On April 26, 1990, nineteen-year-old Angela Cummings was found shot to death in her boyfriend’s apartment in Oroville, California, seventy miles north of Sacramento. No arrests have been made in her murder.

Angela’s is one of the thousands of unsolved homicides labeled as a cold case, but her murder has an odd twist in that it catapulted the careers of two men who never knew her. The men were not investigators, lawyers, forensic analysts, or any sort of law enforcement. Instead, they were Los Angeles deejays struggling to make a name for themselves in the city’s competitive radio market.

Although they initially sank to shame, the deejays ultimately rose to fame, on the back of Angela’s ashes.

Angela Cummings

The Kevin & Bean show debuted on Los Angeles radio station KROQ 106.7 FM on December 31, 1989.

In June 1990, six weeks after Angela Cummings was murdered, the radio station introduced a segment called “Confess Your Crime,” anchored by deejays Kevin Ryder and Gene “Bean” Baxter.

Kevin Ryder And Gene “Bean” Baxter

For the first couple of weeks, the confessions were mostly humorous. The callers confessing their “crimes” included children sneaking cookies before dinner, college frat boys pilfering pantyhose, and countless Romeos boasting of stealing their ladies’ hearts. The segments garnered a few chuckles and it was all considered in good fun. No one, however, was laughing on June 16 when a man confessed to a far more serious crime.

With seeming sincerity in his voice, the caller rambled on for nearly four minutes before ultimately saying he had killed his girlfriend after finding her with another man. Before the deejays could question him, he hung up. The seeming sincerity in the man’s voice convinced the police the call was legitimate.

“Confess Your Crime”

After reviewing hundreds of unsolved murders, police determined the details the caller provided most closely resembled the murder of Angela Cummings. Investigators were convinced they had their man, if they could identify him.

The caller’s identity was soon learned, and for his performance on the Hollywood radio station, many believed he deserved two things: an Academy Award for Best Actor and time in jail.

Hope Emerges

In April 1991, nearly one year after the murder of Angela Cummings, the call was exposed as a hoax, designed by Ryder and Baxter, unbeknownst to KROQ management, as a publicity stunt to boost ratings.

The scam was made public by former KROQ intern Dan Feliz after hearing the deejays discussing the “confession” hoax over a station monitored phone line.

Dan Feliz

Former KROQ Intern

Ryder and Baxter “confessed their crime” in admitting they conspired with Arizona disc jockey Doug “The Slug” Roberts to do the bogus murder confession. It was Roberts who had made the phony confession; he had been hired by KROQ as an evening deejay shortly before his part in the scam was exposed.

The three deejays were suspended without pay by KROQ for ten days and were ordered to make public on-air apologies when they returned. They were also each ordered to pay $12,170 to Los Angeles County and to perform one-hundred-forty-nine hours of community service for the money and time spent investigating the bogus confession.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a four-page report reprimanding the deejays for “deliberate distortion of programming” but ultimately decided to take no punitive action against them.

The Dee-Jays Are Suspended And Fined

But Not Fired

The public backlash to the Confess Your Crime facade worked to great benefit for Ryder and Baxter. Before the scheme, the duo were in the middle of the pack in terms of the number of Los Angeles listeners to their morning show. After returning to the air from their suspension, they catapulted to the top spot.

The bogus murder confession proved, for better or worse, the truth of an old broadcasting adage: any publicity, even if it is bad publicity, is good publicity.

The Hoax Proves Beneficial

Kevin Ryder and Gene Baxter were inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2015.

The Kevin and Bean morning show remained consistently high in the Los Angeles radio market. After nearly thirty years on air together, Baxter left the show to return to his native England in November 2019. Ryder’s spin-off show, Kevin in the Morning, was cancelled in March 2020 after only ten weeks on the air.

A Good Run

After Their Bad Action

Unfortunately, the murder of Angela Cummings remains unsolved. No significant leads have emerged since the false hope generated by the Confess Your Crime hoax.

It seems that Angela’s boyfriend would be the natural suspect in her murder since she was found in his apartment. But he apparently was cleared of any involvement as I did not find any source saying his name or that he was a suspect.

Angela’s uncle is a member of my Facebook group. He commented this about the case:

“Angela was my Niece……and in IMHO…her boyfriend did it…the issues are that the BF was an ex cop (Butte County Sheriff’s office) so he knew how to cover it up. NOTE: He was fired from the dept. Rumor has it that is was due to a psychological issue. He also came from a politically connected family in Butte county. There were “rumors” that some evidence was “lost”….now the original detectives were convinced that that the BF was the guy…Just my .02c worth As for the DJ’s…..I have nothing but contempt for them…..and the station and its parent company.”

False Hope

Nineteen-year-old Angela Joy Cummings was murdered on April 26, 1990. No one has ever been charged with the crime. If you believe you have any information relating to her murder, please contact the Oroville, California, Police Department at (530) 538-2448.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20771593

The Cummings Case Is Cold

SOURCES:

• Los Angeles Times
• Oroville Mercury-Register
• Unsolved Mysteries