Green River

This is the best of times and the worst of times at Green River Golf Club. First, the good news: The air is crisp and clean, the views of the surrounding hills are lordly, there is that appealing autumn/winter look and feel to the course with brown dappling along the green fairways, and a nice early morning starting time only enhances it all. Now, the bad news: Wind. Go figure.

For the second time in a week, the Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday that it was pulling auction parcels from an expanded oil-and-gas leasing program in Utah. The latest tracts include land inside Nine Mile Canyon and Desolation Canyon on the Green River. The bureau didn't say why it was pulling the lease tracts, but the prospect of drilling near Utah's scenic treasures brought condemnation from conservation groups. The parcels include whitewater rapids and a canyon decorated with ancient rock art panels.

Prosecutors have filed three additional counts of aggravated first-degree murder against Gary Leon Ridgway, who is already charged in four of the Green River killings. Ridgway was arrested in 2001 when investigators said DNA and other data linked him to the deaths of four victims. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated first-degree murder. The first of the Green River killings was in 1982.

Is there a new rule that movies about serial killers have to last as long as the actual investigations? Last year, "Zodiac" clocked in at a butt-numbing 158 minutes, and now we have "The Capture of the Green River Killer" occupying four hours on the Lifetime Movie Network starting Sunday and finishing up on Monday. That's a lot of television for one story. Fortunately it's a really good story, if you like them ghastly and grisly -- and who doesn't?

The number of confirmed victims of the Green River serial murderer rose to 36 Tuesday with the identification of a partial skeleton as that of a young woman missing since 1983. Ten young women still are missing and feared slain by the man police have tracked unsuccessfully for four years. The partial skeleton found Saturday in woods about 35 miles east of Seattle was identified Tuesday as 19-year-old Kimberly L. Nelson.

A man identified by police as a "viable suspect" in the Green River serial murder case issued a statement from jail saying: "I am not the Green River killer. The Green River Task Force has not treated me or my family fairly. They have made me out to be a very bad person, and I am not. People should know the fact that I have never hurt anyone in my life."

Gary Ridgway pleaded not guilty in a Seattle court to three additional murder charges, nearly a year and a half after he was accused in four of the 49 Green River serial killings. The latest aggravated first-degree murder charges were filed last week after prosecutors alleged that microscopic paint dust found on the clothing of three women tied him to the slayings. If convicted, Ridgway, 54, would face either life in prison or the death penalty.

Human bones found near a common grave site may be the 37th Green River murder victim, the latest find in America's largest unsolved serial killings of young women, police said Sunday. The bones, which were sent to a medical examiner, were found Saturday in a wooded area near Green River Community College, authorities said. Four sets of bones of the serial killer's victims previously had been found nearby.

A law student who attracted strong police suspicion in the nation's longest unsolved serial murder case is no longer considered a possible suspect, Seattle officers said. Gonzaga University Student Bar Assn. President William Jay Stevens II had been jailed in the deaths of 49 women, a case called the "Green River" killings, taking its name from a river near where the first five victims were found.

Gary Leon Ridgway pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges he murdered four women nearly two decades ago in the Green River serial killings. Ridgway's attorney, Tony Savage, entered the pleas during a brief arraignment in King County Superior Court. Ridgway, 52, of Auburn, Wash., did not speak to the judge during the 10-minute appearance. He is charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of Marcia Chapman, Cynthia Hinds, Opal Mills and Carol Christensen.

All lanes of the 91 Freeway -- the major east-west artery between Orange and Riverside counties -- will be shut down in Corona for nearly 12 hours beginning tonight, a closure that Caltrans officials warn could cause hours of delays for drivers who fail to use alternative routes. The closure of the highway at Green River Road is scheduled to begin at 11 tonight and end at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

Norm Maleng, 68, the longtime King County prosecutor in Washington state who reached a plea bargain in 2003 with the notorious Green River serial killer, died Thursday of a heart attack in Seattle. Though he was a tough-on-crime Republican in a liberal county, Maleng was so popular that he rarely drew serious election challenges after first winning office in 1978.

As part of flood-control efforts, Orange County supervisors agreed Tuesday to buy the Green River Golf Club, with its two championship golf courses hugging the Santa Ana River. Supervisors will pay $22 million for the club, located near where Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties meet. It is just downstream from the huge Prado Dam, which releases water into the river and floods the golf courses during heavy rains.

I was signing my latest crime novel at a bookstore recently when a grandmotherly woman wearing a linen suit and designer glasses came up and asked if it contained graphic violence. I assured her that although my series is sexy and edgy, it's certainly not "slasher" fare. "Oh," said the woman, clearly disappointed. "I love serial killer books. The gorier the better." She is not alone.

With Green River killer Gary Leon Ridgway locked up for life in a Washington state prison, the legal fallout from the plea bargain that spared his life has come back to haunt local prosecutors. Attorneys for three men in two separate murder cases in western Washington have filed motions citing the fundamental unfairness of pursuing the death penalty against their clients after King County prosecutors agreed not to execute Ridgway in exchange for his cooperation.

The Green River killer, Gary Leon Ridgway, wiped tears from his eyes Thursday as he apologized for killing 48 women and causing "so much pain to so many families." But his emotion did not deter the judge from sentencing the former truck painter to life in prison without the possibility of parole. "I'm sorry for killing all those ladies," said Ridgway, reading a hand-written statement.

Norm Maleng, 68, the longtime King County prosecutor in Washington state who reached a plea bargain in 2003 with the notorious Green River serial killer, died Thursday of a heart attack in Seattle. Though he was a tough-on-crime Republican in a liberal county, Maleng was so popular that he rarely drew serious election challenges after first winning office in 1978.

Gary Leon Ridgway, an unassuming 54-year-old truck painter who admitted that he was the Green River killer, pleaded guilty Wednesday to 48 murders over a span of two decades in what he said was a crusade to kill as many prostitutes as he could without getting caught. Ridgway appeared in a courtroom packed with quietly weeping relatives of victims. He confessed to more murders than any serial killer in U.S. history -- and prosecutors hinted that Ridgway's victim list could grow.

One of the first parties to explore the Snake River had to eat its horses to avoid starvation. Then members built a boat from the butchered beasts and paddled to join cohorts on the opposite bank. That group had fared no better, sustaining themselves on one beaver, wild cherries, the soles of old moccasins and a dog carcass. Hells Canyon, through which the Snake runs, is the deepest gorge in North America -- from rim to river it's 8,000 feet down, nearly 2,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon.