# Is William Heirens the longest-serving current inmate in the U.S.? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534 "2007-03-12T00:38:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/1 "2007-03-12T00:38:04Z")
I’d heard of the [William Heirens](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Heirens) serial murder case before, but I never realized he was still alive all these years later until I followed a link from [this current thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=411850). He’s been behind bars since 1946, almost 60 years and counting. Is there anyone else in the U.S. who’s been serving longer? I know Paul Geidel served over 68 years for second-degree murder in New York (1911-1980), but I’m intersted in people who are still alive and in prison. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/2 "2007-03-12T02:33:57Z")
Heirens appears to be the longest serving inmate [in Illinois](http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1995/ii950641.html). Dave Embers is the longest serving in [Kentucky](http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/05/26/loc_kylifelonginmate26dg.html), but he’s only been in prison since 1952. He reportedly was 69 in 2003, retarded and probably mentally ill. Walter Bourque is the longest serving inmate [in New Hampshire](http://www.seacoastonline.com/2004news/07062004/news/25242.htm). Arrested in 1955, he killed a four year old girl when he was 17, claims he thinks about her every day, and accepts that he will die in prison. He appears to be a sexual predator of some sort. ---
**Author:** ![Defective\_Detective](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Defective\_Detective](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defective_Detective)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/3 "2007-03-12T03:21:31Z")
I just want to go on the record as stating that it is really sad to read those stories, and I feel a bit of anguish because of the way their lives have turned out. Bourque’s story hit a little harder than the other two, perhaps because it seems he is fully aware of what he did. I’m not saying whether they ought to be let out, but Lord, what a shame for a 17 year old boy to be locked up for the rest of his life. “The victim’s family,” you’ll say. Yes, I know. But it’s still a damn shame, because everyone has \*something \*to contribute to the people around them. You just have to dig a little to discover it sometimes. It seems these men will never have a chance to contribute to their society, but if you ever run into someone who seems out of place, remember this - they aren’t “good fer nuthin’,” they just need a chance to show \*what \*they’re good for, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/4 "2007-03-12T03:36:00Z")
It’s a pity when Old Yeller gets rabies and has to be shot, too. Or when the only way to save six people’s lives is for some poor sap to suffer a catastrophic brain injury so we can cut his healthy guts out. Your point? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/5 "2007-03-12T04:50:31Z")
[QUOTE=Defective Detective] It seems these men will never have a chance to contribute to their society, but if you ever run into someone who seems out of place, remember this - they aren’t “good fer nuthin’,” they just need a chance to show \*what \*they’re good for, that’s all. [/QUOTE] Apparently they’re good at committing crime, which they’ve already shown. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/6 "2007-03-12T05:05:36Z")
Actually, Dave Embers was really bad at committing crime. The state’s witness noted in 1952 that he was incapable at answering questions intelligently and didn’t understand the seriousness of the crime. “This boy does not reason at all.” Embers cannot read or write and has not had any vocational training in prison. He is currently housed in the psychiatric problem wing in La Grange, Kentucky. His defenders would prefer that he be locked in a mental health facility, as they believe he was batshit insane to begin with. **Oh yeah, the OP** : Interesting lead in the 2003 Kentucky article: " Only Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina and Tennessee have inmates held longer. " The Illinois ref probably refers to Heirens’ incarceration. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/7 "2007-03-12T05:20:16Z")
Robert Platshorn aka Bobby Tuna, wins the award for the [longest serving marijuana prisoner](http://www.hightimes.com/ht/legal/content.php?bid=146&aid=24). At 25 years, he [recently had 10 years added to his sentence](http://press.arrivenet.com/government/article.php/409873.html). Or that’s what the headline says anyway. The article is a confusing discourse on parole law. Go Bobby! ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/8 "2007-03-12T05:46:17Z")
In Britain, the answer appears to be “34 years” – or in prison since about 1971. [Cite: Scroll down for .doc file](http://www.sps.gov.uk/default.aspx?documentid=37EF1CA4-61CD-419D-845F-9D2B01E202D0). They do not give a name. [This sensational site](http://www.ziafilm.com/data/catalog/serialkillers.htm), which features interviews with 13 infamous murders, claims, “William Heirens (“The Lipstick Killer”) – Known to have killed at least two women and a little girl whom he dismembered after abducting her from her bedroom in the dead of night. America’s longest serving killer held at Vienna Correctional Facility, Illinois.” ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/9 "2007-03-12T06:16:04Z")
For the UK, the answer is, in fact, at least 55 years in the case of [John Straffen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Straffen). Put away in 1952 and still locked up. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-william-heirens-the-longest-serving-current-inmate-in-the-u-s/395534/10 "2007-03-12T06:43:06Z")
I see that my link, [http://www.sps.gov.uk](http://www.sps.gov.uk) … was to the Scottish Prison Service and did not apply to the United Kingdom as a whole. Props to Tapioca.