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Richard Speck: The Chicago Nurses Murders

closedUSJuly 13, 1966 — December 5, 1991

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Black-and-white 1966 police booking photograph of Richard Speck
1966 police booking photograph, via English Wikipediaunverified

In 1996, a videotape emerged that shocked the families of eight murdered nurses and outraged the Chicago prosecutors who had spent three decades believing Richard Speck had at least been put away forever. CBS Chicago broadcast footage from inside Stateville Prison showing Speck alive and comfortable in his cell — confessing to the killings in chilling detail, using drugs on camera, and displaying not a trace of remorse. For the men and women who had prosecuted him and for the surviving family members of his victims, the footage was its own kind of crime.

The night that made Speck one of the most notorious killers in American history began on July 13, 1966. Eight student nurses — Gloria Jean Davy, Valentina Pasion, Merlita Gargullo, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Lee Wilkening, Suzanne Bridget Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, and Patricia Ann Matusek — were asleep in their South Deering townhouse on Chicago's far south side, a shared dormitory for students at the Community Hospital. By the morning of July 14, seven of them were dead.

Richard Benjamin Speck was 24 years old on the night of the murders, born December 6, 1941, in Kirkwood, Illinois, and already carrying a record of more than twenty arrests by the time he forced his way into that townhouse. Contemporary accounts described him as an alcoholic drifter, a man of chronic violence and instability who had left a trail of petty crime across multiple states. He had no connection to the nurses. The murders — carried out with both a gun and a knife — were so systematic and so savage that the Chicago History Museum would later describe them as among the most "heinous and horrible" crimes in the city's history.

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Claims

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Richard Speck was identified at a hospital when an emergency room physician noticed a tattoo on his arm reading 'Born to Raise Hell,' which matched the description provided by surviving witness Corazon Amurao.[1]

Check the sourcesChicago History Museum ↗

origin: imported

By age 25, Richard Speck had accumulated over 20 prior arrests, establishing a documented pattern of criminal behavior well before the 1966 murders.[1]

Check the sourcesChicago History Museum ↗

origin: imported

Corazon Amurao survived the attack by hiding under a bed throughout the night of July 13–14, 1966, remaining undetected by Speck because he lost count of his victims.[2]

Check the sourcesWikipedia ↗

origin: imported

Fingerprints recovered at the South Deering dormitory crime scene provided forensic evidence linking Richard Speck to the murders.[1]

Check the sourcesChicago History Museum ↗

origin: imported

Sources

Sources opened and checked for this issue — not exhaustive, official, or a complete record. Numbers match the citation marks above.

  1. 1.Chicago History Museum — The First Mass Murderer: Richard Speck in Chicago
  2. 2.Wikipedia — Richard Speck
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