In the summer of 1945, Josephine Ross, a 43-year-old female widow, was starting a new chapter in her life. Having raised two daughters, Mary Jane and Jacqueline, she now found herself with more time for herself. She lived in a Chicago apartment on North Kenmore Avenue and filled her days with movies, parties, and dating. But this period of rediscovery came to a brutal and sudden end, making her the first victim of a man who would soon terrorize the city and be dubbed "The Lipstick Killer."
On June 5, 1945, Josephine was found dead in her apartment. The scene was disturbing; she had been stabbed multiple times, and her head was wrapped in one of her own dresses. Investigators believed she had likely surprised a burglar in her home. The killer had made some effort to clean the body in the bathtub. Despite the ransacked appearance of the apartment, no valuables were taken. In her hand, she clutched strands of dark hair, a silent testament to her fight for life.
Police were left with very few leads, and despite questioning witnesses who saw a man fleeing the scene, the case quickly went cold. For months, Josephine's murder remained an unsolved tragedy, a story that faded from the city's front pages.
Six months later, the city was shaken by a second, eerily similar crime. On December 10, 1945, Frances Brown, 33, was found murdered in her apartment. She had been shot and stabbed. This time, however, the killer left a chilling message scrawled in red lipstick on the wall: “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself.” The press seized on this detail, and the hunt for "The Lipstick Killer" began, casting a pall of fear over Chicago. The terror escalated dramatically on January 7, 1946, when six-year-old Suzanne Degnan, a blonde, blue-eyed first-grader, was abducted from her bedroom. A ransom note was left, but the child was already dead. Her dismembered body was later discovered in the city's sewer system, a shocking crime that horrified parents across Chicago.
The intense manhunt and public pressure to solve the murders led police to question hundreds of suspects. The break in the case came on June 26, 1946, when a 17-year-old University of Chicago student named William George Heirens was caught during an attempted burglary. Heirens, a petty burglar, quickly became the prime suspect in all three killings. What followed was a controversial and aggressive interrogation that lasted for days. Heirens claimed he was beaten, starved, and refused access to a lawyer or his parents. He was also injected with sodium pentothal, a so-called "truth serum," without consent.
Under immense pressure and facing the possibility of the electric chair, Heirens’ lawyers encouraged him to accept a plea bargain. If he confessed to the murders of Josephine Ross, Frances Brown, and Suzanne Degnan, he would be spared the death penalty. On August 7, 1946, Heirens publicly confessed, providing details of the crimes. He pleaded guilty to three counts of murder, as well as numerous charges of burglary, robbery, and assault. The court sentenced him to three consecutive life sentences.
William Heirens was sent to Stateville Penitentiary and would become Illinois' longest-serving prisoner, spending over 65 years behind bars. Shortly after his conviction, he recanted his confession, a stance he maintained for the rest of his life. Heirens and his supporters argued that he was the victim of a coerced confession driven by police brutality and a city desperate to close a terrifying case. Over the years, legal teams, including the Northwestern University Centre on Wrongful Convictions, took up his cause, pointing to inconsistencies in the evidence and the questionable methods used to obtain his confession. Despite these efforts, all appeals for parole or clemency were denied. William Heirens died in a prison hospital on March 5, 2012, at the age of 83, leaving behind lingering questions about his guilt and the true resolution of the Lipstick Murders.
