in 1982, the first 5 victims of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway, were found in the Green River in Kent, WA. 48 victims were found in the Seattle Tacoma area. He admits to killing at least 95-- so many he couldn't remember. Since his arrest, he's led the police to more bodies, some of them unidentifiable. Ridgway said his goal was to "kill as many woman he thought were prostitutes" as he could. Ted Bundy, another Washington State serial killer, helped with the investigation. (Bundy left bodies in Issaquah and Lake Sammamish, also in King County. )

The Green River starts in the western cascades south of I-90, where Mt. Si, the mountain made famous in the show and movie, is also located.

6 more of Ridgway's victims were found near Twin Peaks filming locations.

SITE 1:

http://www.seattletravel.com/snoqualmie-falls-seattle.html

3 women's bodies were found in the neighborhood of Upper Preston, near Exit 25 at Snoqualmie Parkway (Hwy 18) near Interstate 90. This site is less than 2 miles from the Weyerhauser Mill (Packard Sawmill) and the Fat Trout trailer park, and less than 5 miles from the train graveyard and the Salish Lodge (Great Northern).

* Amina Agisheff, 36, was found July 7, 1982. She worked as a waitress in Seattle and was found by a Weyerhaeuser Company worker doing roadwork.

* The bones of Tina Thompson, 22, were found on July 25, 1983.

* The bones of Maureen Feeney, 19, were found Sept 28, 1983, March 3, 1986, just 300 ft from Tina's.

SITE 2:

http://www.washingtonclimbers.org/Climbing/exit.htm

3 more bodies were found at the Exit 38 area off I-90, called "the North Bend site." This is right on top of Olallie State Park (Wind River & the drug deal spot from FWWM.) Nearby North Bend is home to Mt. Si, Twede's Cafe (the RR Diner) and the Mt. Si Motel (Red Diamond Motel.)

* Delise Plager, 26, Oct 30, 1983, was found by a hiker.

* Kimberly Nelson, 20, was also found by a Weyerhauser employee, Nov 1, 1983.

* Lisa Yates, 19, Dec 23, 1983, was found by an army soldier on convoy.

*****

In 1988, while still killing, Ridgway married a woman named Judith "JUDY" Lynch.

He was arrested in 2001 when new forensic technology found enough DNA and particle evidence to convict him. His family and wife stood by him when he protested his innocence. He was cold and emotionless throughout his court trial, but wept when the father of one victim said he forgave him, and also during his apology. This display helped him avoid the death penalty.

Here's Judy's story on a Seattle news station in 2005:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwOySbfH_lI

She believes her ex-husband was two people.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Solid, and plausible background regarding the TP series. DL must have read the news back then. As far as i know a fresh piece of information on a possible factor in the etiology of the series.

I'll say it twice : )

I don't think Lynch does research.  He just gets a *wiggles fingers* feeling.

Any book titles I could check out about this case, 12r?

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Tru Crime Library: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/greenriver/index_1.html

Books:

Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer by David Reichert

Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer by Ann Rule

The Search for the Green River Killer by Carlton Smith and Tomas Guillen

Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer by Mark Prothero and Carlton Smith

The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer by Robert Keppel

(to name a few)

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I just purchased Serial Killers: Issues Explored Through the Green River Murders by Tomas Guillen for a media analysis project.

 I am currently skimming the reviews on Amazon.

Another true crime case I am fascinated by is the West Memphis Three.  Those 2 documentaries shown on HBO about them were excellent.  I think that one stepfather John Mark Byers is a real life BOB.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

 I haven't watched them in forever.  What was the physical evidence they had on them? 

I remember teeth marks and Byers had his teeth removed after the first trial

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Well, the runaway/vagrant problem is ridiculous there. The per capita heroin use surpasses anywhere else in the country, last I heard. Combine that with the forests, the proximity to the Canada border. It's a killer's dream.

Here's an exhaustive list of serial killers in WA. :

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/109337_serial20.shtml

Back to the original topic-

I don't think the Green River murders had any influence on Twin Peaks.  If anyone would have done research, it would have been Mark Frost.  I don't remember any connection ever being made amongst the writers and I've read all of the WIPs.  Anybody remember any quotes or references connecting the show and the serial killer? 

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

All that matters is that it was part of the cultural discourse of the time.

There would be no need for anyone involved in the show to draw an explicit connection between a story about a serial killer in the Pacific Northwest and serial killers in the Pacific Northwest. I myself never suggested that.

But since you brought it up, coolspringsj...  Crediting the GRK with any part of inspiring the show in a WIP would not only be redundant, it would forever link an original work of art with someone who does not need or deserve that kind of publicity.   It would do everyone involved a discredit, while making Ridgway more famous, and that would be fucking tacky.  A wise move to preserve the memory of the show, (and that wouldn't be the only secret to have been kept from WIP, which is a fan magazine that scored some good interviews, but isn't exactly a trove of confidential insider information.)

The only thing that interested ME is the filming locations and their proximity to the graves.

All I ever heard about the choice of Snoqualmie/North Bend was that someone suggested it and it already had a sawmill, a diner, a hotel. Geographically, everything they had written about before seeing the area was in place. But they never said WHY that area was chosen in the first place.

But can you imagine David hearing Detective Richter talking on the news about seeing one of the corpses in the water, it's arm floating out and bobbing in the current, like it was waving and saying to him "Help me..."?  An image like that, surely, would make Lynch dream. 

Here, read this, from "A friend of mine had recommended Snoqualmie...":

http://www.twin-peaks.fr/articles/serie/ewspecial.html

Pat Cokewell said Feb of 89 was when they sent the location scout up.  So let's just blame the coincidence on Frost's friend.

This map adds victims found after the arrest, screwing up the numbers on the other map and omitting Amina:

 http://www.greenriverkiller.com/Victims.htm

http://www.seattlepi.com/greenriver/greenrivervictims110603.pdf

April Buttram, 17, was found Aug 30 and Sep 2 2003 "not far from" the Snoqualmie site, in a bog.

"The two bones were found in the mud at the bottom of a ravine off Southeast 96th Street, east of the Snoqualmie Parkway." -Seattle Times, Sep 27, 2003

Jared took me, James, and Johnny on a scavenger hunt in the woods in 2002. The trail started near the falls and ended in a little neighborhood. On the opposite side of that neighborhood is where the bog was. That means the bones were still there when we were wandering around.

FACTS:

The Green River Task Force was a $2,816,000 operation formed in 1984, after eight more bodies were found in King County. The first body from Green River was the only one found in Kent. The investigative team that existed was too tiny, lacking even a computer, and desperately needed to take care of this Green River business, after being forced to give up the search for lack of resources during Ridgway's most prolific killing years.

That year Portland, Oregon, started seeing murders that fit the Green River victimology, but officials there were resistant to be associated with the failed Washington case.

When the FBI learned one victim that had been taken from King County and had been found at the border, Denise Bush, crossed state lines, they moved in on the case, to the great resentment of the task force.

The FBI was also responsible for busting the wrong guy; a construction worker named Ernest McLean, which demoralized the Task Force. They used a room filled with river rocks to try to terrify him into confessing. (The bodies in the river had been weighted with stones, and rocks had also been found in the vaginas of other bodies.)

There were too many suspects and the trail had grown too cold; evidence washed away by the Northwest rain. After another arrest of a Spokane man, William Stevens, in 1999, the Task Force was dissolved and the case left in the hands of Detective Tom Jensen.

Psychological stress and internal politics led many investigators on the case to retire. But Jensen was committed to finding more skeletal remains from the 82-84 rampage, which he laboriously matched to missing persons reports.

In 1990, another sudden rash of missing runaways and prostitutes, and more bodies discovered at the Green River Killer's old dumpsites, led King County to form another, small task force-- one that they did their best to keep secret.

******** THOUGHTS

During the mid to late 80's, the mysterious Green River Killer was the most famous criminal in the country.

Ridgway had been arrested for soliciting in 1982 and linked to a woman's disappearance in 1984, but there wasn't enough evidence to charge him with anything. (Though it would be a saliva sample taken at this time that would lead to his conviction in 2001.)

For King County law enforcement and civilians, the concept of "a darkness in these woods" must have been a familiar nightmare. The killer was somewhere out there, a faceless presence, but at the same time, he was everywhere. Everyone's neighbor, co-worker or lover, was a suspect to the public. There was even suspicion of a cover-up inside the deparment. Tips and false leads came in constantly, enough to fill 260,000 sheets.

You would never know when you'd read about more bones being found in the peaceful wooded trails around Seattle. Bundy had killed in Washington, but he killed in Colorado and California, too. An unsolved case like this, with the right publicity, had the power to terrorize a nation.

Did Twin Peaks help the U.S. work through their Green River anxieties? Did a television show make it easier for people to create distance from the reality, and work through the issues it raised through fantasy and play?

One dichotomy that the media couldn't reconcile was that these marginalized women being killed-- young women, sometime girls-- were human, and had been regular teenagers just like your sister or girlfriend that had, like Laura, found their souls in a difficult place. They had to be understood like they had been homecoming queens, lost. And blaming their parents alone for their deaths was wrong; society-- everyone-- killed them by not caring they were in trouble.

I can imagine that viewer (and network) urgency to reveal BOB was a way of expressing the desire to resolve the Green River narrative, too, which makes Lynch/Frost's resistance to all the more meaningful. Because when BOB was revealed, there was no resolution, and viewers still felt let down. In the end, Twin Peaks was not able to exorcise this particular cultural demon.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Due to my interest in this subject, I searched for serial killers and saw a list of them by country and the US and UK had the longest lists.  So are we to assume that people that speak English as their native language are more twisted than others?  I'm not being serious or anything, I just found it odd.

John Wayne Gacy used to run the KFC in Waterloo Iowa. 

I also notice a fairly large concentration of serial killers in Indiana and Kansas City.  I used to live in KC.  It made me want to kill people too.

However I don't think there is any link between the Green River Killer and Twin Peaks beyond that of coincidence.

Again, I'm not trying to  imply a direct causal link  (except maybe in picking out the neighborhood to film in.)

If I rambled in that last post, my point was that art doesn't exist in a vacuum. The issues in Twin Peaks reflected a context specific to the period and people responded to that.

According to the New Historicist approach, "any similarities...," as they say, however. It's less about what was going on in the creators' minds than how it was received and interpreted, which is far more important in the long run. Maybe I should save it for my dissertation instead of stinking up a message board with it.  There's certainly no place for it in what I'm working on now. 

p.s.  The rocks in the one corpse's vagina was a detail that was privileged information for a while. So was the empty wine bottle placed between the legs of another (he also put fish on her breasts.)  Rocks and bottles, anyone? And who misplaced that fish? 

12r can connect anything to Twin Peaks.

Twin Peaks = Kevin Bacon

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper