My first recollection of a violent crime happened in 1966. I remember hearing a news report about eight student nurses in Illinois being murdered. I was ten at the time and couldn’t imagine how, and more importantly why someone would kill eight women. If you don’t remember this case, on July 13, 1966. An unknown assailant broke into a townhouse used as a dormitory for nursing students in Chicago and murdered eight of the nine women staying at the house. The sole survivor had rolled under a bed and hidden. So how did such a heinous crime take place?

The killer, Richard Speck was a high school dropout who first started drinking at age twelve and logged his first arrested at age thirteen. Most likely an alcoholic, he racked up dozens of arrests during the next eight years. At age twenty-one, he was caught and convicted of forgery and burglary and sentenced to three years in prison. He didn’t even serve half his sentence before he was paroled. A week later, he attacked a woman with a carving knife and was thrown back into prison on an aggravated assault charge with a sixteen-month sentence to run concurrently with a parole violation. Through an error, he was released just six months later.

He held a job as a truck driver where he had six accidents in his truck within three months. In a bar brawl, he stabbed a man in a knife fight. Again, he was charged with aggravated assault, but his lawyer got the charge reduced to disturbing the peace. He was held in jail for three days after not paying his $10 fine.

In March 1966, Speck burglarized a grocery store in Texas. The police issued a warrant for his arrest, but not wanting to go to jail for his 42nd time, his sister drove him to a bus station where he took a bus to Chicago, Illinois.

During the next few months, Speck raped a 65-year-old woman, ransacked her house and took the $2.50 she’d earned babysitting earlier in the evening.

Speck’s sister and brother-in-law tried to help him get work as a seaman at the National Maritime Union. Speck received an assignment on an oil tanker, but when he arrived, he found that his spot had already been taken.

The next week, a barmaid at a bar that Speck frequented was discovered dead. She’d died from a blow to her abdomen that had ruptured her liver. The police questioned Speck and asked him to stay in town for further questioning. When the police went to question him again, they discovered he’d left a few hours earlier. He’d left behind evidence from the rape of the 65-year-old woman, and other burglaries.

Speck spent the rest of the day in bars, where he met a 53-year-old woman. He took her back to his room, raped her, and stole her small pistol.

From there he went drinking and left…wearing all black, armed with a switchblade, and the handgun.

Speck broke into the dormitory where he tied up and held eight women for hours. He would lead them out one by one and strangle and/or stab them to death. Three of the victims had come home during the crime and were immediately killed. It was during the unexpected arrival of another victim that one of the bound nurses was able to roll under a bed. She figured that Speck must have lost count of how many women he had captured and tied up. That victim stayed hidden until hours after Speck had left. She was the only survivor.

Days later, Speck attempted to commit suicide at a hotel and was taken to the hospital. He was captured, when the doctor treating him recognized a tattoo that had been reported in the newspaper. What was the tattoo? The words: Born To Raise Hell.

Speck was sentenced to life in prison. In 1996 a news anchor received video tapes made at the prison in 1988. Those video tapes showed Speck and other inmates having sex, using drugs, and displaying a vast amount of money with no fear of being caught. Speck was seen in the video wearing women’s panties and flaunting female-like breasts (thought to be the result of smuggled hormone treatments). You can see and hear Richard Speck in prison in the link below.

**WARNING** – The video shows drug use, profanity, and other images that some people might find disturbing. 

See Richard Speck in Prison

Speck died from a heart attack on December 5, 1991, the eve of his 50th birthday.

For me, this crime stole my innocence. I remember right after the murders I was afraid the killer would come to our house and slay me. Unfortunately, as I grew up, I learned there were people in the world who would and could kill without motivation—and it wasn’t the only time in my life where I’d see such depravity.

Until next time…remain vigilant,

KMA 367