The Lipstick Killer: William Heirens Pt. 2

When 17-year-old William Heirens was caught breaking into an apartment, police believed they had finally captured the infamous "Lipstick Killer." Heirens confessed to the brutal murders of two women and a young girl, but his controversial confession and questionable police tactics have led many to doubt his guilt. Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House Original. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @crimehouse for more true crime content.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Vanessa Richardson?

  Hi, everyone. Before today's episode, there's another show I want to tell you about. It's called What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Plus, Connor's infectious energy that'll make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on earth. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  This is Crime House.

• 0:41Vanessa Richardson?

  When it comes to solving a crime, one of the golden rules is to follow the evidence. It's crucial to approach the case as objectively as possible to avoid personal biases and take emotion out of the equation. But that's not always easy. Sometimes, a crime is so terrible, so heinous, it's impossible to stick to the cold, hard facts. And if that happens, the investigation can go off the rails. When it came to Bill Hiron's, the crimes he was accused of fell squarely into that category. The authorities were so desperate to bring the Lipstick Killer to justice, they were willing to cross serious ethical

• 1:21Vanessa Richardson?

  lines in order to do it. And in the process, they risked letting a serial killer go free.

• 1:39Vanessa Richardson?

  The human mind is fascinating. It controls how we think, how we feel, how we love, and how we hate. And sometimes, the mind drives us to do something truly unspeakable.

• 1:53Vanessa Richardson?

  This is Mind of a Serial Killer, a Crime House original. Every Monday, we'll be taking deep dives into the minds of history's most notorious serial killers and violent offenders. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly matters. And to enhance your Mind of a Serial Killer listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once, plus exciting bonus content. I'm Vanessa Richardson.

• 2:38Speaker 02

  And I'm Dr. Tristan Ingles. As Vanessa takes you through our subject stories, I'll be helping her dive into these killers' minds as we try to understand how someone can do such horrible things.

• 2:49Vanessa Richardson?

  This is the second and final episode on William "Bill" Hiron's, a 17-year-old sexual burglar. Bill became known as "The Lipstick Killer" after confessing to multiple murders in Chicago between June 1945 and January 1946. Last time, we explored how Bill got his nickname when a haunting message written in lipstick was discovered at the scene of one of his crimes. We also learned how Bill escalated from burglary to serial killing urged on by an insidious alter ego he called "George." This time, we'll uncover deeper layers in Bill's story as we learn how his confession

• 3:31Vanessa Richardson?

  was shaped by brutal police tactics after his arrest. We'll explore how public pressure may have affected the investigation, the controversy that still swirls around his case, and as always, we'll be asking the question, "What makes a serial killer?"

• 3:54Vanessa Richardson?

  On June 26, 1946, Bill Heirens was on the prowl. So far, the 17-year-old had avoided being identified as the notorious Lipstick Killer, who was suspected of killing three people in Chicago: 43-year-old Josephine Ross, 33-year-old Frances Brown, and 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan. Despite getting caught breaking and entering on multiple occasions, and even being detained after walking down the street with a loaded rifle, nobody considered him a suspect. So now, a few weeks after finishing his first year at the University of Chicago, Bill decided to break into another apartment building.

• 4:36Speaker 02

  Serial killers are compelled to kill because of the need for power, gratification, and thrill. And that drive is so strong that it overrides their reasoning and their judgment, and they already tend to lack a conscience, which allows them to continue without fear of the consequences. If they were deterred by consequences, they wouldn't be doing this to begin with. For Bill, burglarizing appears to have become a compulsion. And given his age, he still has a developing prefrontal cortex. So his impulse control is at a greater deficit than it otherwise would be. Not only does burglarizing, according to Bill, alleviate headaches and tension,

• 5:17Speaker 02

  but it also provides him with that sense of power and, of course, that sexual gratification. He is getting reinforcement in two ways when he does this. He's getting immediate relief for the tension and the headaches, and immediate sexual gratification.

• 5:33Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, whatever was motivating Bill that day, he wasn't being very careful. A custodian caught him breaking into the building, and when Bill made a run for it, the man alerted the police.

• 5:45Speaker 02

  And this is an example of how his compulsion has overridden his reasoning and his judgment. He wasn't being careful. That need for thrill and gratification was stronger than the fear of being caught.

• 5:57Vanessa Richardson?

  And despite Bill's best efforts to escape the police, the authorities had him surrounded. After a brief chase, he was knocked unconscious by a pursuing officer and taken into custody. When Bill woke up hours later, he was reportedly strapped to a hospital bed in Cook County Jail, surrounded by men in suits and police uniforms. He was fingerprinted and informed that he was a suspect in the murder of Suzanne Degnan, the six-year-old girl who'd been killed six months earlier after she was abducted from her bedroom. For three days, Bill allegedly remained in custody without access to a lawyer while being endlessly grilled about Suzanne's death. He repeatedly denied any involvement in it,

• 6:41Vanessa Richardson?

  but then word came back that his fingerprints matched those on the ransom note found in Suzanne Degnan's bedroom. State attorney William Tuohy took that confirmation and ran with it. He announced to reporters, who'd been obsessively covering the recent murders, that the Lipstick Killer was in custody. Behind closed doors, however, Tuohy wasn't so confident. Bill's print had been analyzed using the so-called Galton System, which identifies about 150 types of patterns, or points, in the human fingerprint. To make a positive identification, the FBI required a match on at least 12 of those points. However, Bill's fingerprint only matched

• 7:24Vanessa Richardson?

  nine of those points on the ransom note. That didn't mean it wasn't Bill's print, but there was room for reasonable doubt. The state attorney couldn't accept that because he didn't just need to link Bill to Suzanne Degnan's murder, he had to prove that Bill had also killed the Lipstick Killer's other two victims, Josephine Ross and Frances Brown. Unfortunately for Tuohy and the victims' families, there wasn't much for him to go on. In fact, there wasn't any forensic evidence linking Bill to the Josephine Ross murder, and only a partial fingerprint connecting him to Frances Brown's. Witnesses were also scarce, and the ones they could find couldn't provide much detail. One said he'd seen a nervous-looking man

• 8:09Vanessa Richardson?

  leaving Frances Brown's apartment the night of her murder. Another said he'd spotted a suspicious figure with a shopping bag in Suzanne Degnan's neighborhood the night she was killed. But when the men were shown Bill's photo in a lineup, neither was able to identify him. As frustrations mounted on the investigative side, so did public pressure for the authorities to deliver. In a misguided effort to ensure they got a conviction, police used even more coercive tactics to get Bill's confession. They reportedly beat the 17-year-old suspect repeatedly, punching him in the stomach and in the testicles in an effort to make him confess.

• 8:50Vanessa Richardson?

  They also allegedly had a nurse pour ether over his genitals, which could have caused a painful chemical burn. These acts would have been far beyond legal interrogation tactics. They were in the realm of torture.

• 9:04Speaker 02

  Someone undergoing torture is experiencing the deliberate inflection of immense pain or suffering for a specific reason. And that's not just physical pain. It's also psychological, too. We, as humans, are biologically wired for survival. The survival part of our brain will impulsively react to protect itself. That means we will fight or we will run and are more likely to say whatever it takes to get relief for that survival. Minors, like Bill was at this time, are particularly susceptible to coercive techniques and torture. Their brain, in particular the prefrontal cortex, where judgment and reasoning are controlled, is still developing.

• 9:47Speaker 02

  So they are particularly susceptible to coercion. Their ability to do a fully informed cost-benefit analysis of the situation, or any situation, is at a deficit as it is. And when they're experiencing torture or coercion, in those moments, they are put in a lose-lose choice. Falsely confess and get relief, or don't falsely confess and continue to be subjected to immense pain and coercion. They aren't able to see the choices beyond that. And that is by design on the part of law enforcement in this case.

• 10:21Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, despite what police were putting him through, or perhaps because of it, Bill insisted he was innocent. Some might have been inclined to believe him, but many found Bill's attitude toward the victims suspicious. He didn't seem to care about them as an innocent person probably would. For instance, when asked how he felt reading about Francis Brown's murder in the paper, Bill said it was "just like anything else."

• 10:45Speaker 02

  Because this could be an indication of sociopathy, but objectively speaking, he's also 17, and we can't diagnose an antisocial personality disorder, let alone consider sociopathy, until he's at least 18. So he might just not have the ability to fully conceptualize the gravity of this, especially having just lived through World War II and his glamorizing of Nazism that he had been engaging in.

• 11:12Vanessa Richardson?

  Suspicion wasn't the same as proof, so presumably, Bill knew that. If the authorities had more than his partial fingerprint, they wouldn't have gone to such extreme lengths to force a confession. And maybe that's why, despite being tortured, he remained confident he would escape serious punishment. But Bill had a rude awakening coming. State Attorney Tui was hyper-aware that three murders had been committed in a single Chicago neighborhood by a man who was sexually aroused by breaking and entering. He was convinced that Bill Heirens was that man, and he was willing to go even further to make the teen burglar admit it.

• 11:53Vanessa Richardson?

  On June 30, 1946, four days after Bill was arrested, the police reportedly brought in two psychiatrists to administer a drug called sodium pentathal, better known as truth serum, without getting legal permission for it. As the 17-year-old lay restrained on a hospital bed, the doctors allegedly placed two vials above his head and stuck a needle into his arm. They told him to count back from 100. He got to 94 before slipping into a state of semi-consciousness.

• 12:25Speaker 02

  I know very little about sodium pentathal, as it's not something that I come across in practice. It's not something regularly used by psychiatrists. But what I do know is that it is a barbiturate medication commonly used as an anesthetic agent for brief procedures, and is also one of the drugs used, incidentally, for lethal injections in executions.

• 12:49Speaker 02

  Barbiturates are a central nervous system depressant, meaning that they can cause sedation and overall relaxation. But why is it truth serum? It was believed that because it suppresses certain functions in the brain, it would make it difficult for someone to lie and much easier for them to speak the truth. At least that's my very rudimentary understanding of it. But more importantly, this was not only illegal, it's grossly unethical. If this was done today, those psychiatrists would likely lose their license to practice and be jailed.

• 13:24Vanessa Richardson?

  Based on what we now know about the drug, a confession made on sodium pentathal would be considered unreliable today. But in 1946, investigators still believed it was a viable way to get information, though in Bill's case, they allegedly didn't do it legally. However, the so-called truth serum did lead to some shocking revelations. While Bill was drugged, psychiatrists asked him a series of questions. Some were casual, just to get a sense of who he was. For instance, they asked if he had any favorite movies. Bill said he especially liked Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the story of a good man with a violent alter ego. He said he identified with the story and that it seemed to reflect his life.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, I can see why he self-identifies with this because he himself has an alter ego named George, whom he places the blame on for the actions that he has been engaging in.

• 14:19Vanessa Richardson?

  That's right. I want to mention too, this is kind of interesting, that George is his middle name and George was also his father's name.

• 14:24Speaker 02

  Oh, wow. I didn't know that. That is very telling.

• 14:29Vanessa Richardson?

  The doctors were intrigued by this admission and encouraged Bill to say more. In response, Bill told them about his own criminal alter ego, George. He explained how George would appear to him when he wanted to "get out", that is, when he wanted to escape from tension in his parents' home. The evil being would then entice him to commit crimes. And once the drug had worn off, the teen confirmed it. He told state attorney Tuie that the things he'd said under the influence were true. George was real, and he may have been responsible for committing all three murders.

• 15:06Vanessa Richardson?

  At last, investigators had the confession they'd been fighting for, or so it seemed. But for Tuohy, it still wasn't enough. He believed that Bill had killed the victims in cold blood and was making George up to appear mentally unwell. If Bill succeeded in convincing a jury he was living with a mental illness, he'd be sent to a hospital rather than federal prison.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  So it sounds like he's worried about him doing an insanity plea. And I don't know how the legal standard might have been back in the 1940s. But he, being Bill, would have to prove that he did not know right from wrong. And from what we know so far, that would be a very uphill battle for him to prove that.

• 15:50Vanessa Richardson?

  Tuohy didn't want to let that happen. He needed to prove Bill wasn't living with a mental illness before proceeding with the case. So he decided to take the interrogation tactics to an even greater extreme.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Did you know a volcano once blocked out the sun and accidentally gave us Frankenstein? Or that the most feared pirate in the Atlantic, the man who terrorized an entire ocean, may never have actually killed anyone? Hi, I'm Connor Tomlinson. You might know me from Love on the Spectrum. History is my thing and has been my whole life. And I'm Carter Roy, and this is What the Fact. Every week, we take three of the wildest true things ever recorded and tell you the whole story behind them. The facts that sound made up, the stories that got buried, the moments that changed everything. Carter brings the history. Connor brings the facts, the tangents, and the occasional British accent. Pip, pip.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  The wildest stuff is real. And the real stuff is wilder than you think. New episodes every Wednesday. Follow What the Fact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  On music or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.

• 17:09Speaker 02

  The police closed my sister's case in 2019. Last month, her killer commented on my post.

• 17:16Speaker 03

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• 17:24Speaker 02

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• 18:02Speaker 02

  New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit, available now wherever you get your podcasts.

• 18:12Vanessa Richardson?

  On July 1, 1946, five days after 17-year-old Bill Heirens was arrested, state attorney William Tuohy had gotten the confession he wanted, or at least one that was close enough. But in order to make sure Bill was of sound mind, Tuohy asked doctors to administer a spinal tap, which involved drawing cerebrospinal fluid out of Bill's spinal column with a very large needle. Ostensibly, the purpose of this procedure was to find out if Bill had any markers that would indicate brain damage, but they didn't exactly do it gently. Allegedly, Bill was ordered to lie in a fetal position as a nurse and doctor inserted the

• 18:55Vanessa Richardson?

  needle between his vertebrae without anesthesia.

• 18:59Speaker 02

  Wow, OK, I know it's the 1940s, but they're certainly not helping their case when they continue to use unethical and what I would assume are illegal practices.

• 19:09Vanessa Richardson?

  Then, as the seventeen-year-old groaned in agony, police reportedly pulled him out of his bed, strapped him into a chair, and pushed him into a patrol wagon. They drove to the police detective bureau about fifteen minutes away and took Bill inside to administer a polygraph test. However, Bill was in such excruciating pain that it had to be rescheduled for a few days later. And perhaps investigators felt they'd gone a step too far, because the next day, July 2, 1946, Bill was finally allowed to see his lawyers. Despite the fact that Bill had been illegally detained, not to mention possibly tortured, there wasn't much they could do to turn his case around. While he'd been in custody,

• 19:54Vanessa Richardson?

  police had searched Bill's dorm room and his parents' home. And among various stolen items, they recovered a collection of Nazi memorabilia. Ironically, the fascist mementos themselves weren't the problem. It was the fact that Bill had stolen them the same night Suzanne Degnan was murdered, from a home close to where she lived. Police had also found another stolen item that made Bill look guilty: a medical kit containing surgical knives and scalpels. None of the instruments contained traces of blood, but at the very least, they suggested that Bill had an interest in dissection. And even though these tools were too small to do any major damage, it was hard to ignore the fact

• 20:38Vanessa Richardson?

  that Suzanne's body had been dismembered.

• 20:42Speaker 02

  Initially, when you introduced Suzanne's case, it did not seem to fully fit his method. His first two alleged victims were stabbed repeatedly and left in their homes to be found with clothing wrapped around their heads. They were also adults. Suzanne was six, and she was taken from the home and dismembered, with a ransom note left behind. At first, that didn't seem to really fit for him, but now, in knowing this, it could make sense. If he was, in fact, interested in dissection, then he would need to kidnap the victim. He wouldn't carry that out in a child's home. The actual process of dissection... And he would likely choose a more vulnerable target, one that he could overpower.

• 21:23Speaker 02

  Since his first two victims were repeatedly stabbed, which appeared to have been done impulsively, at least the first one, because he happened upon them accidentally, and was afraid that they would expose him by calling for help, then this murder would have been planned and carefully executed. And the ransom note written was a red herring, like I had talked about in episode one. When there is a big change in patterns like this with serial killers, we have to consider unexpected events or variables that could explain the changes. But Bill is particularly perplexing because he's still so young to be engaging in this depravity. That's not to say it's not possible, just that statistically,

• 22:04Speaker 02

  serial killers become active in their early to mid twenties, and he's only seventeen.

• 22:10Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, the police were convinced that Bill had murdered Suzanne Degnan, Josephine Ross, and Frances Brown. And when they conducted another search of Frances's apartment, they discovered a partial fingerprint that matched Bill's. Despite the mounting evidence against him, Bill still refused to officially confess to the murders. After his so-called "truth serum" questioning, he'd only said it was possible he had something to do with them. But that didn't matter to the press. In mid-July 1946, the media started running stories about him in newspapers and on the radio. They made it seem like he'd fully admitted his guilt and described the murders in detail. Once Bill learned what the press was saying about him,

• 22:55Vanessa Richardson?

  he was convinced he'd been found guilty in the court of public opinion. And if he were convicted in a court of law, he was sure he'd get the death penalty. The prospect of that terrified Bill. And as he was mulling it over, state attorney Toohey offered him a deal. Toohey wanted Bill to confess to just one murder, Suzanne Degnan's. In exchange, he would receive a single life sentence, which meant he could be eligible for parole in about twenty years. To a seventeen-year-old boy who's gotten away with a lot in his young life, this sentence would have seemed like an eternity. But to Bill, the thought of the electric chair was way worse.

• 23:37Vanessa Richardson?

  So after a few more days of discussion with his lawyers and his parents, Bill agreed to take the deal. On July 30th, 1946, a little over a month after his capture, Bill was escorted to the state attorney's office. The room was packed with reporters who believed they were about to get a direct confession. Instead, they got a stunning surprise. In the moment when Bill was supposed to reveal all, he announced that he knew nothing about the murder.

• 24:09Speaker 02

  Okay, so far, Bill has been subjected to coercion and torture. And now, you know, the adversarial nature of the criminal proceedings itself. Part of the success of coercion and torture is taking away a sense of agency or a sense of power and replacing it with a feeling of learned helplessness. Now, he's being paraded in front of reporters so the prosecutor can showboat to the public that he was able to get the confession. So this also feels very political. But Bill likely saw this as a moment to regain some of that agency back and some of that power. To Bill, the prosecutor was controlling his life at this point and what would happen next. But in this moment, he was able to take some of that control back.

• 24:52Speaker 02

  The prosecutor can't control what he says, only Bill can. And since he is in the lose-lose conflict most find themselves in within our legal system, as in choosing the lesser of two evils, life or death, in his case, he likely did not feel he had more to lose by doing what he did. Or of course, there's always the possibility that he was innocent of this particular crime.

• 25:16Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, defying Tui might have satisfied Bill's ego in that moment, but if he wanted to escape punishment, it was the wrong move. The state attorney was furious, and he soon made it clear that there would be consequences for Bill's actions. Following the botched confession, Tui informed Bill's attorneys that the deal was off. The teen would now be prosecuted for 23 counts of burglary, three counts of murder, and attempting to kill a police officer by pointing a gun at him during his arrest. Tui also promised he would seek the death penalty. However, there was still a chance for Bill to save himself. Tui said if he confessed to all three murders,

• 25:59Vanessa Richardson?

  he would receive three consecutive life sentences as punishment. This meant that the 17-year-old would spend his remaining years behind bars, but at least he would avoid the chair. In retrospect, the defense would have had ample reasons to take this case to court. Allegedly, Bill had been illegally detained without access to counsel, and he also claimed he'd been physically tortured in custody. Most of the evidence against him was inconclusive, and the stolen items retrieved from his dorm and his parents' home had been seized without a warrant. Even so, Bill's lawyers pressured him to take the deal. They knew that from the moment the media had dubbed Bill the "Lipstick Killer",

• 26:43Vanessa Richardson?

  his fate was most likely sealed. Nonetheless, Bill continued to maintain his innocence. But in the wake of the press conference, a new piece of evidence emerged that cast overwhelming doubt on his claim. After the fake confession was published on July 15, 1946, reporters had been looking for a knife that Bill supposedly used to dismember Suzanne Degnan's body. There was a rumor going around that after killing her, Bill had thrown the knife under the subway tracks near her home. The police didn't seriously look into it, but a few reporters asked workers at the station near Suzanne's apartment if anyone had found a discarded knife.

• 27:27Vanessa Richardson?

  Incredibly, someone had. Not realizing its significance, the knife had been placed in storage. The journalists turned the knife over to the police, who then made another shocking discovery. The knife had been stolen from a man named Guy Rodrick a month before Suzanne Degnan's murder. During that same burglary, Guy had also been robbed of a gun, which turned out to be the firearm Bill had in his possession the day of his arrest. Now, through this roundabout series of events, the prosecution knew that Bill had stolen a gun and a knife on December 3, 1945. There weren't any fingerprints on them, though,

• 28:11Vanessa Richardson?

  and, as we said before, DNA testing didn't exist yet, so investigators couldn't scientifically prove these were the murder weapons, but the implications were certainly damning. Investigators argued that a little over a week after stealing the weapons, on December 11, Bill broke into Frances Brown's apartment and shot her, possibly with the gun he'd stolen. And three weeks later, he kidnapped Suzanne Degnan and dismembered her with the stolen knife. For Bill, who had managed to get out of trouble so many times before, must have felt like the walls were closing in.

• 28:48Speaker 02

  It's interesting that Bill, at least as how you explained it, has been more concerned about averting the death penalty than he was about the prospect of life in prison, when both of those are a terrifying reality in themselves. But especially for someone who needed to constantly escape his environment at home in order to get some relief, alleviate tension, alleviate headaches, the idea that he would lose that option entirely, or that he cannot escape this problem, could be very triggering. I think he's going to be searching for ways in which he can regain control. But that being said, Bill has been detained before. He's gone to reform school. And during both of those experiences, he seemingly thrived.

• 29:33Speaker 02

  He does well when he has structure and he has routine and he has a purpose. What he does appear to struggle with is shame and a need for control.

• 29:42Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, as Bill's 18th birthday approached, he began to realize there was no way out. He agreed to give the authorities what they wanted. But the Lipstick Killer's story was far from finished.

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• 31:11Vanessa Richardson?

  On August 7th, 1946, Bill Hironz appeared at a second press conference with state attorney William Toohey, this time with a 19-page confession in hand. As the cameras flashed, he said, quote, "I first started to steal when I was about 10 years of age. The mere act of stealing carried with it a certain sex satisfaction." From there, Bill went on to explain how burglary had become an addiction he felt compelled to feed. He described how that compulsion led him to commit murder when he broke into Josephine Ross's apartment and had killed her to stop her from screaming. Bill also said he killed Frances Brown and Suzanne Degnan for the same reason: to keep them

• 31:56Vanessa Richardson?

  quiet. And yet, the brutality of the murders proved otherwise, and state attorney Toohey was determined to leave reporters with that fact. So after Bill finished reading his confession, the prosecutor loaded him onto a sheriff's department vehicle. Together with a caravan of law enforcement, journalists, and lawyers from both sides, Bill was taken to the scenes of the crimes. At each site, he was prompted to reenact the murder he had just confessed to committing. At Suzanne Degnan's house, a throng of onlookers gathered to watch as a ladder was propped against the building, leading to Suzanne's window. Bill showed the crowd how he had gagged the six-year-old girl, carried her down the

• 32:39Vanessa Richardson?

  ladder, and taken her to the basement of a nearby building to kill her. Bill's account shocked his audience. Many who had doubted his guilt were so unnerved by the level of detail that they changed their minds. Yet after his confession was published, there were a few who remained convinced that Bill Hironz was not the Lipstick Killer. One of his defenders was Josephine Ross's adult daughter, Mary Jane Blanchard. Mary told at least one reporter that she thought Bill had been framed. Her belief was partly based on intuition. As Mary put it, quote, "Hironz just does not fit into the picture of my mother's death." Mary also found it odd that none of her mother's things had been

• 33:24Vanessa Richardson?

  found in Bill's burglary stash.

• 33:27Speaker 02

  A lot of law enforcement and detectives will encourage people to look at their belongings, including and more specifically, if nothing obvious is taken, to look at your underwear drawer. I'm wondering if Mary was able to actually know if any of her underwear had been taken or not.

• 33:45Vanessa Richardson?

  Well, Bill himself had privately admitted that the theft was not the primary motive for his burglaries. While he was in jail, Bill wrote a series of letters to his parents explaining his delinquent behavior. He confessed that he broke into houses not for material gain, but because it gave him sexual pleasure. He also said he tried to alleviate those urges by dating girls, but it hadn't worked. So Bill had gone on breaking and entering, sometimes only to masturbate and leave. This behavior directly paralleled what had happened in Josephine Ross's apartment. The killer had broken in, masturbated multiple times and left, but had also committed murder.

• 34:28Vanessa Richardson?

  So was Mary Jane mistaken in her assessment of the 17-year-old suspect? Or was she correct in believing that Bill Heirens was framed? Either way, he officially became a murderer in the eyes of the law on September 4th, 1946, when he officially pleaded guilty to killing Josephine Ross, Frances Brown, and Suzanne Degnan. Many Chicago residents breathed a sigh of relief that night, knowing the lipstick killer had confessed in a court of law. But the teenager wasn't content to let things rest. That night, he attempted one last escape, by tying his sheets to the bars of his cell and hanging himself.

• 35:13Vanessa Richardson?

  Ultimately, Bill's suicide attempt failed. Some guards caught him in the act of hanging himself and saved his life.

• 35:21Speaker 02

  Whenever we're assessing individuals who make suicide attempts, especially if it's a genuine attempt, one that they planned so that they couldn't have any intervention, we're looking at what level of hopelessness are they experiencing? Because that's usually what's behind it, a feeling of despair. When somebody is feeling negative about themselves, the world, and the future, that is the recipe for hopelessness. And right now, Bill is probably feeling shame about himself. He's probably feeling like the world is against him and that it's not going to get any better. And those are the things that could lead to him trying to take his life. But also, it is another form of control. It could be viewed as his way of gaining control over his life, even if that control meant how his life ended.

• 36:07Vanessa Richardson?

  The morning after his failed suicide attempt, Bill was forced to return to court, this time for sentencing. As agreed, the judge gave him three consecutive life terms. This virtually ensured that Bill would spend decades in federal custody without the possibility of parole. On September 6, 1946, one year after gaining early admission to the University of Chicago, Bill was chained to a dozen other prisoners and loaded onto a bus. Before he boarded, reporters asked him to say farewell to his mother. They wanted to capture the moment on camera. Bill complied. His mother kissed him goodbye and told him to be a good boy. Bill told her he would.

• 36:51Vanessa Richardson?

  Then he got on the bus. On board, Bill was reportedly approached by a sheriff who was friends with Suzanne Degnan's father. The officer asked Bill if Suzanne had suffered prior to her death. The 17-year-old convicted murderer replied, "I can't tell you if she suffered, Sheriff. I didn't kill her. Tell Mr. Degnan to please look after his other daughter because whoever killed Suzanne is still out there."

• 37:20Speaker 02

  So I've already outlined quite a bit about Bill's pathology from his paraphilia disorders, sexual burglary, the risk of his sexual burglary leading to future sexual violence, to why he created his alter ego. We discussed how each of these murders fit his pathology, as well as the ways where they seemingly might not have fit his pathology and why. But what stands out most to me is his alter ego, George. He developed his alter ego, so he had a scapegoat, someone or something to blame his depraved axon to distance himself from the shame. If he had to create George to begin with in order to separate himself from the dark aspects of his personality, then it would also fit his pathology that

• 38:05Speaker 02

  he would continue to insist he was innocent. It will be easy for him to assert that he, Bill, didn't do it, and believe it, because George, his alter ego, did. Therefore, he is innocent, and he can say that with certainty. Of course, there is also the possibility that he was actually innocent, and the manner in which they forced his confession certainly doesn't make the prosecution's stance on this appear credible any more than Bill does.

• 38:33Vanessa Richardson?

  Officially, Bill was considered a murderer the day he confessed in a court of law on September 5th, 1946. But the day after he was sentenced, he went back to claiming his total innocence, and some believe he might have been. For instance, an independent forensic examiner said the fingerprint on the ransom note appeared to have been planted. Handwriting experts also showed that Bill's writing didn't match the ransom note or the lipstick message in Frances Brown's apartment. Multiple Chicago journalists have claimed it was written after the fact by a reporter who wanted to make the story even more sensational. But despite multiple appeals, Bill's conviction remained in place. He became the longest-serving

• 39:17Vanessa Richardson?

  inmate in America before dying of complications due to diabetes on March 7th, 2012, at the age of 83. Although Bill passed away, his legacy as the Lipstick Killer remains. In fact, it's actually one of the reasons we're here now doing this show. Back in the mid 1940s, his case inspired a boy named Robert Wrestler to pursue a career in law enforcement. Eventually, Robert went to work for the FBI, where he and his partner became the first officials in America to study multiple murderers, which ultimately led them to coin the term "serial killer." Did Bill Hironz deserve that title?

• 40:02Vanessa Richardson?

  Decades later, Robert was asked that very question. He replied that Bill Hironz was "definitely not innocent." But as to whether the teen was guilty of all three murders, he didn't have an answer.

• 40:29Vanessa Richardson?

  Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time as we discuss the mind of another serial killer.

• 40:36Speaker 02

  Mind of a Serial Killer is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram. But don't forget to rate, review, and follow Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.

• 41:00Vanessa Richardson?

  And to enhance your Mind of a Serial Killer listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once, plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back next Monday.

• 41:21Vanessa Richardson?

  Mind of a Serial Killer is hosted by Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engels, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Mind of a Serial Killer team: Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Stacy Waronker, Sarah Carroll, Megan Dane, Sarah Tardif, and Carrie Murphy. Thank you for listening.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  Before today's episode, I want to tell you about The Unbelievable, a new podcast from the History Channel and Rewind Studios. Adapted from the hit TV show, each episode opens a cabinet of curiosities to uncover history's strangest but true stories. Like the woman who survived a two-mile fall by landing in a nest of fire ants. When it comes to history, the truth is always more unbelievable than you think. Follow The Unbelievable, available now on your favorite podcast app.

• 42:26Vanessa Richardson?

  If you're looking for your next podcast, check out What the Fact with Connor Tomlinson from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum and Carter Roy. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.