The Nation - News from April 13, 1989

A homeless man was charged with nine counts of murder after telling police he set a fire that swept through a Peoria, Ill., apartment house, killing seven children and two young mothers, a prosecutor said. Joe Pickens, 34, who has no permanent address, was charged in the Tuesday fire, the deadliest in Peoria’s history, said Peoria County State’s Atty. Kevin Lyons. Pickens was charged with criminal trespass, a misdemeanor, just hours after the fire. But Lyons said murder charges were lodged after Pickens confessed to setting fire to a sleeper-sofa on the first floor, igniting a fast-moving fire that swept up a stairwell to the second floor where three families slept.