Inmate known as the ‘Lipstick Killer’ dies

An 83-year-old man who was dubbed the “Lipstick Killer” after three murders in Chicago in the 1940s and who became Illinois longest-serving inmate has died.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office tells the Chicago Tribune that William Heirens died Monday at a Chicago hospital after officials at Dixon Correctional Center found him unresponsive in his cell. An autopsy is planned.

Heirens was a 17-year-old University of Chicago student and petty burglar when he confessed to the 1945 killings of two women and a 6-year-old girl. The child’s remains were found scattered in Chicago’s sewers.

Investigators at one of the women’s homes found a message scrawled in lipstick that read: “For heaven’s sake, catch me before I kill more.”

Heirens later said he’d only confessed to avoid the electric chair.