The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-08-30
Heirens Says He Invented Crime Stooge
Letter to Parents Tells How Killer Tried to Reform

Chicago, Aug. 30-George Mur- man, the elusive partner upon whom William Heirens, IT, at tempted to blame his career of crime, was an invention of his imagination, Heirens confessed in letter written in prison and ad- dressed to his parents.
 Authorities had thought Murman was manifestation of Heirens' split personality.
 Heirens wrote the letter in his cell at the county jail while authorities were trying to obtain a confession from him, States Attorney William J. Tuohy said. The letter was seized by jailers and never mailed.
 Saved 8 Pills
 In it, Heirens, confessed slayer of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan and two women, told of trying to tear open scalp wounds suffered when he was seized and of trying to gouge his eyes out in two of numerous attempts at suicide he claimed to have tried or planned.
 He also wrote of saving 32 aspir- in tablets which he intended to take in a single dose, and of planning to starve himself. In his letter he told of not eating for a period, but au- thorities reported that he had taken nourishment all the time he was in custody.
 Heirens also wrote that he was aware of his sexual abnormality which led him to commit burglary and murder. He tried to overcome his criminal urges, he wrote, by dating girls"
 The letter, addressed to Dear Nom and Dad" was revealed as three prominent psychiatrists pre- pared a report on an exhaustive series of sanity tests given the youth.
 Knew It Was Over
 He wrote in detail of his capture June 26 after an attempted bur glary.
 "A policeman came up after me, and l knew it was all over" he wrote. T thought of shooting my self through my head with the .22 but I thought that it might not be sufficient to kill me"
 He told Of the policemans gun misflring, and of the struggle that followed.
 T fought with him thinking someone else would come with a bigger gun and kill me but nobody did, only a guy with flower pots he wrote
 The guy with flower potsn was a rookie policeman of duty who seized some flower pots and smashed them against Heirens' head.
 Heirens told of awakening in Edgewater Hospital and of feigning inconsistencies because 1 thought I could find some other way to kill myself
 Planned tp Break Needle
 If they gave me an injection I intended to break the needle in my arm so that the point would go to my heart and end it all but they held me too tight" he wrote.
 I tried later to gouge my eyes out in the hopes they wouldn't notice it until was dead but that failed because they were watching me just like when T tried to reopen the wounds in my head to bleed to death.
 The letter told, sometimes inco- .herently, of the youths long strug- gle to overcome his abnormal urges. It told how he stole women's un- derWear from basement clothes lines at the age of g.
 T deduced that the best way to overcome it was to get at the source, which did by dating girls, he wrote.
 T found them repulsive but was determined to overcome this.
 He told of dating Joan Slama, whom he met on the University of Chicago campus.
 Invented Murman
 But soon after I started going with Joan began to let up on Dur glaries and I decided I was win ming but I still made infrequent burglaries. knew I was winning Yet had not overcome it."
 He wrote that Joan was con- verging me away from crime but not sufficiently"
 He said he wanted to aggra- vate" the officers who were seeking a confession from him "so I blamed it all op C,e0rpe M1lr,,oa,,
 That all worked very we'll he said, but he feared that he had in- crininated himself while under the influence of a drug known as truth serum" which authorities had ad- ministered It, ..-.-.. =.=..~ ..=.=.
 The three psychiatrists who have examined the youth said their find ings would be presented in criminal court next Wednesday.