Gary Ridgway — The Green River Killer

Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 71 women and girls in Washington State — primarily in the Seattle and Tacoma areas — between 1982 and 2000, making him the most prolific convicted serial killer in United States history. He targeted vulnerable women, often sex workers, strangling them and dumping their bodies in wooded areas and near the Green River. Ridgway evaded capture for nearly two decades, passing a polygraph test in 1984, and was finally identified through DNA evidence in 2001. In exchange for leading investigators to undiscovered remains, he received a plea deal of life imprisonment instead of death.