Gary Ridgway a copycat killer?

A good friend of mine has passed along some information that she says is from a reliable source. She says that Ridgway was not the original Green River Killer but that he was a copycat and he knew the original killer. Apparently there were three killers, two of them are still alive, including Ridgway, but the original killer hung himself years ago. I am doing some research on this and will have more to post later on.