When he arrived there, he found that his spot had already been taken, and he was driven back to the NMU hiring hall, which was then closed. Speck was arrested. Eight of these nurses lived in the easternmost townhouse at 2319 E. 100th St., just 150 feet (46 m) from the NMU hiring hall. [3], After he was discharged from the hospital, Speck returned to stay with his sister Martha and her family in Chicago to recuperate. He was a 6-foot-tall white man who was "very polite" and spoke "very softly with a Southern drawl." For those girls, and for their families, and for me. Richard Speck: Mass murderer and enemy of women. Before then, he had been responsible for other acts of violence against his family and others but had a knack for escaping the police. When police showed up at the Christy Hotel on April 19 to continue questioning Speck, they discovered he had left the hotel a few hours earlier, carrying his suitcases and saying he was just going to the laundromat. [3], On March 5, 1966, Speck bought a 12-year-old car. There, he was first recognized by a 26-year-old resident physician who had seen Speck's "Born To Raise Hell" tattoo in a newspaper article following the murders. Amurao stayed hidden until almost 6 a.m.[9], Fingerprints found at the scene were matched to Speck. Richard Speck Richard Benjamin Speck (December 6, 1941 – December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who systematically raped one and tortured and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital on the night of July 13 into the early morning hours of July 14, 1966. [41], In May 1968, Speck's chromosomes were karyotyped a second time by Engel, with the same result: a normal 46,XY genome. The NMU hiring hall was one block east of five attached two-story brick townhouses, three of which were occupied by South Chicago Community Hospital senior student nurses and Filipino exchange registered nurses. [3], On April 3, Mrs. Virgil Harris, a 65-year-old resident of Monmouth, returned home at 1:00 a.m. to find a burglar in her house brandishing a knife. Richard Speck has never been kind to the female gender. Speck did not have enough money for a rooming house, so he dropped his bags off six blocks east at the Manor Shell filling station at 9954 S. Torrence Ave. and slept in an unfinished house just off E. 103rd St.[3][5], On Wednesday, July 13, Speck picked up his bags and checked in at the NMU hiring hall. Michigan authorities also wanted to question him about his whereabouts during the murder of four other females, aged between 7 and 60, as his ship had been in the vicinity at the time. His contacts with the warden included requests for new shirts, a radio, and other mundane items. When 23-year-old Corazon Amurao opened the front door to Speck's knock, he forced his way in at gunpoint. Showing them publicly for the first time before the Illinois state legislature, Kurtis pointed out the explicit scenes of sex, drug use, and money being passed around by prisoners, who seemingly had no fear of being caught; in the center was Speck, performing oral sex on another inmate,[59][60] sharing a large quantity of cocaine with another inmate, parading in silk panties, sporting female-like breasts (allegedly grown using smuggled hormone treatments), and boasting, "If they only knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose. Punishment for such infractions never stopped him. Speck's "final thought for the American people" was, "Just tell 'em to keep up their hatred for me. The judge sentenced Speck to death. [3], Speck later claimed he had no recollection of the murders, but he had confessed the crime to Dr. LeRoy Smith at the Cook County Hospital. [3], Speck worked as a laborer for the 7-Up bottling company in Dallas for almost three years, from 1960 to 1963. [3], Speck stayed with his sister Martha Thornton and her family in Chicago for a few days, and then returned to his boyhood hometown of Monmouth, Illinois, where he initially stayed with some old family friends. Richard Benjamin Speck[1][2] was born to a Jewish family in Kirkwood, Illinois, the seventh of eight children of Benjamin Franklin Speck and Mary Margaret Carbaugh. A total of eight woman, between ages 19 and 24, were systematically bound, robbed, beaten, strangled and stabbed during Speck's frenzy. 23–24: "Ella Mae had obtained the .22 caliber black Rohm pistol for $16 from a mail-order house in West Virginia...and it was delivered to her by parcel post on March 10, 1966". He also described in detail the experience of strangling someone: "It's not like TV ... it takes over three minutes and you have to have a lot of strength. In 1996, videotapes featuring Speck were shown before the Illinois State Legislature to highlight some of the illegal activity that took place in prisons. These attacks, however, paled into insignificance on July 13, 1966, when Speck arrived on the doorstep of a townhouse in South Chicago, which served as a communal home for a group of eight young student nurses from nearby South Chicago Community Hospital. Speck's mother married Lindberg on May 10, 1950, in Palo Pinto, Texas. In 1972, Speck's death sentence was commuted to 50 to 100 years in prison, when the U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment. The police arrived to scenes of carnage, and took Amurao into custody, interviewing her and proceeding with the construction of an Identikit image. They said there was blood all over the place. Merchant Marine might provide a suitable occupation for his unemployed brother-in-law, so on April 25 he took Speck to the U.S. Coast Guard office to apply for a letter of authority to work as an apprentice seaman. [64], Speck's sister feared that his grave would be desecrated, so he does not have a physical resting place. Speck, Lunsford, and another man had been drinking the evening of July 15 on the fire escape of the Starr Hotel at 617 W. Madison. For the following week, Speck stayed at the St. Elmo, an East Side, Chicago flophouse at E. 99th St. & S. Ewing Ave. Speck then traveled by train to Houghton, Michigan, staying at the Douglas House, to visit Judy Laakaniemi, a 28-year-old nurse's aide going through a divorce, whom he had befriended at St. Joseph's Hospital. "[12], In his book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, John E. Douglas of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit refers to a telling prison incident Speck revealed to him in an interview: "he found an injured sparrow that had flown in through one of the broken windows and nursed it back to health. [3], By Monday, July 11, Speck had outstayed his welcome with his sister Martha and her family. His step-father was a traveling salesman with a long criminal record who would drink and verbally abus… [3], On Friday, July 8, 1966, Speck's brother-in-law Gene drove him to the NMU hiring hall to pick up his seaman's card and register for a berth on a ship. 1943) were much younger than their four older sisters and two older brothers. Reader discretion is advised. Dr. Ziporyn spent six and one-half months twice a week from one to three hours visiting with Richard Speck in the Cook County Jail in Chicago learning all he could about the infamous mass murderer. She was reported missing on April 13, and her body was found that day in an empty hog house behind the tavern. At the end of March, while Speck and some acquaintances were on a bar-hopping trip to Gulfport, Illinois they were detained overnight by police there after Speck reportedly threatened a man in a tavern restroom with his knife. It went on to note an obsessive-compulsive personality and a "Madonna-prostitute" attitude towards women. Speck had a tattoo "Born To Raise Hell" on his arm, and he was known by that trademark. She became pregnant after three weeks of dating him. Speck is a classic case of a child born to a dysfunctional family. At 10:30 a.m., he was tired of waiting at the NMU hiring hall for a job. She had died from a blow to her abdomen that ruptured her liver. His father, Benjamin Franklin Speck, died in 1947. Charles "Tex" Watson-disciple of Charles Manson-committed Tate-La Bianca murders-organized killer-found jesus in prison. Richard Loeb is best known for teaming with Nathan Leopold to murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924, with a resulting trial that spared them both the death penalty. One nursing student, a newcomer to the U.S., survived. Speck's father worked as a packer at Western Stoneware in Monmouth and had previously worked as a farmer and logger. His father died when he was six, and he was frequently beaten by his drunken stepfather. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subsequent research failed to substantiate this observation as well. [3], Speck spent the rest of the day drinking in nearby taverns before he accosted Ella Mae Hooper at knifepoint; she was a 53-year-old woman who had spent the day drinking at the same taverns that Speck had patronized. reported that they had found no evidence of significant behavior differences, on average, between men with XYY karyotypes and those with normal genomes, and that XYY males had been unfairly stigmatized by earlier unsupported speculation. We had an eyewitness. He again stated he was high that night, but then he undercut the idea that the drugs were a mitigating factor, asserting he could just as well have "done it sober". Amurao provided authorities with the information they needed to track down Speck, including a description of his “Born to Raise Hell” tattoo. At 11 p.m. on July 13, 1966, Speck broke into the 2319 E. 100th St townhouse in Chicago's Jeffery Manorneighborhood; the townhouse was functioning as a dormitory for student nurses. Ziporyn prepared a discharge summary with depression, anxiety, guilt, and shame among Speck's emotions, but also a deep love for his family. After Speck was arrested for burglary and assault, he fled to Chicago to seek shelter with his sister, Martha, a couple of months later. He was angry for being sent to a non-existent assignment, and he talked for 30 minutes in the car with his sister Martha and her husband Gene, who had driven down to visit him at 9 a.m. Richard Benjamin Speck was born in Kirkwood, Illinois, on December 6, 1941, the seventh of eight children in a religious family. In addition, we have a catalog of tattoo artists, as well as a description of tattoo styles. Horrified, the guard said, 'I thought you liked that bird.' [47][29][48], Despite repeated efforts by Getty,[43] Engel,[24] and others to set the record straight regarding Speck's erroneous association with XYY syndrome, he remains labeled as such in some textbooks, online sites, and other sources.[22][49][50][51][52][53]. [8] Speck held the women in a room for hours, leading them out one by one, stabbing or strangling each to death, then finally raping and strangling his last victim, Gloria Davy. Gene Thornton, who had served in the U.S. Navy, thought that the U.S. However, Dr. Marvin Ziporyn (Richard Speck's psychiatrist) along with Jack Altman have written a gripping account of the case. Fortunately, Amurao remembered the distinctive "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo that, along with the image, enabled police to identify their suspect as Richard Speck. Real Life Horror: Richard Speck and the Nurses’ Dormitory Massacre. Join Facebook to connect with Richard Speck and others you may know. WARNING: This article contains images and descriptions of real crimes and crime scenes. The video's release caused a major scandal within the Illinois Department of Corrections, and was widely cited as justification for the reintroduction of death penalty. He spent a few days there before traveling to Monmouth, Illinois, where he stayed with some family friends from his early childhood. After he committed the murders, Speck went into hiding and tried to commit suicide. Speck was rushed to the hospital, where a doctor called police after identifying him from his BORN TO RAISE HELL tattoo. Nine of the patients, ranging from 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) to 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) height, were found to have an extra Y chromosome, the XYY syndrome. He was arrested on July 17, 1966. In January 1966, Malone filed for divorce. From The Sound of Music to Oklahoma! Speck responded, "Sure I did." "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Ziporyn maintained Speck viewed women as saintly until he felt betrayed by them for some reason, after which hostility developed. He was also diagnosed with organic brain syndrome, resulting from the cerebral injuries suffered earlier in Speck's life, and stated he was competent to stand trial but was insane at the time of the crime due to the effects of alcohol and drug use on his organic brain syndrome. That year, in 1947, his 53-year-old father died from a heart attack. The following evening, he robbed a grocery store, stole 70 cartons of cigarettes, sold them out of the trunk of his car in the grocery store's parking lot, and then abandoned the car. On June 5, Judge Herbert J. Paschen sentenced Speck to die in the electric chair, but granted an immediate stay pending automatic appeal. After a year in Santo, Speck moved with his mother, stepfather, and sister Carolyn to the East Dallas section of Dallas, Texas, living at ten addresses in poor neighborhoods over the next dozen years. [3], One week after his parole, on January 9, 1965, Speck was wielding a 17-inch (43 cm) carving knife when he attacked a woman in the parking lot of her apartment building. When it was healthy enough to stand, he tied a string around its leg and had it perch on his shoulder. John Wayne Gacy, often called the "Killer Clown," was one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history, raping and murdering at least 33 young male victims. "[10] Speck confessed to the murders for the first time in public when he spoke to Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene in 1978. When he left, hours later, taking the money he had stolen, she cowered in her hiding place, terrified, for hours, before finally summoning the courage to seek help. Despite concerns about her ability to testify after her harrowing ordeal, she gave a faultless performance, impressing the jury with every detail of that evening, identifying Speck unequivocally. Speck was not a model prisoner; he was often caught with drugs or distilled moonshine. Speck told them an unbelievable story about having to leave Monmouth after refusing to sell narcotics for a "crime syndicate" there. In mid-afternoon, he received an assignment on Sinclair Oil's tanker SS Sinclair Great Lakes, which was a 30-minute drive away in East Chicago, Indiana. [44][45], In a review article published in the Journal of Medical Genetics in December 1968, Michael Court Brown found no overrepresentation of XYY males in chromosome surveys of Scottish prisons and hospitals for the developmentally and mentally disabled, and suggested that any conclusions drawn from study populations composed solely of institutionalized males were likely distorted by selection bias. Speck's name would become infamous, but the few surviving family members of the nurses want their lives to be celebrated. The man blindfolded her, tied her up, raped her, ransacked her house, and stole the $2.50 she had earned babysitting that evening. When Mr. Speck died of a heart attack in 1947 at the age of 53, R… At this sign, the attending physician paid attention immediately and reported his patient to the police. [3], Dr. Ziporyn did not testify for the defense or the prosecution, as both sides were troubled to learn before the trial that Ziporyn was writing a book about Speck for financial gain. Speck was taken to Cook County Hospital at 12:30 a.m. on July 17. When asked why, Speck shrugged and jokingly said, "It just wasn't their night." "[59] The Illinois legislature packed the auditorium to view the two-hour video,[59] but stopped the screening when the tape showed Speck performing oral sex on another man. Have you found Richard Speck Tattoos information? On June 27, after Judy gave him $80 to help him until he found work, Speck left to again stay with his sister Martha and her family in Chicago for the next two weeks. [14] In court, Speck was positively identified by the sole surviving student nurse, Corazon Amurao. Media coverage splashed Speck's image all over the front pages and, in a desperate bid to escape, Speck tried to commit suicide on July 19, 1966, by slashing his wrists in the seedy hotel he was staying in. Ziporyn also earned the ire of the Cook County Jail, which fired him as its part-time psychiatrist the week after Speck's trial ended. "How am I going to get in trouble? This story will attempt to go beyond the sensationalism of the crime, and attempt to understand the mind of this violent , disturbed man. He was the seventh of eight children and raised in a religious family. In 1967, Speck was tried and convicted of all eight murders. From his teenage years spent drunk and in and out of jail, to his years moving across Illinois and causing issues in a variety of cities, Speck has been terrorizing the state for years. He fled when the woman screamed. 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