The Lipstick Killer Is The Longest Serving Inmate In The US
The Lipstick Killer Is The Longest Serving Inmate In The US and his name is William Heirens. AKA, the “Lipstick Killer,” is believed to be the longest serving inmate in the United States. He will turn 81, on November 15, 2009.
Heirens is currently incarcerated at the Dixon Correctional Center minimum security prison, in the health unit, in Dixon, Illinois (Inmate No. C-06103).
Diabetes has ravaged his body, he is in a wheel chair, but his mind is still sharp.
“Bill’s never allowed himself to be institutionalized,” said Dolores Kennedy, his long time friend and advocate. “He’s kept himself focused on the positives.”
Heirens has been locked behind bars and walls for 63 years, making inmate C06103 the longest serving prisoner in Illinois history…but now he states that he would like some freedom.
He states that his confession was gotten by coercive interrogation and police brutality…by many means of torture.
According to Steven Drizin, the legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, Heirens “has served longer than anyone in the U.S. that I can find.”
The Lipstick Killer Is The Longest Serving Inmate In The US and he does hold the record for being the inmate that has been incarsarated longer than any other inmate in Illinois.
While Drizin, who has represented Heirens since 2001, and others passionately plead for his release and prepare to once again petition the state parole board that has consistently refused to free Heirens, others are convinced he is a manipulative murderer.
Josephine Ross, 43, was his first victim. She was found stabbed to death, in her apartment. She was killed on June 5, 1945.
Then, December of 1945, police discovered the body of Frances Brown, in her bathroom. She had been stabbed through the neck and shot in the head.
It was there that the killer left a message on the wall. It said, “for heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself.” It was scrawled in red lipstick. The press jumped on that detail and the murder became, the Lipstick Killer.
Four weeks later, in January of 1946, an intruder used a ladder to enter the second floor window of Suzanne Degnan’s bedroom. He approached the sleeping 6 year old girl and abducted her.
There soon was a ransom note asking for $20,000. But, before that could even be arranged, the horrific discovery of Suzanne’s severed head in a sewer and other body parts were found within days, of her abduction.
Fear gripped the Chicago area. Hundreds of people were questioned, but the investigation went on for months without a single break.
Then, in June of 1946, when two police officers confronted a burglar near the Degnan home.
The young burglar was a student at the University of Chicago. His name was William Heirens, he was 17, and police soon were positive that he was the Lipstick Killer.
Heirens was subjected to days on end of brutal interrogation. He was beaten, given sodium pentothal to make him tell the truth, underwent a spinal tap, to convince him to talk.
What Did The Prosecution Have on Heirnes
Prosecutors claimed that his handwriting matched that of the words scribbled in lipstick at the scene of the Brown killing and the FBI determined that a fingerprint lifted from the Degnan ransom note matched Heirens.
Plus, there was the confession that was extracted from William Heirens that would seal his fate. On August 7, 1946, Heirens describing how he killed, the three victims, Degnan, Brown and Ross.
In court, he pleaded guilty to three counts of murder. It was a plea bargain and in exchange for the plea, Heirens, was spared the death penalty and given three consecutive life sentences.
I can only imagine how the authorities were, in Chicago, in the 40’s. The graft and illegal actions of the last Illinois Governor is proof of what can be allowed, tolerated and done.
For the full story of “The Lipstick Killer Is The Longest Serving Inmate In The US,” go to CNN News.
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I guess he is off the streets and that is about it but we are paying big time!!!