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The Lipstick Killer: Murderer, Scapegoat, or Something Much Darker?

·47 min·3 clips

Detectives found a lipstick message: “for heaven’s sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself.”

1. Murder, Mystery & Makeup Monday centers on Chicago’s 1945 Lipstick Killer case, where a wall message in red lipstick becomes the episode’s anchor image. 2. Bailey Sarian hosts alone, tells the story while doing makeup, and uses specific dates like January 1945 and June 1945 to frame the murders. 3. The episode asks whether William Herons was the killer, a scapegoat, or part of “something much darker.” 4. Chicago is described as frozen at 20 degrees Fahrenheit, with smog so thick that streetlights were turned on during the day. 5. Bailey ties the murders to World War II, rationing, Maxwell Street, and the factories making bombs, planes, and engines. 6. The story opens with rumors of women found dead, a girl vanishing from her bedroom, and the headline “Lipstick Killer strikes again.” 7. Josephine Ross is presented as a 43-year-old divorcee who wanted to open a restaurant and was trying to get a bank loan. 8. Her daughter finds the apartment ransacked, blood in the bedroom, clothing in a bloody bathtub, and only pocket change missing. 9. Francis Brown is described as a 33-year-old Navy WAVES volunteer who returned to Chicago, worked at a manufacturing company, and called her mother on December 10. 10. A housemaid finds Francis dead after complaints about a loud radio, and the lipstick message repeats the line “for heaven’s sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself.” 11. Suzanne Degnan is introduced as a 6-year-old whose father worked for the Office of Price Administration, and her disappearance starts with a cold bedroom and an open window. 12. The ransom note demands $20,000, says “Do not notify FBI or police,” and tells the family to burn it for her safety. 13. A police call to Chicago sewers leads to Suzanne’s remains, which investigators say were dismembered with great precision. 14. Public fear grows into locked doors, dresser blocks, window bars, and fathers sitting up with loaded guns. 15. Bailey notes that police interrogated hundreds of suspects, beat confessions out of some men, and even held one man for two days without charges. 16. The case shifts when Richard Thomas, a nurse in Phoenix, confesses to Suzanne’s murder, and his handwriting and medical background seem to fit details in the case. 17. William Herons enters the story after a burglary arrest, and police find a University of Chicago ID, stolen goods, a surgical kit, hypodermic equipment, and Psychopathia Sexualis. 18. Bailey explains that the fingerprint on the ransom note was partial and smudged, while the police first said seven points matched and later claimed 15 points. 19. The episode’s tone is conversational and reactive, with Bailey narrating details, interrupting herself with asides, and quoting headlines and statements directly. 20. True-crime listeners who want Chicago history and case doubts will get the most from this episode, while listeners who want a short, tidy answer may skip it.

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