I went on line to check out Johan
Jensen and the magazine he writes for: Vi
Menn. I don't read Norwegian, but I have to admit that I was put off by the
photographs of bare-breasted women. Not
wanting to jump to conclusions, I asked my Norwegian-American friend about Vi Menn. Kim assured me that men don't
read Vi Menn in dark rooms. "In
fact there's a women's edition that my relatives send me," she said.
Still, I was faced with another
of life's difficult choices. I'd written a book about my sister's death at the
hands of the Green River Killer. I could no longer crawl into a hole and
pretend it had never happened. Now I realized that writing about the horror and
pretending that the act of writing was so cathartic that I could leave the pain
behind me was also a lie. I decided that my best option was to continue to talk
and write about my sister and the other Green River victims in hopes of
building awareness about the multitude of issues surrounding violence against
women and sex trafficking.
Decision made, I met Johan Jensen
on a beautiful sunny July day at a coffee shop on lower Queen Anne, here in
Seattle. It was a comfy and casual conversation about mass murder, police
screw-ups, plea bargains and capital punishment. We talked of justice: retribution
vs. rehabilitation. And we struggled to define prostitution and sex trafficking
as I explained that even today, almost three decades later, I still get that
your-sister-was-a-prostitute look when I mention that my sister was a Green
River victim.
At one point in the conversation,
right about when I was ripping into Dave Reichert and why I thought he was a
total ass who capitalized on the case to build a political career even though
he wasn't the one who nailed Gary Ridgway, in walked two of Seattle's finest in
dark navy, shiny badges, guns at the hip. They chose a table so close we
could've held hands. Johan looked at me, a do-you-want-to-continue question in
his eyes. I shrugged and kept talking. I don't know what those cops overheard
or thought of our conversation, and frankly I don't care.
I can only guess at bits and
pieces of what Johan Jensen wrote in his article, on-line translations leaving
much to the imagination, but it was a pleasure to meet him, and I thank him for
his interest in the lives of the Green River victims. For those of you who are
able to read Norwegian, here's a link to Jensen's article: Jakten på skyggejegeren
