The Speck murders: 40 years later

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | July 09, 2006 | Scott Fornek

[Pelham]

Interesting name you have, Dr Sheppard.

[Perdogg]

he died in Prison. He was one of the lucky ones who was spared by the Supreme Court when they threw out the DP for a brief time.

[Richard Kimball]

Kenneth Allen McDuff also got his date with the executioner commuted. He was later released and killed several more people. Texas executed him the second time, and we haven't slowed down, since.

[the invisib1e hand]

But to those still around, the memories cut as sharp as a knife.

welp, there you have B-grade journalism and poor taste all in one.

[okie01]

John Wesley Hardin supposedly killed over 30 men.

Then, fittingly, was shot in the back by the very man Hardin himself had hired -- to kill the husband of the woman he was seeing.

Somehow, that seems like justice...

[Luke21]

He didn't fry. He ran the prison he was in, dressed in drag and being waited on hand and foot like royalty until he died. It was sickening.

[Graybeard58]

Well, you have 4 answers to your question so far. All the same. I think you may get a couple more before it's over.

[nopardons]

Only in the 20th century. The 19th century had quite a few serial killers, who were made nationally "infamous" in newspapers and penny dreadfuls. Heck, America even had her own "JACK THE RIPPER", in Chicago, during the World's Fair of 1893, in the nefarious Dr. Henry H. Holmes.

[Richard Kimball]

I loved the quote attributed to the sheriff who investigated Hardin's killing. Hardin's eye was shot out, and the witnesses all claimed he'd been shot in a fair fight. The sheriff supposedly said, "If he was shot from the front, it was remarkably good aim. If he was shot from behind, it was remarkably good judgment."

[onedoug]

An eternity in hell since 1991.

[okie01]

Good one!

My first thought was that Hardin had been shot in the head while he sat -- presumably drunk and passed out -- in the shade of a tree...in Tombstone.

But a little research revealed that Hardin was shot in El Paso. The Tombstone event involved another gunslinger.

[bboop]

I would have prefered to read the second part -- where the survivor identified him.

[skr]

Oh my, I'd never heard of Dr. Henry H. Holmes. Just looked him up and wasn't he an enterprising murderer? His "hotel" certainly was efficient. He's apparently considered the first American serial killer, although with a possibility of over 200 victims in ten years, perhaps mega-serial killer might be more appropriate. They didn't fool around back then, trial in Oct. 1895, hanging in May 1896.

[PacesPaines]

I was 7 years old, living in the Chicago area at the time of the murders. I was a very good reader, so by that time, was regularly reading the newspaper. How well I remember seeing the frightening Chicago Tribune front page with the photos of Speck's victims. It gives me the chills 40 years later.

If there ever was an example of pure evil, it was the monstrosity known as Richard Speck.

[pbear8]

Wow, how scary for a 7 year old. My friend's grandfather was the judge in the Speck case. How sickening.

[razorback-bert]

Speed freak Timothy McVeigh

I learn something new everyday.

[bannie]

Was that the interview with the pig who actually had breasts? I remember a laughing, effeminate pig.

[Graybeard58]

Are you from Peoria?

[Intolerant in NJ]

Exactly 40 years ago this week, Richard Franklin Speck broke into a two-story town house in a quiet middle-class neighborhood on the Southeast Side and made nightmares come true...almost three years to the day before Teddy Kennedy let a young woman die in his submerged car in Chappaquiddick pond, another horrendous crime......

[CrazyIvan]

Nice to have your hometown famous for something. Richard Speck was from mine (Monmouth Ill.). He lived at the "Y" for awhile and had a record at the time. Our moms would warn us not to talk to him. Of course we did anyway. There was a barmaid murdered and left in a hog house that locals credited to him but nobody was ever convicted. He had two nephews that were a year older and younger than I and both are great guys. The younger is named Richard Speck also and I remember that a local judge asked him if he wanted to change it. He didn't, which I could never understand. We went on a family vacation shortly after the murders and of course every time someone would ask us where we were from that's what came up. So much for my brush with fame. Oh, and John Wayne Gacey lived down the road in Roseville for awhile.