Did Tommy Lynn Sells really kill 10-year-old Joel Kirkpatrick? Or is he just
a “serial confessor” trying to inflate his record as a serial killer? Judge
for yourself next Thursday night, Oct. 23, when the Downstate Illinois Innocence
Project hosts a discussion with Texas crime writer Diane Fanning.
Fanning is the author of Through the Window — the book that chronicles Sells’ life and some of the 50 murders he claims to have committed. The family of Julie Rea-Harper, the young Lawrenceville mother currently serving a 60-year prison sentence for Joel Kirkpatrick’s murder, will also attend the event.
Fanning, the Rea family, and members of the Innocence Project will spend the next day in Chicago appearing before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board where Rea-Harper’s petition for clemency is scheduled to be heard.
The reception begins at 5:30 p.m. at the University of Illinois at Springfield
in the Public Affairs Center Restaurant. The discussion begins at 6:30. The
event is free and open to the public.
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2003.
