Michael Newton's Stolen Away

December 1927: The daughter of a prominent Los Angeles banker, twelve-year-old Marian Parker was summoned from school by a well-dressed stranger, who claimed her father had been injured and needed her at his side. By the time Perry Parker received the first in a string of bizarre ransom notes, signed ominously by "Fate," the horror of Marian's abduction was dawning on a trusting and naïve community. But no one imagined the worst of this atrocious crime: although the kidnapper's modest demands were promptly met, Fate rebounded with savage and lethal cruelty.

A sensational coast-to-coast news story, a cause célèbre for movie stars, evangelists, and politicians, the frenzied search for Marian's killer led to the arrest of William Edward Hickman--and the sobering discovery that unfathomable evil can reside behind the façade of a bright, likable, all-American young man. Drawn from fascinating historical records, including trial transcripts from the century's first--and controversial--"insanity defense," this is a gripping account of the horrors that turned California's glow to a disturbing chill.



	Stolen Away by Michael Newton


		STOLEN AWAY December 1927: The daughter of a prominent Los Angeles banker, twelve-year-old Marian Parker was summoned from school by a well-dressed stranger, who claimed her father had been injured and needed her at his side. By the time Perry Parker received the first in a string of bizarre ransom notes, signed ominously by "Fate," the horror of Marian's abduction was dawning on a trusting and naïve community. But no one imagined the worst of this atrocious crime: although the kidnapper's modest demands were promptly met, Fate rebounded with savage and lethal cruelty. A sensational coast-to-coast news story, a cause célèbre for movie stars, evangelists, and politicians, the frenzied search for Marian's killer led to the arrest of William Edward Hickman--and the sobering discovery that unfathomable evil can reside behind the façade of a bright, likable, all-American young man. Drawn from fascinating historical records, including trial transcripts from the century's first--and controversial--"insanity defense," this is a gripping account of the horrors that turned California's glow to a disturbing chill.


2000; Pocket Books ISBN: 0-671-01748-9