THE PARKER MURDER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 24 December 1927, Page 5

THE PARKER MURDER.

MAN HUNT ENDED. x

SUSPECTED MAN ARRESTED. i'ress Association -Electric Xelegraph-Copyrighi NEW YORK, Thursday. A message from Pendleton, Oregon, states that the Sheriff has announced that lie lias arrested Edward Hickman, suspected of the murder of Marian Parker. Hickman admitted that he knew Parker, and confessed that lie kidnapped the girl, but denied that lie had murdered her. He said: “Some 'fiend killed her. I know who he is.’’ lie refused to divulge the name, ami said he' kidnapped the girl in order to get money to pay his way through college. Hickman asserted that a wire bound round the girl’s throat had caused death, not chloroform. He declined to discuss the matter further. Officers state that they found £2SO of ransom money in Hickman’s pockets. The police are questioning him further. A great crowd of officers, reporters and others arc round the gaol. HICKMAN DENIES CHARGE. SAX FRANCISCO, Thursday. Hickman repeatedly denied the murder, and said another man and a woman, whom lie refused to name, were responsible for the act. He sakl: “They wound a wire round her neck and choked her to death.” In a recital of the facts o: the abduction to officials, Hickman was always smiling and unnerved at the mention of the gruesome details. He said lie really did not intend to be a crook, because “You’ll find out soon enough you’ll get caught. But I wanted to go back to Kansas City and go to work there to get enough money to go to college. I thought, if I were able to get enough for tuition that it did not matter how I got it. I would go straight from then on. This man asked me what X thought of kidnapping someone. I said I would not mind doing it. I remembered Parker’s daughter. It will probably be flic chair for me now.” COMPANIONS ARRESTED. SAX FRANCISCO, Friday. The youthful kidnapper was near collapse and showed the effects of his attempted escape by a long drive in a sloh’ii automobile. Officials are keeping a heavy guard in and outside the gaol at Pendleton, pending instructions from Los Angeles. Hickman shows no -wish to attempt to escape. The police have checked the money found in Hickman’s pockets, and state that they have identified gold certificates as Mr Parker’s. The officers say there is not the slightest doubt about the prisoner's identity. When arrested by two officers, Hickman had two companions in the automobile, one armed with a sawed-off shotgun and the other with a pistol belonging to Iliekman. They surrendered quietly. A special session of the Los Angeles grand jury is called for to-morrow to vote on the murder indictment. John and Jane Doe also are likely to be named. The indictment is to cover an unknown man and woman. Extradition papers to bring Hickman back to California are being rushed to Oregon by airplane. Iliekman’s mother, who is in Kansas City, said she was not familiar with her son’s desire to attend college. She was glad her son was not guilty of murder. Hickman’s father, a steam shovel engineer, said lie wanted to see his son punished to the extent that he was guilty. -‘I will be ready to help him all I can. ’ ’ A sheriff's officer at Los Angeles identified an alleged murderer as the youth who came to Los Angeles with Iliekman from Kansas City. BOASTING OF HIS CRIME. (Received Saturday, 10.2.1 a.m.) NEW YORK, Friday. Iliekman told Jiis guard that he had two worries, first, lie was afraid lie would not get as much publicity as Leopold Locb, and secondly, that someone “will try to force religion on me.” He asked the guard how the papers were treating his arrest, and how many extra editions were published in Los Angeles. Rev. W. 11. Robbins, pastor of the local Baptist Church, brought a Bible to Iliekman, who said: “I do no; want a preacher now. I needed that before. I would feel like a hypocrite if I used religion before I die.” He also told the guard that he believed God’s vengeance and not man’s cunning was the cause of his capture, but before he died he wanted to see Perry Parker face to face and tell him he did not kill Marion Parker. Hickman added irrelevantly: “I think what I have done will back Jesse James (the notorious train robber) off the map.” He seemed proud of his death letters he wrote to Parker, and said: “They wore a good piece of literature.” Iliekman continued to protest that Cramer was the actual murderer. The crowd of thousands about the gaol are quite orderly.