Washington state to take Green River killer back from federal prison

The Washington state Department of Corrections on Friday told the federal Bureau of Prisons that it wants Green River killer Gary Ridgway returned to the state prison in Walla Walla.

The decision was made after concerns from Washington law enforcement officials who wanted Ridgway easily accessible if they sought to interview him about open murder investigations, the department said.

Ridgway was transferred to a federal prison in Florence, Col., in May.

Since his arrival, he has been in a high-security facility for intake and assessment, the department said.

“He does not have a job, or access to the general population,” the department said in a news release. “There’s no prospect of that happening in the foreseeable future.”

However, state officials conceded that any change in Ridgway’s status would be determined the Bureau of Prisons. Todd Chapman, spokesman for the Federal Prison Complex in Florence, did not return email requests for comment.

Ridgway’s transfer from the state penitentiary in Walla Walla to the Federal Prison Complex in Florence was sharply criticized by U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., who as a King County sheriff’s detective spent years investigating the Green River killings, and Mary Marrero, the sister of one of Ridgway’s victims. Both accused state prison officials of granting the nation’s most prolific serial killer special privileges.

On Monday, both condemned the transfer during a news conference at the gravesite of Marrero’s sister, one of 49 women Ridgway was convicted of killing between 1982 and 1998.

The Department of Corrections, in its statement, said Ridgway was transferred for “reasons of security management.” The department said it requested that he be placed in the Supermax prison, where high-security inmates include would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was housed in the facility before his execution.

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