Morbid - Richard Speck The Student Nurse Murders Part 1

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

In the early morning hours of July 14, 1966, Chicago police responded to a call about a woman screaming for help at a townhouse in Chicago’s Jeffery Manor neighborhood. When they arrived, they found student nurse Cora Amurao outside the home she shared with eight other student nurses, all of whom had been strangled or stabbed that night by an unknown intruder, while Cora hid underneath her bed. Considered at the time to be a “crime of the century,” the student nurse murders shocked and terrified Chicago residents all across the city. Not only had one man managed to brutally murder eight people, but he had also managed to escape and was loose somewhere in the city. At the time, racially motivated riots had broken out across the city, making the already-burdened Chicago Police Department even more strained when it came to investigating the case.After an intense manhunt that lasted several days, investigators arrested Richard Speck, a twenty-four-year-old unemployed drifter with a criminal history. There was a strong amount of evidence that linked Speck directly to the murders, including his own confession, so when he went to trial, his lawyer tried unsuccessfully to argue Speck was not legally sane at the time of the murders. Unfortunately, the truth was something far worse: Speck killed eight women for no reason whatsoever.ReferencesAltman, Jack, and Marvin Ziporyn. 1967. Born to Raise Hell: The Untold Story of Richard Speck. New York, NY: Grove Press.Breo, Dennis L., William J. Martin, and Bill Kunkle. 1993. The Crime of the Century: Richard Speck and the Murders That Shocked a Nation. New York, NY: Bantam Books.Chicago Tribune. 1966. "Prisoner suffers heart attack, doctor hints." Chicago Tribune, July 20: 1.Chown, Susan. 1966. "Tearful eyes at hospital." Daily Calumet (Chicago, IL), July 15: 1.Goodyear, Sara Jane. 1966. "Hunt for clews in killing of eight nurses on S.E. side." Chcago Tribune, July 15: 1.—. 1966. "Killing leads 'hopeful'." Chicago Tribune, July 16: 1.Hollatz, Tom. 1966. "Grisly scene stuns reporter into silence." Daily Calumet (Chicago, IL), July 15: 1.—. 1966. "Relatives, neighbors are 'shocked beyond words'." Daily Calumet (Chicago, IL), July 15: 1.—. 1966. "The townhouse tragedy." Daily Calumet (Chicago, IL), July 15: 2.Koziol, Ronald. 1966. "Cops weave tight security web around prisoner in hospital." Chicago Tribune, July 18: 1.Siemaszko, Corky. 2016. How Richard Speck's rampage 50 years ago change a nation. July 13. Accessed July 29, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/how-richard-speck-s-rampage-50-years-ago-changed-nation-n606211.Sowa, Tony. 1966. "Nab killer suspect." Chicago Tribune, July 17: 1.Wiedrich, Robert. 1967. "Death verdict for Speck." Chicago Tribune, April 16: 1.—. 1967. "Filipino nurse tells how eight met their doom." Chicago Tribune, April 6: 1.—. 1967. "Filipino nurse tells how eight met their doom." Chicago Tribune, April 6: 1.—. 1967. "State describes night of horror in nurses' home." Chicago Tribune, April 4: 1. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is morbid. This is morbid. It's more of the bid. It's more of the bid. It's more of it. And bid of them more. Absolutely. It's our show. Yeah. What's up? We went to yoga this morning. We yogaed so hard. Actually, we did. Let me just say for a second. We yogaed with the best of them this morning. We did. That was a hard class. A difficult flow. I was not quite flowing, but. But you know, but I moved. We got through it. What was it? Half moon reverse and moon left and moon right. There was lots of moons happening. There was a lot of mooning. There was a lot of mooning. Not that kind of mooning. We were not showing our asses. But I was showing my lack of skill. I was kind of showing my ass with showing how I don't know how to do all yoga poses. Yeah. For sure. But yeah, we're trying to like move. We're trying. We tried a Pilates class yesterday. Yeah. I'm just trying to like. And then we signed up for a lot of Pilates classes. Yeah. And I feel, you know what? It's like ever since like the kids are getting like older and I'm sitting there being like,

I need to be like around and healthy. Yeah. For the rest of your days. Yeah. I need to be 150 years old. Still kicking it with you and my great, great grandchildren. Right. You know?

So I'm looking to do that. Yeah. So I think 150 is quite a lofty goal. You know what? I'm a Capricorn. I mean, I make big goals. You know what? Actually, I've been shouting out my nail guy so much and I got my nails done the other day.

And he was like, thank you so much for shouting me out. Here I go again, Heli. I went to the nail salon last week and he had on Black Mirror, which I've never seen before. It's obviously like very like sci-fi futuristic. You know, maybe you will live until 150 because they might upload you to the cloud and you could just continue living on. That'd be pretty sick. Yeah. Let's go.

I don't know if I would want to live on the cloud. Do you think you would? I mean, if my kids are still around, I would like to still be around. That's beautiful. That's how I feel. That's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. If they're still kicking it, throw me on the cloud. Okay.

I'll write that down. I think I'm like, I'm something in your will, so I'll make sure I know that. So there you go. I guess you won't even need the will because you'll be kicking it. Everybody's just kicking it. Yeah, and I want to be like a cool grandma. What do you want your grandma name to be? Have we talked about this?

That I haven't figured out yet. I know what I want mine to be. I won't know that until I think it's like happening. I want to be glamour. That makes sense. And I refuse. I refuse to be called anything else. I kind of want to do the thing where I let them decide.

What if they call you like schnugan? Then schnugan it is. Schnoogen and Schnogan. Yeah. Then schnoogun it is. Hey. I love a weird grandparent name. I do too.

Like I don't want to say names, but like our family. Yeah, one of our friends, their kids call their grandparents, goo and goopie. Oh, yeah, that one. I think that's the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life. And then in our family, like, we have extended family where their grandkids call them Banca. Yep.

Banka. And G.g. Yeah. Oh, you know what, though. Maybe I do want to be called Gigi. See? This is tough. You got some time to think about it.

Yeah, I don't even have children yet. You're like, my kids are nine. Yeah. We all have time to think about it. That's why I'm not worried about it right now. All right. Well, Pilates' kids, Glamas, uploading to the cloud. What are you got for us today?

What do I have for you today? What's up, Red? Oh, I have a T-shirt for you today. You're a T-shirt for me. Mikey, I just went over. Is that the universal signature for a T-shirt? I just looked over and said, what do I have for you today? And I just happened to look at Mikey.

And he just gracefully, like, placed his hands down his body. And I said, T-shirt. But you also kind of like, he kind of did it, like, in the chicken dance way. And, like, moved his shoulder. You like, started under. It kind of felt like he was coming at you. Yeah.

And I got it. I was like, T-shirt. That's like, we mine melded for a minute and I said T-shirt. I just stood over here like, what? Yeah, we, I'm not good at this. So maybe Ash will be. I got you. We teamed up with it.

It doesn't even feel like we teamed up with them because they're just so talented. I don't even really feel like I did anything. Yeah, they did all the talented part of this. They did. And they are Matt and Ryan from the Blackfail. If you go to the Salem Night Fair, you know who Matt and Ryan are. And if you don't go to the Salem Night Fair, what the fuck is wrong with you. Get on it. Get on it next year. But in the meantime, you can support them and

us by buying our brand new shirt that they created and it's really fucking cool. Wait, what the fuck? What? It's a piece of lettuce. Girl. Girl. Girl. What is happening? Mikey and I were both like, clear my throat. And this lettuce did not come out of my throat. But I don't know where it came from. You would. You would.

You just slap your chest and food comes. Remnants of a past lunch. Whatever, I laugh. I'm like, I don't laugh like that. People are like, yeah, you do. I just laughed like so many varieties. But yeah, the merch that we like is awesome. And Matt and Ryan are so talented.

It's also really cool because there are tattoo artists. Yeah. If you have this, it's like having them tattoo you. Exactly. You know, it's they're insanely creative. They're lovely human beings. The loveliest of human beings. Their store is fucking phenomenal and there's nothing like it. And there's actually two now. It's a one of a kind experience. Yeah, there's two now. There's one on Essex Street. Essex Street. And then the other one's on Boston Street. Yeah. They're amazing. And we were so excited to just like join up with them and for them to do the hard part, which is create the design. And also, because we trust them.

So you can either go to our Instagram and, like, hit a link there, however that works. Or you can go to Blackvale Studio. Blackfield Studio.com. Leave yourself in, Mikey. Leave yourself in. I'm like, Mikey, what is it? Leave it in. We need to get merch also that just says leave it in.

Also, they created our rewatcher artwork. So if you're not going over to listen to the rewatcher, we're now covering True Blood. We're all done with Buffy, which is. much fun. If you haven't listened to the Buffy one, do that. But now we're on to more different things. And Andrew McMahon did our fucking theme song for that. Can you believe it? So I'll never stop saying that. We might say that every episode. I probably will. And you can't blame us. No, who could blame us? What millennial can't blame us? I don't, even the Gen Zs, you can't blame us. No, you can. I'm saying crazy stuff today. She's really off her rocker. I'm a little bit rogue. I wasn't going to

have a diet coke. I'm a little bit rogue. She's a little bit rogue. I was a little bit rogue. I wasn't going to have a Diet Coke and then I had a Diet Coke. Yeah, that'll have. I only have like four sips, but it's making me rogue. Well, before we go to Rogue, before I allow Ash, before Rogue loses all the to fly off into the wild blue yonder. Into the vagi. We have a two pad. I didn't even know that. Yeah, we have a two padda. Yes, I did. You did. You did that. But I liked your feigning shock. The funny thing is, I wasn't even feigning. I just forgot that. You just forgot. You know, it's the Diet Coke. It's the aspartame, you know. But we're going to be talking about a pretty gnarly case.

It's one that he's a bigger name, Richard Speck. You might have heard of him. Yep. You might remember he was in Mind Hunter. Yep, yep, yep. Like they portrayed him in Mind Hunter. I believe he's the one that, like, kills the bird. I think in Mind Hunter during their interview.

He like, is it the first second? I was going to say, is it the first second or the second second? The first second. It's the first one I believe. Why don't I remember that? It's when they're interviewing a lot of the serial killers. I think he's the one who kills the bird and it made me upset. What a douchebag. It's very him though. And he's also so ugly. He's very ugly. I love who you are. He's, I mean, that's pretty, I think like across the board, we can all agree. I think I'm not alone on this island. He's ugly inside. He's ugly outside. He's ugly all red. His aura is ugly. Yeah, he's disliked. Yeah, he's disliked. Yeah, he's disgusting. he's disgusting. Disgusting. And this is... As Nicholas would say. Disgusting.

Nicholas would yell that right now. But this is also known as the student nurse murders. Yep. This case is super gruesome. It's brutal. And it's also fucking shocking. Really? He contained and murdered so many women at once.

It is like I still... And we'll get. into it, but the investigators in this case were like, there had to have been more killers. Like, there's no way one person did all this. And I don't blame them. Sometimes they do, though. Like, sometimes one person is capable of the craziest shit. But honestly, I haven't, this is one of a kind. So do you think he possibly wasn't working solo? Oh, no, he, he was. It's just this is, it's shocking that he was able to do it. This isn't one of those where it's like, oh, yeah, some people, that happens before. This does not.

Like when you hear how it happens, you're like, how did that happen though? I don't know any of the details of this. I know the name and I know like the overview, but not any details. It's a horrifying case. It really is. So we're going to go to 10.30 p.m. on the night of July 13th, 1966 in Chicago is where we are. Cora Amarrow had just drifted off to sleep when she heard a knock at the front door of the townhouse that she was sharing with eight other young women. and it was in the Jeffrey Manor neighborhood on Chicago's south side.

All nine students were in the nearby South Chicago Community Hospital Nursing Program. And the house was kind of like a dorm, you know, it almost had like it wasn't a sorority, but it had that like vibe to it. There was even like a house mother who lived in like an adjacent townhouse. And many of these students like Cora had come from other parts of the country or the world. Yeah. They were from everywhere. Now thinking it might be one of her roommates who'd forgotten their keys,

Cora, of course, gets up to let them in. And she started to open the door, and she said that the person on the other side started pushing it open, like, forcibly. And it didn't feel like one of her friends, like, who would just, you know, like, help open the door kind of thing. This was, like, with force.

So she finally, the door swings open because she's kind of, like, taken off guard by it. And it was not one of her roommates. It was a young man that she'd never seen before. No, thank you. So Cora told a jury the next year, I saw a man standing in the same. center of our door holding a gun in his right hand pointing it towards me.

Fuck. She just woke up from this. Yeah, and just thought she was getting the door for one of her friends. Yeah. She said, I noticed marks on his face, the dark clothes, his hair blondeish, combed over in the back. Cora stared at who this was, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. And she said it felt like several minutes, but then she was just like shaken out of her

shock by him saying, where are your companions? And he grabbed her by the arm. Ew, what? And she's like, what the fuck? And by then, the five other women. who were in the house at the time, heard all of this commotion and had come out to see what was going on. And as soon as they saw the gun, Cora and two of her roommates, Merlita Gargulo and Valentina Passione, ran into one of the closets in an attempt to just hide from him because they didn't know what the fuck else to do. I mean, what do you do?

So for five minutes, they tried to hold the door closed from the inside, all of them holding the doorknob to keep it from turning as he's trying to open the door. Oh, that's chilling. Now, ultimately, what's even scarier is it wasn't this man who convinced them to come out, but one of the other girls in the house. One of the other girls said, you come out of the closet and he's not going to harm you. Because they were believing or at least hoping that if you just come out and listen to what he says, he's not going to hurt us. That's what he's saying. And that's what he kept telling them. I'm not going to hurt you.

Just listen to what I say, and you'll be fine. It's like, then why the fuck are you here, bro? So they come out of the closet to find this man pointing his gun in their, direction. He's now rounded up all six women. There's six women. And the man instructed him, them all to go into the nearby bedroom and sit on the floor. And in a super calm and even voice, he explained he just needed money to get to New Orleans. And if they would just give him whatever money they had, he would leave and no one would get hurt. Okay. Now, if someone says that, you're going to be like, okay, take out. Yeah, take all I have. We'll just listen. Take whatever the

you want. I don't even see you. Like, well, uh, whatever. Didn't even hear your voice. So to Cora, and two of her roommates who had also come from the Philippines to study in the U.S., that was Merlita and Valentina, the insistence that all he wanted was money seemed disingenuous to them. Yeah. They said they were like clocking him a little bit. They said they had all known men like him back home or at least heard about these kind of men, men who would like promise that you'll be fine just to convince you that you're safe,

only to turn on you without warning. Oh, man. They all watched in complete terror as he began stripping the best. bed sheets with a large hunting knife that he pulled from a sheath on his belt. What the fuck? Using the strips, he started binding them at the hands and ankles. So that would immediately be like, no, you don't just want money. You don't need to bind me if you're just trying to get money. So while the man was occupied doing this, Cora and the others are whispering to each other. Cora and the other two students that were born internationally, they all decided,

they were like, let's rush this motherfucker and knock him down. Let's go. Like, what do we, like, there's more of us than there's of him. Right. Right, right. And it's like, yeah, sure, like one or two of us might get hurt in the process, but there's no way he can control all five or six of us at once. If we just rush him. Or whatever else is going to happen here. And it was pretty reasonable. And one that probably would have worked, I think, if they could.

But also, so what happened was the other girls insisted that they should just do what he said and he'll leave. Which you can understand. I can't fathom being in this city. So I'm not going to sit here and say, well, in this situation, I would do this. Oh, go fuck myself. I'm not going to say that. Like, are you kidding me?

Like, go, shut up. I never have I ever heard somebody tell themselves to fuck off. Like, that's, I, I'm not going to sit here and be like, yeah, well, I would have rushed her. No, you're right. Like, I don't know what the fuck I would have done in this situation. Yeah. This sounds fucking terrible. And it's like, so you can see both sides.

Like, like, Cora, I understand her friends. I can understand that they were. like, let's rush this motherfucker, because I want to believe that I also would have thought that. But at the same time, he's telling you're fucking terrified. I've never been in this position before. So it's like, if he's telling you, I just want to go to New Orleans, I need money, you guys have money, just give me the money and I'll leave. I can understand why they were sitting there going, okay, maybe if we just do what he says, he'll just leave. But I'd also be like, why is he tying us up? Like, that would be a question on my mind. And why did he come with a hunting knife and a gun?

Exactly. That's a little scary. You could say like intimidation. He's just trying to intimidate us into not rushing him. Well, and you're also just not going through all the possibilities like necessarily write that in there. So once this guy had tied the hands and ankles of all six women, he untied one of the women, Pamela Wilkening,

and he led her out of the room into the living room. From their spot on the bedroom floor, the other girls could hear him demand that Pamela remove her clothes. Oh, no. And they could also hear as he sexually assaulted. her. Oh, that's awful. Then something very unexpected happened. In the middle of his assault on Pamela, he was interrupted by the arrival of another roommate, Gloria Davy, who he quickly subdued and led into the bedroom

with the rest of them where he tied her ankles and wrists just like the others. Okay. So he is just in the middle, he was interrupted and managed to get her into a room as well. Yeah. The scene repeated itself 20 minutes later. when two remaining roommates Suzanne Ferris and Mary and Jordan returned as well. Oh my God. So thinking quickly, he brandished his gun and forced them into the bedroom

off the living room as well. I can't imagine one experiencing this from the very start and then two, walking into this scenario. Yeah. And you just can't even like fathom it. You're like, what? Like how did this happen? How your life changes in a split second like that? Like who's like

those two girls are probably coming from? class or shopping or running errands. Just coming home. You're just coming home for the night and you think your day is ending. And this motherfucker is in your house doing this. Like, that's so scary. You should all know now that none of the victims in the other room survive except one. Oh, man.

There's one survivor to this. One. That's unreal. So it's impossible to know exactly how things unfolded in that room. We can rely on Cora, her testimony, because she's. is the one that survives. Yeah. And the coroner's report to piece together, you know, a little bit of an accurate picture of what happened in there.

But from the bedroom, the other women could only just sit there and listen as he just unsheathed his knife and drove it into Pamela Wilkening's chest, killing her almost immediately because it severed her pulmonary artery. Oh, wow. And they're just tied up listening to this. Uh-huh. And once Pamela was dead, there was no turning back. this guy is now a killer and now he has to get rid of witnesses. So the man returns to the bedroom

where he locked all of the roommates and he took them from the room one by one and killed them. Just like... First it was Suzanne Ferris who he stabbed at least 18 times before strangling her to death. Then it was Marianne Jordan who he stabbed multiple times including

once in the left eye. Oh! According to the coroner, her cause of death was from a stab wound directly to her heart, but the coroner couldn't tell when the fatal wound was administered. So she could have been alive when she was stabbed in the eye. That's awful to think about. Yeah. And finally, he killed Nina Shimala,

who he stabbed three times in the neck before ultimately strangling her to death. It's crazy that he's also switching off between stabbing and strangling them. Yeah. and that he has the, like, not, I don't want to say strength, but like the wherewithal to be able to do that. Like that many times over it over. The stamina, exactly. Yeah. And it's also, he's choosing two very intimate ways to kill someone.

And he has a gun. Yeah. And it's like, I guess he just brought that to get them like to do what he said. And just think about it. From the other room, they're all just listening helplessly as their friends are murdered one by one. Yeah. And knowing that they're next. It's just going to come in and get you.

Not knowing exactly who is going to be next either. Eventually, I'm being let out there to die. Yeah. Because I'm bound and I can't help myself. What are you going to do? Like many months after this, Cora would tell the investigators from the district attorney's office that despite the absolute fucking horror show that was happening out there,

she said there were no screams, no sounds of violence. In fact, Cora recalled that if she didn't know otherwise, she never would have expected her roommates were being systematically and brutally killed just feet from where she was. That's unreal. It was like eerie silence. How? Because a lot of the times he was stabbing them in like the neck and shit so that like they couldn't immediately.

It only sank in when after killing the first three women, this man now fucking covered in blood came back to the bedroom where he'd left the others and started bringing them into the room as well. So now they're seeing this man come back, covered in more and more blood each time. That's a nightmare. Like, you can't make that shit up. Yeah. First was Valentina Passione, who was stabbed in the neck. She was followed by Merlita Gargulo, who was also stabbed in the neck before being strangled. Then he came for Patricia Matusik, who died of strangulation, but not before, and this is fucking terrible.

Before, so she died of strangulation, but not before she was kicked. in the stomach so hard that her stomach began to hemorrhage. What? Yeah. Do you know how hard you have to kick someone in the fucking stomach to do that? I can only imagine. It was during one of these times that Cora, thinking quickly, managed to stuff herself as far back under one of the beds as she could, hoping that he wouldn't detect that she was gone. Like maybe he didn't count or something.

Right. And in fact, when he returned, he seemed so singularly focused and in like a rampage state, like he seemed to like, a rampage state. like he seemed like a fucking animal at this point, that he didn't notice that one of the six original women was now missing from the room. That's, yeah, wow. Yeah. Imagine how you would feel in that moment,

realizing like, okay, I got away with this, but also exactly what you're about to say. How long did she sit there? So, well, first he grabs Gloria Davy by the arm and drags her away. And when the bodies were discovered, Gloria was the only one who hadn't suffered any stab wounds. her cause of death was listed as strangulation.

So maybe I would say like maybe he was exhausted by this point, but strangulation takes more strength than stabbing does. Maybe he just, that's what he decided on. Yeah. Now, from her hiding spot under the bed, Cora just lay there fucking terrified. Every muscle is tensing in her body as she's listening to him,

now any total fucking animalistic frenzy, rummaging around the townhouse, looking for valuables and cash. Like just ripping shit apart. And she's just sitting there being like, is he going to look under the bed next? Right. And realize. She wouldn't remember precisely when he left the house.

How about she? They think it wasn't very long after midnight. And once he thought everyone in the house was dead, that's when he left, apparently. Like, he thought he had gotten everyone. He got everything he could out of there. But still, Cora was so fucking terrified that she still didn't make a sound and she didn't move from her spot under the bed. So she stayed silently pressed up against the wall

under the bed bound until 5 a.m. Wow. This was not even midnight, essentially. So, like, hours and hours. And she said she was literally sitting there just staring straight ahead, dead silent, just in a state of terror for hours. She had to have been in shock.

And then the alarm clock starts going off at 5 a.m. Because that's when the nurses would have started their day. Mm-hmm. Imagine how jarring that sound must have been in that house. In the silence of that house, that alarm going off to, start the day. Now, she's terrified that the man is still in the house at this point. She doesn't know. She didn't hear him leave. She doesn't know what's going on. So she still lays there completely still

for another hour before crawling out from under the bed. And just listening to that alarm go off over and over. She said this was such a scary part because she said it was like eerie silence when usually in the morning when that alarm goes off. She's like, it's laughter. It's us talking about our day. It's us getting ready. It's showers starting. Its makeup being done. Its hair stuff being like, and it was just dead silent. It's so sad. And she said, but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw when she walked out of that room. And she said she crept slowly down the hall towards her own bedroom at the front of the house. And she said, every single place she looked, it was just horror. It was just blood. It was horror. And she said scattered throughout the entire house

with the bodies of her roommates, mutilated, motionless, just everywhere. Oh, my God. And this isn't like, no matter what, you come out of the room and you see one murdered person. That's going to change you forever. I can't even fathom that. Seeing this many. And these are all your friends.

Like, multiple, multiple friends brutally mutilated out there. And you're the sole survivor. You can't even fathom that. You can't even write that. You can't. That's it. I was just going to say it's something that you would see in a movie. be. Kora did her best to just look straight ahead down the hall. She was just focused on her bedroom

door. And finally she gets in there and closes her door behind her. And then she ran to the open window and pushed the screen out into the ground below. And she climbs out the window, crawled onto a two-foot ledge about 10 feet off the ground. And she said she was cowering there because she was scared to yell. Oh. So she said she finally broke her silence and screamed, help me, help me. Everyone is dead. I am the only one alive on the sampon. Now a sampon is a kind of flat-bottomed boat that's common in east and southeast Asia. So in her mind, in her shock and trauma, she was back in the Philippines fleeing one of the violent insurrections that ironically had caused her to seek a better life in the United States in the first place. Oh my God. So she was like fully transported back to like literal like war and

insurrection. What your brain in your body does in times of stress and times of just like, I don't even know what to. There's no words to describe this situation. It's remarkable what your brain does. I'm the only one alive on the sampon. Like she fully was like, that's where I am. Horrifying. And just for her to even be scared to yell. Like, which everyone's been in like a situation where they don't want to make any noise and like you think about it and you're like, oh my God, I'd be scared to scream right now. Yeah. You know. I mean like thinking or like watching a movie and being like, I don't think I can yell in that situation because I'd be so scared. This is one of those. To actually be faced with it though. That's the thing. Now a few houses away, Betty Windmiller was standing out on her back porch and she heard Cora's cries for help. So Betty ran around the front of her house and ran directly into her neighbor Robert Hall who was out walking the dog. And the two ran down the street in the direction of the screaming and found Cora perched on the ledge outside her second story window. What a sight.

And she kept repeating over and over, my friends are all dead, all dead, all dead. And she just kept yelling it. And by then, others had come out of their houses to see what was happening. And they came over to try to help calm Cora while Win Miller and Hall called for the police. Now, just by chance, a patrol car

was driving through the neighborhood around the time Cora's neighbors placed the call. So it was very quick. I know. It happens a lot. Now, searching around the outside of the house, Officer Daniel Kelly found the back door of the house unlocked, with one of the screen panels on the door having been pushed out.

Inside, Kelly discovered exactly what had driven Cora to be hanging out on a ledge on her second story. In the living room, Kelly found Gloria Davis's nude body face down on the couch. So also, he had definitely sexually assaulted more of these women. Yeah. He recognized her immediately as the sister of his former girlfriend. Oh, my God. Which must have been...

That's next level shit, yeah. And still, he just had to keep going. Yeah, it's his job, man. Now, the rest of the horror awaited him on the second floor. Just outside the doorway to Cora's room, Marianne's body lay on the floor. A vicious knife wound, very visible on her chest. Right next to Marianne was the body of Suzanne Ferris.

Her clothing was torn. Like, whoever killed her had tried to remove it by cutting it away with a knife. It was like sheared away. Yeah. There were several slashes and stab injuries visible on her neck, face, and back. In a nearby room, Pamela Wilkening's body lay on the floor. A long strip of fabric was still tied tightly around her neck. In the other bedroom at the front of the house, he found the body of Valentina lying

across the body of her friend, Merlita. Both had been stabbed repeatedly and were there were dark marks on Marlita's neck, indicating that she had been strangled. Right. And she was literally lying across the body of her friend. That's just... So either like she tried to crawl away

or he placed her there. Which both are horrifying. Yeah. Now, Nina Shemala's body was on the bed and she also had been stabbed repeatedly and strangled. And Kelly found the body of Patricia Matusik on the floor in the bathroom with large, dark abrasions on her neck.

With the exception of Gloria Davy and Mary and Jordan, all the victims were still bound around the wrists and ankles. which take that what you will. By the time he'd found the last body, Daniel Kelly had already called for backup in a full forensic team. He told the dispatcher what he'd discovered there,

but none of them, not even the most hardened senior homicide detectives at this point, were it all ready for what they were going to find there. I don't know how you would ever begin to prepare yourself to walk into something like that. Nobody was walking in here being like, oh, you know, typical day on homicide. Like they were like, what the fuck?

No. Now, when homicide detectives arrived there a short time later, they were greeted by a big throng of reporters who'd beaten them to the crime scene. Nice. And all of them, police and reporters alike, were traumatized by what they'd seen. In an article describing his experience, Daily Calumet reporter, Tom Hollitz wrote, I entered the residence of the eight slain student nurses. It was silent. There were other newsmen milling about in the back bedroom.

I walked in and saw that the room had been torn up. Women's undergarments, prayer books, and assorted coins were on the floor. I walked into the front bedroom. It was then that I wanted to vomit, but held back. There was blood everywhere. I just stared. Now, the officers on the scene were equally shaken by what they saw that day. Commander Edward Sheehe told a reporter,

I've seen bodies before. I don't know why I'm upset. I'm shaking. Like, I think even he was like, I usually I can handle this, but like, I'm fucked up. Like the other officials at the scene, Edward Chee, he had little to tell the press at this time other than say it was a massacre. It's a nightmare. He's like, I don't have anything else to say to you. This is fucking terrible.

Now, because of the scale of the carnage here, investigators immediately assume that the murders were definitely done by more than one person. Like there's just the scale of the carnage, the amount of women that were killed. Right. And like this small area, no one would think this was one person. That makes perfect sense. It seemed completely impossible that a single person could control nine adults. Yeah.

Long enough to murder each of them. Like, that's wild. Yeah. Now, at a glance, it was clear to detectives that whether it was one man or ten, the killer or killers, had some point clearly escalated to the point of absolute fucking frenzy. Yeah. The bedroom where the original six women had been held was completely trashed. Belongings, clothing, other items just thrown around the room, like really. whipped up, just frenzy.

Just picturing somebody lose control, like, that is so scary. And Cora was under a bed during this. Yes, she heard everything, start to finish, everything. Everything. Purses were, pocketbooks were turned upside down. Their contents was everywhere all over the floor. Any cash or valuables was stolen. Despite the chaotic state of the house,

there was also little physical evidence, actually, to be found anywhere that would help them. That's crazy. As far as investigators could tell, everything that had been tossed around the bedrooms belonged to the eight women who lived there and told them nothing about the killer or killers. There was, however, one item discovered that probably didn't belong there. It was on a desk in the living room. They found a man's white t-shirt that was sweat-stained.

Gross. But curiously free of any blood stains. Oh? Yeah. So I don't know. Yeah, that's weird. Did you just like leave a shirt there? Just left a shirt there.

Elsewhere in the house, they collected more than 30 fingerprints from the walls, the furniture, personal items, and the bodies themselves. Outside on the front lawn, they discovered tire tracks from a car that appeared to have sped away from the scene. Otherwise, there was really little to be found that could explain what the fuck happened there the previous night, and especially not tell them who did it. Now, the best lead detectives had, it seemed, was their only surviving witness, Cora. She had been in the house when the whole thing happened and could presumably describe the killers and hopefully give some like crucial details that they needed to try to get any kind of lead. But also who remember, who would even remember like exactly what he looked like after all that? That's, well, by that time, Kora had been safely rescued from the second floor ledge and she was

taken to South Chicago Community Hospital, the same hospital where she and two of the others worked. Having learned of the murders, the hospital staff sent all the student nurses home because they wanted to spare them the emotional chaos of seeing their classmates' bodies. Yeah, of course. A few did choose to stay, though, because they wanted to be of some help. That's sweet. So when investigators were finally able to sit down with Cora that morning, they quickly realized that she was very much in a state of shock and far too traumatized to be of any help. Yeah. For two hours, though, they tried.

to act this absolutely devastated student nurse, anything about what had happened that night, which like... Two hours. Which like, you have to try, I guess, but it's like... Do you have to try for two hours? Well, that's the thing. If you don't...

If you don't get anything hour one, it's safe to say you're probably not going to get anything hour two. After hour one, it's like, give her... Give her some time to, you know? It's like, I get it. You know, like everybody has a job to do, but... And that you want to get fresh information. And you don't want something...

gosh forbid that she just forgets any of the crucial information. It's a hard line to walk. But if she responded, which sometimes she didn't respond at all, she was just kind of catatonic. She's in shock. All they got was like a short,

short strings of sentences, mostly in her native language was Tagalog, so they couldn't understand anyways. Ultimately, she had to be sedated, and it was several hours before they could even speak to her again, which, like, I get. That poor girl. Yeah.

So while they're waiting to talk to Cora, they started canvassing the neighborhood, just hoping that someone saw something. Unfortunately, as Cora would later tell the jury, the murders and the ransacking of the townhouse were surprisingly quiet for such a brutal crime. None of the neighbors heard anything. What? Nothing. But I mean, even like she later said how quiet it was, where he was taking everybody in. Oh, yeah. She said it was like shocking. So.

One neighbor a few doors down thought she saw a car parked in front of the neighborhood. nurse's house when she arrived home at 3 a.m. But she couldn't be sure. Also, can you imagine looking back and thinking how you spent your night when that was happening? Yeah. However many doors down. Like you're sitting there being like, I was watching a movie or like I was taking a shower. That would be such an out of body experience. It would fuck me up. That would absolutely. Like I'm just living my life completely oblivious to the absolute horror and to the fact that like people needed help. Yeah. And I couldn't help them. Yeah. I didn't even know they needed help. Like that would really throw me for a loop. Another neighbor told police that there was a, quote, strange caller at her door the day before.

But no one else had any similar experience to that. That's weird. Even the house mother, who lived in an adjacent townhouse, and was awake at the time, so that she didn't recall anything out of the ordinary that night. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah.

Now, by that afternoon, more than 150 officers were assigned to the case, pulling from officers from the robbery and homicide squads, in addition to a lot of the beat cops that they could get. By early evening, Cora had started to come out of her sedation and was finally able to speak to detectives. To their incredible surprise, the murders were committed by a single man. She was like, nope, there was no one else from that house. Cora described him as being about 25 years old. What the fuck?

Six feet tall and weighing about 170 pounds. Now, despite her trauma and shock, she walked detectives through everything that had happened as best as she could remember. From the moment she woke up to the knock on the door, to the fall. following morning when she came out from under the bed after hearing the alarm clock. She said, I thought if the man was still in the house, that would scare him off. But I wasn't sure if he had left. I waited. And when I didn't hear anything, after a while, I crawled out.

When she was asked if she could pick him out of a lineup, she said, I would recognize him. I would know if I saw him again. Which he has a very distinct face. He does. He has terrible skin. Yeah. Now, to the press and the public, investigators express confidence in their ability. to catch who was responsible for these murders.

Lead detective Michael Spiato told reporters during a press conference, I'm optimistic about some of the leads we now have in the case. But the truth was, detective said very little. Other than the description provided by Cora, which didn't really help

because it kind of described thousands of young men in Chicago at that time. Yeah. They had no idea where to start. But it's like they can't tell that to the press because you're not freak out. Now, if there was any place, in the United States where social and cultural changes of the 1960s were happening in full display

right now, it was Chicago in the summer of 1966. By this summer, it was the turbulence of the national debate over civil rights had definitely reached Chicago. And a typically pretty chill Midwestern city after police arrested a black man they believed was wanted for armed robbery. That's when things really boiled over. Yeah. People were tired of the oppression, the marginalization, and the abuse that they'd taken from police for decades at this point. And black residents of Chicago's West Side took to the streets to protest their poor

treatment. For three days between July 12th and July 15th, the majority of the Chicago Police Department was deployed to these protests. It turned out, though, that the protests, what was going on, which had stretched the department really thin at this point, also became somewhat of a benefit in the hunt. for this killer. Really? Because they were forced

to pull detectives from other departments. So the squad of officers that they got were made up of men and women with a variety of resources and skill sets. Okay.

That's really cool, actually. Yeah, that it worked out like that. And what's wild is the most valuable of these turned out to be the robbery squad. Really? Because robberies are hyper-local crimes that typically involve

the selling of stolen goods. Yeah. Robbery detectives, because of that, develop a network of contacts. both upstanding contacts and criminal contacts. Okay. They can be relied upon as a source of information in situations like this. That makes sense.

So when the large squad of investigators and officers spread out across the city, the detectives naturally engaged their networks, hitting up their informants, seeing if anyone heard anything about the murders. One of the robbery detectives had a contact who worked at a south side garage, known as a gathering spot for a lot of petty criminals. Okay. And people just like passing through. Yeah. The mechanic didn't know anything about the murders and hadn't heard anything from the men who usually hang around the garage.

But when detectives described the man based on what they'd learned from Cora, something did sound familiar to him. A few days earlier, a younger guy had been hanging around the station who fit that description. The mechanic remembered the guy because he was like, he was so fucking rude and belligerent. He was an asshole. And he's like, I remember him. According to the mechanic, the guy had said something about how he was shipping out or taking a boat somewhere. He said they'd be able to pick him out of a crowd because the tattoo on his left arm read Born to Raise Hell. Oh, God.

Fucking loose. Get a grip. The man had even left two of his bags with the mechanic while he went out to look for work at the National Maritime Union, the NMU, around the corner from the station, and he hadn't come back for them. Oh, so now they have his shit. Yeah. So the mention of the boat and the National Maritime Union made the detectives think back to the crime scene. and to the unusual knots used to bind the victim's hands and feet. Oh, shit.

After hours spent combing the streets and alleys and hitting up every contact they could think of, investigators had finally gotten a break and a potential suspect. That's a solid lead. Yep. Founded in because those knots were maritime knots. Like they are, you know, those are marines. Easily identifiable. Founded in 1937, the National Maritime Union,

functioned as a labor union where sailors and others with experience on a boat or ship could find work through assignments that were arranged by the union. Having received this tip from the mechanic, the detectives rushed over to the union building but found no one there who matched the description given by Cora. But when they spoke to the administrator on duty and gave the description, the man recalled someone who'd been in a few days earlier who matched that description. Everybody is really looking out here. We're working.

We're working. According to the man at the end, NMU, a young man matching their suspect had been in a few days earlier, and he was looking for work on a boat headed to New Orleans. Huh. Something the killer had mentioned when he gathered up the six original victims in the bedrooms. Now, as luck would have it, the trash at the NMU still hadn't been taken out from the previous few days. And after digging through the waste paper basket, the administrator was able to find the crumpled slip of paper containing the information they needed. Stop. The slip had sent the man.

to a job on a ship called the Sinclair Great Lakes, but when he arrived, there was only one bunk available, and the job had already gone to another man. The suspect returned to the NMU in a highly agitated state. Of course. And the administrator told him, if he left his information, they would do their best to find another assignment for him.

Fortunately for the detectives, this man wrote his name and a number where he could be reached on the slip. No. Suspect's name was Richard B. Speck, and the number was a direct line to his sister who lived in the city. Hello? So let's, before we get into the next part, let's go back to who Richard fucking Speck is. Yeah, I'm curious.

Hesitently. Yeah. Richard Benjamin Speck was born December 6, 1941, and he was born in Kirkwood, Illinois. A sage. He was the seventh of eight children, born to Benjamin and Mary Speck. That is so many children. The family struggled financially, but they, you know, they were resourceful. and Ben and Mary Speck managed to support themselves in their eight children, even in the hardest of times.

Through most of his adult life, Ben Speck was a farmer and a logger, and would sometimes supplement his income with odd jobs here and there. Okay. Mary Speck spent the bulk of her time raising all those children. In fact, Richard's six older brothers and sisters were considerably older than he and his younger sister, Carolyn. So Mary had her hands full far longer than would have otherwise happened if she had evenly. space them. Yeah. And when she wasn't wrapped up in family life, Mary Speck was a devout Christian who volunteered regularly with the Presbyterian Church. Okay. Unlike most marriages of the day, it was Mary, not Ben, who ruled over the house with a dominant personality. Uh-oh. Yeah. Guided by

her, by her very strong religious convictions, she set standards for how everyone, including her husband, would behave. Oh, no, mommy issues and religious trauma? Yeah. She was not above in opposing her will on everybody whenever it suited her. This all changed somewhat when Richard was six years old and his father died from a heart attack at the age of 53. Oh, wow. That's so young. Richard had been close with his father and this hit him pretty hard. He was only six. Yeah, that's fucked up. But given their financial circumstances, there was very little time to grieve this loss.

Just three years later in 1950, Mary Speck met and married Carl Lindbergh, a man she'd met on one of her many train trips back and forth to Chicago after Ben's. death. Okay. Mary had been instantly charmed by this insurance salesman. But once they were married, she learned quickly that he was nothing like Ben. While Ben was generally kind and submissive, he just went with the flow. Yeah. Carl was a, quote, hard drinking hellraiser.

Oh. With a long criminal record of fraud, forgery, and disorderly conduct. How delightful. He was quick to anger, and he didn't hesitate to resort to violence if he had been drinking. Damn. That's like the step. dad way. Yeah, the stepdad from hell. Yeah. Now, following the marriage,

Mary moved to Texas to live with Carl, while Richard and Carolyn were sent to live with his oldest sister, Sarah, in Chicago so he could complete the third grade. The third grade. Throughout this time, Richard was remembered as being, quote, a very good boy who got along well with his peers and his sister.

This all changed, though, when the school year came to an end, and Richard and his sister moved to be with their mother in Texas. And once again, Carl Lindberg proved to be the antithesis of Richard's biological father. Lindbergh was physically and emotionally abusive to Richard, and within a very short period of time, the effects of that abuse were very noticeable to his teachers. You can fuck a kid up real easy.

His eighth grade teacher said he was sort of sulky, but he didn't talk back. Over time, he withdrew himself, he became isolated, failing to make any friends. His teacher later said, he seemed sort of lost. I don't think I ever saw him smile. I wasn't able to teach him anything. Did you try to? Which is just like really sad. In 1957, spec enrolled in Crozier Technical School and managed to earn no credits in his first semester, even failing Jim. Bitch, how do you fail Jim?

Yeah. Even I didn't fail Jim. When the next semester started, he didn't bother to return to school. Instead, he just started engaging in criminal behavior and was picked up by the police very frequently for vandalism and pretty theft, which he didn't have a, you really didn't have a shot. Like, unfortunately, he just did not. have a shot. You feel bad for the kid version.

Now, six years later, Carl Lindbergh divorced Mary Speck, but as far as Richard was concerned, the damage had already been done. I mean, yeah. By then, he'd begun hanging out with an older group of young men, many of whom had already amassed a very long criminal history, and they all spent their lives drinking, gambling, fighting, doing just like dumb shit. Raisin hail! Raisin hail! He was born to do it. During this time, he started supporting himself through petty theft, breaking into homes, stealing whatever valuables he could find lying around in people's houses. Now, as far as criminals went, Richard Speck was not sophisticated, I would say. But he really didn't need to be. All he needed was enough to get by. Like he wasn't

looking to do any like big heist or anything. At the same time, his behavior on the street was becoming more and more aggressive. In 1965, Speck and a friend were arrested for beating a 15-year-old boy and cutting his face. What the fuck? Yeah. A few months later, Richard was arrested after police found him crouched outside the window of a house that he intended to burglarize carrying a screwdriver in his pocket. I'm sorry, what? When they asked him what he needed the screwdriver for, he answered, I always carry a screwdriver. Oh, okay. Yeah. As one does. What the fuck? What the he looked at them like they were crazy? He's like, you don't have your screwdrivers tonight, fellas? Yes. No big deal. Um, so how old is he now? He's, he's like 23 at this point. 24. Yeah,

depending on who you? During this period of criminality, he also made time for, I would say women, but no, girls. No. Including a 15-year-old girl. No. Named Shirley Malone, who he dated briefly. That's not dating. Who he groomed and was a predator.

Assaulted, probably. When Mary Speck discovered that Shirley had become pregnant, she demanded that her son marry this girl. So in 1962, they married at City Hall. married and with a child on the way, Richard and Shirley moved in with Richard's mother, but that didn't last long. Married to a child with a child all the way. Between Richard's hard drinking

and his tendency to lose jobs every four minutes, the couple were soon kicked out of his mother's house and spent several months moving around from one apartment to another. Oh, that poor girl. In July, Shirley gave birth to their daughter, Robbie, but by then, the relationship had completely deteriorated and followed apart.

And rather than continue following her deadbeat husband, around one tenement to another, she chose to return to her parents' house. By this time, the relationship had become physically abusive, including one time where Richard threw a knife at Shirley and hit her in the leg. What the fuck? So she was like, I don't really see a reason to stay with you. I'm out. Yeah.

Now, while their relationship may have ended, Shirley's connection to Richard through their daughter meant that she could never sever. All ties to him. In the years after that, Richard not only harassed and frequently terrorized Shirley, but also Shirley's parents, Ida and Albert Malone. Dude, what are you doing? In addition to frequently making inappropriate and wildly disrespectful sexual comments

to his mother-in-law, he would often threaten them with guns and other weapons, including an incident in 1965, where he twice attacked Ida Malone with a knife while her husband and daughter were out of the house. It was only after Ida grabbed a knife and shouted, I'll make you eat that knife. That Richard finally retreated.

That's what we call queen shit. A bad bitch. She said, I'll make you eat that fucking knife. He retreated and threatened to kill her as he left the house. It's like, yeah, you're going to kill me while you retreat because I told you to eat that knife. Swallow that knife. It just reminds me of Southern Charm when Catherine says, I hope you fall on enough.

Why don't you fall on enough? That's the most intense thing to say. It's a crazy thing to say. Now finally in January, 1966, after years of abuse from her. Richard, the Malones brought their daughter to the courthouse and formally filed for divorce and requested sole custody of their child. The divorce was not contested and it was granted on the spot. God, I thought you're going to say not granted. The next day, Shirley married Tinker Frazier, a man she'd been seeing for several months. And just before the divorce was filed, Richard visited

Shirley one final time and begged her to reconsider. Shirley, baby, no. When she refused, he pathetically asked if he could borrow her car before exiting their lives forever. What a deadbeat. What a deadbeat. That's such ex-husband behavior. Such a fucking loser. Please get back with me. Please, please, please. Can I borrow the car?

If we're not going to get back together, could I use your car? She's like, fuck off. It reminds me of driving in cars with boys. Now between 1961 and 1966, Richard bounced between jobs, apartments, even penitentiaries. Hey. It was really the latter of the three where he seemed most comfortable and out of use, to be honest. Isn't that so, like, I don't feel bad for him, but isn't that such a sad concept? It is that he means to be.

to be locked up. And that some people are more comfortable in that scenario. It's a sad state of being. More comfortable in that scenario where all of your creature comforts are taken away from you. Exactly. Now, in the real world, there were so many variables and social norms to be navigated. But in prison, he knew what was expected of him. It felt like it's simplified.

Okay. Yeah, I guess that. He doesn't do well with complex thoughts and complex ideas and notions. he needs it simple as fuck you get up you eat your food you go back in your cell you you brush your teeth and you go to sleep like that's that's what he needed that's so sad and also he didn't have to be anything other than what he truly was which by this point according to one former employee was quote careless troublesome and dishonest you could be that in prison imagine people they're like hey what are three words that describes this person and that's what they choose careless troublesome dishonest I'd be like damn I should probably do some inner work. No, in the fall of 1966, after yet another stretch in prison for forgery this time, Richard Speck was released from jail and accepted an invitation from his sister Carolyn, who remember had taken care of him when he was little to join her and her husband in Chicago.

And remember, when he was living with Carolyn, he was good. He was happy. But he was also like, he was doing well. But still, like he was, I think like, well, obviously she was a good influence. I think it really went downhill when he moved to Texas with his. mom and his stepfather. Because he was being abused. Now, at that time, Richard had promised his sister and just about anyone else who still spoke to him that he was ready to give up his hard, hard living life and straighten his shit out. And all he needed was a place to stay. Well, he got himself a job and got back on his feet. He didn't want to do this anymore. And of course you want to do that for your sibling when you're telling you, they're promising you the world. Yeah. Now, unfortunately, it turned out that Richard's promises to get his life together were just another empty shit can promise. And within a few weeks, of arriving in Chicago, he'd spent most of his time and money, getting drunk and hanging around downtown. So, Carolyn was just trying to help him out and be a good big sister, just like she had done when he was,

I mean, she took, that's her little brother who's like in third grade. And his mom and his stepdad were just like, bye, we're going to Texas. You can live with your sister in Chicago. Yeah. And like just abandoned, like straight up. We're like, you take care of them. Yeah, she sounds like she was more of a mom. She probably just tried to step in. And like at this point, she's like, I'm trying. I did my again, but like I did my best. And that's where we are going to end for part one, because then we are going to get into his arrest

for the murders of the nurses in Chicago in 1966. Okay. But that is Richard Speck so far. Wow, that was a whirlwind. Yeah. And I can only imagine what part two will be. And we've caught up to where we are now in

1966, we've caught up to. He is now living with Carolyn, his sister, in Chicago. He's promising, the world and he's still being a shitbag. I have a feeling that he does more shitbag things. Yes, I mean, he definitely does. All right. Well, with that being said, we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you. Keep it. Weird. But not so weird that you're just born to race hell. Oh, fucking Luther.