richard speck interview
Dr. John Schmale found a box of old slides in his waterlogged basement and opened a flood of memories. There's no question that Richard Speck lived a very troubled life from an early age. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. In March of 1978, during an interview I had with him inside the walls of Stateville, Speck confessed for the first time to murdering the eight young women in 1966. In that small room, with its linoleum floor and overhead light, Suzie taught him how to make a grilled cheese sandwich and how, if you mixed sour cream and dry onion soup mix, presto, you had French onion dip. The American student nurses and the exchange nurses never grew close, but from the outset they were friendly. Through the end of spring and on into summer, Tina and her Filipina friends were sometimes spotted walking to a nearby shopping center, and they took occasional field trips, but they spent a lot of their nonworking time in the townhouse, frequently writing letters home. Books, documentaries, countless news stories, a 2007 film called "Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck" were dedicated to the so-called crime of the century. He has found another way as well to hang on to his sister's hopeful spirit. That is no comfort to the families of his victims. Speck was the seventh of eight children. Not only had they been allowed a slumber party with their mother, but their big sister who was about to graduate from nursing school was coming home for good the next day. ''I burned that tattoo off with a cigarette. Tammy Siouchoff remembers life with her fellow students before six of them and two visiting nurseswere murdered in a neighboring townhouse on Chicago's South Side in 1966. 5 Things To Know About Richard Speck | Crime History | Investigation He told me that he drank moonshine and took barbiturates in his prison cell. "It was almost like he had five boys," said Lori Davy Sivek, who is now 61 and teaches eighth-grade science and technology in a Houston suburb. On Aug. 7, 1966, when Lori Davy, 11, walked across the stage to accept her sister's diploma, her father's orders were fresh in her mind. They`re violent players. He told Greene one of his pleasures in prison was "getting high." It hurt to see Nina in her yellow swimsuit he thought back to the Life magazine photo after the murders that showed it hanging on a rod in her bedroom but it also made him glad, glad to be reminded of who his sister was before death defined her. The murders continue to have a profound impact on American crime and American society, Martin said. Lori realized it was time to tell the truth. Mary Ann Jordanin her nursing uniform in an undated photo. Gloria Davy jokes around in the South Side townhouse that was used as a dormitory for student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital, circa 1966. Just a few glimpses of the video have been shown (in the A&E) documentary about Richard. I`d never shot heroin before. The book is a detailed account of the months before the crime and ends with the drama of the trial. Schmale was a student nurse at South Chicago Community Hospital. "Don't hate," she told them. ''Because any kid can end up to be like me. Nina was 19 when she announced to her family, "I'm going to nursing school.". At Thornton Fractional South High School, she attended almost every basketball and football game with her closest girlfriends, but she didn't play sports. By the time Pat was 5, she had another best friend, also named Arlene Arlene Kubasek and through the years the three girls laughed a lot together. In one of the slides that her brother recovered from the basement, a young man crouches next to the Bel Air, washing the whitewalls, smiling for the camera. On the night of the crime, 24-year-old Speck snuck into a townhouse in Chicago where the nurses lived. Atienza was the states key witness when Martin prosecuted Speck in the 1967 trial. There was also Billy. On the night of July 13, 1966, she was in bed when a commotion erupted. She loved swimming, ice skating and softball. The townhouse Gloria shared with the other student nurses was often a mess, so she sometimes paid her little sister a dollar or two to clean. Videos by Chicago Tribune's Chris Walker. Cook County Assistant States Attorney William Martin, left, watches as witness Corazon Amurao uses a scale model of the townhouse crime scene to detail the murder of eight nurses by Richard Speck, center background, during Specks 1966 trial in Peoria, Ill. (R.K. Davidson). His horrifying violence had made him a murderous celebrity on the level of John Dillinger. She teaches her students about them and what they meant in both countries. 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 sister and seven of her fellow student nurses and nurseswere murdered 50years ago in one of Chicagos darkest crimes. William Martin, shown April 22, 2016, in his Oak Park law office, was the lead prosecutor in the Richard Speck mass murder case. A few years ago, he ran into an old family friend and she told him a story he'd never heard, about how when she was in high school and couldn't afford a prom dress, Suzie made her one. But before she was gone, she placed four carousels of slides neatly in a box. The eight nurses killed by Richard Speck on July 14, 1966, in Chicago were, top from left, Gloria Davy, Suzanne Farris, Merlita Gargullo and Mary Ann Jordan. A total of eight woman, between ages 19 and 24, were systematically bound, robbed, beaten, strangled and stabbed during Speck's frenzy. This important Mindhunter moment didn't happen in real life - Digital Spy We kind of lost her, Lori said. Gloria Davy was the second of six siblings, born in the same hospital where she eventually studied nursing, raised not far from the townhouse where she died. Another sister wired the news to their father in their hometown. "What she did that night, very few human beings would have the courage to do. Wednesday, July 13, began as an ordinary day. Guarded by detectives, Corazon Amurao arrives at the courthouse in Peoria to testify as the state's chief witness against Richard Speck on April 5, 1967. Her brother, John Farris, still carries the photo and prayer card in his wallet 50 years later. Speck was captured two days later when an emergency room doctor at Cook County Hospital thought a patient he was treating for self-inflicted gashes looked familiar. He opened it. I like him. The kitchen is where he and Suzie shared lunch, usually made by their dad, who worked afternoons while their mother worked days. Life, though not idyllic, felt safe. She also had a hard time believing he actually died of a heart attack in prison in 1991 and wonders why she was spared. Pat asked. Gloria's brother and three of her sisters are still alive. The children suffered considerable abuse at the hands of their drunken stepfather, and Speck's childhood was marked by juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, which soon led to petty crime. I watched `Magnum Force` the other night. Born on December 6, 1941a day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that dragged the US into World War IIRichard Benjamin Speck was born in rural Illinois, the seventh of eight children. The police arrived to scenes of carnage, and took Amurao into custody, interviewing her and proceeding with the construction of an Identikit image. On this day, Amurao personally identified Speck as the killer. The eight nurses killed by Richard Speck on July 14, 1966, in Chicago were, top from left, Gloria Davy, Suzanne Farris, Merlita Gargullo and Mary Ann Jordan. The doctor had just had a. But any kid can end up just like me.''. I want you to look at her eyes.". It was a world of hair curlers, hair spray cans, ashtrays, manual typewriters, textbooks, sheath dresses, corsages, cluttered rooms, a place where young women laughed, hugged, studied, ate, teased each other's hair. Mary Ann brought her Irish humor, her sense of duty and her talent for friendship to nursing school and to the townhouse on East 100th Street. She wanted to make her sister look like her sister, Kubasek said, choking up on the word sister., Student nurses Patricia Matusek, left, and Suzanne Farris, circa 1966. Lori Davy, center, accepts a nursing school diploma on behalf of her slain sister, Gloria Davy, at a ceremony at McCormick Place in 1966. Two officials at the Consulate General of the Philippines in Chicago, when asked recently about the Filipina nurses, weren't familiar with the crime. When 23-year-old Corazon Amurao opened the front door to Speck's knock, he forced his way in at gunpoint. ''What`s that dude who played in `Shaft`? He proceeded to brutalize them in the most horrific fashion over the following few hours. Kubasek recalled one day not long ago, sitting with her old friend Arlene Baskys. Secretary. (Schmale family ). "It ended an innocence we all had,'' Martin said. Schmale was a student nurse at South Chicago Community Hospital. Dr. John Schmale found a box of old slides in his waterlogged basement and opened a flood of memories. Richard Benjamin Speck (December 6, 1941 - December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who killed eight student nurses in their South Deering, Chicago, residence via stabbing, strangling, slashing their throats, or a combination of the three on the night of July 13-14, 1966. "She gets out of the car, slams the door and found out from the guy where we are and how to get home from there.". By July of 1966, however, Mary Ann, 20, had moved out of the townhouse and back into the family bungalow. Indiana authorities wanted to interview Speck regarding the murder of three girls who had vanished on July 2, 1966, and whose bodies were never found. Elmhurst Blotter: Man charged with battery for allegedly punching a security guard at a bar, Hinsdale police blotter: multiple thefts reported by patients at Hinsdale Hospital, Glenview police blotter: Harwood Heights woman charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Rode the hospital shuttle back to the townhouse. In the townhouse, she was known to sing while doing the dishes or the laundry. When Farris thinks about growing up with Suzie, he thinks about the kitchen. He keeps the photo in a plastic pouch, tucked next to the prayer card from her funeral. ''), the rest of the conversation was sickeningly mesmerizing. Jack Wilkening, brother of Pamela Wilkening, remembers his sister and the days surrounding her 1966 murder along with seven other student nurses and nurseson Chicago'sSouth Side. Best Known For: In 1966, Richard Speck committed one of the most horrifying mass murders in American history when he brutalized and killed eight student nurses living on Chicago's South Side. Atienza visits the Philippines every three years to see relatives. Martin and Dennis Breo are co-authors of a 1993 book called "The Crime of the Century." Many, like Schmale, have boxes of photos and mementos they've never opened. But any kid can end up just like me.'' When. And it turned out that it reopened her life. Susan is 3. Fortunately, Amurao remembered the distinctive "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo that, along with the image, enabled police to identify their suspect as Richard Speck. 'Mindhunter': How the Real Serial Killers Compare to Show's - Insider In 1978, though, I spent two hours with him at Stateville Prison, having a conversation he later said he wished he hadn`t agreed to. Too tired. Pat was born in 1945, the year World War II ended, to Joe and Bessie Matusek, both of Czech descent. They were excited. Their married bliss was short-lived, however, and Speck's reversion to type landed him a jail sentence for theft and check fraud, in 1963. There's another kind of sealed box many of them have carried around as well. Another time, according to a different news account, Tina wrote her sister saying she wished she could live in Chicago forever. Lori didn't cry. Though she rarely talked to her two children about what happened, she made sure her sister Pat lived on through her daughter, to whom she gave the name Patricia Ann. Him and Eastwood and Bronson. Richard Speck attack survivor: 'Somebody up there was hiding me from After she married and had three children, she told her kids that Aunt Gloria had died in a car crash. She knew before she was officially told: Pat was dead. Her mother, Bessie, passed away in 2005. There she joined two other Filipina exchange nurses, Merlita Gargullo and Corazon Amurao, who had arrived a few days earlier. They opened the door. She worked at the hospital from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Like the other Filipina nurses, she sent money home. Her family her father, John, a pipe fitter; her mother, Lena, a homemaker born in Germany; and her only sibling, Jack lived in a small, one-story brick Cape Cod on Commercial Avenue. At South Chicago Community Hospital she earned $350 a month, much of which she sent back to the Philippines, and, like the other exchange nurses, she wrote a lot of letters. After it was aired on TV, Wilkening obtained a copy of the video. Come spend the night at the townhouse, Suzanne suggested to Mary Ann. Kubasek said no. All of the bedrooms were upstairs, and none had a phone. His little sister. It may be difficult for those who weren't alive half a century ago to understand how profoundly Speck's crime shook the city, how far the ripples ran through time and space. Richard Speck captured the nation's attention during the summer of 1966 after murdering eight female students who lived together on Chicago's South Side. She walked off the stage, shoulders back, carrying a diploma dated July 14, 1966. It was around dawn when she made her way to an upstairs window. The body count was so high that he failed to notice that Amurao, who had opened the door for him on his arrival, had managed to hide herself under one of the beds. He instantly recognized his mother's cursive handwriting. The knocking was done in a normal manner, she would later testify. ''I stay up at night as long as it takes me to fall asleep or pass out from the hooch or from whatever we have at the time.''. Martin and Atienza kept in contact as Martin collaborated with author Dennis Breo, updating the book "Crime of the Century," about the Speck murder case. Richard Speck Serial Killer Documentary - YouTube He has made sure that his niece, who is the keeper of the old family cookie jar, knows why she can't get rid of it. He couldnt identify everyone he saw, but at the photo of the familiar woman in the familiar yellow two-piece bathing suit, he felt his heart clench. The old hospital is now called Advocate Trinity. Subscribe. The judge sentenced Speck to death. "A lot of people will be here shortly. Lori has come to believe that Gloria's death prepared her to handle anything, and to see, in some useful ways, the possibility of death in everything. Corazon Amurao Atienza has moved on with her life and wants to be happy every day. She was petrified of Speck but had the courage to step down from the witness stand, walk up to him and point her finger 2 inches from his forehead. He was referring to letters he received in his prison cell every week from women-female admirers who, he said, wanted to correspond with him. Lori Davy Sivek remembers her sister Gloria Davy, one of eight student nurses and nurses murdered together 50years ago on Chicago'sSouth Side. Not long afterward, Arline Davy, sitting on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, made an announcement to her daughters. "The Nurse Killer" Richard Benjamin Speck - Happy Scribe Grief will always be tangled in that youthful happiness. She rang the bell. '', He said that if he were ever paroled, and someone annoyed him, ''I`ll be back in prison. During one of Pam's shifts, a patient slugged her. Ate an early supper with Merlita and Tina. 1. The day of her sister's death had been recorded as her graduation day. I don`t know why it happened to me. It took Nina a while to choose nurse. News item: Another Speck parole hearing at Stateville Correctional Center. In 1972, Speck's death sentence was commuted to 50 to 100 years in prison, when the U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment. William Martin was the lead prosecutor for Speck's trial. We were just totally out of our minds.''. Photo: Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images, G. Gordon Liddys Wild Career After Watergate, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Richard Speck, Birth Year: 1941, Birth date: December 6, 1941, Birth State: Illinois, Birth City: Kirkwood, Birth Country: United States. In court, Speck was positively identified by the sole surviving student nurse, Cora Amurao. Tina, as her family called her, had graduated the year before among the top 10 nursing students in her class at Manila Central University. On July 15, 1966, the Chicago Tribune's front page reported the news with the headline "Search for Mass Slayer." The murders happened in a townhouse in the 2300 block of East 100th Street that served as housing for student nurses who worked at South Chicago Community Hospital. `Parents ought to be careful about their kids,'' Richard Speck said. Student nurses Suzanne Farris, left, and Mary Ann Jordan are shown in their townhouse,circa 1966. She has looked at the Facebook page Schmale started as part of the commemoration for the nurses, a place for trading stories and photos, though she doesn't linger. What he did, however, is known, because Cora, a 4-foot-10 nurse from the land of the concealed knife, escaped his sight at one point and hid under one bed, then another, until he was gone. Q. Peter McNamee washes the 1957 Chevrolet owned by his girlfriend, Nina Jo Schmale, whom he planned to marry after graducation, circa 1966. Its why he wants a 50th anniversary commemoration that reclaims all the womens names, all their lives. Episode #1.9: Directed by David Fincher. Speck is the character who, while being interviewed by Ford and Tench, tosses a pet bird into a fan. Suzie was lucky. In 1965 she became president of the Student Nurses Association of Illinois. He'd turned on the TV news in Pennsylvania. I was gonna get that tattoo removed. The Mystery Novelist Who Committed a Real Murder, Boston Marathon Bombings Survivors, 10 Years Later, A Complete Timeline of Adnan Syeds Trial, Release. From early childhood, she connected with him in a unique way, and he was why she wanted to specialize in pediatric nursing. There was a man with a gun in the house. Richard Speck - Video, Tattoo & Daughter Cook County Assistant States Attorney William Martin, left, watches as witness Corazon Amurao uses a scale model of the townhouse crime scene to detail the murder of eight nurses by Richard Speck, center background, during Specks 1966 trial in Peoria, Ill. Pamela Wilkening, left, Mary Ann Jordan, right, and Suzanne Farris, second from right, are shown with other student nurses having fun with a South Chicago Community Hospital School of Nursing banner, circa 1966. He watched it once and hurled it into a corner. In the townhouse's unofficial sorority, Pam was the quiet one. On some summer days, because it gives him a warm feeling he can't entirely explain, he drives around, top down, in a car he bought a few years ago. "He is not going to harm you," the voice said. ''You`re talking about two different categories of people,'' Speck said. In the video, Speck also casually admits to the killing of the nurses, describing the strangulations in some detail, and bragging about the strength required to kill someone in this manner. Shes in her nurses uniform, gazing down. One of her sisters would later say the delay may have been a sign that "God didn't want her to leave.". (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune). Her childhood resume wasn't flashy. He told Greene one of his pleasures in prison was "getting high." When Greene asked him if he compared himself to celebrity . It was the kind of neighborhood where kids walked everywhere and went home for lunch, though Pat took sandwiches to school because her mother worked during the day while her father, who ran the bar at night, slept. Nursing school exposed Pam and her classmates to life's wide range of joy and trouble. The United States needed nurses, and Filipinas helped relieve the shortage. In the basement's dim overhead light, a big, brown cardboard box caught his eye, a box so soggy its bottom was ready to fall out. It reinforced his sense of mission and its urgency. "I don't believe this," Schmale said to his wife on that day half a. William Martin, shown April 22, 2016, in his Oak Park law office, was the lead prosecutor in the Richard Speck mass murder case. Rare photos, interviews honor 8 nurses slain by Richard Speck in 1966 So you could say that from the beginning, Richard, Speck's life was stained with violence even after the war was over. I had that put on me when I was 14 or 15. Before then, he had been responsible for other acts of violence against his family and others but had a knack for escaping the police. In this interview, Speck confessed to the murders for the first time publicly and said he thought he would get out of prison "between now and the year 2000", at which time he hoped to run his own grocery store business. Where Is Acquitted Murderer Candy Montgomery Now? His sister and seven of her fellow student nurses and nurseswere murdered 50years ago in one of Chicagos darkest crimes. He unearthed his ancient 35 mm slide projector, marveled that the bulb still worked and began projecting images on a wall. It's where Suzie taught him, as a 10-year-old, to play solitaire. Chicago was chilly, with a trace of snow, on May 9, 1966, when Tina's plane landed hardly the steamy weather she had known in Jones, a town 240 miles from Manila, where she grew up with five siblings. "She was kind of your average good kid who was really dedicated to being a caregiver.". Police, cameras, gawkers were everywhere, and someone said something about "the bodies.". Their mother eventually forgave Richard Speck and urged her children to do the same. Her brother Phil, who lost both his sister and his fiancee on that July night, died at 64. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}G. Gordon Liddys Wild Career After Watergate. Tina was known as a good cook. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune). Baskys says that for a while she slept with a flashlight or a knife, but eventually, determined not to raise her children in fear, went through five years of therapy to retrain her thinking. On the 50th anniversary of the murders, he remembers Corazon's bravery in court. Richard Speck | American murderer | Britannica Merlita Gargullo, left, one of eight nurses slain by Richard Speck, gets a goodbye kiss from her aunt, Ancia Anyayahan, as she left Manila for the United States. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Girl Scout. He's still searching for the words to explain to his three children who his sister was, what happened to her. Among the mourners standing in the drizzle was an older, bareheaded man from Mindoro. After the death of his father when Speck was six, his mother remarried, moving the family to Dallas, Texas. For those girls, and for their families, and for me. A doting mother and grandmother, she enjoys baby-sitting her grandchildren about twice a week and the constant companionship of her children. ''I know it keeps up their morale. The close quarters helped turn most of the women into close friends, and for all their dedication and discipline, they loved pranks. On April 15, after 49 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Speck guilty and recommended the death penalty.
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