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

Rating:
Summary: The Rest Of The Story
Review: Author Sheriff David Reichert provides an inside view of the maddening frustration he and others experienced during the twenty plus year pursuit of the Green River Killer. Reichert's story is a testament to the importance of crime investigators' dogged pursuit of little details and never giving up. This true crime story offers an opportunity to vicariously experience the lows and highs that were experienced by a person who was making decisions.

In his book, Reichert describes some of his contact with the victim's families. I found these snippets to be fascinating as they provided a glimpse of the understandably volatile emotions of the families of the young girls murdered by the Green River Killer and the personal struggle of Reichert and other dedicated individuals to find for them some sense of closure.

The book includes a number of photographs which attach faces to some of the names, they are a definite plus. I would have appreciated a simple map that displayed the Green River Killer's pick-up zone (The Strip), the body dump zones and the neighborhood the Green River Killer resided.

Finally, a word of caution . . . . I do not recommend reading this book shortly before sleeping. While Reichert's prose are not disgusting in an over-the-top manner, they are graphic enough to this father to bother sleep patterns.



Rating:
Summary: One Perspective on a Big Story
Review: David Reichert was the first homicide detective assigned to the Green River murders, and he was in charge of the sheriff's office nineteen years later when the culprit, Gary Ridgway, was finally arrested. He has the advantage of an insider's view of the case that defined his career. He exploits this advantage, giving the reader new tidbits of information about the killings and the investigation. He also gives a feel for what it was like to be in the pressure-cooker of media and political scrutiny during an expensive manhunt that was fruitless for so many years.

As all the Green River Task Force's hard work finally began to pay off with the advent of new DNA technology, Reichert manages to build some suspense and emotion. I felt the swell of pride he was obviously going for as the Task Force's efforts were vindicated. However, most of the book suffers from Reichert's dull writing style. At least he does not overreach; he keeps his syntax clear and tells the story simply.

It's Reichert's story, though, and not the story of the Green River killer or even the investigation. Reichert does little journalism: the things he did not do or witness, we get little information about. This means that we get only a single angle on the investigation (albeit a good angle).

Readers will also find out very little about the killer himself. Aside from noting that Ridgway is basically prosaic, insignificant, and sick (a lesson that needs to be taught again and again to a nation that appears to believe serial killers have super-powers), Reichert gives us very little information about the man. There is a single chapter detailing his brief months in the sheriff's custody, and a couple of pages devoted to Ridgway's own untrustworthy account of his early life, and that's pretty much it. Again, this seems to be because Reichert is not interested in researching anything outside his own perspective. Also, Reichert is up front about not wanting to do anything to aggrandize the contemptible Ridgway. Thus, incongruously, Ridgway is a marginal character in the book.

I knocked Chasing the Devil off in a few hours, and that is about as much time as it is worth. Reichert's perspective on the Green River case is valuable, but it does not approach definitiveness, nor is it well enough written to be read solely for its entertainment value. I recommend this book only to the completist or the interested fast reader.

Rating:
Summary: What you may not know...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Needs a ghost writer!
Review: Sheriff Reichert, the first detective assigned to the Green River case, should have hired a professional to write his book for him. Much of the first two-thirds of the book is filled with complaints about newspaper interference, county executives, the FBI, and political machinations, the implication being that the Green River killer would have been caught much sooner if it hadn't been for their interference.

There is a nugget or two, such as the revelation that Gary Ridgway was a suspect as early as 1984. It seems a victim's pimp had seen her get into his truck and he and some of her family members drove around until they found it; amazingly, the police refused to take them seriously. We also get to listen in on an interview between the investigators and Ted Bundy, during which time he suggests the killer may be a necrophiliac.

It's also surprising that Reichert names so many names; he chides family members of the victims, political opponents, and newspaper reporters, and he's shocked when one of the mothers condemns the Task Force during Ridgway's sentencing.

We see Reichert rise in the ranks, so fast he even surprises himself. Eventually the Green River Task force is disbanded, leaving only one detective (not Reichert) on the case. Reichert brags about having Ridgway in his cross hairs for twenty years, but the real hero was science. The Task Force deserves credit for preserving semen taken from some of the bodies but the scientists who discovered DNA were the real heroes.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book and Reichert is truly a great man!!
Review: What a great story. Reichert is sure a man of integrity and strength. I wish him well in his bid for United States Congress.