Imperial Valley Press

HICKMAN DID NOT HAVE ACCOMPLICE

CLAIM THAT ANDREW KRAMER KILLED GIRL IS BRANDED AS FABRICATION OF HICKMAN'S

BY DAN CAMPBELL

(United Press Staff Correspondent)

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 23.—That Edward Hickman, brilliant young student, played a lone hand in the kidnaping and brutal murder of Marion Parker is the firm opinion of Captain William Bright, head of the sheriff's homicide detail.

"Mostly bunk," is the way Captain Bright characterized Hickman's "confession" today in which he admitted the kidnaping but accused "Andrew Cramer" of actually killing the girl, and named a woman as another accomplice.

Bright pointed out that in the death threat letters which young Hickman freely admits writing that he warned Perry M. Parker, the father, that he was "doing a solo" and throughout the messages never used any pronoun but singular.

Commenting on Hickman's Pendleton "confession," Captain Bright said that the kidnaper proved himself a fabricator by contradicting himself.

"Hickman said the Parker girl was not killed in the Bellevue Arms Apartment House." Captain Bright continued.

"We know that she was killed there. If his statement is wrong in that, it is discredited in other details.

"If this was not a one-man job, why did Hickman have on his person $1400 of the $1500 he collected from the father?" Bright questioned.

"If there had been partners, there would have been a split of the money before the trio separated.

Hickman did not leave Los Angeles until 24 hours after the body had been delivered and the ransom collected. The fact has been established through the report of the owner of the stolen green Hudson car, Bright declared.

Bright said he did not believe Hickman's explanation that he was to meet Cramer at the Harris hotel in San Francisco, and that the spoils were to be divided at the hotel.

Notwithstanding the belief of the sheriff's men that Hickman is the one man responsible for the crime, Captain Bright said that the homicide detail would make every effort to locate the "accomplices."

Check has been made of all the "Cramers" and "Kramers" who had been in jail in the last few months and they were eliminated as possible accomplices, according to Captain Bright.

An investigation has also been made to ascertain if the accomplices might not be included in the list of Hickman's acquaintances in the vicinity of Alhambra, his former home, the head of the homicide detail said.

Two of the sheriff's men, it was disclosed, were the first to begin a scientific examination of Room 315 in the Bellevue Arms apartment house.

On Sunday a cordon of police had surrounded the apartment house, and police detectives interviewed Hickman, who had asked if he might not be of assistance in the search for the kidnaper, it is said.

Hickman Believed "Nut"

The police left without arresting the youth, who was presumed to be a harmless "nut," who spent most of his time with his "musical instruments."

That night Hickman left his apartment never to return, according to the theory of the sheriff's office.

On the following day upon the insistence of deputy sheriffs that the blood stained towel found with the body of the murdered girl and bearing the words, Bellevue Arms

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Hickman Indicted
By Grand Jury

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Deputy Chief of Detectives Herman Cline intimated before his departure with Police Chief James Davis and District Attorney Asa Keyes for Pendleton, Ore. Two detectives accompanied the group which entrained at 6:05, while several hours before George Contreras, chief of the district attorney's detectives and Detective Lieutenants Harman and Taylor hopped off in a plane for Oregon to lay the preliminary steps prior to the arrival of their superior officers.

Father Breaks Down

It was reported here that Hickman was to be brought to the northern borders of California by train or motor car and from there transported south with the greatest secrecy in an airplane. Officials, however, refused to comment on the subject.

Pathetic scenes were re-enacted here last night at a special session of the county grand jury when Perry M. Parker, the broken-hearted father, repeated to the jurors his story of the kidnaping and murder of his child.

A loud scream penetrated the heavy doors of the grand jury room as the father, his nerves strained almost beyond human endurance during the past week, broke down as he relived the brutal scene of Saturday night when a mutilated and torn body was returned in place of a living child.

He was followed to the stand by Dr. A. F. Wagner, county autopsy surgeon and friend of the Parker family, who although unable to fix the cause of Marion's death, told of the despicable butchery upon the little body.

Teachers at the Mount Vernon high school, from which institution Marion was spirited away, and H. L. Barlow, finger print expert, who revealed the identity of The Fox, took the stand also and the jury quickly followed with a murder indictment.

Murder House Sought

Meanwhile, "June Dunning" and "Andrew Cramer", accomplices named by Hickman in his confession of kidnaping of Marion, were the objects of a search nearly as wide as that for Hickman.

The location of the "murder house'' where the child was dismembered still remains a mystery. Hickman's inability or refusal to tell the location of the place where he turned the child over to "Cramer'' Friday night, has temporarily halted the search here.

Somewhere near the Elysian Park district, where the mutilated remnants of Marion's body were discovered wrapped in newspapers, detectives are certain they will discover a house used as a rendezvous by the brutal trio.

The "murder house," police believe, will uncover fingerprints, the sharp instruments that were used to slay the girl, and conclusive evidence as to the true identity of the remaining fugitives.

The only clue to the mysterious "June Dunning'' was found in the Los Angeles police identification bureau where a woman whose name, "Jenny V. Dunning," is listed.

The woman is wanted in Sacramento where in 1921 she used the alias, "Jean Laughton."

Early today, Chief of Police George O. Brisbois, of Phoenix, Arizona, dispatched a telegram to Los Angeles in which he declared "June Dunning'' was known to him under the alias of "Mrs. Jean Farran" and in July was living in the five hundred block on South Main street here.

Later she moved to the Merchants Hotel, First and Broadway, San Diego, and was there November 4, Brisbois said.

A search of records in rooming houses and hotels here failed to reveal any trace of Mrs. Farran but police believe that hotel registers in San Diego may link the woman with Hickman's confession.

For the past several months a so-called daring bandit queen has been operating in Southern California.

She has been variously reported as wearing different colored wigs, although there is little doubt that each of the robberies reported has been perpetrated by the same person.

San Diego, also, has notified Los Angeles police of a woman who answers closely the description given by Hickman. Robberies there prior to several weeks ago were attributed to the activities of this woman bandit. Hickman declared he picked up his two companions in the southern city.

Because of the accurate reports of the bandit queen here and in San Diego, police are working on the theory that she is the same person and are pressing a new search for Jenny Dunning in the belief that she may be linked with the Parker murder.

POLICE DO NOT THINK HICKMAN HAD ACCOMPLICE

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Apartments, was an important clue that should be run down, two of the sheriff's men occupied the deserted room.

They found stains that were indisputably of blood, on the floor, on the wall, on the wash bowl, and on the bath tub. They also noted the markings on clothing left behind by Hickman and definitely traced these markings to an Alhambra cleaning establishment.

Some of the clothing they traced back to Kansas City to which place they also traced a set of golf clubs and balls.

Kansas City newspapers, also found in the room, strengthened Captain Bright said his men would continue to do everything to assist in clearing up the "accomplice" angle of the case, but they believe that the manhunt for the murderer of the Parker child ended on the Columbia river highway at Echo, Oregon.