I am not afraid, I’ve had people point guns at me.
— Rep. Dave Reichert
“He desecrated the victims. The public ought to know that.” Tomas Guillen is describing Republican 8th District Congressman Dave Reichert and his manipulation of the Green River murder investigation and the arrest of Gary Ridgway to climb up into party politics.
Guillen’s no political firebrand, he’s a respected Seattle University journalism and criminal justice professor. But as a Seattle Times reporter, he covered the Green River story from its beginnings and has written two books on the subject.
His academic text, Serial Killers: Issues Explored Through the Green River Murders, and Ridgway attorney Mark Prothero’s Defending Gary, both written after Reichert’s 2004 election, tell a starkly different story than does Reichert’s ghost-written autohagiography, Chasing the Devil, My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer.
Reichert’s record as sheriff was exposed in last week’s devastating reporting by the P-I’s Lewis Kamb who found plenty of former colleagues who’d reveal him to be “an ambitious self-promoter, an inexperienced manager prone to poor decisions, even a close-minded detective more obstacle than asset to a serial murder investigation.”
Reichert refused to be interviewed in person for the P-I’s piece, preferring to answer the reporter’s questions in writing. He did not return our attempts at contact.
(The written material, and people we’ve talked to use some strong adjectives to describe the former Sheriff’s professional behavior: manipulative, self-serving, amateurish, ambitious, creepy, bungling, inappropriate, opportunistic, egotistical, voyeuristic, and stubborn. These are quite different from the descriptives we’ve been hearing for years: heroic, gracious, sensitive, muscular, chivalrous, well-mannered, brave, clean and reverent. You decide).
Sheriff Reichert became the public face of the sensational arrest of the serial killer by elbowing his way in front of the cameras on November 30, 2000 when the sensational collar was announced.
Everyone knows Reichert is the guy who caught the Green River killer- Why? Because he reminds us in every introduction; every speech, interview, and on his website.
It helped get him elected in 2004 in his race against KIRO radio host, Dave Ross; and he still flogs it every time he opens his mouth in his race against Darcy Burner.
Recently, on KUOW’s Weekday with Steve Scher, (in a rare appearance in a venue where he might be seriously questioned) he referenced serial killers no fewer than three times in one hour on the local NPR talk show despite being asked no questions on the subject by Scher, who’s unused to politicians who drop blood instead of names.
Here’s an example: Why is Reichert against abortion? He told a interviewer recently, “I have a great respect for life. I’ve seen a lot of death in my career, worked Green River, seen lots of dead bodies.”
Back in Washington, the Honorable Mr. Reichert is known as the Man from Green River- his longest speech on the House floor during his lackluster first term was about “capturing” Gary Ridgway.
The release of Chasing the Devil, in late July, 2004 was exquisitely synched-up with his primary campaign which was a difficult one with a crowded Republican field anxious to replace the retiring Jennifer Dunn.
Bolstered by both his publisher’s marketing and his own political campaign, it was a perfect PR storm. Reichert’s face was thrust onto the front pages of local papers. He was interviewed on CNN and Court TV in full dress uniform (and every hair present and accounted for) talking about “capturing” the killer.
“Reichert used the serial murder case to move forward,” Guillen told BlatherWatch. “It was a travesty.” Photos released when Ridgway was arrested show Reichert in a suit posing in the bottom of a ravine near the Des Moines Highway.
“He used the grave site of a murder victim for personal ambition,” he says.
Meanwhile, his opponents, Bellevue Councilman Conrad Lee, State Sen. Luke Esser and (now GOP State Chairman) Diane Tebelius were lucky if they made page B-1 with their little coffee klatches, blah-blah press releases, and cheesy meet & greets.
(Chasing the Devil was neither a literary nor a popular success. P-I books critic, John Marshall wrote that Reichert painted himself as “muscular, charismatic, devoutly Christian, a dogged mix of Dudley Do-Right and the Lone Ranger.” Not exactly a bestseller: you can now buy a like new copy on Amazon for $1.74.)
Although otherwise a failure, his book as a political instrument was inspired. Media was flooded with pictures of the sheriff in a hunky muscle shirt sifting for bones at a body dump site, or in full Sheriffian regalia sternly leaning into and staring down the cowering serial killer from across a table. Reichert won the primary easily and got a tremendous knee-up in the November election.
(There’s his hair. It’s magnificent. Dave Ross told us: “He’s got great hair, he’s acknowledged he’s got great hair.” He’s known in legal circles as “Sheriff Hairspray.” [Reichert’s hair]… is always ready for the next photo opportunity,” says Prothero).
“My standing orders were that we were going to campaign on issues,” says Dave Ross. “Rumors I got about Dave or the Green River killer or the release of the book- we weren’t going to touch them.”
But there’s more than a little resume inflation going on in Chasing the Devil. There’s some obfuscatin’. Reichert had been “lead detective” in 1982 as the first bodies surfaced in and around the Green River. His book, however, would let you believe he held the title until 1990, never mentioning that several other detectives led in later murders.
The book is more than three quarters done before he makes passing reference to the fact that the task force had commanders over the “lead detectives.” Former Detective Bob Keppel told the P-I, Reichert was “one detective among many,” and never led discussions about the direction of the task force as a true leader would have.
Actually, he had little to do with the investigation having left the task force in 1990 to climb the bureaucratic ladder in the Sheriff’s Department. What’s more, these new accounts show how Reichert’s tremendous ego was responsible for early police blunders that stalled the investigation and let Gary Ridgway continue killing for decades.
But great hair or not, “He got elected based on Green River, when in fact, he didn’t solve it and he didn’t win against Gary Ridgway,” says Guillen.”
The fact is: technology caught the killer, not Detective Reichert’s dogged shoe-leather sleuthing as his press so dramatically implies. Even then, on Sheriff Reichert’s watch, the saliva sample that could have busted Ridgway as early as 1996 when the DNA technology became available, was not tested until 2001.
Women died in that interim.
~
Read It’s the Green River, Stupid: Part 2, the really creepy parts here.
Interesting reading. Wish this stuff had come out before he was elected the first time.
I first heard one of his SU students say that he(Tomas)knew it was Ridgeway but could not prove it back in 1999 I think. Mentioned the then relatively new DNA testing methods too.
Wake up Goldy! time to clean the spam/troll turds from the comment cat box.
Still better than lightweight Darcy..
“I’ve had pencils pointed my way”….
“I caught a guy in Ames Lake putting newspaper in the garbage can, back when I was president of the 8 member group”
“I was in the line of fire in first year law school, until I dropped out for unknown reasons”
“My daughter (what’s her name?) scares me when i see her 1x a day”
righton (lifetime predator by association), tell us how it will feel when your ‘grand ol’ party’ of corrupt inbreds (morally and intellectualy) are remembered as only a ‘comma’ (or coma) in the political history of the USA? (C, I, TH)
Hey rightie. As soon as the investigations into corruption, war profiteering, and outright lying, and treason get going, you won’t have a Republican Party. The above poster is correct. You freaks with your ideology built on lies, and fantasy, will be either taught a lesson, given a taste of reality, or better yet have to endure watching your heroes marched off to the Hague where all war criminals belong. Your party will be a very small comma. The damage it has done to America will be hard to repair.
Remember we were once the world’s beacon of freedom. Now we torture poeple, legally.
We can now pull people off the street for political reasons, and lock them up.
Our constitution is America. Bush, and the Republican Party urinated on it. They then defacated on it.
We will not allow them to burn it.
Our constitution will survive, Bin Laden, or no Bin Laden. It is you Jesus Freaks, and bloodthirsty, torture loving, freedom stealing, inbred psychopaths that won’t.
If in your paranoia you think that “they are out to get you” you would be right. The “they” is the 200,000,000 Americans that want to end the reign of lies, and terror that Bush, and his GOP partners in crime have bestowed on our great land.
Reichert is just another example of the classic Republican. Packaged well, with no substance. Another father figure for the average weak kneed GOP voter with no brain to support.
You cowards disgust REAL AMERICANS.
Now let Reichert discuss issues.
There is not a single issue he can go toe to toe with Darcy over, and he, and you know it.
Fear, fear, fear, slander, and more fear. All he can campaign on. His do nothing congress has only hurt America, and America is tired of them.
Bye bye Dave….
The other shoe has finally dropped.
Wrongone – I get it. You feel safer with Dave Reichert. He has muscles. His hair is in place. He catches the bad guy – eventually.
Dave sounds perfect for the Iraq situation. 20 years of spending 8 billion a month ought to do it.
Oh by the way trolls. I watched Davey’s smear job commercial on Darcy last night watching tv. You know. The attack ads the GOP are running to try to save their failing party.
All the ad did was lie about Darcy’s positions. Lie, and smear. All you freaks can do is lie, and smear.
Darcy will do this, Darcy will do that, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately most Americans don’t pay attention, and it may have an effect on them. That is too bad.
Poor Dave. He sure can’t run on his record. Making sure the 9-11 commission reccomendations are not enacted….. Making us less safe personally, and voting for making us less safe, and giving his chimperator total control. Three stooge governing. Bush, Chenmey, and Rummy.
I think it will backfire. Throwing mud on a candidate with 100 times as much class as him will probably backfire.
I’ll give him props for the hair, but other than that he’s an ignorant dick. Stupider than Bush, and that’s saying something.
A debate beween Dave Foot-in-Mouth and Darcy would be a treat.
Isn’t is weird that the incumbent is not running on his record? I haven’t seen anything but Darcy-is-bad ads on myself.
RubberStampReichert ran the most corrupt sheriff’s department in the USA. No wonder he fits so well into the GOP!
By the way Goldie, thank you for the story. This is good material, and the voters of the 8th district should know “ALL” the facts. They are going to have to endure a lot of attack ads on Darcy, they may at least understand why…..
Hang in there Darcy. We know you could do a better job legislating in your sleep than the person you are running against…..
Damn.
All the trolls must either be holed up with their copies of “Juggs” and a Half-Gallon of Vodka or they’re trolling other blogs hoping to make a splash.
Where DID they all go.
Hmmmmmmm.
Oh well, Good Riddance!
PS-
With Cantwell comfortably ahead of “Can’t win” McSafeco, what say we get over to Bellevue and “Doorbell for Darcy”.
It’s time to slug it out on the ground.
Where DID they all go.
Credit is due to Wrongone aka righton for fighting the bad fight.
But then nothing lights Wrongone’s fire brighter than a female Dem pol looking to knock off a “manly” man like Dave Hairspray who turns out like so many R’s to be a showboating, self-promoting, opportunistic empty-suit!
Rujax!
My wife and I are volunteering for Dacrcy in these last weeks. She’s working the phones for SPAN and I am waiting for Darcy’s campaign to contact me with opportunities.
God is NOT neutral when it comes to good and evil.
If the Republicans are truly righteous and good, then God will allow them to retain their power this November. If God deems that the Republicans are morally bankrupt then with His divine intervention he will ensure the Democrats come to power in at least one body of congress.
If God wants George W. Bush impeached and removed from office before his term is over then he will allow the Democrats to win both houses of congress.
Unless, of course, you don’t believe in God’s will and divine intervention. God’s message of who is good and who is evil will come to our great nation on November 7th.
God is alive and well, he/she/it just doesn`t get involved
How many of us spend our life messing in the affairs of ants ?
*sound of crickets*
I thought so
It’s about time that people started to know that Reichert’s “heroism” story is a fiction. He let Ridgeway get away with serial murders for years, despite basically knowing Ridgeway was responsible, including waiting several years to use the DNA evidence he had and which finally caught Ridgeway. And, as the P-I has documented, his management of the sheriff’s office was horrible and allowed bad cops to get away with offense.
Rujax,
We are still here……….
I am busy trying to put some color on my cement patio and I don’t know anything about Ridgeway…….. I moved here in 2000
Hey Davie Hairspray. Are your buddies going to slander Darcy some more?????
Are you going to slander her?
Why don’t you run on your record.
Oh I forgot.
You can’t run on failure…….
Why don’t you go protect some pedophiles……
12 “RubberStampReichert ran the most corrupt sheriff’s department in the USA.”
I don’t know if I’m willing to go THAT far! Possibly the worst in an urban county in the Northwest…in fact, come to think of it, there’s a history of….uhhh….”questionable” goings-on in the KingCo Sheriff’s Department going back for decades. Sounds like Dave took the helm of a drifting ship, and steadfastly kept it going in random circles.
That the GOP flak-generation machine managed to make him look like a great cop long enoug to get him elected may pretty well parallel all the wheezing about McGavick’s “miracle turnaround” of Safeco, which posted “for sale” signs on all its real estate holdings right after he left. Then again it’s also the same way as the Crawford Caligula was passed off as a “Texas businessman” withour mentioning that he was a spectacularly unsuccessful one.
A Democrat representing the 8th would reflect the shifting climate of the Eastside. Remember this is the only district that did not elect a Democratic Congressperson in ’92.
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – Mexican fishermen captured a 7.5-foot crocodile in the Rio Grande, the river that divides part of Mexico and the United States, authorities reported on Sunday. Illegal migrants from Mexico frequently swim or ride inner tubes across the Rio Grande to reach the United States. Crocodiles do not normally inhabit the river, and authorities suspect it may have been brought to the area as a pet and then… [……………..It may be hard for illegals to vote Democrat while in the middle of a crocodile “death roll”. Still, many dead Democrats vote, so I don’t see the DNC getting to worked up over this issue. Still, can Jewish Democrat ACL Jew lawyers sue the crocs for violating the illegal aliens voting rights?]
“God is NOT neutral when it comes to good and evil.”
Commentby GBS [………Perhaps this is why the House, Senate, and the Executive are now controlled by Republicans?]
Daddy Love, Twenty bucks on COB [EST] Friday if Hastert is still Speaker. Don’t be a Daddy Lovestein if you lose.
Darcy? Who? Darcy Burner? Who the hell is that?!
27 JCH
Sorry, I’m the one predicting that he stays at least until the next Speaker is elected. The Republicans cannot afford to open up the huge can of acrimony, finger-pointing, and reckless leaking of embarrassing and/or criminal information that the ensuing Republican power struggle would start.
“God is NOT neutral when it comes to good and evil.”
Commentby GBS [………Perhaps this is why the House, Senate, and the Executive are now controlled by Republicans?]
Commentby Doctor JCH Kennedy, ESQ— 10/9/06@ 8:39 pm/i
I noticed you ended your retort with a question. Was that a Freudian slip, JCH?
Check out the Green River Time line
http://www.antidavereichert.co.....meline.htm
I am so glad Democrat Ron Sims appointed this jackass sheriff in the first place.
Remember when he got appointed? Sheriff Green River cried because the GOP County Council people were beating up on him because they wanted their own clown as sheriff.
Thanks Ron Sims! You’re the bestest! Now go screw up King County some more, why don’t ya?
Winter car care: Winter car care