He instantly recognized his mother's cursive handwriting. Attorney William J. Martin, 79, talks about Corazon Amurao Atienza, the lone survivor of the Richard Speck murders. ''Here,'' he said. Speck's jury trial began April 3, 1967, in Peoria, Illinois, three hours southwest of Chicago, with a gag order on the press. The trial lasted just 12 days and, on April 15, 1967, the jury found Speck guilty of all eight murders, after less than an hour's deliberation. As he was sponging blood off the patient's arm, he saw that the man had a tattoo that said "Born to Raise Hell" that matched the description from the newspaper. 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. She was not the same person. Guarded by detectives, Corazon Amurao arrives at the courthouse in Peoria to testify as the state's chief witness against Richard Speck on April 5, 1967. Who Is Richard Speck? (Chicago Tribune historical photo / Chicago Tribune). Politicians delivering food to the wake. 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. Fifty years later, Pat Matusek's two best childhood friends are the primary custodians of her past. We kind of lost her, Lori said. "If I send you money, you will be able to fix the house," she said in one. "She wasn't the prom queen or the valedictorian," her brother recalled. I`d never shot heroin before. I don`t know why it happened to me. There, next to his kitchen near the village of Mahomet, 140 miles south of Chicago, the lost women flickered back to life. Merlita grew up on the island of Mindoro where bananas, rice and coconut grow. (Schmale family ). (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune). ''I burned that tattoo off with a cigarette. 29. Menudo Star Says Jos Menendez Assaulted Him. God was so nice," she said in an email to Martin. "I just would have liked her to see the kids," he said, and he cried. In the family's two-bedroom Cape Cod home, Suzie and her older sister, Marilyn, shared a bedroom. A few days before she died, Pam called her mother to say she couldn't come visit that weekend. Richard Speck - Video, Tattoo & Daughter Here`s half the country down on a person, they call him all kinds of names-and these women are trying to get to meet him. He hates knowing that anyone who Googles the name "Nina Schmale" lands on the name "Richard Speck.". Suzie was the kind of girl people might call pretty, perky, popular. That was almost true; the man whose crimes introduced the term ''mass murderer'' to the American lexicon did not like to talk. (Curtis Thatcher & Assoc.). Atienza was the states key witness when Martin prosecuted Speck in the 1967 trial. Pat was 20 on the hot evening of Wednesday, July 13, 1966, when Arlene Kubasek dropped her off at the townhouse, well before curfew, which was 10:30 p.m. except for the two nights a week the women were allowed to stay out until 12:30 a.m. Do you want to come in for coffee? She closed the box, surely hoping that one day it would be opened. Like Schmale, she talks about opening the box of her sister's life, and now that it's open she thinks, "Wow, wow, this was my sister. You're afraid in life, and here's someone who is comforting you.''. Soon after he was born, the family moved to Monmouth, Illinois. ''Just tell `em to keep up their hatred for me,'' Speck said. Teacher. His sister and seven of her fellow student nurses and nurseswere murdered 50years ago in one of Chicagos darkest crimes. ''I like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson. And the mail. Later she learned that Speck, responding to the bell, had forced two of his hostages downstairs, a gun at their backs. The image suggests who she was, serious and slightly removed from the fun. Her family her father, John, a pipe fitter; her mother, Lena, a homemaker born in Germany; and her only sibling, Jack lived in a small, one-story brick Cape Cod on Commercial Avenue. Schmale was a student nurse at South Chicago Community Hospital. In 1966, Richard Speck committed one of the most horrifying mass murders in American history when he brutalized and killed eight student nurses living on Chicago's South Side. "Pat looks at us and says, 'Oh, for crying out loud!'" After Speck was arrested for burglary and assault, he fled to Chicago to seek shelter with his sister, Martha, a couple of months later. So was pregnancy. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune). The old hospital is now called Advocate Trinity. How do you talk about something so terrible? Schmale was a student nurse at South Chicago Community Hospital. I screamed for about 20 minutes. Among the mourners standing in the drizzle was an older, bareheaded man from Mindoro. "This is the man," she said as pandemonium erupted. The Mystery Novelist Who Committed a Real Murder, Boston Marathon Bombings Survivors, 10 Years Later, A Complete Timeline of Adnan Syeds Trial, Release. Amurao had arrived the previous day to identify the killer in person, but Speck was not well enough. So eight people got killed. He'll never forget the cards and letters that flooded in from strangers all over the world. In their tightknit neighborhood, Pat and her friends stood on corners during the fall to help her dad sell peanuts for the Kiwanis Club. Him and Eastwood and Bronson. Bottom row from left are Patricia Matusek, Valentina Pasion, Nina Jo Schmale and Pamela Wilkening. Having been paroled in January 1965, he lasted only four weeks outside, before being arrested again for aggravated assault, and he was jailed for a further 16 months, of which he served 6 months. I was high on heroin that night. From left are Mary Ann Jordan, Judith Dykton, in cap, Suzanne Farris, Nina Jo Schmale, an unidentified woman and Pamela Wilkening, seated. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. During one of Pam's shifts, a patient slugged her. In 1965 she became president of the Student Nurses Association of Illinois. Then I screamed for help. Why should you be surprised?". There's no question that Richard Speck lived a very troubled life from an early age. Richard Speck - Interesting stories about famous people, biographies Speck opens up, admitting for the first time that he only sexually assaulted one of the women during his spree. She roller-skated in the basement of the family's three-bedroom bungalow. Only recently, since John Schmale got in touch with her about a 50th anniversary commemoration for the women, has Lori let herself believe that it's OK to remember, OK to cry. Lori Davy, center, accepts a nursing school diploma on behalf of her slain sister, Gloria Davy, at a ceremony at McCormick Place in 1966. But 50 years ago, the murders were perhaps as shocking in the Philippines as they were in Chicago. You climbed down to the ledge on 100th Street? He plays a lot of solitaire. 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. All Rights Reserved. One of her sisters would later say the delay may have been a sign that "God didn't want her to leave.". Lori would ride her bike over, do the dishes, pick up the clothes scattered around the living room. 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. But she still can't stand the smell of roses. She loved Elvis, cats and the color pink. The next morning, Pat's mother called Kubasek, worried. Best Known For: In 1966, Richard Speck committed one of the most horrifying mass murders in American history when he brutalized and killed eight student nurses living on Chicago's South Side. So you could say that from the beginning, Richard, Speck's life was stained with violence even after the war was over. She teaches her students about them and what they meant in both countries. "She found the thing she loved doing, she meets a guy that she says 'yes' to about being married," he said. High school nursing club. 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. Marriage was prohibited for student nurses. The last time John Farris saw Suzie, 21, he had just come home from a track meet, carrying his victory medals, and she was visiting with her boyfriend, Phil. Richard Speck And The Grisly Story Of The Chicago Massacre 30 Strange And Bizarre Facts About Richard Speck Dykton and the unidentified woman were not killed by Richard Speck. But I ended up in jail before I could keep the appointment.'' Pat asked. They`ll never mess with nobody else.''. She worked at the hospital from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Like the other Filipina nurses, she sent money home. He opened it. Clicking from slide to slide, Schmale stepped into his sister's vanished world. According to news accounts published at the time, Merlita, 23, was quiet, shy, hardworking, efficient, pretty and blessed with a rich singing voice. Their mother eventually forgave Richard Speck and urged her children to do the same. Outrage Over Explicit Prison Video of Richard Speck | AP News Mary Ann Jordan grew up hearing her father's tales of her Irish grandmother, Grace. ''I know it keeps up their morale. There was also Billy. her daughter asked. In 1991, while still in prison, Speck died of a heart attack. Her father, Charles, was a former Marine who expected as much from his five daughters as he did from his son. Life in the new country must have brought surprises, but it was hardly dramatic. As part of their psychiatric rotation, they dealt with mentally disturbed patients. Life, though not idyllic, felt safe. Eight thousand miles from home, they could earn decent money and many, like Tina, sent much of it back to their families. In the years that followed, Siouchoff, 70, distanced herself from everything and everyone involved with that awful night. 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. On board was another exchange nurse, Corazon Amurao, whom she had met a month or so earlier. What he had, in this mysterious box he had inherited when his father died, were four carousels of slides, many of them corroded, warped, moldy, ravaged by water and time. 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. 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.

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