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. He was extradited back to Los Angeles where he confessed to another murder he committed during a drug store hold-up as well as many other armed robberies.[1]
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.
Contents |
The Little Street
In 1928, the writer Ayn Rand began planning a novel called The Little Street, whose hero, Danny Renahan, was to be based on Hickman. The novel was never finished, but Rand wrote notes for it which were published after her death in the book Journals of Ayn Rand. In her notes, Rand quoted a statement by Hickman that "I am like the state: what is good for me is right." Rand called this "The best and strongest expression of a real man's psychology I ever heard."[2]
Rand wanted the hero of her novel to be "A Hickman with a purpose. And without the degeneracy. It is more exact to say that the model is not Hickman, but what Hickman suggested to me."[2] Rand scholars Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Jennifer Burns both interpret Rand's interest in Hickman as a sign of her early admiration of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche.[3][4]
Rand also expressed sympathy for Hickman, writing, "The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal..."[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Fate, Death and the Fox" at crimelibrary.com
- ^ a b Rand, Ayn (1997). Harriman, David. ed. Journals of Ayn Rand. New York: Dutton. p. 27. ISBN 0-525-94370-6. OCLC 36566117.
- ^ Sciabarra, Chris Matthew (1998). "A Renaissance in Rand Scholarship". Reason Papers 23: 132-159. http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sciabarra/essays/rprev.htm.
- ^ Burns, Jennifer (2009). Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 24-25. ISBN 978-0-19-532487-7.
- ^ Rand, Ayn (1997). Harriman, David. ed. Journals of Ayn Rand. New York: Dutton. p. 36. ISBN 0-525-94370-6. OCLC 36566117.
- "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
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
