Gary Ridgway's serial killing career began in 1982, after a number of disappearances in the King County, Washington, area. All the disappearances involved prostitutes and other vulnerable women, and when the first bodies started appearing in the Green River, the press soon started referring to the culprit as the 'Green River Killer'. Ridgway was able to escape detection for almost two decades, before a DNA match in 2001 led to his identification. He eventually confessed to murdering between 75 and 80 women, and was given multiple life sentences for the killings.

The True Crime Shorts series is intended to give the reader a short, concise account of some of the most gruesome crimes in modern times. Each book provides the reader with the essential facts concerning a serial killer, along with analysis that tries to comprehend their motives; no distractions, just the essential facts, allowing the reader to master the case in the shortest time possible.