William Edward Hickman (1908 – October 19, 1928) was executed by the State of California for the kidnapping and murder of Marion Parker, a 12-year-old girl.
Hickman kidnapped Parker on December 15, 1927, by appearing at her junior high school, claiming that her father, Perry Parker, was ill, and that he wanted to see his daughter. He did not realize there were twin Parker daughters, and did not know either child's name, but the school administrator turned one of the girls over to him. The next day Hickman sent the first of three ransom notes to the Parker home, demanding $1,500 in $20 gold certificates.
On December 19, Parker delivered the ransom in Los Angeles but in return Hickman delivered the girl's dismembered body. Her arms and legs had been severed and her internal organs removed. A towel stuffed into her body to absorb blood led police to Hickman's apartment building, but he managed to escape. A $100,000 reward was offered for his capture, and for nearly a week Hickman eluded capture.
He was finally caught after spending some of the ransom in Washington and Oregon. He subsequently confessed to kidnapping Marion, but blamed her murder on a man who was actually in jail during the time of the crime.
Hickman was one of the earliest defendants to use California's new law that allowed pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity. However, in February 1928 a jury rejected his claim and he was sentenced to hang. He appealed the conviction, but both the law and the verdict were upheld by the California Supreme Court.
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Influence on Ayn Rand
Hickman was an early influence on novelist Ayn Rand, who admired his unrestrained self-interest. Hickman proclaimed that "I am like the state—what is good for me is right," which Rand called "the best and strongest expression of a real man's psychology I ever heard."[1] According to Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Rand based the hero of The Little Street — an early unpublished novel — on Hickman's real-life exploits.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Rand, Ayn (1997). Journals of Ayn Rand. Dutton.
- ^ Sciabarra, Chris M. (1998). "A Renaissance in Rand Scholarship". Reason Papers 23: 132-159. http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sciabarra/essays/rprev.htm.
- "Hickman is Guilty; To be Sentenced Early Saturday", Zanesville (Ohio) Signal, February 10, 1928.
- "Mutilated And Lifeless Body Of Kidnapped Girl Returned To Father For $1500 Ransom", The Havre Daily News-Promoter (Havre, Montana) December 18, 1927.
- "Hickman Faces Trial Judge", Davenport (Iowa) Democrat, January 25, 1928.
- "Hickman Executed for Murder of Marion Parker", The (Danville, Va.) Bee, October 19, 1928.
External links
- The Murder of Marion Parker from The Malefactor's Register
- Romancing the Stone-Cold Killer
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