You're listening. Ad free on wondery. Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena.

I'm Ash.

And this is morbid.

Hey, what's up? I like that. Thanks. You're welcome.

Thank you.

How are you?

I'm feeling good.

It kind of feel like I'm gonna.

Bring the mood down a little bit. In a little bit.

Yeah. Not always that you bring the mood.

Down, but just always bring it to.

That, like a sad case. Well, it's true.

It's true.

You know, I brought my mood down this morning.

What?

Found my first fucking gray hair.

Oh, lord. Everybody. Buck, settle in.

Can do you. Uh huh.

I mean, I started going gray at, like, 18. Yeah. That's horrible.

It's horrible.

It's just so sad, aging, you know.

Fuck that beautiful thing. It's also just. I decided to stop dying my hair. And then my hair said, oh, no, no, baby, continue.

It said, no. Start up again.

Start up again.

Yeah.

Just days before her 28th year.

I'm saying, that's. I mean, you're lucky you went that far.

I know. Honestly, especially with my family history.

Yeah, we all have.

Great. Did you go gray before your sisters, though?

I don't know.

Your other sisters.

Your other sisters. I don't know.

That aren't me, probably. Yeah, it kind of seems like you did.

Yeah. You know, I'm just an old soul. That's just me.

You kind of are. I get that. I like that. I liked your TikTok that you made this morning that you.

You guys helped me make. Yeah, that was a full pod lab collaboration.

Me and Mikey were the creative directors. Like, faint on this couch, hold the book like this, drop the book like that.

Yeah, we did a TikTok. I'm trying to. I'm trying to figure out creative ways to get you all excited about the.

Butcher game to market the book, since you're the marketing genius.

Yeah, I'm trying to get. I'm trying to get more creative with it, and actually, it's kind of fun. So when I heard the sound, which, go check out, you know, my Instagram or TikTok to see the video, but when I heard that sound, I love that sound. Oh, my God, it's the one that's like, these are my ladies.

Big mouth is such a funny show.

And it's such a fucking funny sound that I was like, I need something to do to this end. And I was like, wait a minute.

It was perfect.

Wait a second.

All the different languages of.

I got these international book covers.

Whoa. Boss bitch thing to say. I got these international book covers. Wow.

Oh, wow.

Just boss.

Pretty cool.

Just doing boss bitch things.

It's a pretty cool thing, but it was fun. And. Yeah. You guys got a little sneaky peeky at the pod lab? A little bit.

Yeah, a little bit. You should shout out your handles probably on both.

I'm Elena to the max.

Elena to the mizity. Mizzity max.

I'm pretty sure.

Let's double check that just to make sure it's absolutely correct. The truth. Yep. Alaina. Alaina to the max. On TikTok.

I'm not good at shouting out my links, my handles.

That's what zillennials are here for.

Yeah, I think on Instagram I'm the same.

Same thing. Look at that.

Yeah. I try to keep it very simple for myself.

Bold. Oh, my God. I love the COVID photo.

This is great. All right, tonight. I said tonight. It is the day. Today's case, it's gonna be a two padda. A two pa one, because it's long. There's a lot of information in it, so I don't want to, like, try to condense it too much and miss some information. Yep. And two. Man, oh, man, you're so brutally. I know. I apologize, everybody.

What's going on in your psyche?

This one's, it's from the twenties.

From the twenties.

The twenties.

Speaking of ghosts, it'll always happen.

Who's excited for that movie?

Who's excited?

Elena's excited, but yeah, this is from the twenties. It's taking place in December of 1927. It is the murder, the kidnapping and murder of Marion Parker.

Oh, no.

Marion Parker was a twelve year old girl.

Oh, no.

So just know that ahead of time. This crime is shocking.

Yeah.

Just be forewarned. It is very brutal. It is very shocking, and it's just like the whole story is at the end of it. You're just gonna go, what the fuck? That's all you're gonna be able to say, I think.

Okay.

Yeah. So let's begin, shall we?

Let's.

Now, Frances Marion Parker and her twin sister Marjorie were born on October 11, 1915, in Los Angeles, California. Their parents were Perry and Geraldine Parker, and although they were almost always together, like, stuck to each other at the hip, and they definitely preferred each other's company over the company of anyone else. The girls are actually really different in disposition and in personality, which I think is a lot of times the case in twins.

Yeah. And I think just like sisters in general sometimes.

Now, according to author James Nybor, quote, margaery was very much a girl who liked girly things, but Marion had a slightly rougher edge, not afraid to get dirty or get hurt. Marian was what would be considered a tomboy now.

Kind of sounds like you're twins.

Yeah, it really does. Now, although she had many girlfriends, Marian preferred to spend her time outside of school playing with, you know, what we would now like, what society would deem to be traditionally like more boy oriented toys, like trucks. And especially in the twenties, it was very societal. Like, these are boy toys. These are girl toys, like, you know, trucks, trains, playing football with the boys in the neighborhood, like she did. She was definitely a tomboy. Yeah. But despite her rough and tumble approach to play, she was also very sensitive. She was shy. She was a little reserved. She didn't like to be away from home or be away from her parents for very long, which is very heart wrenching when you consider the fact that she is the one who will be kidnapped and murdered.

Oh, no.

She had a very close bond with her father, Perry. She would actually often spend afternoons by his side at the First National Trust and Savings bank, where he worked as an assistant cashier. So she would just hang out with him there.

That's so sweet.

The girls also had a very close relationship with their brother. They, like, adored him. Perry junior, he was several years older than Marion and Marjorie, but he always made time for them. Like, it was just a really good family.

Yeah.

In many ways, Marion Parker was like most girls of her generation and age. She loved movies. She loved radio plays, which is just like very 20.

Yes.

She loved to dance to the music on her. To music on her parents phonograph. She loved to make her siblings and parents laugh with jokes and impressions. She was just a typical twelve year old cool chick.

Yeah.

Just, you know, they just sound like.

A very, like, for lack of a better way of saying it, like all american family.

Yeah. Very wholesome, very. Just like very tight bonds. Seem to all love each other and take care of each other. Now, unfortunately, because it was the twenties and she's only twelve years old, these are really the only things that we know about her life. We don't have a whole lot of details other than that, but I think it gives a good picture of her family life, her relationships inside of the house, outside of the house, you know, what kind of gal she was.

It sounds like that pretty much mostly would cover it for a twelve year old. Like, I think you got a good amount of information of who she was.

Why, thank you. And thank you, Dave.

Yeah. Shout out to him.

So the week of December 15, 1927 was a hectic one at Mount Vernon Junior High. You know, the Christmas season is in full swing. The students are all excited about the holiday and the holiday break. The school's Christmas party was just a few days away. And to make matters worse, the school principal, Cora Freeman was actually out on the 15th. So this left one of the teachers, Mary Holt, in charge of the students coming and going for the day.

Oh, that's a lot of responsibility. Especially if you're not used to it. You know, like you're not training.

And it happens to be on a holiday week where it's chaos. Like it's already chaos. According to Nybor quote misses Holt was quite strict about student deportment and even more careful about strangers visiting the building. But that's good. She was very overwhelmed by the dual responsibility she had that day. She was still acting as a teacher and acting as like guarding who was coming and going. So she let her guard down a little bit. Unintentionally of course. You know, there's a lot going on.

That probably haunted her for the rest of her life. Yes.

Now that afternoon a young man entered the school's front office and walked up to Misses Holt at the reception desk and said he would like to see the Parker girl. Now the man was small, average looking. He said his name was Mister Cooper. And he said that he worked with Perry Parker at the bank. He said Mister Parker has been in an accident and is calling for his daughter.

Just one.

There you go. So slightly confused. Misses Holt said the Parkers have two daughters and the man said he wants the younger one.

They're twins.

In hindsight that should have been the red flag.

Yeah.

And to be honest, I'm a little confused here. Why she didn't catch on to that. Yeah, like I'm not. She lived with the guilt for the rest of her life. Of course this was negligent big time. And I would be fucking furious. Oh my God.

Well obviously this is way before the days of like who are the three people allowed to pick them up? Let me check their sheep, that kind of thing.

But.

Oh my God.

And this is why it needs to be. If you. To your kids, if you. I will never send someone that you don't know to come get you.

Never ever.

Never. It will never happen.

No.

Again, this should have been a pretty big red flag because the man seemed not only ignorant to the fact that the Parkers had two daughters.

Yeah.

But also that they were twins.

Right.

And there wasn't an apparent yet. Obviously there's always a quote unquote, younger one in twins. But, like, let's be real. He's not being like, the one that's three minutes younger.

Right.

So misses Holt said, do you mean Marian? Why you giving him that information?

Yeah, why? Like, what you're. Of course he's gonna be like, yeah.

What do you think he's gonna be like? Oh, no, I don't know who Marion is. He's gonna be like, yeah, of course, yeah, Marian. And he said, yes. Yes, ma'am. And he said, that's. That's her name.

Oh, no.

Later, Mary Holt would tell investigators that the man seemed to know Marian and could describe her. And he seemed so confident that it never occurred to her that he could be lying.

Why wouldn't you just call, like, again, we know. I'm sure she lived with the guilt forever. But you gotta call the parents to say, hey, was somebody else supposed to pick Marian up today? And why the whole situation, like, I'm like, why didn't that rub you as strange that he's asking for one of his daughters when he's been in an accident?

Well, and that's. That's part of the thing too. And it's also like, I know we're supposed to be looking at this and being like, I know she lived with the guilt for the rest of her life. That's gonna say right now, fuck that shit. This was negligent, and it was stupid. And somebody, a whole family paid the biggest price you can imagine for it. I think it's fucked up. I think it's fucked up that Mary Holt just handed over this child to this stranger. I think it's fucked up.

I do too.

I'd love to be nicer about it, but, no, I wouldn't, actually.

Well, I'm sure the family would have loved to. I'm sure the family felt the same way.

It's a mistake, but it's a mistake you can't make. And that's just the way it is.

And it sounds like it's a mistake that cost somebody's life.

It absolutely was. Now, also, what she wasn't realizing is that during their exchange, she was actually feeding him pieces of information. By giving Marion's name away, by saying, the Parkers have two daughters, you're just handing this stranger more personal information about this family and these children.

And just the fact that you have to say the Parkers have two daughters, obviously you're dealing with somebody who's not supposed to be here to pick one of them up. Exactly.

And by giving him these little details and these little pieces. You are allowing this man to come off as more familiar than he actually is.

Yeah.

And also the man said he worked with Perry Parker and knew details about Mister Parker's employment, which of course gave him a little more credibility. But still, Mary Holt never bothered to ask even the most basic questions, like what type of accident happened? Why was he only asking for one of his two daughters? Or why a co worker was sent to get the little girl instead of a police officer or any other member of the family. Yeah, instead she just sent for Marion and handed her over to this man.

Oh, no, fuck that.

That's fucked up, honestly.

Because, like, why wouldn't her older brother be there? Why wouldn't an aunt or an uncle be there, you know?

Like, here's the. Mary Holt felt the repercussions from these. This mistake for the rest of her life. I'm not taking that away. But that's fucked up. Yeah, I mean, that's fucked up. I, when I read this, I could not believe that this little girl was handed over to a complete fucking stranger who didn't even do the basic shit to get this little girl because woman just fed her the him the information.

That's the responsibility that you take on. It is like, if you weren't prepared, like, obviously it's hectic.

Yeah, sure.

But this isn't like you're a server and it's a hectic time at the restaurant. You give somebody the wrong dish like.

This, you're given the wrong kid to someone bigger. Like, you're handing out someone's baby to someone else. That's a big deal, right? Oh, it made me so angry reading this.

Like, I was feeling so stressed out right now. Cause who the fuck is this, man?

It's gonna get really bad, and I need you. I'm not gonna go into detail. We don't know details about, like, what happened during her captivity, okay? The aftermath is rough, so I just want everyone to know that. Guys, we are so excited to be partnering with Embark, the provider of the most accurate dog DNA test on the market and the best gift to get the dog lover in your life. Right up top. We'd love to thank embarkvet.com for supporting morbid. Go to embarkvet.com to get free shipping and save $50 on the breed and health test with promo code. Morbid. Now, when we got Sydney and Blanche, it was about a year after our beloved Bailey, Bubba bubs McGubbs, had passed away. And we had been through a lot with Bubba at the end. And so our first priority was to find out if Sydney and Blanche were going to deal with any of the issues or anything that we didn't know about that Bubba had dealt with. But Embark also answers one of rescue parents number one questions, which is, what breed is my dog? Seems simple, right? But Embark allows pup parents to discover their dog's breed mix and learn more about their genetic health.

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Now, when Marian appeared in the front office, the man told her the story. Your father's been in an accident. He sent me, I work with him at the bank. And, you know, he asked to see you. So Marion, probably more concerned about her father than her own safety at that moment, because remember, she has a deep, deep bond with her father, right? She just left with him willingly. She's twelve. You know, like, what is she? So, as James Nybor points out, this was the 1920s, also a time when children trusted adults and authority figures with a certain blind faith.

Yeah, I mean, you weren't allowed to question adult authority back then, so that's.

What makes it even more up to the adults in charge to make sure that that child's blind faith is not placed in the wrong adult.

Yeah.

So it didn't occur to her that her teacher would hand her off to a stranger without completely verifying this story. She just took it as, okay, this must be true. My teacher would never hand me to this man, or she would never even think that an adult would lie to her about something so serious like her father being.

Why would you think?

Especially having it be for nefarious purposes. She's twelve.

Yeah.

In fact, if someone had asked one or two clarifying questions that day, even just one or two questions, just to get a little more information from this guy, or taken the time to even call the bank and say, hey, did an accident happen with Perry Parker? Was someone from your bank sent to pick up one of his children from school, the story would have a totally different outcome.

Absolutely. And I understand not trying to, one call home or two call the bank.

And that's why I don't have sympathy.

For the other side of this equation.

I just don't.

Yeah.

Now, having not sensed anything strange about the incident, neither misses Holt nor misses Freeman thought to say anything about it to Marjorie. Misses Freeman was another worker at the school.

Sure.

Marjorie waited a long time outside the school for her sister once the day had ended, because they always went home together.

Oh, no.

And the girls, you know, they walked home together. And so when the school was finally locked up for the day, Marjorie ended up heading home without her sister after waiting for her for a long time. Because no one told her what?

Yeah, this is all just like, a.

Lot of negligent information because I'm also like, I'm sorry, misses Holt and misses Freeman. So a man came in and said Perry Parker was in an accident and asked for one of his children. Barring all the stupidity that happened there, that you just allowed one of the children to go with a stranger, you didn't think to tell her twin sister, your father's been in an accident and maybe try to call her mother or something and see, like, do you want.

Her to come home to somebody else picking her up?

You just let her sit outside of school and wait for her sister and not have any fucking clue what happened?

Oh, man.

This is why I'm like, yeah, you earned that guilt because it's like, I don't know what to tell you. That's fucked up.

Uh huh.

So she went home, and when she got home, Marjorie explained that Marian hadn't met her outside of school and she didn't know where she'd gone. And at first, the Parkers weren't, like, super concerned because there had been times when. It's the 1920s. Yeah, of course, when she'd gone home with a school friend or stayed late to help a teacher at school. But it was out of character for her to stay out by herself without telling anyone. That was the thing that bothered them. So Perry called the school. Perry Parker.

Mm hmm. Who is not. Mary Holt answered, okay.

And Perry thought it was a little unusual because Mary Holt said, oh, mister Parker, how are you feeling? And he was like, I'm feeling okay. But like, it didn't raise any alarm. He was just like, I'm okay. How are you? But when he asked whether Marion was still at school and Mary Holt explained that she'd gone home with the man you sent to pick her up, oh, my God. He dropped that pleasant demeanor. He was pissed and alarmed, like he was freaking out. He was exactly how anybody would be. He was like, what the fuck do you mean you sent her home with a man? And he said, there has not been an accident. I have not been an accident. No one has been sent to pick up my child.

Oh, my God. You can just, like, you can barely even imagine the panic running through that man's entire body.

I'm angry and upset for him. I can't even imagine.

Angry and upset he's feeling that. But also fucking the panic.

The panic. And he said, in fact, and this is even worse, he said he had been home all day with his wife because it was his wife's 40th birthday.

Oh, my God. And that's enough. Like, why didn't you just call home?

Just call home.

And they literally would have said, we didn't send anyone to center.

Do not deal with the situation.

Then call the police.

This could have ended.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

It's your birthday.

Yeah. Their mother's birthday.

Oh, no.

Now, throughout the early decades of the 20th century, kidnapping for ransom was pretty common.

Yeah.

Like, it was actually a pretty common feature in the press. And it was not unheard of for this kind of thing to happen. Like, not this exact thing, but, like, for children to go missing and to turn up dead with little or no explanation, it was kind of a thing.

Jesus.

Because a lot of people were trying to get money and extort people. And just a few years earlier in Chicago was Leopold and Loeb.

Oh, God.

They kidnapped and murdered 14 year old Bobby Franks just for the thrill of it. None of this was lost on Perry and Geraldine Parker, I'm sure. And they wasted no time calling the police. But before Perry could even finish dialing the number, the doorbell rang.

Okay?

So he answers the door, and it was a western union messenger with a telegram. And it was addressed to Perry from a sender in Pasadena. The telegram said, do positively nothing till you receive special delivery letter. And it's. And so they were terrified, of course. Terrified for Marion's safety. So they did as instructed, and they waited.

Yeah, I.

Now.

Oh, my God.

The second telegram came a short time later, this time from Alhambra, about. I hope I said that right, about 10 miles outside Los Angeles. And it said, marion, secure. Use good judgment, interference with my plans. Dangerous. And it was signed George Fox.

Okay.

No one in the family recognized that name. Nobody knew who that was. But Marjorie told her parents that a day or two earlier, there had been a man driving a gray car alongside the streetcar she and Marion had been riding in. He had been gesturing for the girls to get off the car and come talk to him.

Oh, no.

But they didn't like to be around strangers, so Marion was like, fuck no. This story only further supported the parker's belief that their daughter had been kidnapped and was obviously being held for ransom. Now, not wanting to piss off the kidnapper, Perry and Geraldine didn't call the police that night and waited for further instructions. They were worried somebody was watching the house, that.

I can't imagine that predicament, because you're fighting internally, I'm sure, with yourself every time. Do I tell the police watching me, if I call the police, are they gonna kill her. But then every instinct inside of you is probably saying, call the fucking police.

Yeah, I just want help. Like, I need help. Somebody needs to help. Like, that's the. Like, the massive amount of just helplessness and frustration and sadness that would. Ugh. And what ends up happening, and we'll obviously get to it, is things go so awry and they go so awry, through no fault of Perry's and Geraldine's and Marian pays for it. And it's like. And they did everything that they were. So they did everything they thought they were supposed to. And actually, like, the police kind of fucked this up and the press fucked it up.

No.

And these two were doing everything that they could to get their child home safely. Now, they awaited further instructions. But then the morning came and they still hadn't received a third telegram. So they finally called and reported the kidnapping because they were like, we can't.

We can't just sit waiting around.

And that morning, as detectives were sitting with the Parkers in their home to take their statements, that third telegram came and it was addressed to PM Parker with a lot more details and instructions. In this one, it said, use good judgment. You are the loser. Do this. Secure 75 $20 gold certificates, us currency, $1,500 at once. Keep them on your person. Go about your daily business as usual. Leave out police and detectives. Make no public notice. Keep this affair private. Make no search. Fulfilling these terms with the transfer of currency will secure the return of the girl. Failure to comply with these requests means no one will ever see the girl again except the angels in heaven.

Oh, God.

The affair must end one way or another. Within three days, 72 hours, you will receive further notice, but the terms remain the same.

It's like, literally making my stomach hurt.

Yeah. Now, unlike the previous telegrams, which had only. Which had included what appeared to be a man's name, this one just was signed fate. Oh, God.

What the fuck?

Yeah. The telegram was accompanied by a note, like, another note with it, and this one. And this is heartbreaking. It was from her, handwritten by Marian. I'm not going to read the whole thing. You can look it up online. It's gut wrenching. It's literally, like, addressed to, like, daddy and mother. She wrote, I wish I could come home.

Yeah, of course.

And she said, I think I'll die if I have to be like this much longer. Won't someone tell me why this has happened to me? Daddy, please do what this man tells you or he'll kill me if you don't. And it was just signed Marion Parker.

Oh, my God.

Yeah. Now, upon reading the telegram, the detectives were immediately struck by the small amount of money being demanded by the kidnappers.

It didn't sound like a law.

And the unusual way that they were really insisting it be delivered to them, adjusted for inflation, now, their demands would be, like, little over $27,000, which. It's not a small amount of money, obviously, but not really a ransom demand for a whole ass child.

No.

I would say no. But either way, investigators agreed to work quietly on the case and allowed Perry to gather the funds and make the exchange, with everyone agreeing not to alert the press or do anything else to jeopardize Marian's safe return. So everybody was like, shut the fuck up. We're all going to work on this. Quietly. Do what we got to do. So, at first, it seemed like everyone was doing what they need to do. After giving his statement, Perry went to work and just acted like nothing was wrong, because that's what he was told to do.

Oh, my God.

So this man had to go to work and just deal with people all day, knowing his child is in the clutches of people who are going to.

Kill her, and, like, just, oh, my.

Oh, my God. And after withdrawing the amount of money needed from his account, he went about his day just as he had been instructed to do. But he did remember to write down the serial numbers for the bills so that they could be tracked later, because, he said, hopefully, we can catch them this way.

Smart.

Meanwhile, detectives spent the day interviewing Marion's friends and the staff at school in the hopes that someone would remember seeing anything out of the ordinary that day, with Mary Holt obviously being the most important witness. Now, obviously, I know I'm going hard at Mary, which I stand by, but she was fucking devastated, of course. I mean, it's not like this woman. Bad mistake.

There was no intention of ill will.

Or anything, but there was no intention for something like this to happen. She never thought in a million years this was going to happen. And she had a hard time remembering anything because she was just in a state. She said. The man was young, she said, but otherwise, he was kind of unremarkable, which I understand. Sometimes it's hard to pick out anything. You're like, I don't know. He had brown hair.

Well, I mean, she's probably seen how many adults come pick up their kids throughout the whole day.

She did say he appeared to be about 25 to 30 years of age. She could say, like, five foot, eight inches in height, around 150 pounds, having a slender build and thin features he was smooth shaven, medium complexion, dark, wavy brown hair, which I'm like, actually that's pretty good. That's a loss. But he also looks like a lot.

Of guys I know, especially at the time.

And they weren't really able to get a lot, much more out of her other than that description because she was so overwhelmed by guilt that she actually needed to be sedated.

Oh wow.

So when I say she felt the weight of it, she felt the weight of it. It doesn't help and it doesn't change it, but she felt the weight of it. She's not a bad person. Absolutely not. Bad mistake. I would never forgive her, but that's me. And I can understand why this family probably wouldn't either.

We've all been there. Turning to the Internet to self diagnose our inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers and strange rashes. Though our minds tend to spiral to worst case scenarios, its usually nothing. But for an unlucky few, these unsuspecting symptoms can start the clock ticking on a terrifying medical mystery. Like the unexplainable death of a retired firefighter whose body was found at home by his son. Except it looked like he had been cremated. Or the time when an entire town started jumping from buildings and seeing tigers on their ceilings. Hey listeners, its mister Balin here and Im here to tell you about my podcast. Its called Mister Balin's medical Mysteries. Each terrifying true story will be sure to keep you up at night. Follow Mister Balin's medical mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon music.

Nancy's love story could have been ripped right out of the pages of one of her own novels.

She was a romance mystery writer who happens to be married to a chef.

But this story didn't end with a happily ever after.

When I stepped into the kitchen, I could see that chef Brophy was on the ground and I heard somebody say call 911.

As writers, we'd written our share of murder mysteries. So when suspicion turned to Dan's wife Nancy, we weren't that surprised.

The first person they look at would be the spouse.

We understand that's usually the way they do it.

But we began to wonder, had Nancy gotten so wrapped up in her own.

Novels there are murders in all of.

The books that she was playing them out in real life. Follow happily never after Dan and Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts, you can binge all episodes of happily never after Dan and Nancy early and ad free right now by joining wondery.

But when Perry returned from work that afternoon, he was surprised to find that the kidnapper still hadn't called. But a few hours later, the phone finally rang. And in a calm, even voice, the man on the other end confirmed that Perry. He said, you got the money? And Perry said, yes. And then he said he would call back with instructions in five minutes.

Okay.

But nearly a half hour passed before he called back again. So he's just toying, playing games. The kidnapper instructed Perry to get in his car and travel alone a few blocks away, then park on Gramercy where the exchange would be made.

Okay.

Not wanting to risk anything, Perry did exactly as he was told. He did not alert authorities. When he got to the location, there didn't appear to be anyone. So he waited and he waited and he waited. Hours went by, and this man is waiting for his cash, for his child. By 11:45 p.m. no one had come. So he realized, you make the decision to leave. That's the thing. So he's like, something went wrong. So he went back home. And that's where he learned that the police had been following him from the moment he left the house. So he said, oh, no. What if the kidnappers saw them and he didn't alert them? Like, he did what he was told and they fucked it up? Like, let him go. Like, I'm sorry. Let him get him later. I don't know. Especially.

You already have the serial number about it. Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Like, it sounds like they were.

It sounds like they were pretty. Like they. They were following him. It was pretty obvious.

Oh, no.

Things got worse the following morning when Perry learned that the previous day, the press had been alerted.

Who the fuck alerted the press?

I don't know. But now it was on all the fucking front pages. Exactly what they told him not to do. All of Los Angeles. All of them. The Los Angeles record said, hunt, kidnappers of girl. Others focused on the fact that Marion had been taken from school without any resistance from the staff, which I'm like, you can talk about that later when she's safe.

Yeah.

But despite his best efforts to do literally exactly as he had been told by the kidnappers, it seemed like everything had gone fucking wrong. And the Parkers were like, fuck, the worst is gonna happen. And we. We didn't do it. Now, that afternoon, another telegram came to the house.

Oh, no.

And this one said, when I asked you over the phone to give me your word of honor as a christian and honest businessman. You didn't answer why? Because those two closed cars carefully followed your car north on wilton to 10th and stopped shortly off Wilton and proceeded to circle the block on gramercy.

Had they not done that, it sounds like they would have passed the money and gotten the girl.

It's horrifying. And it was exactly as he had feared. They spotted the police car, and they had blown the opportunity to get Marion back. And what's even worse is what they wrote next in the telegram. They said she was so eager to know that it would only be a short while before she would be free from my terrible torture. And then you mess the whole damn affair.

How do you live? Like the rest of your life.

Yeah. And they said they'll give him one more chance, saying, pray to God for forgiveness for your mistake last night. And it was signed fate Fox. It had another note in Marian's handwriting, imploring her father to do as the kidnappers demanded, which is even worse, because he did.

Yeah. And she was worse than told that she didn't.

Didn't know that he had done everything he was supposed to do and that it was the police and the press, that it fucked it up. And so she wrote, please don't bring anyone with you today. And Perry Parker later said he does believe those notes were written by his daughter. Or at the very least, that even if they weren't composed by her, like.

She was saying it and somebody was transcribing it.

Yeah. Now, the Parkers waited all afternoon, becoming increasingly frantic as the hours are passing by and no call is coming. And they did, however, receive two additional telegrams during that time. The first one said, please recover your senses rather than to kill your child. But so far, you have given me no other alternative. Of course you want your child, but you'll never get her by notifying the police and causing all this publicity. I feel, however, that you started the search before you received my warning. So I'm not blaming you for the bad beginning. Be sensible and use good judgment. You can't deal with a mastermind like a common crook or kidnapper. Fox. Fate.

This person is sadistic.

Now, the second telegram arrived a short time later and seemed to just reiterate the points made by the first one. But a little more dramatic flair was in this one. It said, fox is my name. Very sly, you know, set no traps. I'll watch for them. Get this straight. Remember that life hangs by a thread. I have a gillette ready and am able to handle the situation.

Oh, my God.

And it was signed fate.

This is. I'm like, oh, this is awful.

Yeah.

I'm having such a visceral reaction to this right now.

Yeah. It really. It's a cautionary tale in about a hundred different ways. Now, the call finally came later that evening, and Perry was given instructions to travel alone to Manhattan place and wait in his car. If he failed to do that, Marion would die. And so he did as he was instructed. He packed up the money, he drove to the destination, and a little after 08:00 p.m. he saw headlights of another car coming towards him. And at first, he worried it might be the police, and this whole thing was going to be fucked up again. But then when it pulled up next to him, he saw the driver wearing a hat with a bandana covering the lower part of his face. And he rolled down his window and raised a sawed off shotgun pointed right at Perry. And he said, give it to me. And Perry insisted to see his daughter first. So the driver was annoyed and then just gestured to the seat next to him. And he looked, and he said he could see Marion wrapped in a blanket of some sort. Her head was nearly covered by the material. And later, Perry said that he thought Marion was in some sort of daze, or maybe she had been drugged.

Okay. The driver said she was sleeping, but Perry was like, her eyes are open. And so he was like she was gazing forward on blinking, like she looked out of it. But he said she looked alive. She had color in her cheeks. Like she didn't look dead.

Yeah.

Now very eager to get his daughter back, Perry reached out the window to pass the money to the kidnapper. The kidnapper grabbed it from him and told him to wait as he checked the contents of the envelope. Once he was satisfied, he put the vehicle in drive and rolled forward slightly and then came to a stop again. And now that he was in the darkness, like, out of any kind of light.

Yeah.

He opened the pass. He opened the passenger door, and something large fell from the car and landed on the curb. Then the car just sped off. So when the car was out of sight, Perry ran out of his car and ran to the bundle. He could see his daughter's face peering from the bundled blanket, and he immediately reached down to pull her into his arms. And then he realized the bundle was surprisingly light. And so he laid his daughter on the ground and frantically untied the cord on the blanket. And that's when he discovered that Marian's legs were missing and her arms had been severed just below the elbow.

Oh, my.

God, she was dead. Perry's screams were loud enough to be heard by shopkeepers at nearby businesses.

I feel like I'm, like, gonna cry right now.

This has honestly made me cry. They ran out into the street to find out what was happening. Some of them tried to comfort him. The others went back to call the police. It was chaos. Like, this man was literally, like, inconsolable. Obviously, you don't recover from that.

How the fuck do you do that to somebody?

Yeah. George Contreras, the lead detective in the case, arrived a short time later with other investigators and patrol officers. They started cordoning off the scene, and they initiated one of the largest manhunts in the state of California's history. Now, detective Contreras approached the body, and in addition to the horrifying details that I've already given you, he noticed some other things that were highly disturbing. Marian's eyes were open. Like you said, she looked in a daze. When they looked closer, they saw that the killer had used a needle and thread to sew them open to make it appear that she was alive.

Oh, my God.

Sewed her eyes open. They had also applied makeup to her cheeks to give her that complexion that made her look alive.

Oh, my God. Do we find out who did this?

We do, luckily. Don't worry. Now, Marion's remains reached the morgue a little after 09:00 p.m. and the coroner, doctor Af Wagner, began the autopsy right away. He was a very experienced pathologist, very experienced coroner, but this one was really hard for him because he had lived next door to the Parkers for the previous four years and knew this family very well. Now, Wagner noted that there remains at least, you know, that this doctor is going to be like. I mean, most coroners and pathologists are very, you know, gentle and loving with a body, but like this. He knows this girl. So, you know, at least there was somebody who cares about her and knows her doing this.

I also think he's been the coroner in other cases that we've.

It sounds very familiar.

Wagner.

Definitely, it does. Now, he noted that the remains were incomplete and included only the head, the trunk, quote, down to an inch above the navel and the upper arms down to the elbow joints. There was a two inch cut along the left shoulder, and the cause of death was determined to be strangulation, I guess. Luckily, there's no other signs of pre mortem trauma to the body, so the idea that she was tortured or anything like that doesn't seem to be true.

Okay.

Yeah, I think they were just exactly like physically tortured. Also, Marian's internal organs all appeared to be intact and healthy. She had not been beaten, she had not been hurt in any way physically until what happened. And these cuts were made postmortem. There was however, a towel with the Bellevue arms apartments emblem on it and a piece of a man's shirt stuffed into her abdominal cavity.

Interesting.

The following day, a man out for a walk in Elysian park found two bundles of newspaper lying beside the road. And when he opened them, he found what would later be confirmed to be Marian's arms, her lower arms. The other pieces of her body were discovered a few hours later in a gully nearby. Now Wagner couldn't say exactly when Marian had died, but later in court, it was established that she had been killed shortly after the first botched exchange on the night of December 17.

So him saying I'll give you one more chance was just all bullshit.

Yeah. No matter what had happened, they wouldn't have given her back. And it was that she was killed after that botched exchange. So she might have been given back to them alive had the police, not all of them, fucked up.

Wow.

Yeah. Now, while Wagner performed the autopsy, investigators wasted no time beginning their search for the killer. And this is the part that they do, right? I mean, they really fucked up that beginning, but they go hard. They quickly located the mans car in a parking lot on 9th and grand streets, several miles from the scene. According to the parking lot attendant, the driver was a young dark haired man who said he would be back for the Chrysler Coop the following day.

Okay.

Detectives would be staked out at the scene throughout the night and into the next day. But no one returned to that vehicle. And he was in fact much further away than anyone would have imagined at this point. The following morning, December 18, the story of Marion Parker's murder was on the front page of every single newspaper all across California. Each one, we're in the twenties. The twenties. Each one was providing grisly details of how, quote, her lifeless body, horribly mutilated, was left on a Manhattan street lawn for her father to discover after handing back the ransom. The coverage of the crime was honestly shocking by the standards of any era. And the press printed large portions of the kidnappers telegrams, gave detailed descriptions of the moments when Perry Parker discovered his daughter's dead body, including graphic descriptions of the mutilation and horror contained within that bundle of little blankets. One article wrote falsely, death apparently came from chloroform or loss of blood after a terrific lashing.

Jesus. Wow you with things like this. It's like, it's already fucking horrible.

Literally the worst it could possibly be.

Nightmare.

Why are you embellishing but sell your.

Papers with their sell anyway, and it's.

Like, that's fake shit. You're just making stuff up.

Yeah, where's your fucking integrity?

They wrote the horrible torture to which the little one must have been subjected. And also, this was all paid, print, printed, with no verifiable details about the murder. And they had not confirmed anything with investigators. They just made shit up, imprinted it for that family to read false shit, but conjure up more horrible images of their child's last moments.

It's crazy. Like, what the press was able to get. I mean, it's crazy what press can.

Get away with even now, but still can.

But way back when, it was so much worse.

Now, although residents of California had become kind of accustomed to reading stories about kidnappings, at this point, this came as a big shock. This was a different sort of thing.

This is on another level.

This was horrifying. So parents across the state were freaking the fuck out. Many decided to stay home rather than go out anywhere. The next week, school attendance fell dramatically. No one was sending them to school because what the fuck's gonna happen? You just gonna give them to a murderer?

I don't know how you would be able to get to school.

I don't even know what I would do.

I don't know.

Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Saachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Haggie, and we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims, and what's left once the facade falls away. We've covered stories like a shark tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills, an active lawsuit filed by Larry King, and no real product to push. He then began to prey on vulnerable women, instead selling the idea of a future together while stealing from them behind their backs to the infamous scams of real housewives, stars like Teresa Giudice. What should have proven to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives hall of Fame. Follow scamfluencers on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to scamfluencers early and ad free right now on wondry.

But what's most surprising, what's like also a very surprising like outcome of this was that the government of Mexico closed the border between the states to prevent the fox from escaping into Mexico. Wow. So this was huge.

That doesn't happen often.

No. And those who didn't react with fear responded to the case. You know the only other way they knew how.

Vigilante justice. Yeah.

As soon as Mary Holt's description was published in the papers, men who resembled the killer were targeted for harassment and violence. So. And like we said, not great because a lot of guys look like this guy.

Yeah.

And it got really bad.

And you can't just go out like trying to assault any Tom, Dick or Harry that resembles this man. Like you don't know.

And also it gets really bad. According to journalist Cecilia Rasmussen quote, one man who resembled the killer was arrested seven times within 8 hours.

Jesus.

He finally asked to just stay in jail. Another look alike was severely beaten by a mob and for safekeeping the police took him to jail where he ended up hanging himself.

Oh my God.

Yeah. So it's like this got really bad.

What?

Yeah. Now while the press and public panicked and freaked the fuck out.

Holy shit.

Detective Contreras and the other investigators on the case continued to pursue every single lead in every piece of evidence they had. In a search of the area around the parker's home, police found another note that had been inexplicably left in a fire alarm box on the street near the house.

Okay.

Addressed to PM Parker and apparently left after the first attempted exchange got botched. The note said, for all the trouble you have caused, Marjorie Parker will be the next victim.

Oh my God.

Nothing can stop the fox. And they who will try will know the penalty. If you warn anyone of this second success it will mean you next try and get me. I am the fox. You will never know the rest of my success. You will miss her at 12:00.

Oh my God.

Now upon further review of this letter at the LAPD crime lab, a handwriting analyst determined that the letter did not match the handwriting in the previous letters and they deemed it a hoax.

Who the fuck would do that?

We say it all the time. People are always people and they always have been peopling. There's always been pieces of absolute shit.

Wow.

Like this.

But I'm never, I'm never not shocked.

No. As you shouldn't be.

What the fuck?

Yeah.

This family is. I mean the way this man found his fucking daughter.

Yeah.

And then you're gonna threaten his other daughter cuz you're fucking bored with your jank ass life?

These are the people who, if they were born in this era, would be on the Internet telling people they're ugly and, you know, telling them to kill themselves. Yeah, on the Internet and social media forums.

100%.

These are. They are the exact same person. You're on the same level. Mm hmm. Like you. You're just a shithead. So while LAPD officers fanned out across the city in search of this killer, others were sent to the Bellevue arms apartments. Because of the evidence found within the body, officers went room by room looking for anything that could be traced back to the killer, but they really didn't find anything. Meanwhile, police in Las Vegas arrested a man they thought might be the killer, and they turned him into the Los Angeles investigators. The suspect was 25 year old, which is right in the age rain Lewis Wyatt, who was the son of a Los Angeles doctor and had a history of harassing and assaulting girls.

Great.

According to the initial reports from the press, a spokesperson for the LAPD described Wyatt as being in a position to know intimate details of the Parker family life and said he was keen minded, well educated, and egotistical, particularly in believing that he has a master criminal mind.

Huh.

Now, unfortunately, Wyatt's fingerprints didn't match those found on the ransom demands, nor did the serial numbers on his $20 notes match those withdrawn by Parker. So they had to release him. Yeah. Now, the first real clue finally came a few days later, after technicians finished processing the car that the killer had abandoned in the lot on the night of the murder. It was obvious that he had gone to great lengths not to leave any evidence behind. But he forgot to wipe the steering wheel. Wow. Yep.

The fact that this motherfucker went to. I mean, I'm happy.

Yeah.

Went to great lengths and didn't think to wipe the steering wheel.

He at least didn't wipe it clean because he left fingerprints behind. And the fingerprints were a match for those left on the telegram sent to the Parkers. And within a few days, they had been matched to a set of prints contained within a juvenile court record for a forgery case a few years earlier. Those prints belong to 19 year old William Edward Hickman. 19. Who was also a recent resident of the Bellevue arms apartments.

So they already searched his place at that point.

Well, for some, he ended up. He wasn't living there at the time. So for someone so young, William Hickman had a fairly significant criminal record that began in his mid teens. He had been a star high school athlete in Kansas City. But he turned to crime in his mid teens when he met fellow student Welby Hunt. And they started shoplifting, committing forgery, all that stuff. And it quickly escalated into armed robbery. Once they'd completed high school in 1926, Hickman and Hunt left Kansas City for Los Angeles, where Hickman found a job as a messenger at the First National bank, where Perry Parker worked as a teller.

So he worked at the same place.

Now, while employed there, Hickman forged roughly $400 worth of checks before being arrested. He was given six months probation for that. When his probation ended, he tried to get his job back, but was unsuccessful. Obviously, that led investigators to theorize that this man had a grudge against the bank, and he just decided to take it out on Perry, just randomly. Perry's a cashier. Like, he's a teller. Yeah, like, he doesn't own the bank.

Right?

But he took it out on him.

He's not in charge of this man's job. What the fuck?

Now 19 years old. Yeah. Having discovered the killer's identity at address now, detectives return to the Bellevue arms apartments, and they learn that William Hickman had been living under the name Donald Evans, and he had vacated the premises a few days earlier. That's why they didn't find him at first.

I see.

Neighbors confirmed that Donald Evans matched the description provided by Mary Holtz, and fingerprints taken from inside the apartment were a match for Hickman. Investigators also discovered in the apartment several razor blades, copies of newspapers reporting the kidnapping, and a burned memo that appeared to be a draft of one of the ransom demands. Despite this evidence, Captain James Bean of the homicide squad told reporters, there is nothing to indicate that heck took the Parker girl there.

I would disagree, and I would say there is everything to indicate.

Where do you think he took her?

Huh?

Now, when she was shown a photograph of the teenager, Mary Holt confirmed that it was Hickman who had come into school that day and left with Marion.

I mean, she thought he was between 25 and 3019.

Perry Parker also remembered who William Hickman was.

Really?

And he told detectives the eerie familiarity of the kidnapper speaking voice now makes sense because he had talked to him on the phone.

Oh, my God.

Yeah. And Parker also remembered the incident that led to Hickman being fired. And he remembered that Hickman was denied his job after finishing probation, but he couldn't think of any reason why Hickman would have targeted him or his family.

Right?

He's like, I didn't have anything to do with it. And he said, I cannot call to mind any words of madness or revenge that passed while I was talking with Hickman? While the motive might have eluded them at the time, Hickman's familiarity with Parker could explain the relatively small ransom demand. He knew he didn't have the money, right? That's what. Cause they were baffled.

He just wanted some money.

And I think this was all just to hurt someone. I don't even think the money was the biggest part of it. I think money was obviously part of it.

So do you think they were always going to kill her, or. No?

I don't know.

I've started to question it with his identity being revealed now.

But that's what makes sense about that number now, because he knew Parker's position at the bank, he wasn't, like, running the bank. So he knew the family didn't have that much money to speak of, and he would only be able to deliver that much right now. The first real clue to where Hickman was finally came on December 21. This is going quick, at least.

But just think of normally, this family would be getting ready to spend Christmas.

We're coming up on Christmas.

And now they're just trying to find the man who murdered their daughter and burying their child.

Police in Redlands, California, a town about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, investigated an auto accident. And in that accident, the driver, who was a man matching Hickman's description, fled the scene. The following day, investigators picked up his trail in Seattle when one of the $20 gold certificates withdrawn by Perry Parker was used at a clothing store in the city. And the shop owner identified Hickman as the customer after being shown a photograph.

Just buying fucking clothes with that money.

Yeah. A few hours later, Hickman was spotted again, this time in Portland, Oregon, where a gas station attendant saw him filling his tank. By that point, Hickman's photograph was unavoidable. It was everywhere. And as soon as the attendant recognized the driver as Hickman, he reported the sighting to authorities.

Nice.

And said the man was headed in the direction of the Columbia River Gorge. That's where we're gonna end for part one.

You motherfucker.

It has a. It has an ending that at least has justice being served in some way, shape, or form. But we're gonna stop there so that you can. You can take that in what just happened.

Yeah.

Because the rest is going to be very interesting.

My, oh, my. What a tragic, tragic case. I lit. I knew you said right at the top, like it was a murder. Kidnapping in a murder. But I still held a hope that entire time that somehow the outcome was gonna change.

And there's no way to describe this one. Like, you're like, it's bad. And I don't know how else to describe brutal. It's bad. It's awful. It's heartbreaking, heart wrenching. And this poor family. You just want to give Perry a hug, man. I just want to give him a hug and be like, he didn't do anything.

You just want to, like, you want to set time back and tell that lady, maybe don't release this girl to a fucking 19 year old stranger.

Promise nothing about this family.

My God, call someone like this 19 year old was able to trick you into giving him a child for ransom.

I'd be infuriated.

I don't know how you got past that. Oh, man. All right, well, we hope you keep listening, see, for part two.

Yeah. And we hope you keep it weird.

Yeah, I don't think I can tell you.

Yeah.

If you like morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey@wondery.com. survey she was a romance mystery writer.

They gloomed on the fact that she.

Writes stories like this.

There are murders in all of the.

Books from Wondery, the makers of Ghost Story and Theta. This is a story about a murder that rocked my little community. Binge all episodes of happily never after ad free right now on wondery plus.