1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:03,040 Speaker 1: Okay, did you catch this week's sentencing of the Idaho 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,159 Speaker 1: killer who murdered four university students. It kind of reminded 3 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,320 Speaker 1: me of another random mass killing that took place in 4 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:14,560 Speaker 1: Chicago almost sixty years ago. Richard Speck broke into a 5 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:18,319 Speaker 1: dorm where eight nursing students lived. Over the course of 6 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,000 Speaker 1: three hours during a summer night in July. He methodically 7 00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: stabbed the young women to death, raped his final victim, 8 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:29,639 Speaker 1: and then slipped away. I'm Patty Steele. However, as in 9 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:34,000 Speaker 1: the Idaho case, the killer made a crucial mistake. That's 10 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 1: next on the backstory. The backstory is back. If you 11 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,880 Speaker 1: watch the sentencing of the Idaho killer who murdered four 12 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:49,480 Speaker 1: Idaho University students, you saw the emotional impact statements from 13 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: family and friends of the victims. But trying to understand 14 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:56,520 Speaker 1: why the murderer did what he did is an impossible 15 00:00:56,600 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: task because there's nothing he could say that it allow 16 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:04,040 Speaker 1: the vicious killings to make any sense at all. It's 17 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 1: happened before, and it was a case the change the 18 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: prison system, especially for the most notorious killers. Richard Speck 19 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: was born in nineteen forty one in Kirkwood, Illinois. He 20 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 1: was the seventh of eight kids in a really chaotic, 21 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: troubled household, and it got worse. His father, Ben died 22 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: suddenly when Richard was just six, and his mother remarried quickly. 23 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:30,479 Speaker 1: Her new husband, Karl, was an abusive alcoholic, which brought 24 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:34,160 Speaker 1: even more violence and instability into the family's world. With 25 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:37,319 Speaker 1: so much turmoil and neglect at home, Richard had a 26 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 1: rough time in school. He dropped out at sixteen. He 27 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,480 Speaker 1: started drinking at the age of twelve, and by the 28 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:46,480 Speaker 1: time he was fifteen was drunk almost every day. He 29 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: got involved in petty theft, drug use, and there were 30 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:53,080 Speaker 1: constant clashes with the cops. At twenty, he got a 31 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 1: fifteen year old girl pregnant after dating her for just 32 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:59,240 Speaker 1: three weeks, and he wound up marrying her. He was 33 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: in jail for disturbing the peace after getting drunk in 34 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: public when his daughter was born. By his early twenties, 35 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 1: Speck had done time for theft, forgery, and all sorts 36 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: of violence, including threatening people with a knife, even stabbing 37 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,760 Speaker 1: a couple of guys during bar fights. Now it's the 38 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: spring of nineteen sixty six and Speck is twenty four 39 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,799 Speaker 1: years old. While robbing a house. The sixty one year 40 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: old homeowner arrives back in her house, he threatens her 41 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 1: with a knife and rapes her. The cops don't find him. 42 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: In a week later, after a night of drinking at 43 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: a bar called Frank's Place in Monmouth, Illinois, the bartender, 44 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,360 Speaker 1: a thirty two year old woman, disappears. Her body is 45 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:44,800 Speaker 1: found in a shed out back that Speck had helped build, 46 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 1: so cops decide to question him. He says he feels sick, 47 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: but he's going to come back for more questioning when 48 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: he feels better. Of course, that's when he skips town 49 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:57,000 Speaker 1: and he heads for Chicago to stay with his sister. 50 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,320 Speaker 1: At this point, his wife has left him and he 51 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: finds himself drifting. He's unemployed, angry, and really resentful. His 52 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:08,639 Speaker 1: brother in law takes him to look for a job 53 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: at a place just a block away from the dormitories 54 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:15,800 Speaker 1: where young nursing students live who are studying a nearby 55 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: South Chicago Community Hospital. Now it's July thirteenth, nineteen sixty six. 56 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: He spends the day drinking and then pulls a knife 57 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:28,639 Speaker 1: on a fellow drinker. He takes her to his rooming house, 58 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:31,399 Speaker 1: where he rapes her and then steals her twenty two 59 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 1: caliber pistol. It's a hot summer night, and Speck seems 60 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:39,000 Speaker 1: to want a quieter, more personal mode of attack instead 61 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: of a gun, so armed with a knife and intense rage, 62 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: he breaks into the townhouse dormitory where the student nurses live. 63 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,160 Speaker 1: What happens next shocks the entire nation. Over the course 64 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 1: of that horrifying night, Speck systematically ties up, gags, assaults, 65 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 1: and murders eight young nurses, stabbing or strangling them to death, 66 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:06,120 Speaker 1: one at a time, sometimes waiting twenty or thirty minutes 67 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: between each murder. He rapes his final victim and then 68 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:14,240 Speaker 1: murders her as well. Speck finally leaves the bloody scene, 69 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: but miraculously, one student nurse, Coorson Emoto, has survived in 70 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:24,240 Speaker 1: the chaos. As he takes each victim into the next 71 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 1: room to kill them, she manages to slide under a 72 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: bed and quietly hide, terrified and silent. He'd apparently lost 73 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,640 Speaker 1: count of how many girls were in the dorm. She 74 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,040 Speaker 1: stays under the bed for seven hours after Speck leaves, 75 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:44,120 Speaker 1: too terrified to move, But Cooron had witnessed the horrifying 76 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 1: attack and later provides police with a detailed description of Speck, 77 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: most notably a tattoo on his arm. The brutal crime 78 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:56,160 Speaker 1: scene is discovered the next morning. The story spreads all 79 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: over the nation. The city is terrified, and cops mo 80 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: out a massive man hunt throughout Chicago. Two days later, 81 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:08,839 Speaker 1: Spec attempts suicide and he's rushed to Cook County Hospital. There, 82 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:13,279 Speaker 1: a young doctor in the er recognizes the tattoo that's 83 00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:16,760 Speaker 1: being talked about in the news. It reads born to 84 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,839 Speaker 1: raise Hell. The police are called and they quickly arrest Speck. 85 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:25,160 Speaker 1: His trial begins in April of nineteen sixty seven, and 86 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,799 Speaker 1: it becomes one of the first major criminal trials heavily 87 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 1: covered by television. Spectators in court are horrified by SPEC's demeanor, cold, detached, unemotional, 88 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: with just an occasional outburst. The defense tries to plete insanity, 89 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,480 Speaker 1: but it's clear Speck is aware of what's going on. 90 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:51,880 Speaker 1: The prosecution, meantime, gives overwhelming evidence, including survivor Corrison's haunting testimony, 91 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 1: as well as fingerprint matches and that distinctive tattoo I 92 00:05:56,279 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: d After deliberating less than an hour, the jury come 93 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:04,279 Speaker 1: back with a guilty verdict on April fifteenth, nineteen sixty seven, 94 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:08,159 Speaker 1: Spec is sentenced to die in the electric chair, but 95 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: just a few years later, while his appeals are playing out, 96 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:16,159 Speaker 1: the US Supreme Court vacates his sentence because anybody morally 97 00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:20,360 Speaker 1: opposed to execution had been excluded from the jury. He 98 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 1: then gets re sentenced to life in prison. His story 99 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:27,640 Speaker 1: doesn't end there, though, he turns prison basically into a 100 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:31,120 Speaker 1: frat house. He dies in jail in nineteen ninety one, 101 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,920 Speaker 1: the day before his fiftieth birthday, but he apparently had 102 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 1: a raucous party going for the twenty five years he 103 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:42,000 Speaker 1: spent locked up. Five years after his death, a video 104 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:46,159 Speaker 1: shows up shot in nineteen eighty eight. It shows Richard 105 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:50,240 Speaker 1: Speck bragging about his crimes, showing off drugs and money 106 00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: in prison, and engaging in sex acts with fellow inmates. 107 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: At one point, he's laughing and says, if they only 108 00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:00,479 Speaker 1: knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose. 109 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:04,560 Speaker 1: Lots of questions followed, how is it possible for a 110 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: notorious inmate like Spec to get all that contraband and 111 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: enjoy all those privileges? What's going on in our prisons? 112 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:16,240 Speaker 1: The public reaction was fierce, and the scandal led to 113 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: significant prison reforms. There's now higher standards for correction officers, 114 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:25,400 Speaker 1: as well as stricter supervision and tougher enforcement of inmate 115 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 1: conduct rules. If you watch the sentencing in the Idaho 116 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: killer case this week, you saw the maximum security prison 117 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: where he'll likely spend the rest of his life. Once 118 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,800 Speaker 1: in his cell, he'll spend twenty three hours a day there. 119 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:43,400 Speaker 1: He'll only be let out under strict supervision, but depending 120 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: on his behavior and psychological needs, he could eventually be 121 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,680 Speaker 1: placed in the general prison population, which, as experts will 122 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:55,120 Speaker 1: tell you, presents a whole different set of problems for him. 123 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:59,040 Speaker 1: Watching the family and friends impact statements this week in 124 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:02,760 Speaker 1: Idaho also reminded me of the Speck case, since the 125 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: Idaho killer will never be allowed to apply for parole 126 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:10,280 Speaker 1: thirty years after the Speck murders. One man whose sister 127 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:13,960 Speaker 1: was one of the eight student nurses, said when Speck 128 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 1: died in jail, he felt an immense sense of relief. 129 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:21,280 Speaker 1: He said he had spent those decades living in between 130 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:26,600 Speaker 1: Richard Speck's seven parole hearings, reliving his sister's murder at 131 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:29,760 Speaker 1: each one of those hearings. I hope you're enjoying the 132 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review and follow 133 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:37,559 Speaker 1: or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, 134 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:39,840 Speaker 1: and feel free to dm me if you have a 135 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,720 Speaker 1: story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty 136 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:53,240 Speaker 1: Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. 137 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 1: The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis 138 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: Duran Group, and Steel Trap Production. Our producer is Doug Fraser. 139 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday 140 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:08,440 Speaker 1: and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with 141 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:12,480 Speaker 1: comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty 142 00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:16,000 Speaker 1: Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening 143 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:19,280 Speaker 1: to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history 144 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:21,160 Speaker 1: you didn't know you needed to know.