Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer

By David Reichert

Book Overview

It began with the discovery of three women's bodies found near suburban Seattle's Green River in August, 1982. Soon more corpses and human remains would be found, some as far as Oregon. They were teenage runaways or other women whose anonymous lifestyles had made them easy, vulnerable targets--and they were all the victims of a faceless murderer whose rampage would span two decades and take as many as forty-nine lives. No other serial killer in the nation's history had killed so many people. For twenty long years, Sheriff David Reichert played a cat and mouse game with the Green River killer who managed to stay one step ahead of Reichert, the local authorities, and even the FBI. But Reichert had no doubt in his mind that he was going to find the Green River killer-- no matter how long it took That day came in 2001 when DNA evidence linked fifty-two-year-old truck painter Gary Ridgway to three of the murder victims. The long nightmare was finally over for Reichert and the families of the murder victims. With startling insider disclosures and the fascinating forensic details of the relentless manhunt itself--"Chasing the Devil" exposes the heart of true evil and reveals the dauntless efforts behind one man's quest to chase it..."

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312938195
• ISBN13: 9780312938192
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: St. Martin's True Crime Classics
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

4 stars for Sheriff David Reichert

Thank you for staying with your job until it was fully done! God bless you and your family! Very pleased that you were unafraid to share the story of salvation with this crazed man. I pray he changes before it is too late!

Chasing the Devil

Awsome. An incredible story of what seems to be a wonderful man and his struggle to catch a monster.

Keeps you reading

This nonfiction book kept me reading into the early morning. I wish it had been fiction, however.

Engaging true crime story

Gary Ridgway is a pretty unremarkable man, but he inspired a remarkable story. This is one of the few serial killer cases where the investigative team is more interesting than the actual killer. At no point has Gary Ridgway crossed over from being a heartless murderer to pop culture antihero like, say, Charles Manson has. Being prostitutes, Ridgway's victims were almost too vulnerable, practically laid out on a buffet for him to prey upon. David Reichert struggles with this fact and many others throughout this story. You'll get a good sense of the intense pressure he and his team felt during their experience. The community was outraged at the task force's seeming lack of progress; the media fueled the fire by pointing out mistakes and missed opportunities. Later, budget cuts and over-involvement by the FBI were enough to drive many task force members to seek other assignments. Reichert's views on all of these are made clear, and the politics of a major city's police force are on display for all to see. Incredibly, at one point, the case had become so fruitless that only one man (not Reichert) was assigned to it for the duration. The task force's tireless work and evidence-collecting paid off in the end, and the prolific killing spree was finally ended. Others reviewing this book have called Reichert an egomaniac but I don't think he comes off like that at all. He gives a lot of credit where it's due, admits his errors, and is respectful to the victims at all times. His obsession is the reason the case got as far as it ever did. If David Reichert wanted to look like a big shot, I'd say he sacrificed a lot to get there.

Well-written, factual book

I was in junior high school when the Green River Killer was making his rounds. I remember watching about it on the TV news. While books have been written about the case, I was waiting until it had been solved to read about it. When I saw this book, I knew this was the one I would finally purchase because it was written by someone who actually had worked the case, not an outsider. This book is excellent--it is very well written, concise, and full of factual evidence. It also shows that we in law enforcement are humans and have feelings, too. We just often have to set them aside while we deal with horrible incidents. I am a dispatcher at a sheriff's office in a western state. I was almost finished with the book when I brought it to work with me. Within minutes of its discovery, co-workers were calling out dibs on who got to read it next. One deputy even called me on the radio to ask if I was finished reading it yet! So, this book is making the rounds at our office. And, everyone agrees with me that it is a VERY GOOD book.

What you may not know...

I have just started this book but already it's a riveting read. What you may not know is that David Reichert always said he would never profit from this experience of hunting the Green River killer. True to his word, all his proceeds on this book are being donated to the Pediatric Intensive Care Center (for infants born with addictions because of their mothers' substance abuse), located in Kent, Washington. This speaks volumes as to his integrity. He truly is one of the good guys and a personal hero of mine.