Back to the front page
American History

History’s Top Executioners of All Time

Russia - Russian Revolution

31. A Prostitute Addict

A young Gary Ridgway. Seattle PI

Not that many people have ever been as obsessed with prostitutes as was Gary Ridgway (1949 – ). Sadly for the prostitutes, he came in contact with, his obsession was of the worst possible kind: that of a prolific serial killer with his target population. Ridgway, also known as “The Green River Killer”, was convicted of killing 48 women, and pled guilty to killing another one. Most of them were prostitutes. He eventually confessed to having killed 71 women in total.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ridgway grew up in a poor neighborhood, raised by parents who often argued violently. He wet his bed until he was thirteen, and whenever he did so, Ridgway’s mother would wash his genitals. He informed psychologists that in his teens, he had been attracted to his mother, while simultaneously fantasizing about killing her.

Written by

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.

Keep reading

Advertisement