True Crime This Week: Famous Kidnappings

Summary

Podcast Summary: Scams, Money, & Murder

Episode: True Crime This Week—Famous Kidnappings

Date: December 14, 2025
Hosts: Vanessa Richardson (primary), Carter Roy (not present in this episode)

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode explores two of history’s most famous kidnappings—those of John Paul Getty III in Italy (1973) and Marion Parker in Los Angeles (1927). The hosts dig deep into both cases, providing historical and familial context, examining the intense media reactions, and highlighting the way public attention shaped both situations. Through these stories, the episode reflects on how wealth, family dynamics, and media exposure intersect and influence the tragic trajectory of high-profile crimes.

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Episode Structure & Key Segments

1. Introduction to the Week’s Theme (00:49–04:21)

• Vanessa sets the context by explaining that each “True Crime This Week” episode explores two cases sharing a theme. This week: Famous Kidnappings.
• Brief overview:
  • John Paul Getty III’s release after 5 months captive in southern Italy (1973)
  • Marion Parker’s abduction leading to tragedy in early 20th-century Los Angeles (1927)

2. The John Paul Getty III Kidnapping (04:21–26:04, resuming at 14:51)

A. Background on the Getty Family (04:21–14:51)

• J. Paul Getty Sr.: Rise from Oklahoma oil fields to one of the world’s richest men ($2+ billion by the time of his death).

  • Notoriously frugal, even hostile toward both charity and his own family (“Getty did not believe in charity.” [06:25])
  • Trouble with relationships: married and divorced 5 times, emotionally distant and cruel toward his children.
  • Family dysfunction: “He rarely spoke to any of [his children], and whenever he did reach out, it was to put them down for not being good enough.” [07:26]

• John Paul Getty III (“Paul”): Grew up feeling neglected; by his teens, dropped out, living a wild lifestyle in Rome.

B. The Kidnapping and Ransom Negotiations (14:51–26:04)

• The crime: In early hours of July 10, 1973, 16-year-old John Paul is abducted by members of the Ndrangheta (Calabrian mafia), hoping for an easy, enormous ransom.

• Initial response:

  • The kidnappers demand $17 million (~$124 million today).
  • John’s mother, Gail, contacts ex-husband (J. Paul Getty Jr.). Neither has the means—only J. Paul Sr. could pay.
  • Police are skeptical, suggest John Paul staged his own abduction—media echoes this theory.

• Family and media drama:

  • Getty Sr. refuses to pay ransom, fearing:

    “I have 14 other grandchildren. If I pay a penny of ransom, then I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.” (Vanessa, citing Getty Sr., 17:11)

  • Getty Sr.’s consultant Fletcher Chase mismanages the case, ultimately sabotaging trust with Italian authorities and John’s family, even believing the abduction is fake.

  • Months pass; John Paul’s captors grow desperate.

  • In October, to force payment, the kidnappers cut off Paul’s right ear and mail it to a newspaper.

    • Notable moment:

      “When he did, one of the kidnappers came up behind John Paul and sliced his right ear off with a razor blade. They mailed John Paul's severed ear to a local newspaper in Rome. The fatal delivery had its intended effect. Getty finally agreed to pay his grandson's ransom.” (Vanessa, 20:23)

  • Getty still negotiates, eventually lowering ransom to $3.2 million—only contributing $2.2 million, the rest as a loan to his son (at 4% interest).

• Release and Aftermath (21:55–26:04)

  • Paul is released at a roadside gas station, traumatized, earless, thin.
    • Memorable scene:

      “After a few minutes of trying unsuccessfully to get help, he went outside and laid down in the middle of the road.” (Vanessa, 04:51)

  • Grandfather refuses to speak to him even after his ordeal.
  • Paul’s struggles continue: drug addiction, lost inheritance, eventual incapacitating stroke, early death.
  • Mother Gail remains his sole advocate.
    • Powerful conclusion:

      “John Paul's kidnapping was a harrowing and traumatic ordeal. But at the end of the day, it was only a minor escalation from the day to day trauma of being related to a man like J. Paul Getty.” (Vanessa, 26:02)

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3. The Marion Parker Kidnapping (27:59–51:33)

A. Abduction and Early Investigation (27:59–36:06)

• Setting: December 15, 1927, Los Angeles. 12-year-old Marion is called from class by a man claiming her father was hurt, she is taken away.

• Immediate aftermath:

  • Marion’s twin, Marjorie, returns home alone. When father Perry Parker calls the school, the ruse comes to light.

  • The Parkers receive telegrams from “George Fox”—actually the kidnapper—demanding $1,500 and including Marion’s signature for proof.

  • Kidnapper uses psychological manipulation, and now calls himself “Fate.”

• Police involvement:

  • Police initially confused by small ransom for such a high-profile kidnapping, theorize the kidnapper knows the family.
  • Detailed description is gathered, and previous failed abduction attempt is discovered from Marion’s sister.

B. The Ransom Handoff & Horrific Discovery (36:06–39:43)

• Kidnapper calls Perry to a rendezvous; Perry is trailed by police and the exchange fails.
• Second instructions come with more threats and pleas from Marion to her father.
• On December 17, Perry completes the handover alone. Sees Marion in the car, but she does not respond.

  • After getting the ransom, the abductor pushes Marion out; Perry realizes “something was wrong. Horribly wrong.” (Vanessa, 37:53)

  • Marion is dead, horrifically mutilated: arms and legs cut off, eyes sewn open, made to look alive:

    “The following details are disturbing… Marion's arms had been cut off at the elbows. Her legs were missing entirely, along with the rest of her torso below the navel. Not only that, but her eyes had been stitched open with a needle and thread. Makeup had been crudely applied to her face to make her look alive.” (Vanessa, 37:55)

  • Perry’s anguish becomes national news; manhunt commences.

C. Investigation, Capture, and Trial (39:43–51:33)

• Police work:

  • Clues from ransom bills and a laundry-marked towel lead to the apartment of William Edward Hickman, ex-coworker of Perry’s at the bank (fired for check forgery thanks to Perry’s report).
  • Hickman flees north, but a $20 bill from the ransom at an Oregon gas station gives him away.

• Dramatic capture:

  • Police spot him on an Oregon highway; after a short chase, he’s arrested with $1,000 in ransom money and a shotgun in the car.

• Trial and aftermath:

  • Hickman confesses, tries to plead insanity (“a supernatural entity called Providence commanded him to kill her” [Vanessa, 50:04]), but is exposed as angling for leniency.
  • Jury finds him guilty; he is hanged in 1928 at age 20.
  • No final words:

    “Before the noose was placed around his neck… Edward Hickman had nothing left to say.” (Vanessa, 51:25)

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Reflections on Media’s Role in Kidnapping Cases (51:25–51:33)

• Vanessa contrasts how media attention shaped both cases:

  • For Marion, newspapers directly aided the fast identification and apprehension of her killer.
  • For Getty III, pervasive rumor-mongering prolonged his suffering and stoked public skepticism.

  “It's a reminder that in a sensitive, high stakes situation, the world's attention can be a double edged sword.” (Vanessa, 51:29)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Getty Sr.’s motivations:

  “I have 14 other grandchildren. If I pay a penny of ransom, then I'll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.”
  — J. Paul Getty Sr. (quoted by Vanessa, 17:11)

• Gail Getty’s desperation:

  “How can he leave his own flesh and blood in the plight your poor son is in?”
  — Kidnapper “Cinquanta” to Gail Getty (Vanessa, 18:40)

• On the reality of John Paul Getty III’s trauma:

  "John Paul's kidnapping was a harrowing and traumatic ordeal. But at the end of the day, it was only a minor escalation from the day to day trauma of being related to a man like J. Paul Getty.”
  — Vanessa Richardson (26:02)

• Marion’s horrifying fate:

  “Marion was dead under the blankets. She was badly mutilated… her eyes had been stitched open with a needle and thread.”
  — Vanessa Richardson (37:55)

• Hickman's silence at the end:

  “Edward Hickman had nothing left to say.”
  — Vanessa Richardson (51:25)

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Important Timestamps (MM:SS)

• 00:49 — Introduction to Famous Kidnappings theme
• 04:21 — Start of John Paul Getty III kidnapping case
• 14:51 — Nitty-gritty of the Getty abduction, negotiations, and family/mafia dynamics
• 20:23 — Delivery of Getty’s severed ear, turning point in negotiations
• 26:02 — Reflection on the true trauma of being a Getty
• 27:59 — Marion Parker abduction begins
• 37:55 — Discovery of Marion’s mutilation, the episode’s most shocking moment
• 39:43 — Police trace evidence to William Hickman and launch manhunt
• 50:04 — Details of Hickman’s trial and death sentence
• 51:29 — Reflection on media as “double edged sword”

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Language & Tone

The hosts maintain a somber, narrative-driven tone with compassion for the victims, clear-eyed criticism of the perpetrators, and an eye for emotional nuance—especially regarding the dysfunction within the Getty family and the helplessness experienced by the Parker family.

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Conclusion

“Famous Kidnappings” poignantly contrasts the outcomes—financially motivated crimes against two very different families, united by tragedy and by their suffering at the hands of both perpetrators and the public gaze. Listeners are left reflecting on the complex entanglement of money, legacy, and notoriety in shaping both justice and trauma.

Transcript

[Vanessa Richardson]

Hi Crime House Community. It's Vanessa Richardson looking for another Crime House original podcast to add to your rotation. You will love Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaylin Moore. Every Wednesday, Morgan and Kaelyn dig into the world's most notorious crimes, clue by clue. From serial killers to shocking murders. They follow the trail of clues, break down the evidence and debate the theories. It's like hanging out with your smart and true crime obsessed friends. Listen to clues on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Ellen Marsh]

This is Crime House.

[Vanessa Richardson]

This week in Crime history. We're covering two famous kidnappings that turned into media sensations on December 15, 1973, John Paul Getty II, the heir to a multi billion dollar fortune, was set free in southern Italy after being held ransom for five months 46 years earlier, in 1927, 12 year old Marion Parker was kidnapped from her junior high school in Los Angeles, setting off a massive search for her abductor. Foreign. Welcome to True Crime. This week, part of Crime House Daily, I'm Vanessa Richardson. Every Sunday we'll be revisiting notorious crimes from the coming week in history. From serial killers to mysterious disappearances or murders. Every episode will explore stories that share a common theme. Each week we'll cover two stories, one further in the past and one more rooted in the present. Here at Crime House. We know none of this would be possible without you, our community. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts and for ad free and early access to Crime House Daily. Plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This week's theme is Famous Kidnappings will start in 1973 when John Paul Getty III was dropped off at a gas station after five months in captivity. His abductors in Southern Italy had expected a big payday when they snatched billionaire J. Paul Getty's grandchild. Instead, both sides played hardball and John Paul was caught in the middle. Then we'll go back in time to 1927 when 12 year old Marion Parker was taken from Mount Vernon Junior High School in Central Los Angeles and held for ransom. Marion's parents were willing to do anything to bring their daughter home, but as the clock ticked down, it became clear that but Marion's abductor didn't plan to keep his side of the bargain. All that and more coming up.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

On December 15, 1973, 17 year old John Paul Getty III and stumbled into a roadside gas station on the outskirts of Loria in southern Italy. He was emaciated, traumatized and missing one of his ears. For the past five months, he'd been held hostage by a criminal syndicate called the Ndrangheta. They had taken the teen in hopes that his billionaire grandfather would pay handsomely for John Paul's return. After months of haggling, John Paul had finally been freed. His ordeal was finally over. Or at least he thought it was. Inside the gas station, an exhausted John Paul begged to use the phone. The kidnapping had been international news for months, but the folks at the gas station didn't recognize the skinny, dirty, half crazed boy as the one from the newspapers and TV reports. Finally, John reached his breaking point. After a few minutes of trying unsuccessfully to get help, he went outside and laid down in the middle of the road. Finally, someone called the police to come and take him away. Once the officers arrived, one of them recognized John Paul. They took him to the police station where he was finally able to call his parents and let them know he was okay. Then he called his grandfather to thank him for paying his ransom. But the elder Getty refused to take his call. Sadly, this wasn't out of character for 80 year old J. Paul Getty. J. Paul Getty was born in 1892 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father was a corporate lawyer who started dabbling in the oil business and invested in an Oklahoma oil field. In 1904, he made good money. And in 1913, he gave his 21 year old son $10,000. That's over $300,000 in today's money to buy an oil field of his own. Getty invested wisely, and two years later, he'd turn that $10,000 into over a million dollars. At the age of 23, J. Paul Getty was a millionaire. And he was just getting started. In the decades to come, Getty took control of the family business, buying up oil fields all across the U.S. by the time the Great Depression hit in 1929, Getty Oil had grown big enough to survive the brutal stock market crash. In the aftermath, Getty purchased competing oil companies that had fallen on hard times. From there, he branched out into the real estate business, buying his favorite luxury hotels in Manhattan and abroad. But Getty really hit it big in 1949 when he was 57 years old. And that year he struck a deal with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, paying him $9 million for the exclusive rights to drill for oil in the country's inhospitable deserts. Four years later, Getty discovered one of the largest oil fields on earth. He made so much money pumping and selling Saudi oil that by 1957, Fortune magazine estimated his net worth as more than $1 billion. Getty had become one of the richest men on earth, but he had little interest in sharing that wealth with anybody else. Getty did not believe in charity. He once wrote that giving money away made the people who received it lazier and more dependent. When members of the Rockefeller family suggested that Getty make a large contribution to a university, Gettysburg, Getty responded with an angry tirade about socialists on college campuses. The closest Getty came to charity was amassing an enormous collection of priceless art, which he later put on display at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Getty's attitude didn't make him the most popular guy around. Still, there was no denying that he was a gifted businessman. However, he was much less successful when it came to his personal life. Between 1923 and 1958, Getty was married and divorced five times. The reason for each divorce was always the same. Getty's constant infidelity. Throughout his life, he maintained a revolving door of mistresses, some of them as young as 16 or 17 years old. Getty had five children over the course of his various marriages, and he treated them just as badly as he treated their mothers. He rarely spoke to any of them, and whenever he did reach out, it was to put them down for not being good enough. His oldest son George was a vice president at Getty Oil and helped secure the Saudi Arabia deal. Even then, Getty never showed any appreciation for his son's efforts. Instead he would send George a steady stream of sarcastic telegrams belittling his work and his competence. George went on to suffer from depression and tragically died in 1973. Getty's third oldest son, J. Paul Getty Jr. Was allegedly his favorite. But that didn't mean he got any better treatment than the rest of his siblings. In 1944 when he was 12 years old, Junior wrote a letter to his father telling him he wished he could see him more often. In response, Getty sent his son son's letter back unanswered but with all of the spelling mistakes corrected. Despite this dynamic, Junior still went into the family business. Eventually he took a job in Getty Oil's Rome office where he and his wife Gail had four children together. And even after everything, Junior still passed his father's name along to his firstborn son. John Paul Getty III was born in 1956. Like his father before him, John Paul spent of his childhood longing for his parents attention. When John Paul was 8, his parents divorced and Junior soon married a Dutch model and actress named Talitha Pole. Before long, Junior and Talitha got involved with the hippie counterculture scene and started doing a lot of heroin. As John Paul got older he saw less and less of his father who eventually quit his job and moved to Morocco to party with the likes of Mick Jagger. Meanwhile, John Paul's mother married Hollywood actor Lang Jeffries and began spending a lot of time traveling to the U. S to be with him. With both of his parents absent, John spent most of his formative years in the care of servants and staff at various elite Roman boarding schools. Probably feeling abandoned, John Paul channeled his anger at the people who were around. Before long he started getting in trouble in school. He was allegedly kicked out of one boarding school for setting a fire and kicked out of another for painting a hallway with graffiti. By 14 years old he was reportedly selling weed, regularly, snorting cocaine and dropping acid. Two years later, 16 year old John had given up on school altogether. Instead he and a friend shared a studio apartment in Rome where they partied, got involved in left wing politics and talked about becoming famous painters and and John was sort of famous on the streets of Rome not for his art but because everyone knew he was a Getty. And it was just a matter of time until someone tried to use John Paul to get to his family fortune. That time came just after 3am on July 10, 1973, as 16 year old John Paul drunkenly stumbled down an empty street on his way home from a party. A group of men men jumped out of the shadows. They grabbed him, slipped a blindfold over his eyes and shoved him into the back of a waiting car. Then they sped off down the street and out of the city. They thought John Paul's loved ones would do anything to get him back. Little did they know the Gettys valued money above everything else, even family.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

John Paul Getty III was the grandson of the richest man in the world. The cruel, ruthless billionaire oil tycoon, J. Paul Getty. But no amount of money could shield John Paul from the heartache of being being a Getty. His own father, 41 year old J. Paul Getty Jr. Had abandoned him in favor of hard drugs. And unfortunately, John Paul was following in his father's footsteps. At 16 years old, John Paul had dropped out of school and was spending his days bumming around Rome, Italy with a scrappy crowd of artists, revolutionaries and drug dealers. Word spread quickly that the grandson of a billionaire was slumming in the Eternal City. And eventually a group of criminals took an interest in the boy that local newspapers called the Golden Hippie. In the early hours of July 10, 1973, they made their move and kidnapped 16 year old John Paul. The men who'd captured John Paul were members of a powerful organized crime syndicate called the Ndrangheta. Similar to the Sicilian Mafia, the Ndrangheta is a family based organization that's been involved in drug dealing, human trafficking and extortion all over southern Italy since the 1800s. But in the mid 20th century, the Ndrangheta expanded into a new and more lucrative field. Kidnapping. Police estimate that members of the Ndrangheta kidnapped more than 200 people between the 1970s and the 1990s. Often prioritizing wealthy targets whose families could pay a steep ransom. With the grandson of the world's richest man in the back of their car, John Paul's kidnappers probably thought they'd hit the jackpot. They drove into the Italian countryside, stopping from time to time to make John Paul, who was blindfolded, march in circles. They wanted him to lose track of which way they were driving. And it seemed to work. After hours on the road, they arrived at an abandoned World War II bunker in the of the middle mountains, deep in the Andronga's territory. They led John Paul inside, chained him up and locked the door. Then they called his family to make their ransom demand. John's mother Gail was at her house in Rome when she got a call from an Ndranga member who referred to himself as Chinquanta China told her that her son had been kidnapped. If she ever wanted to see him again, she'd need to pay them $17 million, which would be over $124 million in today's money. They cautioned her not to talk to the police and hung up. When Gail received that phone call from Chinquanta. She'd been divorced from John's father for nine years. She lived comfortably, but she didn't have $17 million. So she called her hard partying ex husband to see if he could use the Getty fortune to help their son. Although Junior was distraught about his son's safety, he couldn't help. He said he didn't have that kind of money either. The only one who did was his father, J. Paul Getty Sr. However, Gail would have to ask Getty directly. Apparently, he and Junior weren't on speaking terms. Gail tried to contact Getty, but he wasn't the easiest person to get a hold of. Not knowing what else to do, she decided to disobey John Paul's captor and call the police. Officers from the Carabinieri, Italy's version of the FBI arrived at Gail's house and questioned her for several hours. To her surprise, they didn't seem too concerned. Many of the officers were familiar with John Paul's antics around Rome. They told Gail he probably faked his kidnapping as a prank or money making scheme. But Gail was certain that something was wrong. Before they left, she made them promise not to talk to the media about the kidnapping. And it was a sensitive situation and she didn't want to jeopardize her son's safety in any way. Clearly, the police didn't take her pleas seriously. 20 minutes after they left, reporters started calling Gail asking for statements about her missing son. By the following morning, John Paul's kidnapping was front page news all over the world. And the media seemed to agree with the police. John Paul had faked his own kidnapping. The one upside to the media circus around John Paul's disappearance was that it caught the attention of the one man who could afford to pay the ransom. J. Paul Getty SR. 17 million was practically pocket change to him, and yet he refused to pay the ransom. When reporters asked why, Getty said, quote, I have 14 other grandchildren. If I pay a penny of ransom, then I'll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren. Gail knew how stingy Getty could be, but her son's life was on the line. She couldn't believe he wouldn't sacrifice a tiny portion of his fortune to save his own grandson. John Paul's kidnappers couldn't believe it either. In one of his many phone calls with Gail, Ch. Chinkwanta asked Gail, how can he leave his own flesh and blood in the plight your poor son is in? Gale didn't know the answer to his question. Luckily, Getty did eventually get Involved. In early August, he sent one of Getty Oil's security consultants to Rome to help Gail deal with the kidnappers. But the consultant, an ex CIA agent named Fletcher Chase, was anything but helpful. Chase wasted a lot of time trying and failing to track down the kidnappers. At one point, he traveled to a remote village to meet with a source who claimed to know where John Paul was. But after Chase paid him for his cooperation, this supposed informant mysteriously vanished. As if that wasn't bad enough, not long after, Chase started sleeping with an Italian police officer assigned to the case. Soon, Chase came to agree with the police. He thought the kidnapping was a hoax and advised Gail not to pay the kidnappers. But John's kidnapping was very real, and his captors were growing impatient. They'd assumed the entire kidnapping would be over in a matter of days. Instead, they'd spent weeks and now months guarding a frightened teenager while Xingquanta haggled with his family to try and get them to pay up. It dragged on for so long that the captors repeatedly had to find new places to keep John Paul locked up. First, they moved him from the bunker to a spot in a small ravine where he bathed in a river and built himself a hut out of old branches and loose plastic. Then, as winter approached, the kidnappers chained John up in a cave where he eventually got sick from the dank cold air. Cinquanta called Gail, telling her that her son was ill and would only get worse if they didn't pay. Even then, nobody could convince Getty to open his pocketbook. Eventually, the kidnappers decided they'd have to go to extreme lengths to show the Getty family they meant business. One chilly morning in October, a group of kidnappers entered John Paul's cave and offered him several swigs from a bottle of brandy. Then they gave him a rolled up handkerchief and told him to bite down on it. When he did, one of the kidnappers came up behind John Paul and sliced his right ear off with a razor blade. They mailed John Paul's severed ear to a local newspaper in Rome. The fatal delivery had its intended effect. Getty finally agreed to pay his grandson's ransom. But first he wanted to negotiate. Working through an intermediary from the US embassy, Getty haggled the ransom from sea $17 million down to 3.2 million of this amount. Getty agreed to pay 2.2 million because that was the maximum amount he could claim as a tax write off. He loaned his son junior the remaining $1 million to pay the kidnappers with the understanding that he'd repay the loan at a 4% annual interest. Once all the cash had been gathered, the ex CIA agent found Fletcher. Chase went to deliver the money to John Paul's kidnappers. Like before, his attempts didn't go as planned. The first time he tried, Chase got lost on a snowy mountain road and missed the rendezvous. Thankfully, on the second try, on December 15, 1973, he was able to hand off the money. Once the kidnappers had the cash in hand, they called their accomplices and told them the ransom him was paid. Minutes later, John Paul was set loose near a rural gas station. Once police recovered him, he was rushed back to Rome where he was reunited with his mother and paraded before reporters who clamored to photograph him and his bandaged ear. John Paul Getty III's ordeal was finally over. But his struggles had only just begun. In the aftermath of his kidnapping, John Paul tried to get on with his life. He had his ear surgically reconstructed and moved to Los Angeles. He tried to capitalize on his brief fame to become an actor. Along the way, he married one of his girlfriends from Rome and had a son. But John Paul's drug use spiraled out of control as he tried to readjust to life post kidnapping. And his relationship with his family didn't improve either. There was a clause in the Getty family trust that recipients couldn't marry before the age of 21. John Paul was only 18 when he tied the knot. Because of that, he lost access to the trust. When the elder J. Paul Getty died in 1976 at the age of 83 with a net worth of over $2 billion, he left John Paul nothing in his will. John Paul's father didn't fare much better. Getty left his son just $500. John Paul's struggles continued even after his grandfather passed away in 1981. He overdosed on drugs and suffered a massive stroke which left him a quadriplegic. His mother cared for him for the rest of his life. She was the one family member who stood up for John Paul throughout his many ordeals. And the two were very close at the time of his death in 2011, when he was 54 years old. John Paul's kidnapping was a harrowing and traumatic ordeal. But at the end of the day, it was only a minor escalation from the day to day trauma of being related to a man like J. Paul Getty. Coming up, another famous kidnapping with a harrowing ending.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

46 years before John Paul Getty III was set free after five months in captivity, another sensational kidnapping took place on the other side of the world. But this time the victim wasn't rich and famous. She was just a regular girl. On the morning of December 15, 1927, 12 year old Marion Parker was giddy with excitement. There was going to be a school wide Christmas party that day and she and her twin sister Marjorie were looking forward to the festivities. Together they boarded the trolley that took them to Mount Vernon Junior High School, just west of downtown Los Angeles. The girls were inseparable and always made the trip to and frankly from school together but their personalities couldn't have been more different. While Marjorie played with dolls and hosted tea parties, Marian was more interested in her model train set and sometimes played football with boys from school. So it made sense that Marjorie was closer to her mom. While Marion spent most of her time with her dad, Perry, one of her favorite things to do was visit him at the First National Trust and Savings bank where he worked as a teller. Marian knew her dad's job was important, but she never could have imagined it would be dangerous. And yet, that day, as she and Marjorie were enjoying the Christmas party, Marian was called to the front office. There, the school's administrator, Mary Holt, was waiting with a young man who said he worked with her dad. He told Marion the same thing he just told Mrs. Holt. Perry had been injured and an accident at work. The young man was there to take Marion to see him. Without any hesitation, Maran followed him out of the building and Mrs. Holt watched as she got into the man's car and drove away. Later that afternoon, hours after school had let out for the day, Perry Parker, Marion's father, called the front office. Mrs. Holt picked up. Perry explained that Marjorie had come home alone that day and he was wondering if Marion had been kept late by a teacher. Mrs. Holt explained that she'd sent Marion away with Perry's co worker earlier in the day. The administrator asked if Perry was feeling better after his accident at the office. Perry was confused. He hadn't been in an accident at work. He hadn't even been at work that day. He'd taken the day off to celebrate his 40th birthday. That's when Perry realized his daughter had been kidnapped. Not long after that phone call, Perry's worst fears were confirmed. He and his wife Geraldine received two telegrams from someone calling himself George Fox. George Fox told the Parkers not to contact the police and await further instructions. And as proof that he had Marion, one of the the telegrams included Marion's signature. The Parkers were frantic. They knew they weren't supposed to call the authorities, but how else would they get Marion back? Finally, in the early hours of December 16, they contacted the Los Angeles Police Department. Police were at the house taking statements when a special delivery envelope arrived. Inside were two letters. One was from the kidnapper who was now referring to himself as fate. He told Perry to act natural, gather fifteen hundred dollars for ransom and await further instructions. The other letter was from Marion, written in her own handwriting. She said she was desperate to come home and ended her message by saying, daddy, please do what this man tells You. Or he'll kill me if you don't. Hours later, Perry went to work. He followed the kidnapper's instructions and acted like everything was normal while he was there. He gathered $1,500 from his personal account. But he took care to record the serial numbers of every bill he withdrew, hoping it could help identify the kidnapper after the ransom was paid. Meanwhile, the police were busy trying to find Marion's captor. Detectives were confused by the relatively low ransom demand. $1,500 was a lot of money, the equivalent of over $27,000 in 2025. But most kidnappers at the time asked for five or six figure sums. This led investigators to believe that the kidnapper might be someone who knew the Parkers personally and understood that they were a middle class family. It was an important revelation. But now detectives needed to learn what this man actually looks looked like. They went to Marion's school where they questioned Mrs. Holt about the man who'd picked her up the previous day. Mrs. Holt was able to provide a detailed description. The kidnapper was young, between 25 and 30 years old, 5ft 8 inches tall, had brown hair and was wearing a gray overcoat and hat. And he'd been driving a gray coupe sedan. After that, detectives spoke to Marjorie. They learned that on the day of the kidnapping, a man in a similar car had pulled up alongside the trolley they were riding to school. He'd been waving his arms and trying to get their attention, gesturing for them to get off the trolley and get into the car with him. At the time, the girls had ignored him and he'd driven away. Now it seemed like the same man had shown up at the school a few hours later with the lie about their father. On the evening of December 16, 24 hours after Marion was taken, the kidnapper called the Parker house with new orders for Perry. He told Perry to take the $1500 and drive to the corner of 10th and Gramercy to make the handoff. Perry left straight away, but he didn't know he was being trailed by undercover LAPD detectives. Perry spent hours waiting in his car at the intersection. But the kidnapper never made contact. And so Perry returned home after midnight, empty handed. The following afternoon, on December 17, he received a new letter from the kidnapper. He had spotted the undercover detectives staking out the rendezvous, and he was furious. He told Perry he had one last chance to get his daughter back alive and said he'd call later in the day with more details. The envelope also included another letter in Marion's handwriting, begging her father to listen to the kidnapper's instructions and come on his own. This time, as the Parkers frantically waited for more instructions, they had to endure a new source of stress. The kidnapping had leaked to the media. Kidnappings, especially of children, made for a juicy news item. Now the Parker's personal crisis was a front page story in newspapers across the country. In the midst of all of this, the Parkers finally received another call from the kidnapper. At 7:15pm he told Perry to leave the house immediately and drive a few miles away to the corner of Fifth street and Manhattan Place. Before he left, Perry made the chief detective on the case swear not to have him followed. The investigation could come later. Right now, everyone just wanted Marion to get home safely. Perry Parker drove to the address he'd been given. It was a quiet, empty residential street lined with small apartment buildings. Perry pulled over to the side of the road. This time he didn't have to wait long for Marion's abductor to arrive. After just a a few minutes, a gray Chrysler coupe pulled up beside his car. The driver was wearing a bandana across his face and pointing a sawed off shotgun at Perry. The kidnapper asked if Perry had the ransom. Perry recognized his voice from the phone calls and held up the $1,500. The man told him to hand over the money, but Perry demanded to see his daughter before he paid the ransom. In response, the kidnapper gestured to the passenger seat. Perry hadn't noticed her in the darkness at first, but Marion was sitting there, wrapped in a blanket, staring straight ahead. Perry called out to his daughter, but she didn't respond. The man explained that his daughter was asleep. Perry could see that her eyes were wide open, but assumed she'd been drugged. And so Perry reached out of the car car and handed the stack of bills to the kidnapper. The man continued to point his gun at Perry as he counted the money. Finally satisfied, he set the cash down and told Perry to wait. The captor drove a few feet ahead of Perry's car, then opened his passenger side door and pushed Marion out. She fell limply to the ground as the masked man stepped on the gas and roared off up the street and into the night. Perry leaped out of his car and ran to his daughter. But as he picked her up in his arms, he realized something was wrong. Horribly wrong. Marion was dead under the blankets. She was badly mutilated. The following details are disturbing. Sensitive listeners may want to skip ahead past the next ad break. Marion's arms had been cut off at the elbows. Her legs were missing entirely, along with the rest of her torso below the navel. Not only that, but her eyes had been stitched open with a needle and thread. Makeup had been crudely applied to her face to make her look alive. Perry Parker's anguished screams pierced through the stillness of the night. Soon the ghastly details of his true 12 year old daughter's murder would be front page news in every city in America. And the manhunt for her killer was about to begin.

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[Ellen Marsh]

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[Vanessa Richardson]

12 year old Marion Parker was kidnapped from her school in Los Angeles and by a man claiming to work with her dad, Perry. Over the next two days, Marion's abductor sent her family multiple letters and telegrams demanding a $1,500 ransom. Finally, on the night of December 17, Perry met the kidnapper on a deserted street corner to hand over the cash. He could see Marion sitting in the passenger seat of the car, but when the man pushed Marion out of the car and drove away, Perry was horrified to discover that his daughter was dead. Her kidnapper had cut off her arms and legs and sewn her eyes open so she'd look alive. The detectives working on Marion's case were used to gruesome crime scenes, but this was truly shocking. The brutality of the crime only made them more eager to catch Marion's killer and make him pay for what he'd done. Meanwhile, residents of Los Angeles were terrified by the news. Everyone from the mayor and the governor of California to Hollywood executive Jack Warner and movie star Clara Bow all contributed to a $100,000 reward for information leading to Marion's killer. School attendance dropped sharply in the days after the killing as concerned parents kept their children home, worried that they would be next. While Marion's body was taken away for an autopsy, the police took a statement from her devastated father and began searching the streets for the gray Chrysler coupe the kidnapper had been driving. On the morning of December 18, police found the car in a parking lot several miles away from where Marion's body had been dumped. Detectives questioned the lot attendant, who said that a young, dark, dark haired man had dropped the car off the previous night. The driver had promised to return for the car the following day. Police staked out the lot, but he never returned. Detectives canvassed the area surrounding the lot, asking folks if they'd seen a man matching the killer's description. Their investigation led them to a cafe a few blocks away, where they learned the kidnapper had come in for a meal shortly after receiving the ransom from Perry. When they checked the cash register, Police found a $20 bill with a serial number matching the ones used in the ransom payment. As detectives retraced the killer's steps, the medical examiner discovered another gruesome clue. During Marion's autopsy, while inspecting what was left of her body, he realized Marion's murderer had stuffed a towel and part of a shirt into her abdominal cavity. Investigators believed he did this to try and make her dismembered body look more full and lifelike. He probably never expected that the materials he used to do it would lead the police to his door. On the morning of December 18, the police examined the towel and discovered a laundry mark showing it belonged to a tenant at the Bellevue Arms Apartments. Detectives rushed to the apartment complex just north of downtown la, where they began canvassing the building and interviewing residents. Nobody they spoke to looked like the killer. But after detectives described his car, the tenants apparently all agreed that it belonged to one of their neighbors. The man's name was William Hickman, but he generally went by his middle name, Edward. According to his neighbors, he'd left the complex In a hurry, hours before the police arrived. When investigators broke down the door to his apartment, they saw just how much of a hurry he'd been in. There were still the remains of a half eaten meal on the kitchen table. There was also a ton of evidence, including bloodstains in the bathroom, copies of newspaper articles about Marion's kidnapping, and discarded drafts of ransom letters. And as detectives dug into Hickman's life, they were shocked to discover there was some truth to what he told Marion when he picked her up at school. Based on his employment records, Hickman had briefly been one of Perry Parker's co workers at the bank. Hickman was just 19 years old and had grown up in Arkansas and gone to high school in Kansas. As a high school senior, he and a teenage accomplice had taken part in a string of robberies when one of which left an innocent man dead. In the wake of the murder, Hickman fled to Los Angeles, where he took a low level job in the mailroom at the First National Trust and Savings Bank. During his short stint at the bank, he forged $400 worth of checks until he was caught and reported by Perry Parker. In the summer of 1927, Hickman lost his job and was sentenced to to probation for his crime. Apparently, he'd held a grudge against the man who'd turned him in. But the feeling wasn't mutual. Perry had all but forgotten about Hickman after he was fired and hadn't recognized his ex coworker's voice when they talked on the phone or met for the ransom payment. Now that police knew who they were looking for, they enlisted the scores of newspaper reporters following the case for help. Less than 24 hours after police entered Hickman's apartment, papers all over the country were printing his name and picture, as well as the serial numbers of the ransom bills Perry had given him. The public was eager to help, and a week after Marion's kidnapping, the police finally got a solid lead. On the morning of December 22, two men in Portland, Oregon called the LAPD with information about Edward Hickman. They hadn't just seen him, they'd ridden in his car for hours. The previous day, the men had been hitchhiking through Northern California when a young man driving a green Hudson sedan picked them up and gave them a lift up to Portland. The driver was clearly in a hurry. He was also carrying a.45 caliber automatic pistol and it was loaded. The hitchhikers hadn't given him much thought until they got back to their apartment and saw his picture on the front page. Of the newspaper. It turned out the green Hudson matched a car that had been reported stolen in Los Angeles on the same day Hickman abandoned his gray Chrysler. And that wasn't the last sighting. A couple hours after the tip from the hitchhikers, a gas station attendant called the lapd. Hickman had just come to his shop on the outskirts of the Portland. He was driving a green Hudson and had paid for his gas with a $20 bill from the ransom money. Then he headed east along a highway that runs through Oregon's Columbia River Gorge. Investigators rushed to call police departments all along Hickman's route and warn them to be on the lookout. The child murderer was coming their way and he was armed. In the sleepy little town of Echo in eastern Oregon, police officers Tom Gurdon and Cecil Llewellyn staked out the highway that ran through town, keeping watch for Hickman's car. Sure enough, at around 1:30pm on December 22, a green Hudson zoomed past them heading east. The officers turned on their sirens and hit the road in pursuit. The driver tried to outrun them for a couple of miles, but eventually he pulled over on the side of the dusty country road. Officers Gurdon and Llewellyn jumped out of their car and approached the Hudson with their pistols drawn. The driver was a brown haired man wearing sunglasses and he seemed anxious. Officer Llewellyn held the man at gunpoint while Officer Gurdon searched the car. Inside, he found a small sawed off shotgun sticking out from under the driver's seat. And when he opened the glove box, he found $1,000 in wadded up bills, all of them with serial numbers matching the ransom payout. There was no doubt about it. The jig was up. They'd found Edward Hickman. Hickman was arrested and charged with Marion's murder. In late December, he was extradited from Oregon to Los Angeles. He was transported under heavy guard and greeted in LA by an angry mob of more than 4,000 people. His trial began on January 25, 1928. The 19 year old admitted to strangling Marion in his apartment, draining her body of blood in his bathtub and cutting off her arms and legs. He tried to plead not guilty by reason of incident insanity. In court, he and his lawyers claimed that he had been ready to let Marion go until a supernatural entity called Providence commanded him to kill her. But the jury didn't buy this argument, especially when prosecutors introduced testimony from Hickman's jail guards in Oregon who claimed the inmate had asked them how he could act crazy to score a lighter sentence. Sentence In February of 1928, Hickman was found guilty of the murder of Marion Parker and sentenced to death. Eight months later, on October 19, 1928, the 20 year old was led to the gallows at San Quentin Prison. Before the noose was placed around his neck, prison officials asked him if he had any last words. But Hickman, visibly anxious, simply shook his head. After so many telegrams and letters, Edward Hickman had nothing left to say. Looking back at this week in Crime history, we can see the pros and cons of media attention when it comes to kidnappings. When Marion Parker was abducted, newspapers helped police identify and and catch her killer. On the other hand, the media spotlight didn't do John Paul Getty III any favors. Instead, they amplified the rumors about him faking his own disappearance. It's a reminder that in a sensitive, high stakes situation, the world's attention can be a double edged sword. Foreign. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is True Crime this Week. True Crime this Week is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following True Crime this Week. Wherever you get your podcast podcasts, your feedback truly matters. And for ad free and early access to True Crime this Week plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. We'll be back next Sunday. True Crime this Week is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the True Crime this Week Team. Matt, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzofsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Truman Capps, Haniya Saeed and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening. And Doug, here we have the Limu.

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