NUTZOID KILLER ... OR VICTIM?

1/7/1946 - The city of Chicago is horrified when six-year-old Suzanne Degnan is found missing from her first-floor bedroom at 5943 North Kenmore Avenue.

Degnan 

Vowing to find the responsible party once on the scene, local police find a ladder outside the child's window and a poorly written ransom note requesting $20,000 in $5s and $10s (Mayor Edward Kelly also receives a bizarre note from the culprit referencing President Roosevelt and the Office of Price Administration).  Sadly though, no ransom is really needed for an anonymous phone call is soon received by authorities stating that the sewers near the Degnan home should be searched ... and when they are, the police discover the young girl's head a block away, her right leg in a catch basin in the same alley, her torso in another storm drain, her left leg in another alley, and three weeks later, her arms in a sewer near the Howard elevated train line, three blocks from the Degnan home. And in their search, they also discover an apartment basement laundry room containing evidence of Degnan's dismemberment. Alive when abducted, the little girl has been murdered at a second location, and then processed for hiding at what reporters will christian, "The Murder Room" in the basement.

Sewer Hiding Place
     
The Murder Room

The #1 priority case for the Chicago police department to solve, thousands of man hours are spent questioning witnesses, administering polygraph lie detector tests, weeding out phony confessions, and arresting suspects with no actual involvement in the case.  The most unfortunate suspect is the 65-year-old janitor of the Degnan building, Hector Verburgh, an innocent who is brought in for questioning as police tell the press that they've got their man, and beaten to a pulp in the cops' pursuit of a confession (his wife is also pressured to give up her husband) ... a 48-hour in custody nightmare that includes a separated shoulder that will take Verburgh 10 days at a local hospital to recover from (the Chicago police sued, Verburgh and his wife later will receive $20,000 for their wronging).

Ouch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then the police stumble on a new suspect!  On 6/26/1946, 17-year-old William Heirens is arrested for attempted burglary when he is spotted trying to break into a Chicago apartment building (brandishing a pistol which misfires when he tries to shoot at the police, he is placed in custody after he is cracked over the head by three clay flowerpots and knocked unconscious).  And with another roughing up behind bars, the Chicago police get the confession they were hoping for (later, Heirens will claim that he is questioned around the clock for six days, beaten, denied food and water, shot up with sodium pentothal without a warrant, not allowed to see his parents for four days, does not receive legal representation for six days, and on the fifth day, given a lumbar puncture without any anesthesia before a scheduled polygraph test).  According to the authorities, while "under" one of his chemical cocktails, Heirens becomes a talkative alter-ego killer that calls himself George (also Heirens' father's name) Murman, the murderer of not only Degen, but also the instigator of the unsolved deaths 43-year-old Josephine Ross (stabbed to death in her apartment in June of 1945) and divorcee Frances Brown in December of 1945 (another gruesome stabbing in which the perpetrator leaves the message "For Heavens Sake catch me Before I kill more I cannot control myself" in lipstick on a wall of his victim's apartment ... a message that earns the culprit the nickname of "The Lipstick Killer" from the press covering the case).  And to trial everyone goes!

In Custody

Ouch!

Behind Bars 

Indeed?

At Heirens' trial, questions are raised about the legitimacy of the confessions (there will be 29 inconsistencies in the tale Heirens tells and the "known" facts of the case ... and afterwards, he recants both documents) made to the police, and the fingerprint and hand writing evidence presented, but they are buried beneath the story and objects of the prosecution's case ... a tale in which Heirens is raised by a constantly arguing set of parents (to escape, as a child he sneaks out of the house and begins wandering the night streets of Chicago), gets sexual gratification from burglarizing homes (which he begins doing at the age of 13) and develops a fantasy alter-ego named George Murman that commits all of Heirens' crimes, a gun linked to other crimes is found in his possession, as are stolen medical equipment and a scrapbook from a robbed home near Degnan's, an active duty soldier, George E. Subgrunski, testifies that Heirens is the man he saw walking towards the Degnan home on the night of Suzanne's abduction (which doesn't match previous statements), and the hunting knife used to cut up Degnan being found in the approximate spot where Heirens said he threw it from the EL train he was riding on.  

The Infamous Lipstick Message

In open court, with his own parents present along with relatives of the victims, on September 4, 1946, Heirens confesses to the murders of Ross, Brown, and Degnan, and then follows up his admission with seemingly another, trying to hang himself in his cell that night while his guards are changing shifts (he is discovered just in time and revived).  The next day, after closing arguments by both sides, Chief Justice Harold G. Ward sentences to Heirens to three prison life sentences for the murders.

Ready For Life Behind Bars

In the aftermath of the killings and trial, Heirens' parents will divorce, and they, and a younger brother all change their last names to Hill.  Heirens can't change his name, but he does seem a different man behind bars ... he learns several trades, including television and radio repair, he becomes the first prisoner in Illinois history to earn a four-year college degree, becoming a Bachelor of Arts in 1972, he manages the prison's garment factory for five years (overseeing the work of 350 convicts), and setting up an educational program for prisoners housed at the Vienna Correctional Center in 1975.  Despite it all, and ongoing debates over his guilt, each time he is up for parole his requests to be freed are all denied.  Eventually, diabetes ravages his legs and sight, and Heirens, on March 5, 2012, dies in a hospital bed at University of Illinois Medical Center at the age of 83 ... and additionally, George Murman is never heard from again either!

Heirens - 2004

Heirens

1/7/1946 ... and the hunt for the maniac burglar that will be called "The Lipstick Killer" becomes front page news.

THE FIRST KNOWN NOTCH

12/27/1894 - Festering for years, the feud between Pike Landusky and the Logan Family finally ends with violence and a killing in Landusky, Montana ... and a deadly outlaw career begins.

Landusky/Zortman Ghost Town

Now a ghost time, in 1894 the mining community of Landusky, Montana, consists of about twenty rudimentary log cabins and rickety clapboard houses near the banks of where Rock Creek leaves the southern edge of the Little Rocky Mountains on its journey south to feed the Missouri River, with most activities centering in a combination saloon and supply store that features a pool table.  It is an establishment where the namesake of the town, Powell "Pike" Landusky can often be found swilling rotgut whiskey and ranting about perceived affronts to his manhood and sense of justice.

Landusky

One of the thousands to make his way west after the American Civil War in pursuit of golden riches, the Polish-French, six-foot Landusky leaves Missouri (in future days he will take great glee in answering questions as to where he is from with a fist to the questioner's face, and the exclamation, "Pike County, Missouri, by God!") for Montana in July of 1868, and is soon forging the type of life that resulted in the appellation "wild" being connected to west as a justified description of that time and place on the frontier before the 20th century begins.  In the decades leading up to 1894, Landusky will become a bare knuckle boxing champion, a businessman trading on the Flatwillow Creek, an Indian fighter (in one confrontation, he suffers a broken jaw, loses several teeth, and receives a large facial scar that he likes to display for intimidation purposes), drunkenly shoots up the Indian camp of a Blackfoot warrior named White Calf, attacks two Sioux Indians with a frying pan when the men make the mistake of asking if he has any breakfast to share, scalps three Indians he believes stole supplies from him in a previous encounter, throws another Indian in a fire when the man grabs a frying steak out of a skillet during a visit to Landusky's camp, runs a passenger and freight business between the towns of Maiden and White Sulphur Springs, owns a saloon and livery stable, marries Julia St. Dennis-Dessery in Maiden's first wedding (and takes over the upbringing of her five children, plus the two they will have together), is part of a group that discovers placer gold in the Little Rockies in 1884, survives a flash flood that destroys the log cabin quarters of his family, works as a cowboy between the Missouri and Milk Rivers for the DHS Cattle Company, survives the -60 degree, cattle killing winter of 1886-1887, finds pay dirt in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and starts the town of Landusky when in 1893, he discovers a three inch long sliver of gold while drinking from a local creek (the pocket of ore will eventually pay $13,000 a ton after picking).  Fornicating, brawling, and drinking are his favorite activities ... in no particular order.

Landusky (In Fur Cap) & Friends - 1894

By way of Kentucky, Iowa, and Missouri, the Logan Family is also in the Landusky region of Montana, trying its hand at business and ranching, a clan consisting of oldest brother James, Hank, Harvey, Johnny, Lonie, and cousin Bob Lee ... hard men all that do not back down from fights, whether the clashes are with fists, or, with pistols.  One hundred and sixty pounds of muscled mean with a violent temper in a five foot and seven and a half inch tall package, twenty-seven-year-old brother Harvey, known to his siblings as "The Kid," is the family member no one messes with if they value their health.

Logan and Prostitute Della Moore

At first, relations are good between Landusky and the Logans, but things begin to sour when a plow is borrowed from the Logans and returned broke, and celebrating their drunken buzz, the Logans shoot up a Landusky outhouse one night.  When love is thrown into the mix, Hank attempts to date a school teacher living at the Landusky home, and Lonie starts secretly meeting Landusky's step-daughter Elfie, things turn volatile as the city founder begins telling anyone who will listen that he plans to kill Harvey and Lonie with his bare hands the first chance he gets ... and he gets that chance when local sheriff Jack Buckley arrests Harvey and Lonie on trumped up assault and disturbing the peace charges brought by Landusky and his friend, James Ross, and leaves the pair in Landusky's custody, after deputizing the town founder, until the matter can be settled by a judge.  Both Logans survive their incarceration ... barely.  Before being released and the charges dropped, Harvey and Lonie are chained in Landusky's milk house, fist beaten, kicked, stomped on, insulted (Landusky takes particular delight in calling their mother vile names), threatened with castration, get tobacco juice spit in their faces, and are finally urinated on.  Throughout the ordeal, Logan vows to give Landusky a worse payback once he is freed.

Outlaw Logan's Tramp Disguise

On a snowy morning two days after a large town Christmas celebration in which all local animosities are put on hold (over 100 people attend), Landusky is in "Jew" Jake Harris' saloon, keeping warm with shots of whiskey and games of whist when Lonie and the Logan's ranching partner, Jim Thornhill, enter and head into the store to buy some apples ... a ruse to keep Harris (an amputee from a gunfight that uses a loade shotgun as his crutch) from becoming involved in what is coming. Moments later, Harvey and his brother Johnny enter the establishment and suddenly everyone inside is facing Logan and Thornhill pistols, covered.  Walking directly over to where Landusky is sitting, without speaking a word, Harvey slaps his enemy in the face hard enough for Landusky's drink to be spilled and the bottle of whiskey he is holding to drop to the floor, and then follows that blow up with right to the chin that reunites Landusky with the fallen liquor.  Fight on, Landusky is the bigger and more powerful of the two, but Logan has youth, speed, and revenge madness on his side.  Grunts, groans, fist pops, and heavy breathing the only sounds in the saloon, in the five minute battle that ensues, Logan's pistol falls out of his pocket (picked up quickly by Thornhill) and he almost has his eyes gouged out before he is able to gain an advantage on his opponent that allows him to pummel Landusky in the face until the big man asks for quarter. Weary, one eye swollen shut, and covered in blood, Harvey grants the request and rises from his position atop Landusky's chest.  But the fight isn't over.

Lonie Logan - 1900 - After Resisting Arrest

Righting himself, Landusky gains his balance, wipes some blood from his face, and then pulls a 7.62 mm semi-automatic Swedish Burchardt pistol out of a pocket in his fur coat, and pulls the trigger twice to no effect, forgetting that a bullet must be chambered first in the new-fangled weapon.  He does not get a third chance to put lead in Logan.  Seeing the plight of his partner and friend, Thornhill tosses Logan his pistol, and in a whirl of split second motion, Harvey grabs the weapon (a Colt .45 of course), pushes Landusky's gun away, and fires two shots into his adversary's chest (a third round is deposited in the wall of the saloon).  This time Landusky does not leave the floor, and after convulsing for a few moments, is soon dead.

The Fight & Landusky's Pistol

Witnessed by over a dozen non-participants in the bar that include cowboys, miners, local laborers, a sawmill operator, and a saloon employee cleaning out the establishment's stove, the killing is an obvious case of self defense, but Harvey takes no chances with so many of Landusky's friends about the town and in the area ... weapon ready for more blood, he backs out of the premises, and with his brothers and Thornhill, rides away to the Logan ranch, packs up, and lights out (after receiving money from selling Thornhill his share of the Logan property) for the outlaw country of north-central Wyoming, and a place called Hole-in-the-Wall.  A matter eventually dropped by Montana authorities, it will make no difference to Harvey Logan when he finally gets the news as by then, he has morphed into one of the most notorious outlaws of the Wild West ... the "Tiger" of the Wild Bunch, Kid Curry, a gunslinger who will kill at least nine lawmen (and he doesn't give up revenge killing beyond Pike Landusky before he's done) before committing suicide when trapped and wounded by a posse after a failed train robbery near Parachute, Colorado in June of 1904 (or vanishing down to South American, like his friends, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid if that story is preferred).

Is It Him?

12/27/1894 - Harvey Logan begins his bloody outlaw journey!


The Wild Bunch Celebrating In Fort Worth, Texas - 1900
Seated (L to R) - Harry "The Sundance Kid" Longabaugh,
Ben "The Tall Texan" Kilpatrick, and Robert Leroy
"Butch Cassidy" Parker
Standing (L to R) - William "News" Carver and Harvey
"Kid Curry" Logan