Ricky Lee Green (December 27, 1960 – October 8, 1997) was an American serial killer who murdered at least four people in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
between 1985 and 1986, at least two of which were killed with the help of his wife, Sharon.
Convicted of all four murders and sentenced to death in one case, Green was executed at the
Huntsville Unit
Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Ins ...
in 1997.
Early life
Ricky Lee Green was born on December 27, 1960, in
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
, one of several children born to Bill Green and his wife. Together with his siblings, he was physically abused by his father on an almost daily basis, with the elder Green applying electro shocks to their bodies, punching them in the stomachs or holding them underwater until they nearly drowned when they went on fishing trips.
At some point during his childhood, Green lost use in one eye after suffering an accident involving barbed wire, which later had to be replaced with a
glass eye
An ocular prosthesis, artificial eye or glass eye is a type of craniofacial prosthesis that replaces an absent natural eye following an enucleation, evisceration, or orbital exenteration. The prosthesis fits over an orbital implant and under ...
. He attended school up until the 8th grade, when he dropped out and started working as a radiator repairman.
[ He later met and subsequently married Sharon Dollar, a fellow drug abuser who would later aid in killing his victims.][
]
Murders
On March 27, 1985, 16-year-old Jeffery Lynn Davis disappeared from Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
. His nearly decapitated, mutilated and castrated body found the next April in a swamp near the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge
The Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge (FWNC&R) is a nature center located between Lakeside and Lake Worth, Texas within Fort Worth, Texas city limits. It consists of prairies, forests, and wetlands. The nature center offers a glimpse of what t ...
.
On October 12, 1985, Green picked up 28-year-old Betty Jo Monroe, a topless dancer living in Amarillo
Amarillo ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat, seat of Potter County, Texas, Potter County. It is the List of cities in Texas by population, 14th-most populous city in Texas and th ...
, and then drove to the Greens' mobile home in Boyd Boyd may refer to:
Places Canada
* Boyd Conservation Area, a conservation area located northwest of Toronto, Ontario
* Boyd Lake (disambiguation)
United States
* Boyd County (disambiguation)
* Boyd, Indiana
* Boyd, Iowa
* Boyd, Kansas
* B ...
.[ There, she was sexually assaulted, stabbed 17 times, struck with a hammer and one of her breasts was mutilated. Green left the woman’s body in a rural area in Flatwood. The body was found the next day, but coroners were unable to establish the victim's identity at the time.]
A month later, on November 23, Green met 27-year-old Sandra Lorraine Bailey at a club in Fort Worth, where she had gone to celebrate her cousin's birthday. Bailey was sexually assaulted at Green’s Fort Worth home, stabbed 30 times and bludgeoned with a hammer.[ Her nude body was left in drainage culvert near ]Henrietta Henrietta may refer to:
* Henrietta (given name), a feminine given name, derived from the male name Henry
Places
* Henrietta Island in the Arctic Ocean
* Henrietta, Mauritius
* Henrietta, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
United States
* Henrie ...
the next day, where it was later found on December 2.[
Green's final known killing occurred on December 29, 1986, when he picked up an acquaintance, 28-year-old ]KXAS-TV
KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division along ...
sales executive Steven M. Fefferman, at the beach, as the former wanted to celebrate his birthday by having casual sex. Fefferman’s body was found at his home, bound to his bed and stabbed to death.[ Green then covered the body with linen, stole all the money from the house and fled in Fefferman's car.][
]
Trial, imprisonment and execution
Over the next two years, Sharon divorced her husband and went to a drug addiction counsellor in Stephenville, to whom she eventually confessed that her ex-husband had killed multiple people. On the counsellor's advice, she was encouraged to inform local police about the crimes, based on which, together with tips from Crime Stoppers
Crime Stoppers or Crimestoppers is a community program that helps people to provide Anonymity, anonymous information about Crime, criminal activity. Often managed by non-profit groups or the police, it operates separately from the emergency tel ...
and the fact that Green was a suspect in a previous murder case, Ricky was arrested on April 27, 1989. While held in the Tarrant County jail on $1.25 million bond, Green confessed to the four murders and was questioned in eight similar killings that had occurred in the Fort Worth area.[
During the investigation, authorities were told by Sharon and Bill Green about a mysterious mattress, allegedly covered in a potential fifth victim's blood, which Ricky had given to his father for storage.] According to them, Green had invited an unknown man to his mobile home in 1984 or 1985, stabbed him during sex and then dropped him off at a hospital in Fort Worth. While this lead was investigated, whether it was verified or not remains unclear.[
Over the next two months, Green gave detailed confessions to the four murders, claiming that he never forced his ex-wife to help and that she was a willing participant.] Sharon claimed that she was forced to participate and keep silent about the murders in fear that he would kill her as well. In June 1989, Green went on a hunger strike over the squalid prison conditions.[
In February 1990, Sharon Green was found guilty in the Monroe and Bailey murders, but, as part of a plea bargain, she was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Green was found guilty of capital murder by the jury, with his only reaction upon being read the verdict was that he wasn't surprised at the outcome.
Due to the heavy media coverage of the trial, the venue was moved to Austin. During the penalty phase, in spite of Green's attorneys' demands, prosecutors informed the jury about the other pending charges against the defendant.
Green’s defense introduced testimony about Bill Green's abuse of his children as a main drive for his son's murders. Family members were divided and the presiding judge warned them that they would be imprisoned for contempt if there were disruptions.
On September 22, 1990, after deliberating less than an hour on the case, Ricky Lee Green was sentenced to death via jury verdict for the murder of Fefferman. He was later given a life sentence for the Bailey murder, and as part of a guilty plea, he was given a second life term in the Davis case, while the charges in the Monroe slaying were altogether dropped.][ His death sentence was automatically appealed to a federal court in Fort Worth, which granted him a stay of execution in 1994, until all of his appeals were properly reviewed by the state.][
Eventually, all of his appeals for commutation were rejected, and on October 8, 1997, Ricky Lee Green was executed by ]lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...
at the Huntsville Unit
Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Ins ...
.[ His last meal consisted of five scrambled eggs, four sausage patties, eight slices of toast, six slices of bacon, and four pints of milk.] In a break of procedure, prison officials had to use only a single needle instead of the customary two, as they had trouble finding a suitable vein to inject due to Green's long-time drug addiction.[ In his final statement, he expressed gratitude to God, his friends and fellow ]death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...
inmates, apologized to his victims' relatives and said that his death wasn't going to solve anything.[
]
See also
* Capital punishment in Texas
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18.
In 1982, the state became the first juris ...
* Capital punishment in the United States
* List of people executed by lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person by a government for the express purpose of causing immediate death. While Nazi Germany was known to execute enemies of the state using an injection of lethal drugs, th ...
* List of people executed in Texas, 1990–1999
The following is a list of people executed by the U.S. state of Texas between 1990 and 1999. All of the 166 people (165 males and 1 female) during this period were convicted of murder and have been executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Uni ...
* List of serial killers by number of victims
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more people, in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons.A serial killer is most commonly defined as a person who kills three or more peop ...
* List of serial killers in the United States
References
External links
Birth Index
Death Penalty Information on Green
1994 Appeal
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Ricky Lee
1960 births
1985 murders in the United States
1997 deaths
20th-century American criminals
20th-century executions by Texas
20th-century executions of American people
American male criminals
American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Criminals from Texas
Executed American serial killers
Male serial killers
People executed by Texas by lethal injection
People executed for murder
People from Fort Worth, Texas
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Texas