Ridgway- "She meant so much to me"
Mke
2004-02-29
by Kathleen R. Merrill
Journal Reporter
Carol Christensen's carefully posed body is among the more bizarre mysteries
police encountered as they discovered Green River victims in the 1980s.
Various authorities have speculated on how her body was left -- posed with fish,
sausage and Lambrusco wine -- with some claiming it must have had something to
do with religion or the Last Supper.
But among the first thousand newly released pages of transcripts of interviews
with Green River killer Gary Ridgway is his version -- one of them -- of how and
why he killed her, and why he left her body the way he did.
Whether the story is true is known only to Ridgway, but it's the first glimpse
into what might have occurred that comes straight from the killer's mouth. And
true or not, it offers insight into his mind.
Ridgway, 55, of Auburn's West Hill, pleaded guilty in November to 48 counts of
aggravated first-degree murder in exchange for details he gave police over the
summer, including the locations of four bodies.
The killings got their names from where the first bodies were found, in and on
the bank of the Green River in Kent. Many of those killed were prostitutes or
had some link to street life.
Ridgway, a former Kenworth truck painter, was sentenced in December to life in
prison without the possibility of parole.
It took Ridgway nearly an hour to recount Carol Christensen's story to police.
He said he had sex with her on two prior occasions before killing her on their
third ``date.'' She was 21 years old.
On the first two occasions, he said, she had treated him with kindness and
caring, spending time with him and talking about his young son and her young
daughter.
But on the third occasion she was in a hurry and mentioned it several times,
which caused him to fly into a rage and kill her, Ridgway said.
``Every time she said hurry, I got madder and madder,'' Ridgway said, crying as
he told the story to detectives.
On those previous occasions he felt like Christensen cared about him and liked
him, he said.
``She meant so much to me,'' he added. ``I had great times with her before, why
not this time?''
After strangling her with a rope or cord of some type, he cuddled up to her and
cried over killing her, later falling asleep. When he awoke she was cold, and he
began the process of taking her out of his house, putting her in his truck and
finding a place to leave her body, he said.
Ridgway told police he put a bag on Christensen's head so no one could see her
face. He also placed two trout on her upper torso, an empty wine bottle across
her stomach, and sausage on her hands. That was how police found her.
Why did he pose the body? And why did he leave Christensen fully clothed, with
her driver's license in a pocket in her jeans, unlike nearly all the rest of his
victims whom he stripped of their clothing and jewelry?
He clothed her because he didn't want anyone to see her naked, he told police.
Or, alternately, he clothed her to throw police off, since previous Green River
victims had been found naked.
He also said he wanted her to be found quickly since she had a child.
He drank the wine after killing her because he needed something to calm him, and
he took the bottle with him. And he had earlier offered her the fish, which
someone had given to him, but she wouldn't take them.
``Now she's gonna take it,'' he said in explanation.
Ridgway, the most prolific serial killer in America, didn't eat the fish himself
because he didn't like to cut the heads off. Whenever he ate fish someone else
had to clean it for him, he said.
And the sausage? Just something he had in his refrigerator along with the fish.
Maybe it would draw animals, he told police, adding that he was angry with
Christensen because he had killed her.
``She hurt me so bad,'' he told police. ``She was special and she ... she didn't
want me anymore.''
Detectives asked him if he loved her and he replied, ``I loved ... loved Carol,
yes I did.''
During their contacts before, ``she was happy and she listened to me and I'd
talked to her,'' he said. She ``made me feel like a man.''
It hurt him very deeply when she didn't have the time for him -- ``I had to kill
her,'' he told detectives on June 17.
The following day Ridgway relapsed, and said he wanted to kill Christensen
because he was mad, the same reason he killed all the other women and girls he
killed.
The detectives had worked with Ridgway, getting him to distinguish between the
``old'' killer and the ``new'' man who cooperated with police.
``The new Gary wants me to candy-coat this stuff and I'm not gonna candy-coat
it,'' he told the detectives. ``I killed her because I wanted to. I killed her
because I was mad ... Carol Christensen meant nothin' to me.''
He said the fish and sausage were there to attract animals.
``I don't think she did anything to piss me off. I think all of 'em didn't do
anything to piss me off. I was just mad that ... just mad and wanted to kill
'em.''
When asked if the ``new Gary'' felt the same way as the old one who killed
during the 1980s, he replied, ``No, the new Gary is a candy ass ... he's a
wimp.''
But he told police the earlier Gary ``didn't have any guts to stand up for
himself ... he let women take control and I want control.''
He also denied that he and Christensen had been together before the day he took
her life.
``The first time I ever dated her was like during the day, and that's the day I
killed her,'' he said. ``And that was uh, that's the truth.''
This time Ridgway said he lied about dating Christensen previously because he
felt he had to, because she was the one who was different.
In interviews over the next six months, he alternately confirmed and denied
details of that first story he told police about Christensen's slaying.
So what's the truth?
``I really don't know,'' said defense attorney Tony Savage, who attended some of
the police interviews. ``I'm confused about all that business.''
But Ridgway did treat Christensen's body much differently from the rest of his
victims.
``No one else got the fish, sausage and wine, so some of it may be true,''
Savage said.
``I don't know, there may have been a slight acquaintanceship with Christensen
before,'' he said. ``But what you have to understand about those interviews is
that it was a very tedious procedure with Gary.
``He'd spin one story one day and take it back the next day. The fact that he
said something one day, well you'd have to drag him through a lot of questioning
to get something close to the truth.''
And the items he left with Christensen?
``I think he did the fish and the sausage and wine because he had leftover fish,
sausage and wine,'' Savage said. ``He's crafty in a street-wise way, but he's
not a very complicated thinker.''
Interviews yield new slaying details
By Kathleen R. Merrill
Journal Reporter
Green River killer Gary Ridgway told police in his confessions that he murdered
71 women, including four he didn't set out to strangle.
He called those four ``unplanned kills'' and said they happened when he was
stressed or became extremely angry with a woman he was with.
Seventy-one deaths is the highest total yet attributed to Ridgway, and
considerably higher than the 48 killings to which he pleaded guilty in November.
King County Sheriff Dave Reichert confirmed the higher number of victims last
week in an appearance on ``Larry King Live.''
The new count is among dozens of new details to surface in the first several
thousand pages of transcripts of Ridgway's interviews last summer with police.
It is impossible to confirm the exact number of women that Ridgway, 55, of
Auburn's West Hill, killed during the two decades of Green River slayings.
Police searched over the summer for the remains of women Ridgway said he killed,
but were unable to find some or were unable to confirm details the killer gave
them about some slayings.
The day after Ridgway pleaded guilty 48 times, the Journal reported that details
found throughout his plea documents and the number of body dump sites searched
over the summer suggest he committed up to 70 slayings.
Other things Ridgway told police are also difficult or impossible to prove. They
include:
* He took three pictures of his first victims on the bank of the Green River
with a Polaroid camera. He later drove over the camera with his truck because he
was afraid evidence still inside could somehow be obtained from it.
He kept the pictures under a cement beam in a little crawl-type space at the
SeaTac Red Lion hotel, where he could ``go by and look at them anytime'' he
wanted.
And he did so, sometimes every other week, he told police, until about four
years later, when he tore or cut up the photos and scattered the small pieces
out his truck window as he drove one day in 1987.
``I got rid of them when I started going with Judith,'' Ridgway said of the
woman he married that year. They have since separated and filed for divorce.
* He had victim Marie Malvar's identification in his back pocket or in his house
when he was questioned about her disappearance four days earlier.
Police were directed to Ridgway by Malvar's father, who reported that he had
found a truck like the one his 18-year-old daughter had gotten into the day she
disappeared. Jose Malvar Sr. searched for days before locating the truck at
Ridgway's residence in SeaTac.
Malvar, 18, fought harder for her life than other victims, Ridgway remembered,
and she left deep scratches on his arm. As he answered a detective's questions
that day, he turned his injured arm toward the fence on which he was leaning.
He said he knew nothing of her disappearance, and police did not press the issue
further.
* He once made a map of all the locations where he had placed victims, but he
later tore it up, afraid that it would be discovered and used as evidence.
* He accidentally showed his Kenworth identification to one prostitute he picked
up but did not kill. She later tracked him down and called him at work, he said.
* He often disposed of the clothing of his victims by dropping the items in
donation bins such as those seen in the parking lots of grocery and department
stores.
* He once wrote a letter to the Green River Task Force, telling them details
about the first victims found in and on the bank of the river, and called on
another occasion to suggest they put video cameras in their cars to catch the
killer.
* He picked up two prostitutes who stole his wallet just before he began
killing. A Metro bus driver found the wallet, minus his cash, and mailed it back
to him.
* He picked up plenty of prostitutes that he didn't kill. Those that he let go
were those who took their time with him and appeared to be enjoying it, or made
him feel important.
* He often cried after killing, which would make him mad at the women, some of
whom he would ask, ``Why did you make me do this?''
* He was more concerned about pimps than police seeing him pick up prostitutes
who later disappeared, because the pimps would kill him; the police wouldn't.
Kathleen R. Merrill covers courts. Reach her at
kathleen...@kingcountyjournal.com or 253-872-6688.
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/157444