Gerald Parker (born 1955) is an American serial killer who raped and murdered five women in Orange County, California.

[1] Following his conviction, another man, Kevin Lee Green, who had been charged with the attack of the pregnant woman who survived and who was his wife at the time, had served 16 years in prison; he was subsequently exonerated and released.

Though much of his youth was spent at Boys Republic, a private all-boys school for troubled adolescents, Russell said he never gave her any problems.

In late 1979, he served as staff sergeant at the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro until he was dishonorably discharged for a felony conviction the following year.

[6] On February 2, 1980, Aida Demirjian was locking her car in the underground parking garage at her apartment complex when Parker struck her numerous times with a metal pipe.

Nine months after the attack, on October 2, 1980, Parker was convicted in Los Angeles County Superior Court of robbing Demirjian and inflicting great bodily injury upon her during the commission of the robbery.

[6] Two weeks after the attack on Aida Demirjian, on February 15, 1980, 13-year-old Paula S. was walking home from a drug store in Tustin after attending her father's funeral.

Paula made mental notes of details about Parker and the van, and when she got home she told her mother what happened and they called the police.

Three days later, an investigator from the Orange County Sheriff's Department contacted military police at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro and Parker was called in for questioning.

[6] According to his testimony, on December 1, 1978, in Anaheim, Parker entered the apartment of 17-year-old Sandra Fry through an open bedroom window carrying a 2" × 4" piece of wood.

He entered the apartment of 21-year-old Kimberly Rawlins through an unlocked front door, carrying a 2" × 4" piece of wood, and struck her several times.

During the autopsy, Rawlins' tampon was collected for evidence and semen found on the string, later tested for DNA, matched the profile of Parker.

[6] In the early morning hours of September 15, 1979, Parker entered the Costa Mesa apartment of 31-year-old Marolyn Carleton through an unlocked sliding glass door.

[6] Fourteen days later, on October 20, 1979, Parker scoped out the empty apartment of 17-year-old Debra Lynn Senior by pretending to be a jogger.

When Senior arrived home, Parker hit her several times on the head with a blunt object, moved her unconscious body into the bedroom, and raped her.

[11] DNA experts testified at the trial that samples taken from Parker's blood compared with evidence collected at the scenes were "indistinguishable from each other.

"[13] On October 20, 1998, after only two hours of deliberation, Parker was convicted on six counts of first-degree murder, including special circumstances, which made him eligible for the death penalty.

[14] During the sentencing phase of his trial, Parker accepted full responsibility and stated: If my life is what it takes for them to feel that their family members have been vindicated, then that is what I believe should be done.

In 2017, his lawyers appealed for the nullification of his death sentence and for a new trial, arguing that Parker was mentally disturbed at the time of the murders, as a result of his being bullied as a child combined with abuse of drugs and alcohol.