What was Ted Bundy's contribution in Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer's arrest? Here's all about it

The Hulu docuseries Ted Bundy: Dialogue with the Devil was released on August 7, 2025. It offers a deep dive into the time in American criminal history when serial killer Ted Bundy attempted to assist law enforcement in better understanding another murderer, the Green River Killer.

While awaiting execution in Florida in 1986, Ted Bundy contacted Washington officials who were investigating a string of murders. While Bundy's assistance did not lead directly to an arrest, and assessments provided ample food for thought for detectives about the development of a behavioral profile to match the eventual suspect's profile, Gary Ridgway.

Ted Bundy: Dialogue with the Devil is based on more than 12 hours of unreleased interviews between Bundy and police investigators and documents how Bundy took advantage of the scenario to inject himself into the case, perhaps out of jealousy.

As per Fox News, Bundy did not like the attention being directed to another killer in the Pacific Northwest.

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Ted Bundy: Dialogue with the Devil details the role Ted Bundy played in the Green River Killer's arrest

By the mid-1980s, the Green River Task Force had followed up on thousands of leads with little success. With victims, including primarily young women who were engaged in sex work or living on the streets, being killed and often dumped near the Green River in King County, Washington, the case was puzzling investigators.

As early as 1984, Ridgway was suspected of the crimes, although investigators had not yet developed solid evidence. As investigators were searching for new leads that would give them a break in the cases, Ted Bundy, who was on death row for his involvement in over 30 murders, reached out to Detective Dave Reichert through a letter, according to Fox News.

“Don’t ask me why I say I am an expert in this area, just accept it and we’ll go from there”, the letter said.

Investigators Reichert and Robert Keppel flew to Florida State Prison to hear what Bundy had to say about the Green River Killer. Bundy speculated that the killer was likely going back to the bodies of his victims, committing more postmortem acts, a behavior that Bundy admitted to himself.

Bundy suggested going to check for any freshly dug graves from the previous few weeks to see if this killer returned to them. These disturbing, specific behavioral predictions helped narrow the investigation and further established that the Green River Killer was a sexually motivated predator who had ritualistic behaviors. Bundy's involvement provided meaningful criminal analysis.

A still from Ted Bundy: Dialogue with the Devil (Image via Hulu)

Although Bundy never mentioned Ridgway, the killer's insight provided detectives with a better understanding of the psychology of the killer. Ridgway, a truck painter, had previously given saliva samples as requested by investigators in 1987.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the samples were not tested until 2001, by which time a match had been found to evidence collected from multiple victims. He was arrested that year and eventually admitted to 49 murders, though he claimed his real total could be over 80.

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Ted Bundy: Dialogue with the Devil can be streamed on Hulu.