"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"--Page 4 of cover.