One reason I am so proud of this piece is the performance given by the actor who plays Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. Stan called in some favors and gathered a collection of incredibly talented actors and, under Norma Baiiley’s helm as director, ended up with a movie that I am especially proud of. And so the piece was made on an astoundingly low budget and shot in thirty days. They’d never done a miniseries in that venue, but were up for a try. A few years later Stan’s office spoke to Lifetime, which had a division devoted to doing low-budget movies.

(Later, when it was finally produced, it received a “based on” credit Dave was writing a book at the time I first met with him, and by the time the movie was green-lighted his book had been published and hence the final credit.) ABC soon decided it was no longer in the MOW business, and the project went into limbo-land.

I flew to Seattle and spent some time with Dave Reichert, and wrote the script as an original, doing my own research. Stan Brooks, the producer I’ve worked with more often than with any other and who has been so supportive of me as a writer, sold this piece in about two seconds to ABC.

The capture of the green river killer