Speck Murders
The Speck Murders refer to a tragic and gruesome criminal case that occurred on the night of July 13, 1966, in Chicago, Illinois. Richard Benjamin Speck, a 24-year-old with a criminal history, infiltrated a townhouse that served as a dormitory for eight student nurses. Armed with a gun and knife, he took control of the situation, eventually leading to the systematic murder of eight women—Gloria Jean Davy, Valentina Pasion, Merlita Gargullo, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Lee Wilkening, Suzanne Bridget Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, and Patricia Ann Matusek. One woman, Corazon Amurao, managed to escape, which led to Speck's identification and arrest shortly thereafter.
Speck was initially sentenced to death, but legal challenges resulted in a commutation to multiple life sentences. The case has had a lasting impact on discussions surrounding the death penalty, particularly in the context of crimes of extreme violence. The murders remain a significant and somber chapter in Chicago's criminal history, along with ongoing societal debates about justice and punishment.
Speck Murders
Date: Date July 14, 1966
One of the most notorious crimes of the 1960’s. The savagery manifested in the murders of eight student nurses in Chicago stunned not only the neighbors, police, and coroner but also the nation.
Origins and History
Richard Benjamin Speck, age twenty-four, of Monmouth, Illinois, an unemployed laborer and seaman, had served previous prison sentences for forgery, burglary, and assaulting a woman.
The Murders
On the night of July 13, 1966, Richard Speck gained access to a far southside townhouse used as a dormitory for eight student nurses from Chicago’s Community Hospital. Armed with a gun and a knife, he woke the sleeping residents and herded them into one bedroom; he then surprised three more women returning just before curfew and put them in the same room. Claiming that he wanted only money for a trip to New Orleans, he told them they would not be hurt. After collecting the money, he systematically removed the women one by one to other parts of the house, where he stabbed three and strangled five. The victims were Gloria Jean Davy, Valentina Pasion, Merlita Gargullo, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Lee Wilkening, Suzanne Bridget Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, and Patricia Ann Matusek.
An exchange student, Corazon Amurao, escaped death by rolling under a bed and hiding. The next morning, Amurao loosened her bonds and, fearing the killer was still downstairs, forced open a second-floor window screen. Once outside on the window ledge, she called for help. Authorities believe that Speck had watched the townhouse from a nearby park and knew that eight women lived there. Amurao probably escaped detection because Jordan was in the house to visit her future sister-in-law, Farris, bringing the total number of women in the house to nine (when the killer had been expecting only eight). The police speculated that none of the other women hid, screamed, or fought back because they believed they would not be hurt or were simply paralyzed with fear.
From evidence, including fingerprints, left at the scene, and from Amurao’s description, the police identified Speck as the murderer. He was arrested on July 17 for the murder of Farris; on July 26, he was indicted on eight murder charges.
Impact
On June 5, 1967, Speck was sentenced to death by electric chair on all eight counts. However, his execution was stayed repeatedly, and on August 30, 1971, the United States Supreme Court lifted his death sentence, as well as that of thirty-nine others, on the grounds that people opposed to the death penalty had been automatically excluded from the juries. He was resentenced to eight consecutive terms varying from fifty to one hundred and fifty years. Proponents of the death penalty were horrified that it would not be enacted on Speck, the perpetrator of a manifestly evil and morbidly gruesome crime.
Additional Information
William J. Martin, the prosecutor in the case, and Dennis L. Breo, a Chicago journalist, published a detailed account of the murders in a book entitled The Crime of the Century: Richard Speck and the Murder of Eight Nurses (1991).