Morbid - Richard Speck The Student Nurse Murders Part 2

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. 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 Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. Yeah, y'all. Morbid. It's a part two. Part two and we're one day closer to a twilight episode. Yes, which we will desperately need after this. I know. Actually, that'll be like perfect. We get a twilight episode, which will be coming out on the 14th. 14th because you guys said if you don't do that twilight episode that you mentioned, We will revolt in the streets. You guys said you were going to beat us up and twist us upside down and steal our lunch money. Exactly. And we said, don't have to tell me twice.

We said, fine. I'm very excited for our Twilight bonus. And it's a bonus episode. It's not a regular episode. It's a bonus episode, calm down. Just in case that wasn't clear. Honestly, I think everybody was excited anyway. Yeah.

Well, I'm so excited for that. I can't even say too many things because then I'll just start talking about it and it will just be the episode. We've got to save it all. We also have a super special guest that's going to be on the show next week. Yeah. This week? This week. Thursday. What is time? What is time? And you know, you'll just hear that when you hear it, but we love this guest.

She's great, and I am excited to see her again. I'm very excited to see her again. It's going to be really fun. It's going to be super fun. It's going to be so fun. You know what's not fun? What? Richard Speck. Not fun at all. Yeah. That is not fun. At all. Uh-uh. He's horrible. Yeah, part one really rocked my shit. Yeah. I figure, part Part one, there was just a lot to take in. Yeah, there was a lot. There was much. It's a brutal crime.

It's an unbelievable crime. And he's a sad, pathetic person. Yeah, he really is. Who is also evil and dastardly and irredeemable. Truly, I think irredeemable is a perfect word to describe him. Great adjective, you little writer over there. Thank you. What do you write books or something?

I do. Tinyurl.com slash the butcher in the round. Don't go there. It doesn't exist. I was going to say it's not a thing anymore. I just like to say it. It's called a vocal stem. Look it up. I do love that.

So many vocal stems. Oh, yeah. So many. Another one is, Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And honey the land. Honey the land. People keep messaging me,

Honey the bangs. Honey the bang. Because I love that. I was like, I don't think we could do Honey the land merch because it's not our quote. But I was like, could we do like Honey the Land dash dash Sylvia? Dash, Sylvia. I like that.

In memoriam? In memoriam of silver brown. Probably not. Silver brown. Silver brown. That's how you say it quick. Silver brown. Silver brown.

I don't think we can do that. No, but we can keep saying it. I wish. We'll continue to say it. And you guys can keep saying it because it's funny. I might put that on my grave someday. Honey the land. Honey the grave.

I say it about everything now. Yeah, you got to. So when we, you know, when we left you and Pat one, Richard Speck had done some awful shit. Yeah. He had killed. These women, by the way, were like, between the ages of, like, 21 and 23. Yeah, they're super young.

Their careers are just starting. Right before graduation, too. They were, like, months away, like, weeks away. And to think all the work that they had put into that. Yeah, for the rest of their lives. Mm-hmm. And this is how it ends. It just pisses me off.

And to think that some of them had escaped, like, very dangerous situations in different countries. To come here, to be safe. Yeah. And then they meet this fucking. nasty little fucking shit goblin Richard Speck. Like, oh, he's so gross. So when we last left you, that's what happened. They had, though,

ended up finding a lead through like a very interesting little avenue of like having to take some resources from different parts that were not just the direct Chicago Police Department. Very boots on the ground. Very boots on the ground. Very boots on the ground. Very boots on the ground. And it was the robbery squad. That was the that ended up having the kooky contacts to make this happen. Not the kooky contacts.

And it was also people not taking out the trash, which is pretty sick. Don't take out your trash. That happens so frequently. I never know when they are going to take my trash. If you question, if you're sitting there and your gut says, you know, and I don't feel like taking out that trash today, don't do it. Don't do it. There's a reason. Because I think it's telling you something.

Everything happens for a reason. Yeah. And they had through this whole little process of, you know, going to this mechanic who deals with a lot of petty criminals, and then finding out that this guy had been in there who was a dick face to him and had left two of his bags there. They were able to follow that

to the NMU, which is a union for people who work on like ships and boats and shit, and they can get them assignments and jobs. They ended up going there. The guy, the administrator there was like, oh yeah, I think I remember a guy like that. We'd send him on a job. He didn't get it. He was pissed. He wrote down all of his

fucking information. And I crumpled it up and put it in the trash, because He was a piece of shit. What an idiot. And this is a goddamn job to begin with. I know I love that he didn't even get a job. He just threw that shit right in the trash. And then he was able to pick up that crumple piece of paper and say, well, actually, his name is Richard B. Speck.

And here's a direct line to his sister Carolyn who he is living with currently. A. Poor Carolyn. And we told you that Carolyn was the one. I don't know. Oh. She's his big sister. I don't know.

What happened? But she just, you know, she's trying to, she took him in. She was trying to help him out. Don't make me mad at Carolyn. And just, you know, I think she just, I think she wanted him to be a better person than she was. She had blinders on. I think she had a lot of blinders on. So he's living there right now.

He's currently drinking. He's still getting into trouble. He had promised her he was going to be a better person and he just wasn't. So based on what detectives had learned from that administrator at the NMU, they knew that that's where he was staying. And from the look of things, he was trying to get out of the city as fast and as soon as possible. because who they talked to, this guy was looking to get on a boat and he was looking to go to New Orleans. Yeah.

It certainly helped that they now had a name to go with the detailed description from Cora and now the sketch made by a police sketch artist. But they still had to tread carefully when it came to releasing this information to the press. Now, earlier that year, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Miranda v. Arizona, you might know it.

I think I've heard of it. It had cast a spotlight on police abuses of power during criminal interviewing and both the district attorney and investigators on the case worried that if they posted the sketch in the paper or mentioned spec by name, that might be caused for the case to be completely thrown out in court. Yeah, that's scary. What they needed was some piece of evidence that conclusively connected spec to the murders and made him an irrefutable suspect. Now, at the NMU office, investigators decided to set a trap to try to lure spec to the officer where they could take him into custody.

Okay. The administrator placed a call to Carolyn's apartment, his big sister, where they spoke to her husband, who informed them that he hadn't seen Richard all day. Okay. The administrator asked the man to relay a message to Richard, telling him they had a job for him on the Sinclair Great Lakes, but they needed him to come into the office as soon as possible. Smart. So the trap is laid, and a large number of undercover officers waited in the NMU office posing us sailors. I love a trap. And they waited anxiously for their suspect to arrive.

Because they knew that he's probably their guy. Yeah, I mean, everything is lining up too perfectly. Now, while detectives work to lure spec into the NMU office, analysts at the Chicago Police Department have been doing their best to track down Speck's fingerprints. If they were able to find a set of prints, they hoped they could match them to the prints found in the townhouse, and that would allow them to publicly identify him as a suspect and release his name in the sketch. Yeah.

As luck would have it, the FBI headquarters that Spex Prince were on file from an earlier arrest. in Texas, so they already had them. But in a time before fax machines and email, the only way to get the prints from Washington, D.C. to Chicago, was either drive them or send them by air. Oh, man. At the time, there was an ongoing airline strike across the country. And flights out of D.C. were grounded until further notice,

putting investigators in a pretty tough pickle. Yeah. Back at the N.M.U. office, the phone rang just a little after 5 p.m., and when the administrator answered, it was Richard Speck calling about the job. Oh, God. This man just murdered eight women. And now he's like, a job, you say?

Thanks. I'm getting out of here. The man reiterated the details. It was a last-minute job in the Sinclair Great Lakes. And if Speck wanted the work, he needed to come down to the office that afternoon and get the assignment. Speck told the man he'd take the job and promise he'd be there soon. But hours passed and he didn't show up. After several hours, it occurred to investigators that Speck might be. be on to their plan. Oh, shit. In fact, when he spoke to the man from the NMU, the administrator told

Speck the job was on the Sinclair Gate, Great Lakes. The exact name of the ship's spec had been previously assigned to and was passed over for someone else. If he had caught the name, he probably would have known that that ship already left port, which would have been a strong indication that this was a trap. That's not a good way to lay your trap. Use a different chip. You have to have everything planned out. So now certain that spec was on to them. Chicago officers and detectives spread out across the city again, this time with a clear understanding of who they were looking for. The problem was, though, that with the ongoing protests and the general policing that was occurring at the same time, messages and alerts didn't always get relayed. Case in point, in the early evening of July 16th,

two beat cops received a call from dispatch about a man at a local hotel with a gun. The officers arrived at the hotel and were told by the front desk clerks that the room was registered to a David Staten. But when they went up to the room, the man inside identified himself as Richard Speck. Having not been directly involved in the investigation of the student nurses, the officers had no way of knowing the suspect had been named. Please tell me you're kidding. So they simply gave Speck a verbal warning and confiscated the gun, allowing Speck to slip from their fingers yet again. Shut up. When the news of the check of the hotel reached homicide detectives, they raced to the hotel, but by the time they got there, he was gone.

And they said, you fucking idiots! Yeah. For the second time in one day, the killer of eight innocent young women had managed to slip away into the city. What are the odds? And investigators were starting to think that they might lose their chance to catch him. If he managed to get through the roadblocks and make it out of Chicago, they were to find him. Their best bet remained the fingerprints and the sketch. And finally, that afternoon,

they caught a lucky break. Despite the ongoing airline strike, a pilot with American Airlines volunteered to fly the fingerprints from Washington, D.C. to Chicago. Hell yeah, brother. Once they received the prints, two analysts work through the night, analyzing the set by hand and comparing them to the prints found at the house. That is too cool. Too cool. To think about people analyzing fingerprints before you could just like plug it into a database. It's bit by bit. So fucking cool. And they worked all night to make sure these were like those two are bad asses. By the next morning, they were able to confidently and conclusively match the prints at the scene to Spex prints from the FBI file. And detectives rushed to get the sketch of Speck onto the front page of every newspaper that morning,

along with the description of his born-to-race-Hale tattoo. No. Now, as soon as the description and identification of Speck went out, calls started flooding into the Chicago Police Department. most were misidentifications or, you know, of little about you basically. But there were a few who claimed to have seen or spoken with Speck at local bars in the days before and immediately after the murders. And they said those are probably correct because that guy drinks. He drinks. One man, Claude Lunsford, told investigators that he had been drinking with Speck a few nights earlier on the fire escape of the Star Hotel.

He remembered that tattoo on his arm and the gun he had been carrying that night. That's such a clawed story. It really is such a Claude story, right? Yeah. On like the fire escape of a bar. Yeah. That's just Claude doing a clod. Yeah. That's right. You know, just clod things. Where Claude hangs. Find yourself a clod and he'll have a story. I know it. That is at the start hotel.

While officers fielded calls that morning, Dr. Leroy Smith was on his break at County Hospital, where he was casually flipping the newspaper and he read the description of the suspect and the tattoo. moments later Dr. Smith was called into surgery to help a young man who had been brought to the hospital with what appeared to be superficial cuts on his wrist from a half-hearted attempt to end his life. As Smith was wiping the blood away from the young man's arm, he recognized the tattoo on that left arm that read Born to Raise Hail. Stop it.

And realized the man on the hospital gurney was none other than Richard Speck. Stop. The most wanted man in Chicago. And he obviously knew that the police were on. his ass. Thank goodness he read the paper that morning. Wow. Dr. Smith called for hospital security, who kept an eye on spec until homicide detectors were able to get to the hospital and they placed him under arrest for murder. Shut up. So he basically walked right into it. Yeah. Now when the news broke of the arrest, the residents of Chicago heaved a collective sigh of relief because, remember,

they're all terrified. Yeah. This guy walked into a fucking house at night and massacred. And massacred, eight women. Like, come on. It's shocking, like absolutely shocking to me that he had never murdered before. They're all terrified.

And think about Cora. Cora's fucking terrified. She's the only one that survived. She's sitting there being like, is he going to come find me? And that's the thing he's seen her face. Yeah. Sergeant John Griffith told press immediately after he was taken

into custody of the hospital. There's no doubt that this is spec. Later that morning, Cora was brought to the hospital where she viewed spec through a two-way mirror and she confirmed that he was the killer, telling detectives, this is the man. What a brave fucking girl. What a badass.

Truly. Yeah. Like, that's really brave. After everything she went through and everything she heard, having to be sedated. And she's still traumatized. That's the thing. She had to be sedated after this. Oh, yeah.

Now, in their press conference following the positive identification, police superintendent O.W. Wilson said, I feel we have enough evidence to convict him. We have physical evidence placing him in the building. and we have positive identification from an intended victim. As far as I'm concerned, there's no question but that this is the man. More positive identifications followed, including those from the National Maritime Union and various bars and hotels where Richard had been seen before and after the murders occurred. Okay.

The next day, July 18th, spec was arranged for the murders, but the prosecutor was hesitant to rush the case to a grand jury. Given how much scrutiny the courts and law enforcement had been under with regard to the of the accused, State's attorney Daniel Ward told the press that they would be proceeding with an abundance of caution and making sure the case was airtight before presenting into a grand jury. Would you understand? Yeah, they don't want this guy getting released again.

No. Jesus Christ. And he's been in and out of the system forever. Yeah. And so Ward said, we anticipate going to the grand jury this week with the case. Although Speck is presently under sedation, we plan to have him appear in felony court. In fact, more than three weeks passed before investigators were even given approval to interview spec.

But eventually, Ward presented the evidence to a grand jury with a small but pretty significant amount of circumstantial evidence behind him. Among other things, they were presented

with the fingerprint evidence that linked him to the crime scene, Cora's positive identification of him as the killer, and various others who testified, including William Kirkland, who told the jury

he'd bought a 12-inch hunting knife from Speck at a downtown bar just hours after the murders were committed. Stop it. bought the fucking knife from him. Hours.

Hours later. According to Kirkland, we were sitting there talking and Speck brought the knife out and began talking about it. I asked him if he wanted to sell it, offered him a dollar, and he handed me the knife. A dollar? A dollar. Because he wanted to get rid of that murder. Yeah. That should have been like a red flag

for that guy. Yeah, I would say so. Now the grand jury voted to indict Richard Speck on eight counts of first degree murder, but the road to the trial was going to be long and filled with delays. For one, Spex attempted suicide, no matter how sincere or insincere, was evidence of a deep depression that would surely hinder his ability to aid in his own defense, unfortunately. At the time,

there was still a great deal of concern, again, over the rights of the accused. So the prosecutor's office is saying, unless everything's done completely by the book, there's a chance that one little technicality is going to get us, and we're just not walking into that. Good for them to be so... So careful. Yeah. Because this is just like, we don't... We don't need the verdict overturned. No. And an appeal, we don't need some technicality cutting this short. We got to send him away for good.

To walk out that door and do it again. Yeah. As a result, the preparation for the trial took months, as both sides ready for what would surely be the biggest trial of the year. Oh, yeah. In the meantime, Richard Speck sat in jail waiting for the trial to begin. Between July 26, 1966 and February 17th, 1967, he was held at Kermak Memorial Hospital in the Chicago House of Corrections.

and he was being treated for depression and suicidal ideation. Also, according to Dr. William Norcross, there was, quote, an 80% chance that Speck had suffered a coronary thrombosis on the morning of his arraignment. So he required treatment for that as well. Dang. During this time, he participated in twice weekly sessions with a psychiatrist, Dr. Marvin Zaporin, who would go on to write a book about his experience with Speck. Oh, isn't that very against everything?

It isn't very against everything. Do you know what I mean? Like HIPAA? Yeah, I'm sure. But maybe do criminals not get HIPAA? Do you not get HIPAA? Hey, criminals! Do you get criminals?

You got HIPAA? No, but like, you know what I'm saying? Because I know that, like, when you're a criminal and you write a book, you can't profit off of it, like, when you're like a killer. That's, like, a newer. I know that's newer. I said that's so rude. I was like, I know that's newer. that. But no, I'm like, the psychiatrist writing about it. Isn't that like, no, isn't that bad newsbears?

I think they have to still maintain anonymity when it comes to the person that they were treating, but they can talk about their experiences without naming them. I'm fairly certain. And then everybody will just know that it's that person. And everybody will know, but like, interesting. I mean, I guess he can't sue you. It's one of those things. Or can, you know. So many legal questions. Spoiler alert. He's dead now. Okay. He's not doing shit. All right. Except for rotting wherever he is. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's what it is. All right. Anyway.

So he... Sorry, I got caught up in the minutiae. Yeah, you know, it's cool. So he wrote a book and he said later, yes, Speck was suicidal. He was emotionally unstable, impulsive, and depressive. In his early sessions, he noted that Speck's mood changed constantly through their meetings and was, quote, never the same for more than two or three minutes at a time. Wow. That's horrible.

scary. Like nearly all Americans at the time, Zipporan was desperate to find an explanation for what was an inexplicably brutal and pretty fucking senseless set of murders. Yeah. Speck had forcibly entered the house, presumably to rob the nurses, who willingly gave up their money and listened to him. Then for reasons that made no sense at the time, he just chose to brutally and systematically murder them all.

The modem was supposed to be robbery. That was pretty weak. motive for him to claim now. Especially because they all just were like sitting in a room and were bound. They all were bound. They were sitting there saying, we'll give you everything. You can take all you want. I don't give a shit. And there's a living witness to testify to that. It's like that doesn't. And so it's like after they cooperated,

why he would murder them and so brutally is beyond comprehension. Truly. Absolutely it is. But Zipporne spent months digging deep into spec psyche looking for the key that explain his actions. And there was a great deal of talk about his upbringing, the death of his father, the abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepfather, of course. Yeah. There was also the discovery that as a teenager, he might have suffered a head injury at the hands of a police officer when he was 16 years old. There it is. That's also really bad timing for the police. Yeah, that he told Saboran, I was fighting this kid. I had him on the ground, really giving it to him, and a cop came to break it up.

He broke it up, okay, cracked my head with his club till he knocked me out clean. So. Since then, Richard claimed he had been experiencing headaches, migraines, all that were like pretty debilitating. And he said he often blacked out and would awaken hours later with no memory of what had happened, which I said, wow, convenient. So yeah, here's the thing. Did that happen or did he look at the social climate and say, hey, I've been affected by big old policeman too? Yeah, and hey, I can say. And they're the reason I did this. I just blacked out.

Sometimes I close my eyes and I don't know what happened. It's crazy. It's a little too convenient. And just for good measure, Speck also included a story about falling out of a tree when he was six years old and sustaining a similar head injury. So he's bopping his head all over the place. He's like, I don't even, what, head? Who? I don't know her.

I was trying to say anything, but I couldn't stop laughing. I was like, huh? Yeah, I don't know, man. Maybe I have had injury. No, we'll never know whether Richard was telling the truth in these interviews. I'm going to go with no. We can, uh, why? Heldly speculates. It's entirely possible that he was telling the truth and that he had had injuries. I mean, hey, something was wrong with him. Some was wrong. But, you know, maybe he was fabricating the whole thing in preparation for an insanity defense. That was clearly being telegraphed by his lawyer, Cook County Public Defender Gerald Getty.

Prob, prob, prob. In preparation for the case, Getty had enlisted three well-respected psychiatrists whose opinions he hoped would override those of the prosecution's experts. In fact, Getty was in a very tricky spot. On the one hand, it was strong evidence that placed his client at the scene and a witness who repeatedly identified him as the killer. Yeah. On the other hand, an insanity defense carried some significant risks. For instance, his spec was evaluated by Getty's psychiatrist and determined to be a sociopath. It would completely undermine his insanity defense. Yep. Still, insanity was the most viable strategy at this point.

So Getty moved forward and hoped that they could convince the jury spec wasn't responsible for his act. actions. What Getty didn't know at the time was that Dr. Zaporin's evaluations and log of contacts with Speck might work in the defendant's favor. After spending months with Speck, Zeporin concluded, quote, Speck is an obsessive compulsive personality whose rigidity, ambivalence, and hostility have been accentuated by his organic cerebral pathology. In other words, Speck had an organic mental illness that had been exacerbated by his reported brain injury when he was 16. Okay. When those symptoms, were at their worst, he wrote, a patient is not responsible for his conduct, it may be completely

unaware of what he is doing. I disagree. I fully disagree. But I'm not there. You don't, we got to really take into consideration how long it must have taken him to do everything he did. He's systematically, one by one. Walk to those women out there and sexually assaulted some of them, and then brutally fucking, he himself later says, which we will get to, that strangling someone isn't like you see in the movies. You got to go at it for a good three minutes. Jesus Christ. That's literally what he says and it's on tape later.

It's also like, how do you know that if you've never done it? So I'm sorry. Because like you don't remember your blackouts. You're not responsible for your actions though. So like, how do you know that? I don't know about that. Yeah. Now this wasn't the first time the prosecutor's office had heard Zaporin's chronic brain syndrome, quote unquote.

as an explanation for criminal behavior. In fact, he presented it several times in previous criminal cases. I think, dude, come on. Never with much success. Yeah. Kind of sounds like he was, you know, trying to get that to be a thing.

And it just, it isn't a thing. It's like, maybe let's not try to make that a thing. Yeah. anticipating Zaporin and others' attempts to explain away Speck's behavior, the prosecution began building their own case to demonstrate that Richard Speck wasn't some ordinary man afflicted

with a kind of Jekyll and Hyde, syndrome. Instead, he had developed his criminal personality and cunning over many years of illegal activity and being a shit bag. It's just an asshole. Richard Speck's trial began April 3rd, 1967 in Peoria, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. In his opening statements to the jury, prosecutor William Martin, detailed the carnage that unfolded in the townhouse on the night of July 13, including eight murders, robbery, and sexual assault, all of which was committed by Richard Speck. all alone.

At no time did any of the victims attempt to fight or resist Speck because they were bound. And in fact, they willingly handed over whatever valuables they had in order to cooperate and get him to leave. But Speck didn't leave. Martin reminded the jury he chose

instead to brutally stabs, slash, and strangle everyone in that house in order to cover his tracks and get away with his crime, which also means he's sane everybody. He literally, did it to not leave a witness so he could get away with it.

And then also sold the knife afterwards, which shows that he was trying to get rid of the murder weapon. Like, hello! And Martin argued, that's the behavior of a man who knew exactly what he was doing and exactly what would happen if he was caught. As he wrapped up his opening statements, Martin reminded the jury that his office was asking for the death penalty in this case, as nothing less was appropriate for what he had done. In this scenario? Yeah, he's an animal. He is an animal. When it came time for Gerald Getty to present his case. It was as simple a defense as any had ever heard in this courthouse. He said, I don't know. He lost his head. Are you ready?

No, probably not. He told the jury, my man didn't do it. No, no, no, no, get that out of here. No. My man didn't do it. Period. Period. My man didn't do it, period. Now, at some point, he got up there with his whole chest and talking about a massacre, said, My man didn't do it. My man didn't do it. This is just your man now? My man didn't do it. That's a conflict of interest, my guy.

Here's the thing. I think at some point it became pretty clear to Getty that the insanity defense was not going to happen and probably very risky. So instead, he just chose the oldest defense in the book, which is, wasn't me? Wasn't me? He said the theory of the defense is that spec is not the perpetrator of this crime. The state will have to prove its contention beyond a reasonable doubt. Okay. Bye.

The girl who experienced it is right over there and says otherwise. Thanks. You fucking idiot. Might have been bold, given the evidence. Might have been. But he was right about one thing. It was very much incumbent upon the state to prove its case against spec. Not the other way around.

Yeah. Getty told the jury their evidence will include an eyewitness and you will have to test whether that witness is an eyewitness. What a doucheback. Which, whoa. Getty's case may have seemed like a big. risk, but the fact was the forensic evidence only indicated Richard Speck had been in the house at some point, and not necessarily during the time the women were killed, unfortunately. It was only Cora, her testimony, that identified him as the killer, and by her own admission,

she hadn't seen her roommates being murdered. She only saw the killer when he entered the house and tied everyone up. Therefore, it was entirely possible that Cora was mistaken in identifying spec or that she was so traumatized by the event that she misremembered the situation entirely. Probably not, though. That's what they would have argued. Yeah, yeah. Getty's subtle attack on the state's most important witness was to be expected, of course, and it was given a certain amount of credibility in the eyes of the public, considering that

Cora hadn't been seen or heard from since she was rescued from that scene. In fact, many... I'm sorry, they said we didn't see her in the public, so we don't know... That would only lead me to believe her more. Yeah. In fact, many reporters and speculators wondered whether Cora was even still in the United States. On the second day of the trial, those questions were put to rest, though, when the prosecution called Cora up to testify. I'm like, oh, racism. It turned out that there was a very good reason for her sudden disappearance following the murders.

Cora had been placed in witness protection by the prosecution who worried she might be a flight risk or otherwise too fragile to testify against spec. Yeah. In the end, Cora proved everyone wrong and ended up. up being William Martin's single greatest asset. Good. Good? That's a real good for her moment. I hate that the public was like,

is she even in the United States anymore? Isn't that so... Go fuck yourself. Isn't that so the public? Is that traumatized girl even in the U.S.? Probably not. Isn't that so the public though? Yes, it's so the public.

Isn't that so the public? Not the public listening right now, but the other public. Like, that's those like people on the internet who are like, Those are people before the internet. And I got to tell you, that's what you all sound like. If you're listening right now and you're not our public and you're all blah blah blah. That's what you sound like. And I know it's not you guys.

I'm saying you know. You guys know. You know those deep goblins on the internet who just have some shit to say about fucking everything. Like their fucking opinion matters, like their fucking words matter. And they just go around going, I literally just picture SpongeBobby, like in the SpongeBob text where it's like, is she even in the United States anymore? Like, okay. It's so true. Where are you exactly?

Look around. It's so, so true. It's so, so true. Oh, get a grip public. See, that's those kind of people. I love that she was like, she said, fuck y'all. Let me clear my throat. She said, listen to the public.

Fuck y'all. Good. Now, over the course of several hours, Kora answered a seemingly endless barrage of questions. and detailed precisely what she'd seen and heard on the nights of the murders, during which she frequently paused to compose herself, but never broke down. Good for her. During the course of her testimony, she described the killer's appearance, the fact that he smelled of alcohol because he's a nasty-ass drunk,

and even provided detailed descriptions of the knife and gun that were nearly an exact match. Wow. Finally, when Martin asked whether the man who committed the murders was in the courtroom, Cora rose from the witness stand, walked over to the defense's table, standing only about a foot in front of him. She extended her arm and pointed directly in Speck's face. The wham that my body just did. Her finger nearly touching his nasty little fucking nose. She said, not only am I in the U.S., you fucking asshole.

I'm like a millimeter away from him. Oh, I am still whamming. And she said loud enough for the whole court to hear, this is the man. Oh, honey. This is the man. They love to doubt a woman. And a woman loves to fuck them up, fuck them up. Y'all, fuck y'all.

Oh, good for it. That it? Corr said, bitch. Enough can't be said. Enough can't be said about the fucking survivor she is. She did that for every single one of her friends and sisters and classmates. No, I'm still whamming. It's insane.

this a few times. I have fucking goosebumps. That man like we really need to sit with this for a second. That man broke into her house. She was the one who was at the door. Yeah. She was in bed. Her to knock on the door. He knocked on the fucking door. He knocked on the door. She shoved his way in.

With a gun in her face. He gets her into a, they all run into a closet to hide. He somehow convinces them to come out. Ties her and her and her friends up. Systematically she can hear them being sexually assaulted, strangled, stabbed over and over again. And she hides underneath the bed for hours and hours and hours and hours,

then comes out to that carnage and lives to tell the fucking tale, stays in the United States, which everybody was so fucking doubtful about. And then goes into the courtroom and relives all of that. To relive all of that and then walk right up to that fucking table, literally. The snaps can't be fucking snapped enough. And to somter up to that fucking table nearly touch the tip of that little bitch's nose and go, that's the man. She said, you didn't get me. She said, and really you didn't get any of us. This one bitch.

I applaud her. I will applaud her till my dying day. She's everything. She's, Cora for life. Yeah, she's everything. And she just said it loud and proud. Good for her.

In fact, one reporter said it was a moment few in the crowded courtroom would ever forget. It was filled with the. courage that was in the diminutive four-foot-10-inch form of the sole survivor of a tragic mass murder. It's always the shorties. She's little, you got to. She is little, but she is fierce. You got to. Yeah, because everyone's going to doubt you.

Yeah, I know Little Red. Everyone's going to underestimate you, so you got to be. That's how Little Red became Big Red. That's it. She's forceful and courageous. Four-foot-10. And she walks up to that table. Good.

Good for her. Like a fucking powerhouse. And he's a six-foot-tall, like, gross-looking monster. Goblin. And she walks up a fucking powerhouse. Obsessed. Yeah. Obsessed.

It's amazing. So on April 14th, both sides gave their closing arguments. Honey, the Cora. Honey, the Cora. I said, hold on, it came to me. I was like, what? William Martin reminded the jury of all that they'd seen and heard throughout the trial. Details of his long criminal history, his propensity for violence, the irrefutable evidence that's placed him at the scene.

And Cora's power. testimony that identified Richard Speck as the killer. Gerald Getty, on the other hand, restated his argument that Speck had never been at the house on the night of the murders. He said, let me say one more time. Yeah. My man didn't do it. My man didn't do it.

That's all. The fingerprints, he argued, were just, you know, too similar to those of two people living in the house to be conclusive. Are you fucking kidding me? FBI analysts literally spent all night hand analyzing those. I'm like, hey, babe. Yeah. Do you know about fingerprints?

Yeah. Oh, and also, Speck had an alibi from two. customers at a local tavern that placed him somewhere else that night. And you know how credible two customers of a local tavern usually are. Honey. Honey. The tavern. And then Gettie just said, mistaken identity. He just said, peace. Peace. And also, I'd like you all right now. Right now. To look up a picture of Richard Speck. I shall. And then I want you to tell me if you could ever mistake that man for someone else. He's pretty fucking distinct.

Yeah. He's pretty fucking distinct. Yeah. He's foul. It's pretty distinct. He's heinous. Ultimately, the jury disagreed with Getty. After deliberating for just 45 minutes, they returned guilty verdicts on all eight counts,

each one carrying a death sentence. Wow. When the verdicts were read, Richard Speck looked up at the clerk, but otherwise registered no emotion. Is he even capable, do we think? Probably not. Detective Brian Carlyle told a reporter, it was the only verdict the jury could have reached. Noticably absent in the court that day

was the only surviving victim, Cora. Later that afternoon... She did what she needed to do. Yeah, she didn't give shit. She was like, I know what I did. Yeah. And she knew that was going to be enough to get him put away. Later that afternoon, when William Martin

called to tell Cora the news, her response was, congratulations. Period. She said, good job. She said, cool. I'm going to go about my life now. Bye. Yeah. I'm going to pretend Like, this never happened.

Now, on June 5th, 1967, Richard Speck was sentenced to die in the electric chair, pending any appeals guaranteed to him by the Constitution. In 1968, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the conviction and the sentence, and that conviction was upheld a second time on an appeal in 1971. But just one year later, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was unconstitutional. And in November, 1972, a judge in the same county, resentenced Richard Speck to between 400 and 1,200 years in prison. I don't know if that's enough. Effectively giving him a life sentence without parole. I love when judges get petty like that. That, that's delicious.

Hand sentence you to death. How about a gillian years? That's very delicious. Yeah, I really like that. That's good. The commutation of Speck's death sentence was a disappointment to some, but the fact remained that he would spend the rest of his life and several other lifetimes behind bars. And yet throughout all of the hearings and appeals, one thing remained. unsolved. Spex's motive for the murders. What the fuck? Like, why do you do this? Why did he just walk into that house one day? In the years before Charles Manson and his followers reframed the public's understanding of murder and before the FBI began researching and profiling, leading to, you know, what we understand now about this like horrifying phenomenon, the general public's perception

of murder was pretty simple. Basically, people could understand murder in the commission of a robbery, murder in a domestic violence situation and even murder in the commission of a sex crime understand is a word I can't think of another word to say it you know what I mean yeah I'm not saying they're justifying it they're saying like my brain can comprehend that that happens yeah and that people just couldn't understand

that too a messed up brain that is a reason to do that yeah yeah yeah they could at least understand that what was incomprehensible though was murder simply for the sake of murder yeah that was just not something people could wrap their brains around Which is incomprehensible, even still to this day. And again, I said like in Mind Hunter, you see them, they talk to Richard Speck in Mind Hunter. I got to rewatch that.

He was part of this whole thing. So it's like they didn't understand. They desperately wanted to understand why he did this. And honestly, we'll never understand. He's just a piece of shit. I hope someday we can figure out what happens in someone's brain. I don't know if there is a reason, though. I really don't.

There's got to be. I don't know what it could be. But the idea that someone would kill, not for any material gain, but just for the satisfaction of killing, was just like a concept we couldn't get. Of course, killers like spec had existed for centuries, and again, always would. But in the American imagination, they'd always been relegated to the pages of fiction, not reality. So it's like this, once it started coming into their regular lives, it was like, what? Yeah, that's confounding. So because of this, Speck's mass murder of eight women, for no fucking reason,

was, according to prosecutor William Martin, the end of an age of innocence. Like suddenly, it was like the glass shatter. That's so heavy. And it's very much the glass shatter mom. Yeah. It was always happening. But now it was publicly recognized.

But it was behind that glass that we just didn't know about or we didn't understand. And now the glass is shattered. And now we have to accept that there are people in this world that kill because they like to kill. And it's like that must have been a fucked up time. Yeah, absolutely.

We've always lived in a time where people have killed for the sake of killing or for, satisfaction because they like to do it. They like to hurt people. So we've never had, we can sit here and wonder why, but we've never lived in a world where it wasn't happening. That even happened.

And then suddenly to be thrust into this new way of thinking of like, oh, fuck, that person over there could just really like killing people. Yeah. I just do it for no reason. What it must have been like to just like go about your day in certain ways and not expect to be killed. Yeah. Like that's in the parking lot this morning.

I thought I was going to get killed. Yeah. It happens all the time. Always thinking about it. That's a woman's Roman empire. Hell yeah. Getting killed. Yeah, that's why we do this, I think.

Yeah. Hell yeah. Now, for two days, while we didn't know who he was, people in Chicago lived an abject fear of this unknown killer, capable of anything, just stalking the streets and capable of killing eight people at a time. Alone. Martin said it changed everything.

We all became much more conscious of our security. Eight nurses could be. slaughtered in their beds for no reason by a stranger. And if it could happen to eight young women, all on the verge of starting their lives, and all well-loved and well-respected and smart and capable, it could happen to anyone. Yeah. In the years that followed the fear and anxiety that gripped Chicago for those two days would creep into every corner of America, obviously, as the nation grew more and more aware

that not everyone around them was safe. Yeah. But in many ways, that fear can be traced back to Richard Speck's decision to murder eight innocent women for no fucking reason. Now, maybe it's because of that fear that so many people became kind of obsessed with understanding his crimes. Well, when there's no answer, you do keep going back to something. Gerald Getty wanted to prove his client was insane at the time of the killing. While Dr. I'm a poor and theorized that it was likely a head injury combined with an organic mental illness that led to it. If they could find an explanation, a lot of people

were reasoning, maybe we could stop these killers before it even happens. You know, or, at the very least, make them safe from themselves, stop it from happening. And there was a real movement and still kind of is to figure out what is happening, how this happens, and stop it before it actually even begins to start. Right, right. But on December 5th, 1991, just one day before his 50th birthday, Richard Speck died. One day before his 50th birthday? Yeah.

Wow. He died at Silver Cross Hospital from a heart attack. And his dad had died early on a heart attack. It's true. And young, yeah, like young. Like pretty young, yeah. So that should be where the story of Richard Speck ends, but there's a weird bizarre coda at the end of this that I don't think anybody really could have seen coming.

Like after death. So in the spring of 1996, he died in 1991. That's my literal time, the spring of 1996. Who. Rout row. You know, different. Okay. In the spring of 1996, television news anchor Bill Curtis,

interviewed William Martin for a special that he was working on for A&E television. Oh, A&E. After the interview... Yeah. After the interview was done. No, that's T&T. I'm so sorry. You're like, shut the fuck up. After the interview was done,

Martin was walking Curtis to the elevator when he suggested Martin come to his office sometime soon. He said, I want to show you something. That's terrifying. I would have said, no. And is Martin the guy that was like, my man didn't do it? No, that's getting. Oh, okay. Martin was on the good side.

Oh, okay. I'd go to his office. So at the time, he's a veteran prosecutor, so he's like, yeah, sure. So at the time, Martin thought Curtis was just being polite, so he acknowledged the offer, but then kind of forgot about it. But a few weeks later, Martin got a call from Bill Curtis's assistant, again inviting Martin to Curtis's office to see something he thought would be of some importance. So because there was repeated requests at this time, Martin's like, all right, cool, he must have something to show me. So a few days later, he found himself sitting before a television in Curtis's Chicago office. According to Bill Curtis, he had received a videotape from an unnamed lawyer with access to inmates at Stateville Correctional Center, where Richard Speck was serving his sentence. The lawyer claimed that the tapes contained irrefutable evidence of profound corruption and abuse happening in the Illinois prison system, and he wanted Curtis to expose that corruption.

Oh, fuck. Bill Curtis was like, fuck, yeah, I will. But before he showed those tapes to a committee at the state legislator, he wanted William Martin to see them. When Bill Perkins pressed play on the VCR The first thing that Martin saw

was Richard Speck on the videotape Sitting beside another inmate Ronzel Laramore In an otherwise empty room with blank walls There was a third person Who has never been identified

Operating the camera They're in prison by the way Why do they have a video camera Yep Martin was so scared right now You should be So Martin was shocked When he saw Speck in the video

because it had been decades since he'd last seen Richard's back, and he remembered him being, like, awkward, like, really skinny, gangly. But in the video, Richard was considerably heavier and looked much older than 47 years old. Okay. And he, yeah. He was sporting this, like, really odd page boy haircut, too, and was wearing old paint smeared clothing.

Okay. It's a very unsettling image. Have you seen it? No. I've seen an image from it. Oh. But... Should I googlyer now?

Careful when Googling. Yeah. I'll give you that. Okay, I'll have you show me the one image. Oh, no. The video itself, the fact that unsupervised inmates had access to a video camera in an empty room. Yeah, weird. We're surprising to Martin and certainly seemed like evidence of poor prison management right off the bat.

But the content of the video was what shocked him the most. In the video, Laramore can be heard interviewing spec. And it's revealed that the two of them have been in a sexual relationship for many years. Richard is seen on the video performing sex acts and using drugs on camera. They're in prison. Using drugs and perform. So they're making like a sex tape in prison? Yeah.

Okay. And he also reveals that he had some kind of hormones smuggled into prison, which he had been taking. And no one had known about it. Okay. And then he goes on to, now this is Richard Speck. He goes on to remove his clothing and can be seen walking back and forth in front of the camera wearing nothing but a pair of women's underwear. Which I assume he's in a men's prison.

So where did he get those? Not real sure. Just before the video ends, the conversation turns to the crimes for which Richard Speck was in there for. Laramore asks, what are you locked up for? And he says, eight counts of murder. And Laramore smiles and says, did you kill them? And Richard chuckles and says, sure, I did.

And when he's asked why he did it, which is the question of a century. I've been asking forever. He does not hesitate even a little, and he says, it just wasn't their night. What the fuck? Isn't that the most chilling thing you've ever heard? Ew. Like the most chilling thing. It just wasn't their night.

It just wasn't their night. No hesitation. It just wasn't their night. Like, what the fuck? What does that even mean, dude? What does that even mean? to be so like, is, Horrifying.

Is Cavalier the right word for that? Yeah. That just popped it to my brain. Yeah. It just wasn't there night. And he even asked him like, why? He's like, why did you bring a gun and not use it? And he said it makes too much noise.

So it was just for like intimidation. So once again, he's proving that he knew exactly what he was in there to do. So that whole thing where he was like, because then he says something like, all I want to do was burglary. It started off as burglary. No, baby. You just kind of showed your ass, though, because you said that the gun would be too loud. So you were planning to use it.

Yeah. You were planning to use something to hurt them. And you knew the gun would be too loud. That's why you brought the knife. I don't think I will ever forget it just wasn't their night. Yeah. That's like... It just wasn't their night?

That's like, um, what's her name? Brenda. Oh, my God. Who said, I just don't like Mondays. Yep. Like, that's fucked up. And he even says he talks to him. This is when he says, like, strangle a person.

It's not like what you see him. on TV about three seconds and they're dead. You've got to go at it for three and a half minutes. It takes a lot of strength. I'm just like, I'm shook right now. Yeah, he's a horrifying human being. So again, up until this point, it's been decades to try to figure out why the fuck

he murdered eight innocent women. And nobody ever really got an answer. And it kind of, but it was also kind of just right in front of them the whole time. He wasn't mental ill. He didn't have any neurological disorders that caused him to kill without knowing what he was doing. He was a shitty person, a petty criminal who'd found himself caught in the act of robbery and sexual assault.

And instead of going to jail for his crimes, he just decided to wipe out all the witnesses. And he went in there thinking, well, maybe I'll kill some people tonight. He just didn't care. Like it wasn't. And he was pissed off, I think. He was a pissy little bitch. And I think he got into moods and he got into rages. And when he got mad, got off the handle.

Someone else was going to pay for it. And so I think that was part of it. That's got to be like, even though like we're saying like he's not mentally ill, it has to be some mental illness that we just haven't figured out yet. Yeah. You know what I mean? I don't even know if I want to classify it as a mental illness. I think it's like he's missing something.

Yeah. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. A piece of what makes you a human. Yeah? Yeah. Which I think is different from a mental illness. No, I don't think you're wrong.

I think he's missing a fundamental piece of what makes you're saying. you a human being. I think we just haven't figured out what that piece is yet. I think eventually we will figure out what the pieces are that fundamentally make you a human being and keep your humanity intact. And I think he is missing it or it's irrevocably broken. Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the brain and like which part of the brain's connect and which part of the like which pathways are fucked up. And it's, I do feel like if we keep studying the brain, like we will figure it out. I think. And I, it's got to be some pathway to like a dip like two different parts of brain that just don't connect.

Yeah? Or that maybe two parts of the brain that do connect and aren't supposed to. I don't know. But it's, I hope I'm alive when they figure it out. I know. Because the thing is, like, he was in a fucking frenzied state during this, like frenzy, like, animalistic, like, blackout, not blackout, but like rage. Wild frenzy.

And only because of that, only because he was in such a frenzied, rage-filled, just chaotic state. That's why he failed to notice that one of his intended targets had disappeared. Right. It wasn't sitting in the room. Right. And it's only thanks to the bravery of Cora Amaro that Speck was held accountable at all. Yeah. And he even says that in the video, which further goes to show you that Cora is the fucking hero here. Because in the video, they asked him, Lermore asked him, how did it feel after killing all those ladies? That's how he says it. And he says, like I always felt, have no feeling. If you're asking if I felt sorry, no.

And he says a very, like, and he says, did none of them get away? Somebody else asked that. Yeah. And he says, one did. That's why I'm sitting here now. And he says, if none of them got away, I wouldn't be sitting here. So he unknowingly also just proved that Cora is the fucking badass of the century here. Yeah.

And she's the reason he's behind bars. I can't imagine being Cora in hearing that. Yeah. That you're the reason and that he knows it. That's been sitting in prison. That's the biggest part of it. That must have been simultaneously horrifying and also so validating.

Satisfying. Because it's like you know he's been sitting in prison for however long just thinking about the fact that you're the reason. Which would be terrifying because thinking about someone that evil, thinking about you. at all, in any capacity. Like, just vengeful thoughts against you would be horrifying. Well, and just having every single day to sit there in a cell thinking about you.

But then also sitting there and being like, what are you going to do about it? And now you're dead. So that was the end of your life was sitting there thinking about how I fucked your life up. This was one of the gnarliest, but also at the same time, most fascinating cases I think you've ever told. It's a wild one. Like truly, truly wild. The end of that is so chilling. It just wasn't their night.

No, I hate that. Yeah. What a cold answer. It's like the, it's cold as ice, that answer. Just no thought at all. It almost feels like he's trying to be funny. Yeah. But it's like, if you think that's funny, motherfucker.

Yeah, that's dark. That's so dark. Yeah. If you read more about the video is a wild. that was Martin, William Martin sitting there watching that must have been like, what the fuck did did you just show me? He's like, you really wanted me to see this. Like, I just didn't need to see this. The shit those people must see and then just they have to go home to their families is nuts. Just like live. Like lawyers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, police.

Prison guards. Anybody in that field, I, you see the gnarly as shit. It's true. It's wild. Yeah. Wow. That's the case of Richard Speck. Well, I need to go cut off the top of my head, take out my brain and wash it and put it back in. Yeah, that's definitely what I have to do. And then I'll see you later. So while I do that, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you. Keep it weird. But not so weird as Richard Speck, honey. Never.

Don't do that. Never do that. I don't even know how you could possibly. Cora for life. Quora five ever. Keep it as weird as Cora. Yeah. Keep it as badass as Cora. Hell yeah.