It took Nina a while to choose nurse. Attorney William J. Martin, 79, talks about Corazon Amurao Atienza, the lone survivor of the Richard Speck murders. Amurao had arrived the previous day to identify the killer in person, but Speck was not well enough. His sister and seven of her fellow student nurses and nurseswere murdered 50years ago in one of Chicagos darkest crimes. Another time, according to a different news account, Tina wrote her sister saying she wished she could live in Chicago forever. The two Arlenes still laugh easily when they think of Pat, but the memory of her death brings them quickly to tears. 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. Tina, 23, shared a bedroom with three of the American nurses, while Cora and Merlita shared another. In 1991, while still in prison, Speck died of a heart attack. No one in her village had ever gone to America. He has found another way as well to hang on to his sister's hopeful spirit. 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? What made headlines about the interview was Speck`s confession, after years of proclaiming his innocence, that he had, indeed, done the murders: ''Yeah, I killed them. Nursing students were under strict rules during the 1960s, but still they found time for fun. He has remained in contact with her all these years. Speck died of a heart attack after 25 years in prison. Speck also has a foul mouth on him and Ford realizes that there is only one way to communicate with him. They could talk about the wedding. Mindhunter: 10 Most Chilling Quotes From The Netflix Show - Screen Rant The Mystery Novelist Who Committed a Real Murder, Boston Marathon Bombings Survivors, 10 Years Later, A Complete Timeline of Adnan Syeds Trial, Release. He had no doubt. In 1966, Richard Speck committed one of the most horrifying mass murders in American history when he brutalized and killed eight student nurses living on Chicago's South Side. She started college as an English major at Northern Illinois University, then switched to nursing. Grace Jordan wasn't the only family member to stir Mary Ann's interest in nursing. 'Mindhunter': The True Stories Behind The Show's Killers And Profilers 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. He told Greene one of his pleasures in prison was "getting high." When Greene asked him if he compared himself to celebrity . The camera also catches the misery on those women's faces. He opened it. 28. I like him. If you live your life in hatred and anger, you'll lose more than Gloria. After Speck was arrested for burglary and assault, he fled to Chicago to seek shelter with his sister, Martha, a couple of months later. "I'm in," said Gloria, who phoned her mother every night to say she was back and safe. Speck admitted he committed the killings _ breaking for the first time his claim of drug-induced amnesia. I was gonna get that tattoo removed. "A lot of people will be here shortly. She helped raise eight younger siblings, swam in the river and was good enough in school to be admitted to the nursing program at Arellano University in the big city of Manila. He'll never forget the cards and letters that flooded in from strangers all over the world. High school nursing club. Atienza visits the Philippines every three years to see relatives. Lori Davy Sivek remembers her sister Gloria Davy, one of eight student nurses and nurses murdered together 50years ago on Chicago'sSouth Side. 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. It was small and nothing fancy: One bathroom and three bedrooms upstairs. That's where she was on the night of July 13, 1966, when someone knocked at the bedroom door. Martin and Dennis Breo are co-authors of a 1993 book called "The Crime of the Century." Just a few glimpses of the video have been shown (in the A&E) documentary about Richard. The last time John Farris saw Suzie, 21, he had just come home from a track meet, carrying his victory medals, and she was visiting with her boyfriend, Phil. "It hurt everyone down to your soul and your being and your bone," Kubasek said. Today the townhouses on East 100th Street are still standing and occupied, but no longer by student nurses. 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. Teacher. There she joined two other Filipina exchange nurses, Merlita Gargullo and Corazon Amurao, who had arrived a few days earlier. Many fans can agree that the interview with Richard Speck was high in terms of tension. 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. It sure gets way out. In 1972, Speck's death sentence was commuted to 50 to 100 years in prison, when the U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment. Peter McNamee washes the 1957 Chevrolet owned by his girlfriend, Nina Jo Schmale, whom he planned to marry after graducation, circa 1966. Her experience there whetted her interest in nursing. And so, shortly after 12:15, Mary Ann and Suzanne climbed the stairs to Suzanne's bedroom. Clicking from slide to slide, Schmale stepped into his sister's vanished world. 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. 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. "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.". Marriage was prohibited for student nurses. He was referring to letters he received in his prison cell every week from women-female admirers who, he said, wanted to correspond with him. It was the kind of childhood that half a century later people look back on and call simpler, innocent, a time when city kids were raised to be independent and unafraid. Richard Benjamin Speck (December 6, 1941 - December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who systematically tortured, raped, and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital on July 13, 1966. And it turned out that it reopened her life.". By the time Pat was 5, she had another best friend, also named Arlene Arlene Kubasek and through the years the three girls laughed a lot together. Abigail Atienza followed in her mother's footsteps and became a nurse practitioner, and Christian is a certified public accountant. From early childhood, she connected with him in a unique way, and he was why she wanted to specialize in pediatric nursing. Until he was six-years-old, he lived a fairly normal life in a small town in Illinois. He pushed up his left sleeve to reveal ugly scars on his arm. Secretary. It was around dawn when she made her way to an upstairs window. A camera caught the moment: a pretty girl in a plaid dress with a Peter Pan collar, reaching, with white gloves, for the document her sister had worked so hard to earn. Her village was small (200 people) and her family was large (eight kids). Student nurses Suzanne Farris, left, and Mary Ann Jordan are shown in their townhouse,circa 1966. 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. Dykton and the unidentified woman were not killed by Richard Speck. Mary Ann had family responsibilities. '', Even when he attempted to express remorse for the murders, he still came off as a conscienceless criminal: ''I`m sorry as hell. Jack Wilkening is 79 now, retired from his job as a Standard Oil cashier. Parts of the confession were almost certainly bogus; Speck said that he had not killed all eight nurses-that an accomplice, whom Speck later shot to death, had killed one of the nurses, while Speck killed the other seven. ", "But work is easier than in the Philippine Islands," she continued, "only the patients are as big as water buffalo.". He spent the rest of his life in prison until he died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 49. He had never met the women he was about to kill. The real-life Speck who tortured, raped, and murdered eight Chicago student nurses in a. Richard Speck was born on December 6, 1941, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the family's two-bedroom Cape Cod home, Suzie and her older sister, Marilyn, shared a bedroom. "But I come from the place where they make balisong. 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. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune). But she still can't stand the smell of roses. Wednesday, July 13, began as an ordinary day. 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. Many of those people have never spoken at length about what happened, not even to close family members. Law- enforcement officials familiar with the 1966 mass murder said there was no chance an accomplice existed. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Slain nurses remembered on 50th anniversary of Richard Speck murders It will be available May 10. It was Wednesday, July 13, shortly after 11 p.m. Richard Speck was already upstairs.