Gary Ridgway's Real Name: Gary Leon Ridgway

Quick answer: Gary Ridgway's documented full name is Gary Leon Ridgway. The Library of Congress heading dates his birth to 1949. He is an American convicted murderer known as the Green River Killer. The Associated Press reported that he was arrested in 2001, pleaded guilty to 48 murders two years later and to a 49th murder in 2011, and has been serving a life sentence (AP News; AP News).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress heading is "Ridgway, Gary Leon, 1949-." A more precise date and a hometown appearing in some online databases are not independently confirmed in the sources used here, so they are not used in the title. An Associated Press report published in 2013 referred to him as 64, a figure consistent with a 1949 birth year. This page does not attempt a fuller early-life narrative beyond those documented facts.

Career highlights

Ridgway is known to the public almost entirely through the criminal case that produced the "Green River Killer" name, taken, the AP wrote, from the Green River in the Seattle area where the first bodies were found. After his arrest, he entered guilty pleas rather than going through a contested trial on the counts described below. The AP has also reported that authorities say it is possible there were additional victims beyond the counts to which he pleaded guilty; this page records only the documented convictions.

Convictions

The Associated Press reported that Ridgway was arrested in 2001 after DNA technology linked a 1987 saliva sample to some of the bodies. He pleaded guilty to 48 murders two years later, in 2003, agreeing to help authorities locate as many remains as possible, and pleaded guilty to a 49th murder in 2011. A 2013 AP report said he had been convicted of killing 49 women and was serving a life sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. That report also described a later offer by Ridgway to help locate remains; King County Sheriff John Urquhart warned that investigators should treat such offers cautiously. A later AP report, in 2021, likewise stated that since 2003 he has pleaded guilty to killing 49 women and girls. This page records those convictions and the sentence; it does not recount individual victims or crime-scene details.

Name notes for searchers

Gary Leon Ridgway is the documented full name; he is widely known as the Green River Killer. Searchers looking for the defendant in the Green River murders are usually aiming at the same person.