William Heirens, A Serial Killer

“Having secured a pair of women’s panties or drawers, he would take it to his basement or home, put it on, experience excitement and sexual completion” (Kennedy, Hoffman, Haines). This is said about William Heirens, a serial killer from Chicago. People that are insane should not be punished for what they cannot control. They should be helped. William did not receive the help he should’ve when he was younger, and that is why he was able to kill without mercy. William Heirens was destined to become a monster; evidence of this is shown in his early life as a child, the many influences he had throughout his life, and the inevitable capture of the man.

While Williams Heirens is known for many crimes, his most famous ones are the murders of 3 females. On June 5, 1945, 43-year-old Josephine Ross was found dead in her apartment. She was found with multiple stab wounds across her torso and neck. Her head was wrapped in one of her dresses (Blanco). On December 11, 1945, 31-year-old Frances Brown was found naked in the bathtub of her apartment. Her head was wrapped in her nightclothes, with a knife jammed into her neck, and a bullet in her head. Her neck was slit when she discovered a 17-year-old in her apartment robbing her. After he cut her throat, he shot her in the head to make sure that she was dead. He then proceeded to wash the blood off of her body and wrap her head in her pajamas. After he killed her, he took her lipstick and scrawled on the wall, “Catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself.” On January 7, 1946, 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan was reported missing from her home. Police later found dismembered parts of her body scattered throughout Chicago’s sewage drains. When sewage workers first found her head, they thought it ...

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...ically unpredictable, and most of his actions can be swayed from time to time by the suggestions coming from his environment.” They later on diagnosed Heirens with dementia praecox, split personality, and disassociated psychotic schizophrenia (Kennedy, Hoffman, Haines).

William Heirens should have been sent to a mental institute rather than spend his life rotting away in prison. He was diagnosed with premature madness. Schizophrenia is a highly serious mental disorder and should be taken seriously, which the judges did not do. They thought that Heirens was saying things to keep himself out of jail. His mental condition was very poor, which led him to start murdering people, including a 6-year-old girl. By examining William’s early life, the influences he had while growing up, and his capture and questioning, it is apparent that he had become a vicious butcher.