Guide to the The William Heirens Case Newspaper Clippings 1946-1949


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Table of Contents

• Descriptive Summary
• Information on Use
• Access
• Citation
• Biographical Note
• Scope Note
• Related Resources
• Subject Headings
• INVENTORY

Descriptive Summary

Information on Use

Access

No restrictions

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Heirens, William, Case. Newspaper Clippings, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

The case of William Heirens was one of the most sensational in Chicago's history. On January 7, 1946 six-year-old Suzanne Degnan was taken from her bedroom, butchered in a nearby basement, and parts of her body were found deposited in a number of sewers on the north side of the city. A ransom note demanding $20, 000 was discovered after the killer returned to the Degnan home. A few weeks before the Degnan murder, Frances Brown had been found shot to death in her ransacked apartment. Her killer had left a message scrawled in lipstick on the wall that pleaded, "For heaven's sake catch me before I kill more; I cannot control myself." On June 3, 1945 a 43 year-old-widow Mrs. Josephine Ross had been found murdered in her apartment. When accused of the crimes, Heirens maintained that he was innocent and that his alter ego, George Murman, had committed the slayings.

Under these circumstances the local newspapers gave the episode extensive coverage, repeatedly dwelling on Heirens' connection with the University of Chicago. Because Heirens, who had a criminal record since the age of 13, had entered the University at the age of 16, the press constantly referred to him as a "University of Chicago brightboy."

Heirens was a resident of Gates Hall at the University, and much of his loot and an arsenal were discovered in his room and in Woodlawn Hall. Most of the crimes charged against Heirens were committed in the Hyde Park-Woodlawn area near the University of Chicago and on the far north side in the vicinity of Loyola University.

Scope Note

The William Heirens' Case Newspaper Clipping File contains clippings about the criminal activity of Heirens, a seventeen-year-old, second-year student in the College of the University of Chicago, who was charged with three brutal murders and some 100 burglaries. The clippings, drawn mainly from Chicago newspapers, the Daily News, the Herald-American, the Sun, the Times, and the Tribune, are arranged chronologically. They were originally compiled by the University's Office of Public Relations and deal with Heirens' apprehension during a burglary, his link to the murder-kidnapping of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan and two other killings, his confession, trial and imprisonment. The clippings fall primarily in the year 1946, although some material through 1949 is included.

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Subject Headings

• Heirens, William
• Trials (Murder) -- Illinois -- Chicago

INVENTORY