Gary Leon Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, is one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. He was convicted of 48 murders, but confessed to a  staggering 71, spanning from 1982 to 1998.

He earned his nickname after many of his victims were discovered along Washington’s famous Green River. Most of his victims were young, vulnerable women, many of them being sex workers who Ridgway had hired. His preferred method of killing was strangulation, after which he would dump the bodies in wooded areas or the river.