Not Just Evil

Murder, Hollywood, and California's First Insanity Plea

By: David Wilson

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Paperback | 6 December 2016

At a Glance

Paperback
216 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 1.91

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For readers of true crime sagas like Tinseltown and Little Demon in the City of Light comes a chilling account of a murder that captivated the United States in the 1920s.

Twelve-year-old Marion Parker was kidnapped from her Los Angeles school by an unknown assailant on December 15, 1927. Her body appeared days later, delivered to her father by the killer, who fled with the ransom money. When William Hickman was hunted down and charged with the killing, he admitted to all of it, in terrifying detail, but that was only the start....

Hickman's insanity plea was the first of its kind in the history of California, and the nature of the crime led to a media frenzy unlike any the country had seen. His lawyers argued that their client lived in a fantasy world, inspired by movies and unable to tell right from wrong. The movie industry scrambled to protect its exploding popularity (and profits) from ruinous publicity. Outside the courtroom, the country craved every awful detail, and the media happily fed that hunger. As scandals threatened the proceedings from the start, the death of a young girl grew into a referendum on the state of America at the birth of mass media culture.

David Wilson, a private investigator for over thirty years, captures the maelstrom of Marion Parker's death in vivid detail. From the crime itself to the manhunt that followed, from the unprecedented trial to its aftermath, Wilson draws readers in to the birth of the celebrity criminal.

Industry Reviews

"In his true crime debut, private investigator Wilson does an extraordinarily thorough job of contextualizing Hickman's crimes and trial...a fascinating account." -Booklist

"In an in-depth look at a shocking crime and landmark case, David Wilson lays bare a time in our early mass media history when society is often presented as being safer and more peaceful, showing that the "peace" of that time had more to do with our inability to know our neighbors and their lives behind closed doors. Did our modern media set monsters loose among us, or merely bring them out into the open?" --Anthony Flacco, New York Times bestselling author

"A grisly true crime set in the midst of 1920s Hollywood politics and powerplays results in a serious look at film violence and its affect on society--yesterday and today."--Suzy Spencer, New York Times bestselling author

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