LUST FOR GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 249, 20 October 1928, Page 9

LUST FOR GOLD.

MURDER FOR GREED.

American Youth Pays Penalty

On The Gallows.

HICKMAN TELLS HIS STORT.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

(Received 10 a.m.)

NEW YORK, October 19.

At the San Quentin prison in California Edward Hickman was hanged for the murder of the little girl, Marian Parker.

He walked calmly to the gallows and was" apparently quite self-possessed in the presence of over 200 witnesses.

The young murderer, prior to the execution, spent a considerable part of the night talking with the guards and related the story of his life. He said that he killed the girl for greed because he wanted the ransom, adding: "If they should not hang me, then they should never hang another man. My crime was one of the most gruesome in history."

He slept little on the final night, spending the time playing a gramophone when not talking to the guards. Hickman embraced religion following on his conviction.

On February 16 last the death sentence was passed on Edward Hickman, for the murder of Marion Parker, aged 12. The girl was kidnapped and a ransom demanded. On payment of the ransom the mutilated body of the girl was returned to the parents. After exhaustive searches the police traced some of the bank notes of the ransom to Edward Hickman, who at first denied having committed the crime. However, on December 31 he confessed to I the murder, and after a lengthy trial was sentenced to death.