The Green River Killer was a true life horror that the Pacific Northwest lived with for almost twenty years. Gary Ridgeway has admitted to killing 49 women and has been suspected in the disappearance and deaths of eleven more. (The nickname came from the fact that the first five victims were found in the Green River.) There have been several movies and television reality shows dedicated to the murders and Ridgeway, and now a graphic novel. Green River Killer: A True Detective Story was written by Jeff Jensen, son of one of the original detectives in the case, Tom Jensen.
This novel presents information the general public would otherwise never know (unless they are fans of true crime novels) and offers insights to the process it took to both find the killer and to bring Ridgeway to justice. The details are startling and the horrors of the case are still vivid in my mind – even though shown and told in comic book format.
The opening sequence alone is enough to give parents nightmares, but don’t let it stop you from picking this book up. It not only tells the story of how a great team of detectives and forensic analysts worked hard and long hours, facing sometimes gruesome crime scenes (Ridgeway often performed the act of necrophilia on his victims) but it shows what the detectives themselves went through emotionally and physically.
This is not a long read by any means (I read it in about an hour) but the text and graphics are well done and the story is well worth it.
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