She helped raise eight younger siblings, swam in the river and was good enough in school to be admitted to the nursing program at Arellano University in the big city of Manila. Abigail Atienza followed in her mother's footsteps and became a nurse practitioner, and Christian is a certified public accountant. Who Is Suspected Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira? Girls, we need to clean the house.". At the door stood a tall stranger with a pockmarked face and a gun. Thats why he and his wife established the Nina Jo Schmale Scholarship Fund at Wheaton College; Ninas name, and hers alone, is now attached to something good. A few years ago, he ran into an old family friend and she told him a story he'd never heard, about how when she was in high school and couldn't afford a prom dress, Suzie made her one. It sure gets way out. Episode #1.9: Directed by David Fincher. He had no doubt. She also wrote about Chicago's weather, which she described in one letter as "really terrible. Richard Benjamin Speck (December 6, 1941 - December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who killed eight student nurses in their South Deering, Chicago, residence via stabbing, strangling, slashing their throats, or a combination of the three on the night of July 13-14, 1966. She appreciates every day of life and wants to be happy all the time, because life is not long, Martin said she told him recently. "It ended an innocence we all had,'' Martin said. Patricia Matusek was murdered along with five fellow nursing students and two visiting nurses in 1966 on Chicago'sSouth Side. On this day, Amurao personally identified Speck as the killer. What he did, however, is known, because Cora, a 4-foot-10 nurse from the land of the concealed knife, escaped his sight at one point and hid under one bed, then another, until he was gone. He opened it. Would Kubasek go with her to the townhouse to get Pat's nursing cap and uniform? He spent a few days there before traveling to Monmouth, Illinois, where he stayed with some family friends from his early childhood. He has found another way as well to hang on to his sister's hopeful spirit. Wilkening has had a full life, but he doesn't pretend the pain is gone or that his life ever returned to a true version of normal. And so, shortly after 12:15, Mary Ann and Suzanne climbed the stairs to Suzanne's bedroom. Kubasek said no. ''Because any kid can end up to be like me. John and Nina grew up on an acre of land near suburban Wheaton, a remnant of the Schmale family farm. In 1965 she became president of the Student Nurses Association of Illinois. (Schmale family). Me, I`m not like Dillinger or anybody else. Speck's trial began on April 3, 1967, and his claim that he had no recollection of the eight murders committed placed Corazon Amurao in the spotlight as the star witness. Why were they here, and her sister wasn't? On a June day in 1966, when she was 20, she went to one of his races, and afterward waved goodbye. He was referring to letters he received in his prison cell every week from women-female admirers who, he said, wanted to correspond with him. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Editor's note: This story was first published on April 28, 2016, and is being republished to mark the 50th anniversary of the murders. The next time Lori heard the phone ring, it was morning. I give their addresses to my cellmates. News item: Another Speck parole hearing at Stateville Correctional Center. Patricia Matusek was murdered along with five fellow nursing students and two visiting nurses in 1966 on Chicago'sSouth Side. "The families are slowly disappearing.". The kitchen was the townhouse social hub, a place where Nina and her roommates congregated to eat, study and listen to the record player from the nearby living room. The Mystery Novelist Who Committed a Real Murder, Boston Marathon Bombings Survivors, 10 Years Later, A Complete Timeline of Adnan Syeds Trial, Release. Suzie was the kind of girl people might call pretty, perky, popular. Her graduation from nursing school was less than a month away, exams were coming up and she needed to stay at her townhouse in the city to study. When John Schmale talks about what happened that night, he uses the words "anger," "rage," "mourning.". Her brother, John Farris, still carries the photo and prayer card in his wallet 50 years later. Grace Jordan wasn't the only family member to stir Mary Ann's interest in nursing. He killed more than eight people., Lori Davy Sivek remembers her sister Gloria Davy, one of eight student nurses and nurses murdered together 50years ago on Chicago'sSouth Side. So do their lives. Dr. John Schmale found a box of old slides in his waterlogged basement and opened a flood of memories. Tina, as her family called her, had graduated the year before among the top 10 nursing students in her class at Manila Central University. Nina Jo Schmale appears in an undated photo. He keeps the photo in a plastic pouch, tucked next to the prayer card from her funeral. It was a world of hair curlers, hair spray cans, ashtrays, manual typewriters, textbooks, sheath dresses, corsages, cluttered rooms, a place where young women laughed, hugged, studied, ate, teased each other's hair. Richard Speck And The Grisly Story Of The Chicago Massacre As part of their psychiatric rotation, they dealt with mentally disturbed patients. I watch. By the time Nina entered nursing school, she was three or four years older than most of her classmates and worried that she was over the hill. In the Davy family, according to Lori, grieving openly for Gloria was considered weakness, especially by her father, the military man. Astrological Sign: Sagittarius, Death Year: 1991, Death date: December 5, 1991, Death State: Illinois, Death City: Joliet, Death Country: United States, Article Title: Richard Speck Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/richard-speck, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: December 1, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. A lanky man in dark clothes, with slicked-back hair and marks on his face, was standing there with a small black revolver in his right hand. "Life is looking good for Suzie.". (Schmale family). Now, with the 50th anniversary of the massacre by Speck approaching, we are recuing our report on the compelling interview with the sole survivor of this grisly attack. He pulled it out recently as he talked for the first time publicly about the sister he lost when he was 15. Their father was a cement finisher descended from Germans. Many, like Schmale, have boxes of photos and mementos they've never opened. Their married bliss was short-lived, however, and Speck's reversion to type landed him a jail sentence for theft and check fraud, in 1963. One of eight young nurses killed in a Chicago townhouse on July 14, 1966, by a man who became notorious: Richard Speck. Suzanne Farris appears as a young girl with a prayer card from her funeral on July 18, 1966. The American student nurses and the exchange nurses never grew close, but from the outset they were friendly. You climbed down to the ledge on 100th Street? It hurt to see Nina in her yellow swimsuit he thought back to the Life magazine photo after the murders that showed it hanging on a rod in her bedroom but it also made him glad, glad to be reminded of who his sister was before death defined her. (Schmale family ). Phil was engaged to one of Mary Ann's classmates, Suzanne Farris, who still lived in the townhouse, and Suzanne was with him that evening. In 1972, Speck's death sentence was commuted to 50 to 100 years in prison, when the U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment. And it hasn't stopped since. And the mail. I don`t know why it happened to me. No answer. The interview only goes south when Holden oversteps the bounds his newfound. Those who had been fortunate enough to be out at the time of his arrival found themselves also subjected to brutal attacks when they returned home later that evening. Soon after he was born, the family moved to Monmouth, Illinois. For the people who loved the women who died, their deaths remain vivid. Mindhunter: The True Story of FBI Agent John E. Douglas - People Among the mourners standing in the drizzle was an older, bareheaded man from Mindoro. High school nursing club. News item: Richard Speck sentenced. She liked clothes, and since the family didn't have a lot of money, she made her own. He's still searching for the words to explain to his three children who his sister was, what happened to her. How to Talk to Serial Killers: An Interview with 'Mindhunter' John (Farris family). Student nurses Suzanne Farris, left, and Mary Ann Jordan are shown in their townhouse,circa 1966. Repacking it. "The Nurse Killer" Richard Benjamin Speck - Happy Scribe One summer night in 1966, when her father, who worked for a steel company, was in Pittsburgh on business, Lori and her two younger sisters crowded into their parents' bed. It's a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible painted in Colonial Cream. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune). She went home, not knowing that a little more than an hour earlier, a drifter with a knife, a gun and a history of violence had broken in and was holding her friends hostage upstairs. "I don't believe this," Schmale said to his wife on that day half a century later, gazing inside the box. It's the psychological kind, full of memories and emotions, the kind Schmale means when he says: "Opening the box at first meant to me that I was going to reopen her death. In the years that followed, Siouchoff, 70, distanced herself from everything and everyone involved with that awful night. She started college as an English major at Northern Illinois University, then switched to nursing. During this period he had the words "Born to Raise Hell" tattooed on his arm, a sentiment that wife Shirley had experienced firsthand: She filed for divorce in January 1966. Elmhurst Blotter: Man charged with battery for allegedly punching a security guard at a bar, Hinsdale police blotter: multiple thefts reported by patients at Hinsdale Hospital, Glenview police blotter: Harwood Heights woman charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Clint Eastwood, he always plays good. There's another kind of sealed box many of them have carried around as well. Jack Wilkening, brother of Pamela Wilkening, remembers his sister and the days surrounding her 1966 murder along with seven other student nurses and nurseson Chicago'sSouth Side. Videos by Chicago Tribune's Chris Walker. Speck opens up, admitting for the first time that he only sexually assaulted one of the women during his spree. But any kid can end up just like me.'' When. The real-life Speck who tortured, raped, and murdered eight Chicago student nurses in a. The radio said some nurses had been killed; the police wouldn't give out information. The first season of Mindhunter saw Ford interview a number of famous serial killers, including Edmund Kemper (Coed Killer), necrophile Jerry Brudos and mass murderer Richard Speck all of. Kubasek hurried to her car and drove to the townhouse. Life in the new country must have brought surprises, but it was hardly dramatic. I watched `Magnum Force` the other night. Subscribe. Atienza was the states key witness when Martin prosecuted Speck in the 1967 trial. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}G. Gordon Liddys Wild Career After Watergate. He has made sure that his niece, who is the keeper of the old family cookie jar, knows why she can't get rid of it. Murder made Richard Speck famous. He told Greene one of his pleasures in prison was "getting high." When Greene asked him if he compared himself to celebrity . After the murders, the nursing students in the nearby townhouses moved back into the dorms connected to the hospital. Mary Ann had family responsibilities. Martin and Dennis Breo are co-authors of a 1993 book called "The Crime of the Century." For years, whenever July 14 comes around, John Farris has found himself depressed for a week before and after. In March of 1978, during an interview I had with him inside the walls of Stateville, Speck confessed for the first time to murdering the eight young women in 1966. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune). At her father's urging, Lori considered becoming a nurse, but she finally told him that she couldn't, she was just too emotional for the job. He unearthed his ancient 35 mm slide projector, marveled that the bulb still worked and began projecting images on a wall. News item: Speck's death sentence reversed. Report a correction or typo . They`re violent players. God was so nice," she said in an email to Martin. "What she did that night, very few human beings would have the courage to do. That was almost true; the man whose crimes introduced the term ''mass murderer'' to the American lexicon did not like to talk. She played baseball in the alley, badminton across the back fences. The knocking was done in a normal manner, she would later testify. I watch her comedy show. Speck was captured two days later when an emergency room doctor at Cook County Hospital thought a patient he was treating for self-inflicted gashes looked familiar. Richard Speck was born on December 6, 1941, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He spent the rest of his life in prison until he died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 49. Richard Benjamin Speck[1][2] (December 6, 1941 - December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who systematically tortured, raped, and murdered eight stude. He proceeded to brutalize them in the most horrific fashion over the following few hours. Phil taught public school, had a sailboat and was nice to him, the kid brother. She perpetuated the ruse until the day her daughter, then in high school, was watching a TV show about Speck, the women he murdered and the families left behind. Mary Ann is 8. Took a nap. The judge sentenced Speck to death. Not long afterward, Arline Davy, sitting on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, made an announcement to her daughters. On the night of the crime, 24-year-old Speck snuck into a townhouse in Chicago where the nurses lived. Lori Davy, center, accepts a nursing school diploma on behalf of her slain sister, Gloria Davy, at a ceremony at McCormick Place in 1966. Media coverage splashed Speck's image all over the front pages and, in a desperate bid to escape, Speck tried to commit suicide on July 19, 1966, by slashing his wrists in the seedy hotel he was staying in. Speck'S High Life Shouldn'T Have Been a Shock After Speck's trial she moved back to the Philippines and married in 1969, but she returned to the U.S. about four years later. ''Some of them women`s gotta be nuts. Despite concerns about her ability to testify after her harrowing ordeal, she gave a faultless performance, impressing the jury with every detail of that evening, identifying Speck unequivocally. For her to discuss an event she calls "still unbelievable" is an act of faith, one she commits only because she'd like the world to pause and think about Mary Ann and her friends. With Sonny Valicenti, Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Greg Harpold. That's where she was on the night of July 13, 1966, when someone knocked at the bedroom door. "It was terrible," Kubasek said, remembering what she saw. Elmhurst Blotter: Man charged with battery for allegedly punching a security guard at a bar, Hinsdale police blotter: multiple thefts reported by patients at Hinsdale Hospital, Glenview police blotter: Harwood Heights woman charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. "The mailman would bring them in boxes," he said. `Parents ought to be careful about their kids,'' Richard Speck said. "I just would have liked her to see the kids," he said, and he cried. So was pregnancy. It was a close-knit community where almost no one locked their doors. "Gloria's been murdered," Lori remembers her saying. Except, Speck doesn't see himself as an evil person. He told Greene one of his pleasures in prison was "getting high." Whatever confluence of forces saved her, Cora Amurao made it through the night alive. Over his 25-year career with the FBI's Investigative Support Unit, Douglas interviewed hundreds of America's most notoriously brutal killers, from Charles Manson and Ted Bundy to " Son of Sam " David Berkowitz and the " BTK Killer ," Dennis Rader. Richard Speck - Video, Tattoo & Daughter Richard Benjamin Speck (December 6, 1941 - December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who systematically tortured, raped, and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital on July 13, 1966. Cook County Assistant States Attorney William Martin, left, watches as witness Corazon Amurao uses a scale model of the townhouse crime scene to detail the murder of eight nurses by Richard Speck, center background, during Specks 1966 trial in Peoria, Ill. Pamela Wilkening, left, Mary Ann Jordan, right, and Suzanne Farris, second from right, are shown with other student nurses having fun with a South Chicago Community Hospital School of Nursing banner, circa 1966. Attorney William J. Martin, 79, talks about Corazon Amurao Atienza, the lone survivor of the Richard Speck murders. Martin and Atienza kept in contact as Martin collaborated with author Dennis Breo, updating the book "Crime of the Century," about the Speck murder case. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune). He'll never forget the cards and letters that flooded in from strangers all over the world. Often after a day of classes at Fenger High School, Pat Matusek walked to Roseland Community Hospital to see her cousin Tommy. He couldnt identify everyone he saw, but at the photo of the familiar woman in the familiar yellow two-piece bathing suit, he felt his heart clench. (Schmale family ). She wanted to do Pat's hair and makeup for the funeral. The next time he saw her, her body was on a gurney behind a window in the coroners office. Speck was captured two days later when an emergency room doctor at Cook County Hospital thought a patient he was treating for self-inflicted gashes looked familiar. Heroin and whiskey. Once, remarking on her diligence and steady temperament, her brother told her she'd make a good military nurse. ''I stay up at night as long as it takes me to fall asleep or pass out from the hooch or from whatever we have at the time.''. With whom? She wanted to make her sister look like her sister, Kubasek said, choking up on the word sister., Student nurses Patricia Matusek, left, and Suzanne Farris, circa 1966. Siouchoff was the student who, on the night of the murders, rang the back doorbell of her friends' townhouse, in search of bread, then left when no one answered. Not only had they been allowed a slumber party with their mother, but their big sister who was about to graduate from nursing school was coming home for good the next day. The End of Richard Speck: Cora Amurao, dressed as a nurse, entered Speck's hospital room and identified him to police as the killer. Bottom row from left are Patricia Matusek, Valentina Pasion, Nina Jo Schmale and Pamela Wilkening. Growing up, Nina pronounced "Nigh-nah" was a good student, well-liked, quiet but with a sense of humor. Nurse. Next door was a funeral home, run by Arlene Baskys' dad. Gloria Davy jokes around in the South Side townhouse that was used as a dormitory for student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital, circa 1966. Then I screamed for help. Her father, who had become a familiar figure on TV, with his cane or in his wheelchair as he protested the possibility of Richard Speck's parole, died in 1990 on Pat's birthday. 28. The Farris family lived in a quiet, tree-lined Far South Side neighborhood called Fair Elms. Martin and Atienza kept in contact as Martin collaborated with author Dennis Breo, updating the book "Crime of the Century," about the Speck murder case. After the death of his father when Speck was six, his mother remarried, moving the family to Dallas, Texas. Its a typical 1950s school photograph, small, black-and-white, cropped with pinking shears, showing Suzie at about 10, wearing what looks like her Brownie uniform. If you asked Mary Ann where she was from, she'd give a classic South Side answer, naming not her neighborhood but her parish, Our Lady of Peace. She loved swimming, ice skating and softball. She loved Elvis, cats and the color pink. She closed the box, surely hoping that one day it would be opened. Theyre smiling and wearing regular clothes. Tina, 23, shared a bedroom with three of the American nurses, while Cora and Merlita shared another. Asked if she recognized the killer, she stepped off the stand and pointed: Since then she has rarely spoken to the media, though in a 1970 court hearing she described her fear of the night, of being alone, of a knock on a door. No scuffs were allowed on their white saddle shoes. Dorothy Schmale died five years after her daughter did, her death hastened by heartbreak. Billy loved her tremendously.". With a rush of excitement and a pang of dread, he read her penciled note: "Nina South Chicago Hospital.". ''A lot of them send pictures,'' Speck told me. "It was just awful," Siouchoff said. And I don`t know what I`d do without it. She hit her head against a brick wall and suffered a slight concussion. I was gonna get that tattoo removed. "She found the thing she loved doing, she meets a guy that she says 'yes' to about being married," he said. ''You`re talking about two different categories of people,'' Speck said. She has looked at the Facebook page Schmale started as part of the commemoration for the nurses, a place for trading stories and photos, though she doesn't linger. Had Pat gotten in OK the night before? But life wasn't all play. A. The doctor had just had a dinner break and had seen the front page of a newspaper featuring the killer's face. Richard Speck attack survivor: 'Somebody up there was hiding me from I want you to look at her eyes.". He'd turned on the TV news in Pennsylvania. "Mindhunter" Episode #1.9 (TV Episode 2017) - IMDb "She did well with other people in situations that you're not necessarily in control of," Farris said, "which I think is a good skill for nursing.". Kubasek is 71, Baskys 68. Mary Ann Jordanin her nursing uniform in an undated photo. "For Filipinos and Filipino Americans who came of age during the 1960s," she said in a recent email, "I think Gargullo and Pasion are remembered as nurses who encountered American violence and tragedy, and Amurao is remembered as the nurse who used her wits to survive.". Richard Speck - Wikipedia "Did I just see Grandpa on the television?" There, next to his kitchen near the village of Mahomet, 140 miles south of Chicago, the lost women flickered back to life. The murders continue to have a profound impact on American crime and American society, Martin said. Fifty years ago she managed to crawl under a bed and hide while Richard Speck methodically stabbed and strangled eight young nurses after telling them he would not hurt them, that he just needed money to get to New Orleans. Mary Ann Jordanin her nursing uniform in an undated photo. Lori has come to believe that Gloria's death prepared her to handle anything, and to see, in some useful ways, the possibility of death in everything. Secretary. And yet news of Speck continued to haunt them. Richard Speck was a murderer notorious for killing eight student nurses in 1966. Billy died at 42, with Susan as his caretaker. Forty miles from home, when they spotted a gas station, they were reluctant to stop for directions because their curlers made them look like creatures from Mars. "Awful, awful. Her dad was on the line. Too tired. Merlita's father. According to a news account at the time, she thought it was a safer place to raise a family. Phil was also the brother of one of Suzie's classmates, Mary Ann Jordan, who had lived in the townhouse for a while, then moved back home. Q. Richard Speck has been described as a drifter, a loner, a high school dropout, a sociopath, a heavy drinker, a violent man who could be charming. The student nurses' white and pale-gray uniforms had to be strictly starched, their crisp white caps perfectly placed a tough trick on bouffant hair. Among Pam's favorite pleasures was watching Jack, who was seven years older, race cars. Shortly after the Filipina women arrived, the Chicago women threw them a welcome party, and over the next few weeks helped them learn their way around the city. He has remained in contact with her all these years. Two officials at the Consulate General of the Philippines in Chicago, when asked recently about the Filipina nurses, weren't familiar with the crime. From the transcript of Speck's trial: Q: How long did you scream, in a sitting position, with the window open? I was high on heroin that night. Speck also has a foul mouth on him and Ford realizes that there is only one way to communicate with him. Pat was born in 1945, the year World War II ended, to Joe and Bessie Matusek, both of Czech descent. Why he did what he did in the next few hours will never be known. Inside sat four square, off-white boxes labeled "Kodak," and on top of them lay a sheet of thin pink paper. A total of eight woman, between ages 19 and 24, were systematically bound, robbed, beaten, strangled and stabbed during Speck's frenzy. Suzanne Farris, left, and Gloria Davy pose at the dinner table, circa 1966. Peter McNamee washes the 1957 Chevrolet owned by his girlfriend, Nina Jo Schmale, whom he planned to marry after graducation, circa 1966. And it turned out that it reopened her life.". Bill Kurtis obtained the tape through an anonymous lawyer, his production company paid 5K for it back in the 90's. The Untold Truth Of Murderer Richard Speck - Grunge ''Dillinger and them guys, that was the Depression, they were robbing banks because that was their only way to survive. Chicago Tribune's Mary Schmich contributed. He told me that he drank moonshine and took barbiturates in his prison cell. Why should you be surprised?". Michigan authorities also wanted to question him about his whereabouts during the murder of four other females, aged between 7 and 60, as his ship had been in the vicinity at the time. Amurao, she believes, saved her life. Sickeningly mesmerizing because, as much as we hate to admit it, it is possible to talk to a mass murderer as a human being. Richard Speck was one of the most fiendish mass murderers in American history as his slayings of eight nursing students in a single evening captured the attention of the entire nation. Slain nurses remembered on 50th anniversary of Richard Speck murders The kitchen door opened onto a narrow alley where Nina parked her Bel Air and where a hospital shuttle picked up and delivered students.

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