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American Morning

Look at the 'Lipstick Killer'

Aired April 04, 2002 - 09:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to story that made headlines long before many of us were even around. He has been in prison for more than a half a century, convicted of dismembering a six-year-old girl and killing two other women. He is called the lipstick killer. William Heirens confessed to the crime but he quickly recanted. He has been seeking his freedom ever since. His clemency hearing begins today in Illinois. And CNN's Jeff Flock brings us up to date on the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You don't seem angry?

WILLIAM HEIRENS: No.

FLOCK: Why not?

WILLIAM: Because anger never gets you anywhere.

FLOCK: Nothing has gotten William Heirens anywhere in 55 years. That's how long he's been in prison, convicted of dismembering a six- year-old girl, killing two other women and writing in lipstick "catch me before I kill more, I cannot control myself". Sounds like something from a movie.

Indeed, this 1956 film is loosely based on the horrific crimes and coverage of the now 73-year-old Heirens. Crimes he's said for half a century that he didn't commit.

So tell me as simply as you can, why you confessed?

HEIRENS: Well, the publicity was very bad and they already had me convicted in the newspapers.

FLOCK: The Chicago Tribune did print this confession before he ever gave one. Prosecutors convinced him he would get death.

UNIDENTIFIED: He was told by his lawyers and his family had been persuaded of the same thing that the only hope of saving his life was to confess to these cases.

FLOCK: So, he did, got three life sentences and immediately recanted and began fighting for his freedom. Prosecutors admitted it would have been difficult to convict him without the confession. UNIDENTIFIED: I like the courts, the judges, to have enough guts to do their jobs.

FLOCK: This was 1988. The once-angry Heirens now calmly reviews the evidence for me, the handwriting on a ransom note that didn't match his, as police contended, a fingerprint that he and his lawyers say was planted at the crime scene. Don't listen says the brother of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan.

JAMES DEGNAN: Nothing's changed, the same data, the same sets of circumstances, the same condemning evidence, the same everything.

FLOCK: But the state seems now seems sympathetic to Heirens. The model prisoner became an artist and the first Illinois inmate to get a college diploma while incarcerated. Authorities allowed us to stroll and talk with him at the medium-security Dixon, Illinois Correctional Center.

But if what you say is true, you've had your whole life taken away?

HEIRENS: Yeah.

FLOCK: Prison replacing the chance of a career, a wife, a family.

None of that was possible.

HEIRENS: No. No. I missed all that.

FLOCK: And you're not angry?

HEIRENS: No. No.

FLOCK: "I let the anger go," he says and hopes authorities do the same for him. I'm Jeff Flock, CNN in Dixon, Illinois.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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