My mother had an appointment for me at Parkland Hospital, the same place where Kennedy ended up dying. On this day, Amurao personally identified Speck as the killer. Secretary. Like others Schmale has contacted, she was wary at first of resurrecting the past, but she has felt some relief in it. The radio said some nurses had been killed; the police wouldn't give out information. In the Davy family, according to Lori, grieving openly for Gloria was considered weakness, especially by her father, the military man. Always a quiet woman, she grew quieter. Susan is 3. ''How am I gonna get in trouble?'' Many fans can agree that the interview with Richard Speck was high in terms of tension. What a waste that Nina and her friends weren't able to give the world everything they had to give, or enjoy its pleasures. 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. She also had a hard time believing he actually died of a heart attack in prison in 1991 and wonders why she was spared. Why were they here, and her sister wasn't? Girl Scout. Tina was known as a good cook. The End of Richard Speck: Cora Amurao, dressed as a nurse, entered Speck's hospital room and identified him to police as the killer. Just below, in smaller type, was the news that six policemen had been shot during riots on the West Side. Around 10:30 p.m., she went upstairs to bed, in the high bunk in the room she shared with Merlita. 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. 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. Richard Benjamin Speck was an American mass murderer who killed eight student nurses in their South Deering, Chicago residence on the night of July 13-14, 19. It was Gloria, 22, calling from the townhouse to say that her fiance had just dropped her off. Half an hour later, she heard four knocks at the bedroom door. When Speck died the other day at the age of 49, it was reported that he never gave interviews. I watch her comedy show. 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. Her brother, John Farris, still carries the photo and prayer card in his wallet 50 years later. I was gonna get that tattoo removed. her daughter asked. (Farris family). Her childhood resume wasn't flashy. On the way back, they got lost. Gloria's brother and three of her sisters are still alive. "This is the man," she said as pandemonium erupted. (Schmale family ). When Farris thinks about growing up with Suzie, he thinks about the kitchen. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. The close quarters helped turn most of the women into close friends, and for all their dedication and discipline, they loved pranks. 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. Nursing school, as one former student describes it, was like a cross between a convent and boot camp. For many years she worked as a nurse at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Now 73, she has two children and several grandchildren. I watched `Magnum Force` the other night. (Schmale family ). Fifty years later, Pat Matusek's two best childhood friends are the primary custodians of her past. 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. 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. But any kid can end up just like me.''. Childhood friends of Patricia Matusek share memories with Matuseks niece, who never met her. In the years that followed, Siouchoff, 70, distanced herself from everything and everyone involved with that awful night. Speck's jury trial began April 3, 1967, in Peoria, Illinois, three hours southwest of Chicago, with a gag order on the press. ''), the rest of the conversation was sickeningly mesmerizing. By July of 1966, however, Mary Ann, 20, had moved out of the townhouse and back into the family bungalow. Billy, the spirited boy who rarely spoke more than two words at a time, blurted three: "Mary Ann's dead!". Bottom row from left are Patricia Matusek, Valentina Pasion, Nina Jo Schmale and Pamela Wilkening. One victim was also raped prior to her murder. There's no question that Richard Speck lived a very troubled life from an early age. ''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.''. Lori tries to live by her mother's words. A. John Farris liked his sister's boyfriend. Tina, 23, shared a bedroom with three of the American nurses, while Cora and Merlita shared another. They laughed as they sunbathed on the roof between the tavern and the funeral home, watching the people and the cars down on Michigan Avenue, which they called "The Ave.". No more parole hearings, no more fear that he might be released. Then I screamed for help. Mary Ann Jordanin her nursing uniform in an undated photo. To this day, Siouchoff is convinced that Amurao recognized the difference between the front doorbell and the back one, and deliberately led Speck to the wrong door. 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. The following stories, accompanied by Schmale's photos and a few others, are a glimpse of who they were and how their deaths have marked the people who remain to remember them. "She gets out of the car, slams the door and found out from the guy where we are and how to get home from there.". He plays a lot of solitaire. 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. She climbed out on a window ledge and screamed for help, at which point concerned neighbors summoned the police. A. I screamed there for about five minutes and nothing. In court, Speck was positively identified by the sole surviving student nurse, Cora Amurao. William Martin, shown April 22, 2016, in his Oak Park law office, was the lead prosecutor in the Richard Speck mass murder case. Whatever confluence of forces saved her, Cora Amurao made it through the night alive. "It was him," she said. Sickeningly mesmerizing because, as much as we hate to admit it, it is possible to talk to a mass murderer as a human being. Here's an image she holds on to, one her father captured on a Super 8 movie camera: A sunny Easter morning. 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. According to a 1966 Life magazine story, Tina often mentioned money in her letters. Cora came from Batangas, a province south of Manila known for its volcano, its beaches and the balisong, a traditional folding pocket knife in which the blade can be concealed. ''Some of them women`s gotta be nuts. Her father, Charles, was a former Marine who expected as much from his five daughters as he did from his son. You climbed down to the ledge on 100th Street? I give their addresses to my cellmates. And I don`t know what I`d do without it. Another sister wired the news to their father in their hometown. For a short time he was a carpenter, but soon he was in trouble again: 65-year-old Virgil Harris was viciously raped and robbed in her own home on April 2, 1966, and on April 13 a barmaid in his local tavern, Mary Kay Pierce, was brutally beaten to death. After graduating from Glenbard Township High School in Glen Ellyn in 1959, she worked as a secretary but didnt like it. Who are the victims of the mass murderer? After graduating from Far Eastern University in Manila, she worked for a couple of years as a staff nurse, then applied for work in the United States. And Carol Burnett. She was too hot. On the night of July 13, 1966, she was in bed when a commotion erupted. Sat down to write letters. 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. She displayed uncommon ease with the dying and never balked at the mess that came with tending to the human body. Among Pam's favorite pleasures was watching Jack, who was seven years older, race cars. So do their lives. They were the last women to arrive at the townhouse that night. He proceeded to brutalize them in the most horrific fashion over the following few hours. With Sonny Valicenti, Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Greg Harpold. High school nursing club. I don`t know why it happened to me. In the video, Speck also casually admits to the killing of the nurses, describing the strangulations in some detail, and bragging about the strength required to kill someone in this manner. So did the fact that her brother, John, who was four years older, was studying to be a doctor. Lori Davy, center, accepts a nursing school diploma on behalf of her slain sister, Gloria Davy, at a ceremony at McCormick Place in 1966. Corazon Amurao, center, the nurse who survived the massacre of eight of her fellow student nurses, walks between another nurse and William Ruddel, Bridewell jail superintendent, from Bridewell's Cermak Memorial Hospital after a second visit to the building where Richard Speck was being held on July 19, 1966. 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. The kitchen was also home to the family cookie jar, a white canister that said "Cooky" on the front, a detail he retains because "Cooky" was his father's nickname for Suzie. Life, though not idyllic, felt safe. In the family's two-bedroom Cape Cod home, Suzie and her older sister, Marilyn, shared a bedroom. "I really don't know how to break the news of Tina's death to our parents," one of her sisters sobbed when word reached the Philippines. From left are Mary Ann Jordan, Judith Dykton, in cap, Suzanne Farris, Nina Jo Schmale, an unidentified woman and Pamela Wilkening, seated. Murder made Richard Speck famous. The eight nurses killed by Richard Speck on July 14, 1966, in Chicago were, top from left, Gloria Davy, Suzanne Farris, Merlita Gargullo and Mary Ann Jordan. ''I like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson. She worked her regular shift. Merlita was considered quiet, shy, hardworking, efficient, pretty and blessed with a rich singing voice. 29. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune). .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 managed to deflect police questioning and escape once again, but police discovered some of Harris' personal effects in his vacant hotel room that conclusively tied him to her attack. He's still searching for the words to explain to his three children who his sister was, what happened to her. Holden's methods during a disturbing interview with mass murderer Richard Speck create dissension among the team and kick off an internal FBI probe. "When Merlita (Gargullo) cooked adobo filipino and pancit and they came home from the hospital and smelled the food and they say 'it's good' so we invited them to join us to eat, and they really like it. Lori Davy, center, accepts a nursing school diploma on behalf of her slain sister, Gloria Davy, at a ceremony at McCormick Place in 1966. She worked part time at a bakery. Not violent? Pat and Arlene Kubasek could hardly stop laughing on the night, during their high school sophomore year, that they went to the drive-in with four other girls, then sat in the car eating popcorn and rolling their hair on giant curlers. The murders continue to have a profound impact on American crime and American society, Martin said. Editor's note: This story was first published on April 28, 2016, and is being republished to mark the 50th anniversary of the murders. '', He said that if he were ever paroled, and someone annoyed him, ''I`ll be back in prison. I screamed for about 20 minutes. 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. When John Schmale talks about what happened that night, he uses the words "anger," "rage," "mourning.". Tammy Siouchoff remembers life with her fellow students before six of them and two visiting nurseswere murdered in a neighboring townhouse on Chicago's South Side in 1966. The American student nurses and the exchange nurses never grew close, but from the outset they were friendly. "The mailman would bring them in boxes," he said. Subsequent nationwide enquiries also raised the other incidents in which Speck was suspected, as well as his criminal record. Atienza did not respond to Tribune requests for an interview. Her brother, John Farris, still carries the photo and prayer card in his wallet 50 years later. I`m not a violent man.''. From the transcript of Speck's trial: Q: How long did you scream, in a sitting position, with the window open? Speck, however, seemed to have a knack for making a quick escape and keeping police forces guessing. Speck's death came as a relief to Wilkening and to the families of the other women he killed. She waved and waited for Pat to go inside. Only one of her siblings, a brother, is still alive. She loved swimming, ice skating and softball. The children suffered considerable abuse at the hands of their drunken stepfather, and Speck's childhood was marked by juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, which soon led to petty crime. "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.". "But I come from the place where they make balisong. One of them, Corazon Amurao, steered him to the front door. The next morning, Pat's mother called Kubasek, worried. Richard Speck, in full Richard Benjamin Speck, (born December 6, 1941, Kirkwood, Illinois, U.S.died December 5, 1991, Joliet), American mass murderer known for killing eight female nursing students in a Chicago town house in 1966. 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. ''Look at this.'' (Schmale family ). "Let people know who they were," she said. The first floor consisted of a living room, a powder room and a kitchen. 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. 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? In the bedroom she shared with Cora Amurao, Merlita slept on the bottom bunk. Where Is Acquitted Murderer Candy Montgomery Now? By the time he left, around 3:30 a.m., eight women were dead, some stabbed, some strangled, some both. ''Because any kid can end up to be like me. John and Nina walked together to the one-room Queen Bee schoolhouse, carrying tin lunch pails. Nursing students were under strict rules during the 1960s, but still they found time for fun. He committed several violent crimes against his family as a teenager and young man before he became a mass murderer at the age of 25. Pat asked. Their mother eventually forgave Richard Speck and urged her children to do the same. He thinks of his sister every day. He told me that he drank moonshine and took barbiturates in his prison cell. An impressive and brazen mimic, Mary Ann made everyone around her laugh. Her experience there whetted her interest in nursing. He spent a few days there before traveling to Monmouth, Illinois, where he stayed with some family friends from his early childhood. Student nurses Suzanne Farris, left, and Mary Ann Jordan are shown in their townhouse,circa 1966. Had Pat gotten in OK the night before? 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. His sister and seven of her fellow student nurses and nurseswere murdered 50years ago in one of Chicagos darkest crimes. Teacher. Atienza was the states key witness when Martin prosecuted Speck in the 1967 trial. Speck also has a foul mouth on him and Ford realizes that there is only one way to communicate with him. Stewardess. Theyre smiling and wearing regular clothes. A couple of days after his basement flooded, John Schmale finally mustered the energy to head downstairs and investigate the damage. Would Kubasek go with her to the townhouse to get Pat's nursing cap and uniform? 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. Phil taught public school, had a sailboat and was nice to him, the kid brother. And it turned out that it reopened her life. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune). Who Is Richard Speck? He touched on feelings of pressure from police and investigators to help solve cases, as well as the empathy and duty he felt towards families of victims. (Chicago Tribune historical photo / Chicago Tribune). Speck found work on a ship, and it began to seem like bodies turned up wherever Speck had been. In 1972, Speck's death sentence was commuted to 50 to 100 years in prison, when the U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment. There were nine women staying at the townhouse and one by one, Speck tortured and killed the student nurses. He could be seen doing what appeared to be cocaine and in an interview-like discussion he answered questions about the murders of the nurses . With her salary, she paid tuition for college night classes downtown, after which she commuted home to 111th Street and Avenue E. Eventually she enrolled in nursing school, and though it wasn't a field she had dreamed of as a girl, she had a knack. "Time is moving on," he said one afternoon, sitting in his peaceful yard under the old, low-hanging trees. "She wasn't the prom queen or the valedictorian," her brother recalled. For those girls, and for their families, and for me. Student nurses Suzanne Farris, left, and Mary Ann Jordan are shown in their townhouse,circa 1966. What would Nina, who died at 24, look like today, at 74? Would Kubasek help? In those postwar years, most residents of Chicago's Far South Side were white and working-class, still close to their immigrant roots. She also wrote about Chicago's weather, which she described in one letter as "really terrible. A native Tagalog speaker, she began learning English in first grade. Richard Speck was a murderer notorious for killing eight student nurses in 1966. 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. (Schmale family ). Peter McNamee washes the 1957 Chevrolet owned by his girlfriend, Nina Jo Schmale, whom he planned to marry after graducation, circa 1966. The particulars could have come from a college fraternity boy. ''Here,'' he said. When 23-year-old Corazon Amurao opened the front door to Speck's knock, he forced his way in at gunpoint. All Rights Reserved. In 1991, while still in prison, Speck died of a heart attack. Richard Benjamin Speck[1][2] (December 6, 1941 - December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who systematically tortured, raped, and murdered eight stude. A Tribune freelancer in the Philippines had no success either, and reported that the Philippine Nurses Association in Manila had no contact information for their families. Pat lived above Joe Matusek's Club, the tavern her father ran in the 10800 block of South Michigan Avenue. John and Nina grew up on an acre of land near suburban Wheaton, a remnant of the Schmale family farm. Fortunately, Amurao remembered the distinctive "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo that, along with the image, enabled police to identify their suspect as Richard Speck. 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. In one of the slides that her brother recovered from the basement, a young man crouches next to the Bel Air, washing the whitewalls, smiling for the camera. He unearthed his ancient 35 mm slide projector, marveled that the bulb still worked and began projecting images on a wall. The kitchen is where he and Suzie shared lunch, usually made by their dad, who worked afternoons while their mother worked days. Kubasek said no. So was pregnancy. 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. Merlita Gargullo, left, one of eight nurses slain by Richard Speck, gets a goodbye kiss from her aunt, Ancia Anyayahan, as she left Manila for the United States. Grace Jordan wasn't the only family member to stir Mary Ann's interest in nursing. 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. Her mother, Bessie, passed away in 2005. A funeral parlor jammed with mourners. 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. Many of those people have never spoken at length about what happened, not even to close family members. Martin and Dennis Breo are co-authors of a 1993 book called "The Crime of the Century." When their bodies were flown back to Manila, however, more than 100 people relatives and friends waited in the rain to watch their caskets unloaded from an airliner and hefted into funeral coaches. His mother filed them away neatly, along with the pictures and newspaper clippings. She accepted an assignment at South Chicago Community Hospital and landed at O'Hare airport on May 1, 1966. With whom? 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. John Farris carries a photo of his sister Suzie in his wallet. At South Chicago Community Hospital she earned $350 a month, much of which she sent back to the Philippines, and, like the other exchange nurses, she wrote a lot of letters. Grief will always be tangled in that youthful happiness. They`ll never mess with nobody else.''. In one photo that captures her impish side, she's tucked in bed with a housemate, the covers pulled to her chin, her hair in a shower cap. If that one girl wouldn`t have spit in my face, they`d all be alive today.''. These attacks, however, paled into insignificance on July 13, 1966, when Speck arrived on the doorstep of a townhouse in South Chicago, which served as a communal home for a group of eight young student nurses from nearby South Chicago Community Hospital. I like him. Schmale was a student nurse at South Chicago Community Hospital. Being in the world of the older girls felt cool. At Thornton Fractional South High School, she attended almost every basketball and football game with her closest girlfriends, but she didn't play sports. She began working at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington and then at the Veterans Administration Medical Center. When her father was at work and her mother was taking care of the house and Billy, she took Susan along while she ran family errands on 79th Street, where the shopkeepers knew her name. "I was just as amazed as everyone that this despicable person landed on my surgical service that evening," Dr. LeRoy Smith said in an email this month. He told Greene one of his pleasures in prison was "getting high." When Greene asked him if he compared himself to celebrity . That was a good time that we had," she told Martin in a recent email. 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. But 50 years ago, the murders were perhaps as shocking in the Philippines as they were in Chicago. Soon after he was born, the family moved to Monmouth, Illinois. His little sister. On July 15, 1966, the Chicago Tribune's front page reported the news with the headline "Search for Mass Slayer." Ate an early supper with Merlita and Tina. In 1978, though, I spent two hours with him at Stateville Prison, having a conversation he later said he wished he hadn`t agreed to. In recent months, John Schmale has tried, with no luck, to find friends and relatives of Tina and Merlita, hoping to connect with them for the 50th anniversary commemoration. Seeing them together, it's hard not to wonder what Pat would be like at their age. Speck died of a heart attack after 25 years in prison. She was not the same person. Merlita's father. The judge sentenced Speck to death. 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. Except, Speck doesn't see himself as an evil person. Clicking from slide to slide, Schmale stepped into his sister's vanished world. bobcat side window replacement, corina figueroa escamilla phoebe bridgers, nicola benedetti engagement ring,
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