Ridgway merchandise hits eBay

By Ian Ith
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Who would want a blood-red T-shirt with the caption: "I was good at choking," and bearing the face of Gary L. Ridgway, the confessed Green River Killer?

A guy in North Carolina apparently thought someone might.

And someone actually paid $29 for a business card from the Green River Task Force.

Now that Ridgway has officially pleaded guilty to 48 murders as one of the nation's worst serial killers, the capitalism also has officially begun, via the nation's largest online auction Web site, eBay.

"It's just unbelievable," said John Urquhart, spokesman for King County Sheriff Dave Reichert.

"People are always going to profit on this stuff, but at some point it crosses the line to bad taste. That they were selling that T-shirt — that's just ridiculous."

The T-shirt apparently was quickly removed from eBay over the weekend.

America's fascination with multiple murders has long crossed into merchandising and pop culture. For years, people have been wearing shirts bearing Charles Manson's face, for example.

One of Seattle's first grunge bands, Green River, took its name in 1983 from the killings and the infamous place where Ridgway left his first victims' bodies.

But the immediate flurry to make a buck off the Ridgway case has investigators and opponents of what has been dubbed "murderabilia" puzzled and offended.

Some of the merchandise available this week on eBay has some collector's value: "Mishelelise" in Lynnwood yesterday was trying to sell a collection of the daily papers that came out the morning after Ridgway pleaded guilty, for example.

A lot of people are trying to unload their used copies of "The Search for the Green River Killer," the "true crime shocker" by two former Seattle Times reporters that is outdated since Ridgway's confessions.

But some of the auctions seem a stretch.

A seller in the Puget Sound area, "mrseattleimage2002," over the weekend got $29 for the business card bearing the name of Mark Church, a civilian evidence specialist for the task force.

Someone in Snohomish was trying to sell the graphic court documents in the case for at least $4, even though they are available on King County's Web site for free.

Lee Christopherson of Renton was selling an old mug, from the Kenworth truck plant where Ridgway worked for 30 years, by billing it as a "Green River Killer Employer mug." Yesterday he was being offered $4.24, plus $6.50 shipping.

The T-shirt with Ridgway's face apparently was yanked from eBay over the weekend, said Andy Kahan, a crime-victim advocate in Houston who has been a national leader against "murderabilia."

Officials at eBay couldn't be reached yesterday.

No laws prohibit the sale of such items. Courts have ruled that such laws violate free-speech rights.

But opponents say the sales violate the laws of good taste.

"It's giving him more infamy than he deserves," Kahan, who works for the mayor of Houston, said of the Ridgway merchandise.

"If I was one of a victim's family members, I'd be absolutely disgusted."

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company