‘Bludgeon’ Suspect Pleads Not Guilty to Six Slayings

Feb. 15, 1980, already had been devastating for Paula.

The 13-year-old Tustin girl had just attended her father’s funeral, but still wanted to surprise her mother with a birthday gift. As she walked home from the store, Gerald Parker dragged her into his van, raped her and threatened to kill her if she ever told.

Now, years later, the woman whose life was scarred that day has something to feel lucky about.

Paula, now 30, heard only Wednesday that the man convicted of raping her was charged with six counts of murder as the suspected “Bludgeon Killer” in a string of deadly rapes in the late 1970s. Her rape, which first sent Parker to prison, may have even ended the slayings, investigators say.

She cried softly on Wednesday as she described her mix of emotions and explained her tears.

“It does hurt, and it hurts to know he did that to me, and that he did that to so many people,” said Paula, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy. “And then, because there is joy. I feel very lucky. I said to my mom, ‘God must love me very much.’ But then, he must have loved those other women too.”

Paula’s mother, Edna, said her daughter was already devastated by the death of her father, a Naval officer who had been disabled by a heart condition and spent much time at home with Paula. The rape plunged the girl into a deeper emotional trauma.

“I had a real rough time with her for a while,” said Edna, 70, who now lives on the East Coast. “She was all mixed up. I had counselors come to the house, but she didn’t want to talk to them. She went a little bit wild.”

Paula recalled Wednesday that she had gone to Thrifty to buy her mom a present, and called home for a ride but “it just didn’t work out.” As she walked down Nisson Road in Tustin past Parker’s dark Dodge van, he suddenly punched her.

According to court documents, Parker forced Paula into the van and drove her to another location, where he tied her up and gagged her. When she said she could not breathe, he removed the gag and ties and raped her. He then dropped her off near her home.

“She didn’t come home. She didn’t come home,” her mother recalled. Finally, Paula’s brother went looking for her and found her wandering in near hysterics.

Despite the trauma, Paula was able to describe the attacker to police.

Edna commended her daughter’s presence of mind, which contributed to Parker’s arrest.

“She was smart enough to see his shiny black shoes,” Edna said. “Being that her dad was in the Navy, she knew that this guy was in the service.”

Paula said she worked to put the attack behind her and relied heavily on the support of her older sisters and a niece. But it nevertheless became an integral part of her world. She has often reached for the phone to find out if Parker was still imprisoned, but always decided against it because she “didn’t want to know,” she said.

Most of all, the trauma has molded her habits as a mother, she said, as her two daughters played in the front yard of the family’s neatly tended South Bay home.

“They’re not allowed to do anything all by themselves,” said Paula, who is now married. “I’m probably too protective, but they have to play out front where I can see them. And I will never, ever, let them walk anywhere alone.”

Paula said she told her girls about what happened to her.

“They know that I was stolen, and that he was in jail,” she said. “I told them, ‘You have to understand why Mommy’s afraid.’ ”

Paula said she thought of her attacker just Tuesday as she was falling asleep, because a molester has been haunting South Bay children and she wondered if it was him.

“I remember the last words he said to me: ‘If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you.’ For years, all this time, I was afraid he was going to come back to get me.”

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Anna Cekola.