Richard Speck has become notorious as a mass murderer. Having been too fond of the bottle (and drugs) he was in trouble long before murdering a house full of student nurses in 1966. Before that night, he had been arrested nearly 40 times for everything from burglary to assault with a deadly weapon.
Speck was a merchant seaman. On July 13, 1966, he was in Chicago and about to ship out to New Orleans. He spent the day drinking and popping pills while gazing at women coming in and out of Jeffrey Manor (a town house for local student nurses).
At 11 p.m. he knocked on the door. Student Corazon Amurao, 23, opened the door. Brandishing a gun and demanding money, Speck forced his way inside. He herded her and the other five student nurses into one room. One by one they were sent to get their purses. He was disappointed when their collective cash barely topped $100.
They were all ordered to lie on the floor and were bound with ripped bed sheets. Three more unfortunate student nurses came home and were given the same treatment.
One by one, he led the girls into different bedrooms and killed them. Some were stabbed, some strangled, and others had their throat cut. The last girl, Gloria Davy, was given extra attention. She was raped and sodomized before being strangled.
Thinking his work was done, Richard Speck went his own way, unknowing that he had made a grievous error. He actually lost count of his victims, and didn’t notice that Corazon Amurao was hiding under a bed. She hid for several hours, then called for help.
Amurao’s description, numerous fingerprints, and knots in the bedsheets quickly led police to Richard Speck. He was in Cook County Hospital having just attempted suicide. He claimed to have no memory of the attack, and that he was so surprised to hear his name announced on the radio in connection with the crimes that he was driven to suicide. A Dr. Smith recognized him and asked him his name. He identified himself as Richard Speck and asked if the doctor would collect the $10,000 reward currently being offered. He was arrested at the hospital.
Richard Speck was originally given the death penalty. However, that sentence was later reduced to several hundred years worth of consecutive life terms. He was denied parole several times and died of a heart attack on December 5, 1991 in Joliet Prison.
Sources:
The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers; Schechter, Harold and Everitt, David; Pocket Books, 2006.
The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings; Steiger, Brad; Visible Ink Press, 1999.
The Encyclopedia of Mass Murder; Lane, Brian and Gregg, Wilfred; Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2004.
