richard speck interview
Soon after he was born, the family moved to Monmouth, Illinois. 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. William Martin, shown April 22, 2016, in his Oak Park law office, was the lead prosecutor in the Richard Speck mass murder case. Student nurses Suzanne Farris, left, and Mary Ann Jordan are shown in their townhouse,circa 1966. Nurse. They could talk about the wedding. They shoved their beds edge to edge in a single room and lay there at night listening to the newly hired security guard's shoes click along the hallway tiles. Jordan Morin, who was 15 when Mary Ann died, has never before spoken publicly about her sister's death, and she doesn't talk easily about it now. Astrological Sign: Sagittarius, Death Year: 1991, Death date: December 5, 1991, Death State: Illinois, Death City: Joliet, Death Country: United States, Article Title: Richard Speck Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/richard-speck, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: December 1, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. (Schmale family ). Amurao had arrived the previous day to identify the killer in person, but Speck was not well enough. In the years that followed, Siouchoff, 70, distanced herself from everything and everyone involved with that awful night. She worked part time at a bakery. She loved swimming, ice skating and softball. If you asked Mary Ann where she was from, she'd give a classic South Side answer, naming not her neighborhood but her parish, Our Lady of Peace. I`m freakish.''. "She did well with other people in situations that you're not necessarily in control of," Farris said, "which I think is a good skill for nursing.". With her salary, she paid tuition for college night classes downtown, after which she commuted home to 111th Street and Avenue E. Eventually she enrolled in nursing school, and though it wasn't a field she had dreamed of as a girl, she had a knack. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune). A photo shows four of the eight slain student nurses at South Chicago Community Hospital, circa 1966. Richard Speck once remarked that the day after he was born, all hell broke loose. "When Merlita (Gargullo) cooked adobo filipino and pancit and they came home from the hospital and smelled the food and they say 'it's good' so we invited them to join us to eat, and they really like it. One victim was also raped prior to her murder. Finding no one there, he marched them back upstairs. Ate an early supper with Merlita and Tina. The old hospital is now called Advocate Trinity. I watch her comedy show. They opened the door. But she came with a coveted distinction: She had a car, and not just any car, a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible in pale yellow "Colonial Cream," a gift from her father, who could barely afford it and who himself drove a run-down pickup truck. "It ended an innocence we all had,'' Martin said. In the Davy family, according to Lori, grieving openly for Gloria was considered weakness, especially by her father, the military man. 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. "I don't believe this," Schmale said to his wife on that day half a century later, gazing inside the box. "I just would have liked her to see the kids," he said, and he cried. I like him. Among Pam's favorite pleasures was watching Jack, who was seven years older, race cars. He has remained in contact with her all these years. Fortunately, Amurao remembered the distinctive "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo that, along with the image, enabled police to identify their suspect as Richard Speck. A. I screamed there for about five minutes and nothing. What a waste that Nina and her friends weren't able to give the world everything they had to give, or enjoy its pleasures. He thinks of his sister every day. The Richard Speck massacre: 50 years later - ABC7 Chicago Subsequent nationwide enquiries also raised the other incidents in which Speck was suspected, as well as his criminal record. She worked her regular shift. Growing up, Nina pronounced "Nigh-nah" was a good student, well-liked, quiet but with a sense of humor. So was pregnancy. A photo that appeared in Life magazine after the murders shows her sitting with three of her housemates. His sister and seven of her fellow student nurses and nurseswere murdered 50years ago in one of Chicagos darkest crimes. Corazon Amurao, center, the nurse who survived the massacre of eight of her fellow student nurses, walks between another nurse and William Ruddel, Bridewell jail superintendent, from Bridewell's Cermak Memorial Hospital after a second visit to the building where Richard Speck was being held on July 19, 1966. Speck is played by Jack Erdie on "Mindhunter." Netflix/AP Speck is one of the later interviewees in "Mindhunter." He was a high-school dropout and alcoholic by age 15. Atienza visits the Philippines every three years to see relatives. Betty Jo had one more request. They were excited. Richard Speck attack survivor: 'Somebody up there was hiding me from It was small and nothing fancy: One bathroom and three bedrooms upstairs. Patricia Matusek was murdered along with five fellow nursing students and two visiting nurses in 1966 on Chicago'sSouth Side. Her mother, Bessie, passed away in 2005. Lori would ride her bike over, do the dishes, pick up the clothes scattered around the living room. "Well," she wrote, "it was a fine, dizzying, exciting and wonderful weekend, but I still believe there is no place like home.". According to news accounts published at the time, Merlita, 23, was quiet, shy, hardworking, efficient, pretty and blessed with a rich singing voice. The first floor consisted of a living room, a powder room and a kitchen. 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. She roller-skated in the basement of the family's three-bedroom bungalow. Their father was a cement finisher descended from Germans. Richard Benjamin Speck (December 6, 1941 - December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who systematically tortured, raped, and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital on July 13, 1966. When Speck realizes he's being played, he. Girls, we need to clean the house.". He told me that he drank moonshine and took barbiturates in his prison cell. Two officials at the Consulate General of the Philippines in Chicago, when asked recently about the Filipina nurses, weren't familiar with the crime. Cora has gone on to have a life that appears normal. 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. The next time he saw her, her body was on a gurney behind a window in the coroners office. I had that put on me when I was 14 or 15. In 1965 she became president of the Student Nurses Association of Illinois. Among the mourners standing in the drizzle was an older, bareheaded man from Mindoro. 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. Speck's trial began on April 3, 1967, and his claim that he had no recollection of the eight murders committed placed Corazon Amurao in the spotlight as the star witness. It was Gloria, 22, calling from the townhouse to say that her fiance had just dropped her off. After several minutes, they heard a female voice urging them to come out. Secretary. If you live your life in hatred and anger, you'll lose more than Gloria. For years, Pam's name, along with those of her housemates, was in the paper two or three times a week, or so it seemed to Jack, and always attached to the name of the man who killed her. Richard Speck | The Chicago Nurse Killer - YouTube Corazon Amurao, center, the nurse who survived the massacre of eight of her fellow student nurses, walks between another nurse and William Ruddel, Bridewell jail superintendent, from Bridewell's Cermak Memorial Hospital after a second visit to the building where Richard Speck was being held on July 19, 1966. Nursing school exposed Pam and her classmates to life's wide range of joy and trouble. Stewardess. With a rush of excitement and a pang of dread, he read her penciled note: "Nina South Chicago Hospital.". I watch. 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. But she still can't stand the smell of roses. On this day, Amurao personally identified Speck as the killer. After graduating from Far Eastern University in Manila, she worked for a couple of years as a staff nurse, then applied for work in the United States. According to a 1966 Life magazine story, Tina often mentioned money in her letters. Their father, John, had attended seminary, changed his mind about the priesthood and married a young woman, Mary, who had grown up three blocks from him. Rare photos, interviews honor 8 nurses slain by Richard Speck in 1966 Corazon Amurao Atienza has moved on with her life and wants to be happy every day. They'd see each other Friday, go hang out on Rush Street on the Gold Coast. Only Cora would survive. In the bedroom she shared with Cora Amurao, Merlita slept on the bottom bunk. She liked clothes, and since the family didn't have a lot of money, she made her own. Speck, asked how many lovers he has had in prison, responded that he can't count that high. her daughter asked. But I ended up in jail before I could keep the appointment.'' The American student nurses and the exchange nurses never grew close, but from the outset they were friendly. ''I`m in here for 1,200 years. Report a correction or typo . The kitchen is where he and Suzie shared lunch, usually made by their dad, who worked afternoons while their mother worked days. "He is not going to harm you," the voice said. Sat down to write letters. Come spend the night at the townhouse, Suzanne suggested to Mary Ann. Its a typical 1950s school photograph, small, black-and-white, cropped with pinking shears, showing Suzie at about 10, wearing what looks like her Brownie uniform. 29. . 'Mindhunter' Episode 9 Recap: Born to Raise Hell | Decider Mary Ann is 8. She appreciates every day of life and wants to be happy all the time, because life is not long, Martin said she told him recently. Merlita's father. ", "But work is easier than in the Philippine Islands," she continued, "only the patients are as big as water buffalo.". Lori tries to live by her mother's words. Her father, Charles, was a former Marine who expected as much from his five daughters as he did from his son. 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. Then I screamed for help. 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. I`d never shot heroin before. Richard Roundtree? "She wasn't the prom queen or the valedictorian," her brother recalled. What made headlines about the interview was Speck`s confession, after years of proclaiming his innocence, that he had, indeed, done the murders: ''Yeah, I killed them. The last time John Farris saw Suzie, 21, he had just come home from a track meet, carrying his victory medals, and she was visiting with her boyfriend, Phil. She was too hot. ''A lot of them send pictures,'' Speck told me. He spent the rest of his life in prison until he died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 49. He committed several violent crimes against his family as a teenager and young man before he became a mass murderer at the age of 25. He plays a lot of solitaire. "It was just awful," Siouchoff said. Nina. It was around dawn when she made her way to an upstairs window. Not long afterward, Arline Davy, sitting on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, made an announcement to her daughters. Merlita grew up on the island of Mindoro where bananas, rice and coconut grow. During the summers she accompanied Billy to nearby Rainbow Beach, splashed with him in the water, hugged him a lot, made him laugh, a boisterous laugh he copied from her. "What do I have here?". He remembers that after she died, when the mourners came, their father wept and moaned, Cooky, Cooky, Cooky., Suzanne Farris, left, and Gloria Davy pose at the dinner table, circa 1966. Richard Benjamin Speck was an American mass murderer who killed eight student nurses in their South Deering, Chicago residence on the night of July 13-14, 19. Their mother, of English and Czech stock, stayed at home to take care of her children. Mary Ann Jordanin her nursing uniform in an undated photo. It was a close-knit community where almost no one locked their doors. 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. The student nurses' white and pale-gray uniforms had to be strictly starched, their crisp white caps perfectly placed a tough trick on bouffant hair. In the early 1900s, Grace Jordan was a high-ranking surgical nurse at the University of Michigan, and the stories of her accomplishments made Mary Ann think she could be a nurse too. (Schmale family ). The following stories, accompanied by Schmale's photos and a few others, are a glimpse of who they were and how their deaths have marked the people who remain to remember them. Asked if she recognized the killer, she stepped off the stand and pointed: Since then she has rarely spoken to the media, though in a 1970 court hearing she described her fear of the night, of being alone, of a knock on a door. In winter they went sledding. Speck'S High Life Shouldn'T Have Been a Shock I don`t know why it happened to me. Speck opens up, admitting for the first time that he only sexually assaulted one of the women during his spree. Bill Kurtis obtained the tape through an anonymous lawyer, his production company paid 5K for it back in the 90's. Speck's father, to whom he had been deeply attached . She was not the same person. Merlita was considered quiet, shy, hardworking, efficient, pretty and blessed with a rich singing voice. After that day, Arline Davy was different. 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. Nursing students were under strict rules during the 1960s, but still they found time for fun. News item: Speck's death sentence reversed. For a short time he was a carpenter, but soon he was in trouble again: 65-year-old Virgil Harris was viciously raped and robbed in her own home on April 2, 1966, and on April 13 a barmaid in his local tavern, Mary Kay Pierce, was brutally beaten to death. They are young and together and happy. 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. Clicking from slide to slide, Schmale stepped into his sister's vanished world. ''What`s that dude who played in `Shaft`? We kind of lost her, Lori said. I asked him if he wasn`t afraid of getting in trouble for talking about the contraband he kept in his cell. Another sister wired the news to their father in their hometown. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. I screamed for about 20 minutes. Netflix's 'Mindhunter': All the Real Serial Killers, From Ed - Newsweek (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune). Criminal files Serial Killers - Richard Speck - video Dailymotion It was the kind of childhood that half a century later people look back on and call simpler, innocent, a time when city kids were raised to be independent and unafraid.Usssa Pride 2022 Schedule, How Long Can Nancy Pelosi Be In Office, Aladdin's Eatery Recipes, Articles R