Sorry Crimefile - Heirens to Rot
- llinois' longest-serving prison inmate won't be getting out on parole this year.
The Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted 14-0 to deny parole for 78-year-old William Heirens.
Heirens was convicted of the 1945 killings of two Chicago women and the 1946 kidnapping, dismemberment and murder of a 6-year-old girl. He was sentenced to three back-to-back life terms and has spent 61 years behind bars.
Members of the review board noted the brutal nature of Heirens' crimes in denying him parole. They noted that he's a different man than he was 60 years ago but said it would be disrespect for the law to allow him parole.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Labels: crime
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
22 Comments:
"Dont do the crime if you cant do the time".......
ha, ha!!
Why is he still alive????
I'm liberal as all get out but if you kill someone (and the SAO decides to charge you) you should never see the sun rise as a free human being again. Ever.
Guys like Heirens are one reason why I'm against the death penalty...seeing that old coot every few years get denied is sooooo fulfilling that I can't wait to see it happen to someone else who has been in prison longer than my parents have been alive. They should wake those people up every day by saying, "hey your victim is still dead, guess that means you stay here."
Bravo to the parole board for the unanimous vote!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled conservative Bush-loving comments...
Little Suzanne Degnan would have celebrated her 67th birthday this year.
Area 3 just learned that Heirens has an airtight alibi for Judith Mae Anderson. Chief Maher has ordered that the bucket and the 55 gallon drum be moved from the warehouse to the area until the case is cleared.
Click on Paul's crimefile link and read some of his points, which are very good and make sense. Bottom line, back in the 40's, if they said you did it, YOU DID IT!
burn in hell!
I really did not expect the board to release Heirens. They voted 20-0 against letting him out. Yes I suspect that the murders, particularly Suzanne Degnan was killed by another man, Richard Thomas who was a convicted child molester who worked selling cars across the street from the dead girl. In 1996, I talked to this man’s children who live in Austin Texas and they believe their father actually killed Degnan.
Heirens was 17 tear-old twisted and prolific residential burglar. He deserved to be killed by the people he victimized. If he really tried to kill a Chicago cop responding to a prowler call he needed to be ushered into the hereafter for that too.
Heirens never had real issues for any court appeals since he pled guilty. Of course had they convicted him at a trial he’d have been executed within months back in 1946. The purpose of guilty pleas is to end any legal contest over the crimes or punishment.
I really think that there is a time of redemption and rehabilitation for anyone. It’s when the offender is too old and its unlikely they’d do to harm others. The other factor that weighs heavily with me is the very young age of an offender. Heirens would have been only 16 when the murders were committed. Had he been even a couple of years older I’d be less forgiving.
I know we all want that prison space taken by someone who is a threat to society.
But but, he is such a great inmate and he has changed... Just like Tookie Williams!!!!
*In case you missed it, that was sarcasm.*
GOOD HOPE HE DIES A MISERABLE DEATH WITH A DICK UP HIS ASS IN PRISON DIE FUCKER DIE!
OK We will allow him time served on the first life sentence and now start serving time on the second of the three life sentences he got.
He's in his 70's,too damned bad! How old would his victims have been if they were left alone by this BASTARD.Let him ROTT!
Heirens deserves to die in prison.
Why did this guy not get to ride the lightning in '46?
Robert in England
I would like to think that we police officers would like to get the "real" bad guy and not just anyone in order to move the x. I would also like to think that the old timers were this way too. At least most of them.
Bottom line, back in the 40's, if they said you did it, YOU DID IT!
8/03/2007 01:47:00 AM
Still holds true to this day.Want proof??
"In 1996, I talked to this man’s children who live in Austin Texas and they believe their father actually killed Degnan."
WHY do they believe this? What specifically do this man's children know about the murder to lead them to such a belief?
Crimefile first you said he was falsely accused. Then you said he was railroaded by the Police and wrongly convicted. Now you say he plead quilty to three murders he did not commit because he wanted to end any legal contest over the crimes or punishment.
Now lets look at this, falsely accused, railroaded and plead quilty. Any sane person and any Lawyer worth a nickel would have gone to trial and welcomed the legal contest even if it took 10 years! I dont think I have ever heard of a defendent pleading quilty to a MURDER they did not commit let alone three.
And if he was that F&%ken stupid he deserves to rot in prison.
Hard to believe that he has children. He was only 17 ot 18 when he committed these crimes. (Not that he couldn't have kids. I had just never heard that before)
To: 8/03/2007 06:13:00 PM
Richard Russell Thomas worked across the street from the Degnan girl. He was a nurse and had a working knowledge of anatomy. Investigators thought the killer had medical training.
Thomas molested two of his own children. These children were afraid of their father, and are today convinced that when he confessed to then crime in 1946 he did so out of guilt.
Then there is this from author Dolores Kennedy:
Research also uncovered the existence of Richard Thomas, who confessed to the Degnan crime from his jail cell in Phoenix, Arizona shortly before Bill was arrested. Thomas was waiting to be sentenced for molesting his daughter. The Chicago police were summoned, but quickly lost interest in Thomas when the state attorney for Chicago announced that Bill was the killer. The justice team discovered that:
- Handwriting experts identified Thomas as the author of the Degnan ransom note
- Thomas lived in Chicago when Suzanne Degnan was killed and "hung out" at a car agency near her home
- Suzanne's arms were discovered in a sewer directly across from that same car agency
- Thomas was a male nurse who molested two of his three children
- Several years prior to the Degnan crime, he had been arrested for attempted kidnapping and extortion. Portions of the extortion letter have wording similar to that on the ransom note
- He was a petty burglar who was arrested on numerous occasions
He was framed. If he was black he would have been set free by now.
Soory crimefile, contrary to popular belief, our justice system is horseshit at rehabilitation. I agree he may not be a threat to society, however, that was his punishment, to believe otherwise opens a floodgate. And then we'll have everybody say hes old, or sick, hes got asthma,vor this and that. Then we leave it in the hands of the lenient to let people go. Who thens sets this criteria, how old is old, heck your not 70, but look old to me.
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