This content details the life of Richard Speck, tracing his troubled childhood and escalating criminal behavior, culminating in the brutal murder of eight student nurses, and exploring his subsequent life in prison and the psychological complexities surrounding his actions.
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Richard Benjamin speck grew up in the
flat expanses of rural west central
Illinois speck entered the world the day
before the Japanese sneak attack on
Pearl Harbor Richard was the seventh
child of Benjamin and Mary speck a
hard-working couple who struggled every
month to pay the mortgage on their
modest house to provide for his new son
Benjamin speck picked up more hours at
his many odd jobs working as a farmhand
and laying roof tiles when Richard was
old enough his father took him to a
nearby lake to fish for blue gills the
outings became special moments where
Richard had his father all to himself
the carefree time spent with his father
was a respite from the austere deeply
religious household run by his mother
the family attended the United
Presbyterian Church and Mary insisted on
strict rules against smoking and
drinking her husband once endured a
severe reprimand after having a beer at
a fish fry in 1947
Richard lost the light-hearted influence
of his father when Benjamin died of a
sudden heart attack the six-year-old was
devastated his elementary school
classmates noticed changes in his
behavior Richard began whining and
eating crayons acting more like a
toddler than a second grader to get
extra attention from his teachers we
were watching a movie and I happened to
glance back a notice the teacher with
Richard Speck sitting on her lap I asked
her why was Richard sitting on your lap
and she replied Oh
Richard Speck was acting like such a big
maybe I couldn't think of any better
place to pudding at home Richard was
spoiled by his older sisters but
received little comfort from his
destitute widowed mother
soon after Benjamin's death a traveling
insurance salesman named Carl Lindberg
began courting marry spec their marriage
in 1950 solved Mary's financial problems
but Lindbergh was the exact opposite of
Richard sober hard-working father he had
a criminal record that included arrest
for forgery and drunk driving eight
months after Richard's mother remarried
the couple picked up and moved to Dallas
with Richard and his younger sister
Carolyn nine year-old Richard deeply
resented his mother's decision to
remarry and relocate and he let it show
years later in prison speck would recall
that the disruption in his family life
made it easy for him to reject his
it wasn't long before his stepfather
wanted to kick Richard out of the house
he would get drunk call Richard a gutter
rat and tell him he couldn't stand the
sight of him to get back at Lindbergh
Richard would break into his liquor
cabinet have his fill and disappear from
the house by the time he was 15
Richard was getting drunk nearly every
day he dropped out of school and began
hanging around with a tough crowd of
older teens who introduced him to
marijuana pills and the basics of crime
Richard started carrying a switchblade
and learned how to use it to pick window
locks he also learned about sex mostly
one-night stands with the older girls in
his crowd and prostitutes he began to
develop contempt for any woman he
considered easy by the age of 20 Richard
was a known petty criminal he had a long
list of misdemeanors drunk and
disorderly conduct indecent exposure and
shoplifting his slicked back dirty blond
hair deeply pockmarked face and crude
tattoos made him look dangerous a tattoo
on specks forearm red born to raise hell
but it was the empty boast of a young
man who always wished he was tougher
absolute coward take away a knife and a
gun and he has no ability to fight with
his fists yet he had the tremendous
skill at animal cunning
at being able to put people at ease the
kind he was a good burglar he's a good
thief and he was a good liar
richard was not at all intimidated by
the cops and knew how to turn on his
good old boy charm in a pinch when that
failed his mother always came to his
rescue no matter how often he needed to
be bailed out of jail his mother paid
his way marry specs unconditional love
for her delinquent son allowed Richard
to bury his resentment for her she
became a saint in his eyes an impossible
ideal that Specht used to judge every
other woman in his life especially
16-year old Shirley Malone Richard met
Shirley at the Texas State Fair in
October 1961 and got her pregnant after
three weeks of dating they quickly
married specs job as a truck driver for
the 7-up bottling company was supposed
to support them both but the 21 year old
usually blew his paychecks on
prostitutes and alcohol Richard insisted
on a far different standard of behavior
for his wife he had what we take this
with fella McDonough prostitute complex
in other words women were either
virginal and pure and if they weren't
then they were totally to be considered
as tramps [ __ ] [ __ ] prostitutes he
felt that she was in the prostitute
category because he felt that she'd been
unfaithful to him and the minute he got
that ideas she was totally no good
shirley denied ever cheating on him but
speck didn't believe her and wanted to
punish her any way he could he would
pick up lady friends and drive them to
his apartment as his pregnant wife
watched he kissed and fondled them in
the car laughing at her before speeding
off Richard also refused to pay
Shirley's medical bills and was not
around for the birth of his daughter
Ravi Lynn in July 1962 at the time he
was serving a short sentence in the
county jail for disturbing the peace
his first trip to state prison came
sixteen months later for forgery spec
served that stint with e's and by the
age of twenty three was back on the
streets more dangerous than before his
contempt for his wife now turned violent
Richard demanded sex from Shirley four
or five times a day if she refused he
slapped and choked her
Richard seemed obsessed with the
criminal life and bragged that someday
he would make headlines there was a
story in the Dallas Sunday papers and he
was reading the papers that morning and
and made the comment that someday he was
going to do something that would also be
of equal publicity in January 1965 speck
tried to make good on his boast he
attacked a woman at knifepoint in the
parking lot of a Dallas apartment
building she got away speck was arrested
once in custody
Richard claimed he couldn't remember
much of the incident because he had
blacked out after having too much to
drink his story worked instead of facing
charges for attempted rape or murder he
was given the chance to plead guilty to
aggravated assault
this time speck only served five months
in prison due to a bureaucratic slip-up
by January 1966 Shirley decided that she
two months later in March Specht robbed
a grocery store and a warrant was issued
for his arrest
rather than face another prison term the
24 year old speck fled Texas and headed
back to his childhood home in rural
Illinois Richard's older siblings were
still living there he clung to the idea
that he could turn back the clock and
recapture the happiness of his early
boyhood before his father died but
specks journey home would offer him no
escape the demons that had driven him to
a life of crime were growing
uncontrollable in March 1966
Richard Speck was a man on the run he
had fled an arrest warrant in Dallas and
returned to his hometown of Monmouth
Illinois the 24 year old was desperate
to recover some remnant of his early
childhood of the day spent fishing with
his late father but speck just didn't
fit in anywhere I think Richard Speck
was just a different kind of person than
what we were used to in our town he was
a stranger and dressed kind of flashy
his brothers and sisters were well aware
of his troubles with the law down in
Texas but Richard promised that he had
outgrown his wild ways they wanted to
believe him and did what they could to
help Richard sisters found him cheap
room and board with family friends his
brother William was a carpenter and got
Richard a job sanding plasterboard for
another carpenter in town
initially Richard didn't let them down
he showed up for work on time and kept
his tattoos covered but specks dream of
recapturing his past was quickly
shattered after only two weeks in
Monmouth he learned that his ex-wife
Shirley had remarried the news
overwhelmed Richard dredging up memories
of betrayal and abandonment he quit his
job moved into a cheap hotel and lost
himself in a haze of alcohol and pills
one night Richard tagged along with a
group of locals for some late-night
drinking in a neighboring town during
the car ride Richard started bragging
about the woman in Dallas who he had
nearly killed he started talking about
the woman in Texas that he'd threatened
with a knife and it was different than
all of us guys that I drink with you
know we talked about different stuff
than that you know so it was a little
bit off the wall for our group of people
when they arrived at the bar and sat
down spec showed off an eight-inch
hunting knife he called his insurance
policy in case of a fight
he was somebody to be scared of or
apprehensive of but I was scared of him
playing an honest truth I was scared of
him spec's rage was building and his
need to avenge what he considered his
ex-wife's betrayal was driving him to
commit an even more violent crime
on the night of April 2nd 1966 spec
broke into the home of a 65 year old
woman in Monmouth speaking softly and
brandishing a knife he blindfolded the
woman and politely assured her that she
would not be harmed if she complied
after raping her he sliced her housecoat
into strips and used them to tie her
arms and legs together then he
disappeared the woman told police her
attacker had a soft southern drawl in a
small town on the Illinois Prairie few
people fit that description and spec
became the prime suspect after brief
questioning by police he skipped town
one act of criminal behavior led to
another once he started once he went
down that road it was apparently
difficult or impossible for him to turn
back spec was being chased by the law
for the second time in as many months he
was running out of places to hide his
last chance was Chicago where his sister
Martha lived with her husband Jean
Thornton Richard showed up on their
doorstep claiming he had left Monmouth
because the local mafia was trying to
force him to sell drugs for them the
couple didn't believe him but Jean found
Richard work as a merchant seaman [Music]
[Music]
on April 30th specs sailed out of
Chicago's Calumet Harbor as a deckhand
aboard an oar boat bound for Michigan's
Upper Peninsula after four days in the
midst of a storm a shipmate found speck
doubled over in pain the ship's doctor
quickly realized that Richard had an
acute case of appendicitis
it was definitely emergency because he
was he was in in severe pain and he had
to be transferred to a hospital right
away and the doctor had stated that if
it hadn't been within an hour that he
Warren likely would have died
Richard's appendix was removed in a
Michigan Hospital he recovered there for
the next two weeks enjoying the
attention he got from the young nurses
his brush with death did nothing to
quell specks self abuse of nature when
he returned to the ship he was far more
interested in getting high than in
working when he drank I noticed one
thing that he did that most the other
guys didn't do he that he used to take
pills I think he called him Redbirds
he would have a quart of vodka and sand
and they would swig on that and take pills
pills
spec's behavior became more and more
unpredictable once he fell off the boat
two other times he exposed himself to
crew members when he pulled a knife on a
superior it was the last straw he was
as the boats union representative Jim
Beryl told speck he could get him his
job back but speck told him he didn't
understand at the time I don't know what
he was talking about I you know I I
didn't understand I didn't understand
what but it seemed like there was
something that he was hiding speck was
afraid that too much fuss might uncover
his prison record and the fact that he
was still on the run from the law in two
states he left the ship with his
paycheck and visited Judy Lakhan II me a
nurse he met at the hospital in Michigan
the brief relationship proved to be a
rare moment of grace for speck
Judy would say later that Richard was a
perfect gentleman showering her with
gifts and expensive dinners after two
weeks they parted on good terms [Music]
Richard returned to his sister's house
in Chicago broke for the next two weeks
he did nothing but nap on the couch and
read comic books his sister finally
kicked him out insisting that he find a
job on another ship until I 12th he did
but when spec boarded the boat he was
told that his position had been given to
a deckhand with more seniority spec was
furious he sucked off with his meager
belongings and spent the rest of his
money on liquor he ended up in a quiet
little Grove next to the Union Hall
called Louella Park next to the park was
an apartment building used by South
Chicago community hospital to house
dozens of its senior nursing students
spec had seen the pretty young women
coming and going just three weeks before graduation
