4.4 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2021
⏱️ 71 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
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0:00.0 | Hello Dreamers and welcome back to this California Dreaming series entitled The Tale of California's |
0:08.2 | very first insanity plea. |
0:11.3 | Last time in part three, with William Edward Hickman's trial winding down, both sides presenting |
0:16.6 | their cases along with a parade of experts testifying for each side as to whether or not Hickman |
0:22.0 | was insane when he murdered Mary and Parker. |
0:24.6 | That is where we left off. |
0:27.0 | I want to remind you that most of the details contained in this episode are from a book |
0:30.7 | written on this case entitled Not Just Evil by David Wilson. |
0:35.8 | I developed this script based on the story and timeline in that book, however the various |
0:40.9 | official records and documents that were transcribed into the book, I have read those to |
0:44.9 | you directly. |
0:46.5 | And another reminder, this episode contains details involving crimes committed against |
0:51.0 | a young child. |
0:52.5 | Some of the details are extremely graphic in nature. |
0:55.2 | They are disturbing and may not be suitable for some listeners. |
0:59.0 | The center discretion is strongly advised. |
1:01.5 | So alright, let's get to this fourth and final part of this series, The Tale of California's |
1:09.0 | very first insanity plea. |
1:17.5 | In the last episode, part three, I told you that there was a letter that Hickman wrote |
1:22.8 | in jail that was to be read into the record for the jury at his trial. |
1:28.4 | Hickman's defense team would frame this letter as the musings of an insane man. |
1:34.4 | So let me tell you what this letter said. |
... |
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