I remember when Richard Speck strangled 8 women.

[undeterred]

It was in the sixties and it was in the middle of July. He committed a mass murder during a hot summer night in Chicago, strangling nine young student nurses. I was a child. They said he had a tatoo on his arm that said "Born to Raise Hell".

What I don't remember is it being connected to any kind of social or political interpretation. And the sixties were a time of great social upheaval. But there was no attempt to interpret his actions as anything but that of a sick killer. Who else would do such a thing?

If there were other forces, it was assumed that they were less important in motivating him to kill 8 women than the psychopathology.

[sudopod]

1. but he didn't write the Encyclopaedia Douchebaggia laying out his entire plan to Nazify Europe. nt

[Adsos Letter]

2. I remember that! I was also just a kid.

There are still multiple killings commited that aren't ascribed to anything more than the psychopathology of the individual. (Green River Killer comes immediately to mind)

I would be willing to bet that if we looked closely there were probably those who associated it with a breakdown of society, morals, etc.

Edit: added "(Green River Killer comes immediately to mind)"

[undeterred]

7. I really never heard much more about Speck.

But I grew up thinking he was the worst person alive. Years later I met the brother of one of the victims, who was an oncologist. He went to the parole hearings for years to keep Speck in prison. I don't think anyone ever knew why he just went crazy one night. But if one nurse hadn't survived, they would never have known who did it and he might have gone on to kill more people. Actually I think he killed 8 and the 9th survived by hiding under the bed for hours.

[Adsos Letter]

16. It was certainly a big deal at the time; your post brought it immediately back to mind

and as I said, I was a kid at the time.

Same goes with the Zodiac Killer, who did his killing in the immediate area in which I grew up. They never caught the guy, but I suspect that anyone in our town who grew up during that time has it imprinted on their psyche. :scared:

I remember my mom talking about the murder of Kitty Genovese in NYC in 1964, and how a whole bunch of people heard her screams but didn't do anything to help. I remember her talking about the fact that it was a sign of the times regarding society.

[Exultant Democracy]

3. Apples and Oranges, in the 60's they talked about the Weather Undergrounds political motivations

do you remember that?

Norwegian shooting suspect left political treatise on Web
http://www.gazette.com/articles/norwegian-121968-web-political.html

If people leave political treatise on the web talking about their political motivations for a terrorist attack wouldn't we be crazy not to have that conversation ourselves? Are you trying to say that it isn't an important conversation?

[undeterred]

4. I am amazed at how quickly conclusions are reached...

when the police have barely had time to interview him.

[Kurmudgeon]

5. Many people hold radical views on politics to everything else under the sun, doesn't excuse murder.

However, anyone proposing violence should be looked at closely, not matter what they use to justify it.
I'm worried and wondering just how many other nutballs are out there in waiting, conservative or otherwise.
Ignore these folks at our peril.

[undeterred]

6. Some people don't hold radical views on anything and they commit murder...

you can't always tell who is going to go off the deep end by their politics.

[fishwax]

8. I don't see the connection

They're very different cases.

[undeterred]

11. Things are presented to us quite differently now.

They didn't tell us anything more about Speck than that he killed these women. That was the whole story. The tatoo was all the clue we got to his personality.

[WinkyDink]

15. If, as you say, you were but a child, how would you know what all the adults discovered/discussed?

http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/speck.htm

[undeterred]

19. thanks for the link

Was just talking about it with family who were adults at the time.

[fishwax]

18. that and that he methodically murdered eight women, also raping one of them

"The tatoo was all the clue we got to his personality."

He had an extensive criminal record, and I'm sure that was known as well. I wasn't around so I can't really speak to the coverage, but I would think it would have been quite a sensational story.

On edit: my original subject line mistakenly said that he raped eight women, but I don't think all of his victims that night were raped.

[undeterred]

20. Definitely a lot of coverage and sensational.

[Schema Thing]

12. this

Humans are just comparison monkeys. Not very good ones though, often times.

[southerncrone]

9. Remember it, too.

Think I was 9 or 10. I also remember it was the first time as a female that I thought perhaps I should view men as threats. I hate that. Unfortunately there have been many others reinforcing that idea since then. :(

[undeterred]

14. That was my age too.

And he didn't know these women so it was hard to understand why in the world he would do such a thing.

[robdogbucky]

10. I remember it as well,

Speck was one sick puppy. His was as crime of criminal insanity. He was just a garden variety sociopath. Un-succesful in his dealiings with family, life, career, etc.

He was a loser and he projected his unhappiness upon those unfortunate enough to be around him:



"...At 11:00 PM on July 13, 1966, Speck broke into a townhouse located at 2319 East 100th Street in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood of Chicago. It was functioning as a dormitory for several young student nurses, some of whom were Filipinos. Armed with only a knife (the Illinois Supreme Court opinion recounting the facts of the case reports that the defendant appeared at the door of the townhouse holding a gun<5>) — he raped then killed the young women, including Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion. Speck, who later claimed he was high on both alcohol and drugs, may have originally planned to commit a routine burglary.<6> Speck held the women in the house for hours, methodically leading them out of the room one by one, stabbing or strangling them to death, then finally raping and strangling his last victim, Gloria Davy. Only one woman, Cora (Corazon) Amurao, escaped because she managed to wiggle under a bed while Speck was out of the room with one of his victims. Speck may have lost count, or he may have known there were eight women living in the townhouse but had been unaware that a ninth student nurse was spending the night there. Amurao stayed hidden until almost 6 AM. When she emerged, she climbed out of her northeast bedroom window onto a ledge screaming, "They're all dead! All my friends are dead!..."<7>


"...Speck customarily refused all media requests, but granted one prison interview to Bob Greene in 1978; Speck told Greene that he read Greene's column in the Chicago Tribune. In this interview, Speck confessed to the murders for the first time publicly and said he thought he would get out of prison "between now and the year 2000," at which time he hoped to run his own grocery store business.<10> He told Greene that one of his pleasures in prison was "getting high."<10> When Greene asked him if he compared himself to celebrity killers like John Dillinger, Speck replied, "Me, I'm not like Dillinger or anybody else. I'm freakish."<10>

Speck said that when he killed the nurses he "had no feelings," but things had changed: "I had no feelings at all that night. They said there was blood all over the place. I can't remember. It felt like nothing... I'm sorry as hell. For those girls, and for their families, and for me. If I had to do it over again, it would be a simple house burglary."<10>

Speck's "final thought for the American people" was: "Just tell 'em to keep up their hatred for me. I know it keeps up their morale. And I don't know what I'd do without it..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Speck




He was a sick fucker and once inside became an even sicker psychopath. Please go to the Wiki page I linked and read what they were up to in the joint, if you can stand it.



We in Wisconsin had absorbed the Ed Gein murders and thought nothing could be that bad. We only had to wait a few years to witness Speck's insanity.

[WinkyDink]

13. Eight nurses. Stabbed, also.

http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/speck.htm

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

17. Speck Murders

I remember that vividly. My cousin knew a couple of the girls that were murdered from nursing school. Speck was sick and deranged and became more so in prison. :puke:

[madrchsod]

21. i remember speck...

1966 was full of strange days and events.