[3] Charles Einstein wrote a novel called The Bloody Spur about Heirens, published in 1953 which was adapted into the 1956 film While the City Sleeps by Fritz Lang.

At the time, there was a nationwide meatpackers' strike and the Office of Price Administration (OPA) was talking of extending rationing to dairy products.

[16][17] Police questioned hundreds of people, administered polygraph examinations to about 170 and several times claimed to have captured the killer, although all were eventually released.

Although Thomas lived in the South Side of Chicago, he frequented a car yard directly across the street from the location where Degnan's arms were found.

A college student was caught fleeing from the scene of a burglary, brandished a gun at police and possibly tried to kill one of the pursuing policemen to escape.

[20] Under the influence of the drug, authorities claimed, Heirens spoke of an alternate personality named George who had actually committed the murders.

He was also reported as claiming that George sent him prowling at night, that he robbed for pleasure, that he "killed like a cobra" when cornered and that he related his secrets to Heirens.

"[32] Authorities were skeptical regarding Heirens' claims and suspected that he was laying the groundwork for an insanity defense, but the confession earned widespread publicity with the press transforming "Murman" to "Murder Man."

On June 30, 1946, police captain Emmett Evans told newspapers that Heirens had been cleared of suspicion in the Brown murder, as the fingerprint in the apartment was not his.

[33] Also in Heirens' possession was a stolen copy of Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), Richard von Krafft-Ebing's famous study of sexual deviance.

[18] The witness had told police that darkness had prevented him from seeing the man's face, but in court he testified that he had seen Heirens walk in front of a car's headlights.

He later said:[35]The small likelihood of a successful murder prosecution of William Heirens early prompted the state's attorney's office to seek out and obtain the cooperative help of defense counsel, and through them, that of their client.

The deal stipulated that Heirens would serve one life sentence if he confessed to the murders of Josephine Ross, Frances Brown and Suzanne Degnan.

The public allocution was again held in Tuohy's office, where Heirens talked and answered questions, even reenacting parts of the murders to which he had confessed.

In his confession, Heirens stated that he had thrown the hunting knife used to dismember Suzanne Degnan from a train onto the elevated subway tracks near the scene of the murder.

The reporters determined that the knife belonged to Guy Rodrick, the owner of the Colt Police Positive .22 caliber gun found in Heirens' possession.

[36] On September 5, after further evidence was entered into the record and the prosecution and defense had made their closing statements, the judge sentenced Heirens to three life terms.

This form of interrogation, which was done without a warrant and administered with neither Heirens' nor his parents' consent, is believed by most scientists today to be of dubious value in eliciting the truth, due to high suggestibility of subjects under the influence of such substances.

During Heirens' post-conviction petition in 1952, Tuohy admitted under oath that he not only knew about the sodium pentothal procedure, he had authorized it and paid Grinker $1,000.

However, John E. Reid and Fred E. Inbau published the test findings in their 1953 textbook, Lie Detection and Criminal Interrogation, which seem to contradict that assertion.

The FBI had previously issued a report on March 22, 1946, that it examined the note and declared that there was no indentation writing at all and Hamel's assertions "[...] indicated either a lack of knowledge on his part or a deliberate attempt to deceive.

Most handwriting experts, both attached to the Chicago police and independent at the time of the original investigation, believed that Heirens had no connections to either the note or the wall scribble.

In a 2002 clemency petition, however, his lawyers question the validity of those prints on the ransom note due to the timing of discoveries of fingerprints on the card, the broken chain of evidence and its handling by both inexperienced law enforcement and civilians.

Further, Laffey testified during the September 5, 1946, sentencing hearing that one more fingerprint on the reverse side of the note was linked to Heirens to ten points of comparison.

[20] As to the fingerprints on the front of the note that were discovered by the FBI in January 1946, Laffey only identified one and did not say it belonged to Heirens when he testified at the sentencing hearing.

[20] A "bloody, smudged" print of an end and middle joint of a finger was found on the doorjamb of a door between the bathroom and dressing room in Frances Brown's apartment.

[35] He managed the garment factory at Stateville for five years, overseeing 350 inmates, and after transfer to Vienna Correctional Center, he set up their entire educational program.

The Illinois Senate passed a resolution that as the "confessed murderer of Suzanne Degnan, a 6-year-old girl whom he strangled in 1946 ... that it is the opinion of the chamber that the release of William Heirens at this time would be detrimental to the best interests of the people of the state."

Former Los Angeles police officer Steve Hodel, who had spent 25 years on the force, met Heirens in 2003 when he was investigating the murders.

"I felt compelled to write an appeal to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board stating my professional belief that Heirens is innocent.