A photo shows four of the eight slain student nurses at South Chicago Community Hospital, circa 1966. One went into nursing. Him and Eastwood and Bronson. What's more, Douglas was aware that any. The image suggests who she was, serious and slightly removed from the fun. Patricia Matusek was murdered along with five fellow nursing students and two visiting nurses in 1966 on Chicago'sSouth Side. He watched it once and hurled it into a corner. His sister and seven of her fellow student nurses and nurseswere murdered 50years ago in one of Chicagos darkest crimes. In 1996, five years after Speck's death, a TV journalist made public a prison video, which showed Speck taking drugs and engaging in sex with another inmate during the 1980s, while he was an inmate at Statesville Correctional Institute; Speck appears to have breasts in the video, apparently as a result of hormone treatment received while in prison, and is wearing women's underwear. "You are surprised I survived?" The first season of Mindhunter saw Ford interview a number of famous serial killers, including Edmund Kemper (Coed Killer), necrophile Jerry Brudos and mass murderer Richard Speck all of. With Sonny Valicenti, Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Greg Harpold. There were nine women staying at the townhouse and one by one, Speck tortured and killed the student nurses. Her graduation from nursing school was less than a month away, exams were coming up and she needed to stay at her townhouse in the city to study. Who is Corazon Amurao? The Matuseks wanted Pat to be buried in the clothes she would have worn for her upcoming graduation, so on the day after the murders, Pat's sister, Betty Jo, asked Kubasek for a favor. Sitting in her Naperville home, she sobbed. Photo: Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images, G. Gordon Liddys Wild Career After Watergate, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Richard Speck, Birth Year: 1941, Birth date: December 6, 1941, Birth State: Illinois, Birth City: Kirkwood, Birth Country: United States. 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. Who Is Suspected Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira? Jordan Morin, who was 15 when Mary Ann died, has never before spoken publicly about her sister's death, and she doesn't talk easily about it now. Chicago was chilly, with a trace of snow, on May 9, 1966, when Tina's plane landed hardly the steamy weather she had known in Jones, a town 240 miles from Manila, where she grew up with five siblings. Jewelry, makeup and nail polish were forbidden on duty. (Schmale family). She waved and waited for Pat to go inside. Through the end of spring and on into summer, Tina and her Filipina friends were sometimes spotted walking to a nearby shopping center, and they took occasional field trips, but they spent a lot of their nonworking time in the townhouse, frequently writing letters home. Then I screamed for help. After his killing spree in 1966, a manhunt ensued and he was captured two days later. In 1991, while still in prison, Speck died of a heart attack. Speck is in jail for murdering and raping a group of women. What would Nina, who died at 24, look like today, at 74? Her village was small (200 people) and her family was large (eight kids). News item: Richard Speck dies in prison, of a heart attack, the day before his 50th birthday. To be reminded of his sister's kindness, to be able to speak with someone about her in that way, gave him rare comfort. 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. Merlita grew up on the island of Mindoro where bananas, rice and coconut grow. 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. (Schmale family). A. I screamed there for about five minutes and nothing. After Speck's trial she moved back to the Philippines and married in 1969, but she returned to the U.S. about four years later. Atienza was the states key witness when Martin prosecuted Speck in the 1967 trial. 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 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. Among the mourners standing in the drizzle was an older, bareheaded man from Mindoro. Would Kubasek go with her to the townhouse to get Pat's nursing cap and uniform? ''. 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. "It hurt everyone down to your soul and your being and your bone," Kubasek said. On what occasion? Billy died at 42, with Susan as his caretaker. 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. Girls, we need to clean the house.". Speck then rounded the nurses up and ordered them to empty their purses, before tying them all up. She also wrote about Chicago's weather, which she described in one letter as "really terrible. I wanted to get rid of it. It was around dawn when she made her way to an upstairs window. They'd see each other Friday, go hang out on Rush Street on the Gold Coast. I was high on heroin that night. According to a news account at the time, she thought it was a safer place to raise a family. 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. "I'm home.". But I ended up in jail before I could keep the appointment.'' "You didn't think you'd ever stop crying.". 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. Student nurses Patricia Matusek, left, and Suzanne Farris, circa 1966. The real-life Speck who tortured, raped, and murdered eight Chicago student nurses in a. Speck laughed. Betty Jo, whose married name was Purvis, died in 2015. Lori Davy Sivek remembers her sister Gloria Davy, one of eight student nurses and nurses murdered together 50years ago on Chicago'sSouth Side. 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 was home on the night of July 13, when her brother Phil stopped by. Once, remarking on her diligence and steady temperament, her brother told her she'd make a good military nurse. It was a close-knit community where almost no one locked their doors. He has never discussed it with them in depth or with his sister Marilyn, who has moved away from Chicago. Jack Wilkening is 79 now, retired from his job as a Standard Oil cashier. 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. Subscribe. Nina. They were excited. She wanted to do Pat's hair and makeup for the funeral. John Farris carries a photo of his sister Suzie in his wallet. 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. 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. Speck also has a foul mouth on him and Ford realizes that there is only one way to communicate with him. I stabbed them and I choked them. For years, Pam's name, along with those of her housemates, was in the paper two or three times a week, or so it seemed to Jack, and always attached to the name of the man who killed her. Today the townhouses on East 100th Street are still standing and occupied, but no longer by student nurses. No immediate relatives were there. It was the kind of neighborhood where kids walked everywhere and went home for lunch, though Pat took sandwiches to school because her mother worked during the day while her father, who ran the bar at night, slept. And so, shortly after 12:15, Mary Ann and Suzanne climbed the stairs to Suzanne's bedroom. (Schmale family ). We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,.css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}contact us! He was in need of surgery to repair his severed artery, and was watched over by a dozen policemen who were determined to ensure that his days of making lucky escapes were over. On a trip to Florida with her classmates not long before she died, she sent a postcard home to report that immediately after their plane landed, they had gone to Mass. Lori has come to believe that Gloria's death prepared her to handle anything, and to see, in some useful ways, the possibility of death in everything. Dykton and the unidentified woman were not killed by Richard Speck. How do you talk about something so terrible? His horrifying violence had made him a murderous celebrity on the level of John Dillinger. She told him she had never forgotten his sister Nina's kindness and that she still misses her. In the early 1900s, Grace Jordan was a high-ranking surgical nurse at the University of Michigan, and the stories of her accomplishments made Mary Ann think she could be a nurse too. 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. On the night of July 13, 1966, she was in bed when a commotion erupted. One summer night in 1966, when her father, who worked for a steel company, was in Pittsburgh on business, Lori and her two younger sisters crowded into their parents' bed. Would Kubasek help? A lanky man in dark clothes, with slicked-back hair and marks on his face, was standing there with a small black revolver in his right hand. So do their lives. It was that door that a student nurse from a neighboring townhouse approached at 12:15 a.m. on July 14, in search of bread for a late-night sandwich. So much youth and beauty, so much wit and fun. I was gonna get that tattoo removed. Student nurses Suzanne Farris, left, and Mary Ann Jordan are shown in their townhouse,circa 1966. 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. He thinks about the family she might have had, wishes she could have met his two sons and daughter and eight grandchildren. On some summer days, because it gives him a warm feeling he can't entirely explain, he drives around, top down, in a car he bought a few years ago. 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. Teacher. 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? Changing his mind at the last minute, he summoned help, and was taken to Cook County hospital, where, again, his tattoo gave him away, and he was arrested and taken into custody. `Parents ought to be careful about their kids,'' Richard Speck said. After it was aired on TV, Wilkening obtained a copy of the video. It's the psychological kind, full of memories and emotions, the kind Schmale means when he says: "Opening the box at first meant to me that I was going to reopen her death. Ate an early supper with Merlita and Tina. So did the fact that her brother, John, who was four years older, was studying to be a doctor. Q. God was so nice," she said in an email to Martin. Michigan authorities also wanted to question him about his whereabouts during the murder of four other females, aged between 7 and 60, as his ship had been in the vicinity at the time. "Gloria's been murdered," Lori remembers her saying. 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. 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. Shes in her nurses uniform, gazing down. On April 15, after 49 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Speck guilty and recommended the death penalty. She still gets a kick out of playing poker at casinos in Nevada with her husband. She married Alberto Atienza, and then, with her husband, a lawyer, moved back to the United States. It will be available May 10. On that Monday, she was taken to a townhouse on East 100th Street rented by her new employer, South Chicago Community Hospital. Nursing school, as one former student describes it, was like a cross between a convent and boot camp. Fifty years later, Pat Matusek's two best childhood friends are the primary custodians of her past. Look at her. The murders happened in a townhouse in the 2300 block of East 100th Street that served as housing for student nurses who worked at South Chicago Community Hospital. The American student nurses and the exchange nurses never grew close, but from the outset they were friendly. One of eight young nurses killed in a Chicago townhouse on July 14, 1966, by a man who became notorious: Richard Speck. After she married and had three children, she told her kids that Aunt Gloria had died in a car crash. They could talk about the wedding. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. Around 10:30 p.m., she went upstairs to bed, in the high bunk in the room she shared with Merlita. Catherine Ceniza Choy, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, writes about the three exchange nurses extensively in "Empire of Care," her history of Filipino nurses in the United States. He'd turned on the TV news in Pennsylvania. Tina was known as a good cook. They`ll never mess with nobody else.''. Atienza was one of three Filipina exchange nurses who lived there, too, and worked at the hospital. On the night of the crime, 24-year-old Speck snuck into a townhouse in Chicago where the nurses lived. William Martin was the lead prosecutor for Speck's trial. What the camera couldn't catch were the girl's thoughts, the confusion she felt at the spectacle of all these other graduates. It was the early 1960s, before the flowering of the women's liberation movement, an era when it wasn't assumed that women would leave the house to work, and those who did had few choices. He pushed up his left sleeve to reveal ugly scars on his arm. Seeing them together, it's hard not to wonder what Pat would be like at their age. Being in the world of the older girls felt cool. She promptly planned a trip to the United States, but passport problems twice forced her to postpone. That's where she was on the night of July 13, 1966, when someone knocked at the bedroom door. Indiana authorities wanted to interview Speck regarding the murder of three girls who had vanished on July 2, 1966, and whose bodies were never found. Speck was the seventh of eight children. I like him. Peter McNamee washes the 1957 Chevrolet owned by his girlfriend, Nina Jo Schmale, whom he planned to marry after graducation, circa 1966. Speck, asked how many lovers he has had in prison, responded that he can't count that high. He thinks of his sister every day. An impressive and brazen mimic, Mary Ann made everyone around her laugh. Speck was never officially charged with the murders of which he was suspected prior to the events that took place in the South Chicago townhouse and, officially, those cases remain unsolved. A funeral parlor jammed with mourners. Just a few glimpses of the video have been shown (in the A&E) documentary about Richard. Richard Speck was a murderer notorious for killing eight student nurses in 1966. Phil taught public school, had a sailboat and was nice to him, the kid brother. News item: Speck's death sentence reversed. He told Greene one of his pleasures in prison was "getting high." When Greene asked him if he compared himself to celebrity . Their lives are what John Schmale wants the world to see, and he can't help but believe that's what his mother wanted too. It took Nina a while to choose nurse. Until he was six-years-old, he lived a fairly normal life in a small town in Illinois. Mary Ann is 8. According to news accounts published at the time, Merlita, 23, was quiet, shy, hardworking, efficient, pretty and blessed with a rich singing voice. Nina Jo Schmale appears in an undated photo. On July 13, 1966, Speck unleashed his terror on Chicago by breaking into a building in the neighborhood of South Deering. I don`t know why it happened to me. "I just would have liked her to see the kids," he said, and he cried. We were just totally out of our minds.''. He plays a lot of solitaire. A few years ago, he ran into an old family friend and she told him a story he'd never heard, about how when she was in high school and couldn't afford a prom dress, Suzie made her one. These days, Farris is retired from his job as an administrative services manager at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago. By the time they were in their third year, they had helped deliver babies, treated sick children, watched people die. The two Arlenes still laugh easily when they think of Pat, but the memory of her death brings them quickly to tears. All of the bedrooms were upstairs, and none had a phone. That is no comfort to the families of his victims. Pam had been quiet, studious and decisive since she was a girl in south suburban Lansing. John had his own. She accepted an assignment at South Chicago Community Hospital and landed at O'Hare airport on May 1, 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. Speck opens up, admitting for the first time that he only sexually assaulted one of the women during his spree. Nina was 19 when she announced to her family, "I'm going to nursing school.". Richard Speck has been described as a drifter, a loner, a high school dropout, a sociopath, a heavy drinker, a violent man who could be charming. In Lori's words, Gloria was driven, independent, intelligent, headstrong, poised, creative and snippy when she didn't like what you were doing. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was later overturned due to issues with jury selection at his trial. Before long, she, Merlita and Cora were huddled in a small bedroom closet, holding the door shut. "For Filipinos and Filipino Americans who came of age during the 1960s," she said in a recent email, "I think Gargullo and Pasion are remembered as nurses who encountered American violence and tragedy, and Amurao is remembered as the nurse who used her wits to survive.". We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Student nurses Suzanne Farris, left, and Mary Ann Jordan are shown in their townhouse,circa 1966. You're afraid in life, and here's someone who is comforting you.''. She began working at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington and then at the Veterans Administration Medical Center. News item: Another Speck parole hearing at Stateville Correctional Center. 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. She walked off the stage, shoulders back, carrying a diploma dated July 14, 1966. What a waste that Nina and her friends weren't able to give the world everything they had to give, or enjoy its pleasures. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune). ''Dillinger and them guys, that was the Depression, they were robbing banks because that was their only way to survive. `60 Minutes,` the news, keep up on the outside world. Peter McNamee washes the 1957 Chevrolet owned by his girlfriend, Nina Jo Schmale, whom he planned to marry after graducation, circa 1966. Where Is Acquitted Murderer Candy Montgomery Now? (Farris family). "A lot of us never locked our doors but the Speck case changed all that.". If you live your life in hatred and anger, you'll lose more than Gloria. 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. He pulled it out recently as he talked for the first time publicly about the sister he lost when he was 15. Who are the victims of the mass murderer? Years later, when Nina moved into the townhouse where she died, she installed an old "Schmale Rd" street sign in her bedroom. she reportedly told friends a few days after the murders. It sure gets way out. In the years that followed, Siouchoff, 70, distanced herself from everything and everyone involved with that awful night. They are young and together and happy. 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. Her roommates and friends were killed by Speck on July 14, 1966, after he broke in armed with a gun and a knife. He was the man Nina planned to marry but only after graduation. Among Pam's favorite pleasures was watching Jack, who was seven years older, race cars. In the townhouse's unofficial sorority, Pam was the quiet one. Richard Speck once remarked that the day after he was born, all hell broke loose. 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. The murders continue to have a profound impact on American crime and American society, Martin said. His little sister. Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. No one in her village had ever gone to America. Speck's jury trial began April 3, 1967, in Peoria, Illinois, three hours southwest of Chicago, with a gag order on the press. Tina was part of the wave of Filipina exchange nurses who came to the United States in that era to learn new things, make friends and, most of all, to work. 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. Come spend the night, Suzie suggested. Half an hour later, she heard four knocks at the bedroom door. They were the last women to arrive at the townhouse that night. ''Because any kid can end up to be like me. There's no question that Richard Speck lived a very troubled life from an early age. On Aug. 7, 1966, when Lori Davy, 11, walked across the stage to accept her sister's diploma, her father's orders were fresh in her mind. I`m not a violent man.''. Often after a day of classes at Fenger High School, Pat Matusek walked to Roseland Community Hospital to see her cousin Tommy. A doting mother and grandmother, she enjoys baby-sitting her grandchildren about twice a week and the constant companionship of her children. Another time, according to a different news account, Tina wrote her sister saying she wished she could live in Chicago forever. Brownie. "Pat looks at us and says, 'Oh, for crying out loud!'"