Six months later, on December 10, 1945, about five blocks from the Ross apartment, another woman was killed.  This story made the front pages. 

Frances Brown, 33, a former Navy WAVE, was found dead in apartment 611 at 3941 N. Pine Grove Ave (700 west, just south of Irving Park).  The killer had entered the apartment late at night by jumping from a fire escape to her bedroom window, six stories above the ground.  She had been shot in the head and a knife was driven so deeply into her throat that the point came out the other side.  Although she was an attractive woman and was found nude, she had not been sexually violated. 

Chief of Detectives Walter Storms noted that there were similarities between this and the Josphine Ross murder.  The body had been carefully washed and the wounds closed.  Both apartments had been ransacked but, in both cases, little was taken.

But on a wall next to her bed, police found something that has since become legendary.  Written in the victim's lipstick were the words:

      For heavens sake
      catch me before I kill more.
      I cannot control myself.

The newspapers began reporting that a "new Jack the Ripper" was stalking Chicago.  The usual suspects were rounded up: sex offenders, mental cases, etc., but no progress was made in the case.

The killer had carefully wiped his fingerprints from the apartment but he missed one bloody print on a door jamb. Unfortunately, the police could not match it with any they had on file so, as 1945 slid into 1946, the "lipstick killer" remained at large.  One cop expressed the opinion that he might be caught while committing another crime.