The Devil You Know: In Bed with the Devil

on July 18, 2011 in Serial Killers, Video Reviews by Brian Combs

Tags: Gary Ridgway

The Devil You Know is a new series from Investigation Discovery the focuses on the betrayal suffered by the loved ones of murderers. As a half-hour show, the ability to provide much detail is limited.

“In Bed with the Devil” is the fifth episode, and it focuses on Gary Ridgway, from the perspective of Judith Mawson, his third wife.

Unfortunately, so much of the episode was spent telling Ridgway’s story, there really wasn’t much on the impact on Mawson. The show would have benefited from a great deal more focus on Judith and her experiences.

I did learn a couple of things…

Early in the relationship, Judith discovered a pile of press clippings about the Green River killings. She asked Ridgway about them, but he said they were not important. She believed him.

They also mentioned that part of the reason investigators were able to recover Ridgway’s DNA from some of the victims was because Ridgway inserted stones into the vaginas of some of his victims. This apparently held in Ridgway’s semen, allowing it to be compared against his DNA twenty years later.

I suspect this show might be interesting for one who’s not too familiar with the case, but there’s really not enough there for the dedicated student of true crime.