Richard Speck broke into a South Side Chicago townhouse on July 13, 1966, while drunk and high on drugs. Inside were 9 student nurses, each between the ages of 20 and 24, all attending South Chicago Community Hospital. They were using this townhouse as a dormitory. Over the course of the evening, Speck strangled and stabbed these nurses. However, one student nurse, Corazon Amurao, crawled under a bed and hid. Surprisingly Speck did not find her. Ms. Amurao was the star witness in Speck’s trial, which had to be held in Peoria as too many people were outraged about it in Chicago, thus potentially tainting the jury pool. After 49 minutes of deliberations, the jury found Speck guilty of murder and gave him the death penalty. However, since then the death penalty was found to be unconstitutional and his sentence was changed to 400-1200 years. Speck died of a heart attack on December 5, 1991.

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SPECK’S SISTERS APARTMENT – SITE
3966 N. Avondale Avenue, Chicago
Speck’s sister Martha lived here. Speck stayed with her and her husband, Gene, on and off before he committed the murders. Gene tried to help Speck get a job with the Merchant Marines before the murders.

ST. ELMO HOTEL – SITE
95th Street and S. Ewing Avenue, Chicago
The site of a flophouse that Speck had stayed at on and off.

PAULINE’S ROOMING HOUSE – SITE
3028 E. 96th Street, Chicago
The site of a rooming house that Speck had stayed at on and off.

SHIPYARD INN – SITE
E. 96th Street and S. Avenue N, Chicago
The site of a bar / rooming house where Speck got drunk before committing the murders. He also raped a woman bar patron there that night. 

NATIONAL MARITIME UNION – SITE
2335 E.100th Street, Chicago
Speck’s brother-in-law Gene drove him here several times to get him his seaman’s card and to try to get Speck an assignment on several ships. This building was only a block from the townhouse where the student nurses lived.

RICHARD SPECK MURDER HOUSE – SITE
2319 E.100th Street, Chicago
This is the townhouse that Richard Speck broke into on July 13, 1966, and found 9 student nurses there. He killed 8 of them over the course of the night, and one nurse hid underneath a bed and survived. She became Speck’s Number One Witness.

STARR HOTEL – SITE
617 W. Madison Street, Chicago
The site of the Starr Hotel in 1966 when this area was considered the “Skid Row” part of Chicago. Today it looks nothing like it did back then. Speck was staying here after the murders and attempted suicide. 

OLD COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL – SITE
1835 W. Harrison Street, Chicago
Speck was brought here in the early hours of July 17, 1966, for attempting suicide. A doctor recognized him from descriptions he had heard on the news about the murders and Speck was arrested.

Richard Speck Tour Links

RICHARD SPECK
Wikipedia”>Richard Speck -> Wikipedia