Ridgway stayed cool in interview 19 years ago

In an early brush with the law, Gary L. Ridgway managed to fend off a detective's questions about a missing woman by appearing cooperative and candidly admitting he patronized prostitutes.

Ridgway also took advantage of the questioning to suggest someone else was responsible for the Green River killings.

Ridgway was questioned April 12, 1984, when he was 35 years old, at the height of the killings. He wouldn't be arrested until 2001, when DNA linked him to some of the Green River victims.

He had already come to the attention of the Green River Task Force by 1984, passing a polygraph that year.

But the 1984 interview with King County detective Randy Mullinax represented some of the most intense questioning of Ridgway during that time. A transcript of the interview was made public yesterday.

Mullinax asked Ridgway if he had "dated" a woman named Kelli McGinnis. It was a polite way of asking him if he had hired her for sex.

Ridgway admitted he had picked her up on Pacific Highway South in the summer of 1983 and that, after being briefly interrogated by a police officer, had taken her to a motel.

"Have you seen Kelly (sic) McGinnis since that day?" Mullinax asked.

"Along the strip, and that's, that's all, with a couple of other ladies," Ridgway replied.

"Are you positive that you saw her after you had dated her at that time?" Mullinax said.

"Yes," Ridgway responded.

McGinnis was last seen June 28, 1983, and has never been found. She is not named in the list of 48 women Ridgway admitted killing when he pleaded guilty to the Green River murders in November.

During the 1984 interview, Ridgway also admitted he had patronized other prostitutes on Pacific Highway South — five to 10 times, he said.

Asked if any brought up the Green River killings, Ridgway calmly said: "A couple of times — they liked to check all of your ID — for one thing to make sure you're not a cop."

Ridgway volunteered that he had witnessed an unusual incident on the highway, in which he saw a man put handcuffs on a woman and put her in the back of his car. Although he assumed she had been caught doing something wrong, Ridgway said, he never saw the man display a badge.

Ridgway provided the detective with a description of the man and his car.

In a second interview with King County Detective Ralf McAllister in Feb. 23, 1985, Ridgway admitted he had choked a prostitute in November 1982 when, he said, she bit him while performing a sex act. He said he did it in a moment of anger, then let go of her without killing her.

Again, Ridgway was calm and matter of fact about the incident.

When McAllister asked Ridgway if he was aware of 42 missing and dead women, Ridgway said he knew of them through news accounts.

"Are you responsible for any of these murders?" McAllister asked.

"No, I'm not," Ridgway said.

When Ridgway confessed last year, he admitted he had intended to kill the woman who allegedly bit him. He said he was unable to maintain a chokehold because the woman fought him and because his shorts were around his ankles, preventing him from subduing her.

Ridgway's relaxed demeanor throughout the questioning in the 1980s may explain why he passed the polygraph examination in 1984.

A yawning Ridgway expressed that view when he confessed to investigators last year. "I just, uh, relaxed and took the polygraph. I mean, I didn't practice or anything ... just relaxed and answered the questions, and whatever it came out, came out. I mean, they weren't precise or, I don't know what the deal was. Uh, maybe I was too relaxed."

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com