Ex-Marine Pleads Not Guilty to 6 Slayings in 1970s

A former Marine who once told a psychiatrist he had “always thought of raping women” pleaded not guilty Wednesday to six Orange County slayings in the late 1970s, including one in which another man was wrongly imprisoned for 17 years.

Gerald Parker, 41, who investigators say has confessed to the slayings of the “Bludgeon Killer,” faces a possible death sentence if convicted of the series of attacks on young women who were raped and bashed in their homes.

At a court hearing, a Municipal Court judge appointed a lawyer to represent Parker, who stood with his wrists handcuffed. He was ordered back to court July 29 for a preliminary hearing.

Among the crimes he is charged with is the 1980 bludgeoning attack of 21-year-old Dianna Green and the murder of the full-term baby she was carrying. Kevin Lee Green of Tustin, who was convicted and imprisoned for 17 years in the attack on his now ex-wife, was freed from custody last week as a judge and prosecutors apologized for the mistake.