George W. Maschke
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Gary Leon Ridgway, Deadliest Serial Killer in U.S. History, Passed Polygraph and Killed Again
Nov 4th , 2003 at 9:31am
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Gary Leon Ridgway is expected to plead guilty to 48 murders this week, including Oregon's Green River killings:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/11/03/green.river.killings.ap/ Ridgway, an early suspect in the Green River killings, passed a polygraph "test" in 1984 and continued his killing spree. It was ultimately DNA evidence that linked him to the killings in 2001.
Melvin Foster, another early suspect in the case, took a polygraph test in September 1982 and failed. Ridgway's confession (and DNA evidence) exonerates him:
Quote: http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/147551 Former Green River suspect wants apology - -- - and his stuff 2003-10-31 by Dean A. Radford Journal Reporter A taxi driver who was once considered a prime suspect in the Green River killings now wants the cops to apologize and return his rock tumbler and all the rest of the stuff police took from his home in 1982. Now that he appears cleared of the murders, 65-year-old Melvin Foster wants an apology from the King County Sheriff's Office. ``Someone owes me something. I'll start with that,'' said Foster, who lives near Lacey, just south of Olympia. ``I want to see egg on their face.'' In the 1980s, Foster was famous, named in newspapers and on TV as possibly being the Green River killer. Not any more. Next week, Gary Leon Ridgway, 54, of Auburn is expected to change his plea to guilty in the killing of nearly all the 49 known victims. That exonerates Foster. ``You betcha,'' he said. Foster figures he was cleared when DNA testing in October 2001 linked Ridgway to three of the Green River victims. Foster said he had given a sample of his own DNA to a King County detective a month earlier for testing. ``If I had had my hands dirty, I would have been the one facing this,'' he said Thursday. King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, who as a young detective led the Green River investigation, wasn't available for comment. Foster said he and Reichert often clashed in the early years of the investigation. But Detective Kathleen Larson, a spokeswoman for the Green River Task Force, said Thursday that Foster needs to call the King County Sheriff's Office about getting his belongings back. An apology, she said, ``would not be up to me.'' Foster has remained in contact with Detective Jim Doyon, one of the original Green River investigators who is on the current task force. In September 1982, about two months after the killer's first victim was found in the Green River in Kent, Foster called detectives investigating the murders to offer his help. Instead, he raised their suspicions. It was assumed the killer would have an interest in police work. More than two decades later, he said he wished he had never made that call. Instead, he would have sat and watched. ``If they had come close to me, I would have lawyered up,'' he said. After Foster failed a polygraph test in late September, detectives obtained search warrants to look for evidence at the Lacey-area home where he lived with his father. He failed the polygraph, he said, because of a nervous tic. The officers from King and Thurston counties were looking for any evidence related to the deaths of six young women in King County. Foster can't remember everything they took, but it included a rock-polishing machine. At the time, Foster was quoted as saying police took clothing belonging to his dead mother and his ex-wife, and jewelry, photos and letters. ``They have it bagged up and stapled shut in their warehouse,'' Foster said, referring to the secure warehouse in South Seattle where the King County Sheriff's Office stores evidence in the Green River case. What Foster wants now is simple: all his belongings back and an apology. ``I want a formal public apology on tape. I want it in print. I want it on all the TV news they can reach,'' he said. He's no longer angry with Reichert and thinks he should run for governor. Foster watched the late news Wednesday when TV stations in Seattle were reporting yet again a possible plea bargain with Ridgway. He had a big grin, just like the one he said Reichert had when Ridgway was arrested on Nov. 30, 2001. ``I know Dave Reichert lived, ate and breathed that case,'' he said. ``I was glad for him.'' And glad, too, he's no longer on Reichert's list. Dean Radford covers King County. He can be reached at dean.radford@kingcountyjournal.com or 253-872-6719.