richard speck interview

He could be seen doing what appeared to be cocaine and in an interview-like discussion he answered questions about the murders of the nurses . Murder made Richard Speck famous. One of her sisters would later say the delay may have been a sign that "God didn't want her to leave.". Attorney William J. Martin, 79, talks about Corazon Amurao Atienza, the lone survivor of the Richard Speck murders. Why he did what he did in the next few hours will never be known. 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 like him. Dr. John Schmale found a box of old slides in his waterlogged basement and opened a flood of memories. "She found the thing she loved doing, she meets a guy that she says 'yes' to about being married," he said. 29. Her village was small (200 people) and her family was large (eight kids). Nina was 19 when she announced to her family, "I'm going to nursing school.". "She showed the indomitability of her spirit by continuing her path as a nurse and dedicating her life to helping others and raising a family, but you can never get something like this out of your life," Martin said. 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. Around 10:30 p.m., she went upstairs to bed, in the high bunk in the room she shared with Merlita. 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. When Speck realizes he's being played, he. She displayed uncommon ease with the dying and never balked at the mess that came with tending to the human body. As the 50th anniversary of the murders approaches, that's what he wants for himself and the other families to reopen the lives of the women whose names have been overshadowed by their killer's. A doting mother and grandmother, she enjoys baby-sitting her grandchildren about twice a week and the constant companionship of her children. The close quarters helped turn most of the women into close friends, and for all their dedication and discipline, they loved pranks. Shortly before she died, she wrote a friend about a trip to Wisconsin. I screamed for about 20 minutes. To this day, Siouchoff is convinced that Amurao recognized the difference between the front doorbell and the back one, and deliberately led Speck to the wrong door. William Martin, shown April 22, 2016, in his Oak Park law office, was the lead prosecutor in the Richard Speck mass murder case. What a waste that Nina and her friends weren't able to give the world everything they had to give, or enjoy its pleasures. "It was him," she said. Who Is Richard Speck? Books, documentaries, countless news stories, a 2007 film called "Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck" were dedicated to the so-called crime of the century. They could talk about the wedding. Fortunately, Amurao remembered the distinctive "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo that, along with the image, enabled police to identify their suspect as Richard Speck. For her to discuss an event she calls "still unbelievable" is an act of faith, one she commits only because she'd like the world to pause and think about Mary Ann and her friends. 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. "She was kind of your average good kid who was really dedicated to being a caregiver.". Would she still love water ballet? After several minutes, they heard a female voice urging them to come out. After graduating from Glenbard Township High School in Glen Ellyn in 1959, she worked as a secretary but didnt like it. So much youth and beauty, so much wit and fun. They could talk about the wedding. Gloria's brother and three of her sisters are still alive. The time he spent unpacking the food. Richard Benjamin Speck was born on December 6, 1941, in Kirkwood, Illinois, into a large, religious family, where he was the seventh of eight children. On July 13, 1966, Speck unleashed his terror on Chicago by breaking into a building in the neighborhood of South Deering. 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. By the time I was 16 or 17 I knew it was nasty and cheap. One victim was also raped prior to her murder. The doctor had just had a. 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. According to a 1966 Life magazine story, Tina often mentioned money in her letters. The real-life Speck who tortured, raped, and murdered eight Chicago student nurses in a. 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. With a rush of excitement and a pang of dread, he read her penciled note: "Nina South Chicago Hospital.". Her roommates and friends were killed by Speck on July 14, 1966, after he broke in armed with a gun and a knife. Lori Davy, center, accepts a nursing school diploma on behalf of her slain sister, Gloria Davy, at a ceremony at McCormick Place in 1966. The judge sentenced Speck to death. Chicago Tribune's Mary Schmich contributed. "Always very playful and very compassionate. Nina Jo Schmale appears in an undated photo. On that Monday, she was taken to a townhouse on East 100th Street rented by her new employer, South Chicago Community Hospital. Suzanne Farris appears as a young girl with a prayer card from her funeral on July 18, 1966. But to this day Atienza suffers nightmares that Speck will come back and kill her. Atienza was the states key witness when Martin prosecuted Speck in the 1967 trial. 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. Its why he wants a 50th anniversary commemoration that reclaims all the womens names, all their lives. She went home, not knowing that a little more than an hour earlier, a drifter with a knife, a gun and a history of violence had broken in and was holding her friends hostage upstairs. Here`s half the country down on a person, they call him all kinds of names-and these women are trying to get to meet him. Sickeningly mesmerizing because, as much as we hate to admit it, it is possible to talk to a mass murderer as a human being. She loved swimming, ice skating and softball. Bottom row from left are Patricia Matusek, Valentina Pasion, Nina Jo Schmale and Pamela Wilkening. 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. But any kid can end up just like me.''. Like Schmale, she talks about opening the box of her sister's life, and now that it's open she thinks, "Wow, wow, this was my sister. Her brother Phil, who lost both his sister and his fiancee on that July night, died at 64. A native Tagalog speaker, she began learning English in first grade. She roller-skated in the basement of the family's three-bedroom bungalow. The image suggests who she was, serious and slightly removed from the fun. Come spend the night, Suzie suggested. The kitchen door opened onto a narrow alley where Nina parked her Bel Air and where a hospital shuttle picked up and delivered students. The first floor consisted of a living room, a powder room and a kitchen. `60 Minutes,` the news, keep up on the outside world. Jack Wilkening is 79 now, retired from his job as a Standard Oil cashier. Although she declined to be interviewed for this story, she has exchanged emails recently with John Schmale. Phil taught public school, had a sailboat and was nice to him, the kid brother. On what occasion? 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. During one of Pam's shifts, a patient slugged her. If you live your life in hatred and anger, you'll lose more than Gloria. 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. (Harold Norman / Chicago Tribune). And did he have any particular feelings about the American people? I watched `Magnum Force` the other night. Atienza did not respond to Tribune requests for an interview. Had Pat gotten in OK the night before? Stewardess. 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. She walked off the stage, shoulders back, carrying a diploma dated July 14, 1966. John and Nina grew up on an acre of land near suburban Wheaton, a remnant of the Schmale family farm. ''I`m in here for 1,200 years. Speck opens up, admitting for the first time that he only sexually assaulted one of the women during his spree. ''I know it keeps up their morale. Many fans can agree that the interview with Richard Speck was high in terms of tension. What about the notorious ''Born to Raise Hell'' tattoo that led to his capture? Videos by Chicago Tribune's Chris Walker. Forty miles from home, when they spotted a gas station, they were reluctant to stop for directions because their curlers made them look like creatures from Mars. There she joined two other Filipina exchange nurses, Merlita Gargullo and Corazon Amurao, who had arrived a few days earlier. 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. Her childhood resume wasn't flashy. Menudo Star Says Jos Menendez Assaulted Him. After Speck's trial she moved back to the Philippines and married in 1969, but she returned to the U.S. about four years later. 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. ''Because any kid can end up to be like me. High school nursing club. The kitchen is where he and Suzie shared lunch, usually made by their dad, who worked afternoons while their mother worked days. They laughed as they sunbathed on the roof between the tavern and the funeral home, watching the people and the cars down on Michigan Avenue, which they called "The Ave.". Half an hour later, she heard four knocks at the bedroom door. I had that put on me when I was 14 or 15. 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. 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. Why were they here, and her sister wasn't? But to hear Speck talk about himself in his own voice was repugnant and hypnotic. At the door stood a tall stranger with a pockmarked face and a gun. The Filipina women often ate dinner together at the townhouse kitchen table, sometimes joined by other exchange nurses. On a June day in 1966, when she was 20, she went to one of his races, and afterward waved goodbye. Another time, according to a different news account, Tina wrote her sister saying she wished she could live in Chicago forever. Richard Speck had a troubled past and a rap sheet a mile long. She waved and waited for Pat to go inside. 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. "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.". The kitchen was also home to the family cookie jar, a white canister that said "Cooky" on the front, a detail he retains because "Cooky" was his father's nickname for Suzie. Martin and Dennis Breo are co-authors of a 1993 book called "The Crime of the Century." ''A lot of them women are pretty,'' Speck said. 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. At age 10, she walked her sister Susan to her first day of kindergarten. Be married, divorced, retired? Here are five things to know about Richard Speck. There, next to his kitchen near the village of Mahomet, 140 miles south of Chicago, the lost women flickered back to life. It took Nina a while to choose nurse. Took a nap. William Martin, shown April 22, 2016, in his Oak Park law office, was the lead prosecutor in the Richard Speck mass murder case. "Let people know who they were," she said. Then I screamed for help. 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. Clint Eastwood, he always plays good. That was almost true; the man whose crimes introduced the term ''mass murderer'' to the American lexicon did not like to talk. 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. 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. Only recently, since John Schmale got in touch with her about a 50th anniversary commemoration for the women, has Lori let herself believe that it's OK to remember, OK to cry. Girls, we need to clean the house.". ''I like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson. In November 1962, Speck married Shirley Malone, and they had a daughter, Bobby Lynn, soon after. Speck's jury trial began April 3, 1967, in Peoria, Illinois, three hours southwest of Chicago, with a gag order on the press. After it was aired on TV, Wilkening obtained a copy of the video. 28. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. She also had a hard time believing he actually died of a heart attack in prison in 1991 and wonders why she was spared. Parts of the confession were almost certainly bogus; Speck said that he had not killed all eight nurses-that an accomplice, whom Speck later shot to death, had killed one of the nurses, while Speck killed the other seven. And it turned out that it reopened her life. Secretary. 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. ''A lot of them send pictures,'' Speck told me. I`m freakish.''. They were the last women to arrive at the townhouse that night. There was also Billy. No more parole hearings, no more fear that he might be released. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune). In the family's two-bedroom Cape Cod home, Suzie and her older sister, Marilyn, shared a bedroom. 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. Speck then rounded the nurses up and ordered them to empty their purses, before tying them all up. Before long, she, Merlita and Cora were huddled in a small bedroom closet, holding the door shut. Her graduation from nursing school was less than a month away, exams were coming up and she needed to stay at her townhouse in the city to study. In those postwar years, most residents of Chicago's Far South Side were white and working-class, still close to their immigrant roots. Her experience there whetted her interest in nursing. 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. For many years she worked as a nurse at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Now 73, she has two children and several grandchildren. With Sonny Valicenti, Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Greg Harpold. Lori didn't cry. So was pregnancy. (Schmale family ). In court, Speck was positively identified by the sole surviving student nurse, Cora Amurao. Speck is the character who, while being interviewed by Ford and Tench, tosses a pet bird into a fan.

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