William Heirens

William Heirens was born on November 15, 1928, in Evanston, Illinois to George and Margaret Heirens. His paternal grandparents were Luxembourgish immigrants. Growing up in the 1930s Chicago, he was well familiar with poverty and crime. His home did not provide a refuge either. His parents argued endlessly and to avoid listening to it, he would often leave the house and roam around the neighbourhood.

It was during these wanderings that he began to steal. He would later state that his early crimes were mostly for fun and to relieve tension. At 13, he was arrested for the first time after police caught him with a loaded gun. The authorities searched the Heirens house, finding a considerable amount of stolen weapons in an unused shed on the roof of a building in the neighbourhood. As he never sold the stolen goods, the rest of the loot was discovered there as well.

He pleaded guilty to 11 counts of burglary charges and spent the next few months at the Gibault School for wayward boys. Soon after, he was arrested a second time for theft/larceny and was sent to St. Bede Academy, a youth correction facility operated by Benedictine monks, where he spent the next three years of his life. In the institution, he proved his academic merit by excelling in mathematics, biological science, and social science.

Seeing his impressive test scores, his teachers encouraged him to apply for the University of Chicago’s special learning program. He received his acceptance letter right before his release and at 16, he started his classes in the 1945 fall term.

In the beginning, he used to live at his parents’ house and commute to the university. But he realised it was not a sustainable option and relocated to the University’s Gates Hall. Heirens worked as an usher or as a docent at the university to support himself. Bright, intelligent, and handsome, Heirens soon became popular among both the students and professors. However, he returned to the life of crime, committing a series of burglaries in homes near the university.

The three murders that Heirens confessed to, and was later convicted of, were of 43-year-old Josephine Ross, 33-year-old Frances Brown, and six-year-old Suzanne Degnan.

Ross’ body was discovered on June 5, 1945, in her apartment at 4108 North Kenmore Avenue, Chicago. She had multiple stab wounds on her torso and her head was wrapped in a dress. The investigators suspected that she had accidentally confronted an intruder, who, on being surprised by her presence, had ended up killing her. They found dark hair in the clutches of her hand and concluded that she had struggled with her assailant before her death.

Ross’ then fiancé, former husbands, and boyfriends all had alibis. The police began searching for a dark-haired man who had been wandering in the area but could not locate him.

Brown was found dead on December 10, 1945, in her apartment at 3941 North Pine Grove Avenue, Chicago. She had a knife lodged in her neck and a bullet wound on her head. There was a message written in lipstick on a wall of the apartment. It read, “For heavens / Sake catch me / Before I kill more / I cannot control myself.”

On January 7, 1946, Degnan’s family realised that six-year-old Suzanne was missing from her first-floor’s bedroom at 5943 North Kenmore Avenue, Edgewater, Chicago. The investigators found a ransom note with the following written on it, “GeI $20,000 Reddy & wAITe foR WoRd. do NoT NoTify FBI oR Police. Bills IN 5's & 10's”. On the back of the note, there was an instruction, “BuRN This FoR heR SafTY”.

After his arrest on June 26, 1946, Heirens was interrogated rigorously. He later claimed that he was questioned for six days straight, was regularly beaten, and not given any food or drink. Dr. Haines and Dr. Grinker, psychologists with the police, administered sodium pentothal to him without a warrant or an explicit consent from either Heirens or his parents.

In the next three hours, according to the authorities, Heirens talked of an alternate personality who he called “George.” He reportedly said that it was George who had committed the murders.

He never gave George’s last name to the police. When asked, he stated that he could not remember and that it was “a murmuring name”. The authorities presumed it was “Murman”; the media sensationalised it as “Murder Man”. Later, in 1952, Dr Grinker would state that Heirens had never implicated himself in any of the murders.

He was administered lumber puncture without anaesthesia on the fifth day since his arrest. They had to reschedule his polygraph test after concluding that he was in too much pain. When he did undergo the test, the results were inconclusive.

During this period, the press played an instrumental role in controlling public opinion on Heirens, even allegedly affecting the investigation itself. George Wright, a staff reporter with Chicago Tribune wrote an article on the murders on July 16, 1946. He conjured up details and cited questionable sources to blame Heirens for the three murders and reported that he had already confessed. Soon the rest of the news outlets in Chicago were convinced that Heirens was the murderer.