“The Green River Killer’s Survivors: The Ones Who Got Away”
It was supposed to be his first kill. Sixteen-year-old Gary Ridgway had lured a six-year-old boy into the woods and stabbed him. As the child lay bleeding, Ridgway turned and walked away, muttering, “I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone.”
But the boy survived.
Decades later, the name Gary Ridgway would send shivers down the spine of the nation. The man who failed in his first attempt at murder would go on to become the Green River Killer, one of America’s most prolific serial murderers. He preyed on vulnerable women—mostly sex workers—strangling them and discarding their bodies like trash along highways in Washington state. He claimed he was “doing society a favor.”
Ridgway confessed to 49 murders, though he later admitted the number was likely over 70. Some investigators believe his true count could be as high as 90. But despite his monstrous appetite for death, some lived to tell the tale. Here are the ones who got away.
The Mother He Wanted to Kill
Ridgway’s obsession with control and violence may have started at home. His mother, Mary Rita Ridgway, allegedly physically abused her husband and may have sexually abused her son. Ridgway told prosecutors he had disturbing fantasies about stabbing his mother. “I thought about stabbing her in the chest or in the heart maybe,” he admitted. “Maybe uh…cut her face and chest.”
His mother’s discipline left scars—both emotional and possibly physical. Ridgway wet the bed into his early teens, and his mother would reportedly scrub his genitals afterward. He later admitted to being sexually attracted to her, a shame that he believed fueled his violent urges.
A Wife and Son Unknowingly in the Shadows of a Killer
Ridgway’s second wife, Marcia Winslow, had no idea she was married to a monster. He had charmed her into a relationship after pretending to be a police officer and pulling her over. But beneath the surface, something dark lurked.
Winslow later recalled that Ridgway enjoyed bondage, liked sneaking up on her in the woods to frighten her, and once choked her from behind in their driveway. After they separated, he threatened to kill her new boyfriend. Worse still, Ridgway confessed he had once contemplated murdering their son, Matthew, to avoid being seen as a “loser” with two divorces.
Unbeknownst to Matthew, he often sat in his father’s truck while Ridgway prowled for victims, murdered them, and even returned to their bodies for necrophilic acts. The boy never knew how close he had come to danger.
The Woman Who Took the Wrong Ride
In the early 1980s, Jill McCabe Johnson was an 18-year-old enjoying nights out at a country-western dance hall in Seattle. One night, she met a man named Gary. He seemed nice enough and offered to drive her home. Once inside, he followed her into her bedroom.
They had an intimate conversation, discussing his troubled marriage. They even had sex, though Jill later noted something strange—he didn’t seem to finish but claimed he had. Then, when her roommates arrived home, he jumped at the noise and quickly left.
Years later, when Ridgway’s mugshot was plastered across the news in 2001, Johnson realized that the “Gary” she had taken home might have been the Green River Killer himself. She wrote him a letter, seeking confirmation. As of 2021, she had not received a reply.
The Hitchhiker Who Ran for Her Life
On a rainy night in November 1982, 20-year-old Rebecca Garde made the near-fatal mistake of hitchhiking home. Ridgway pulled up and offered her $20 for sex. She hesitated but, after seeing his work ID, decided to accept. They drove to a secluded trailer park, where Ridgway suggested they move into the nearby woods.
Then he attacked.
He tried to suffocate her, covering her nose and mouth before tightening his grip around her throat. But Garde fought back. She shoved him into a tree, using every ounce of strength to resist. “No, this is not my time. I want to grow up. I want to get married. I want to have babies,” she later recalled thinking. Fueled by survival instinct, she managed to break free and sprinted toward a nearby trailer, pounding on the door until someone let her in.
Despite the horror, Garde didn’t immediately go to the police. Fear of not being believed—especially as someone with a history of drug use and sex work—kept her silent. But in 1984, she found the courage to come forward. She contacted the police, giving them Ridgway’s work information and later identifying him in a photo lineup.
Ridgway admitted to choking her but claimed it was only because she had bitten him. Despite Garde dropping the charges, her report put him on law enforcement’s radar. Two years later, he would be a key suspect in the Green River murders. But it wasn’t until DNA evidence connected him to his victims in 2001 that he was finally arrested and sentenced to life in prison.
The Monster is Caged—But the Nightmares Linger
Ridgway is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. But his legacy of terror endures. Survivors like Garde live with the knowledge that they escaped the clutches of a serial killer. Others, like Johnson, still wonder how close they came to death.
For the families of the women he did murder, justice may have been served—but closure remains elusive. The Green River Killer took too many lives, but a few, by sheer will or fate, lived to tell their story.
