Mark Prothero (Kent, WA) was a lead defense attorney  for Gary Ridgway ("the Green River Killer"). He spent several years and thousands of hours with Ridgway, working also with the prosecution and police in the field, negotiating a complex process which gradually revealed the truth about the mind and deeds of this most prolific serial killer in US history, and also brought a just closure to the case which gave the victims' families the information they needed and put the killer in prison for the rest of his life.

Carlton Smith (South Pasadena, CA) is an award-winning journalist who has worked for The Los Angeles Times, Willamette Week, and the Seattle Times. Smith was a 1988 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for his work on the Green River Murder Case. His book, The Search for the Green River Killer, written BEFORE Gary Ridgway was apprehended, was a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the Helen Bernstein Award of the New York Public Library.