Abernathy's 29 years a distant second to Heirens' 66 years for crimes he didn't commit

As horrific as Christopher Abernathy's 29 years in prison for a 1984 murder he didn't commit, the all time champ for wrongful convictions goes to fellow Chicagoland teen William Heirens, who served 66 years (1946 -2012) for three murders he didn't commit. Abernathy's exoneration and $14 million wrongful conviction settlement is page one news today. Abernathy endured 18 hours of interrogation before confessing, the only evidence offered at trial other than a witness who testified Abernathy confided to him of the murder. That witness later recanted his testimony, saying he was coerced by police eager to close a horrific case.

But 73 years ago an even younger sacrificial lamb, William Heirens, 17, a career burglar seeking quick cash to for a night out with his University of Chicago classmate, was caught burglaring an apartment nearby the Northside home of 6 year old Suzanne Degnan who had been abducted and dismembered 6 months earlier. Horrified they couldn't solve the case, as well as two other grisly murders of women a year earlier, cops focused on Heirens after his burglary arrest. Like Abernathy, with no physical evidence, they did it the old fashioned way, a form of medieval torture that would persuade Mother Teresa to fess up.

But before reviewing Heirens' torture, consider the first sacrificial lamb police offered up to clear three unrelated murders that occurred 12 months, 9 months and 6 months before Heirens was selected to take the rap. Hector Verburgh, was the 65 year old janitor in the building of third murder victim. Although only tortured for two days, Verburgh was so badly injured he spent ten days in the hospital recovering. His recollection speaks volumes about police methods in 1940's style law enforcement:

"Oh, they hanged me up, they blindfolded me ... I can’t put up my arms, they are sore. They had handcuffs on me for hours and hours. They threw me in the cell and blindfolded me. They handcuffed my hands behind my back and pulled me up on bars until my toes touched the floor. I no eat, I go to the hospital. Oh, I am so sick. Any more and I would have confessed to anything."

Verburgh's last words were prophetic and not lost on Heirens. While Verburgh eventually received $20,000 from the city for his brush with a life sentence, Heiren's got the Full Monty - 65 years, eight months and twenty days before his quiet death in March, 2012. View the photo of two cops dragging the barely conscious 17 year old Heirens from an interrogation, and you get, literally, the picture. That photo was actually used by police to portray Heirens as a wild animal and by reporters to sell papers.

Try to picture what there isn't a picture of concerning Heirens "interrogation":

Heirens was brought barely conscious to the Cook County jail Bridwell Hospital and questioned round the clock for six days without access to an attorney. He was beaten, deprived of food and water and still didn't confess. Without consent or a warrant, two psychiatrists administered sodium pentothal (truth serum) and eventually a lumber puncture without anesthetic after which he was given a lie detector test which had to be stopped due to Heirens' extreme pain. A later polygraph was completed and ruled inconclusive.

On the seventh day the police rested and permitted Heirens to be hospitalized to recover from his injuries.

Under the influence of drugs administered, Heirens gave an incoherent, almost hallucinatory story of an alter ego who committed the crimes but this was considered utterly unsatisfactory for prosecutorial purposes.

Enter Chicago Tribune reporter George Wright who concocted a confession that appeared in a 38 column Trib story on July 18th, 22 days after Heirens' arrest. The other four dailies published the ghost written confession verbatim and it was even discussed over the radio.

States Attorney Bill Touhy had such a flimsy case without a solid confession that he pressed Heirens' defense attorneys to have him sign off on the make believe confession to complete a plea bargain: three life sentences instesad of electrocution. Back then a condemned man would be executed within months if not weeks of sentencing. Heirens attorneys and even his parents pressed for the confession in open court to spare Heirens' life.

The deal finally went down on September 5, 1946, exactly 65 years and six months until Heirens March 5th, 2012 death. Cook County Sheriff Michael Mulcahy asked his soon to depart jail inmate Heirens if the six year old suffered when killed her. Heirens replied: "I can't tell you if she suffered, Sheriff Mulcahy. I didn't kill her. Tell Mr. Degnan please look after his other daughter, because whoever killed Suzanne is still out there."

Unlike Christopher Abernathy, Bill Heirens was not exonerated, not compensated and not released. Officially, Bill Heirens is still the killer of record on the twisted scales of justice, and the killers of the two women in 1945 and the little girl in 1946 went to their deaths with their deadly secrets. Seventy-three years on our system of justice has improved...but still has a way to go.