Green river killer a true detective story pdf

Authors: Christopher D. Bader, F. Carson Mencken, Joseph O. The untold account of the countless Americans who believe in, or personally experience, paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs and psychics Given the popularity of television shows such as Finding Bigfoot, Ghost Hunters, Supernatural, and American Horror Story, there seems to be an insatiable public hunger for mystical happenings. Gritty because it happened not too long ago, and because no one, not even Ridgeway himself, could explain the most important question: why?

Ridgeway gave himself a three. View all 8 comments. Mar 28, Chad rated it really liked it Shelves: A true crime story about the Green River Killer, one of the most prolific serial killers in American history.

Told through the eyes of Tom Jensen by his son Jeff Jensen. Tom was the the lead detective on the case as GRK evaded police for almost 20 years. Most of the story is told as Gary Ridgeway takes the police around the Seattle area as he details where additional bodies are buried.

It's truly chilling how Ridgeway tries to buddy up with the detectives like he's helping them out and didn't do A true crime story about the Green River Killer, one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. It's truly chilling how Ridgeway tries to buddy up with the detectives like he's helping them out and didn't do anything wrong.

He comments on things like "After we're done here today, we need to stop at K-Mart so I can buy some new boots. Dec 13, Sam Quixote rated it really liked it. This is the true crime story of Gary Ridgway, aka the Green River Killer, who murdered a number of women in Seattle starting in the 80s and remains one of the most notorious serial killers in history. The detective tasked with bringing the killer to justice is the author's father, Tom Jensen who looks like Commissioner Gordon , who sees the case through to its remarkable conclusion in when Ridgway was finally apprehended thanks to DNA evidence taken in , and in order to bargain his fat This is the true crime story of Gary Ridgway, aka the Green River Killer, who murdered a number of women in Seattle starting in the 80s and remains one of the most notorious serial killers in history.

The detective tasked with bringing the killer to justice is the author's father, Tom Jensen who looks like Commissioner Gordon , who sees the case through to its remarkable conclusion in when Ridgway was finally apprehended thanks to DNA evidence taken in , and in order to bargain his fate from death to life imprisonment, he was moved into a bunker to live separate from other prisoners, with police around him at all times, to provide information on more women who were missing and whether he killed them and where he buried them.

The book is a fascinating and grim look at this sad, disturbed psychopath and the terror he wrought upon scores of victims. Despite Ridgway's confessions, many of the missing women he claimed to have killed were never found and remain unknown to day. Ridgway himself is still alive serving 48 life sentences for his crimes. Jeff Jensen does a fine job of telling this complicated case through the life of his father, for whom this book is written for.

The story shifts from the present to the past effortlessly weaving in moments from decades ago and showing their relevance in the case as it was being built.

The book is well written and the details morbidly fascinating, as is the case with all true crime. Ridgway himself remains something of an enigma, as his motivations are either unclear to himself or he is hiding them from others. The best he can offer is "I just had to kill". Jonathan Case's black and white inks compliment the story well and the book is easier and enjoyable to read through his treatment of Jensen's script.

This is a true horror story that's captivating from start to finish and all fans of comics and true crime will find plenty to enjoy here, especially fans of Rick Geary's work. For the more casual reader, this is a dark yet compelling story of a horrifying individual and the stark brutality of his world, and is definitely worth reading for that.

View 1 comment. Oct 08, Dave Schaafsma rated it liked it Shelves: gn-crime. A true crime story, only slightly fictionalized, of catching the Green River serial killer in the Seattle area, the worst serial killer in American history, who killed at least 48 prostitutes, and confessed to each of them, and made those confessions credible with details.

It is also a tribute to the author's father, who was the lead detective on the case for almost twenty years on the case. This is gruesome and interesting, especially if you are like me interested in true crime detective stori A true crime story, only slightly fictionalized, of catching the Green River serial killer in the Seattle area, the worst serial killer in American history, who killed at least 48 prostitutes, and confessed to each of them, and made those confessions credible with details.

This is gruesome and interesting, especially if you are like me interested in true crime detective stories. I am also reading a lot of father and son stories, and this is in a sense one of those, I'm also coincidentally taking my time rereading Crime and Punishment, so crime stories, all kinds, are just page turners for me.

That said, the art here is just competent and straightforward standard black and white true crime style. The storytelling is good, competent, sort of true to actual casework, plodding, frustrating, not Hollywood. Those details make it hard to read and maybe not recommendable for everyone, but the father tribute part of it, the case study of the detective, is pretty well done. There's a lot of famous people who write breathless blurbs for the back cover. I liked the book, but agree with almost none of them who find the book riveting.

I liked it and if you like true crime stories, you'll like this and find it hard to put down. This graphic novel is just beyond terrifying. Thankfully Ridgway has been convicted obviously as this depicts him trying to remember where he left bodies and leading the cops to them but to know that it took so long to catch this monster is just horrifying, he was just hiding in plain sight the WHOLE time.

It gives me shivers just thinking about it! I love the perspective it was written from, especially since it came from so close to Ridgway and those who worked his case. This is one hell of a true crime story and it translates incredibly well into graphic novel form. Jul 31, Jon Nakapalau rated it it was amazing. He then spent days interviewing Gary Leon Ridgway trying to bring closure to families still hoping against hope that their loved ones would still come home.

Written by his son Jeff Jensen this is a powerful testament on the toll evil takes on victims, their families and the people tasked with finding and stopping predators - who can no longer control their dark impulses - highly recommended. Aug 02, Seth T. In my Baby's in Black review , I discussed the difficulties that confront non-fictional accounts of historical events.

The primary hurdle is reader foreknowledge. If you're already aware spoilers! Reader investment, then, must be engaged in other ways. Titanic , for In my Baby's in Black review , I discussed the difficulties that confront non-fictional accounts of historical events. Titanic , for instance, couldn't just be a movie about how a boat sank since the only reason anyone is aware of the Titanic is because it sank.

James Cameron decided to make it a love story set on the backdrop of a sinking boat because everybody would go into it well aware that the boat wouldn't survive the end credits. The drama then was not in whether the boat would sink but in the romance and survival of its principal couple. True crime is as much beholden to this rule as any other genre, and in many cases everyone goes into the story knowing the end of the matter. The Ted Bundy story ends either with Bundy getting caught or with his execution.

The Unabomber story ends perhaps with the arrest or trial of Theodore Kaczynski. And the Green River Killer was Gary Ridgway and he was discovered and arrested two decades after his first murders. These are known facts, and prior knowledge of them could destroy any sense of anticipation in reading a retelling of the events. Fortunately, author Jeff Jensen has something better up his sleeve.

When one recalls the stale story direction of David Fincher's film adaptation, Zodiac , which followed the unsolved case of the Zodiac Killer, it becomes doubly apparent how deliciously good The Green River Killer is.

Rather than give a rote recountment of events and try to hold onto the mystery of the murderer's identity for as long as possible, Jensen rather quickly zooms the reader from a chilling introduction to the killer in to Detective Tom Jensen's interrogation of Gary Ridgway, two years after his arrest.

Ridgway is introduced as the Green River Killer by page From then and onward, author Jeff Jensen treats the reader to a narrative that hops back and forth across the prior twenty years as Detective Jensen and Ridgway discuss and to some extent relive Ridgeway's murder of more than fifty women.

The tension and drama come in as we discover that the detective who is the real-life father of Jeff Jensen, the book's writer wants to come away from his days interviewing the murderer with a very particular piece of information. What is it and will Tom Jensen's curiosity be satisfied? Will he and his family survive in the meantime? These are the threads that weave through Green River Killer: A True Detective Story , and watching them resolve is exciting and satisfying.

Serial killers hold an often irrational grasp over the imaginations of the public. Even though no one in my town a small beach community far from the freeway was a potential victim, we lived on alert, fearing that we could be next. Seattle at least in Jensen's book likewise reacted to the Green River Killer—who only killed prostitutes—with a kind of widespread, irrational panic.

Perhaps it's the loss of faith in a city's paid protection that sparks fear in a victimized community. Or maybe it's founded on the sense of helplessness that accompanies the knowledge that there is a serial murderer at large—a killer that the police seem inadequate to the task of detecting, let alone capturing. Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case do an admirable job capturing Seattle's sense of panic, even if rarely showing any member of the community who isn't either a detective, a corpse, or a killer.

Jensen does this other interesting thing with Green River Killer : he writes Ridgway as almost sympathetic. Certainly he's still a creepy sociopath with more victims than perhaps any other American serial killer.

But by the time the narrative catches up with him, Ridgway's just a sad-sack, middle-aged man trying his darnedest to be of assistance to the detectives interviewing him. He's a little bit bewildered and a little bit vulnerable. And he rarely exudes anything resembling an aura of menace. He timidly jokes with his captors and tries to make friends with them even as he details his murders in order to plea bargain down to a mere lifetime-imprisonment. It's unnerving once you recognize that you've grown comfortable with the character.

That is if you do grow comfortable, of course. I did, but I presume others might not so easily forget how sinister the man is. This on its own is a huge triumph of the book and one for which Jensen should be proud. Still, enough about Jeff Jensen and his "words. I'm not certain who exactly is responsible for pairing Jensen and Case on this project Sierra Hahn, maybe? I actually can't imagine a better artistic direction for depicting these figures and the macabre muck through which they must wade in their quest for Truth.

Case's art is reminiscent of David Lapham's Stray Bullets -era work, only slightly more polished and employing far less punk-lunacy. His opening salvo of a young Ridgway testing the waters of his mania is devastating and perfect. In reviewing Uzumaki , I wrote how I didn't believe comics could adequately convey a sense of horror because of the unsurprising way in which panels pace a story.

If there was ever a counter-argument, I believe this story segment is it. Mar 27, Sara rated it really liked it Shelves: graphic-non-fiction , true-crime. I'm always fascinated to hear a true crime story told from the perspective of the men and women who solved it. There's something very gratifying about seeing the aftermath when the bad guy gets his comeuppance and there's some justice for the victims and survivors.

I'm old! Solving murders and putting people in prison takes time and effort and a lot of that effort is boring and I'm always fascinated to hear a true crime story told from the perspective of the men and women who solved it. Solving murders and putting people in prison takes time and effort and a lot of that effort is boring and hopeless and years can pass with no leads.

That was definitely the case with Gary Ridgway, possibly the most prolific serial killer in American history his official body count is 48 but he's suspected in over murders. Ridgway began his "career" in the early 80's and was considered a suspect for a long time but it wasn't until DNA evidence came into use as a criminal investigation tool that law enforcement was finally able to conclusively link him to the murders and arrest him.

A huge part of that investigation was handled by one detective. For over twenty years detective Tom Jensen hunted the Green River Killer largely on his own and when he was finally caught Jensen spent hours interviewing Ridgway about his crimes. Now in a bleak but beautiful graphic format Jensen's son tells his father's story and by extension the story of the Green River Killer.

But this isn't a sensational pulp magazine story. It's dismal and depressing. Jensen isn't hunting Hannibal Lecter I'm sorry I try not to bring him up all the time but its hard guys.

He's looking for a pathetic loser of a human being with no redeeming features who's more or less blindly stumbled his way out of law enforcement's grasp due entirely to blind luck. This monster isn't frightening so much as he is disgusting and barely worth the oxygen he's taking up to survive. Jeff Jensen's admiration for his father is obvious. It's rare and frankly wonderful to read a piece of true crime history where the detective trying to crack the case is a loving and devoted father and husband who has the support and respect of his wife and children.

Detective Jensen is, simply put, a good man. A man who hunts monsters and who frequently finds himself at a loss for how to move forward in a world that allows men like Ridgway to exist, but a good man nonetheless. Detective Jensen is also a damn good detective. I don't mean just as an investigator, though he's clearly a dogged and determined one. What makes him such a remarkably good detective is the deep compassion and care he shows for Ridgway's victims and their families.

They call them "the lesser dead. If you're a sex worker or someone who lives a "dangerous lifestyle" its still widely assumed even today that if you wind up murdered you had it coming. So you can imagine what it was like in the 's. Ridgway's victims were all either sex workers or women considered at risk. That's partly why it took so long to catch him, because no one gave a shit that they were dying in droves.

But Jensen never saw them as anything other than someone's daughter, mother, or friend. For every single woman who feel victim to the Green River Killer Jensen had a name, a face, or a loved one desperate to learn what had happened to them.

The most moving part of this book for me is the desperate sorrow and anger that finally overcomes Jensen as he is forced to acknowledge that Ridgway cared so little for his victims he can't be bothered to remember what they looked like let alone what their names were. He's so blindly angry you can see its all he can do not to throttle Ridgway from across the interview table.

That he doesn't is yet another mark of his exceptional character. So in a strange way this book is really a celebration of a good and noble man who worked tirelessly for decades not just to end Ridgway's horrific reign of violence but to bring closure to the hundreds of loved ones left behind in its wake.

This is a hard read and it isn't pretty but its worthwhile. I am incredibly glad to have learned Detective Jensen's story, to know that there are men like him in the world.

It gives me hope, something that is often in short supply these days. View all 4 comments. Jan 16, Sesana rated it really liked it Shelves: comics , nonfiction. I don't do much reading about real serial killers now, though I did kind of go through a phase when I was a weird teenager.

That might have been useful, because this is not a strictly linear account, nor is it terribly concerned with the minutia of the investigation. If that's what you're looking for, this is not going to be the best choice for you. But if, like me, you just need to be able to follow what's going on, or I don't do much reading about real serial killers now, though I did kind of go through a phase when I was a weird teenager.

But if, like me, you just need to be able to follow what's going on, or if you come in with significant background knowledge already, there's a lot to be gained here. Written by the son of the lead investigator, this book naturally spends a lot of time personally involved with that same investigator. So it becomes very much about him, and about how the case affected him and defined a big chunk of his life.

It's also way less graphic than it could have been. Much of the book is actually set during the period when Ridgeway was in custody and was being questioned in the hopes that he would give up more information about the women he had killed, so it's kind of after the fact.

Which is good. Those kinds of details can be difficult to stomach in text, and could be unbearable in comic book format. I did end up learning quite a bit about the case. But what will actually stay with me is the somewhat unlikely emotional impact of the book.

A lot of true crime books in my experience about serial killers kind of miss the human impact, but this one doesn't, thankfully. It's sort of in shorthand, because everything in this book is, but it's prominent enough that it will be what I remember best. Sep 10, Peter Derk rated it liked it. The first page is great. What size image should we insert? This will not affect the original upload Small Medium How do you want the image positioned around text?

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