Hickman had quite a life. Pretty much balls-out: read about how the French Connection chase developed...
Some time back - maybe a year or so - there was a discussion here where the gas station photo of Lil [censored] & the Ford wagon was posted.
I first saw that photo decades ago and my gut feeling was that those 2 cars were related; subsequently confirmed
There's another photo of both cars in L.A. that looks like it may be at the origin of that fateful trip.