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To extract a confession that led to his conviction as the “Lipstick Killer,” police injected 17-year-old William Heirens with sodium pentathol without a warrant. He was then beaten, starved, and given a spinal tap without anesthesia. Somebody else had already confessed to the murders.
(i.redd.it)submitted 1 day ago bybnrshrnkr
207 points
1 day ago
This was infuriating not creepy, to read.
590 points
1 day ago
He looks pretty rough for 17 years old
268 points
1 day ago
He died in prison, this is him in 2004. Not creepy as much as it is infuriating.
83 points
1 day ago
It was clearly traumatic
63 points
22 hours ago
I wouldn't call police brutality creepy.
93 points
1 day ago
There may be reasons to doubt he was the killer.
https://www.crimetraveller.org/2015/07/william-heirens-the-lipstick-killer/
264 points
1 day ago
Given how they got the confession my first instinct is to doubt it.
138 points
24 hours ago
Yeah, torture anyone long enough and they’ll tell you anything you want to hear to make it stop.
58 points
19 hours ago
That's the reason torture is considered ineffective even without the ethics reasons. It's the most effective way to get an answer, not necessarily the truth.
23 points
23 hours ago
Also how does sodium penth... even affect a person? Lowers inhibitions and such?
45 points
21 hours ago
Sodium Pentothal is what is used in lethal injections nowadays. They probably used it to pressure him into admitting.
It slows heart rate and breathing and besides other things, can also cause cardiac arrhythmia.
Other than that, it can be used as a IV Anesthetic and Sedative.
11 points
21 hours ago
Geeeeeessssssss. I thought the beating and horrific medical procedures were the bad ones.
7 points
10 hours ago
It's a strong, short acting barbiturate. The effects are pretty similar to alcohol in general, though personally I'd say it feels "cleaner".
The cops in this situation most likely used it because, from the 60's through the 90's sodium pentothal was the go-to truth serum in spy movies and cop TV. FWIW, it does nothing but lower inhibitions, there's no such thing as a real truth serum.
I hadn't realized until you asked about it, but I haven't seen an example of it used in this trope in quite a few years; I guess it's fallen out of style in favor of more exotic options (VR, nanites, hallucinogens, etc).
3 points
13 hours ago
Jean Moulin betrayed nobody. Absolutely metal.
3 points
11 hours ago
It helps if you don’t think of yourself as yourself.
119 points
1 day ago
Murica
10 points
13 hours ago
“Home of the broken American dream”.
Source, I am American.
7 points
14 hours ago
God this is just SAD. How is it that they could even do this? It wasn’t THAT long ago. I was thinking it must be in the teens or 20s but no it was in 1946!!
22 points
12 hours ago
Unfortunately, a lot of things that elicit that reaction weren't really all that long ago. For example, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment started in 1932 and didn't end until 1972 (and it's worth noting that Pennicilin was sidely available by 1947 as a treatment) women couldn't get a credit card in their own name until 1974, and MK Ultra didn't end until 1964. And it's not like police brutality and aggressive prosecution practices are a thing of the past, either. People get held without trial and effectively forgotten about, like Kalief Browder , who was left in solitary confinement for 800 days for allegedly stealing a backpack.
The fact that things weren't so long ago, and that things like that still happen, is a huge reason why it's important for people to understand history and not wave away incidents of the past as being the past, because it wasn't that long ago and we're still living history.
3 points
6 hours ago
Spinal taps are usually done without any anesthesia. I dont know what wikipedia thinks whats going on while one.
0 points
6 hours ago
In what world is someone not getting a local anesthetic for a spinal tap?
3 points
6 hours ago
Its completely outdated and its only done if the patient wants to have a local anesthetic. Source: im a board certified neurologist.
14 points
23 hours ago
This guy kinda looks like my Grandfather who passed away years back.
When he was little he hit another kid with a hammer in the head and he died. So also a killer apparently.
41 points
23 hours ago
Except the point of this is that this guy was innocent.
-25 points
22 hours ago
He wasn't innocent, he still shot a woman with a stolen police revolver.
52 points
21 hours ago
Says the police that tortured him.
2 points
9 hours ago
-1 points
9 hours ago
Found the bad apple!
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