Famous Crimes: 'It was a Jekyll and Hyde thing'

Ricky Lee Green committed some of the most heinous murders in the north Texas history. Today in Famous Crimes, Staff Writer Bill Miller tells us about Green, whose own tortured childhood led him to kill, but who in the end tried to help others through his faith, according to an author who wrote a book about the killer.

-- Lance Murray

History shows that Ricky Lee Green stabbed and sexually mutilated Steven Fefferman on this date in 1986, but Green, a Wise County mechanic, also confessed to three earlier fatal mutilations -- a teen-age boy and two women.

All were separate, but equally grisly and nearly unspeakable to North Texas police who investigated the murders.

In succeeding years, residents of Green's native Boyd could only speculate on the origins of such evil.

But author Patricia Springer tried to break it down in Blood Rush, her 1994 paperback about Green, who was 36 in 1997 when he was executed by lethal injection for killing Fefferman.

In a 1997 interview with Star-Telegram Staff Writer John Moritz, Springer recounted how Green "had the worst childhood anyone could have imagined."

Springer said she learned that Green had been abused physically and sexually by relatives and threatened with castration for wetting the bed.

At 15, he began prostituting himself to men to pay for a growing drug habit, Springer said.

Sober, he was meek and eager to please, she said, but while on drugs and alcohol, he turned evil.

"It was," she added, "a Jekyll and Hyde thing."

Investigators believe his first known victim was 16-year-old Jeffery Davis, whom he met one night in April 1985 at a hangout on the shores of Lake Worth.

Springer said Green told her that he killed Davis because the youth had made a sexual advance.

His body was discovered a day later in a swampy section of the Fort Worth Nature Center. He was stabbed repeatedly, castrated and almost beheaded.

Investigators learned that the next victim was Betty Jo Monroe, 28, of Amarillo. She was hitchhiking in October 1985 on U.S. 287 on Fort Worth's north side when Green offered a her ride. She was stabbed and hammered to death in Green's home, according to reports.

About a month later, Sandra Lorraine Bailey, 27, of Fort Worth was at a bar in Lake Worth when Green invited her back to his home. She agreed and died the same death as Monroe.

A year and a month later, Fefferman, a 28-year-old advertising executive for KXAS-TV/Channel 5, was found at his home at Casino Beach on Lake Worth, slashed and emasculated.

Police didn't have a break in any of the killings until Green's ex-wife, Sharon Dollar, linked him with the deaths of Davis and Fefferman. She also told police that she had helped Green kill Monroe and Bailey. She received 10 years' probation for her part in the killings, according to reports.

In the end, Springer said, Green turned his life over to Jesus and chose not to blame anyone but himself for his murderous behavior.

"Ricky took his own tortured life and used it to turn others around," Springer wrote. "His testimony has been presented to spellbound students in the Austin area as an example of how abuse and addiction can take not only one's own life but the lives of others."

Springer also wrote that Green told her, "If I can save one kid, my death was worth it."

-- Bill Miller

Comments

[Road Dawg]

You roll the dice. Some worse than others, but no one gets off scott free. Child abuse and resultant drug abuse affects everyone.

[teresa cornwall]

this man was evil. i know because i was around him. he was awful. i hated him. he embodied the devil himself. im just glad my family did not fall victim to him...

[SOS]

I can't believe how many things that were never brought to light about Ricky Lee Green and Sharon Dollar Green. I was introduced to them under unfortunate circumstances and count myself lucky not to have been a victim, not so much because of Ricky, but because of Sharon.

[Leana Jo H.]

I read the book and it's very good read. He was horribly abused by a very mean father. I mean, this guy could have won the "Mean Father Of The Year" award. He was that cruel.

I know what Ricky Lee Green did was terrible and horrible, but I hope he's resting in peace and has found God. You have to forgive sometime. If not, then you'll never meet your maker.

[Mindy]

I knew Sharon and Ricky as a child. My mother worked with Sharon and they were friends outside of work. Ricky was a wall-flower and Sharon always seemed very sweet but timid. If you knew these people, you would realize that evil lurks everywhere and that in the end, good prevails. Sharon was and still is a wonderful person. SHE is the real victim, and finally found the nerve to speak out against him. She lived in terror, and I think that she is a strong person whom had to endure evil more than imaginable.

[Rhonda S.]

I read the book that Ms. Springer wrote, I followed the trial by tv and newspaper. And while all the murders were horrendous, I disagreed that Sharon Dollar Green got probation. She should have spent time in prison for the murders that she helped Ricky Green commit.

[Nancy Chaney]

I lost my sister in 7-30-08 She grieved her self to death for her son Jeffery Davis she was a young Mom...Sharon Green is repossible for all the Deaths also she was there...there is a place for her one day in life and i don't think its heaven...God watches every move...God Bless her

[Minnie]

OMG!!! This was a awful story. I can't see how parents would do tht stuff to their kids. See what the devil and wrong choices can do to your life. I pray tht this will NEVER happen again. Stay safe and live on God's will and pray. God Bless Everyone and WORSHIP JESUS!!!

[Philip Gold]

Well I can tell you from first hand accounts that this was a very sick man. I had been in his house as a kid growing up in Boyd. And it is only because of Jesus that a person with the thoughts that this man possessed could be healed by Christ. If anything good ever came out of this it is that kids are being told about the transformation one man can have. But we should seek to know if they realize the change he has is from Christ.

[Ashlee]

He was my mom's mechanic out in Boyd. Scary stuff.

[Robyn]

This guy is in my boyfriends family tree. Weird.

[ashlie]

sharon's father worked for my father during the time of the murders, and Sara and I were around the same age, and were friends as children. To be honest I think she is just as guilty as he is.