Richard Benjamin Speck was born on 6 December 1941 in Kirkwood, Illinois, the seventh of eight children born to Benjamin Franklin Speck and Mary Margaret Carbaugh. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Monmouth, Illinois. Speck was reportedly close to his father, who died of a heart attack in 1947 when Speck was six years old.

In 1950, Speck’s mother married Carl August Rudolph Lindberg, a traveling insurance salesman with a lengthy criminal record and a history of alcoholism. The family relocated several times over the following years, ultimately settling in East Dallas, Texas. Speck struggled academically, repeated grades, and dropped out of school at age sixteen. He began drinking heavily at a young age and accumulated numerous arrests for minor offenses during his teenage years.

In 1962, Speck married Shirley Annette Malone after a brief courtship. They had one daughter together, born while Speck was serving a short jail sentence. Their marriage deteriorated quickly, and they separated before divorcing in 1966. Speck continued to accumulate criminal charges, including forgery, burglary, and aggravated assault, and served multiple prison terms in Texas. He was repeatedly released early due to administrative errors or sentence overlaps.

In early 1966, Speck fled Texas while facing another arrest warrant and traveled to Illinois, where he moved between relatives, temporary lodging, and transient housing. He obtained short-term work as a laborer and later as a merchant seaman on Great Lakes vessels, though he was dismissed after conflicts and intoxication. In the weeks before the murders, Speck was unemployed, heavily intoxicated, and living in rooming houses in Chicago’s South Deering area.

On the night of 13–14 July 1966, Richard Speck carried out the murders of eight student nurses inside a townhouse at 2319 East 100th Street in the South Deering neighborhood of Chicago. The residence functioned as a dormitory for nurses affiliated with South Chicago Community Hospital.

Late in the evening of July 13, Speck entered the townhouse armed with a knife and a stolen handgun. Over several hours, he restrained the occupants and led them out of a room one at a time. Each victim was killed by stabbing, strangulation, slashing of the throat, or a combination of these methods. One victim was sexually assaulted prior to her death. The killings occurred at intervals of approximately twenty to thirty minutes.

Eight women were murdered:

• Gloria Jean Davy, 22
• Suzanne Bridgit Farris, 21
• Merlita Ornado Gargullo, 23
• Mary Ann Jordan, 20
• Patricia Ann Matusek, 20
• Valentina P. Pasion, 24
• Nina Jo Schmale, 24
• Pamela Lee Wilkening, 20

A ninth woman, Corazon Amurao, survived by hiding beneath a bed and remaining undiscovered until morning.

Fingerprints recovered from the crime scene were later matched to Speck. Two days after the murders, he was identified by an acquaintance, but police failed to respond promptly. Speck attempted suicide and was taken to Cook County Hospital on 17 July 1966, where he was recognized by medical staff due to a distinctive tattoo. He was then arrested.

Speck’s trial began on 3 April 1967. He was positively identified in court by Corazon Amurao and convicted on 15 April 1967 of all eight murders. He was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was overturned following changes in U.S. death penalty law. In 1972, he was resentenced to multiple consecutive prison terms totaling hundreds of years.

Speck spent the remainder of his life incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois. He was repeatedly denied parole and admitted responsibility for the murders in later interviews and recordings. On 5 December 1991, one day before his fiftieth birthday, Speck died of a heart attack while in custody.