William Heirens | "Lipstick killer," 83

William Heirens, 83, who confessed to one of the most shocking slayings in Chicago's history and paid for it with more years of his life than any other Illinois state prison inmate, died Monday at a Chicago hospital after officials at Dixon Correctional Center found him unresponsive.

Heirens was a 17-year-old University of Chicago student and petty burglar when he confessed to killing two women in 1945 - one was shot and stabbed, the other stabbed - and the abduction, slaying and dismemberment of a 6-year-old girl the next year.

The crimes sent chills through the city. Investigators found a message scrawled on a mirror with lipstick at one of the women's homes that read: "For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself." That note earned Heirens the moniker "Lipstick Killer."

But it was the slaying of 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan that terrified the city most of all.

Suzanne was abducted from her home on the first day of school after Christmas vacation by an intruder who used a ladder to climb into her bedroom. The girl was strangled, then taken to the basement of a nearby building and her body dismembered. Pieces of her body were found in sewers and catch basins near her home on the city's North Side.

Heirens was arrested in June 1946 at the scene of a burglary in the same neighborhood. Police charged him with murder after determining that his fingerprints were on a $20,000 ransom note that had been left behind at the girl's home.

After confessing to the slayings, Heirens was sentenced to three consecutive terms of natural life with the possibility of parole.

In the ensuing decades, Heirens sought release from prison about 30 times, claiming he was innocent and that he only gave a 19-page confession after police sedated him.

At the same time, he became the first Illinois inmate to receive a four-year college degree while in prison.

In 2002, the Associated Press reported that students and law professors at Northwestern University who had worked to free other inmates had taken up his case. A clemency petition submitted to then-Gov. George Ryan claimed Heirens was given a spinal tap without anesthesia in one instance.

Attorneys also argued that the case was tainted by questionable evidence, incompetent defense counsel, and prejudicial pretrial publicity. The petition was denied.

- AP