Confessions of a serial killer: Gary Leon Ridgway

From BBC News:

When Gary Leon Ridgway stands up in a Seattle court on Wednesday and admits 48 counts of aggravated first degree murder he will officially become America's most prolific serial killer. It is not a very good advertisement for the polygraph, or lie detector test. In 1987 the man suspected of being the Green River Killer took such a test and passed with flying colours.

Just hours before he appears in court his attorney, Eric Lindell, gave an exclusive interview to BBC News Online, in which he explained why his client had admitted to murdering 48 women and what it might mean for others on Death Row. On Friday it emerged that a plea bargain had been agreed, whereby the state of Washington would drop the death penalty in return for Ridgway's co-operation and his 48 guilty pleas. He will instead be jailed for life without the possibility of parole. The Green River Killer strangled dozens of young women between 1982 and 1984 and his moniker derived from the river, just south of Seattle, where he dumped many of his victims. Most of them were prostitutes who worked on "the strip" close to Sea-Tac airport, which serves Seattle and nearby Tacoma. There has been speculation that Ridgway, like Britain's Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, bore a grudge against hookers and may have been spurred by deep religious beliefs.

But Mr Lindell described Ridgway as a "very unique individual" and said his motive was not a "traditional" one. His motivation is expected to be made clear in an 83-page document due to be posted on the King County website later on Wednesday.Ridgway, 54, spent 23 years working in the paintshop at the Kenworth truck factory in Renton, just south of Seattle. Mr Lindell said his work colleagues had nothing but good to say about him. "He is polite and well-mannered," he added. "If you put him in a room with 20 other people you would not be able to pick him out as anything out of the ordinary."

Married with children, he lived an unremarkable life in suburbia. He was one of hundreds of suspects interviewed by police during the 1980s and at one point provided a DNA sample. But it was not until 2001 that advances in technology meant comparisons could be made with the traces of DNA found on the bodies of prostitutes Opal Mills, 16, Marcia Chapman, 31, and Carol Ann Christensen, 21. A match was made and Ridgway was arrested and charged with seven murders.He initially denied the charges but in the last couple of months he has confessed to these and another 41 killings, several of which came as a complete shock to police. Mr Lindell said: "Despite being told by all the offender profilers that serial killers only stop when they are incarcerated the police believed the Green River Killer stopped after four years."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3243015.stm