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what with the Jack the Ripper thread and the mention of John Wayne Gacy.
I'm surprised this hasn't been posted already - it looks like they finally caught the "Green River Killer".
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011201/us/washington_killi ngs_5.html
Seattle Police Arrest Murder Suspect
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - A man was arrested Friday in connection with the 1980s slayings of four women whose deaths were believed to be part of the nation's worst unsolved serial killer sprees.
Police had blamed the four women's deaths on the so-called Green River Killer, who authorities have said was responsible for the slayings of 49 women in the Pacific Northwest. The killer has been sought since 1982, when the first victims were found near the river.
While authorities have questioned other suspects and made at least one arrest, in 1982, no one has ever been charged in the slayings.
On Friday, police arrested Gary Ridgway, 52, of suburban Auburn, for investigation of homicide. He was taken into custody as he left his job at Kenworth Truck Co., where he worked as a truck painter for 32 years. He was not immediately charged.
``I cannot say with certainty that Gary Ridgway is responsible for all of those deaths ... but boy, have we made one giant step forward,'' said Sheriff Dave Reichert, who was one of the original detectives on the serial killer task force.
Ridgway, who is married and has an adult son, was jailed pending an initial court appearance, which was set for Saturday. There was no answer at a number listed for a Gary Ridgway in Auburn. It wasn't immediately known if he had a lawyer.
The sheriff said forensic scientists were able to link Ridgway's DNA to three of the women. He would only say ``certain factors'' tie Ridgway to the fourth woman.
Ridgway was first interviewed in the case in 1984, and a saliva sample was obtained by court order in 1987. He was the subject of intensive background investigation during that period, but was not arrested in the case. Reichert said investigators were never able to tie him to the killings with anything but circumstantial evidence.
The first DNA test results linking Ridgway to the case came back two months ago, and authorities said they have had him under surveillance since then.
``I always felt that Gary Ridgway was one of the top five suspects,'' Reichert said.
No decision on charges against Ridgway will be made until early next week, said a spokesman in the prosecutor's office.
Ridgway was being investigated in the deaths of Opal Mills, Marcia Chapman and Cynthia Hinds, whose bodies were found in the river on Aug. 15, 1982, and Carol Christensen, found May 8, 1983, in woods in nearby Maple Valley.
``This has got to be one of the most exciting days in my entire career,'' Reichert said Friday.
Before Friday, authorities said, Ridgway had been arrested twice in the past 19 years on prostitution charges - once in 1982 and again two weeks ago. He pleaded guilty in the most recent case and was convicted in the earlier case, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said.
The Green River Killer abducted and strangled most of his victims - mostly prostitutes and runaways - in a red-light district south of Seattle. Their bodies were found in or next to the nearby Green River, and in densely wooded areas near Seattle and Portland, Ore. from 1982 to 1984.
The bodies had all been reduced to skeletal remains by the time they were found, probably having decayed for several months.
Material used to strangle victims, clothing and some bodily fluids are among the evidence preserved since the victims were found. In past years, Urquhart said DNA tests had proved inconclusive.
``At that point we just sat back and hoped the technology would get better, and it has,'' he said.
In an interview last summer, sheriff's Detective Tom Jensen said investigators' best hope at finding the Green River Killer might be cotton-swab samples from the first five victims found.
Three of those victims, authorities said, were linked to Ridgway.
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