The Park's Finest

Frances Marion Parker (October 11, 1915 – December 17, 1927) was an American child who was abducted and murdered in Los Angeles, California. Her murder was deemed by the Los Angeles Times "the most horrible crime of the 1920s", and at the time was considered the most horrific crime in the history of California. In later decades, Parker's death was the subject of various murder ballads. Parker went missing on December 15, 1927, after she was dismissed from her classes at Mount Vernon Junior High School in Lafayette Square: an unknown man, posing as an employee of her father, Perry, checked her out of school with the registrar, stating that her father had suffered an accident. The next day, the Parker family received ransom letters demanding $1,500 (equivalent to $23,672 in 2021) in gold. The letters were signed with various titles, including "Fate", "Death", and "The Fox"; and some had words written in Greek. Following the orders of the ransom, Perry Parker—a bank employee—met his daughter's abductor in central Los Angeles on December 17, 1927. Upon the exchange of the money, the assailant drove away, throwing Marion's mutilated body out of his car as he fled. The child had been significantly disfigured, her limbs cut off, her eyes fixed open with wires, and her abdomen disemboweled and stuffed with rags; her limbs were discovered the next day in Elysian Park. Parker's murderer was soon identified as William Edward Hickman (born February 1, 1908), a 19-year-old former co-worker of Perry Parker. Law-enforcement officers tracked Hickman throughout the Pacific Northwest over several days, relying on sightings in Albany and Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, where he paid shop-owners with gold certificates given to him in the ransom. He was arrested in Echo, Oregon, on December 22, 1927, and then extradited to California, where he was convicted of Parker's murder. He made a written confession, in which he explained in detail how he strangled Parker, disarticulated her limbs, and disemboweled her while she was still alive. Hickman and his defense claimed that he was insane, and that a deity, "Providence", told him to commit the kidnapping and murder. He was one of the first defendants in California to use what was then a new law, which allowed defendants to plead that they were not guilty by reason of insanity. Hickman was convicted of the murder, and sentenced to death. After an unsuccessful appeal, he was executed by hanging at San Quentin State Prison in October 1928. Marion Parker was survived by her parents; elder brother; and twin sister, Marjorie.

Foy House is a Victorian Italianate-style house that was built in 1872, located in Los Angeles, California. It was the eighth property in Los Angeles to receive Historical-Cultural Monument status.

The S.C. Geier House is a Colonial Revival style home located in the Angelino Heights Historic Preservation Overlay Zone in Los Angeles, California. It is a 2,900-square-foot (270 m2) house built in c.1907, designed by R. L. Sholty around May of c. 1906. It was restored in 2005. It shares lot lines on either side with Los Angeles Cultural Monuments #103 Forthmann Carriage House and #808 the Neutra/Maxwell House.

Carroll Avenue is a street situated in Los Angeles, near Echo Park. It is in Angelino Heights, one of the older neighborhoods of Los Angeles. It consists of Victorian-era houses within a picturesque neighborhood, which has served as the backdrop for countless motion pictures from the earliest days of cinema to the present.

Neutra/Maxwell House, referred to as the Maxwell House, is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 808) located in Angelino Heights, Los Angeles, California. It is a 1,200-square-foot (110 m2) Mid-Century modern house built c.1941, designed by Richard Neutra. It was relocated in 2008 from its original location at 475 North Bowling Green Way in Brentwood, Los Angeles thanks to the efforts of Barbara Behm. The Charles and Sylvie Maxwell House was designed and built by Neutra for the two musicians, she a violinist and he a composer, who wanted "acoustically suitable living quarters" on a budget of $6,750. Her practice room is farthest away from the composers study. There is a nice integration of sloping and flat roofs with the introduction of a glass triangle into the redwood siding. It was with this project that Neutra first experimented with the peaked roof and triangular glazed gable openings that later became a trademark of the firm when pitched roofs were mandated by city building codes. Further, this design element profoundly influenced the design of American suburban architecture in the 1950s and 60's.

Angelino Heights is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, California, situated within neighboring districts of Chinatown and Echo Park. This neighborhood is known for its concentration of eclectic architectural styles from three eras: The Victorian, Turn of the Century and Revival eras.

Downtown Magnets High School (also known as DMHS, Downtown Business Magnet, or DBM) is an alternate magnet high school located in the Temple-Beaudry neighborhood near Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. The school belongs to the Downtown/MacArthur Park Community of Schools and houses three magnet programs: Business (DBM), and Electronic Information (EIM), and the International Baccalaureate (IB). The three magnets combined hold a total student population of approximately 1,000 students.

The Vista Hermosa Natural Park is an urban public park located in Echo Park, Los Angeles, immediately west of Civic Center, Los Angeles. Vista Hermosa Natural Park sits on a former oil field of 10.5 acres (4.2 ha), bounded by Toluca Street and West 1st Street, Los Angeles. The park includes walking trails, streams, meadows, oak savannahs, picnic grounds, a nature-themed playground, and a soccer field.The $15-million park was opened on July 19, 2008 and was the first to open in Downtown Los Angeles in over 100 years. The park is managed as a partnership among the Los Angeles Unified School District, the City of Los Angeles, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, formerly known as Belmont Learning Center, the Vista Hermosa Learning Center, Central Los Angeles High School 11, is a secondary school and park located at 1200 Colton Street in the Westlake area of Los Angeles, California, United States.The school is part of LAUSD, and opened after years of controversy on Tuesday, September 2, 2008. Roybal has four Small Learning Communities: Academy for Social Work and Child Development (SWCD), Activists for Educational Empowerment (AEE), Business and Finance Academy (BFA), and Computer Science Academy (CSA). Each Academy has its own purpose and different techniques of teaching. BFA is more about involving students with the business atmosphere, SWCD trains students for jobs in the fields of social work and child development, CSA is about involving students with the computer atmosphere, and lastly, AEE provides their students with a sense of empowerment and helps them get involved.

Pehrspace was an Indie music venue and art gallery situated in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles. It was founded in 2006 by Adam Hervey and Darren King, and currently owned and operated by Pauline Lay. Pehrspace is an all-ages, not-for-profit art space, run by volunteers, inspired and influenced by venues Jabberjaw and Timbrespace. Pehrspace is run under Pehr Arts Ltd. a 501(c)3 organization.

The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, founded by Bob Baker and Alton Wood in 1963, is the oldest children's theater company in Los Angeles. In June 2009, the theater was designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. In early 2019, the theater moved to a new permanent home at 4949 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90042.

The Four Level Interchange (officially the Bill Keene Memorial Interchange) is the first stack interchange in the world. Completed in 1949 and fully opened in 1953 at the northern edge of Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States, it connects U.S. Route 101 (Hollywood Freeway and Santa Ana Freeway) to State Route 110 (Harbor Freeway and Arroyo Seco Parkway). In 2006, the interchange was officially renamed in the memory of Los Angeles traffic and weather reporter Bill Keene.