessel and experienced combat. Throughout his time in the military, his actions grew more and more irresponsible. He frequently sought out sex workers and caught gonorrhea, persisting in these activities without protection, despite his wife’s fury.

His marriage to Claudia rapidly crumbled and concluded in under a year.

Became intensely religious In 1973, he tied the knot with his second wife, Marcia Winslow, and the couple later welcomed a son. As time passed, his life began to exhibit signs of mounting volatility and concerning conduct.

In retrospect, Marcia might have had initial cause for alarm, beginning with their very first encounter. According to legal documents, he pulled her vehicle over in what she later characterized as a “police-like stop.” Given his cropped haircut and military-style attitude, she originally assumed he might actually be a police officer. He wasn’t, though he told her he had previously attempted to join the force but was rejected.

During their early intimate encounters, he mistakenly called her “Claudia.”

As the years passed, he grew fiercely religious, regularly going door-to-door to proselytize, reading the Bible out loud at work and home, and pressuring Marcia to adhere to strict interpretations of their pastor’s teachings. He would occasionally weep during church services and sit in front of the TV with a Bible resting in his lap.

At the same time, however, he also demanded highly controlling and extreme sexual acts within their marriage, all while continually and secretly paying sex workers.

Marcia, who had battled weight issues for a significant portion of her life, eventually underwent gastric bypass surgery in the late 1970s. Following her weight loss, she started drawing more attention from other men, which purportedly made him jealous and insecure, resulting in frequent arguments.

Friction also mounted regarding his mother’s influence. Mary was deeply involved in their daily affairs, controlling finances, making major household choices, and even picking out his wardrobe. She additionally criticized Marcia’s parenting, leaving Marcia feeling unsupported and isolated within the marriage.

After roughly seven years, the relationship culminated in divorce. Marcia later alleged that during a specific altercation, he had physically restrained her in a chokehold.

First known victim In 1985, he embarked on his third marriage with Judith Mawson, whom he met through a support group for single parents.

In stark contrast to his past relationship, Judith initially viewed him as mild-mannered, consistent, and reliable—a man who had maintained steady employment as a truck painter for over a decade. He even took care to improve the home prior to her moving in.

Judith also accepted the heavy influence of his mother in their lives, at first viewing her as helpful in handling practical matters like finances. Over time, she gradually assumed many of those duties herself.

Meanwhile, a far more sinister history was already taking shape.

During the early 1980s, the first identified victim was located in the Green River, launching a string of killings that would horrify the region. The victims were primarily vulnerable young women, many of them runaways or sex workers operating along the Highway 99 corridor near Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport.

As additional bodies surfaced, investigators established the Green River Task Force, working without modern DNA tools and leaning heavily on traditional police work. Gradually, clusters of remains hinted at a pattern, and suspicion began to form that a single offender was responsible.

The Green River Killer In 1983, even the notorious inmate Ted Bundy supplied detectives with theories regarding the case, proposing that the killer likely knew his victims and operated close to where the bodies were found. However, his input did not lead to any breakthrough.

As the investigation progressed, a list of suspects was created, and one man slowly became a focus. His name? Gary Ridgway.

He had prior encounters with police involving sex workers in districts tied to the killings, including an accusation of choking a woman during sex and another incident involving a missing woman who was last seen entering his truck.

Even after multiple interrogations and passing a polygraph test, the suspicions lingered. Investigators also observed that his work schedule frequently aligned with the disappearances of victims, and descriptions from witnesses matched his vehicle and physical presence in the area.

In 1987, he was placed under surveillance and elevated to the “A list” of suspects. A search of his residence uncovered large amounts of collected items, including objects retrieved from swap meets and dumps, some of which were linked to known victims. Still, there was not enough evidence to charge him, and he was released.

Years later, advances in DNA technology reopened the case in the hunt for the man later known as the Green River Killer, also referred to as the Green River Strangler.

Evidence preserved from the original investigations finally yielded the link detectives had been searching for.

In 2001, he was arrested in connection with multiple murders. DNA evidence tied Ridgway directly to several victims, and additional forensic links followed.

Eventually, he agreed to a plea bargain and confessed to dozens of killings, guiding investigators to previously undiscovered burial sites and offering detailed accounts of how the crimes were carried out.

Admitted to killing at least 71 victims Ridgway detailed employing various methods of strangulation and sometimes returning to dump sites to move bodies or mislead police. He also admitted to manipulating victims by using personal items to gain trust and revealed disturbing details about his behavior during the crimes.

Before his confession, authorities had linked 49 murders to the Green River Killer. He later admitted to killing at least 71 victims. Most of his victims were believed to be sex workers or women in vulnerable situations, including underage runaways.

”I picked prostitutes as my victims because I hate most prostitutes and I did not wan to pay them for sex. I also picked prostitutes because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing,” he said.

In 2003, he pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder and received a sentence of 480 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Today, he is officially convicted in connection with 49 murders.

”I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight,” he confessed in a Seattle courtroom.

As a component of a plea deal, Ridgway consented to reveal the locations of missing victims and, in return, avoided the death penalty. He was placed in solitary confinement at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, where he remains incarcerated today.