June 1945: Josephine Ross, 43, is fatally stabbed in her Uptown home.
December 1945: Frances Brown, 32, is shot and stabbed in her Lakeview home.
January 1946: Suzanne Degnan, 6, is strangled by an intruder who uses a ladder to climb into a window of her Edgewater home. Her body is dismembered and disposed of in city sewers.
June 1946: Police arrest William Heirens, 17, saying he tried to shoot a police officer during an attempted burglary in Rogers Park. Heirens says the gun misfired.
September 1946: Heirens pleads guilty to the three killings and is sentenced to three consecutive life terms.
1954: The Illinois Supreme Court says authorities violated Heirens’ rights while conducting the investigation, but the court also says he chose to plead guilty to avoid a possible death sentence when he could have challenged the violations. His convictions and life sentences stand.
February 2002: A petition asking that his sentence be commuted is filed with Gov. George Ryan and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. Clemency is denied.
August 2007: The review board again denies parole to a 78-year-old Heirens — one of dozens of times he is denied since the 1960s.
March 5, 2012: Heirens dies at 83.
