On the night of July 13, 1966, 20-year-old female nursing student Mary Ann Jordan made a last-minute decision to spend the night at a townhouse on Chicago's South Side that served as a dormitory for her fellow students. This seemingly innocent choice placed her in the path of a brutal rampage that would shock the nation. Earlier that evening, Richard Speck, a 24-year-old drifter with a violent criminal history, broke into the residence at 2319 East 100th Street.
Armed with a knife and a gun, he systematically rounded up the young women as they returned home or were awakened from their sleep.
Over several terrifying hours, Speck held the women captive, assuring them he only wanted money for a trip. However, after robbing them, he led them one by one to different rooms, where he proceeded to stab or strangle them. Mary Ann Jordan was found in an upstairs bedroom, having been stabbed three times in the chest and once in the neck and eye. She and seven other student nurses—Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion—were killed in the attack. A ninth nurse, Corazon Amurao, survived by hiding under a bed, her presence apparently unnoticed by Speck, who may have lost count of his victims. Amurao remained hidden until the early morning of July 14, when she escaped and screamed for help, alerting authorities to the horrific scene.
The lone survivor, Corazon Amurao, provided police with a detailed description of the killer. This description, along with fingerprints left at the scene, quickly led investigators to identify Richard Speck as the primary suspect. A massive manhunt ensued. On July 17, Speck was arrested at the Cook County Hospital after a suicide attempt. A doctor recognized a tattoo on his arm that read "Born to Raise Hell," which had been part of the police description. Speck was indicted on eight counts of murder. His trial began in April 1967, and after only 49 minutes of deliberation, a jury found him guilty. Speck was sentenced to death in the electric chair. However, his sentence was commuted to 400 to 1,200 years in prison in 1972 after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on capital punishment. Richard Speck died of a heart attack in prison on December 5, 1991, the day before his 50th birthday, never having expressed remorse for his crimes. The case, often dubbed the "crime of the century," left a lasting scar on the city of Chicago and is remembered as one of the most brutal mass murders in American history, cutting short the promising lives of eight young women, including Mary Ann Jordan.
