Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer
by Ann Rule
List Price:
Our Price: $2.94
You Save: $23.06 (89%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Ann RuleEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-09-28
ISBN: 0743238516
Number of pages: 436
Publisher: Free Press
Book Reviews of Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer
Book Review: THREE CHEERS FOR "GREEN RIVER, RUNNING RED"!
Summary: 5 Stars
THREE CHEERS FOR ANN RULE!
Ann Rule and her published author daughter Leslie were speakers for SouthWest Writers (SWW) conference in Albuquerque, NM in 1999. I had the great pleasure of being their host at the SWW writers' conference. We became fast friends. Memorial Day weekend, in 2000, I flew to Seattle to visit my friend Michele who worked for Microsoft in Research and Development. Michele was project manager and worked much of my visit which left me time to visit my new friends. One morning before Michele went into Microsoft she dropped off at Ann's home. Michele and I were going to meet later in the day. Michele and I planned that I would ride a bus back to the heart of Seattle and I would call her and let her know where to meet me.
I had only planned to visit Ann for about an hour but ended up spending most of the day with her. Ann is a very warm, caring, and intelligent woman. We talked about the craft of writing, love, men, relationships, friends, pets, families, fashion, tabloids, books, and movies, all the topics that two women left alone together will discuss. Ann mentioned she had been collecting articles about the Green River Killer (GRK); she pointed to one of the closets in a spare bedroom that was filled with research material about the GRK. The Green River Killer had made national news and I was aware of the prolific serial killer. However, I thought he had been caught. I had no clue that I was in his hunting/dumping grounds as I visited with Ann. After our visit, Ann insisted her male assistant drive me to the bus stop and not leave until I caught my bus. Ann also, stressed that she wanted me to call when I had rejoined with my friend Michele. I was a little spooked with Ann's request but shrugged it off. As promised, I called Ann when Michele and I had met up for dinner.
Until, just this very moment did I learn that the bus stop where Ann Rule's male assistant waited for me to board my bus was located on the highway where most GRK's victims were abducted in the 80's and 90's. No wonder, I had a little spooky feeling with Ann's request. Her closet full of clipping, notes, narratives on insights of dozens of women who's lives were cut short because they fell into the seedy life of prostitution and the victims GRK. Ann knew of the possible danger I could be in and I'm grateful for her having her assistant wait for me to catch my bus. Dozens and still counting streetwise, knowing the danger they were in-prostitutes were brutally murdered by this monster. I was no match for the "Green River Killer" as a tourist from New Mexico. Thank you, Ann for taking special care of me that day. X O X O
Before meeting Ann in 1999 I had read "The Stranger Beside Me" and never could forget Ted Bundy. Ann is a masterful storyteller. I still can recall details about Ted Bundy and I read "The Stranger Beside Me" when it was first published. The intimate details of Ted Bundy are three dimensional because of Ann's personal relationship with him. As a reader and fan of Ann's work I felt the same intimacy with "Green River, Running Red" and Gary Ridgeway. It's as if her work has come full circle. "Green River, Running Red" is a very personal story for Ann. Hopefully, Ann has more stories to tell and explain the unexplainable that only as she can. Ted Bundy looked like someone I would have dated or skied with in the 70's and Gary Ridgeway looked harmless and unremarkable. I can understand why dozens of streetwise women would have serviced Gary Ridgeway even knowing the dangers of GRK were still on the loose. Both, Ted and Gary appearances never hinted to the monster that lives within them.
It's spellbinding the craft in which Ann weaved the stories of the police/detective who worked the 20 year open case, the killer's back-story, his twisted sexual obsessions, each of the victim's back-story and the outcome the GRK capture and sentencing.
Three cheers for Ann Rule! She's a masterful storyteller and I hope she has many years to come of her working at her craft. Cheers!
More Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Summary of Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer
In the most extraordinary book Ann Rule has ever undertaken, America's master of true crime has spent more than two decades researching the story of the Green River Killer, who murdered more than forty-nine young women. The quest to discover the most prolific serial killer in American history has been an intimate part of Ann Rule's life, with some of the corpses found only a mile or so from where she lived and raised her own daughters. She did not know the killer, but he apparently knew her and attended many of her book signings.For twenty-one years, the killer carried out his self-described "career" as a killing machine, ridding the world of women he considered evil. His eerie ability to lure his victims to their deaths and hide their bodies made him far more dangerous than any infamous multiple murderer in the annals of crime.
A few men -- including a law student, a truck painter, and a taxi driver -- eventually emerged as the prime suspects among an unprecedented forty thousand scrutinized by the Green River Task Force. Still, there was no physical evidence linking any of them to the murders until 2001, when investigators used a new DNA process on a saliva sample they had preserved since 1987, with stunning results.
Ann Rule has followed the case since July 1982, when the first body -- that of teenager Wendy Lee Coffield -- was found in the Green River, snagged on pilings under a bridge. Rule has compiled voluminous files, working through an incredible 95,000 pages of official police records, transcripts, photographs, and maps, winnowing out the chaff and identifying what is truly important. Over the years, she gained unparalleled access to all the key players -- from King County Sheriff Dave Reichert to those close to the killer and his victims.
When finally apprehended and convicted, the killer made a detailed confession -- of his twisted sexual obsessions -- that will shock even the most jaded reader. Green River, Running Red is a harrowing account of a modern monster, a killer who walked among us undetected. It is also the story of his quarry -- of who these young girls were, and who they might have become. A chilling look at the darkest side of human nature, this is the most important and most personal book of Ann Rule's long career.
Veteran crime writer Ann Rule is uniquely qualified to chronicle the grisly career of Gary Ridgeway, the man convicted of being the "Green River Killer," the most prolific serial killer in American history. Not only is she one of the more successful true-crime authors, but for nearly 20 years, Rule was exceptionally close to the case, reporting on it for a Seattle newspaper, preparing a long-delayed book on the subject, and living within a few blocks of the strip of highway where most of Ridgeway's victims were abducted. In Green River, Running Red, Rule lends unique humanity to the string of murders that haunted the Seattle area throughout the '80s and '90s by exploring the lives of the dozens of young women who fell into prostitution and were ultimately murdered. Similarly, she catalogues Ridgeway's troubled and bizarre life in such a way that the reader becomes uncomfortably familiar with Ridgeway, although it's never truly clear what drove him to commit such heinous crimes. Along the way, she traces the decades-long struggle of the law enforcement officials assigned to the case as they tracked down countless leads, questioned innumerable suspects, and explored multiple theories that came up empty before finally cracking the case through a series of technological advancements and a little luck. But the most disturbing aspect of the Green River killings (named for where the first victims were found) is how they occurred in relatively plain sight, with Ridgeway, seemingly living an unremarkable life, dwelling and working within a few miles of where his lengthy killing spree took place and evading capture for years. Rule skillfully weaves herself into her account, relating the psychic and cultural impact of the case as it evolved, but she never takes the spotlight off Ridgeway, his eventual captors, and the women who died at his hands.--John Moe
True Crime Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in True Crime Books
Death Dealers: A Witness to the Drug Wars That Are Bleeding Americaby Yves Lavigne
Harpercollins Canada; Published: 1999-03; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Palestine Twilightby Edward Fox
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-06-17; Paperback; Book
My Life Among the Serial Killersby Helen Morrison
Wiley; Published: 2005-02-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
A Wife's Revenge (St. Martin's True Crime Library)by Eric Francis
St. Martin's Paperbacks; Published: 2005-06-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolutionby T. J. English
William Morrow; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Storyby Steve Hodel
HarperCollins; Published: 2006-07-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.05
Price in other shops:
Bones: A Forensic Detective's Casebookby Douglas H. Ubelaker, Henry Scammell
Harpercollins (Mm); Published: 1993-10; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century (P.S.)by Edward Dolnick
Harper Perennial; Published: 2009-06-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.70
Price in other shops:
Mafia Wife: My Story of Love, Murder, and Madnessby Lynda Milito, Reg Potterton
Avon; Published: 2004-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.52
Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspaceby Michelle Slatalla, Joshua Quittner
Harpercollins; Published: 1995-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.25
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
I Would Find a Girl Walkingby Kathy Kelly, Diana Montane
Berkley; Published: 2011-04-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.30
Price in other shops:
But I Trusted You: Ann Rule's Crime Files #14by Ann Rule
Pocket Books; Published: 2009-11-24; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.70
Price in other shops:
Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killerby David Reichert
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2004-07-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.82
Price in other shops:
The Want-Ad Killer (True Crime)by Ann Rule
Signet; Published: 1983-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayalby Ann Rule
Free Press; Published: 2007-06-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.96
Price in other shops:
Lust Killer, Updated Editionby Ann Rule
Signet; Published: 1983-06-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.23
Price in other shops:
The I-5 Killer, Revised Editionby Ann Rule
Signet; Published: 1984-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
The Stranger Beside Me: The Twentieth Anniversary Editionby Ann Rule
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2000-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.60
Price in other shops:
Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder (Signet)by Ann Rule
Signet; Published: 1988-07-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.35
Price in other shops:
The Stranger Beside Meby Ann Rule
Pocket Books; Published: 2008-12-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.40
Price in other shops: