The killer who slew more than four dozen women over a period of 20 years in Washington State, in what became known as the Green River Killings, created his carnage within a few miles of the home of America's premier true crime writer, Ann Rule, who followed the case closely from the discovery of the first body in 1982. Now, with the arrest of Gary Ridgway for some of the murders, she can at last write the whole story. Her longtime S&S editor, Fred Hills, has signed her account for the Free Press imprint and plans to publish as Ridgway's trial begins next July; ironically, Ridgway was long a suspect but until recently lived a normal life only a mile from Rule. Hills made his deal, for world rights, first serial and audio, with agents Joan and Joe Foley.