Hopefully there will be some closure

As a man confesses to being the Green River Killer, a long series of murders and bodies and lots of fear may hopefully come to an end, and families of the victims may find some closure, although as part of the deal to discover as much about the crimes as possible, the confessed murderer will not be given a death sentence.

There's a fascination serial killers hold in the popular mindset. How could anyone do such evil acts? How do they go about often scripted, ritual acts again and again without getting caught. This man fits the profile always suspected in the case. Maybe his cooperation will help law enforcement catch other similar killers. But in the end, one thing that is true about all serial killers is this: they are pathetic losers who often seek to control others because of a lack of control in their own lives. In this case, he sought out vulnerable women, often prostitutes or drug addicts, because they would be easier to control and kill, because he believed no one would miss them. He saw it as doing a favour to law enforcement to control these women he saw as worthless.

As he made his plea, family members of the victims cried. Those women were not missed, although they did fall through the cracks of society. The saddest thing in all this is that there are people out there who might even agree with this murderer that no one should mind a dead prostitute or two, or even a hundred.

As much as the psychology of serial killing fascinates me, I've come to realise that more important than anything else is to remember the victims, not the murderer. We hear of the Bundy and Zodiac and Son of Sam--and now Ridgway--but most people who are not involved in the case ever know much about the victims themselves, because they become statistics. But every single victim was someone's child, often a mother, a sister, etc.

If you look at the list of Green River victims and do the math, you'll find that the great majority of them were teenagers, many as young as 15 or 16. These weren't fallen women. They were desperate girls trying to get by. And no matter what the Ridgways of the world may think, they did not deserve to be used as an object of lust, murdered, and then tossed away like garbage. They never 'belonged' to Ridgway, in life or death, no matter what he may have thought.

I can only hope that with his confession and cooperation in locating and identifying his victims that their souls may find some peace and that, in their next life, they find a kinder world.