Gary Ridgway, a Seattle man known as the "green river killer" who plead guilty to the murder of 49 women, recently confessed to committing closer to 80 murders over a period of decades, according to ABC News.
The green river killer is currently serving 49 life sentences in a Washington state prison. In a recent interview with KOMO, Ridgway explained he admitted to the additional murders in order to bring closure to the families of the victims.
"The total number [of victims] is 75 to 80," Ridgway said in a phone interview.
Ridgway, who claims he has found God, said he could have done more to assist police to help the victims' families after his 2001 arrest and would like to make up for that now. However, reporter Charlie Harger of KOMO said he is unsure of the legitimacy of Ridgway's claims.
"The strange thing about Gary Ridgway is if you didn't know the depravity, if you didn't know the evil that this man committed, you would have no clue when you talked on the phone with him," Harger said. "This man sounds like he would be a perfect neighbor."
During his confession, Ridgway said he picked up his victims -- prostitutes and teenagers that ran away from home -- throughout the 1980s and 1990s in King County. He said he strangled them during sex and dumped their bodies in areas around the county's Green River, inspiring his criminal nickname.
If it wasn't for advanced DNA testing at the time of his arrest, Ridgway, who was suspected as the killer for years, would have never been arrested. During his trial, he agreed to plead guilty to every murder in order to avoid the death penalty and receive life sentences instead.
Now that Ridgway revealed a higher count of murders, the question of his motive remains -- is it to actually help the families of the victims or is it to heighten his infamous reputation?
"Gary Ridgway is absolutely playing me. He's playing everybody when he talks," Harger said. "I don't think Gary Ridgway can even comprehend the truth.
"I think he wants to show the world that, 'Here I am, Gary Ridgway, the truck painter from Kenworth, the guy who everybody thought was slow since elementary school, somebody who couldn't hold a candle to Ted Bundy. But, here I am, and I'm the best at something,'" Harger added.
