THE TOWN WHERE SERIAL KILLERS WERE MADE

A shocking number of murderers grew up in this polluted US city

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In 1961 Tacoma, a 170-metre-high chimney spitting out pollutants loomed over the city, which rests just south of Seattle. Living in its shadow were 14-year-old Ted Bundy, 12-year-old Gary Ridgway and seven-year-old Michael Swango, who would all grow up to become serial killers.

FBI profiler John Douglas, who helped capture Ridgway - known as the Green River Killer - once called the surrounding Pacific Northwest “America’s killing fields” because there were so many murderers in the area. And last month local news outlets reported a spike in homicides in the port town situated along Washington's Puget Sound, which also has a higher violent crime rate compared to the national average.

While there are many factors at play, it’s now thought that the disproportionately high number of serial killers who hailed from Tacoma might be down to the huge smelting plant that finally closed in 1985.