The “lipstick killer” was a constant killer and a kidnapper operating in Chicago in the mid to late 1940s. .
The three killings were strikingly similar, especially to the women, with a third victim being found dumped in the sewers after a note was found on a banknote demanding a ransom.
The chronicle of crimes
The first murder attributed to the “lipstick killer” took place on the night of June 4, 1945. The victim was 43-year-old Josephine Ross, who was first stabbed and then the perpetrator cut her throat. The next victim, 33-year-old Francis Brown, was shot in the head, stabbed after her murder and her body somehow injured similarly to Ross.
This time, however, the killer wrote a message in the mirror over the victim’s bed with the lipstick of Brown: “For God’s sake, catch me before I kill others. “I can not control myself.” This was the reason why the media of his time nicknamed him “the killer with the lipstick”.
On the night of January 7 of the following year, six-year-old Susan Degnan was abducted from her family’s apartment, taken to a nearby basement laundry room, where she was strangled to death and dismembered. Her body parts were then dumped in drains and toilet bowls near the laundry room, and police found them a few weeks later. The medical examiner estimates that the unfortunate girl had died between 12.30-1.00am.
A poorly written ransom note was found in the apartment telling parents to pay $ 20,000 in five- and ten-dollar bills for their daughter’s return and not to contact police or the FBI. The case attracted a lot of media attention and provoked intense persecution by the authorities.
At that time, around 1946, Heirens was a young criminal. He was arrested for burglary, but was soon suspected of something much more serious when fingerprints and handwritten evidence linked him to the girl’s murder. He was also linked to the other two murders, with him confessing to all three of his crimes in order to avoid the death penalty. Not long after his confession he began to protest his innocence.
He was defended by the daughter of a lawyer who claimed for her client that she had no violent tendencies – easily ignoring the resistance she made when she was arrested, even pulling a gun against the police officer. Eventually, Heirens was sentenced to three counts lifelong, made several appeals for release which were rejected, spent more than 65 years in prison and in 2012 died after complications due to diabetes.
William Heirens was the oldest prisoner in the history of the Illinois prison system and probably the oldest prisoner in the world.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
