4.4 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2021
⏱️ 53 minutes
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All William Edward Hickman needed to pick up 12 year old Marion Parker early from Mount Vernon Junior High School one day in December of 1927 was a pleasant personality and a friendly smile. Hickman was not the girl’s father, he was not a relative, he was not a friend of the family...he was a stranger, but he came armed with a fictitious name, Mr. Cooper, and a persuasive story - he told the office secretary, a woman named Naomi Britten, that he was there to pick Marion up because her father had just been in a horrific car accident. He’d been rushed to the hospital and they weren’t sure yet if he was going to pull through. Ms. Britten stood up and walked over to speak to this man. She noted that he was very nicely dressed, he was very polite and well-spoken, though she was pretty worried and concerned for Marion’s dad and whether or not he was going to pull through...she was very preoccupied with that terrible news. She tried to locate the school’s principal, Cora Freeman, but Ms. Britten was kind of frazzled and had a hard time locating any of the school administrators who would be the ones to decide whether or not Marion Parker was to be released from school to this man. Eventually, Ms. Britten found a teacher named Mary Holt, so Ms. Holt came to the office to discuss this matter with this man who called himself Mr. Cooper. He explained to Ms. Holt and Ms. Britten that he was a colleague of Marion’s father over at First National Bank and he offered up the bank’s phone number if they wanted to verify the purpose of his visit to the school and his instructions to pick Marion up. The man was so easy going and relaxed that they two women really didn’t give it a second thought and had Marion brought into the office from class. The man brought himself down to Marion’s level and explained who he was and why he was there. He reassured her that everything was going to be okay and he would take her to see her dad right away. The man walked out of the office and off school grounds with Marion in tow.
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SOURCES:
Not Just Evil By David Wilson
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Welcome back to this California Dreaming series, the tale of California's very first |
0:07.2 | insanity plea. |
0:09.4 | It looks like this is going to be about four parts in total, so the next part should be |
0:14.9 | coming along soon if all goes well. |
0:18.9 | We left off in part two with murder, suspect, William Edward Higman, being extra-dited |
0:24.1 | back to California from the small town of Pendleton, Oregon. |
0:28.5 | It is being escorted by several high-ranking law enforcement officers by a way of train, |
0:34.1 | and along the way he provided two written statements. |
0:38.4 | One was a full detailed confession to the murder of Marion Parker, as well as a second written |
0:43.7 | statement pertaining to the motive behind this crime. |
0:49.0 | We will pick it up from there, and I want to remind you that most of the details contained |
0:54.2 | in this episode are from a book written about this case entitled Not Just Evil by author |
0:59.5 | David Wilson. |
1:00.5 | I've developed this script based on the story and timeline in his book, however, the |
1:05.8 | various official records and documents that were transcribed into the book I've read |
1:10.1 | to you word-for-word for this podcast. |
1:13.3 | I also want to remind you of the warning that I've been providing for this series. |
1:17.4 | This episode contains details involving crimes committed against a young child. |
1:23.1 | Some of the details of this case are extremely graphic in nature, they are disturbing, and |
1:28.1 | they may not be suitable for some listeners. |
1:31.4 | Listener discretion is advised. |
1:33.8 | Alright, let's get started here. |
... |
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