William Edward Hickman was 19 when Los Angeles police named him as the man who had abducted a 12-year-old girl in December 1927 and demanded a ransom for her. She was killed that month. Within a week of his arrest in Oregon he also confessed to a second killing, that of C. Ivy Thoms in the Rose Hill district of Los Angeles on Christmas Eve 1926. The two deaths were a year apart and unconnected in circumstance, except through the young man who admitted both.
The prosecution of the girl's killing went to trial in February 1928 on a plea that California had added to its law only the year before: not guilty by reason of insanity. Under that statute the plea admitted the offense and left a jury to decide one question, whether the defendant was sane when he committed it. A jury answered that question in a little over half an hour. The California Supreme Court upheld the result in July 1928, and Hickman was executed at San Quentin Prison on October 19, 1928.
The record contains two separate killings. The first was the death of C. Ivy Thoms on December 24, 1926. The second was the death of the girl in December 1927. They were investigated, charged and tried as different cases, in the same county, with different co-defendants. For the girl's death Hickman stood alone before the jury; for the death of Thoms he was named with a teenage accomplice. The legal outcomes differ: the girl's case ended in a conviction, a sentence of death and an affirmed appeal, while the case of Thoms was still awaiting trial in February 1928.
Hickman came from Kansas City, Missouri. A report printed in December 1927 described him as a former honor student at Central High School there. By the time of the killings he was living in Los Angeles. The Associated Press reported at the end of December 1927 that he had worked as a messenger at a Los Angeles bank and had been discharged after becoming involved in a forgery case. According to the same report he stayed on at the bank for about six months after the death of Thoms, was then caught in the forgery case, and received probation.
His family appeared in the coverage of the trial by role: his father lived in El Paso, his mother and a brother in Kansas City. The defense later argued that mental illness ran in the family, an argument the jury did not accept.
C. Ivy Thoms was killed on Christmas Eve 1926 during a holdup in the Rose Hill district of Los Angeles. A year later, Hickman confessed to it.
When he did, in the last days of December 1927, he named an accomplice, Welby Hunt, a youth from Alhambra who was 16 when the case reached court. Hunt was arrested and, the Associated Press reported, gave a confession that supported Hickman's account. He denied that he had caused the death. A wire report in February 1928 recorded the position that, technically, both could be held guilty regardless of which of them had caused it.
On December 15, 1927, a 12-year-old girl was abducted in Los Angeles, and a ransom was demanded for her. Her death that month was the subject of the indictment that followed.
By December 20 police had named Hickman. The Associated Press that day described him as a former bank employee and said a $1,000 reward had been offered for his capture. A report published on December 22 stated that a formal charge of murder, with other charges, had been placed against him and a warrant issued. He was arrested in Oregon on December 22, 1927.
Hickman admitted the girl's death. At the end of December the Associated Press reported that he had confessed late one night to the death of Thoms as well, and that Hunt, whom he had named, had been arrested. When he was asked whether he had killed anyone else, the same report said, he answered "Sure!" Nothing further was charged on the strength of that remark. District Attorney Asa Keyes said the details of the confession would be made public after Hickman's arraignment.
The Lubbock Daily Journal reported on January 10, 1928 that Hunt's attorney, A. Gilmer, had first said that Hunt would plead guilty and ask the court for mercy, and then reversed himself and said he would plead not guilty. The prosecutor, Forrest Murray, said that seeking a death sentence against Hunt was complicated by his being under the juvenile age limit.
Hickman was indicted on two counts in Los Angeles County. The California Supreme Court later described the case as the murder of a 12-year-old Los Angeles girl, with a second count on the same indictment. Hickman confessed, and his only defense was insanity. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both counts.
The plea was new. In 1927 the legislature had amended sections 1016, 1017 and 1026 of the Penal Code to allow a plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity", with a provision that a defendant who entered only that plea "thereby admits the commission of the offense charged." The trial that followed was therefore not a contest over whether he had committed the offense. The jury was asked to decide whether he was sane or insane when he did.
The Associated Press reported on February 1, 1928 that the separate trial of Hickman and Hunt for the death of Thoms had been continued to February 15 by the presiding judge, Charles S. Hardy, just before it was due to begin. Attorneys had agreed earlier to delay that case until the sanity trial in the girl's case was finished, and Hickman's appearance on the Thoms charge was described as a formality.
The sanity trial was held in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County before Judge J. J. Trabucco. By February 8 the state had called its last of seven psychiatric witnesses. One of them, the Associated Press reported, said Hickman was obviously feigning insanity. The defense had prepared a closing statement written by Hickman himself, which his lawyers intended to put into the record. A letter addressed to the jury, threatening its members if Hickman were not held responsible, was intercepted by the court clerk and handed to the judge, who called it the work of an unbalanced person.
Closing arguments were heard on February 9. Defense attorney Richard Cantillon pointed to mental illness in the family. His colleague Jerome Walsh told the jury that a verdict of sanity would be an indictment of every 19-year-old boy in the country and asked them to look at Hickman as a madman. Deputy District Attorney Forrest Murray began the state's argument. The jury had no say in the penalty: the choice between life imprisonment and death was the judge's alone.
On February 10, 1928, the jury found Hickman sane after deliberating for 36 minutes. The Associated Press reported that he took the verdict calmly and made jokes on the way back to his cell. His lawyers said they would appeal on the legality of the proceedings and the constitutionality of the new insanity law, and would move for a new trial. District Attorney Keyes said he would fight delay, and that if Hickman were sentenced to death, appeals would probably hold up the execution for several months. The girl's father said he was satisfied and wanted only to forget.
Sentencing was expected on February 11. That day the Associated Press reported that Judge Trabucco had put it off until the following Tuesday, February 14, when the defense motion for a new trial would be argued. By February 15 the wire reports described Hickman as condemned. The Supreme Court's opinion records the result in the court's own terms: the court fixed the murder as "murder of the first degree without extenuating circumstances," and he received the death penalty for the murder and a state prison term on the other count.
On February 15, 1928, the Associated Press reported that defense attorneys for Hickman had tried to delay the joint trial of Hickman and Hunt for the death of Thoms. Presiding Judge Hardy blocked the motion and assigned the case to Superior Court Judge Elliott Craig for trial. Hunt had pleaded not guilty. The report said he was under the age limit for execution, and that his lawyer meant to put the circumstances before the court in the hope of leniency. It added that the prosecution had refused Hunt's offer to give evidence against Hickman, on the footing that both could be held guilty whoever had caused the death.
The verdict and sentence in that trial are not on record.
Hickman appealed from the judgments of conviction and from the orders denying his motion for a new trial and his motion in arrest of judgment. The California Supreme Court decided People v. Hickman, 204 Cal. 470, 268 P. 909, on July 5, 1928, and affirmed the judgments and the orders.
His lawyers raised a list of points: that the 1927 amendments denied him the right to a jury trial under the state constitution, and violated federal due process and equal protection; that the judge before whom he pleaded had stepped aside and the trial judge lacked jurisdiction; and complaints about peremptory challenges, jury instructions, the court's power to fix the degree of murder, the order of argument and the wording of the judgment, which recited that he "duly pleaded guilty." The court rejected the constitutional arguments. It held that the guarantee of jury trial in the state constitution meant that citizens would have an opportunity to be tried by a jury, and that the statute violated no provision of the federal constitution and raised no federal question. The defense of insanity itself was preserved, and the burden of proving sanity stayed with the prosecution. All the justices present concurred. On October 1, 1928, an application to take the case to the United States Supreme Court was denied.
William Edward Hickman was executed at San Quentin Prison on October 19, 1928, for the murder of the girl. The Associated Press reported from San Quentin that day that the execution was for the murder of the 12-year-old girl he had kidnapped the previous December.
Several points in the record do not come to a firm conclusion.
The number of killings. Hickman answered "Sure!" when asked in late December 1927 whether he had killed anyone else, and a December 22, 1927 report said police were linking him to a series of holdups. No other killing was charged against him, and the two deaths already described are the only ones with charges.
Which of the two young men caused the death of Thoms. Hunt denied it; authorities said in January 1928 that the evidence in the case pointed to him; the wire report of February 15, 1928 held that it did not matter in law whether one or both were responsible.
Sanity. The state's psychiatric witnesses said Hickman was feigning; the defense said he was a madman with inherited illness. The jury decided in favor of the state after 36 minutes, and the Supreme Court did not disturb the finding.
December 24, 1926: C. Ivy Thoms is killed during a holdup in the Rose Hill district of Los Angeles.
December 15, 1927: a 12-year-old girl is abducted in Los Angeles and a ransom is demanded.
December 20, 1927: police name Hickman and offer a $1,000 reward.
December 22, 1927: a formal charge is placed against him; he is arrested in Oregon.
Late December 1927: Hickman confesses to the death of Thoms and names Welby Hunt, who is arrested.
February 1, 1928: the joint trial on the Thoms charge is continued to February 15.
February 10, 1928: a jury finds Hickman sane after 36 minutes.
February 14, 1928: the Tuesday set for sentencing; by February 15 he is reported condemned.
February 15, 1928: joint trial of Hickman and Hunt on the Thoms charge is assigned to Judge Elliott Craig.
July 5, 1928: the California Supreme Court affirms the judgments in People v. Hickman.
October 1, 1928: an application to take the case to the United States Supreme Court is denied.
October 19, 1928: Hickman is executed at San Quentin Prison.