05:24 PM PST on Wednesday, November 5, 2003

From KING5.com Staff

SEATTLE - Best-selling true crime author Ann Rule, who is planning to write a book about Green River killer Gary Ridgway, said Wednesday that Ridgway's guilty pleas in the murder of 48 women in the case of the Green River killer were self-serving.

"In a way it was almost as if he was proud that he now held the record," said Rule.

Rule said she believes Ridgway may not be able to give details of all the murders, but he does remember the number.

True crime author Ann Rule

"There are people among us who really don't care about anyone else's pain. They see the rest of us as just paper doll figures who were put on earth to satisfy their needs," she said.

Rule said Ridgway does not fit the stereotype of the serial killer. She said she used to have a list of 22 qualities that serial killers had in common and Ridgway fits in with most of them, but because these killers are so aberrant, they're going to go outside some of them.

"The fact that he had the same job for 32 years, that he lived in the same neighborhood, that doesn't fit into the pattern," said Rule. "That he was in an allegedly stable relationship … that's unusual because usually they don't stay with one woman long."

"Most of them are charismatic and nobody would describe Gary Ridgway as having a charismatic personality, however we don't know what the women saw. Maybe he was just a sweet guy with a great smile," said Rule.

Rule said the fact that Ridgway was married may have slowed him down.

"But I've never known a serial killer to quit unless he was in prison, physically incapacitated, or dead," said Rule.

Rule said serial killers love to "joust" with the police.

"They love to come out of the shadows and say look, I can do this and this and this and you still can't catch me," she said.

How did Ridgway's wife and son not know that he was a serial killer?

"I think part of it is most of us, if it’s something we really don't want to know, if it's so horrible that we don't want to believe it's true, can deceive ourselves and look the other way," said Rule. "I really don't think she knew about it, I really don't think she knew, but it may have been self defense on her part, too."