Ridgway came from a dysfunctional family and was reportedly subjected to high levels of criticism from his mother which, it would seem, lead to difficulties in later years with his relationships with women.

At the age of 20 he joined the US Navy and began using prostitutes, even though he was also an exceptionally religious man and would even canvas door-to-door for his church.

During the early 1980s he murdered at least 48 women, most of them prostitutes. Each time he would hire them, take them to a secluded spot, have sex with them and then strangle them to death before dumping the bodies in and around Washington’s Green River.

He was obsessed with prostitutes and necrophilia and would revisit body dump sites to have sex with the corpses.

Ridgway first became a suspect for the killings in 1983 and was investigated thoroughly throughout the eighties but without a conviction.

It wasn’t until November 2001 that DNA evidence finally linked him to the killings. He was arrested and pleaded guilty to 48 crimes two years later, furnishing the authorities with the names of over 40 other victims as part of a plea bargain to avoid the death sentence.

He is now serving 48 consecutive life sentences without any chance of parole and has the dubious honour of being the most prolific known serial killer in American history.