Donald Lang

Donald Lang (born 1945 – died 2008) was an American accused serial killer from Chicago, Illinois. Lang was charged with having killed two prostitutes in Chicago, in 1965 and 1971. The cases achieved national attention because Lang could not be convicted as he was deaf, mute, unable to read or write, and did not know lip-reading or sign language.

Background Lang was six years old when his parents divorced; subsequently his mother could no longer afford tuition for his special training. Lang had worked at Chicago truck loading docks when he was charged with murder in 1965, shortly after the death of his mother.

Five months after his release, another prostitute was killed in Chicago. On July 21, 1971, 29–year old Earline Brown was found dead in a hotel room on the city's west side. Blood stains were found on Lang's clothes and he was arrested again on August 11, 1971. The case went to trial. As one piece of evidence, prosecutors introduced a drawing Lang had made during his interrogation, showing a woman with an "X" drawn over her. In both cases Lang was represented by the deaf attorney Lowell J. Myers. The verdict was overturned in 1975 by an appellate court, ruling that Lang had not been able to adequately defend himself. Lang was then confined to mental institutions and jails and periodically retested for his ability to stand trial.

The Illinois Department of Mental Health refused to train him in sign language since he did not suffer from a mental disease. According to one of his lawyers, tests have shown that Lang had an IQ of 128. His former boss called him an honest young man who took pride in his work. One of his language teachers described him as "warm and gentle" until he became agitated. Much of the investigation was conducted by Chicago Police Department homicide detective Jim Padar, who is now a writer and multi-time Moth StorySLAM champion. In pop culture Lang's story was related in the 1974 book Dummy by Ernest Tidyman and in the 1979 TV movie Dummy starring LeVar Burton.