56 Facts About Richard Speck

Richard Speck died of a heart attack while incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center on the eve of his 50th birthday.

Richard Benjamin Speck was born in Kirkwood, Illinois, in 1941 and was the seventh of eight children of Benjamin Franklin Speck and Mary Margaret Carbaugh.

Richard Speck's father worked as a packer at Western Stoneware in Monmouth having previously worked as a farmer and logger.

In 1947, when Richard Speck was six years old, his father died from a heart attack at the age of 53.

In 1951, after a year in Santo, Richard Speck moved with his mother, Lindberg, and sister Carolyn to East Dallas.

Richard Speck loathed his stepfather who was often drunk, verbally abusive, and frequently absent.

Richard Speck struggled in school, refusing to wear the glasses that he needed for reading.

Richard Speck did not return for the second semester, dropping out of school in January 1958, after his 16th birthday.

Richard Speck started drinking alcohol at age 12 and by age 15, he was getting drunk almost every day.

From 1960 to 1963, Richard Speck worked as a laborer for the 7-Up bottling company in Dallas.

In October 1961, Richard Speck met 15-year-old Shirley Annette Malone at the Texas State Fair.

Richard Speck's mother lived there as well having separated from Lindberg who was now living in California.

Richard Speck's daughter, Robbie Lynn Speck was born on July 5,1962, while Speck was serving a 22-day jail sentence for disturbing the peace after a drunken melee in McKinney, Texas.

In July 1963, at the age of 21, Richard Speck was sentenced to serve three years in prison after being convicted of forgery and burglary.

Richard Speck had forged and cashed a co-worker's $44 paycheck and robbed a grocery store for cigarettes, beer, and $3 in cash.

Richard Speck was paroled in 1965 after serving 16 months at Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

Richard Speck attacked a woman in the parking lot of her apartment building, wielding a 17-inch carving knife, but fled when the woman screamed.

Richard Speck was convicted of aggravated assault, given a 16-month sentence to run concurrently with a parole violation sentence, and returned to prison in Huntsville.

In December 1965, upon the recommendation of his mother, Richard Speck moved in with a 29-year-old divorced woman, an ex-professional wrestler and now a bartender at his favorite bar, Ginny's Lounge, to babysit her three children.

In January 1966, Malone, who had been separated from Richard Speck, filed for divorce.

That same month, Richard Speck stabbed a man in a knife fight at Ginny's Lounge.

Richard Speck was charged with aggravated assault, but a defense attorney hired by his mother got the charge reduced to disturbing the peace.

Richard Speck was fined $10 and jailed for three days after he failed to pay the fine.

On March 5,1966, Richard Speck bought a 12-year-old car then robbed a grocery store the following evening, stealing 70 cartons of cigarettes, which he then sold out of the trunk of his car in the grocery store's parking lot.

Richard Speck stayed with his sister Martha Thornton and her family in Chicago for a few days, and then returned to his boyhood hometown of Monmouth, Illinois, where he initially stayed with some old family friends.

Richard Speck's brother Howard was a carpenter in Monmouth and found a job for him sanding plasterboard for another Monmouth carpenter.

Richard Speck became angry when he learned his ex-wife had remarried two days after she was granted a divorce on March 16,1966.

Richard Speck had died from a blow to her abdomen that ruptured her liver.

Richard Speck told them an unbelievable story about having to leave Monmouth after refusing to sell narcotics for a "crime syndicate" there.

Richard Speck then traveled by train to Houghton, Michigan, staying at the Douglas House, to visit Judy Laakaniemi, a 28-year-old nurse's aide going through a divorce, whom he had befriended at St Joseph's Hospital.

Richard Speck lost out that day to a seaman with more seniority for a berth on the SS Flying Spray, a C1-A cargo ship bound for South Vietnam, and returned to his sister Martha's apartment for the weekend.

Richard Speck was angry for being sent to a non-existent assignment, and he talked for 30 minutes in the car with his sister Martha and her husband Gene, who had driven down to visit him at 9 am They parked on E 100th St next to Luella Elementary School, across the street from the townhouses where the nurses lived.

Richard Speck spent the rest of the day drinking in nearby taverns before he accosted Ella Mae Hooper at knifepoint; she was a 53-year-old woman who had spent the day drinking at the same taverns that Richard Speck had patronized.

Richard Speck then left, dressed entirely in black, armed with a switchblade, and Ella Mae Hooper's handgun.

At 11 pm on July 13,1966, Speck broke into the 2319 E 100th St townhouse in Chicago's Jeffery Manor neighborhood; the townhouse was functioning as a dormitory for student nurses.

Richard Speck entered and, using only a knife, killed Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion.

Richard Speck held the women in a room for hours, leading them out one by one, stabbing or strangling each to death, then finally raping and strangling his last victim, 22-year-old Gloria Davy.

One woman, Corazon Amurao, escaped death because she crawled and hid under a bed while Richard Speck was out of the room.

Richard Speck possibly lost count or might have known eight women lived in the townhouse but was unaware that a ninth woman was spending the night.

Richard Speck then attempted suicide, and the Starr Hotel desk clerk phoned in the emergency around midnight.

At the hospital, Richard Speck was recognized by Dr LeRoy Smith, a 25-year-old surgical resident physician, who had read about the "Born To Raise Hell" tattoo in a newspaper story.

Concerns over the recent Miranda decision that had vacated the convictions of a number of criminals meant Richard Speck was not even questioned for three weeks after his arrest.

Ziporyn maintained Richard Speck viewed women as saintly until he felt betrayed by them for some reason, after which hostility developed.

Richard Speck was diagnosed with organic brain syndrome, resulting from cerebral injuries he had suffered earlier in his life, and stated he was competent to stand trial but was insane at the time of the crime due to the effects of alcohol and drug use on his organic brain syndrome.

Richard Speck later claimed he had no recollection of the murders, but he had confessed the crime to Dr LeRoy Smith at the Cook County Hospital.

Richard Speck again stated he was high that night, but then he undercut the idea that the drugs were a mitigating factor, asserting he could just as well have "done it sober".

In court, Richard Speck was positively identified by the sole surviving student nurse, Corazon Amurao.

In May 1968, Richard Speck's chromosomes were karyotyped a second time by Engel, with the same result: a normal 46, XY genome.

On June 29,1972, in Furman v Georgia, the US Supreme Court effectively declared the death penalty unconstitutional, so the Illinois Supreme Court's only option was to order Speck re-sentenced to prison by the original Cook County court.

On November 21,1972, in Peoria, Judge Richard Fitzgerald re-sentenced Speck to from 400 to 1,200 years in prison, which was then reduced to 100 to 300 years.

Richard Speck was denied parole in seven minutes at his first parole hearing on September 15,1976, and at six subsequent hearings in 1977,1978,1981,1984,1987, and 1990.

Richard Speck was described as a loner who kept a stamp collection and enjoyed listening to music.

Richard Speck loathed reporters, and granted only one press interview, in 1978, to Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene.

Shortly before December 5,1991, Richard Speck was transported from Stateville Correctional Center to Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet, Illinois after complaining of severe chest pains.

The coroner stated that Richard Speck had an "enlarged heart, emphysema and clogged arteries" which most likely contributed to his fatal heart attack.

Richard Speck's sister feared that his grave would be desecrated, so he was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in an undisclosed location in the Joliet area.