Call Tipped Police to Murder Suspect in 4-Year-Old Case

Costa Mesa police said Thursday that an anonymous telephone call led them to crack the 4-year-old case of a murder suspect who was gunned down two days before standing trial for beating to death a San Francisco socialite.

Investigators said they closed the case in 1983 after concluding that Jeffrey Molloy Parker, 36, of Manhattan Beach, a suspected cocaine dealer, had been executed by professional killers. But on Wednesday police arrested the socialite’s fiance, allegedly for carrying out a revenge killing.

The fiance, Richard Dale Wilson, 45, a partner in the San Francisco accounting firm of Wilson & Biddle, was in Orange County Jail on Thursday on $250,000 bail. Accompanied by an attorney, Wilson had surrendered in Orange County Superior Court the previous day, a week after he had been secretly indicted by the Orange County Grand Jury.

He is accused of shooting Parker to death in front of the home of Parker’s mother in Costa Mesa on Aug. 2, 1983. Parker was due in court two days later for a preliminary hearing on charges that he killed Wilson’s fiancee, Joan McShane Mills of San Francisco.

Wilson’s arraignment is scheduled for today in Superior Court.

After Parker’s death, Wilson was questioned by Costa Mesa police but not charged. Police announced that they had closed the case, and one Costa Mesa investigator said he thought the killers never would be found.

Last May, however, Costa Mesa police received an anonymous telephone call telling them that Wilson had done the killing, according to Lt. Rick Johnson, chief of the detective bureau. The caller provided no new information, but he did revive interest in the murder because last May “we were blessed with the time to reopen the case,” Johnson said.

Investigators were able to trace the anonymous call to the person who placed it, and that led to a series of interviews with the caller and others, Johnson said.

He said no new information or physical evidence was uncovered. “We didn’t come up with anything we didn’t have before,” he said. This time, however, “the pieces just seemed to fit together,” he said.

Johnson declined to elaborate on the investigation.

Joel W. Baruch of Newport Beach, Wilson’s defense attorney, said Thursday that he believes that the prosecution’s case is based on statements from two of Wilson’s relatives--”a brother and a brother-in-law, I think.”

Under Duress

He said the statements were made “under duress” and by people “with tremendous psychiatric problems” who since “have recanted what they’ve told to other people.

“He’s absolutely innocent,” Baruch said.

Mills--33 when she died--was described by friends as attractive and flamboyant. She at times socialized with prominent San Franciscans and was known as a successful, aggressive businesswoman.

Besides being a partner in a fashion import business, she had been part owner of a public relations firm, owner of an executive search service and co-author of a book on women executives titled “Equal to the Task.”

Friends said Mills met Wilson in 1977, while she was married. Wilson was described in newspaper reports published in San Francisco as reclusive and diabetic.

Began Affair

The same published reports said Mills began an affair with Wilson the following year, then after her divorce moved in with him and led a somewhat cloistered life. Baruch said the two were engaged to be married.

In April, 1983, Mills and a business partner traveled to Beverly Hills, and Mills took a room at the Beverly Crest Hotel, according to Beverly Hills police.

Investigators said that on April 30, Mills met Parker at a bar and the two then went to her room.

At that time, Parker was on probation for battery of a West Los Angeles woman who in 1981 was assaulted after she ingested drugs allegedly supplied by Parker. He also had a trial pending on charges of possessing and furnishing cocaine. Beverly Hills police said they found 28 grams of cocaine in Parker’s car that night.

Found in Room

Police said they found Parker in Mills’ room standing over her dead, badly bruised body. Officers quoted Parker as saying the two had engaged in drugs and sex, that Mills had collapsed and that he had tried to resuscitate her. Parker said he had been the one to call for help.

Parker was released, but an autopsy later showed that while Mills had cocaine and alcohol in her blood, she had died of blunt-force injuries to her chest and abdomen. Parker was arrested and charged with her murder.

Police said Parker went to live with his mother in Costa Mesa and had been there five weeks when on the night of Aug. 2, 1983, he went to visit his sister. When he returned at about 11:45 p.m., his mother heard what sounded like shots and found him lying on the front porch, fatally wounded.

Investigators said that as Parker walked from his car to the front porch, he had been shot at close range in the chest and back of the head with a large-caliber handgun. Neighbors said they saw a car driving away immediately after the sounds of gunfire, but no physical clues or witnesses to the shooting ever were found, police said.

Suspected Drug Dealer

Investigators said that they suspected Parker of being a drug dealer and that the attack on him might have stemmed from drug dealings. But they said they also wanted to interview Wilson because he reportedly had made threats to kill Parker after Mills’ death.

Three days after the shooting, Costa Mesa investigators viewed TV news videotapes of Parker’s pretrial court appearances in hopes of confirming the threats.

Investigators said they found nothing in the tapes, but KNBC-TV reporter Laurel Erickson said videotapes of Parker arriving by bus at a May 20, 1983, probation violation hearing in Santa Monica showed Wilson and another man trying “to get very, very close” to Parker. “A sheriff’s deputy pushed them away. . . . We got it all on tape,” Erickson said.

Erickson said she noticed Wilson and the other man at a later hearing and mentioned them to attorneys and Beverly Hills police.

Encountered Wilson

One court official also reported encountering Wilson. Marsh Goldstein, Parker’s prosecutor, said Wilson had attended Parker’s arraignment, cornered Goldstein and bitterly complained about Parker’s release on $150,000 bail.

“He (Wilson) was very verbal in the court, saying in so many words that the bail was ridiculous. He cornered me outside the court, and he was very upset,” Goldstein said.

Scott Furstman of Los Angeles, Parker’s defense attorney, said Parker had expressed concerned about his safety but did not seem to feel threatened by any specific individual.

A blond and heavyset man, Wilson appeared haggard and uncomfortable Thursday afternoon when he appeared in jail for a news interview to which he had previously agreed. After 30 seconds of fumbling with an intercom through which the interview was to take place, he shook his head and abruptly turned to leave, saying, “No, I have no comment to the press. No comment.”

Baruch, Wilson’s attorney, said in a separate interview that Wilson has never been in trouble, although “he mentioned getting into some trouble when he was 17.” Baruch said such records are sealed and irrelevant.

Asked about Wilson’s alleged threats against Parker, Baruch said they should not be taken seriously. “If that happened, and I don’t say it happened . . . here’s this one thought: I’m talking to two friends the other night, and they’re saying, ‘If anybody harmed my kids, I’d kill them.’ What happens if your fiance was killed and you mouthed off? It doesn’t mean you do it.”