Known as the "Bedroom Basher," serial rapist Gerald Parker thought he had gotten away with murder until DNA testing linked him to the murder of five women and an unborn child in Orange County, California. Parker, a former Marine, was linked through genetic evidence to attacks on young women who where raped and bludgeoned in their homes in the late 1970s around El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Police and Navy officials believe Gerald might be responsible for even more killings, specifically three other dead women in Orange County. During his 7 1/2 years with the Marines Gerald was based in El Toro as well as other bases in North Carolina, Alaska and Mississippi before being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1980.
That same year another Marine, Kevin Lee Green, was convicted of second degree murder for an attack on his 21-year-old pregnant wife that led to the death of their unborn baby. 16 years later, Parker confessed to the attack on Green's wife. On June 20, 1996 Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald apologized for Green's wrongful incarceration and declared him a free and innocent man. Curiously his ex-wife Dianna D'Aiello still believes he was her attacker.
Using new technology that can match DNA samples of convicted criminals with evidence of unsolved crimes investigators were able to link several unsolved murders of young women to Parker. On June 14 detectives met with Parker in the Avenal State Prison in Central Valley where he was imprisoned for a parole violation. There he confessed to five killings and the assault on Dianna D'Aiello.
D'Aiello was comatose for a month after her 1979 attack and suffered a significant loss of memory. When she regained consciousness she identified her husband as her attacker. Jurors believed her and considered his alibi, that he went to get a cheeseburger, unbelievable. Ever since he was arrested Green proclaimed his innocence. He even passed a defense-administered polygraph test before the trial. While incarcerated he tried to have a DNA test performed on the semen investigators collected at the crime scene. Unfortunately, he could not afford the costly forensic procedure. Luckily, crucial evidence from the D'Aiello attack had not been destroyed and could be tested when his guilt was brought into question. Once exonerated, the ex-Marine corporal went to visit his family in the Midwest and says he does not plan to sue the state for damages resulting from his wrongful conviction.