The sad story of 12-year-old Marion Parker began when 19-year-old psychopath William Edward Hickman her from her Los Angeles school in 1927. His intention was to ransom her back to her wealthy father, banker Perry Parker. Hickman sent a series of cryptic notes to the Parkers, demanding gold certificates in exchange for Marion. Despite Parker’s attempts to get his daughter back safely, Hickman choked Marion and then preceded to cut off her arms and legs with a razor blade.

Still intent on getting his ransom, Hickman powdered Marion’s face, combed her hair, and sewed open her eyelids. He put Marion’s torso in the back seat of his car, covered it up to the neck with a blanket. Hickman then drove to the rendezvous and quickly made the handoff, but Parker soon discovered that what he had paid for was not his daughter, but her corpse.

Hickman was eventually caught and convicted, meeting his end in 1928 at the end of a hangman’s noose. Marion, however, lingers on. Her presence has been reported multiple times, still residing at her childhood home at 1631 S. Wilton Place in Los Angeles, California.

Three decades ago, when author Marvin Wolf (“Fallen Angels”) telephoned the then-owner of 1631 S. Wilton to tell her about the famous kidnapping and murder, she interrupted the story to say, “Oh, that accounts for our ghost.”

Seems that the owners had noticed what they felt was a benevolent, small child spirit who moved small objects and occasionally could be heard walking through the house. When Wolf was telling the Marion Parker tale, the lights in the house flashed repeatedly on and off.