Case Analysis: The Lipstick Killer

William Heirens Jena

Have you ever been accused of a crime you didn’t do? Hopefully not. William George Heirens is believed to be an American serial killer who confessed to three murders in 1946. Heirens has also been called The Lipstick Killer due to a scandalous message written in lipstick at one of the three crime scene.

On June 5, 1945, 43-year-old Josephine Ross was found dead in her apartment at 4108 North Kenmore Avenue, Chicago. She had been repeatedly stabbed, and her head was wrapped in a dress. She was assumed to be surprised by an intruder, who then killed her. Dark hairs were found clutched in Ross' hand, showing that she had struggled with the intruder before she was killed. No valuables were taken from her apartment. Ross' fiancé, her former boyfriends, and ex-husbands, had an alibi and police had no other suspects. They looked for a dark-complected man who was reported wandering at the apartment or running from the scene, but were unable to identify or find him.

On December 10, 1945, Frances Brown, a divorced woman, was discovered with a knife stuck in her neck and bullet wound to the head, after a cleaning woman heard a radio playing loudly and noted Brown's partly open door, in her apartment at 3941 North Pine Grove, Chicago. Frances had been violently stabbed, and authorities thought that a burglar had been discovered or interrupted. No valuables were taken but someone had written a message in lipstick on the wall of Brown’s apartment:

For heavens sake catch me before I kill more

I cannot control myself.

Police found a bloody fingerprint smudge on the door

In the police account, Heirens charged them after his gun misfired twice. In Heirens' version, he turned and attempted to run after bluffing with the gun and the cops charged him. A scuffle resulted that ended only when an off-duty policeman dropped a flower pot on Heirens’s head, rendering him