The Riverman | |
---|---|
Based on | The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer by Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes |
Teleplay by | Tom Towler |
Directed by | Bill Eagles |
Starring | |
Music by | Jeff Rona |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | |
Producer | Greg Copeland |
Production location | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
Cinematography | Steve Cosens |
Editors |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
Production companies |
|
Original release | |
Network | A&E |
Release | September 6, 2004 |
The Riverman is a 2004 American biographical crime drama television film directed by Bill Eagles and written by Tom Towler, based on the 2004 non-fiction book The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer by Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes. Shot in Halifax, Canada, [1] the film stars Bruce Greenwood, Sam Jaeger, Kathleen Quinlan, and Cary Elwes. It premiered on A&E on September 6, 2004. [1] [2] The film follows real life incidents around how convicted infamous serial killer Ted Bundy helps detectives Robert D. Keppel and Dave Reichert by providing insights into the mind of a psychopath killer to catch then active murderer Green River Killer aka Gary Ridgway.
Robert D. Keppel, a criminology professor at the University of Washington, is approached by Detective Dave Reichert to help profile a serial killer preying on prostitutes in the Seattle, Washington area. Keppel agrees over the objections of his wife Sande, who is tired of him spending more time with crime scene investigations than with her.
Keppel receives a letter from serial killer Ted Bundy, whom Keppel had helped send to death row, offering to "consult" on the case. Keppel conducts a series of interviews with Bundy under the guise of wanting his expertise. In reality, he is hoping that Bundy will reveal details of his own murders before he is executed. Bundy is little help in profiling the killer, whom he dubs "The Riverman", but he does shed light on his own pathology, particularly his need to "possess" his victims, even to the point of necrophilia. Finally, Bundy confesses to several unsolved murders in the vain hope that Keppel will delay his execution.
Meanwhile, Keppel and Reichert question a suspect, Gary Ridgway, and take a DNA sample. Years later, the DNA is used to convict Ridgway of the murders.
Ivan Simon Cary Elwes is an English actor. He starred as Westley in The Princess Bride (1987), and also had lead roles in films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and the Saw series. The accolades he has received include nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Satellite Awards. Elwes' other performances in films include Glory (1989), Days of Thunder (1990), Hot Shots! (1991), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Twister (1996), Kiss the Girls (1997), Liar Liar (1997), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), The Cat's Meow (2001), Ella Enchanted (2004), Pope John Paul II (2005), No Strings Attached (2011), BlackBerry, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023).
A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separate events. Their psychological gratification is the motivation for the killings, and many serial murders involve sexual contact with the victims at different points during the murder process. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states that the motives of serial killers can include anger, thrill-seeking, financial gain, and attention seeking, and killings may be executed as such. The victims tend to have things in common, such as demographic profile, appearance, gender, or race. As a group, serial killers suffer from a variety of personality disorders. Most are often not adjudicated as insane under the law. Although a serial killer is a distinct classification that differs from that of a mass murderer, spree killer, or contract killer, there are overlaps between them.
Theodore Robert Bundy was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped, and murdered dozens of young women and girls during the 1970s. After more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 murders. The total number of his victims is likely to be higher.
Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders committed between the early 1980s and late 1990s. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49, making him the second-most prolific serial killer in United States history according to confirmed murders.
David George Reichert is an American retired police officer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Washington's 8th congressional district from 2005 to 2019. A moderate member of the Republican Party, he served as the sheriff of King County, Washington, from 1997 to 2005.
Robert David Keppel was an American law enforcement officer and detective. He was also an associate professor at the University of New Haven and Sam Houston State University. Keppel was known for his contributions to the investigations of Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway, and also assisted in the creation of HITS, the Homicide Investigation Tracking System.
The Oakland County Child Killer (OCCK) is the name given to the perpetrator(s) responsible for the serial killings of at least four children in Oakland County, Michigan, between 1976 and 1977. The victims were held captive before being killed, and the four deaths triggered a murder investigation, which at the time was the largest in U.S. history, with Detroit's two daily newspapers, as well as the area's numerous radio and television stations, covering the case. A presentation on WXYT radio, titled Winter's Fear: The Children, the Killer, the Search, won the Peabody Award in 1977.
Ted Bundy is a 2002 independent, biographical, crime-thriller film that was written and directed by Matthew Bright, and co-written by Stephen Johnston. The film, which had a limited theatrical release, is a sardonic dramatization of the sexual homicides of Ted Bundy, an American serial killer and necrophiliac who murdered and raped dozens of women and girls in the United States during the 1970s. It stars Michael Reilly Burke as Bundy and Boti Bliss as Bundy's girlfriend, Lee.
William J. "Bill" Birnes is an American author, the incoming auditor for Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, the chairman of the board at Sunrise Community Counseling Center, and ufologist.
The Deliberate Stranger is a book about American serial killer Ted Bundy written by Seattle Times reporter Richard W. Larsen that was published in 1980. The book spawned a television miniseries of the same title, starring Mark Harmon as Bundy, that aired on NBC on May 4–5, 1986.
The Capture of the Green River Killer is a 2008 television miniseries that first aired on Lifetime Movie Network and tells the story of the Green River killer serial murders between 1982 and 1998.
The Stranger Beside Me is a 1980 autobiographical and biographical true crime book written by Ann Rule about serial killer Ted Bundy, whom she knew personally before and after his arrest for a series of murders. Subsequent revisions of the book were published in 1986, 1989, 2000, 2008, and 2021.
The rate of crime in Oregon, at least since 1985, has varied from below the United States national average to slightly above, depending on if one is looking at violent crime or property crime statistics. The violent crime rate remained below the national average every year between 1985 and 2022, while property crime generally remained above the average during that time. Every year between 2011 and 2020, Oregon maintained one of the 20 lowest violent crime rates in the United States. However, some of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history were known for killing or operating in Oregon, including perhaps the most famous, Ted Bundy, as well as the second most prolific in terms of confirmed murders, Gary Ridgway, among many others.
Born to Kill? is a British true crime television series, made by Twofour Productions. Each episode is an in-depth look at the childhood, and formative years of serial killers in an attempt to find out whether the individuals were born killers, or created by the environments they found themselves in.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is a 2019 American biographical crime drama film about the life of serial killer Ted Bundy. Directed by Joe Berlinger with a screenplay from Michael Werwie, the film is based on Bundy's former girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall's memoir, The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy. The film stars Zac Efron as Bundy, Lily Collins as Kendall, Kaya Scodelario as Bundy's wife Carole Ann Boone, and John Malkovich as Edward Cowart, the presiding judge at Bundy's trial. The title of the film is a reference to Cowart's remarks on Bundy's murders while sentencing him to death.
Georgann Hawkins was an American college student from Tacoma, Washington, who disappeared from an alley behind her sorority house at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Ann Marie Burr was an American child who vanished under mysterious circumstances from her home in the North End section of Tacoma, Washington in August 1961. Her disappearance, which made national headlines, received renewed attention when it was theorized that serial killer Ted Bundy – who lived in Tacoma as a teenager at the time – might have been responsible for her abduction.
George Waterfield Russell Jr., known as The Charmer, is an American thief and serial killer responsible for the murders of three women in Seattle over the summer in 1990. After killing his victims, he would mutilate and have sex with the corpses, leaving the bodies posed in bizarre positions at the crime scene. For his crimes, he was sentenced to two life imprisonment terms, and is currently imprisoned at Clallam Bay Corrections Center.
Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman is a 2021 American crime film written and directed by Daniel Farrands. The film stars Chad Michael Murray as serial killer Ted Bundy.
The murder of Rita Curran occurred in Burlington, Vermont, USA, in 1971 and was solved after more than fifty years through the use of DNA technology.