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April 24, 2026

Best of 2025: Richard Speck: The True Story of the 1966 Chicago Nurse Murders

Best of 2025: Richard Speck: The True Story of the 1966 Chicago Nurse Murders
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Richard Speck and the 1966 Chicago nurse murders remain one of the most horrifying chapters in Chicago true crimehistory. In this Best of 2025 revisit, Terrifying & True returns to one of its most gripping and disturbing deep dives: the night eight young student nurses were terrorized and murdered inside their South Side townhouse, and the long shadow that crime cast over America.

This episode follows the full arc of the case, from Speck’s violent early life and downward spiral into crime, to the sweltering July night that ended in unimaginable brutality, to the frantic manhunt, nationally watched trial, and the disturbing revelations that surfaced long after his conviction. It’s one of the most engrossing episodes we released in 2025, and absolutely one worth revisiting.

What makes this story hit so hard is not just the scale of the crime, but the human terror inside it: a house full of young women trapped with a killer, one survivor forced to hide in silence while the horror unfolded around her, and a city left reeling by what newspapers called the crime of the century. This is one of the strongest and most unforgettable Terrifying & True episodes of the year, blending historical detail, emotional weight, and true crime suspense in a case that still shocks decades later.

Inside this episode:

- The life and psychological decline of Richard Speck before the murders
- The 1966 Chicago nurse murders and the horrifying events inside the townhouse
- Corazon Amurao’s survival and the eyewitness testimony that helped identify Speck
- The massive Chicago manhunt that led to his arrest days later
- The trial, conviction, and death sentence reversal that kept the case in the headlines
- The prison scandal and later confession tapes that revealed Speck’s lack of remorse and deepened his infamy
If you’re drawn to Chicago true crime, mass murder cases, historical crime stories, and deeply researched episodes that explore both the horror of the crime and its lasting impact, this is one of the most powerful episodes Terrifying & True has ever done. This Best of 2025 re-air is the perfect chance to revisit an episode that remains as haunting, enraging, and unforgettable now as it was on first listen.

We’re telling that story tonight.

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🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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In the summer of nineteen sixty six, Chicago awoke to

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a nightmare, eight young nurses murdered in their own home,

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and a city paralyzed with fear. The killer a drifter

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with a tattoo that read born to Raise Hell. This

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is the story of Richard Speck.

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What you were about to teat is burd to be you.

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Based on witness accounts, testamentis and public record, this is

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terrifying and treat.

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July fourteenth, nineteen sixty six, a quiet neighborhood on Chicago's

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South Side becomes the setting for one of the most

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brutal mass murders in American history. Eight young women bound

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and slaughter in their own home. One survivor escapes to

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raise the alarm. The man responsible Richard Speck, a drifter

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whose name would soon be etched into infamy. Tonight we

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revisit the night Chicago was held hostage by terror, and

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the chilling legacy of the man who called himself Born

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to raise Hell. Make sure you're subscribed. We'll start this

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story after this. It was just past dawn on July fourteenth,

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nineteen sixty six, A scream pierced the humid Chicago air

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as twenty three year old Corazon Amoreo climbed out onto

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a second floor ledge of a brick town house, trembling

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and desperate for help. Inside, the scene was beyond horrifying.

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The bodies of eight young nurses lay strewn throughout the house,

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evidence of a night of unimaginable terror. Neighbors awakened by

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Amoreo's cries, stood aghast on the sidewalk as police arrived

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to confront what one newspaper would call the crime scene

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of the century. In a single night, an ex convict

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drifter named Richard Speck had tortured, raped, and methodically murdered

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eight student nurses in their own residence on Chicago's South Side,

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a crime so brutal and senseless that it shocked the

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world and left a city paralyzed with fear. This is

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the story of that night of horror and the twisted

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life and dark psychology of the man responsible, from his

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troubled beginnings to the chilling prison confession that would come

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to light decades later. We will journey through Richard Speck's

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life and crimes in vivid detail, tracing his path from

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a turbulent childhood to the bloody events of July nineteen

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sixty six, the frantic manhunt that followed, and the dramatic

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trial that captivated a nation, and the disturbing legacy that

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endures to this day. A story that shines a light

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on how an ordinary summer night turned into a nightmare,

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and how one man's evil left an indelible mark on

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American history. Richard Benjamin Speck entered the world on December sixth,

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nineteen forty one, just one day before the Pearl Harbor attack,

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and he later quipped with grim humor that quote, the

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day I was born, all hell broke loose the next day.

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It was an eerie foreshadowing of the chaos he himself

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would one day unleash. Speck was born in Kirkwood, Illinois,

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the seventh of eight children in a struggling, lower income family.

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His early childhood was marred by instability and loss. When

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Richard was only six years old, his father, whom he adored,

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died of a heart attack, leaving his devout teetotaler mother

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a young widow. Three years later, his mother remarried and

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Richard acquired a stepfather, Carl Lindbergh, whose influence would prove

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toxic Lindbergh was a hard drinking ex khan with a

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twenty five year trail of arrests for crimes like forgery

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and drunk driving. He moved the family to rural Texas

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in nineteen fifty, transplanting young Richard from the Midwest to

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the hard scrabble outskirts of Dallas. Speck's new home life

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in Texas was anything but happy. He hated his stepfather,

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who was often absent and abusive when present. The family

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shuffled from from one poor Dallas neighborhood to another ten

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different addresses in a dozen years, never once finding stability.

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A shy boy with poor eyesight, Richard refused to wear

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the glasses he needed and struggled in school, repeating eighth

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grade and developing a deep seated fear of being stared at.

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Fellow students remember him as nearly mute in class, a

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boy who shrank from attention. But outside the classroom, a

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very different Richard Speck emerged. By age twelve, he had

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begun sneaking drinks of alcohol, and by fifteen he was

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getting drunk almost every day. The quiet boy had a rebellious,

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self destructive streak that was rapidly coming to the four

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petty crime followed closely on the heels of Speck's teenage drinking.

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He was first arrested at thirteen for trespassing, the start

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of a juvenile criminal record that would expand to dozens

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of arrests over the next several years, fighting public intoxication

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minor thefts. Richard was in constant trouble. His home life

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deteriorated further as Lindbergh's drinking and temper grew worse. By

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the time Speck dropped out of high school at sixteen,

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he was already well acquainted with police stations and courtrooms.

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In November of nineteen sixty one, at the Texas State Fair,

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twenty year old Richard met a fifteen year old girl

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named Shirley Malone. Despite the age difference, a whirlwind row

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romance ensued. Within weeks, Shirley was pregnant, and Richard did

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what seemed the honorable thing. He married her in January

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of nineteen sixty two. For a moment, it looked as

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if domestic life might calm his demons. The newlyweds moved

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in with Richard's older sister in Dallas, and that summer

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Shirley gave birth to a daughter, Robbie Lynn Speck, but

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Speck's attempts at normal family life crumbled almost as quickly

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as they began. Unable to stay out of trouble, he

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was jailed for a twenty two day stint that July

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for disturbing the peace in a drunken brawl, missing his

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own daughter's birth from being behind bars. It was a

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pattern Shirley knew too well. Richard would be in an

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out of jail frequently. By nineteen sixty three, at just

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twenty one, he committed his first major crime. His first

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major prison sentence was a three year term for forging

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a coworker's check and burglarizing a grocery store. He served

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sixteen months in the Texas State Penitentiary before being paroled

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in nineteen sixty five. Upon release, he lasted barely a

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week on the outside before being arrested yet again, this

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time for attacking a woman with a knife in a

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parking lot. Convicted of aggravated assault and parole violation, Speck

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was sent back to prison. Incredibly, a bureaucratic error resulted

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in his relation after just six months of that sentence. Luck,

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it seemed, was often on Richard Speck's side in those years,

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allowing him to slip through the cracks in the justice system.

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It was during one of these early prison stints that

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Speck marked himself literally for the infamy to come. He

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had the words born to raise hell tattooed in blue

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ink on his forearm, a bold proclamation of the chaos

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he carried within. Certainly, his young wife had already experienced

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first hand that hell raising tendency. By January nineteen sixty six,

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surely had endured enough. She filed for divorce, cutting ties

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with the volatile man who couldn't stay out of jail. Speck,

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now a twenty four year old divorced ex convict with

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a tattoo flaunting his nihilism, drifted aimlessly. He bounced between

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menial jobs truck driver, meat packer, often getting fired for

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accidents or absenteeism. He spent his nights in taverns, drinking

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heavily and erupting into the occasional bar fight. Behind his

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brooding blue eyes and sullen, quiet demeanor lurked a well

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of anger and resentment, especially toward women. Later psychiatric evaluation

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would conclude that Speck had an obsessive compulsive personality and

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harbored a Madonna prostitute complex. Placing women on pedestals until

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they betrayed made him in some way, at which point

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they became targets for his rage. In Speck's warped mind,

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women were either saintly virgins like his mother and sisters,

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or prostitutes deserving of punishment. This dark psychological fault line

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would soon split open with catastrophic consequences. In March nineteen

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sixty six, with his life in shambles in Texas and

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a warrant out for yet another arrest, Richard Speck fled north,

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facing what would have been his forty second arrest in Dallas.

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He boarded a bus for Chicago on March ninth, seeking

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refuge with his older sister, Martha Thornton. Chicago offered the

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promise of a fresh start and anonymity a place to

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lie low. At first, it seemed like a stroke of

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good fortune. Martha's husband, Jeane, was a former navyman who

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suggested that Richard try working as a merchant seaman on

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the Great Lakes freighters. Perhaps the discipline of ship life

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could straighten him out. On April twenty fifth, nineteen sixty six,

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Spec dutifully applied for a seaman's card at the Coastguard Office,

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completing the fingerprints and physical exam needed for union work papers.

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By the end of April, he landed a spot as

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an apprentice seaman on an ore freighter. For a moment,

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it appeared as if Speck might truly turn a corner

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fate or Speck's own self sabotaging behavior intervene. Just days

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into his first voyage on the ore boat Clarence B. Randall,

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Speck was stricken with acute appendicitis and had to be

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airlifted off the ship for emergency surgery. After recuperating from

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his appendectomy, he returned to the Randall in May nineteen

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sixty six and sailed as a deckhand until mid June,

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but SPEC's old habits resurfaced. He fell into heavy drinking

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on board and clashed with an officer on June fourteenth.

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After a drunken quarrel, He was kicked off the ship

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at its port of call. By June fifteenth, Richard Speck

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was once again unemployed and adrift in Chicago. Over the

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next weeks, Speck drifted through cheap flophouses and bars on

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Chicago's far south Side. Growing increasingly despondent and angry, he

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briefly left the city to visit a nurse's aid he

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had befriended during his hospital stay, a twenty eight year

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old woman in Michigan, who even lent him eighty dollars

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out of pity. But by early July he was back

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in Chicago, jobless and quickly burning through what little money

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he had. Each morning, he haunted the National Maritime Union

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hiring Hall on East one hundredth Street, hoping to snag

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a berth on a ship. Each day, other seamen with

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more seniority were chosen over him. On July eleventh, Speck's

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sister and brother in law informed him he could no

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longer stay at their home his welcome had run out.

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Carrying his meager belongings in a couple of suitcases, Speck

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rented a room for two dollars and fifty cents a

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meager twenty four dollars eighty one cents even in today's money,

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at a nearby boarding house, and continued his fruitless weight

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at the hiring hall. By Wednesday, July thirteenth, nineteen sixty six,

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Richard Speck was nearing a breaking point. That afternoon, he

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lost out on yet another ship assignment due to an

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administrative mix up. Frustrated, broke, and fueled by alcohol and

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seething resentment, he wandered the neighborhood around the hiring hall.

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The summer sun beat down as he carried his suitcases

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through South Deering, eventually stashing them at a gas station

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for the day. At five foot eight with a lanky build,

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the twenty four year old ex sailor cut an unremarkable figure,

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dressed entirely in black and brooding under a mop of

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dark hair. But inside his thoughts were anything but ordinary.

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He had a knife in his pocket, desperation in his heart,

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and no plan for what to do next. That evening,

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Speck did what he often did. He went to drink

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at a local tavern. As he downed cheap whiskey at

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a bar called Kay's Pilot House, he crossed paths with

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a fifty three year old woman named Ella May Hooper.

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Ella May was a regular in the local bars, and

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the two spent part of the evening drinking in the

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same watering holes. Some time that night, Speck decided to

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turn his simmering anger on this unsuspecting stranger. At knife point,

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he forced Ella May back to his rented room at

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the Shipyard Inn. There, in a squalid little room, he

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raped her and stole her handgun, a small black twenty

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two caliber pistol she had bought through a mail order catalog.

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Speck left the terrified woman alive but traumatized, taking her

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revolver as loot. It was around ten twenty p m.

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When he walked out of the Shipyard Inn tavern, armed

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now with both a olen gun and his switchblade, his

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mind clouded by liquor and rage. What happened next would

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make Ella May's ordeal seem, by comparison, like the lucky

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escape that it was in the back of his mind.

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Richard Speck may have only intended to commit a routine

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burglary that night. Perhaps he thought to break into a home,

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steal some quick cash, and move on. But the line

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between petty criminal and mass murderer was about to be crossed.

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Just a block and a half from the hiring hall

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stood a cluster of brick townhouses that served as a

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dormitory for young student nurses from the South Chicago Community Hospital.

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Speck knew the area from his daily Union Hall visits.

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Under the cover of darkness. Shortly before eleven pm on

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July thirteen, nineteen sixty six, he made his way toward

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twenty three nineteen East one hundredth Street, one of the

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nurse residences. Inside that townhouse, nine women were winding down

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their day studying, chatting, sleeping, unaware that evil was heading

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for their doorstep. The modest town home at twenty three

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nineteen East one hundredth Street in Chicago's Jeffrey Manor neighbourhood

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became the scene of one of the grimmest crimes in

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US history. On a sweltering Wednesday night, the brick building's

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quiet was shattered when Richard Speck broke in through the

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back door around eleven pm. Speck had slipped a knife

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blade under a window screen and pried it open to

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unlatch the door. Armed with his knife and Ella May's

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stolen pistol, he stepped into the living room of the

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nurse's residence. Inside, a nightmare was about to unfold. In

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the living room, spec confronted three young women who had

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been chatting there. Brandishing the gun, he forced Corazon Amoreo,

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Marlita Gargoula and Valentina passion into a bedroom where three

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more of their roommates lay asleep. The sudden intrusion sent

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a wave of terror throughout the townhouse. Spec discovered a

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total of six women now gathered in one room, some

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in nightclothes, eyes wide with fear. Switching on a bedside lamp,

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the intruder revealed himself, a scowling man dressed in black,

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reeking of alcohol, with a pock marked face and the

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aforementioned inciting phrase tattooed on his forearm. In a frighteningly

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calm voice, Speck assured the trembling nurses that he only

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wanted to rob them. He ordered them to empty their

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purses of money in hopes of surviving. The women complied,

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handing over cash and valuables. In order to keep his

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hostages under control, Speck tore bedsheets into strips and tied

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up his victims, binding their wrists and ankles with expert

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knots that suggested his seamen's training. The nurses could only

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exchange terrified glances as Speck methodically secured them. He gagged

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some of them to muffle any screams. Six captives now

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sat or lay huddled together in that sweltering bedroom, hearts

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pounding as the armed stranger paced and rifled through their belongings.

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For a brief moment, the nightmare seemed to stabilize into

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a tense waiting game. Perhaps the burglar would just take

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the money and leave as he promised, but any hope

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of a relatively safe outcome soon evaporated. Around midnight, the

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front door of the town house opened and three more

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nursing Stocke students returned home, one after another. Pamela Wilkinning

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twenty years old, was coming off her evening shift. Suzanne

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Ferris twenty one years old, and mary Anne Jordan twenty

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years old, had been out on a casual double date

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and had just been dropped off home, unaware of the

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danger inside. As each of these women entered the residence,

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they were startled to find a strange man with a

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gun and a house full of bound and frightened roommates.

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Speck quickly seized each newcomer and tied her up as well,

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adding Pam, Suzanne, and Mary Anne to the group of hostages.

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The situation grew even more chaotic. Nine young women now

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fell under the contry troll of the armed intruder. SPEC's

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demeanor shifted once the last of the roommates was caught.

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The pretense of a simple robbery dropped away, revealing a

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far more dangerous intent. Later investigators speculated that Speck's original

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plan had indeed been a burglary, but the arrival of

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additional witnesses pushed him into a deadly corner he could

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not risk leaving anyone behind to identify him. The terrified

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nurses now realized they weren't dealing with a mere thief.

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They were hostages to a man capable of unspeakable violence.

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What followed was an hour's long ordeal of pure horror,

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as one by one, Speck began to slaughter the defenseless women.

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At knife point, Speck grabbed Pamela Wilkening, one of the

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newly arrived roommates. Pamela, a twenty year old student, had

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the misfortune of attracting Speck's fury first. She may have resisted, or,

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even as Speck later claimed, spit in his face. Enraging him.

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Speck dragged pam out of the main bedroom and into

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another room. The eight women left behind could only imagine

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what was happening as they heard muffled struggles and a

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scream cut short. In that back room room, Speck stabbed

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Pamela once through the heart, killing her almost instantly. In

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that moment, a routine burglary officially turned into a bloodbath

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as Speck returned for more victims. Mary Anne Jordan and

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Suzanne Ferris, the two friends who had come home together,

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00:27:28.480 --> 00:27:33.200
somehow freed themselves from their bonds and attempted to fight

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00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:39.000
back or flee. When they realized what was happening, they

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burst out of the bedroom in a desperate bid for

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their lives, catching Speck by surprise. What followed was a

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frenzy of violence. Speck set upon them with his knife,

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slashing and stabbing with uncontrollable ferocity. Suzanne Ferris, just twenty one,

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was stabbed eighteen times, and twenty year old Mary Anne

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Jordan was stabbed five times, their bodies left bloody on

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the floor beside Pamela's. In a matter of minutes, three

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of the nine nurses were dead. Speck's hands and arms

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were slick with blood, and any last shred of restraint

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had fallen away. Quote. I wound up trying to kill

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00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:43.920
off all the witnesses. He later admitted coolly. Having eliminated

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the two who resisted, Speck returned to the bedroom, where

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the remaining six women still lay bound and helpless. Inside

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that sweltering room, the captive nurses could hear their friends

306
00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:06.279
being butchered, one after the other, the thuds and muffled

307
00:29:06.359 --> 00:29:12.920
cries echoing through the walls. They huddled together in terror,

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some silently praying. When the bedroom door creaked open, Speck

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stood there with a knife in his hand and an

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unfathomable look in his eyes. He had crossed the point

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of no return quote. It was at that moment that

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he decided to kill them all. They had all seen

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his face. One detective later observed of Speck's mindset. In

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Speck's own blunt words, quote, all hell broke loose in

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that townhouse. His homicidal rage was now in full, unrelenting motion.

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What followed was a grim procession of death. Speck began

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selecting the women one by one, yanking each from the

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room to meet her fate, while the others waited, bound

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and gagged in absolute dread. Twenty three year old Gloria Davy,

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twenty four year old Nina Joe Schmail, twenty three year

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00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:31.559
old Valentina Passione, twenty three year old Merlita Gargulo, and

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00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:36.200
twenty year old Patricia Mattusk were led away in turn

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and murdered. Some were strangled with strips of bedsheet, others

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were stabbed or a combination of both. The unsuspecting house

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was turned into a slaughter house. Between each killing, Speck

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would return to the main bedroom to grab the next victim,

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a bloodied butcher, calmly choosing the next lamb each time

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he left the room with a captive. The minutes dragged

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excruciatingly for those still waiting. Muffled screams or thuds would

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eventually signal another friend gone, and the cycle would begin anew.

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The killings were separated by agonizing intervals of twenty to

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thirty minutes, ample time for the remaining women to fully

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comprehend the fate that was approaching. One can only imagine

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00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:52.240
the psychological torture they endured in those intervals. The prayers,

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the tears in the dark, the faint hope that perhaps

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police would burst in at ens any moment and save them.

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For Cora'son Cora and Moreo, That dwindling group of doomed

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friends initially included her. Cora had been there from the beginning.

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She was the one who answered the door to spec

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that night, unwittingly letting the wolf into the fold. Now bound,

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hand and foot on the floor amid the carnage, Cora

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realized with clarity that unless she did something, she would

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be next. Summoning every ounce of courage, Cora decided to

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hide in plain sight. While Speck was out of the

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room with another victim, Cora in her way, Still tied

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towards a narrow gap beneath one of the bunk beds.

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Inch by inch, the twenty three year old nursing exchange

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student from the Philippines, wriggled on her belly into the

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dark recess under the bed frame. There she lay, cramped

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and barely breathing, trying to make no sound. Blankets hanging

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00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:35.640
off the bed provided a flimsy concealment. Cora's heart pounded

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as she listened to Richard Speck drag yet another roommate

353
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out of the room to her death. Would he notice

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00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:51.079
one fewer figure when he returned One after another, Speck

355
00:33:51.240 --> 00:33:57.599
dispatched the remaining nurses. He showed a particular cruelty toward

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Gloria Davy, the last victim who endured the worst of

357
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his savagery. Unlike the others, Gloria was not simply stabbed

358
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or strangled immediately. Spec sexually assaulted her before killing her.

359
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Gloria's end was especially brutal. Speck strangled her with a

360
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length of cloth so tightly that when police later found her,

361
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the ligature was dug deeply into her neck, requiring significant

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effort to cut free. Investigators would later theorize that SPEC's

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rage peaked with Gloria. Chillingly, a Cook County jail psychiatrist

364
00:34:48.559 --> 00:34:54.159
discovered that Gloria Davy was a dead ringer for SPEC's

365
00:34:54.199 --> 00:35:00.199
ex wife. Surely, when presented with Gloria's photo after his arrest,

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Speck jumped as if he had seen a snake. The psychiatrist,

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doctor Marvin Zipporin, believed that something about Gloria, her resemblance

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to the woman who had divorced him, tapped in to

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SPEC's deepest hatred. On the secret tape he made years later,

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Speck sneered about Gloria quote, she was the one that

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was flirting with me. She didn't have nothing I wanted,

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and I killed her. It was an appalling statement of

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utter remorselessness toward the young woman he had violated and strangled. Last.

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By roughly three thirty a m. On July fourteenth, the

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rampage was over the air inside twenty three nineteen East

376
00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:56.760
one hundredth Street was stifling and thick with the coppery

377
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smell of blood. The floors were slick. Eight women lay dead,

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their youthful lives brutally snuffed out in a matter of hours.

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In the sudden stillness, Richard Speck stood amidst the carnage

380
00:36:16.519 --> 00:36:23.039
and surveyed the bedroom one final time. Incredibly, he failed

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to notice that a ninth woman was no longer among

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the bodies. Whether he miscounted in his drunken haze or

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assumed only eight nurses lived there, Speck was unaware that

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one potential witness still lived. Satisfied that no one was

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00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:49.679
left alive, he wiped his knife, pocketed the small amount

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00:36:49.719 --> 00:36:54.360
of money he had stolen from purses, and walked out

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00:36:54.880 --> 00:37:00.519
into the night. Under the bed in the front bedroom horizon,

388
00:37:00.679 --> 00:37:06.719
Amorello did not dare move or make a sound. She

389
00:37:06.760 --> 00:37:12.880
had heard everything, the thuds of bodies, the horrifying muffled cries,

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00:37:12.960 --> 00:37:16.880
of pain, the footsteps of her friends being led away

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one by one, bound and gagged. She prayed that the

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man would not return and discover her. Minutes passed, then

393
00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:36.599
an hour. Finally, the only sounds were the ticking of

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a clock and Cora's own heartbeat, thundering in her ears. Still,

395
00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:50.280
she waited, paralyzed with fear that he might be lurking.

396
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It was nearly six a m. Almost three hours after

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Speck had left, when Cora dared to emerge. Dawn light

398
00:38:05.480 --> 00:38:11.159
crept through the windows, illuminating a scene of utter devastation,

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00:38:12.519 --> 00:38:20.000
overturned furniture, blood spattered walls, and the lifeless forms of

400
00:38:20.119 --> 00:38:26.599
her roommates. Cora somehow summoned the strength to untie herself

401
00:38:27.159 --> 00:38:31.920
and climb out of a window onto a narrow ledge.

402
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Then the enormity of what had happened crashing upon her.

403
00:38:38.039 --> 00:38:44.760
She began screaming, Help, help, My friends are dead. All

404
00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:50.480
my friends are dead. Her screams echoed down East one

405
00:38:50.559 --> 00:38:57.320
hundredth Street as stunned neighbors emerged from their homes. Police

406
00:38:57.519 --> 00:39:03.039
arrived swiftly, and what they found inside left even veteran

407
00:39:03.199 --> 00:39:11.480
officers shaken. Quote inside the house was in shambles, bodies

408
00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:15.000
were strewn about, and blood congealed in the morning heat.

409
00:39:15.800 --> 00:39:21.360
One report described the first responders carefully carried out the

410
00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:27.559
victims one by one, placing eight young women in body

411
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bags and bringing them past crowds of horrified onlookers. Most

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00:39:34.519 --> 00:39:38.679
of the victims were between twenty and twenty three years old,

413
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students just weeks away from completing their nursing training. In

414
00:39:45.599 --> 00:39:49.159
the span of a few dark hours, a single depraved

415
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killer had annihilated nearly an entire class of caregivers. The

416
00:39:56.440 --> 00:40:00.280
crime was immediately recognized as one of the worl first

417
00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:06.400
mass murders in American history up to that time. Chicago

418
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newspapers blared the story that very afternoon, spreading shock and panic.

419
00:40:13.880 --> 00:40:18.320
Doors that had long been left unlocked were bolted shut

420
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all across the city as the realization sank in a

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00:40:23.960 --> 00:40:36.199
madman was on the loose. Cora Ameru, the lone survivor,

422
00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:41.639
became the critical witness to this horror. At just twenty

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three years old, far from her home in the Philippines,

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she had lost eight dear friends in one night and

425
00:40:50.599 --> 00:40:56.119
barely escaped with her own life. Yet, despite her trauma,

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Cora would prove to be incredibly composed and determined. In

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00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:06.800
the aftermath, she provided the police with as much detail

428
00:41:06.840 --> 00:41:11.840
as she could about the killer, his height, his face,

429
00:41:12.519 --> 00:41:18.159
and crucially, that distinctive born to raise hell tattoo on

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00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:24.679
his forearm. Working quickly as possible, detectives had Cora help

431
00:41:24.760 --> 00:41:31.280
them create a composite sketch of the suspect's face, a

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00:41:31.320 --> 00:41:37.199
sketch that by the next morning was front page news

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00:41:37.599 --> 00:41:43.960
on every Chicago paper. The biggest manhunt in Chicago's history

434
00:41:44.679 --> 00:41:51.840
was officially underway. Chicago in July of nineteen sixty six

435
00:41:52.639 --> 00:41:57.199
was a city under siege, not by an invading army,

436
00:41:57.880 --> 00:42:02.519
but by the palpable fear of a killer roaming free.

437
00:42:03.119 --> 00:42:07.440
In the days following the nurse murders, anxiety gripped the

438
00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:11.960
Metropolis quote. When Richard Speck was on the loose in

439
00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:17.679
nineteen sixty six, people were afraid to go outside, recalled

440
00:42:17.719 --> 00:42:23.239
one account, residents double locked their doors and peered over

441
00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:29.639
their shoulders. The newspapers christened the unknown assailant, the madman,

442
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:37.440
the monster, or simply the killer. For two days, Richard

443
00:42:37.519 --> 00:42:44.280
Speck walked among this terrified public as an anonymous fugitive

444
00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.760
while hundreds of police officers worked around the clock to

445
00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:55.880
track him down. The breakthrough came from diligent police legwork

446
00:42:56.360 --> 00:42:59.960
and a bit of luck. On the morning of July

447
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:05.920
by fourteenth, mere hours after the massacre, Detective Eddie wii

448
00:43:05.960 --> 00:43:11.960
Lasinsky canvassed the neighborhood for any clues. At a gas

449
00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:16.880
station six blocks from the murder scene, the attendant, Dennis

450
00:43:16.960 --> 00:43:23.519
Ryan mentioned an unusual encounter from the previous night. A

451
00:43:23.719 --> 00:43:27.559
disheveled man had come in with a couple of suitcases,

452
00:43:28.239 --> 00:43:34.840
asking if he could leave that overnight. The man had

453
00:43:34.920 --> 00:43:41.000
muttered something about being a seaman. This peaked the detective's interest.

454
00:43:41.480 --> 00:43:45.239
The nurse's townhouse was only about one hundred and fifty

455
00:43:45.320 --> 00:43:51.159
feet from the Maritime hiring hall after all. Following this lead,

456
00:43:51.719 --> 00:43:56.679
Wiilasinski went to the NMU hiring hall across from the

457
00:43:56.760 --> 00:44:04.320
murder site. Their union employee immediately recognized the police composite sketch.

458
00:44:05.400 --> 00:44:09.119
It looked just like a seaman who had been lingering

459
00:44:09.239 --> 00:44:14.639
around for work. They rummaged through the wastebasket and found

460
00:44:14.679 --> 00:44:20.880
a crumpled registration slip with the name Richard Franklin Speck

461
00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:28.079
written on it. Speck's identity was now known. The dragnet

462
00:44:28.199 --> 00:44:33.679
tightened as investigators pulled his fingerprints from Coastguard records and

463
00:44:33.760 --> 00:44:39.519
began matching them against prince lifted from the crime scene.

464
00:44:39.599 --> 00:44:43.960
While police were zeroing in on his identity, Richard Speck

465
00:44:44.199 --> 00:44:50.159
was busy trying to disappear. After leaving the massacre scene,

466
00:44:50.199 --> 00:44:55.400
he had retrieved his suitcases and faded into Chicago's vast

467
00:44:55.559 --> 00:45:00.800
skid row. He checked into the Star Hotel under an

468
00:45:00.840 --> 00:45:06.960
alias in the city West Madison Street district. The Star

469
00:45:07.360 --> 00:45:13.119
was the kind of flophouse where society's lost souls congregated,

470
00:45:13.440 --> 00:45:20.159
a filthy, dilapidated warren crawling with drunks and drifters. One

471
00:45:20.280 --> 00:45:26.760
detective described it as quote truly revolting. You'd walk through

472
00:45:26.920 --> 00:45:32.239
human waste just to reach the rooms here. Amidst the

473
00:45:32.360 --> 00:45:38.079
vomit stained corridors and flickering neon of West Madison, Speck

474
00:45:38.199 --> 00:45:44.119
believed he could lay low in this boulevard of forgotten men.

475
00:45:44.960 --> 00:45:51.400
He was just another anonymous drifter. He spent July fifteenth

476
00:45:51.760 --> 00:45:56.280
on the Star's fire escape, drinking cheap wine with two

477
00:45:56.320 --> 00:46:02.360
transient men, one of whom was named Claude Lunsford. Speck

478
00:46:02.599 --> 00:46:07.159
likely saw the newspapers that day, his own eyes staring

479
00:46:07.280 --> 00:46:12.840
back from crude sketches on front pages, but he said

480
00:46:12.880 --> 00:46:18.159
nothing to his drinking buddies of his infamy. Lunsford later

481
00:46:18.239 --> 00:46:24.199
recalled noticing SPEC's eerie calm and that prominent tattoo, but

482
00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:28.280
it wasn't until he too saw the composite sketch in

483
00:46:28.320 --> 00:46:33.679
the paper that he realized who his friend at the

484
00:46:33.760 --> 00:46:41.960
hotel really was. On the evening of July fifteenth, Lunsford

485
00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:47.280
actually phoned the police to report that Speck, the murder

486
00:46:47.400 --> 00:46:51.719
suspect all over the news, was right there at the

487
00:46:51.760 --> 00:47:00.159
Star Hotel. That call went unanswered due to a miscommunication

488
00:47:00.719 --> 00:47:06.880
at police dispatch. Speck remained at large, oblivious to how

489
00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:13.000
close he'd come to capture. By July sixteen, the pressure

490
00:47:13.079 --> 00:47:20.360
on law enforcement was enormous. Luckily, the forensic work paid off.

491
00:47:21.199 --> 00:47:25.119
SPEC's fingerprints from the crime scene, left on a door

492
00:47:25.239 --> 00:47:30.119
and other surfaces were manually matched to those on file

493
00:47:30.760 --> 00:47:37.280
from his naval application. Police Superintendent Orlando Wilson held a

494
00:47:37.320 --> 00:47:42.079
press conference to announce Richard Speck as the prime suspect

495
00:47:42.480 --> 00:47:48.280
in the massacre, releasing his photograph to the public. This

496
00:47:48.480 --> 00:47:55.719
news was broadcast on radio, television and in papers worldwide.

497
00:47:55.840 --> 00:48:02.559
The monster now had a face and a name. SPEC's

498
00:48:02.719 --> 00:48:08.519
days of hiding under a fake identity wereover. Reading the papers,

499
00:48:08.599 --> 00:48:14.679
on July sixteenth, he saw himself unmasked as the wonted man.

500
00:48:15.679 --> 00:48:20.280
Panicked and with nowhere left to run, Speck decided to

501
00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:33.280
take what he thought was the only escape route left, suicide.

502
00:48:33.639 --> 00:48:39.719
Alone in his cheap hotel room, stewing an alcohol and despair,

503
00:48:40.760 --> 00:48:44.679
he picked up a broken wine bottle and slashed his

504
00:48:44.840 --> 00:48:49.280
left wrist and in her elbow, attempting to end his

505
00:48:49.440 --> 00:48:55.519
life in a gory mess of blood. But even in

506
00:48:55.639 --> 00:49:01.559
this Richard SPEC's luck played a cruel trick. After a

507
00:49:01.599 --> 00:49:07.000
few moments of bleeding, he apparently lost his nerve and

508
00:49:07.199 --> 00:49:12.960
staggered into the hotel hallway seeking help, or perhaps an

509
00:49:13.000 --> 00:49:19.119
employee simply heard his cries. Around midnight, an ambulance was

510
00:49:19.199 --> 00:49:22.800
called to the Star Hotel for a bleeding man with

511
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:29.239
self inflicted wounds. Unconscious and drenched in blood, Speck was

512
00:49:29.320 --> 00:49:33.559
rushed to Cook County Hospital in the early minutes of

513
00:49:33.679 --> 00:49:40.320
July seventeen, nineteen sixty six. At the hospital, the hand

514
00:49:40.360 --> 00:49:47.920
of fate intervened decisively a young surgical resident, doctor Leroy Smith,

515
00:49:48.400 --> 00:49:52.920
had read the newspapers describing the wonted killer and his

516
00:49:53.280 --> 00:49:59.000
identifying tattoo. When doctor Smith was summoned to attend to

517
00:49:59.079 --> 00:50:03.239
an attempted so suicide case. Arriving in the emergency room,

518
00:50:03.840 --> 00:50:09.199
something clicked in his mind. As he began treating the pale,

519
00:50:09.440 --> 00:50:15.199
bleeding man on the gurney, he noticed under the smeared blood,

520
00:50:16.119 --> 00:50:22.719
faint blue letters on the patient's forearm. Born to raise Hell,

521
00:50:24.159 --> 00:50:28.960
Smith's pulse quickened. Quote I asked him what his name was,

522
00:50:29.639 --> 00:50:33.760
and he told me his name was Speck, the doctor

523
00:50:33.840 --> 00:50:40.000
later recounted. In that instant, the monster was unmasked. Doctor

524
00:50:40.079 --> 00:50:45.960
Smith stepped back and notified security and the police. The

525
00:50:46.039 --> 00:50:51.239
mass murderer that all of Chicago was hunting was lying

526
00:50:51.440 --> 00:50:57.199
right there on the operating table. Police rushed in and

527
00:50:57.360 --> 00:51:01.360
finally placed Richard Speck under a wrectes in the early

528
00:51:01.519 --> 00:51:07.039
hours of July seventeenth, nineteen sixty six. He was so

529
00:51:07.320 --> 00:51:11.559
physically weak from blood loss that he needed surgery to

530
00:51:11.639 --> 00:51:17.079
repair a severed artery. Officers stood guard in the operating room,

531
00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:21.880
ensuring the man who had so narrowly cheated justice before

532
00:51:22.679 --> 00:51:28.079
would not slip away, this time outside the hospital. A

533
00:51:28.199 --> 00:51:33.840
crowd gathered despite the late hour, eager for confirmation that

534
00:51:33.880 --> 00:51:39.480
the nightmare was over. When words spread that Speck had

535
00:51:39.519 --> 00:51:43.920
been caught, a collective sigh of relief was felt in

536
00:51:44.039 --> 00:51:49.840
Chicago and across the nation. The city could sleep a

537
00:51:49.880 --> 00:51:54.760
little easier knowing the madman of one hundredth Street was

538
00:51:54.840 --> 00:52:00.679
behind bars, heavily sedated, and handcuffed to a hospital bed.

539
00:52:01.960 --> 00:52:06.119
But for the families of the victims and for the

540
00:52:06.159 --> 00:52:13.079
one lone survivor, Corazon Amorello, the ordeal was not over.

541
00:52:14.320 --> 00:52:19.360
They now faced the emotional turmoil of trials and the

542
00:52:19.400 --> 00:52:27.199
harsh glare of public attention. SPEC's capture raised immediate questions

543
00:52:27.920 --> 00:52:35.079
could such an explosive, violent individual possibly be sane? In

544
00:52:35.159 --> 00:52:39.920
the wake of the Miranda vi Arizona ruling just weeks earlier,

545
00:52:40.519 --> 00:52:45.880
police were exceedingly cautious. Spec was not even interrogated for

546
00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:51.519
weeks in order to avoid jeopardizing the case on a technicality.

547
00:52:52.320 --> 00:52:56.280
Miranda vi Arizona is what established what has become known

548
00:52:56.360 --> 00:53:02.440
as Miranda rights. Law enforcement's response ability to inform those

549
00:53:02.519 --> 00:53:06.800
they have arrested of their right to remain silent of

550
00:53:06.840 --> 00:53:10.440
the possibility that anything they say can be used against

551
00:53:10.519 --> 00:53:16.679
them and their right to an attorney. In the meantime,

552
00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:23.400
investigators built an ironclad case. They had fingerprints matching Speck

553
00:53:23.840 --> 00:53:28.239
at the crime scene. They had stolen items from earlier

554
00:53:28.400 --> 00:53:34.719
crimes in SPEC's possession. Most importantly, though, they had an

555
00:53:34.760 --> 00:53:38.960
eye witness who had looked the killer in the eyes.

556
00:53:40.840 --> 00:53:47.039
Cora Amoreo's brave testimony would become the lynchpin to ensuring

557
00:53:47.199 --> 00:53:53.440
Richard Speck face justice, and so less than ten months

558
00:53:53.519 --> 00:53:59.000
after that awful July night, the stage was set in

559
00:53:59.079 --> 00:54:03.400
a Peoria courthouse for one of the most dramatic criminal

560
00:54:03.480 --> 00:54:09.920
trials of the nineteen sixties. The trial of Richard Speck

561
00:54:10.159 --> 00:54:15.559
opened in early April nineteen sixty seven, and it unfolded

562
00:54:15.679 --> 00:54:20.039
like a gripping courtroom drama that held the entire country

563
00:54:20.599 --> 00:54:26.119
in thrall. Due to massive pre trial publicity and public

564
00:54:26.239 --> 00:54:31.199
anger in Chicago, the venue had been moved to Peoria, Illinois,

565
00:54:31.760 --> 00:54:36.519
about one hundred and sixty miles away. There, in the

566
00:54:36.519 --> 00:54:42.039
Peoria County Courthouse, twenty five year old Speck faced murder

567
00:54:42.159 --> 00:54:47.760
charges for the eight nurses. He appeared in court, clean shaven,

568
00:54:48.360 --> 00:54:53.079
wearing horn rimmed glasses and a suit, a far cry

569
00:54:53.199 --> 00:54:57.800
from the drunken predator of the year before. Yet the

570
00:54:57.880 --> 00:55:02.320
veneer of normalcy did not nothing to mitigate the atmosphere

571
00:55:02.360 --> 00:55:08.480
of dread and fascination in the courtroom. A gag order

572
00:55:08.519 --> 00:55:13.239
had been imposed on press coverage, but words still trickled

573
00:55:13.280 --> 00:55:19.480
out about each day's dramatic proceedings. On the prosecution side

574
00:55:19.519 --> 00:55:24.239
were an avalanche of evidence and one star witness whose

575
00:55:24.320 --> 00:55:31.000
testimony would prove unforgettable. Before the trial, the defense had

576
00:55:31.039 --> 00:55:35.960
little to work with beyond questions of specksanity and memory.

577
00:55:37.119 --> 00:55:40.880
A panel of doctors had examined him and found him

578
00:55:41.000 --> 00:55:46.719
competent to stand trial, and they rejected any insanity defense,

579
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:54.000
concluding he understood the nature of his heinous acts. Speck

580
00:55:54.119 --> 00:55:58.679
himself claimed to have no recollection of the killings, a

581
00:55:58.840 --> 00:56:04.920
convenient blanks spot he maintained since arrest. In private, while

582
00:56:04.960 --> 00:56:10.519
hospitalized after capture, he had actually confessed to doctor Leroy Smith,

583
00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:14.920
blurting out quote, I'm the one who killed those nurses

584
00:56:15.760 --> 00:56:21.800
while sedated, But that hospital bed confession was not admissible

585
00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:26.639
in court. Thus, when Speck's trial began on April third,

586
00:56:26.800 --> 00:56:32.719
nineteen sixty seven, he pleaded not guilty and sat impassively

587
00:56:33.280 --> 00:56:46.159
as prosecutors presented the harrowing narrative of the massacre. On

588
00:56:46.320 --> 00:56:52.199
April fifth, Corazon Amoreo took the stand and a hush

589
00:56:52.679 --> 00:56:58.039
fell over the courtroom. Everyone knew that this poised young

590
00:56:58.079 --> 00:57:02.159
woman had lived through hell and come to speak on

591
00:57:02.320 --> 00:57:07.239
behalf of the dead. There had been doubts about asking

592
00:57:07.360 --> 00:57:11.840
Cora to relive that trauma in open court. Would she

593
00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:18.440
be too fragile, too frightened. Those doubts vanished as soon

594
00:57:18.480 --> 00:57:24.559
as she began to speak in clear, precise detail. Corazon

595
00:57:24.719 --> 00:57:29.719
recounted the nightmare of July thirteenth and fourteenth, the sudden

596
00:57:29.760 --> 00:57:34.159
break in the tying up, the terror as her friends

597
00:57:34.199 --> 00:57:40.400
were led away one by one. The courtroom sat riveted

598
00:57:41.159 --> 00:57:46.519
some jurors and tears as Cora described hiding under the

599
00:57:46.559 --> 00:57:53.159
bed and hearing the muffled screams of her roommates being murdered.

600
00:57:54.840 --> 00:57:59.639
Then came the moment of identification, a scene as dramatic

601
00:57:59.639 --> 00:58:04.119
as a Hollywood script. When asked if she saw the

602
00:58:04.199 --> 00:58:09.400
man who committed these crimes, Cora did not stay seated

603
00:58:10.079 --> 00:58:14.840
and simply point. She left the witness stand and walked

604
00:58:14.840 --> 00:58:20.320
directly up to the defense table, stopping just inches from

605
00:58:20.400 --> 00:58:25.440
Richard Speck and extending her arm to point at his face.

606
00:58:26.760 --> 00:58:32.599
This is the man, she declared firmly. Her voice did

607
00:58:32.679 --> 00:58:39.440
not waver. Speck stared straight ahead, emotionless, as the woman

608
00:58:39.599 --> 00:58:45.800
he had failed to kill sealed his fate. Evidence against

609
00:58:45.880 --> 00:58:50.639
Speck was indeed damning, as the Chicago History Museum later

610
00:58:50.760 --> 00:58:56.960
put it, beyond Cora's eyewitness testimony. Fingerprints found on the

611
00:58:57.000 --> 00:59:02.320
doorframe of the nurse's townhouse matched those of Spex perfectly.

612
00:59:03.559 --> 00:59:07.400
Stolen items from the town home were also linked directly

613
00:59:07.519 --> 00:59:11.920
to him. The born to raise Hell tattoo had been

614
00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:17.920
the crucial clue leading to his capture. The defense, led

615
00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:22.440
by public defender Gerald Getty, could do little but try

616
00:59:22.519 --> 00:59:29.840
to spare Speck the death penalty. They subtly emphasized Speck's intoxication,

617
00:59:30.639 --> 00:59:34.880
hinting he had been in a drunken blackout. At one point.

618
00:59:35.280 --> 00:59:40.719
Gety even floated a story that SPEC's suicidal gesture after

619
00:59:40.800 --> 00:59:47.559
the crime indicated remorse or mental breakdown. Speck himself would

620
00:59:47.639 --> 00:59:53.239
later scoff that this was propaganda that Gety used in

621
00:59:53.280 --> 00:59:58.960
an attempt to garner jury sympathy. But the jury was

622
00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:04.639
simply unmoved. Trial lasted only twelve days, and after just

623
01:00:04.880 --> 01:00:11.400
forty nine minutes of deliberation, on April fifteenth, nineteen sixty seven,

624
01:00:11.960 --> 01:00:17.360
the jury returned with a verdict guilty on all eight

625
01:00:17.559 --> 01:00:23.719
counts of murder. As the verdict was read, Speck reportedly

626
01:00:23.880 --> 01:00:30.079
showed no emotion, his face a mask. The families of

627
01:00:30.119 --> 01:00:34.400
the victims, who had endured every day of testimony about

628
01:00:34.440 --> 01:00:41.119
their daughter's last moments, quietly rejoiced at the swift justice.

629
01:00:41.280 --> 01:00:47.360
The jury recommended the death penalty, and Judge Herbert Passion concurred,

630
01:00:48.079 --> 01:00:53.320
formally sentencing Richard Speck to die in the electric chair.

631
01:00:54.800 --> 01:01:00.199
In Illinois, at that time, executions were by electrocution at

632
01:01:00.239 --> 01:01:05.320
Stateville Penitentiary, and Speck was scheduled to meet that very

633
01:01:05.400 --> 01:01:11.360
fate in January nineteen sixty eight. For the press, the

634
01:01:11.440 --> 01:01:17.079
trial confirmed Speck's place in criminal infamy. They often referred

635
01:01:17.119 --> 01:01:21.519
to him now as a mass murderer, a term that,

636
01:01:21.719 --> 01:01:27.440
as historians note, was not commonly used in the nineteen sixties.

637
01:01:28.440 --> 01:01:32.800
The specter of eight innocent women slaughtered at once had

638
01:01:32.840 --> 01:01:38.320
introduced Americans to a new kind of horror, and Richard

639
01:01:38.400 --> 01:01:44.119
Speck became one of the first widely recognized mass murderers

640
01:01:44.599 --> 01:01:49.239
of the modern era. In the aftermath of the trial,

641
01:01:49.639 --> 01:01:56.360
the public's hunger for understanding this atrocity remained. A Cook

642
01:01:56.400 --> 01:02:02.000
County jail psychiatrist, doctor Marvin Zipporar, who had interviewed Spec

643
01:02:02.159 --> 01:02:08.119
extensively before the trial, controversially published a book about Spec

644
01:02:08.320 --> 01:02:13.280
soon after the verdict. Zipporin painted Speck as a deeply

645
01:02:13.400 --> 01:02:18.559
disturbed man with a severe personality disorder and brain damage

646
01:02:18.679 --> 01:02:23.519
from old injuries, and he echoed the observation of SPEC's

647
01:02:23.559 --> 01:02:30.239
Madonna horror complex regarding women. But none of these analyzes

648
01:02:30.719 --> 01:02:36.440
swayed the court or the public. Insane or not, brain

649
01:02:36.559 --> 01:02:41.559
damaged or not, Richard Speck was going to pay with

650
01:02:41.719 --> 01:02:49.639
his life, or so it seemed. Just as SPEC's execution

651
01:02:49.880 --> 01:02:58.960
date approached, legal fate intervened once again on his behalf.

652
01:03:03.960 --> 01:03:08.800
In June nineteen seventy two, the United States Supreme Court

653
01:03:08.960 --> 01:03:14.480
issued its decision in Furman v. Georgia, which effectively struck

654
01:03:14.559 --> 01:03:21.360
down existing death penalty statutes nationwide. SPEC's death sentence was

655
01:03:21.440 --> 01:03:27.039
automatically vacated that same year. In November nineteen seventy two,

656
01:03:27.519 --> 01:03:31.039
he was re sentenced by an Illinois court to an

657
01:03:31.079 --> 01:03:37.360
astounding four hundred to one thousand, two hundred years in prison,

658
01:03:38.360 --> 01:03:44.480
essentially a symbolic way of ensuring he would never walk free.

659
01:03:45.039 --> 01:03:49.880
This massive sentence was later formally reduced to a still

660
01:03:50.039 --> 01:03:54.559
mind boggling one hundred to three hundred years on paper.

661
01:03:55.719 --> 01:04:00.880
In practical terms, Richard Speck's punishment became life life in prison,

662
01:04:01.599 --> 01:04:07.800
with no realistic hope of release. Yet, to the dismay

663
01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:12.039
of the victim's families, even the notion of no release

664
01:04:12.760 --> 01:04:18.360
proved fraud. Starting in the mid nineteen seventies, Speck technically

665
01:04:18.400 --> 01:04:23.920
became eligible for periodic parole hearings, a quirk of Illinois

666
01:04:23.960 --> 01:04:28.679
sentencing laws that did not anticipate one thousand, two hundred

667
01:04:28.760 --> 01:04:33.719
year terms. Only a decade after the murders, Speck had

668
01:04:33.760 --> 01:04:38.920
his first parole hearing in nineteen seventy six, which stunned

669
01:04:38.960 --> 01:04:44.079
the families of his victims. Quote. When they commuted the

670
01:04:44.079 --> 01:04:48.199
death penalty, I thought it meant life in prison, said

671
01:04:48.320 --> 01:04:53.480
John Schmel, brother of victim Mina Schmel. I had no

672
01:04:53.639 --> 01:04:57.280
idea that, despite the fact he murdered eight nurses, he

673
01:04:57.480 --> 01:05:01.519
was up for parole within seven years. It was indeed

674
01:05:01.639 --> 01:05:06.119
a cruel ordeal. Each time Speck came up for parole,

675
01:05:06.800 --> 01:05:11.039
and he did so seven times in total, the bereaved

676
01:05:11.159 --> 01:05:16.159
families had to relive the nightmare, writing letters and often

677
01:05:16.199 --> 01:05:20.280
appearing in person to urge the parole board to keep

678
01:05:20.400 --> 01:05:26.559
this killer behind bars. Every one of SPEC's parole petitions

679
01:05:27.239 --> 01:05:32.400
was denied, but not before reopening old wounds. As the

680
01:05:32.519 --> 01:05:36.639
years wore on, many of the victim's parents passed away,

681
01:05:37.519 --> 01:05:41.920
some not living long enough to see the final closure

682
01:05:42.199 --> 01:05:48.480
of SPEC's saga quote. Even in jail, it seems Richard

683
01:05:48.599 --> 01:05:54.000
Speck had found a way to kill. One commentator grimly noted,

684
01:05:54.840 --> 01:06:00.320
referring to how stress and grief wore down those left behind.

685
01:06:01.480 --> 01:06:06.920
Through it all, Spec remained largely silent publicly. He granted

686
01:06:07.000 --> 01:06:11.639
no interviews in the decade after the trial, except one

687
01:06:11.760 --> 01:06:17.760
brief conversation with a Chicago Tribune columnist in nineteen seventy eight.

688
01:06:18.639 --> 01:06:23.719
In that interview, Spec for the first time admitted, perhaps

689
01:06:23.840 --> 01:06:27.039
trying to shift blame, that he had been high on

690
01:06:27.199 --> 01:06:31.760
drugs and alcohol the night of the murders, and he

691
01:06:31.880 --> 01:06:36.599
even floated a sensational claim that he had an accomplice

692
01:06:37.039 --> 01:06:40.960
who helped him and whom he had later killed in

693
01:06:41.079 --> 01:06:46.360
fear of being betrayed. This claim of a mystery accomplice

694
01:06:46.920 --> 01:06:52.079
was met with skepticism. No evidence of any second perpetrator

695
01:06:52.119 --> 01:06:55.880
has ever surfaced. It seemed to be yet another one

696
01:06:55.960 --> 01:07:03.280
of SPEC's manipulations, an attention seeking ploy from behind bars. Officially,

697
01:07:03.920 --> 01:07:09.159
Richard Speck bore sole responsibility for the crime, and that

698
01:07:09.679 --> 01:07:15.199
is how history remembers it. With his appeals exhausted and

699
01:07:15.360 --> 01:07:21.199
parole continually denied, Richard Spec settled in to the oblivion

700
01:07:21.639 --> 01:07:25.519
of life in prison. But, as we would come to know,

701
01:07:26.480 --> 01:07:32.039
even behind bars, his capacity for shocking the public was

702
01:07:32.119 --> 01:07:38.760
not yet over. Richard Speck's new home was Stateville Correctional Center,

703
01:07:39.559 --> 01:07:43.480
a maximum security prison in Illinois, where he was sent

704
01:07:43.559 --> 01:07:49.320
to serve his staggeringly long sentence. Initially, Speck was treated

705
01:07:49.360 --> 01:07:54.639
as the infamous criminal. He was kept in isolation for

706
01:07:54.679 --> 01:07:59.880
his own safety and the prison's security. In those early years,

707
01:08:00.440 --> 01:08:03.599
he was a slight, brooding figure and a cell block

708
01:08:03.719 --> 01:08:08.840
full of hardened convicts. A guard later recalled that Speck

709
01:08:09.079 --> 01:08:14.960
was quote weak minded and easily influenced. In other words,

710
01:08:15.360 --> 01:08:20.560
he wasn't a predatory alpha behind bars, he was malleable

711
01:08:21.279 --> 01:08:27.720
someone who might adapt to survive over time. That's exactly

712
01:08:28.199 --> 01:08:32.680
what Richard Speck did. He adapted to prison in ways

713
01:08:32.720 --> 01:08:37.920
that would defy society's expectations, indulging in a life of

714
01:08:38.039 --> 01:08:42.600
leisure and vice that few would have imagined possible for

715
01:08:42.720 --> 01:08:48.119
an eight time murderer locked away for centuries. In the

716
01:08:48.239 --> 01:08:55.079
nineteen seventies and eighties, Illinois's prison system became notoriously overcrowded

717
01:08:55.479 --> 01:09:01.159
and corrupt. At Stateville, two inmates were often into cells

718
01:09:01.279 --> 01:09:05.119
meant for one, and the guard to prisoner ratio was

719
01:09:05.359 --> 01:09:11.840
terribly low. This environment allowed enterprising inmates to obtain all

720
01:09:12.000 --> 01:09:16.239
manner of contraband, usually with the aid of bribed or

721
01:09:16.840 --> 01:09:22.279
coerced guards. Speck took full advantage. Once he was moved

722
01:09:22.319 --> 01:09:26.279
into the general population. He found ways to gain a

723
01:09:26.319 --> 01:09:31.479
measure of freedom and comfort. He secured prison jobs as

724
01:09:31.520 --> 01:09:35.720
a painter and sewing machine repairman, roles that let him

725
01:09:35.800 --> 01:09:40.199
roam around the facility more than most. He learned to

726
01:09:40.279 --> 01:09:45.520
brew homemade alcohol, often referred to as pruno, and became

727
01:09:45.600 --> 01:09:49.560
a supplier of it to other inmates, which earned him

728
01:09:49.640 --> 01:09:53.760
favors and a form of power in the inmate hierarchy.

729
01:09:54.600 --> 01:10:01.000
In effect, spec the lowly weak inmate, ingratiated himself and

730
01:10:01.079 --> 01:10:07.640
became a fixture in Stateville's underground economy. But the most

731
01:10:07.760 --> 01:10:14.439
bizarre transformation was physical. Sometime in the early nineteen eighties,

732
01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:21.359
fellow prisoners noticed that Speck was developing female like breasts.

733
01:10:22.399 --> 01:10:28.039
Rumors ran wild. Was he intentionally taking hormone pills smuggled

734
01:10:28.079 --> 01:10:33.000
into the prison. Had he effectively transitioned to serve as

735
01:10:33.000 --> 01:10:38.840
another inmate's girlfriend. Photographs from later years show Speck with

736
01:10:39.399 --> 01:10:44.920
noticeable breasts and often wearing women's underwear. It appeared he

737
01:10:44.960 --> 01:10:50.079
had indeed been ingesting estrogen or other hormones in order

738
01:10:50.159 --> 01:10:55.039
to feminize his appearance. Whether this was done voluntary, in

739
01:10:55.159 --> 01:10:59.600
order to gain protection or favor from more dominant inmates,

740
01:11:00.199 --> 01:11:06.920
or coerced by said dominant inmates, remains unclear. What was

741
01:11:07.079 --> 01:11:11.319
clear is that Speck had become a far cry from

742
01:11:11.359 --> 01:11:16.720
the tattooed, macho drifter who had terrorized nurses in nineteen

743
01:11:16.880 --> 01:11:23.800
sixty six. Inside the twisted social ecosystem of Stateville, Richard

744
01:11:23.880 --> 01:11:28.960
Speck was thriving in his own depraved way, getting high,

745
01:11:29.520 --> 01:11:34.800
having sex, and flouting the system's rules right underneath the

746
01:11:34.840 --> 01:11:41.439
noses of prison officials. For years, these excesses remained hidden

747
01:11:41.680 --> 01:11:47.079
from the public, but that changed. In May of nineteen

748
01:11:47.239 --> 01:11:59.479
ninety six, five years after Speck's death, a shocking video

749
01:11:59.600 --> 01:12:07.239
surface and exploded on television screens across America. Investigative journalist

750
01:12:07.319 --> 01:12:11.880
Bill Curtis obtained an eight millimeter video tape that had

751
01:12:11.920 --> 01:12:19.359
been recorded inside Stateville back in nineteen eighty eight. The tape, grainy,

752
01:12:19.800 --> 01:12:25.800
raw and almost unbelievable, showed Richard Speck and two inmate

753
01:12:25.880 --> 01:12:30.159
companions partying in a prison cell like it was a

754
01:12:30.199 --> 01:12:35.520
frat house. On this contraband video, Speck appeared with bleach

755
01:12:35.640 --> 01:12:40.680
blonde hair, wearing silky women's panties, his shirt pulled up

756
01:12:40.760 --> 01:12:45.119
to reveal feminine breasts. He was snorting what looked like

757
01:12:45.319 --> 01:12:50.520
lines of cocaine, chugging whisky, and rolling joints of marijuana.

758
01:12:51.560 --> 01:12:55.319
At one point, he produced a thick roll of hundred

759
01:12:55.319 --> 01:13:01.039
dollar bills and casually counted them on camera, boasting of

760
01:13:01.119 --> 01:13:07.439
his illicit riches. In perhaps the most disturbing segment, Speck

761
01:13:07.680 --> 01:13:13.279
engaged in explicit sexual acts with his fellow inmate, who

762
01:13:13.359 --> 01:13:19.760
was referred to as his lover, on camera, seeming utterly unconcerned.

763
01:13:19.800 --> 01:13:24.239
About being filmed. The sheer brazenness of it all was

764
01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:31.000
mind numbing. Here was a convicted mass murderer, supposedly serving

765
01:13:31.159 --> 01:13:36.359
hard time in a maximum security prison, yet on video

766
01:13:36.960 --> 01:13:40.359
he appeared to be having the time of his life

767
01:13:41.079 --> 01:13:46.920
behind bars. And then, in between these x rated and

768
01:13:47.119 --> 01:13:54.159
drug fueled exploits, Richard Speck began to talk. The tape

769
01:13:54.359 --> 01:14:01.079
unexpectedly became a confessional. In a kind of interview segment.

770
01:14:01.960 --> 01:14:08.079
Apparently one inmate quizzing Spec on camera, Speck nonchalantly admitted

771
01:14:08.840 --> 01:14:14.319
to the nurse murders. The exchange went like this, what

772
01:14:14.399 --> 01:14:19.479
are you in for? The off screen inmate asked eight murders.

773
01:14:20.239 --> 01:14:27.359
Spec answered, did you really do it? Inquired the inmate. Yeah,

774
01:14:27.720 --> 01:14:35.399
sure I did, Spec said casually. Why it just wasn't

775
01:14:35.439 --> 01:14:42.319
their night, Spec said with a stomach churning smirk. The

776
01:14:42.399 --> 01:14:47.199
man who had claimed amnesia during his trial now coolly

777
01:14:47.319 --> 01:14:52.439
detailed his crime. He explained he used a knife instead

778
01:14:52.479 --> 01:14:56.840
of his gun because quote guns make too much noise,

779
01:14:57.520 --> 01:15:01.840
the knife was quiet. He described how it began as

780
01:15:01.880 --> 01:15:09.119
a burglary until quote all hell broke loose. He even

781
01:15:09.439 --> 01:15:14.600
educated his listeners on the mechanics of murder quote strangling

782
01:15:14.680 --> 01:15:18.199
somebody isn't like TV. You gotta go at it for

783
01:15:18.279 --> 01:15:22.760
three minutes. It takes a lot of strength. Perhaps most

784
01:15:22.840 --> 01:15:27.760
chilling of all was Speck's complete lack of remorse on

785
01:15:27.920 --> 01:15:31.680
the tape. An inmate asked, how do you feel after

786
01:15:31.760 --> 01:15:37.479
killing all those women? Speck replied with a shrug, like

787
01:15:37.560 --> 01:15:41.359
I always felt. I had no feelings. If you're asking

788
01:15:41.399 --> 01:15:47.239
if I felt sorry, No. In that one tape, Speck

789
01:15:47.399 --> 01:15:52.359
managed to horrify the nation all over again, not with

790
01:15:52.560 --> 01:15:56.840
new crimes, but with the evidence that he had never

791
01:15:56.880 --> 01:16:00.439
been punished as harshly as everyone had a say assumed.

792
01:16:01.399 --> 01:16:05.640
The video's public release in nineteen ninety six caused a

793
01:16:05.720 --> 01:16:10.760
national scandal. People could not fathom how a man guilty

794
01:16:10.840 --> 01:16:16.640
of such atrocities could be effectively enjoying a hedonistic romp

795
01:16:17.039 --> 01:16:22.399
in prison. As one reporter put it, lawmakers in Illinois

796
01:16:22.479 --> 01:16:27.439
were outraged. Hearings were convened in the state legislature even

797
01:16:27.520 --> 01:16:32.720
as the videotaped excerpts were broadcast on the news. Quote

798
01:16:33.399 --> 01:16:37.279
it's an indictment of our prison system. How we really

799
01:16:37.359 --> 01:16:42.520
lost control, said one prison reform advocate upon seeing the

800
01:16:42.600 --> 01:16:48.159
spect tape. Indeed, the tape forced an ugly reckoning. Guards

801
01:16:48.199 --> 01:16:56.239
were complicit in smuggling contraband, drugs, money, cameras, etc. Two inmates,

802
01:16:56.840 --> 01:17:02.159
and Stateville was revealed to be danger rously lax. For

803
01:17:02.279 --> 01:17:06.199
the families of Speck's victims, the tape was like ripping

804
01:17:06.279 --> 01:17:10.000
open an old wound. They had lived with the fact

805
01:17:10.039 --> 01:17:13.840
that Speck escaped the electric chair, but they took some

806
01:17:14.159 --> 01:17:19.159
solace in thinking he was languishing miserably in a cell.

807
01:17:20.720 --> 01:17:25.079
Now they saw him laughing, partying, and gloating about the

808
01:17:25.199 --> 01:17:29.760
murders of their loved ones. The outrage was enough that

809
01:17:29.840 --> 01:17:34.000
many cited the spec tape as justification to bring back

810
01:17:34.039 --> 01:17:39.880
the death penalty for heinous criminals. Illinois had reinstated capital

811
01:17:39.920 --> 01:17:44.920
punishment in nineteen seventy four after the firmin pause, but

812
01:17:45.039 --> 01:17:49.319
the broader debate on the death penalty's merits was reinvigorated

813
01:17:49.720 --> 01:17:55.399
by this scandal. In the end, however, Richard Speck himself

814
01:17:55.720 --> 01:18:00.640
never faced any direct consequences from the tape. He had

815
01:18:00.720 --> 01:18:06.520
died quietly a few years before it emerged. On December fifth,

816
01:18:06.760 --> 01:18:12.039
nineteen ninety one, the eve of his fiftieth birthday, Speck

817
01:18:12.119 --> 01:18:16.920
collapsed in his prison cell after complaining of chest pains.

818
01:18:17.319 --> 01:18:21.399
He was rushed to a hospital in Joliet, and doctors

819
01:18:21.439 --> 01:18:26.640
worked furiously for over four hours to save his life,

820
01:18:26.920 --> 01:18:31.119
oddly determined to revive a man who had shown no

821
01:18:31.359 --> 01:18:37.439
mercy to others, but Speck was beyond saving. He died

822
01:18:37.520 --> 01:18:41.199
of what was officially recorded as a heart attack at

823
01:18:41.279 --> 01:18:46.439
age forty nine. In a final footnote, befitting his ignominy,

824
01:18:47.279 --> 01:18:51.520
none of Speck's family came forward to claim the body.

825
01:18:52.600 --> 01:18:57.000
His remains were cremated, and his ashes were quietly scattered

826
01:18:57.479 --> 01:19:03.399
at an undisclosed location, effectively thrown to the wind. Just

827
01:19:03.439 --> 01:19:06.800
as he had once said, he didn't give a damn

828
01:19:07.159 --> 01:19:12.279
what became of him after death. Richard Speck, the man

829
01:19:12.359 --> 01:19:16.880
who declared himself the devil and boasted quote, if they

830
01:19:16.920 --> 01:19:20.520
knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose,

831
01:19:21.319 --> 01:19:25.399
exited the world as anonymously as he had entered it.

832
01:19:26.319 --> 01:19:29.920
Yet the shadow he cast on his victim's families, on

833
01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.359
the city of Chicago, and on American society would not

834
01:19:34.600 --> 01:19:48.800
disperse so easily. Even now, nearly six decades later, the

835
01:19:48.920 --> 01:19:54.359
name Richard Speck sends a shiver through those old enough

836
01:19:54.600 --> 01:20:00.600
to remember the summer of nineteen sixty six. This crime

837
01:20:00.880 --> 01:20:05.680
stand as a gruesome benchmark in the history of American violence,

838
01:20:06.720 --> 01:20:12.319
often referred to as the Chicago nurse murders or simply

839
01:20:13.119 --> 01:20:18.159
the Chicago massacre. At the time, it captured the fear

840
01:20:18.680 --> 01:20:24.760
and imagination of a generation. Ordinary people could not fathom

841
01:20:25.199 --> 01:20:29.359
how one man could be so cruel as to bind

842
01:20:29.760 --> 01:20:35.199
and systematically kill eight young women who had dedicated their

843
01:20:35.319 --> 01:20:42.359
lives to healing others. The gruesomeness of SPEC's rampage forced

844
01:20:42.399 --> 01:20:47.119
Americans to realize that the most horrific crimes were not

845
01:20:47.279 --> 01:20:53.520
limited to gangsters or warfare. They could erupt without warning

846
01:20:54.359 --> 01:20:59.479
in an ordinary urban townhouse. In many ways, the Speck

847
01:20:59.600 --> 01:21:04.800
case marked a turning point. While in hindsight, the nineteen

848
01:21:04.960 --> 01:21:11.239
sixties in America is seen as a nostalgic era, in reality,

849
01:21:11.920 --> 01:21:18.960
it had been roiled by political assassinations, civil unrest, domestic terrorism,

850
01:21:19.439 --> 01:21:25.960
and war abroad. But Richard Speck brought horror straight into

851
01:21:26.000 --> 01:21:31.199
the domestic sphere, into a home where people should have

852
01:21:31.319 --> 01:21:36.800
been safe. As one Chicago paper put it, after Speck,

853
01:21:37.439 --> 01:21:43.520
people started locking their doors at night. The cultural impact

854
01:21:43.840 --> 01:21:47.920
was profound. The media coverage of the Speck case was

855
01:21:48.039 --> 01:21:52.840
unprecedented in scale for a crime of this kind. It

856
01:21:52.960 --> 01:21:55.880
was one of the first times the term mass murderer

857
01:21:56.439 --> 01:22:01.920
was applied to a killer of strangers. Previously, that phrase

858
01:22:02.439 --> 01:22:09.840
conjured images of Prohibition era gangsters or wartime atrocities. SPEC's

859
01:22:09.960 --> 01:22:15.680
one man massacre changed that, and sadly, the term would

860
01:22:15.760 --> 01:22:22.359
find many more applications in the decades to follow. Some

861
01:22:22.640 --> 01:22:28.560
criminologists and historians consider the Speck murders, along with a

862
01:22:28.560 --> 01:22:33.399
certain Texas tower sniper attack that occurred just two weeks

863
01:22:33.479 --> 01:22:37.439
later in nineteen sixty six, as the beginning of a

864
01:22:37.520 --> 01:22:43.239
modern era of mass murders in America. It jolted law

865
01:22:43.359 --> 01:22:48.159
enforcement into new approaches for manhunts and for understanding the

866
01:22:48.239 --> 01:22:54.920
psychology of spree killers. Speck was not a serial killer

867
01:22:55.359 --> 01:23:00.079
with a pattern across months or years. He was some

868
01:23:00.119 --> 01:23:06.239
thing arguably more frightening at the time, an unpredictable man

869
01:23:06.359 --> 01:23:12.960
whose anger exploded in one cataclysmic event. The victims of

870
01:23:13.119 --> 01:23:20.560
Richard Speck were not forgotten their names. Gloria Davey, Patricia Metusic,

871
01:23:21.319 --> 01:23:28.760
Nina Joe Schmael, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Ferris, Mary Anne Jordan,

872
01:23:29.560 --> 01:23:37.640
Marlita Gargulo, and Valentina passion became etched in Chicago's collective memory.

873
01:23:38.800 --> 01:23:42.319
All were in their early twenties on the cusp of

874
01:23:42.399 --> 01:23:49.039
graduating and launching careers in nursing. Gargulo and Pasione had

875
01:23:49.119 --> 01:23:53.439
traveled from the Philippines full of hope to train in America,

876
01:23:54.159 --> 01:23:59.760
only to meet a tragic end far from home. After

877
01:23:59.800 --> 01:24:04.800
the the two Filipina nurses bodies were returned to their

878
01:24:04.840 --> 01:24:11.479
homeland following a solemn memorial mass in Chicago. The loss

879
01:24:11.479 --> 01:24:16.720
of these bright, carrying women resonated with the public. It

880
01:24:16.800 --> 01:24:21.119
added a deeper layer of heartbreak that those who dedicated

881
01:24:21.159 --> 01:24:25.439
themselves to saving lives had their own lives taken in

882
01:24:25.560 --> 01:24:30.880
such a brutal manner. Hospitals and nursing programs in the

883
01:24:30.920 --> 01:24:37.199
aftermath took a hard look at security. The nurse's townhouse, itself,

884
01:24:37.880 --> 01:24:45.439
unguarded and accessible, became a cautionary example of vulnerability. Indeed,

885
01:24:45.520 --> 01:24:51.640
the South Chicago Community Hospital reportedly began instituting tighter controls

886
01:24:51.720 --> 01:24:58.960
on dormitories and escorting staff, a small but meaningful change

887
01:24:59.560 --> 01:25:04.880
spur by the tragedy in Chicago, the sight of the

888
01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:09.479
murders on East one hundredth Street bore a dark legacy.

889
01:25:10.600 --> 01:25:15.520
For years, the townhouse remained a painful landmark of evil.

890
01:25:16.479 --> 01:25:20.760
It has since been demolished, the lot either left empty

891
01:25:20.960 --> 01:25:27.680
or rebuilt, but the memory lingers in the community. Each year,

892
01:25:27.920 --> 01:25:33.279
on the July thirteenth anniversary, some Chicagoans still recall the

893
01:25:33.399 --> 01:25:39.279
horror that took place there. The city's newspapers and historical

894
01:25:39.319 --> 01:25:46.279
societies periodically recount the story, ensuring new generations learn about

895
01:25:46.319 --> 01:25:53.960
the grim anniversary and the lessons it holds. Chicago wasn't

896
01:25:54.000 --> 01:26:00.239
alone in never being the same after Richard Speck. The

897
01:26:00.319 --> 01:26:15.159
criminal justice system would also never be the same. Illinois,

898
01:26:15.680 --> 01:26:20.479
which had commuted SPEC's death sentence and essentially allowed him

899
01:26:20.520 --> 01:26:25.720
to live out his natural life, later went through cycles

900
01:26:25.760 --> 01:26:32.119
of abolishing and reinstating the death penalty. In debates, prosecutors

901
01:26:32.159 --> 01:26:37.720
and politicians would invoke names like Spex, arguing that some

902
01:26:38.000 --> 01:26:44.039
crimes were so heinous that execution was the only just punishment.

903
01:26:45.319 --> 01:26:49.760
When the spectape surfaced in nineteen ninety six, as mentioned,

904
01:26:50.399 --> 01:26:56.039
they added fuel to those arguments. Public sentiments swung towards

905
01:26:56.039 --> 01:27:00.680
the view that society had failed by letting Speck live

906
01:27:00.960 --> 01:27:07.039
and even thrive in prison. The scandal forced reforms in

907
01:27:07.159 --> 01:27:13.000
Illinois prisons, there was a crackdown, at least temporarily on

908
01:27:13.199 --> 01:27:19.479
contraband and corruption. Some guards faced investigation for how Spec

909
01:27:19.560 --> 01:27:24.359
could obtain a video camera, let alone drugs so freely.

910
01:27:25.760 --> 01:27:31.479
The Illinois legislature even held official hearings specifically on the

911
01:27:31.520 --> 01:27:36.479
Spec tape incident. While one might cynically note these efforts

912
01:27:36.560 --> 01:27:42.079
came years too late, after Spec was already dead, they

913
01:27:42.199 --> 01:27:48.239
nonetheless show his actions continued to spark change long after

914
01:27:48.359 --> 01:27:53.520
the fact. In the arena of popular culture, the Spec

915
01:27:53.640 --> 01:27:59.600
murders have been retold countless times, reflecting and enduring morbid

916
01:27:59.640 --> 01:28:05.880
Fast Nation films, TV movies, and episodes of true crime

917
01:28:06.000 --> 01:28:11.319
series have dramatized the story, often focusing on the tension

918
01:28:11.399 --> 01:28:16.520
of that night and the miracle of Cora Amoreo's survival.

919
01:28:17.920 --> 01:28:22.239
True crime authors have poured over SPEC's psyche and books

920
01:28:22.279 --> 01:28:28.439
examining how an unremarkable loser became a figure of nightmares.

921
01:28:29.840 --> 01:28:34.680
SPEC's infamy even found its way into music and literature

922
01:28:35.239 --> 01:28:40.960
as a symbol of pure evil and the banality of it. Yet,

923
01:28:41.600 --> 01:28:47.800
unlike certain serial killers who spawn cult followings or copycats,

924
01:28:48.520 --> 01:28:56.479
Spec remains more reviled than mythologized a boogeyman that evokes

925
01:28:56.600 --> 01:29:02.880
revulsion rather than dark charisma. Perhaps it's because there is

926
01:29:02.960 --> 01:29:09.199
so little ambiguity or mystery in his crimes. It was brutality,

927
01:29:09.920 --> 01:29:17.520
plain and simple, visited upon innocence. For the families of

928
01:29:17.600 --> 01:29:22.319
those eight nurses, Richard Speck's death in nineteen ninety one

929
01:29:22.960 --> 01:29:28.880
brought a measure of closure. Quote when he died for me, anyway,

930
01:29:29.520 --> 01:29:34.239
there was closure, said John Schmael, who lost his sister

931
01:29:34.359 --> 01:29:40.760
Nina Joe to SPEC's knife. Quote. Finally it's over. No

932
01:29:40.880 --> 01:29:44.760
more parole hearings. He doesn't have my sister's picture in

933
01:29:44.840 --> 01:29:52.239
his cell anymore. Finally it's over. Schmael's words underscore the

934
01:29:52.319 --> 01:29:58.800
painfully long shadow Speck cast. It stretched over twenty five years,

935
01:29:59.439 --> 01:30:04.640
through the trial, the appeals, the parole hearings, and the

936
01:30:04.680 --> 01:30:10.560
posthumous release of the tapes. Only with SPEC's cremation and

937
01:30:10.760 --> 01:30:17.399
scattering did the families feel that chapter could finally fully close.

938
01:30:19.000 --> 01:30:24.800
Even so, the grief never vanished. The families carry the

939
01:30:24.840 --> 01:30:30.560
memory of their daughters and sisters forever, young and frozen.

940
01:30:31.399 --> 01:30:38.760
In nineteen sixty six, robbed of promising futures, memorial scholarships,

941
01:30:38.800 --> 01:30:42.600
and plaques were established in honor of the slain nurses

942
01:30:43.279 --> 01:30:48.920
at their nursing school, preserving their legacy as caregivers whose

943
01:30:49.039 --> 01:30:55.479
lives were cut short. In the final analysis, Richard Speck's

944
01:30:55.560 --> 01:31:01.800
story is a cautionary tale on multiple levels. It's a

945
01:31:01.880 --> 01:31:07.399
study in how a toxic mix of abuse, alcoholism, and

946
01:31:07.520 --> 01:31:13.239
criminal impunity can incubate a ticking time bomb of violence.

947
01:31:14.239 --> 01:31:19.039
It highlights the fragility of public safety, how one random

948
01:31:19.159 --> 01:31:24.760
encounter with evil can shatter so many lives. It raises

949
01:31:24.920 --> 01:31:32.520
uncomfortable questions about the purpose of incarceration. Was justice truly

950
01:31:32.720 --> 01:31:37.319
served in his case? Or did the system fail to

951
01:31:37.479 --> 01:31:43.439
uphold any meaningful punishment after the initial verdict? And it

952
01:31:43.600 --> 01:31:49.960
forces a contemplation on evil itself. Was Speck borne a

953
01:31:50.079 --> 01:31:56.119
monster or a product of environment? That debate may never

954
01:31:56.239 --> 01:32:01.159
be resolved. What is certain is that one unhot summer

955
01:32:01.279 --> 01:32:07.199
night in nineteen sixty six, a perfect storm of SPEC's

956
01:32:07.279 --> 01:32:17.039
personal demons unleashed unspeakable horror on innocent women. Today, the

957
01:32:17.039 --> 01:32:21.359
tale of Richard Speck is recounted not to glorify the killer,

958
01:32:22.000 --> 01:32:26.640
but to remember the victims and to attempt to glean lessons.

959
01:32:27.439 --> 01:32:33.079
It urges vigilance in protecting the vulnerable, compassion for survivors

960
01:32:33.199 --> 01:32:39.159
like Cora, who displayed unimaginable bravery, and the importance of

961
01:32:39.199 --> 01:32:46.359
a justice system that balances punishment with prevention. Spec once

962
01:32:46.479 --> 01:32:51.399
infamously said on tape quote, if I die, I don't

963
01:32:51.439 --> 01:32:53.920
give a damn if they throw me in the gutter.

964
01:32:55.199 --> 01:33:01.600
In the end, he got his wish. He died ignominiously,

965
01:33:02.720 --> 01:33:07.840
and his ashes were thrown to the winds unmourned. But

966
01:33:07.960 --> 01:33:12.800
the legacy of his crimes, the reforms they spurred, the

967
01:33:12.960 --> 01:33:16.920
nightmares they fueled, and the resolve they hardened in law

968
01:33:17.079 --> 01:33:23.479
enforcement and the public, remains firmly etched in history. The

969
01:33:23.520 --> 01:33:27.399
story of Richard Speck stands as a dark chronicle of

970
01:33:27.479 --> 01:33:33.039
American crime, a reminder of how quickly a normal night

971
01:33:33.319 --> 01:33:38.399
can descend into terror, and how the resilience of the

972
01:33:38.479 --> 01:33:43.439
human spirit, exemplified by a young nurse hiding under a

973
01:33:43.479 --> 01:33:49.399
bed and later standing face to face with her attacker

974
01:33:49.520 --> 01:33:54.720
in court, standing up not only for herself but for

975
01:33:54.840 --> 01:34:01.640
her slain friends, can ultimately shine a light height even

976
01:34:01.720 --> 01:34:07.439
in the face of such darkness. Terrifying and true is

977
01:34:07.560 --> 01:34:11.399
narrated by Enrique Kuto. It's executive produced by Rob Fields

978
01:34:11.520 --> 01:34:15.199
and bobble Toopia dot com and produced by Dan Wilder

979
01:34:15.279 --> 01:34:18.279
with original theme music by Ray Mattis. If you have

980
01:34:18.359 --> 01:34:21.399
a story you think we should cover on Terrifying and True,

981
01:34:21.560 --> 01:34:25.439
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982
01:34:25.479 --> 01:34:26.960
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01:34:29.760 --> 01:34:32.560
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01:34:35.119 --> 01:34:36.880
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991
01:34:50.279 --> 01:34:52.760
and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so much and thank

992
01:34:52.800 --> 01:34:55.520
you for listening. We'll see you all right here next

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time on Terrifying and True