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- [00:01]
Progressive Insurance Narrator
Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why customers have enjoyed Progressive's name your price tool for years now. With the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com, find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and Coverage match limited by state law. This podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
- [00:58]
Narrator
This episode contains stories involving violence against children. Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories.
- [01:23]
Interviewer/Detective
Foreign.
- [01:28]
Narrator
30th, 1979 Diana and Kevin Green are newlyweds living in the small town of Tustin, California. Kevin is a 21 year old corporal in the Marine Corps. 20 year old Diana is nine months pregnant with the couple's first baby.
- [01:45]
Kevin Green
We had gone out and done all the baby shopping, you know, doing the Lamaze classes, practice, practicing the, the route to the, to the hospital. Everything was just, you know, from our naive point of view, it was perfect.
- [01:58]
Narrator
That night the couple spent the evening
- [02:00]
Kevin Green
at home watching a movie at 1:30 in the morning. After this movie ended, I had been thinking about wanting whatever, a cheeseburger from Jack in the Box and it's across the street. So I decided to get up and go to the Jack in the Box and get some food.
- [02:17]
Narrator
Kevin finds the drive thru backed up with cars and heads to another 15 minutes away. Greene then returns home to find the door to his kitchen ajar.
- [02:27]
Kevin Green
I came back and that kitchen door was standing open a little bit. I hadn't locked it, I didn't have a key and went in and I found that she'd been, I thought she'd been shot.
- [02:37]
Narrator
Diana Greene lies on her bed with what appears to be a gunshot wound to the forehead. Kevin calls the police and his wife is rushed to the hospital where the wound is determined to not be from a gunshot, but blunt force trauma.
- [02:52]
Kevin Green
She was conscious. She could open one eye. And even the look that I could see from her face and that one eye was, you know, why are you letting this go on? Why is this happening? What's going on? All these questions.
- [03:07]
Narrator
Throughout the night, Diana Greene and her unborn child, 4, fight to stay alive. Eight hours after the attack, the baby's heartbeat suddenly stops, and Diane undergoes an emergency cesarean section. The baby cannot be saved, and her mother falls into a coma. In the days that follow, Kevin Green sits at his wife's bedside and hopes for the best. Meanwhile, just a mile away, detectives are reviewing Kevin's statement and beginning to think the worst. Steve Foster is a detective with the Tustin police department. He begins his investigation by calling around to Diana and Kevin Greene's neighbors, hoping to find someone who saw something out of place on the night of the attack. Instead, what neighbors report is an argument between husband and wife.
- [03:58]
Detective Steve Foster
They've been having an argument for a while. Over what? We're not sure. We had been out to the residence before on domestic violence kind of things, where they were yelling, and so that wasn't uncommon at that residence.
- [04:10]
Kevin Green
We did have our, I would say, marital problems that earlier, before she became pregnant, had a few times on my part gotten out of hand.
- [04:21]
Narrator
The apparent marital discord intrigues Foster, who decides to take a closer look at Kevin Green's jack in the box alibi and finds it to be less than solid.
- [04:32]
Detective Steve Foster
What was curious to us is across the street, within walking distance, there is a jack in the box, and he drove all the way to Santa Ana, which was about 15 minutes away.
- [04:42]
Narrator
Kevin Green is starting to move up the list of suspects in the attack on his wife. When questioned, Kevin tells police he saw a black man near a black van when he left his apartment. And then again when he returned home,
- [04:57]
Kevin Green
he just kind of glanced over his left shoulder at me and kept walking. I saw him reaching his arm out to the door, the driver's door of the van. He kind of ducked his head down as he did that.
- [05:08]
Detective Steve Foster
And I recall him telling me that he saw, yeah, black man in a black van. And in my mindset at the time was, yeah, right.
- [05:15]
Narrator
Semen is recovered from Diana's body. In the days before DNA, only a blood type can be determined. O negative, a type shared by less than 15% of the population. It's a match to Kevin Green and further damage to any theory of a third party attack.
- [05:34]
Detective Steve Foster
When you add it in with everything else, you know, with the fight they had the fact he went to one jack in the box, the fact he had no emotion. In my mind, I'm thinking that just doesn't. Doesn't make sense.
- [05:46]
Narrator
Foster has his suspicions about Greene, but little else with which to pressure the husband. That is, until two months after the attack, when Diana Greene, now fully recovered from the coma, begins communicating with her parents about who it was who tried to kill her.
- [06:03]
Detective Steve Foster
She had been able to communicate to them that Kevin was the one that had done this to her.
- [06:07]
Narrator
On November 30, 1979, Greene is making a beer run at the local liquor store when he is confronted by Tustin police.
- [06:16]
Kevin Green
He said, you need to come with us. He walked me out front of this store, and there's like three marked cars and three unmarked cars. What is going on?
- [06:25]
Narrator
Police question Greene, confronting him with his wife's statements, but he sticks to his story.
- [06:31]
Detective Steve Foster
He's saying, she's wrong. I didn't. So we had an argument. You know, I didn't hit her. You know, it wasn't me.
- [06:39]
Kevin Green
My story sounded like the boogeyman did it. It didn't make sense that I could possibly leave my apartment for 40 minutes, and in that time being gone, somebody would go into my house, attack my wife, rape her, and leave her for dead. How could that happen in 40 minutes? Too convenient. So he decided, I did it.
- [07:01]
Narrator
Kevin Green is tried on charges of assault, attempted murder, and second degree murder for the death of his unborn child. His wife takes the stand and insists it was her husband who had attacked her.
- [07:14]
Detective Steve Foster
She becomes more convincing. She has a lot of jury appeal when she's, you know, when she's sitting there with, obviously, you know, there's still some lingering effects of her injuries. So, yeah, she becomes very convincing.
- [07:27]
Kevin Green
The jury is listening to this going. She's pointing out her attacker, and she's pointing at her husband. How can she get it wrong?
- [07:35]
Narrator
According to Kevin Greene, Diana did get it wrong. That her misguided accusations are the result of head trauma.
- [07:43]
Kevin Green
The damage that was caused to her brain, it did not cause her to become mean to me. It caused her to not know what happened. This is common in brain damage issues to where they don't know that they are remembering something outside of what really happened.
- [08:00]
Narrator
After a week of testimony, the jury deliberates for two days and returns with a verdict.
- [08:06]
Kevin Green
When they told me the jury was coming back, they put me in a little room and I just sat there and prayed, you know, that this is all going to work out fine and that everybody's life is Going to get back to normal and it's going to be okay. And prayed for understanding how to get through this and walked back in and saw the jury walking in and they weren't looking at me and they weren't smiling and I didn't know what that meant, you know, I didn't know what to look for. And then the judge read that they were finding me guilty of second degree murder.
- [08:37]
Narrator
Kevin Green is sent to San Quentin prison where he begins serving a sentence of 15 years to life. And the case is officially closed. That is until six other assaults surface, all of them unsolved.
- [08:52]
Jackie Bisonette
They knew that this guy was around killing.
- [08:55]
Narrator
They began 10 months before the attack on Diana Greene and continue for weeks afterward. Each incident a break in and rape. Each almost identical to the one suffered by Diana Greene.
- [09:08]
Jackie Bisonette
I instantly knew it was the guy. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I knew he had got her.
- [09:16]
Narrator
It's 12-1-19. In 1978, officer Steve Roedig responds to a call on Knott Avenue.
- [09:23]
Detective Tom Tarpley
When I arrived, I was contacted by two or three individuals that were standing in front of the apartment and was told that there was a problem inside, that an assault had occurred.
- [09:38]
Narrator
Rodig makes his way into Unit H2, the home of 17 year old Sandra Fry. Inside he finds her nearly beaten to death.
- [09:47]
Detective Tom Tarpley
I walked into the east bedroom and I saw a female lying on a bed and she was partially disrobed and motionless on the bed. There was blood in the area of her head and her hands and again she was motionless and I reached over and touched her and noted that she was still warm to the tower touch.
- [10:10]
Narrator
An hour later, the young woman is pronounced dead at the hospital. The cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma to the head and semen is collected from the body. Back at the crime scene, detectives lift a single print from a windowsill and take impressions of shoe prints scuffed in the dirt. Then they begin to canvas the neighborhood looking for witnesses.
- [10:32]
Detective Tom Tarpley
There were no suspects seen at the time. There was nobody at that particular time. Whether they were the friends that were present or neighbors. Nobody had seen anything.
- [10:43]
Narrator
Police are unable to match anyone to the prints found on Sandra Fry's windowsill. And her murder is chalked up to a random act of violence. But four months later, a second attack occurs just 15 miles away on a warm spring night, 21 year old Kimberly Rollins complains to friends she is not feeling well and stays home alone. At 5am her roommate returns to their apartment to find Rawlins naked and dead. On the floor, Detective Linda Geisler is called to the scene.
- [11:16]
Detective Linda Geisler
She has two black eyes, but one very, very predominantly black. Swollen, protruding. And then there's blood coming from her head to indicate a head injury.
- [11:29]
Narrator
With 15 years experience, Detective Geisler quickly sizes up the crime scene.
- [11:35]
Detective Linda Geisler
Sexual assault, that's the first thing that comes to your mind.
- [11:39]
Narrator
An autopsy confirms Geisler's suspicions and semen is recovered from the victim's body. In the late 1970s, the best the lab can offer is the donor's blood type. In this case, O negative. Interviews with the usual suspects follow. Family, friends and neighbors, however, offer no leads and detectives are quickly reduced to speculation.
- [12:01]
Detective Linda Geisler
Chances are she probably was asleep when the perpetrator entered. And if she was immediately, well, I think you could speculate immediately hit. There would have been no opportunity for her to scream or any signs of a struggle, which there were none.
- [12:18]
Narrator
Geisler does not link the Rollins crime scene to Sandra Frye's murder in Anaheim. It will take at least one more attack before police begin to connect the dots and realize they have a serial killer in their midst. The night of July 19, 1979 is hot and humid. Jane Pettengill doesn't have central air in her apartment and decides to crack a window. It's a decision that will nearly cost her her life. The next morning, a friend finds Jane's front door open. Inside, the 24 year old lies badly beaten, her skull split and her throat crushed. She is rushed to the hospital where doctors fight to save her life.
- [13:02]
Detective Linda Geisler
She was not expected to live. Her head trauma would be similar to falling out of a two or three story building and landing on your head.
- [13:11]
Narrator
Doctors believe the head trauma was caused by a blunt force object. Semen collected from the Pettengill crime scene yields a type O negative profile. The same profile as Kimberly Rollins killer. For detectives, a pattern is beginning to emerge.
- [13:27]
Detective Linda Geisler
It's very alarming and at this point because you have two victims again you believe by the same perpetrator, you try to look into anything the two victims might have had in common.
- [13:42]
Narrator
Detectives conduct dozens of interviews but are unable to find any meaningful links between the victims or to any possible suspect. Meanwhile, Jane Pettengill climbs back from the brink of death. Five weeks after she was attacked, the 24 year old opens her eyes.
- [14:00]
Detective Tom Tarpley
There were people around my bed in the hospital and I remembered who they were.
- [14:04]
Jackie Bisonette
It was the first time I remembered who they were. Apparently I was.
- [14:07]
Detective Tom Tarpley
My eyes were open according to my
- [14:09]
Jackie Bisonette
parents and my sister, but I didn't recognize them.
- [14:12]
Detective Tom Tarpley
And one day I realized who they were.
- [14:16]
Narrator
Detectives Hope Pettengill can offer a clue as to who assaulted her. Pettengill, however, never saw her attacker's face and has no idea who it might have been.
- [14:26]
Jackie Bisonette
The police wanted to know all the people I knew, all the male people I knew.
- [14:31]
Detective Tom Tarpley
So I had to think about who I'd been seeing and who would ever
- [14:34]
Jackie Bisonette
have done that to me. But all my friends and people I
- [14:36]
Detective Tom Tarpley
see, there's no way anybody I knew would never do this to me.
- [14:41]
Jackie Bisonette
So it was to me, some stranger.
- [14:45]
Narrator
A stranger with a growing appetite for rape and murder. His next victim, Marilyn Carlton, a 31 year old widow living with her 9 year old son.
- [14:56]
Detective Linda Geisler
Her 9 year old son did awaken and the perpetrator became aware of that and stepped out in the hallway and just basically put his hands on the young boy's shoulder and told him everything was okay and to go back to bed. And he did.
- [15:13]
Narrator
The following morning the boy awakens to find his mother bludgeoned to death. In this case, police find no physical evidence, no semen, no prints, only a pattern of attack that is now familiar.
- [15:27]
Detective Linda Geisler
I think based on method of operation MO Again, very close proximity. I think everyone felt that the three incidences were connected.
- [15:39]
Narrator
One month later, another attack. Deborah Kennedy, a 24 year old model is found raped and murdered in her apartment. Tustin police detective Bill Fisher works the case.
- [15:50]
Kevin Green
Well, anytime you've got any kind of
- [15:53]
Detective Tom Tarpley
a serial suspect of any crime working in the community, it's frightening for the community as a whole. We're here to try to protect them and they're looking for us to do
- [16:05]
Narrator
and if you can't, then they kind
- [16:06]
Detective Tom Tarpley
of wonder, well what's going on, what's next?
- [16:10]
Narrator
In Orange County, a siege mentality takes hold. Streets empty at sunset and young women lock themselves in at night.
- [16:18]
Jackie Bisonette
They knew that this guy was around killing.
- [16:21]
Narrator
Among the ranks of the terrified is a 17 year old named Debbie senior. Jackie Bisonette is Debbie's sister.
- [16:29]
Jackie Bisonette
She and her roommate both were nervous about. The guy had called home saying, you know, we're kind of scared. And we told him keep their windows, doors locked and you know, and they said this one bathroom window wouldn't lock and they'd called the manager to fix it and he never got out to do it.
- [16:45]
Narrator
Debbie Sr. Is found beaten to death in her apartment. The killer's point of entry was the faulty bathroom window. Police break the news to Debbie's sister.
- [16:55]
Jackie Bisonette
They came in and they told me Debbie had been killed the night before. And I instantly knew it was the guy. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I knew he had got her.
- [17:06]
Narrator
It falls to Jackie to tell her parents.
- [17:09]
Jackie Bisonette
Mom came in the door and as usual, big box of goodies from a bakery. She always had to have something and I had to tell her. Her youngest child had been killed the night before and I watched her die that day. I watched her heart break.
- [17:25]
Narrator
Debbie Sr. S murder is the sixth attack in 11 months, a string of unsolved cases, all of which go cold. There is, however, a seventh assault during this time, the attack on Diana Greene. It is this case and the man convicted for it that will ultimately provide the key to catching a man known in Orange county as the Bedroom Basher. Cold Case Files is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money. When you bundle your home in auto policies, the process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. If you're looking for another gripping, thoughtfully researched crime show, check out Blood and Water from ABC News in 2020. In 2001, Leslie Preer was found brutally murdered, her body left in the shower of her home in the wealthy suburbs of Washington, D.C. investigators initially set their sights on Leslie's husband as the prime suspect until bombshell DNA evidence revealed the presence of an unknown male at the scene. ABC News and 2020 have obtained extensive access to the original police tapes and interviews with the cold case detectives who work to solve the crime. Blood and Water tells the story of a decades long wait for justice for Leslie's daughter and the cutting edge investigative techniques that finally caught the killer. Find Blood and Water wherever you get. Podcasts Being forced to wait is disrespectful. If waiting were a person, I'd block them and and waiting to be paid money you've earned is about as disrespectful as it gets. I remember a time early in my career when I was owed money that I had earned and somehow I felt like I was asking for a favor. I couldn't understand why my own paycheck was working against me. That's why Earn in makes so much sense to me. It's a fintech app, not a bank, and that matters. They've been leading the earned wage access space for over a decade helping you get paid for the work you've already done. You can access up to $150 a day and up to $1,000 between paydays. There are no mandatory fees. Tips are optional and standard transfers take one to two business days if you need it. Quicker expedited transfers start at just $3.99 and are capped at $5.99. It's not just for emergencies. It's just a simpler, more straightforward way to access your money. And it's already being used by over 5 million people. Download Earn in on the App Store or Google Play spelled like Earning money without the G. And when you sign up, type in Cold Case Files under Podcast to help out the show. Earn in is a financial technology company, not a bank. Access limits are based on your earnings and risk factors. Standard cash outs take one to two business days with no mandatory fees. Expedited transfer is available for a fee. Tips are voluntary and don't affect the service. Available in select states. Terms and restrictions apply. Visit Earnin.com for full details. In January of 1996, DNA analyst Mary Hong at the Orange County Crime Lab examines evidence from a string of cases 17 years cold the work of a sexual attacker dubbed the Bedroom Basher. The first item is a rape kit from 1979 from the attack on 24 year old Jane Pettengill. At that time we didn't have a lot of experience with these old cases. More of our experience was with current cases where the samples were pretty fresh. So this really was the first case that we went back a number of years, retrieved the evidence and were successful in getting the DNA. Analysts are able to develop a full genetic profile from semen collected 17 years earlier. The sample is downloaded for comparison with the state's DNA database. At that time there weren't that many samples in the database, so we really didn't anticipate a hit immediately. Mary Hong, however, is in for a surprise. So it comes up on the screen that there is a match. The unknown sample proves to be a perfect match to system sample 20289. Blood provided by a convicted sex offender named Gerald Parker. Genetic links are then drawn between Parker and Seaman from three other Basher attacks. Hong believes she might have found a serial killer and puts a call in to one of the men who submitted the kits for testing, Detective Tom Tarpley
- [22:01]
Detective Tom Tarpley
and I didn't have a lot of hope, but you always wonder, is that call gonna come? And the call came and I remember I was ecstatic.
- [22:10]
Narrator
Cold case detectives begin to work up some Background on Gerald Parker. They discover he's an ex marine, in and out of jail on a variety of charges, including the kidnapping and ra of a 13 year old girl. They also discover he is scheduled for a parole release in less than a month.
- [22:28]
Detective Tom Tarpley
The urgency now becomes Gerald Parker is due to be released from prison. So we've only got about three weeks. I wasn't familiar with Mr. Parker or his background until his name came up.
- [22:39]
Narrator
Deputy District attorney Mike Jacobs works with a team of detectives preparing charges against Parker. Their plan is to question Parker in prison and confront him with the DNA matches with the hope of extracting a full confession before proceeding. However, Jacobs decides to do a little more digging. He develops a timeline of the four attacks linked to Parker and then begins to look for similar assaults that occurred in Orange county within that window.
- [23:09]
Detective Tom Tarpley
And we had like close to 20 cases we wanted to question him about.
- [23:13]
Narrator
Among those 20 cases is the assault on Diana Greene and the murder of her unborn child. A crime for which Diana's husband Kevin has already served 16 and a half years. A crime which perhaps he did not commit.
- [23:30]
Detective Tom Tarpley
It's same kind of victim profile. Young, attractive white female, attacked late at night, ground floor apartment, similar wounds, blunt force trauma to the head. There was another Prosecutor in the DA's office that worked on the case with Mike Jacobs and he had some doubt about whether Green was the killer. And he said, you know, please, please talk to Parker about this case.
- [23:59]
Narrator
Investigators add the Green case to a long list of items they need to discuss with Gerald Parker. Then they pack up and head to a medium security prison in Avenal, California, four hours north of Orange County. The Avenal State Prison is home to 7,000 inmates. On June 14, 1996, cold case detectives arrive armed with four DNA matches and ask to speak with Gerald Parker. Costa Mesa detectives Linda Geisler and Bill Redmond are the first to speak.
- [24:32]
Interviewer/Detective
Your DNA matches the DNA found on our victims. All four victims, correct? I don't know. I, I which is what brought us here today to talk to.
- [24:45]
Detective Linda Geisler
He knew what we were saying. We weren't pulling his leg.
- [24:50]
Interviewer/Detective
You know, I've been doing this for 32 years. This isn't my first homicide. Probably won't be my last. It's very obvious talking to you, looking at you, watching you, that you want to get this off your chest. But right now you're scared. And I don't blame you.
- [25:08]
Narrator
After an hour long conversation, Parker admits to nothing. Tustin Detective Tom Tarpley takes a turn next.
- [25:17]
Detective Tom Tarpley
The first thing I noticed when I walked in the room with Parker was that he was handcuffed, and he was. He appeared to me to kind of be in a little bit of, you know, physical distress in the sense that he was just. You could tell he was fidgeting, and he'd been in these handcuffs behind his back for a while. So I asked him, I said, you know, would you like those handcuffs off?
- [25:37]
Narrator
A guard removes the cuffs, and Tarpley starts the conversation. He begins with Deborah Jean Kennedy, one of the cases linked to Parker through DNA.
- [25:48]
Interviewer/Detective
I'm going to show you a picture of a gal that we have here. And can you tell me if you know that gal at all? Not to my knowledge, no. Okay.
- [25:57]
Detective Tom Tarpley
We went through the whole process of, you know, did you know this lady? No, I didn't. You know, did you have anything to do with this? No. A lot of it was no, no, no. And I thought, okay, now it's time to bring up the Kevin Green case.
- [26:10]
Interviewer/Detective
During the time that these murders happened in 1979, there was another woman who was attacked in her house, and her husband was convicted of that crime. Right. She was a Marine dependent. He was a Marine. Right. Did you say anything about that case at all? Do you remember that? I believe so.
- [26:30]
Detective Tom Tarpley
And that was the first time in the interview that I got a rise out of him, and I could see a noticeable change in him, and he perked up.
- [26:39]
Interviewer/Detective
What can you tell me? What do you remember about that case? Apparently, there was an argument that ensued.
- [26:45]
Narrator
Parker doesn't want to. Want to talk about any of the cases linked to him through DNA. The conviction of a fellow Marine, however, gets his attention and starts him talking.
- [26:56]
Interviewer/Detective
He hit her over the head. He was convicted. He's on death row, isn't he?
- [27:01]
Detective Tom Tarpley
I can tell he wants to talk about this case. And I told him, I said, look, you've done a lot of bad things in your life. I'm sure you would love to take things back. You can't change what's already happened. But what you can change. Change is today.
- [27:14]
Interviewer/Detective
We've all done things in our lives that we regret, okay? And I know that if I had the chance to maybe do something right, if I could, I would make it right. This is the chance for you. Today is the day that you take control and you say, you know what? Enough of this garbage. Enough. Can you do that for me?
- [27:36]
Detective Tom Tarpley
And I looked at him, and I could tell. I could just tell that the time had come.
- [27:43]
Interviewer/Detective
Is custom. Still here, Coastal Mason? Still here. I use the bathroom, and then we can get this whole Show I believe that there is a man on death row because of something that I did.
- [27:57]
Narrator
With those words, convicted sex offender Gerald Parker begins his confession not to three murders and an assault linked to him through DNA, but to another attack and murder, one for which a man named Kevin Greene has already served more than 16 years.
- [28:15]
Detective Tom Tarpley
It wasn't necessarily what I said or how I said it, but what was key that I said was the Kevin Green case. I think if the Kevin Green case had not been part of this series, I don't think Gerald Parker would have ever confessed.
- [28:30]
Interviewer/Detective
Out of all of the murders and the crimes that I've committed over the years, that was the one that bothered me the most.
- [28:37]
Detective Tom Tarpley
I think what bothered Gerald Parker, the one thing in his life that made him feel good was the Marine Corps
- [28:46]
Narrator
as a young man. Gerald Parker served in the US Marine Corps just like Kevin Green. It's a connection that has apparently weighed on Parker's conscience enough so that he is willing to talk about the night he broke into Greene's apartment.
- [29:01]
Detective Tom Tarpley
He's outside, he's doing his lurking or his prowling routine that he would do.
- [29:06]
Interviewer/Detective
They were arguing in the house. I was standing outside the window, and then I didn't know he was coming out. And he got in his car and left. So you pick up the door, you go in, and what happens? Where is she at when you first. She's in the bedroom. Okay. First when I open the door, she's in bed and she sits up almost as if in recognition of somebody that she thought that I was, but I wasn't. And what happened? And she laid back down as if she recognized me. I guess she thought it was her husband or boyfriend, whichever the case it was. And then I just hit. I rushed into the room and hit her over the head with the force. Did that knock her out right away? Right. Okay, she's knocked out. Then what happened? Then I raped her. Okay.
- [29:55]
Detective Tom Tarpley
Well, my head is spinning because I. I know that Kevin Green's locked up for this murder, and I know it was in 1979 and this is now 1996. And I'm thinking maybe Kevin Green's on death row. You know, I have no idea where this guy's at. And now here's a man telling you I did that murder.
- [30:14]
Narrator
Parker's unsolicited confession has thrown the investigation into disarray. Before cold case detectives can check out the Kevin Green case, however, there is the matter of the four other assaults, three of them murders, all linked to Parker through DNA. With the Green assault off his chest. Parker is willing to tell all, describing in detail his attacks on Kimberly Rollins, Jane Pettengill, Deborah Jean Kennedy and Debbie Sr. In the case of Marilyn Carlton Parker, raped and murdered while at home with her 9 year old. Investigators lack a DNA link, but get a confession anyway.
- [30:52]
Interviewer/Detective
You remember one where her little boy went home? Oh, yeah, tell me about that one. I went in, I didn't know the little boy was in there till it was too late. And I don't recall what I hit her in the head with three, maybe four times. And the little boy said something about his mother. He said, where did he come from, the little boy? The bedroom is right next door. So did he actually come in her bedroom? No, he didn't come in. He stayed in the darkness in the hallway. And he said that, mommy, something's wrong with mommy. What's wrong with mommy? Something to that effect. And I moved him aside and just exited the apartment complex. I didn't hurt him. I just pulled him inside and left.
- [31:47]
Narrator
Parker then goes on to provide the details of yet another attack, one that cold case detectives had not linked to the suspect. The 1978 murder of Sandra Fry in the city of Anaheim.
- [32:01]
Interviewer/Detective
So that the time I went in, she was sitting at the kitchen table and I hit her over the head. Remember about how many times she hit her? Twice, Maybe three times. She was sitting up in a chair like this. So I would have to say it couldn't have been more than two or three times before she slid off the chair.
- [32:24]
Narrator
Parker eventually confesses to killing five women and an unborn baby and assaulting two others as they leave the prison. However, cold case detectives are most concerned about the first crime Parker spoke of, the one for which Kevin Green has already served 16 and a half years in prison. Tom Tarpley gets on the phone with the Orange County District attorney.
- [32:48]
Detective Tom Tarpley
I said, you need to sit down. And they go, we're sitting down. And I said, I go, he's confessed to all the murders and he confessed to the Green case. And dead silence.
- [33:00]
Narrator
The silence is soon replaced by a long list of things to do. Among them, DNA testing of semen found at Diana Greene's assault and assumed to be from her husband. Test results show the semen to be a perfect match not to Greene, but to Gerald Parker. It falls to Tom Tarpley to tell Kevin Green something Greene alone already knows. He is an innocent man.
- [33:26]
Kevin Green
And he tells me, I'm not here as your friend and I'm not here as your enemy, but we need to talk. And so you know, I'M just like, okay, what's going on here? You want to talk?
- [33:36]
Detective Tom Tarpley
I need to convince him that we're not there trying to pin a bunch of murders on him.
- [33:42]
Kevin Green
I just want my life back. The good, bad, the harm, the hurt, you know, whatever. I just want my life back.
- [33:53]
Narrator
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- [36:42]
Detective Tom Tarpley
I gotta tell Kevin Green. Oh, I'm sorry, but you're the wrong guy and you're going home. You know, we made a mistake.
- [36:50]
Kevin Green
When the officers came to unlock the doors for the morning release, they wouldn't open my door. And they just stood there and said, kevin, we can't let you out. The goon squad's looking for you. The security squad is looking for you.
- [37:02]
Narrator
Kevin Green is held in his cell as the rest of the prison block empties. Then he's instructed to head downstairs, where a visitor waits. The walk takes about five minutes and represents the final steps in a journey that began more than 16 years earlier.
- [37:20]
Kevin Green
Nothing in my life could have prepared me for that experience, for being driven into the bastille by the bay. We're right now entering the prison grounds for San Quentin. If you're just coming in as a tourist, it's scary enough. But if you're coming in and realizing that when this bus stops, I become a part of that. The bus will come in through the gates.
- [37:45]
Narrator
Green is processed into San Quentin in the winter of 1980. His first order of business upon arrival, Figure out a way to stay alive.
- [37:55]
Kevin Green
You know, there's the big biker types, there's the black gang guys, there's the Mexican gang guys. There's all these people who are not nice people. They, for the most part, did the crime. That's why they're there. And it's their house that I'm coming into.
- [38:15]
Narrator
As a convicted baby killer. From the moment he walks into San Quentin, Kevin Green is a marked man
- [38:22]
Kevin Green
that falls way down there on the hit parade. It's far as people who are allowed to breathe in prison. Child molesters, rapists, baby killers. They're targets.
- [38:33]
Narrator
Five months into his stay at San Quentin, Greene is jumped by five inmates inside a cell. They're about to kill him when A guard intervenes. Greene is isolated from the general population in San Quentin's south block.
- [38:48]
Kevin Green
South block's on the bed, and when the tide comes in, the sewer backs up into south block D section of south block every night. So I went to sleep in the middle of the night. I woke up thinking, this doesn't feel right. When the tide comes in and the sewer backs up, the cockroaches have to have someplace to go. And I found out where they go.
- [39:09]
Narrator
Green spends six months in south block before he is transferred to a California state prison in Soledad, a prison on virtually permanent lockdown.
- [39:21]
Kevin Green
Every time it would come off lockdown, it'd be a riot, a killing, a stabbing, a staff assault, whatever, and it'd go right back on lockdown. It was just an evil place to live. And I was loving it, in a sense, because I understood it. I was pissed off and didn't care, but it was eating me alive. And so God and I had a falling out. Big, major falling out. I pretty much heart of hearts told them where to go and how to get there, and I'd buy the ticket. If this was what God was going to do for me, I didn't need it.
- [39:52]
Narrator
By 1984, Greene has spent four years in prison. Four years. That feel more like 40.
- [39:59]
Kevin Green
I sat at the typewriter one day in this job I had, and I couldn't get my hands to quit shaking. I couldn't make him stop. And it was. It was like the final thing. I didn't have control over even my fingers. And it just came to me. I can make this stop. I have control. All I have to do is go back to my wing, go up to the third tier, climb up on the railing, see if I can fly.
- [40:25]
Narrator
Kevin gets up from his desk and walks toward what he sees as the easy way out. A harsh moment, and then no more pain. But then a strange thing happens.
- [40:36]
Kevin Green
And I stopped and just said to myself, God, I can't do this anymore. I need help. And I meant it. I meant it like I never meant it before. And I got calm right there, just from the head of my feet, I could feel it. I just got calm. That happening, that feeling of just everything washing out of me. The light bulbs in my head went on. It was like, okay, I get it. This is happening to me for a reason. I don't know what it is. I don't know that I need to know. I know that now.
- [41:06]
Narrator
In that moment, Kevin Green's life changes. Kevin prays for the day he would walk out of prison.
- [41:14]
Kevin Green
It took another 11 years before the prayer was answered. And the prayer became, I just want my life back. The good, the bad, the harm, the hurt, you know, whatever. I just want my life.
- [41:27]
Narrator
On June 17, 1996, Tom Tarpley arrives at Soledad, an answer to Kevin Green's prayer.
- [41:35]
Detective Tom Tarpley
I said, there's a man in another prison who has confessed to killing your child, attacking your wife. And he's confessed to killing a number of other women.
- [41:46]
Kevin Green
And he pointed at it and he says, this guy, we have his DNA, we have his confession, and you're getting out of prison.
- [41:53]
Detective Tom Tarpley
You could audibly hear a little bit of a gasp. And you could also see, you know, the shoulders kind of like the whole weight of the world had been taken off of him.
- [42:03]
Narrator
After 16 years, 2 months and 26 days, Kevin Green walks out of prison a free man.
- [42:10]
Kevin Green
The prison is set up on that long corridor. So as I leave my wing and I'm heading up the corridor, people are coming out of these different offices and housing areas in stunned disbelief and saying congratulations. And, you know, people parole from that institution every day. Nobody leaves that way.
- [42:33]
Narrator
On June 20, Kevin Green stands before an Orange county judge.
- [42:38]
Kevin Green
And the judge was more than happy to apologize, to explain to me that I was waking up from a long nightmare. And he told me, kind of one of the most important things he said to me was, Mr. Green, you may leave by any door you wish.
- [42:51]
Narrator
As Kevin Green walks out of one courthouse door, Gerald Parker walks in another. Convicted on six charges of murder, he is sentenced to die by lethal injection.
- [43:03]
Jackie Bisonette
It's too painless, it's too easy. He lays on a table and they, you know, anesthetize him and they stop his heart and they stop up his breathing. My sister had a two by four and a hammer to her head and laid there and died for hours. You know, there's no justice, but he's not out hurting other people. And that's what I have to be thankful for. Nobody else's family will go through this. Nobody else will because of the pain that he caused us.
- [43:33]
Narrator
Jackie Bisonette is 46 years old. She was 21 when her sister Debbie was taken. Through the years, the drive to her sister's grave never changes. The headstone is always there reminding her of the cruel fact that no guilty verdict, no penalty of death will ever erase.
- [43:53]
Jackie Bisonette
There's not a day that goes by I don't think about her. I still talk to her in the car. I ask advice, I ask for help. I. I don't want to forget. I don't want it to be gone. She's a part of my life. She's part of me. And I wish I had my sister back.
- [44:10]
Narrator
Kevin Greene has the same wish for the daughter he never met, whose murder he was wrongly convicted of.
- [44:17]
Kevin Green
It Says Chantelle Marie, September 30, 1979, daughter of Corporal and Mrs. Kevin L. Green, USMC in a cross. This kind of makes you wonder what her favorite color would have been.
- [44:32]
Narrator
Nothing can ever make up for a loved one lost or replace the almost two decades of Greene's life spent behind the walls of a California prison. The state, however, tried.
- [44:44]
Kevin Green
They agreed on a hundred dollars a day. My freedom, my life, my everything for 16 years was worth a hundred dollars a day. It's better than nothing.
- [44:57]
Narrator
The total award from the state added up to $620,000.
- [45:02]
Kevin Green
I wrote a check to my attorney that day for $200,000, and it didn't bounce. But he got a third. I did the 16 years, he got a third. It's business, you know, it's the way things are done. So I went home with a little over $400,000 as compensation for 16 years of my life.
- [45:22]
Narrator
But Kevin Green's money went as quickly as it came. Lost in the stock market.
- [45:30]
Kevin Green
If God wanted me to be rich, I'd win the lottery. So it's not that big a deal. It is frustrating. But paycheck to paycheck, that's my life back. That's my prayer. That's what I got. My prayer was answered with a yes.
- [45:44]
Narrator
From prisoner to wealth, working man. Today Kevin Green lives a simple life with simple pleasures and a simple word of warning.
- [45:52]
Kevin Green
If it could happen to me, and it did. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere in any jurisdiction. But I also learned that, you know, through adversity, you know where they the old saying, if it doesn't kill you, it just makes you stronger. That's fact. Take it to heart.
- [46:15]
Narrator
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- [46:18]
Kevin Green
We're coming at you with everything we got.
- [46:20]
Narrator
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- [46:23]
Kevin Green
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- [46:24]
Narrator
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