LOS ANGELES TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 21 December 1927, Page 3

LOS ANGELES TRAGEDY

(Australian & N.Z. Cable Association A POLICE SEARCH. NEW! YORK, Dec. 20. Reports from Los Angeles state the police of America by means of photographs and identification of fingerprints are searching for William Hickman arn-d 18. as the slayer of Marian Parker, as an act of revenge against her father. Hickman was recently discharged from Los Angeles First National Bank for alleged forgery of cheques. He pleaded guilty at the juvenile court and was released from custody. The father of Parker is assistant cashier at the bank, and was the onlv witness who urged a term

of jail. It is stated that Hickman swore vengeance on Parker. The whole population of Los Angeles is so aroused by the murder of .Marion Parker that the police are having the greatest difficulty in keeping the mobs from taking justice into their own hands whenever a suspect is arrested, which occurs several times daily.

The police declare the murderer has been positively identified as a young man, now in Los Angeles, but whose home is in Kansas City. They assert the motive was revenge because the hitter had recently been convicted of forgery while employed in the hank of which Mr Parker is on the executive. He was paroled in spite of Air Parkei s strenuous protests.

The police state the finger prints on the abandoned motor-ear elsewheie tally with the youth’s in the Rogues’ Gallery, which allow five persons to he identified by photographs, including the teacher, who let the kidnapper take the child from school. One young man, who was arrested, strongly resembled the suspect, hut completely proved his innocence, yet not before he was almost taken by the mob, which the police forced hack with the greatest difficulty.