Today in Chicago History: ‘I loved my mom,’ Heather Mack says from Bali jail

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Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 3, according to the Tribune’s archives.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

  • High temperature: 59 degrees (1992)
  • Low temperature: Minus 19 degrees (1996)
  • Precipitation: 1.52 inches (1896)
  • Snowfall: 11 inches (1896)

1876: Chicago Cubs owner William A. Hulbert was one of eight club representatives who met at the Grand Central Hotel in New York City to establish baseball’s National League.

Chicago Enforcers’ Corey Ivey (24) intercepts an Orlando Rage pass meant for Dialleo Burks (81) during the first quarter on Feb. 3, 2001, in Orlando, Florida. (Don Frazier/AP)

2001: The Orlando Rage defeated the Chicago Enforcers 33-29 in front of a sellout crowd of 35,603 in the Citrus Bowl during the debut of the XFL, which was founded by NBC and WWE executive Vince McMahon. The league folded in May 2001.

"I maintain that I am innocent of all charges against me related to the death of my mother," a pregnant Heather Mack told the Tribune during a phone interview in Feb. 2015. (Chicago Tribune)
“I maintain that I am innocent of all charges against me related to the death of my mother,” a pregnant Heather Mack told the Tribune during a phone interview in Feb. 2015. (Chicago Tribune)

2015: In a series of interviews with the Tribune, Heather Mack — the Chicago woman convicted of helping kill her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, and stuffing her body in a suitcase on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali in 2014 — insisted she was innocent and said she was “petrified” about her future and that of her unborn child. Mack says she was compelled to contact the newspaper because her Indonesian criminal defense attorney was not being paid from her trust fund as ordered. She also said there were good Samaritans helping her get food and vitamins and even a bed in her jail cell. She declined to offer details on the people’s identities. “Indonesia’s been great to both me and Stella,” Mack said, using the name she planned to give her unborn child.

Mack served about seven years of a 10-year sentence in Indonesia, only to be arrested by the FBI when she landed at O’Hare International Airport in 2021 on a federal indictment that had been filed under seal in 2017. She pleaded guilty in June 2023 to one count in the federal murder conspiracy case against her in Chicago federal court. Lawyers for Mack have asked a federal judge in Chicago to impose the minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and grant her credit for nearly 10 years already spent behind bars.

The Bali ‘suitcase murder’: Oak Park native Heather Mack’s murder conviction, Indonesian imprisonment, deportation

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