The Green River Shiller goes to Hollywood

Rep. Dave Reichert
US House of Representatives

Dear Rep. Reichert,

After watching your movie, The Capture of the Green River Killer, I thought I'd surf the web to learn a little bit more about your involvement in the case. I have to admit I was a bit surprised by what I found:

"[Dave Reichert] desecrated the victims. The public ought to know that," says Seattle University journalism and criminal justice Professor Tomás Guillén.

[...]

"Reichert used the serial murder case to move forward," Guillén 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," says Guillén.

The people around the case use strong adjectives to describe the former Sheriff's professional behavior: manipulative, self-serving, amateurish, ambitious, creepy, bungling, inappropriate, opportunistic, egotistical, voyeuristic, and stubborn.

[...]

"He got elected based on Green River, when in fact, he didn't solve it and he didn't win against Gary Ridgway," says Guillén who covered the Green River story for the Seattle Times from its beginnings and has written two books on the subject.

It's that last part I find particularly disturbing. It attacks the very reason people voted for you to become a Congressman: you caught the Green River Killer. It's what you've been telling the voters for years in books, interviews, speeches, and even when you answer questions about things like abortion:

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.

I think you need to do a lot more of that kind of thing. I know it's hard to work the Green River Killer into your conversations more than you're already doing it, but you have to suck it up and try a little harder. Take this quote for example:

It makes sense to me. This is people taking advantage of the system...just moments before the baby is born crossing the border and having the baby in a parking lot...then claiming they can’t leave because their baby is a citizen.

Wouldn't it have been more effective, campaignwise, if you had said:

...just moments before the baby is born crossing the border and having the baby in a parking lot--which is a thought that caused me many sleepless nights while I was hunting the Green River Killer...

It's not very hard to work it into a discussion of any issue if you think about it. In many cases, it's just a matter of transposing something from the case onto what you're talking about. Remember how you joked with the killer about whether any of his victims swallowed? Remember that? You told him that some of them, who might be a "4" or a "5", would have been an "11" if they had swallowed, and then you both had a good laugh.* You could tell that story, and then talk about how after all the good stuff you've done the President, he calls you his 11. Then we all could have a good laugh.

Heterosexually yours,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot

*The audio in this video is not work safe, and to be honest, I wish I hadn't watched it. It's very disturbing. But here it is if you want to see it. There are more, some of which are even worse, here.