The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
In 1946, Bill Heirens went to prison as Chicago's notorious Lipstick Killer. Born in 1928, Heirens was a troubled teen thief who continued to burgle homes even after enrolling at the University of Chicago. Police arrested him during one such crime on June 26, 1946.
At the time, Chicago police were under tremendous public and political pressure to find the so-called Lipstick Killer. A year earlier, a housewife had been stabbed in her North Side apartment, and in December of 1945 another woman was shot and stabbed in her Pine Grove Avenue apartment. On that occasion, the killer had left a scrawled note in the victim's lipstick: "For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself." A month later, a six-year-old girl was kidnapped from her North Side home; her dismembered body parts were found in the sewers of her North Side neighborhood.
Heirens was subjected to six days of interrogation and injected with truth serum; he still denied committing any murder. Police told him they had evidence that tied him to the crimes, including matching handwriting and a bloody fingerprint. His lawyers believed he was guilty and urged him to accept a plea bargain in which he would be granted immunity from Death Row if he confessed. Later evidence linked a known child molester, who frequented the neighborhood where the little girl lived, more concretely to the slayings. Heirens became the first inmate in Illinois to earn a bachelor of arts degree while incarcerated. His next parole hearing was scheduled for 2001.