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A long, long feature with little purpose

By Mark Obbie

Adam Higginbotham's profile of William Heirens in GQ leaves me cold. Titled "The Long, Long Life of the Lipstick Killer," the feature uses about 6,000 words -- admittedly nicely crafted words -- to paint a picture of a decrepit prison inmate who may, or may not, be wrongfully imprisoned for three infamous murders in post-WWII Chicago. The point seems to be that the 79-year-old Heirens, who has been behind bars for 62 years, is an object of sympathy because he may be innocent, except no one seems to care or be able to prove it anymore. Including Higginbotham. He skips over the hard part of trying to provide a definitive answer, concluding only that "almost all the evidence that helped put Bill Heirens in jail has been discredited." Which is important but not conclusive, especially given Heirens' long-ago confession and an undertone of skepticism in Higginbotham's narrative that leaves me unable to embrace the inmate as a victim. Maybe he's just an object of curiosity, given his distinction as, in Higginbotham's words, "the longest-serving inmate in the United States prison system." I guess I'm just not curious enough to want to read this much to reach an ambiguous conclusion.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on May 20, 2008 (boomark / email).