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Episode 671: Gary Ridgway : Redux Part I - Wrong Way Gary

Explore episode Jul 3, 2026

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Religion, Rape, and Window Peeping: Gary's Sexual Pathology Takes Shape

At 44:53 · chapter starts 44:00

Mary Rita Ridgway's religious instruction at puberty was catastrophic: she explicitly told her sons that masturbation was one of the worst possible sins — worse even than rape. Meanwhile, the family's new home was surrounded by Pacific Northwest forest, where Gary explored and became deeply familiar with the landscape he would later use to hide bodies. Gary's father Thomas was barred from attending the family's Catholic church because of a prior divorce, deepening the home's dysfunction. Gary began window-peeping on neighborhood girls, attempted to show his erection to his older brother's friends during TV sessions, and became a frotteur — using casual physical contact as a sexual outlet since he believed masturbation was forbidden. Mary Rita also told Gary how she was aroused by measuring men at her JCPenney job, while Thomas shared necrophilia stories from the mortuary. The sexual education Gary received at home was a concentrated disaster.

True Crime
Rape Over Masturbation: The Theology That Broke Gary

Episode 671: Gary Ridgway : Redux Part I - Wrong Way Gary · Jul 3, 2026 True Crime

Mary Rita Ridgway told her sons that masturbation was one of the worst sins imaginable — worse, in fact, than rape. Delivered right as Gary entered puberty, this instruction sent him into window-peeping, frotteurism, and compulsive visits to sex workers. He could not release pressure without sinning, so he went looking for loopholes.

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