63 Facts About William Heirens

William George Heirens was an American criminal and serial killer who confessed to three murders.

William Heirens was convicted of the crimes in 1946.

At the time of his death, William Heirens was reputedly Illinois' longest-serving prisoner, having spent 65 years in prison.

William Heirens spent the later years of his sentence at the Dixon Correctional Center in Dixon, Illinois.

Charles Einstein wrote a novel called The Bloody Spur about William Heirens, published in 1953 which was adapted into the 1956 film While the City Sleeps by Fritz Lang.

On March 5,2012, William Heirens died at the age of 83 at the University of Illinois Medical Center from complications arising from diabetes.

William Heirens's story was the subject of a 2018 episode of the Investigation Discovery series A Crime to Remember.

William Heirens grew up in Lincolnwood, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

William Heirens was the son of George and Margaret Heirens.

George William Heirens was the son of immigrants from Luxembourg and Margaret was a homemaker.

William Heirens's family was poor and his parents argued incessantly, leading Heirens to wander the streets to avoid hearing them.

William Heirens took to crime and later claimed that he mostly stole for fun and to release tension.

At age 13, William Heirens was arrested for carrying a loaded gun.

William Heirens confessed to 11 burglaries and was sent to the Gibault School for wayward boys for several months.

William Heirens was accepted into University of Chicago's special learning program just before his release in 1945 at age 16.

William Heirens had been repeatedly stabbed, and her head was wrapped in a dress.

William Heirens's arms were found a month later in another sewer after her other remains had already been interred.

William Heirens successfully sued the Chicago Police Department for $15,000 and his wife received $5,000.

William Heirens denied ownership of the handkerchief and explained under interrogation that he had eloped with his girlfriend.

William Heirens had been abroad when Degnan was murdered and did not know why the handkerchief was found in Chicago.

On June 26,1946,17-year-old William Heirens was arrested for attempted burglary.

William Heirens was not allowed to see his parents for four days.

William Heirens was refused the opportunity to speak to a lawyer for six days.

Under the influence of the drug, authorities claimed, William Heirens spoke of an alternate personality named George who had actually committed the murders.

In 1952, one of the doctors revealed that William Heirens had never implicated himself in any of the killings.

On his fifth day in custody, William Heirens was given a lumbar puncture without anesthesia.

Moments later, William Heirens was driven to police headquarters for a polygraph test.

The police tried to administer the test, but it was rescheduled for several days later after they found William Heirens to be in too much pain to cooperate.

On July 2,1946, William Heirens was transferred to Cook County Jail, where he was placed in the infirmary to recover.

William Heirens was attributed as saying while under the influence that he met George at the age of 13 years.

William Heirens was reported as claiming that George sent him prowling at night, that he robbed for pleasure, that he "killed like a cobra" when cornered and that he related his secrets to Heirens.

William Heirens allegedly claimed that he frequently assumed the blame for George, first for petty theft, then assault and now murder.

At the time, William Heirens' supporters stressed that the FBI handbook regarding fingerprint identification required 12 points of comparison matching to yield a positive identification.

On June 30,1946, police captain Emmett Evans told newspapers that William Heirens had been cleared of suspicion in the Brown murder, as the fingerprint in the apartment was not his.

William Heirens had used the medical kit to alter war bonds that he had stolen.

The witness had told police that darkness had prevented him from seeing the man's face, but in court he testified that he had seen William Heirens walk in front of a car's headlights.

Prosecutor William Heirens Tuohy was uncertain that he could win a conviction.

The small likelihood of a successful murder prosecution of William Heirens early prompted the state's attorney's office to seek out and obtain the cooperative help of defense counsel, and through them, that of their client.

The deal stipulated that William Heirens would serve one life sentence if he confessed to the murders of Josephine Ross, Frances Brown and Suzanne Degnan.

William Heirens appeared bewildered and offered noncommittal answers to reporters' questions, which he blamed on Tuohy years later:.

William Heirens kept emphasizing the word 'truth' and I asked him if he really wanted the truth.

The public allocution was again held in Tuohy's office, where William Heirens talked and answered questions, even reenacting parts of the murders to which he had confessed.

Police captain Michael Ahern believed that William Heirens was culpable when he heard how familiar William Heirens was with Brown's apartment.

That night, William Heirens tried to hang himself in his cell, timed to coincide during a shift change of the prison guards.

William Heirens said later that despair drove him to attempt suicide:.

However, when William Heirens was arrested in 1946, growing scientific opinion against "truth serum" had not yet filtered down to the courts and police departments.

In 1946, after William Heirens underwent two polygraph examinations, Tuohy declared the results inconclusive.

Captain O'Connor later testified at William Heirens' sentencing hearing that he only saw two prints on the front of the note and did not mention the existence of any on the back.

William Heirens was arrested for burglary on June 26,1946; three days later Sergeant Laffey announced a nine-point comparison match to William Heirens left little finger with one of the prints.

William Heirens increased the points of comparison of the palm print to Heirens from ten to the FBI standard of 12.

Only the prints not found by the FBI and allegedly discovered after William Heirens' arrest were mentioned at the sentencing hearing and not the two front prints that were supposedly "indisputable" proof of William Heirens' culpability.

At William Heirens' sentencing, Laffey testified that the end joint of the bloody print had an eight-point comparison to William Heirens' and the middle joint a six-point comparison.

William Heirens' attorneys did not question the veracity of the prints, however.

Some details did seem to match, like the police theory that Suzanne Degnan was dismembered by a hunting knife and William Heirens confessed to throwing a hunting knife onto a section of the Chicago Subway "El" trestle near the Degnan residence.

However, it was never determined scientifically that it was at least the dismemberment tool and William Heirens had an alternate explanation for it.

The Chicago detectives dismissed Thomas' claims after William Heirens became a suspect.

William Heirens was first housed at Stateville Prison in Joliet, Illinois.

William Heirens learned several trades, including electronics and television and radio repair, and at one point he had his own repair shop.

William Heirens managed the garment factory at Stateville for five years, overseeing 350 inmates, and after transfer to Vienna Correctional Center, he set up their entire educational program.

William Heirens aided other prisoners' educational progress by helping them earn their General Educational Development diplomas and becoming a "jailhouse lawyer" of sorts, helping them with their appeals.

William Heirens was given an institutional parole for the Degnan murder in 1965, and in 1966 he was discharged on that case and began serving his second life sentence.

William Heirens suffered from diabetes, which had swollen his legs and limited his eyesight, making him have to use a wheelchair.

William Heirens was convinced that Heirens was innocent of the crimes.