On this day, Dec. 15, in 1927, the 12-year-old daughter of a prominent Los Angeles banker is kidnapped from her school and later beheaded in what the Los Angeles Times called “the most horrible crime of the 1920s.”
Ed Hickman, 19, sent ransom letters for the return of Marion Parker to her father, Perry Parker, each signed “Fate,” “Death” and “The Fox.”
Parker agreed to pay $1,500, and went to hand the money to a young man in car. But as soon as the money exchanged hands, the suspect drove off and Marion fell out of the car.
She was dead. Her legs had been chopped off and her eyes had been wired open. Her internal organs had been cut out.
Hickman was captured in Oregon. He was convicted and hanged in 1928.
— Scott McCabe
