Chicago, IL—Shortly after the confession and arrest of John Wayne Gacy partial human remains were discovered on a warm spring day of 1979 at the Indian Boundary Forest Preserve near Belmont and Cumberland. This was very close to Gacy's Summerdale Avenue bungalow.
Apparently wild dogs and other creatures ate part of the victim who was later positively identified as Douglas Morgan, Jr. Nearby was a cardboard box containing porno magazines and some women’s undergarments. The contents of the box were positively connected to Morgan.
Morgan was a young apprentice electrician living in the area. The cause of death was not determined at the time because of the condition of the remains. But it appeared that it was anything but natural death of a young healthy man.
Detectives that did not have the great forensic tools available today followed up that investigation. Additionally, Gacy was on the fast track to a solid conviction for so many other murders. To bring forward yet another case would be like beating a dead horse. Morgan’s case was suspended accordingly.
There are still more questions about Gacy than answers. Gacy was a very twisted killer and had some equally twisted friends. Did Gacy have the ability to kill and dispose of all of the bodies without some help? Gacy was out-of-shape and incapable of overpowering young athletic men. He claimed he used a rope and handcuffs to control his victims but I never believed he could fool every kid into voluntary submission.
One surviving victim police told that he somehow let Gacy place him in medieval restraint stocks. Gacy then buggered him from behind. Gacy apparently employed chloroform to subdue that victim who was able to escape. Since Gacy remodeled pharmacies he had easy access and often stole drugs from his clients.
Sheriff Tom Dart is convinced there is an accomplice or even more still out there. He’s put his Cold Case Squad on this long dormant investigation and now wants to begin digging for more victims. I think Dart may know a lot more than he’s letting out of the bag.
It was a legendary Des Plains, Il police detective, Joe Kozenczak who broke the case. However Gacy’s home was located in unincorporated Norwood Township, which automatically gives jurisdiction to the Sheriff’s police.
Morgan’s remains were recovered inside Chicago city limits and Chicago police detectives followed that up. That Morgan death investigation went nowhere and Gacy was executed at the Menard State Penitentiary by a lethal injection in 1994.
I suspect that a careful matching of names will bring the Morgan kid close to Gacy or at least an accomplice. DNA was not an available tool back then but often it still survives on evidence from decades earlier.
It’s long past time to take a fresh new look at Douglas Morgan, Jr.’s untimely demise.
Sanford, FL—The shooting and mass demonstrations connected with the self-defense shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman left us all with some real lessons.
The short of it is the importance of avoiding conflict and should you have to employ deadly force avoid calling 911 or giving any cooperation with police.
George Zimmerman volunteered to be a Block Watch busybody. Unfortunately many neighborhoods are loaded with dangerous predators and block watches have become a reality. That’s especially true in jurisdictions that have been dumping prisoners from prisons and that have undermanned police departments. Confine any watch activities to protecting your own home, family and close friends.
Calling 911 has become an exercise in futility because they are slow to answer the phone, those untrained civilians give loads of bad advice and the cops can never arrive in time to prevent rapes, robberies or murders. They can however arrange for a cleanup of a bloody mess and to remove the dead and wounded from the scene.
Be aware of your surroundings and the behavior of others around you, your car or home. Be prepared with sufficient training, weapons and ammunition needed to face multiple armed criminals. Criminals seldom work alone.
If you are the subject of intimidation, bullying or attack respond as your life depends on it because it does. Use your weapon to end the assault and in all but a few scenarios the cowardly criminals will flee without you having to fire a shot.
If on the other hand you fire shots do so with accuracy and a sufficient number of shots to stop the attack cold. Instant one-shot stops are rare except on television.
Once you shoot, it’s time to scoot! Get the Hell away from the danger, accomplices and friends of the person/s you’ve shot.
In Zimmerman’s case, Martin was an athletic six-foot-two-inch tall football player that had him on his back pounding on him. Martin got what he deserved.
You’ve got an absolute Constitutional right not to incriminate yourself. That means you cannot be forced to report to 911 on yourself! You should always as a matter of sound legal advice not to communicate with the police beyond asking them for a lawyer. Save the, “I was in fear of my life” confession for the courtroom and chances are you’ll never see a courtroom.
George Zimmerman should have left the do-gooder block watch duties to anyone else. If that failed he should have resorted to the principal of, shoot, scoot and keep your mouth shut. Doing the Block Watch duties placed Zimmerman in harms way with both criminals and 911 operators.
Today Zimmerman is now the target of a massive racially motivated hate campaign by mobs all over this nation. Zimmerman is now in danger wherever he goes since his published picture and name has given made him as recognizable as any celebrity. Zimmerman has a price on his head and a racist U.S. Attorney General that will do everything possible to persecute him. Zimmerman probably will not survive what’s in store for him.
Someone please tell me the value of cooperating with police under these circumstances. Every 911 call Zimmerman ever made will now be used against him.
Zimmerman’s unpaid Block Watch gig was a really stupid an idea. Always leave police work to the cops.
So when you forced to defend yourself or family the words of the day are SHOOT and SCOOT!
Chicago, IL --Not a week goes by in the Windy City without violent Black on White atrocities motivated by racial hatred. The stories are ignored because they’re deemed to inflammatory to publish. If they’re published at all, great pains are taken by the media to conceal the race of the offenders and victims.
However in those rare cases where it’s White on Black crime they exploit those stories for all they’re worth. The problem is most of them are just stories with few facts to back them up. Remember the infamous Tawana Brawley and Duke LaCrosse Players rape cases? How can we forget all the political posturing and race baiting surrounding those cases? How soon the prosecutions fell apart when they were discovered being motivated by, grand litigious self-enrichment plans.
The Florida self-defense shooting by George Zimmerman of that six foot tall football playing gangbanger, Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman, a Block Watch captain is the newest news fable. Zimmerman called the cops to report Martin’s suspicious behavior. At some point he found himself under the imposing 17 year-old being pummeled and bloodied. A shot was fire and Martin was killed.
The press ran with this story with the angelic picture of Martin when he was years younger and smaller. They told of him being armed only with iced tea and a bag of candy. They media never bothered to flush out witnesses that could shed light on the matter and there was at least one independent witness that clearly established a case of self-defense.
Race baiting by national media organizations is still at a fever pitch as they provide fee publicity to groups such as the New Black Panthers to gather large mobs in every major city. To me this is an intentional effort to start a race war. They even provoked a silly response from that dope in the Whitehouse.
George Zimmerman has a price on his head and I suspect that they will kill him before he faces either civil or criminal proceedings in court.
For now the media and the Obama Justice Department wants to make a Civil Rights hero out of Trayvon Martin. Perhaps they can erect a monument in Washington D.C. to their new icon. Perhaps they can use one of his Facebook pictures of him flashing gang signs while wearing baggy pants pulled below his underwear as a model.
Chicago, IL—As far back as I can remember Chicago cops and local news reporters had conflicts. Cops relate to local media the same way they do the ACLU. Cops hate both until they need them. That in many cases is a dead wrong approach. Reporters seem to think cops are a bunch of poorly educated, heartless Neanderthals that hate everyone. They are also dead wrong.
There is a culture clash between professional journalists and cops. The vast majority of reporters come complete with the liberal brainwashing from their prestigious journalism schools. Nearly all of them support Left Wing politicians and that failed Socialist mentality. They seem to side with Chicago’s leftist politicians on every count. There are few exceptions.
Chicago’s finest on the other hand have learned the folly of Socialism deep in the city’s trenches. Cops see first hand the damage done by Socialists to human beings that are groomed to be ignorant dependents of a welfare state for life. The irreparable damage robs people of self-respect, morale and simple human kindness. Chicago’s poor live in a Socialist state that is nothing less than a serious form of democide and genocide.
Reporters don’t get the education cops get in the streets night after bloody night. Reporters never get to know the horror children are subjected to in the ghettos that turn them into hateful and violent drug addicted adults.
Reporter’s educations are a case of the blind led and taught by the blind. They don’t understand the abject failure of Socialism or Communism as a system of government. In a sterile classroom the Socialist theory seems like a good idea. The reality of Socialism is slavery, degradation and corruption on a grand scale.
Reporters are surprised to learn that a good percentage of cops have solid educations and at one time I remember when over 500 cops were also members in good standing with the Illinois State Bar.
Last week some TV news people found themselves in handcuffs when they got sideways with some cops. It was an ugly scene and a regrettable affair that got some national attention.
I’ve worked both sides of this fence and learned a lot over the past four decades about this cop/reporter culture clash.
Reporters are supposed to get their cop information anywhere they can. The department wants only one authorized information source; the Public Information Office for them to get it and it’s definitely not some street cop.
Street cops on the other hand never want to give reporters anything out of pure spite and department regulations. It’s in the best interest of every working cop to change this misunderstanding. Cops and reporters can work together for a better world.
The fact is cops and reporters should be a little smarter. If street cops will provide the information they can’t get from the department propaganda office they won’t be afraid lose the city administration’s affection. Reporters depend on the department for favoritism and it’s far better they rely on the street cop than some official disinformation officer.
Cops want and need reporters to tell the truth of what’s going on in the trenches. They need to expose how gun control laws do the exact opposite of what they were intended, the deadliness of manpower shortages and training deficiencies. The only way that works is when you make friends instead of foes.
Reporters and cops can do a lot for each other that will aid good public policy. They are far better off working together than separate.
Washington, DC—Barack Obama gave himself the tools for absolute power and only a few folks blinked. He knows his ratings are in the toilet and getting worse by the second. Why would this dedicated Communist give up power when he has all the tools needed to maintain control?
Chicago will be ground zero for a major insurrection. Obama’s embedded government minions have done everything possible to make sure Chicago’s police are undermanned, outgunned and demoralized. The cops there will be unable to cope with any real civil disturbances.
Look for an Obama created national emergency that will be his excuse to:
1. Block all public access to the Internet and cell phones. 2. Suspend elections and the civil rights of Americans. 3. Take over control of the media. 4. Seize and control food and gasoline supplies. 5. Seize gun stores. 6. Detain potential resisters to Obama’s Provisional Government. 7. Rewarding supporters with new homes seized by the government. 8. War will be declared on any counter-revolutionary Americans. 9. Add millions of ignorant and unwashed thugs to Homeland Security ranks. 10. Obama will be received by the world as a gentle and benevolent dictator.
If resistance to Obama’s provisional government proves too strong, foreign troops will be invited from China and North Korea to aid in maintaining public safety.
Perhaps now is the time to add a ham radio to your survival kit. If you don’t have a survival kit you’re going to be in serious need.
Washington, DC—With Barack Obama’s dwindling poll numbers, rising gas prices and a massive first term failure he knows come November he will be removed by the voters.
Obama like all political despots is no fool and seems to have planned a coup d'état to maintain control. Obama has already trashed our Constitution by eliminating Posse Comitatus Act and our right to a Writof Habeas Corpus as he set new higher bar for government tyranny. Additionally yesterday, he has set up new administrative regulations authorizing the government new tyrannical powers unheard of in America.
Obama is putting into place a chapter of his mentor, Saul Alinsky’s method of operation. Through local community organizing Obama’s minions will step up lawlessness and chaos in America’s ghettos that will impact commerce and public safety in a big way. That will trigger an excuse to suspend elections and shut down all public access to the Internet.
Obama’s next move will be to wage war on political conservatives through arrests, gun confiscation and mass democide.
Chicago will be the epicenter for this plan. They have deliberately allowed the Chicago Police Department to be so lacking in manpower, equipment and training they will be ineffective and unable to stop even the smallest of insurrections.
Obama minions are in total control of Chicago’s Entitlement Zombies that can be counted upon to lay the foundation for a new American Dictatorship. Get ready for redistribution of wealth by force and violence. Get ready for some serious democide and mass incarceration.
This is not some brand new concept. This is a very old story that has played out redundantly since the beginning of governments on Earth. What’s past is prologue. Stop Obama now or he will stop you!
Washington, DC—As the shredders are destroying evidence and the movers are placing Barack Obama’s household goods into Chicago bound trucks presidential pardons will be flying everywhere.
At the very top of the pardon list will be Obama’s crooked cronies, Tony Rezko and former Govenor Rod Blagojevich.
Blagojevich, 55 unceremoniously passed through the doors at FCI Englewood prison in Littleton, Colo. to begin serving his 14-year sentence. The way I see it he has less then ten months before he will get his well deserved pardon.
One of Obama’s other pals, Anton “Tony” Rezko is another crook serving time at Club Fed. He will get his pardon too.
The Rezko and Blagojevich pardons are the payback for not snitching on Obama to save their own skins. Pardons as a quid pro quo are demonstrative of the Chicago way. Additionally I believe that all members of the SDS, Weather Underground, Black Panthers or other subversive groups convicted of federal felonies no matter how serious will be pardoned too.
That will be the end of a very sad chapter of a failed American president. I’m sure that Rezko and Blagojevich are not looking forward for a second term for Obama.
Los Angeles, CA—I first wrote about this great 2006 film only last August in a review. I caught the film by accident on the Encore Network one night. What a treat it was!
If there is a God of all film directors I’d have to call him, Paul Verhoven(Basic Instinct, Robo Cop,Total Recall and Independence Day). His other films are pretty good to say the least but he hit a Grand-slam Homerun with Black Book.
I have a serious problem. I can’t stop watching this film, over and over. Now it's out on Blu-Ray too!
If you’ve not heard of this film that perhaps because it’s filmed in Dutch, German and only a bit of English. Don’t worry it’s subtitled in your language. The acting is so superb you will become part of it.
This film is based on a true story of a sexy and beautiful Jewish cabaret singer, played by Carice Van Houten, hiding out in Holland for the duration of the war and Nazi occupation. Van Houten’s character, Rachel Stein aka, Ellis de Vries is drafted into the Dutch Underground and spends the last year of the war, 1944-45 as a spy. The dangers Stein faces are unimaginable as she proves to be the ultimate survivor. This film is a non-stop thriller.
Verhoven’s entire cast is terrific. Sebastian Koch plays a kinder, gentler, head of the local Gestapo who understandably falls in love with the beautiful espionage agent. The love scenes are real, since these two actors were smitten both on and off screen. Sadly the distance between Amsterdam and Berlin ended their relationship, according to my very own beautiful spy, Andrea, living in Berlin.
You will need a score card to separate the villains from the good guys as every thrilling scene unfolds. The script written by Gerard Soeteman and Paul Verhoeven is as good as it gets.
You will see and recognize Van Houten, Christian Berkel, Waldemar Kobus and that stunning redhead, Halina Reijn from Black Book in the Film, Valkerie that also stared Tom Cruise as Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg. Reijn shows up, this time as a brunette playing Stauffenberg's secratary.
I think the greatest thrill I’d have in my life would be to work with the incredible cast and crew of Black Book in another great European film. Mr. Verhoven, I’m available! Just have your casting director call my agent! Of course there is my screenplay, Come Friday waiting for someone like you to direct!
Carice Van Houten is very busy making more films right now. She has what it takes to be the greatest leading lady ever.
Don’t rent this film, buy it and see if you can stop watching it.
Chicago, IL—Over the last seven years blogging has become popular with many Americans including Windy City cops. Blogs have broken news that media organizations simply wont report.
Having spent the last 24 years as a freelance TV news producer I learned the primary reason that important stories go untold and published. Journalists all think they need cooperation from politicians, bureaucrats and government in order to report news. In fact journalists beg for exclusive tips on government activities like police crackdowns, raids and important crime stories. The payoff for the tips comes in important exposure and glad-handing for certain self-serving accomplishments real or imagined. That, along with killing any unflattering stories.
Reporters can’t seem to develop independent information sources and wrongly think without government official’s help they would be unable to report on government at all. Very few reporters have the courage to become persona non-gratia with any government agency. The unwritten rule is to never make the government Gods angry. If you make them angry you must be able to destroy them or they will punish you for eternity.
Bloggers have little to lose especially ones run by anonymous writers. They can say nearly anything they like without interference or repercussions. Mainstream media types can only dream about having such freedom to report whatever they chose.
Chicago’s politicians and bureaucrats have suffered many embarrassments at the hands of cop bloggers. A WBBM-TV reporter caught the public cowardice of former Superintendent Jody Weis on tape by accident. The cop bloggers and others commenting on these sites were unmerciful and unforgiving as they exploited this story.
Second City Cop had already named Weis, J-Fed because of his past employment with the FBI. After the incident he was quickly renamed J-Fled for his lack of valor. How embarrassing is that? The real problem was that SCC get’s well over 10,000 hits per day but that includes nearly every cop, crime reporter and the others involved in any form of public safety.
Detective Shaved Longcock is another wildly popular cop blogger here that has been absolutely fearless in his open discussions of the out-of-control Black on White crime. He like SCC has ridiculed department brass for their ineffectiveness and incompetence.
The identities of these two bloggers have not been publically established and if they were unmasked they would quickly be made to disappear by their victims.
Personally I share the disdain for the criminal mob running Chicago’s government. I’ve long ago parted ways with the Chicago Police Department and am totally free to blog under may own identity. Any current department members would be crazy to reveal themselves. They would be framed, fired and destroyed at a minimum.
The Chicago Police Department just promulgated a new General Order to its membership regarding blogging or posting on Social Media. It effectively outlaws posting anything not officially approved by the department. The penalty for disobedience is termination from employment. I guess the First Amendment has passed away in my hometown.
This action against the bloggers is the greatest compliment because had they been insignificant and ineffective they’d not have been outlawed.
I’d like to hope that the First Amendment would prevail and the slime running the city would behave themselves a little better. They have targeted the bloggers for total elimination with the new anti-blogging edict.
I’m here to say if my cop blogging colleagues somehow vanish, there will be many more to take their place. Chicago cops know that I will be happy to expose waste, fraud or mismanagement by any Chicago official. They also know that I will relentlessly attack the monster until it’s dead.
Department members have spouses and children that use the Social Media too. The department can’t also claim any jurisdiction over those close to cops that dare to blog.
Update: SCC has hit a speed bump and has gone dark for 24 hours, but that turned out to be a personal issue and not an end to the flow of information. Welcome Back SCC!
Phoenix, AZ—I went to my favorite gun dealer in Arizona, Legendary Guns to purchase some new ammunition for my primary protection.
I asked Paul the salesman who I have known for over two decades, for some decent hollow-point ammunition. Paul asked me with a smile if I wanted the “Zombie Killers”. I thought he was kidding me and I told him I needed them to stop vampires, werewolves and space aliens too!
He handed me a box of Zombie Max bullets! All I could think about is some prosecutor in a self-defense case telling some jury that the defendant had purchased and used bullets called, Zombie Killers. Yikes! I thought, but how will your lawyer explain this?
I looked carefully at the box and could see that it came from the very old and reliable Hornady Manufacturing Company. I looked at the specifications and what was important they matched what I wanted and the Zombie Max rounds did.
In any shooting you must think of public safety as well as your own. You need bullets that will use all of their energy inside your intended target and not cause injury or death to innocent bystanders.
Police agencies use hollow-point rounds for that very reason. It’s not critical that your assailants die but be quickly stopped from killing you and others. The reality is that over 60% of people shot survive anyway.
Should you be charged with a crime or be sued your defense lawyer needs to know exactly why you obtained the ammunition you used. The reality is hype is used to sell everything including ammunition. It’s the technical specifications rather than the name used to promote the product.
Los Angeles, CA—In a story of love gone wrong, jealousy and death a career LAPD cop's life hangs in the balance.
What ever happened between Stephanie Lazarus and Sheri Rasmussen remains a secret. Lazarus did not take the stand and the case was reduced to a DNA sample that was kept in exposed and insecure conditions for two decades. There is no living witness to the event that killed Rasmussen.
A jury empaneled has made their guess and announced that they reached a unanimous verdict that will be released at 1:30 PM Pacific Time.
I don’t feel good for the defense and believe this should have been tried as a self-defense case. The larger and more athletic Rasmussen may have begun a fatal fight. There were problems with that because if this was a self-defense case a frightened, young policewomen covered up the event.
If it was self-defense, fleeing the scene and not telling anyone is no crime. However, any jury would frown upon rearranging the scene to make it look like a burglary.
Second guessing the defense lawyer is always easy when he loses a case. Right now we will just have to wait for the verdict to be read.
I hate human lives being saved or destroyed by a guess. That’s exactly what this verdict will be. I wish Lazarus and her family luck.
Update: Lazarus was convicted of 1st Degree Murder and use of a gun. She is facing 25 years to life with a chance of parole. Had she taken the self-defense route it would have been much better. At worst she would have gotten a 2nd degree conviction...
Phoenix, AZ—Every year at this time at the world class Ben Avery Shooting Range operated by the State Game and Fish Department is an event called Winter Range. This is for shooters and fans of the old West.
There are shooting events for both mounted cowboys and everyone else. The rules are you must be dressed properly and use firearms for the 1800’s and early 20th century.
What I do there is hang out with my friends at Eagle Grips that are show vendors. I see and socialize with lots of friends for this weeklong event. I shot a little video of a tiny portion of what’s there but it will give you an idea what its like.
Phoenix, AZ—It should be obvious that with changes in laws, technology and court rules we have become a Police State. If you don’t think that’s the case look at those thousands of surveillance cameras or try to bring your own into a Federal building.
A genuine sign of this is how accused people and the media is obstructed from communication with each other.
We arrest and imprison people and sequester them from the prying eyes of the media. What it’s really about is preventing inmates from telling their troubles to the media. Government bureaucrats have clearly facilitated and enabled cover-ups by preventing the media from interviewing prisoners face to face.
The bureaucrats know that television won’t do a telephone interview because that media can only operate effectively with video. With a ban of face-to-face interviews the public will only see what these penal institutions want them to see.
From a simple human rights and fairness issue prisoners should be allowed access to the media to, express remorse, ask for forgiveness or to challenge the accusations made against them. In death penalty cases those condemned to die should have the ability to fight for their lives through video interviews.
Arizona and California precludes television interviews however Texas does not.
It’s really not much to ask for and claims that there is a security risk are purely bogus. If they were that concerned they could facilitate Skype.com interviews. The bureaucrats are afraid of exposure for their own deeds and nothing more.
The last issue here concerns crime victims. Not every crime victim is a victim. Many people are designated as victims simply because they successfully misled authorities and gave false testimony against people they accused. The claim of protecting victims from reliving their bad experiences watching prison inmates in news programing is pathetic to say the least.
Is anyone somehow damaged if we allow some condemned soul to beg for their life in a broadcast video interview? Must we be void of any humanity?
All prison and jail inmates deserve the right to have total voluntary access to journalists of every medium.
Chicago, IL—Chicago was preparing for an epic battle between demonstrators and police at the upcoming G-8 Summit.
It would have been expensive, ugly and perhaps very bloody. Businesses expected to be firebombed or at a minimum suffered lots of broken glass and looting.
The cops I know had little interest in doing anything but worrying about self-preservation. Protecting businesses on behalf of city officials loathed by the cops during this circus generated little interest and a lot of resentment. Why risk suffering injuries, bogus brutality allegations and criminal Indictment at the hands of that total douchebag State’s Attorney, Anita Alvarez?
My guess was the undermanned, outgunned and demoralized Chicago cops would have simply stood by and watched the city burn.
It’s obvious that Rham Emanuel and Barack Obama knew this would become a public relations disaster and jointly moved it to the more easily protected rural area of Camp David.
This planned fiasco would have cost Chicago taxpayers untold millions.
Chicago, IL—Most of my readers know that I hate the death penalty and consider the American criminal justice system deeply flawed. Either the innocent are convicted or dangerous criminals are given freedom far too early endangering society. My personal quote is, “If justice happens it’s usually by accident and for all the wrong reasons.”
A single mother, who was most of the time only one step ahead of the Sheriff’s eviction team, raised me on Chicago’s North side. Just two years before I was born there were three ugly murders. My mother warned me about strangers and a man named William Heirens. Heirens was the proverbial boogyman.
Two adult women Josephine Ross, Frances Brown and six year-old Suzanne Degnan, were murdered. The Degnan killing was unusually depraved because she was cut up and her body parts dumped in various catch basins in the neighborhood.
William Heirens confessed to these crimes and entered a Guilty Plea in court avoiding Cook County Jail’s busy electric chair. The way that happened is shameful in a civilized nation that claims to be fair and just.
There were also incredible similarities between the Degnan murder and the Lindberg kidnapping murder decades earlier. A ladder was found leading up to her window at her North Kenmore avenue apartment and police found a poorly drafted ransom note.
William Heirens was a juvenile serial burglar. He was also a genius who went from a Catholic reform school to the prestigious University of Chicago. He became one of many suspects.
Three men were hauled in for the Degnan murder in series of dreadful arrests. A janitor, Hector Verburgh, 65 was arrested, beaten until he confessed, smeared in the press as a deranged killer and soon released when it was learned he was unable to write English. He sued the cops and was awarded a money judgment.
Sidney Sherman was a recently discharged WWII marine living in the South side Hyde Park YMCA, who became the next subject of a nationwide dragnet for the Degnan murder. He was hauled in, took and passed a polygraph test and had an alibi. They released Sherman.
William Heirens, was soon bagged by the cops, beaten and forced to confess to the Degnan murder. The incredible film noir photographs of Heirens above speak for themselves. Over the years Chicago cops gained a reputation of being proficient medieval torturers who could get anyone to confess to anything.
Heirens was subjected to the unprecedented forced administration of the drug sodium pentathol and interrogated under its influence. The drug was debunked as a “truth serum” many decades ago. Police also compelled Heirens to recreate the crimes for press photographers.
At the apartment of Frances Brown there was a bloody fingerprint left behind that was the subject of mixed opinions as to being left by Heirens. He was excluded initially and later implicated by latent print examiners. The Brown apartment was also where that infamous message written in Brown’s lipstick, presumably by the killer, “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself.” The media used that passage to call Heirens, The Lipstick Killer.
There was yet another confession however there was no beating or coercion involved. That came from a convicted child molester, Richard Russell Thomas. Thomas was a Chicago musician, nurse and a song-writer who was in custody of the Phoenix, Arizona police for an unrelated crime. Thomas freely confessed to the Degnan murder and it was learned he was a regular at a used car lot very close to Degnan’s home at the time of the murder.
About fifteen years ago ABC World News Tonight asked me to track Thomas down if I could for a story they were doing about Heirens. I soon leaned that Thomas had passed away in Austin, Texas. I located living family members that confirmed the confession and were actually convinced Thomas, not Heirens killed the little girl.
On an interesting side note, Thomas’ family members told me that he wrote the song that became a hit record for Les Paul and Mary Ford called, Vaya Con Dios My Darling. Thomas sold the song to the person now credited for its origin.
At the time of the ABC News request, the renowned death penalty lawyer, Jed Stone, represented Heirens. I called Stone who was very busy working on clemency for Heirens for information for our story. Later I found myself blessed to be working as Stone’s investigator on important cases and today we are good friends.
I learned that Heirens was recently given a medical furlough from the Dixon Correctional Center medium security prison in Dixon, Illinois. I know he was blind, in a wheelchair suffering from diabetes. Today Heirens 83 years-old and has served more time in prison that any other inmate in Illinois to date.
I contacted Stone who sadly told me that Heirens was sent to the hospice, is receiving a morphine drip and is not expected to survive the week. Stone gave me the following statement:
“Bill Heirens has spent over six decades behind bars for crimes he did not commit. And yet it cannot be said that Bill's life was wasted. He earned a college degree and learned to paint. He worked within the prison walls and earned the respect of wardens and guards, chaplains and inmates.
Bill became skilled as a prison lawyer and has written more winning briefs than most lawyers I know. At his 1995 clemency hearing the audience contained many men, once prisoners, now free, there to express gratitude for Bill Heirens.
As a boy growing up on Chicago's North side, I was told that Bill Heirens was the boogieman. Many years later when I became Bill's lawyer, he became my friend. We have exchanged birthday and holiday cards. One of his watercolors hangs prominently in my office library. I am saddened by the thought that I could not win his freedom.”
Update, I woke up to the news that William Heirens died hours after I posted this article. He died at Chicago’s UIC medical center. This morning he is at the Cook County Morgue. I suspect that there will be a memorial service of some type and we will all learn about positive contributions to society by this man. Heirens was 83.
Los Angeles, CA—With the death of that young Internet giant Andrew Breitbart people are discovering what gave this genius the power and those financial rewards.
At a young age Breitbart began with two startup blogs, The Drudge Report and The Huffington Post taking them to incredible heights and readership. Those sites are user friendly, technical marvels that have all but destroyed TV news and mainstream paper publications. They began with the printed word, then soon added photographs and now there are significant amounts of quality video.
Those wonderful flat-panel TVs we own can now deliver Internet content that’s far more diverse and reliable than what CBS, NBC or ABC brought us. Unfortunately there are still not enough ordinary folks have the equipment and skills to deliver video content. That’s rapidly changing.
All that’s needed is someone with minimal skill, $5,000.00 worth of equipment and a decent broadband Internet connection. Now that really enables and facilitates democratization of a truly magical form of mass media. Yes, even you can do this.
Cameras are smaller, better and cheaper than ever. That creates vast opportunities to locate, document and expose government abuse and corruption. Government workers are in a position to see how billions of dollars are wasted and can pull a really tiny camera out, shoot it and and show the world once the video is uploaded.
Need training you say? There’s lots of it out there free on YouTube. There is hardly a piece of equipment in existence that someone has not created a tutorial to help you learn. There are schools that offer both classroom and on-line instruction such as the New York Video School.
Andrew Breitbart was a Conservative political bomb thrower that was either loved or hated. There was no middle ground with this icon. No matter your political beliefs you can learn from Breitbart’s accomplishments. Breitbart should be an inspiration to everyone that they too can have a voice.
If you want to avoid that political intrigue, conflict and discord you can help the world master skills that have benefitted you. Of course you can develop your skills as an entertainer too.
Age is a huge issue with the Internet since millions of older people don’t think they can learn. They’re dead wrong. They can overcome technophobia if they bother to try. They include too many doctors, lawyers and other educated professionals. They are our parents and we need to help them with this aspect.
Here is a video about video production equipment I put up a while ago...
(Nipsy Hussel is the fellow pictured smoking the roach)
Tempe, AZ—In this suburb of Phoenix, rapper Nipsey Hussle was set to perform when a dispute escalated into gunfire. It apparently began within the large crowd of African-Americans that were waiting to enter, The Clubhouse.
During the shooting witnesses say a stampede broke out as people panicked. The wounded began appearing at local hospitals. At least two people are in serious, but stable condition.
A Tempe police spokesman says they don’t yet know what sparked the violence but say they are searching for two African-American male suspects that fled the scene.
Los Angeles, CA—They either loved or hated Andrew Breitbart subject to their particular political orientation.
Breitbart began as a behind the scenes creative force behind both the Drudge Report and the Huffington Post.
Soon it was his very own Big Government and Big Hollywood. Breitbart was a master at throwing hot blog content bombs and making waves on the World Wide Web.
Breitbart rallied against the formerly all-powerful liberal and politically unified mainstream media in America.
Breitbat made a huge difference in the information world during his short life.
When you create an Internet news site the most difficult task it to publicize your offering so that the visitors learn of your existence. That can be painfully slow process.
I’ve watched great writers and reporters come and go that could only establish double digit hits per day. I have watched less talented quickly gain tens of thousands of hit per day.
It’s all about figuring out old-fashioned publicity stunts or for that matter any method that will get you noticed. Breitbart knew where and how to generate viral content. That is the secret to success publishing on the Internet.
Phone calls and mouse clicks made by a web promotion expert like Breitbart make some bloggers rich. If you can garner 300,000 hits a day you can quit your day job since advertisers will support you.
I’ve not figured out how to do that yet. There are millions of people out there that would love my content but they don’t yet know I exist. Of course if I break news rather than just report it that’s always helps because others will point the way to me.
If the masses either love you or hate you it will bring success in blogging. The expected relative safety of measured and moderate blogging is a guaranteed slow and painful Internet death.
My readers tend to be either cops, gun rights advocates, lawyers and some TV news folks I’ve worked with over the years.
I’d love to have the funding to travel to where news and history is being made. That’s just not happening for me yet. But I continue forward every day. I will continue as long as it's fun.
Los Angeles, CA—It was just after midnight when Christopher Lasseter was walking his little dog in Brentwood. He watched a man he now knows to be Andrew Breitbart crossing Barrington from The Brentwood.
Beritbart was walking without apparent distress in the direction of the Starbucks across the well-lit street. Once Breitbart stepped up on the curb, as Lasseter put it, “He fell hard like a sack of Potatoes.”
A man unknown to Lasseter called 911. The 911 operator told them to begin chest compressions on Beritbart until the police and paramedics arrived.
The very top photo shows where Breitbart died on his back with his head close to the lamp post on the left and his feet under the newspaper vending machine to the right.
Lasseter described Breitbart’s skin color as bright red.
I obtained the interview on video but it’s now property of TMZ.com so look for it over there. I will post a link here once it’s available.
We will be waiting with bated breath for the Medical Examiner's and the Toxicology Reports to know exactly what cut a young man's life short.
Update: This video investigative report was requested from me by WND and was posted on May 9, 2012:
Los Angeles, CA—Conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart cost ACORN as much as $1 billion after exposing this criminal enterprise organization’s activities.
ACORN was mired in massive vote fraud shenanigans in their successful-win at any cost effort to elect Barack Obama.
Obama directed massive taxpayer handouts to ACORN in return. However Congress obstructed that effort when Andrew Breitbart published hidden video of routine government loan fraud by ACORN staffers.
ACORN wound up shuttering offices and quickly restructuring their assets.
The former community organizer, Barack Obama and ACORN were always joined at the hip. Obama is vital to ACORN’s survival.
Andrew Breitbart was reportedly only hours away from releasing embarrassing videotapes of Barack Obama. The timing of Breitbart’s death is beyond suspect.
That kind of money in the hands of the ACORN criminal enterprise can easily facilitate an assassination of nearly anyone. Breitbart had to be at the very top of their enemy list.
Now the political extreme Left in America is desperate as their Messiah has an approval rating far below that required for reelection.
ACORN has redundantly proven that they will resort to major felony crimes in the course of their business. What’s a little murder?
It was beyond laughable when authorities quickly branded Breitbart’s death as “natural causes” without an attending physician’s statement. Breitbart's body had not yet cooled before they passed judgment.
The LAPD and the Medical examiner must look carefully at the facts here and look for any signs of foul play.
There are drugs available to mimic more than one natural death. Some of those drugs escape detection of the normal toxicology examinations. ACORN has nearly limitless assets for their nefarious activities.
Americans must make sure that this death is properly investigated and cover-ups are not tolerated.
Los Angeles, CA –Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart , 43 was out walking near his Brentwood home when he fell and was found unresponsive on a sidewalk. He was rushed to the emergency room of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and was pronounced dead.
Breitbart had published a lot of mostly negative material about Barack Obama. He had personal knowledge of just what cats Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio would let out of the bag in the morning. Needless to say he’d have spread the information far and wide.
Breitbart all but destroyed Obama’s pet multi-million dollar criminal organization ACORN and had been a major thorn in his side.
Breitbart also recently announced that he had some early video tapes of Obama he was soon going to release. You can bet they weren't flattering for the embattled President.
The question of murder must be investigated very carefully. Could this untimely death just a coincidence? It all seems so strange to me. I hope the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's office is on their toes for this case.
Phoenix, AZ—Explosive information was released by Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio today about Barack Obama’s purported birth certificate.
Document examiners and computer experts provided exhaustive and detailed information that points to the forgery of the birth certificate posted on the Whitehouse website. That along with a bogus Selective Service card indicates the crimes of fraud and forgery.
Obama’s citizenship has been in question as were his qualification to hold the nation’s highest office. I don’t care if you love or hate Obama this needs to be fully examined. The credibility of or nation and the political process is at stake. Watch the expert's videos that explain the process used by the examiners.
We need a Special Prosecutor to look at this issue now.
Los Angeles, CA—Andrew Breitbart was a Conservative journalist, blogger and patriot who dared expose Left Wing criminal conspiracies.
Breitbart nearly brought down the tax supported criminal enterprise known as ACORN. Of course the Obama Justice Department would never prosecute their co-conspirators.
Breitbart rose to prominence in the blogging world through content and promotion. Of course Breitbart and his revelations were ignored by the mainstream media but they were carrying water for their Messiah, Barack Obama.
According to Breitbart’s website and lawyer he died unexpectedly due to natural causes last night.
Chicago, IL—Shortly after the confession and arrest of John Wayne Gacy partial human remains were discovered on a warm spring day of 1979 at the Indian Boundary Forest Preserve near Belmont and Cumberland. This was very close to Gacy's Summerdale Avenue bungalow. 
