September 30, 1979: Dianna Green is attacked in her home at Tustin, California.
This case, which can only be filed under FALSE AND TRUE, has to be one of the sickest and saddest in this database.
It has been the subject of two true crime documentaries, the second of which was screened July 22, 2015.
Here it is, and here is an alternative link.
Briefly, Dianna Green was a young married woman, pregnant and overdue. Late at night her husband Kevin went out to get some fast food, and when he returned he found her battered senseless. Dianna had also been raped.
The doctors were unable to save her baby, and although they managed to save her, she regressed initially to a childlike state.
Although the police didn’t know his name, they had a suspect, a serial rapist/serial killer known as the Bedroom Basher; it was his unmistakable modus operandi; somehow he had managed to seize upon a narrow window of opportunity to carry out this terrible crime.
Then something shocking happened. Dianna’s family had been warned to be careful about “filling in the blanks” of her memory. That warning was prophetic, because Dianna remembered being attacked by her husband Kevin.
In spite of the Bedroom Basher connection, Kevin Green was arrested, tried, and convicted. The truth did not come out until 1996 when Gerald Parker, who was in prison for a parole violation (for ordinary crimes), confessed to everything. He was sentenced to death in 1999 but as of June 2020 had still not been executed.
Apart from Dianna’s unborn baby, his two youngest victims were both seventeen.
Although Kevin was totally exonerated, Dianna was never able to face the truth. Her case should be an object lesson for the frailty of human memory, especially when the allegations are of an historical nature.
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