When Reichert met Ridgway, an unusual bond formed

By Michael Ko and Duff Wilson
Seattle Times staff reporters

	AP King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, left, is shown interviewing Gary L. Ridgway in August, in an image taken from video.
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Related stories Ridgway stayed cool in interview 19 years ago From early age, killer was different, long talks indicate

One of them killed; the other chased. One buried bodies; the other notified families when bones were found. One was a woman-hating sociopath; the other a charismatic cop.

Last August, King County Sheriff Dave Reichert finally sat down eyeball-to-eyeball with his nemesis of 21 years, the "Green River killer," Gary L. Ridgway.

"I think there's a bond there," Reichert told Ridgway during the first of two full days of a one-on-one interview. "I mean, we were young men when we started out on this journey together, you know? Standing on the riverbanks ...

"Every life you touched, I was there, and I touched those lives, too, only in different ways."

The relationship between Reichert, who was the lead investigator when Ridgway started killing prostitutes in 1982, and Ridgway, now serving a life sentence for those crimes, is woven through more than 8,400 pages of interview transcripts and hundreds of hours of Ridgway's videotaped confessions, released yesterday by the Sheriff's Office.

Video from KING5 Ridgway leads investigators to murder site   Green River story unfolds in released tapes   Investigators tell Ridgway what they want

The interviews occurred from June to December of last year.

In between graphic and gruesome discussions about how Ridgway disposed of his victims, the killer and the sheriff philosophized about God and hell, chuckled at dirty jokes and pondered the meaning of true love.

At one point, they guessed what famous actors might play them if a movie were made about their intertwined lives. Ridgway suggested Tom Cruise for himself. Reichert, laughing, responded, "How about Leslie Nielsen?" — referring to the hapless, white-haired cop from the "Naked Gun" movies.

"What I wanted to do was get him to a place with just me and him sitting in a bar, talking about his escapades, having a beer with a buddy," Reichert recalled yesterday. "I'm using every trick I can think of to build that partnership."

New facts in the case

The interrogations yielded a lot of new information, according to transcripts released yesterday under the state's Open Public Records Act:

	GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES, NOVEMBER 2003 A closed-circuit monitor sits on a table outside the area where Gary L. Ridgway slept at the headquarters of the Green River Task Force. He was monitored 24 hours a day.

• Ridgway said he killed as many as 71 women. He was convicted of killing only the 48 whose remains were found.

• Reichert thinks Ridgway killed throughout the 1990s, until he was arrested in November 2001. The last confirmed Green River victim is Patricia Yellow Robe, who was killed in 1998, the same year Reichert was elected sheriff.

• Ridgway claimed he tried to strangle five women before 1982 but let them go. No one has come forward to confirm this.

• Sometime in the early 1960s, when Ridgway was around 14 years old, he may have drowned a young boy in Angle Lake, south of Seattle. Ridgway recalls it as a "dream" — and no body has been found — but his account is disturbingly detailed, and an FBI psychologist is convinced it is real.

• Ridgway said he took Polaroids of some victims and made a map to lead police to bodies, but later destroyed them.

Reichert said yesterday that he believes Ridgway left behind souvenirs of his killings, such as maps, journals, photographs and jewelry, though none have been found.

Ridgway, an Auburn resident and former truck painter, confessed last summer to 48 killings after police developed DNA and forensic evidence, including paint and fiber traces, to link him with several of the murders.

Ridgway, who turns 55 next week, was sentenced to 48 consecutive life terms. He is being held in protective custody at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla.

King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng, who had vowed not to plea bargain on the death penalty, said that was ultimately the only way to solve cases and find additional remains for families.

The interviews released yesterday are the result of Ridgway's decision to cooperate with the prosecutor.

The video camera started to roll on a Friday afternoon last June when Ridgway sat down with Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brian McDonald.

Wearing a jail coverall and leg shackles, and speaking in a halting voice, Ridgway raised his right hand and swore to tell the whole truth.

"I agree to, um, plead guilty to the counts that I committed, not the others," he added.

	AP Ridgway is shown in an image taken from a videotape of his interrogation, which ran from June to December of last year. This image was shot in November or December.

Detective Tom Jensen, who led the questioning, had been the only investigator left on the Green River Task Force during most of the 1990s, when the case was languishing and officials hoped the killer was dead or in prison. Now Jensen and Ridgway were staring across the table at each other.

"We'd like to start with the bodies that are still out there," Jensen said. "Every day that goes by, there's a chance that a house can be built on one, a parking lot can be (built)."

"The, the, the first one I killed?" Ridgway asked.

"Yes."

"Um, uh, um, I don't actually remember where I killed 'em 'cause I wasn't planning on killin' any of 'em. And what happens is, um, the, um, I, I, I had, uh, uh, sex with a lotta women and I don't really know where every one I killed ... I don't know where I killed the first one. It was Coffield."

Wendy Lee Coffield, 16, disappeared July 8, 1982. Her body was found one week later snagged in the eddies of the Green River near Kent.

Frustration, revelations

Over time, Ridgway developed first-name relationships with the detectives interviewing him.

The detectives thought he never told the whole truth.

"You have been holding out," Jensen said.

"No, I'm not holding out," Ridgway replied.

"Either you have been holding out or you're generating new crap just to keep this process ongoing," Jensen said. "We're not gonna stand for that."

Ridgway told detectives he flew into rages if he thought a prostitute was hurrying him or not enjoying sex, or wouldn't let him kiss her.

"If they didn't care for me, I'd, uh, I'd kill 'em."

Ridgway showed detectives how he choked women from behind in the crook of his arm. He spoke matter-of-factly: "Some would fight. Some wouldn't. Some would just lay there and, and fight not really hard."

He blamed some of his rage on conflict with his second wife, who had divorced him in 1981, kept custody of their son and received $275 a month in child support — all sore points for Ridgway.

Ridgway's killings slowed after 1985, when he met his third wife, Judith. He told Reichert she was the most stable thing in his life.

About the time he met Judith, he also began going to church and selling Amway products.

"You had to care about people, you know," Ridgway said. "That was in one of the books and some of her seminars we went to. When you start caring about people, ... it helps in your business.

"I started caring about the prostitutes. I started caring about the woman I was going with and ... plus the scare of the Green River Task Force coming down on me."

Reichert said yesterday there was "a certain satisfaction" when he finally got to interview Ridgway last August.

"He (Ridgway) was thinking, 'I fooled you for so many years,' " Reichert said. "I was thinking, 'I finally got you, you bastard.' "

Even as the interviews progressed, Reichert said, Ridgway tried to maintain control and was excruciatingly slow about giving up information.

When Reichert interviewed Ridgway in August, the sheriff wore his full dress uniform and had the interview room fixed up like his office, with flags on the wall and his nameplate on the table.

Reichert, who announced last week he is running for Congress, last interviewed Ridgway on Dec. 16, two days before Ridgway was sentenced to life instead of death.

"How do you think the last six months have gone?" the sheriff asked.

"I think they've been goin', goin' real good," Ridgway said.

He was glad he helped find more bodies to let families know what had happened, he said, and glad he was counting up to 71 victims, "which I think is really an improvement."

Ridgway claimed he would have told police about the other bodies even if he'd been sentenced to death.

Reichert turned angry at the end.

"You, you chose weak, young women because you're a coward."

"Uh, not, no ... "

"You're pure evil, and you're a coward ... You got behind 'em, you choked 'em, and you're, you're a, you're a evil, murdering, monstrous, cowardly man."

"Yeah, I am," Ridgway replied.

Seattle Times staff reporter Mike Carter contributed to this report. Michael Ko: 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com

Duff Wilson:206-464-2288 or dwilson@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company