Gary Ridgway | The Green River Killer - Part 4
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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did and how. Episode 166. I am your Norwegian host, Samas Rosland Weyberg Thun. So, what do you think, dear listener? Personally, I could not have been more happy with my new theme song.

It is custom-made, no tune like it in the world. Hopefully it will strike a pleasant chord among my dear listeners as well. We're left part three in this series with Chief Medical Examiner Donald Rieh's transcript of his preliminary observations of three new corpses found close together in or near the Green River.

Tonight, we continue on our road into rage, moving ever downward, along the Green River and its surroundings. Murdered women surfacing in an avalanche of death. Enjoy.

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And of course, if you wish to donate $15 a month, that's only $7.50 per episode, you are more than welcome to join the ranks of the TSK Producers Club too. So don't miss out and join now. Imagine, if you will, dear listener, a sterile room.

The walls are white. The floor, off-white. In the middle of the room, steel and aluminum examination tables fill most of the free space. We are in the medical examiner's office, and the autopsy of the three newest victims began shortly after 8 a.m. Detective Reichert was again in attendance. Finger and palm prints were taken of all three victims.

An assistant medical examiner drew the first body from the cold room, a concrete enclosure about thirty-seven square meters, kept at a constant temperature in the low forties, to slow decomposition. The dead women lay on their own gurneys, covered with white sheets. The first to be taken into the autopsy room was the young woman found by Reichert.

The body was rolled onto the stainless steel operating table, and the overhead lights were turned on. The pathologist noted several bruises and lacerations on the face and lips. As with Wendy Cofield, the left forearm was badly bruised. The right arm was scraped, as if it had been dragged over rocky ground. A tiny puncture was found on the outside of the right knee.

More scrapes were found on the victim's lower back and buttocks. A closer examination of the knee revealed microscopic traces of pigmented shiny material, perhaps some sort of colored glass. The pathologist went over the whole body with the magnifying glass. He found minute particles of what appeared to be tiny glass beads all over the body. These were scraped off and preserved.

Further inspection revealed traces of intact sperm inside the victim's vagina. X-rays were taken of the victim's teeth in the hope that dental charts might later be obtained to confirm the victim's identity.

At 8:45 a.m., the pathologist started on the next body. Within a few minutes, he discovered something shocking. A pyramid-shaped rock, about seven centimeters long and about nine centimeters wide at its base, had been shoved into the victim's vagina. The rock had to be surgically removed. It, too, was placed into evidence.

The pathologist noted the presence of injuries in the woman's neck cavity and concluded that the woman had been asphyxiated in some manner, possibly by hand. Just before noon, the pathologist began the examination of the third victim. Bruises were noted on the neck and top of the left shoulder. More evidence of violent struggle and probable strangulation.

Examination of the vagina showed another pyramid rock, this one 6 cm long and a little less than 5 cm wide at the base. Two victims found in the water, each weighted down with rocks, and each with rocks inside their vaginas. Clearly, those two murders were the work of the same killer.

Detective Reichert took the fingerprint cards, the rocks, and the pigmented material, and the glass beads, back to his office. One of the fingerprint sets matched with department records. Another arrested prostitute, Belinda Bradford. Then the same prints were matched to another name, Marcy Woods. And then to Belinda Woodies, Marcia Bradford, Belinda Jean Chapman.

And finally, to Marcia Faye Chapman. It was turning out to be very difficult to determine who really this dead woman was. Further checking would be needed to determine her true name. The prints of the other two victims produced no identities.

That afternoon, Officer Kraski presided over the meeting of police detectives from Kent, Tacoma, the city of Seattle, and his own department. Kraski had invited Bob Keppel, the Ted Bundy expert, from the Attorney General's office as well. There were a lot of homicides involving young women, Kraski realized, as detectives from each agency briefed the others on their cases.

And there were several young prostitutes who had been reported missing as well, particularly in the city of Seattle. But a difference of opinion arose over whether the murders were really a serial case or whether the murders of Wendy Cofield and Leanne Wilcox were separate cases, and over Barner, if that was who the slaughterhouse victim was.

Most agreed, however, that at least the two young black women found in the river were probably killed by the same person or persons, and also probably the third victim, the one that Reichert had discovered. The meeting also reviewed the meager leads detectives had for the various cases. Reichert talked about Leanne Wilcox, Dub Barner, Larry Matthews, and Carl Martin.

A Seattle detective described his department's investigation of the murders of Joan Connor, Teresa Klein, and Virginia K. Taylor, all known to have hitchhiked, but said he doubted that they were connected to the Green River crimes. Another detective filled everyone in on prostitutes who had been reported missing. Kellams from Kent talked about Cofield.

The Tacoma police brought with them information on Matthews and Martin, as well as on several others involved in Tacoma's world of drugs and prostitution. After listening for a while to the wrangling over whether the murders were a serial case, Keppel snorted in disgust. If ever murders met the criteria for a serial homicide case, Keppel said, they certainly did in the River murders.

Keppel reviewed the facts. The victims were similar in age, and possibly background. It appeared likely that the victims were dumped from the same spot along the river. Two of the victims had the same sort of rocks forced into their vaginas, almost certainly a psychological signature of the same sexual psychopath.

Two of the other victims, Wendy Cofield and the woman found by Reichert, were both strangled with their own pants, and in both cases the same kind of knot was used, again a signature. Keppel said the following, and I quote, I can tell you one thing.

This probably isn't the first time this guy has killed. And not only that, he's not going to stop until he's caught or he dies. Furthermore, it is almost a certainty that the killer or killers would soon be getting victims from all over, not just King County. End quote. Many of the detectives disagreed with Keppel.

Some pointed out that the rocks used to weigh down the two black victims in the water did not seem present with the slaughterhouse victim, and certainly not for Cofield, who was found floating. But Keppel was not so sure about that. Maybe the current of the river had dislodged the rocks on the first two victims. The other detectives listened noncommittally to Keppel. Many did not like him.

Keppel's reputation as a bright but often caustic critic of traditional police methods made them feel defensive. Worse, some saw Keppel as a tireless self-promoter, stubborn, opinionated, and sometimes difficult to work with. One disgruntled colleague said the following of him years later, and I quote, Bob Keppel is the biggest egomaniac I have ever met, end quote.

Because Keppel by 1982 had earned a national reputation as an expert in serial murders and outdoor crime scenes, some detectives believed Keppel was likely to see serial murders were non-existent. "That's Keppel," they told one another later. "He sees serial murders everywhere, connected or not. The crimes had to be investigated."

Kraski asked for suggestions. Keppel had one, and I quote: "It's my guess that this guy is a reader. He's read about the Atlanta case. He's read about how water can be used to clean trace evidence of the victims. It's just like in Atlanta. This guy may go back to the river, or some river, somewhere."

If I were you, I'd stake the river out. That's how they caught Wayne Williams in Atlanta, with a stakeout on the river. End quote.

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Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. Kraski agreed. And in fact, he had already ordered undercover surveillance of the river area. Too late, perhaps, but maybe not.

In the meantime, the detectives from the four departments would follow their own leads and funnel information to Reichert. The Seattle department would look into pimps and pimp wars. Kent would continue working on Cofield, and Tacoma would mine Bonner's drag connection for words on Matthews, Martin, and other possible suspects.

That afternoon, the identity of the dead woman found by Frank Linard near the slaughterhouse was confirmed. She had been Deborah Lynn Bonner, known as Dub, to her family and friends. Things had started going bad for Carlton Marshall not long after Dub had disappeared. Dub was Marshall's hoe, as they said on the streets.

When Dub had worked for Carl, those were the good times. The 27-year-old marshal, using his street name of Carl or sometimes Robert Martin, liked to idle his hours away inside the cool dark of Tacoma's downtown taverns while Dub hit the streets looking for business.

Then, when the cops made things hot, Dub and Carl left the Teapot Motel in downtown Tacoma and moved into South King County to the north. There, the two had taken a room at the Three Bears Motel at South 216th Street and Pacific Highway South.

That was in the heart of the so-called Sea-Tac Strip, a locus of street prostitution near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The motel offered X-rated movies and managers who asked no questions, probably because they hardly spoke any English. Then, on the 25th of July, Dubb had disappeared.

Living Carl with all her clothes, the tools of her trade, fixings he'd paid good money for, and the maroon 72 T-Bird they jointly owned. Dub left the motel to hit a strip about 8 p.m. and never came back. Carl told friends that Dub was missing in action. Carl wondered whether Matthews had anything to do with Dub's disappearance.

He had called Dub's mother a few days later and she said she hadn't heard from her. He couldn't believe that Dub would leave him, not after everything they had been through. After Dub had vanished, he decided it was time to take care of business. He had gone up to Linwood, just north of Seattle, and had gotten involved with a man up there. Carl needed to make a score. The other man put him on to some stolen credit cards.

With a little money, he could make things right with Matthews, and maybe Dub would come back to him. Then, on the 4th of August, Carl and the other man were busted by the Linwood cops for the stolen credit cards and were taken to the Snohomish County Jail. The T-bird was impounded while the cops searched the car, and it took Carl six days to raise the money to get out.

Then it turned out Deb was dead. One of the women found in the Green River. Carl found that out from the cops. He had been out of jail less than a week when on Tuesday morning the cops had landed all over him, right in front of his own mother. All sorts of questions were levied at him.

luckily for him it seemed the police were more interested in matthews than in him and soon left him to his own devices it had taken a few days but finally the county police positively identified the first of the black women in the river marcy woodies aka bradford was in truth marcia fay chapman

Chapman was 31 and the mother of three small children. Known as Tiny to her friends and neighbors because of her diminutive stature, she had worked as a prostitute near Seattle Tacoma International Airport for several years, using the money she earned to pay the rent on a nearby apartment and to feed and clothe her children. Chapman's mother was taken down to the morgue.

where she provided visual identification of her daughter's immersion-bloated body. Reichardt learned that Chapman had been arrested on the 28th of June on Pacific Highway South, not far from her apartment, and had appeared in court about a month later. Nine days after that, at about 8.30 p.m., she told her children she was going to the store. She never came back.

The following day, one of Marsha's children called Chapman's mother, who came over to take care of them until Chapman turned up. But the hours dragged on with no word. Finally, just before midnight on the 2nd of August, Chapman's mother called police to report her daughter missing. On the 20th of August, 1982, the police arrested Larry Matthews,

Matthews had just walked into Brown's Star Grill, not far from the lucky spot, when Larry Gross, the detective who specialized in finding people who did not want to be found, put the arm on him. For several nights, Gross had been cruising the streets of downtown Tacoma with a pair of Tacoma Cups, looking for Matthews.

As Gross approached him, Matthews quickly drew a knitting needle honed to a fine point and threatened Gross. But after a brief wrestling match, Matthews was down on the floor and in handcuffs. Matthews was taken to the county detective's offices in Seattle. By morning, Matthews was talking freely, but police were not learning very much that they did not already know.

It appeared that Matthews knew nothing about any of the murders. The detectives were trying to learn more about the man's involvement in the prostitution business in Seattle and Tacoma. The media had proffered wild theories that the murders were the result of a vicious pimp war, but Kraski and Reichert knew better.

For pimps to start killing prostitutes, especially their own prostitutes, was highly unlikely. Doing that was literally taking money out of their own pockets. By now the media was getting more and more involved in the Green River killings. It was brewing up to be a metaphorical firestorm. And Kraski and Reichert was in the eye of that storm, and they knew it.

As usual, the media was far from friendly towards the investigating police force. But there was some good news waiting for Kraski. A county prosecuting attorney had sworn an affidavit in support of a search warrant to comb through Matthews' Tacoma house, and the judge had approved the warrant. Detectives were on their way.

Maybe, just maybe, they would find something to prove that Matthews was involved, despite his denial. Even better, the two drawings of the unidentified victims, published that morning, had generated several telephone tips from people who said they knew the victims. Dental charts were being sought on some of the names in an effort to finally identify them.

Publicity was not always bad, Kraski knew. It was just that it was so hard to control. That afternoon, a team of King County and Tacoma City detectives searched Matthews' house from basement to rooftop. The basement was particularly interesting. The searchers found a pair of handcuffs and chains bolted to the ceiling. There appeared to be dried blood underneath the restraints.

Samples were taken of this. After several hours, the police finally emerged from the house, carrying away two cardboard boxes filled with possible evidence. On Sunday, the 22nd of August, one week after the bodies were found, medical investigators identified the remaining two women. One was 17-year-old Cynthia Hines, sometimes known as Cookie,

The other was sixteen-year-old Opal Mills. Mills had been the one found by Reichert on the riverbank, the one who looked very young and had been laying on her stomach in the tall grass. Detective Reichert learned from the Mills family in Kent that Opal had left with a friend known only as Cookie on the 11th of August, the day before Bonner's body was discovered.

Cookie and Opal had gotten summer jobs painting apartments, the family told him. Opal was to ask the painting contractors whether another job might be available for Opal's brother. On Thursday, Opal had called Collect from a pay telephone and left a message. There were no other jobs. The family did not know where she had called from.

Detectives also talked to Heinz's family, who provided the names of some of her friends.

From the friends it was learned that Cynthia had been seen on the night of the 11th of August at a convenience store located at South 200th Street and Pacific Highway South, about 12 blocks from the place where Marsha Chapman had last been seen on the 1st of August, and 16 blocks from the Three Bears Motel where Dub Bonner had vanished on the 25th of July.

it was starting to look more and more like the suspect was a prostitution customer. A sick trick, as the women called them. Reichert also found out where Opal Mills had placed the collect telephone call. The call had been made on the 12th of August from the pay telephone at Angle Lake Park, located at South 193rd Street and Pacific Highway South.

That put Mills' last known location between Cynthia Hines and Marsha Chapman. It also put four of the five victims on the Sea-Tac strip at the time of their disappearances. It seemed that the murderer had been cruising Pacific Highway South, looking for victims. There were hundreds of prostitutes out there near the airport, Reichardt knew.

And as far as he knew, all of them were now potentially at risk.

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And so it is that we end part four in the tale of the Green River Killer.

Next episode will continue our hunt for America's second most prolific serial killer. So, as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. Finally, I wish to thank you, dear listener, for listening.

If you like this podcast, you can support it by donating on patreon.com slash theserialkillarpodcast, by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, facebook.com slash theskpodcast, or by posting on the subreddit theskpodcast. Thank you. Good night and good luck.