The Crime of the Century by Dennis L. Breo and William J. Martin, 463 pages
Reading this book was a great accomplishment for me. It was a very graphic and detailed book of one of the most heinous crimes in history. On July 14, 1966, in Chicago, Richard Speck gruesomely sexually assaulted and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital. The book details Richard Speck's days before and after the murders. He had been eyeing the young women's townhouse while looking for work at the National Maritime Union. This book included many graphic details of the murders. It was disturbing at times to read how sick he was. Corazon Amurao, a young Filipino woman, was the only survivor. She had crawled under a bed and went unseen and witnessed the crimes. During the trial, it was very important to keep her protected and guarded from the public and the press. The State's Attorney even brought over her mother and cousin to keep her company while in protective custody. William J. Martin, Assistant State's Attorney and coauthor of this book, was the prosecuting attorney on the case.
There were many details of this case I did not know. For instance, someone called the police on July 16th to report Richard was seen at a seedy hotel, but it was not until July 17th when he attempted suicide that he was identified as the suspect. Also, I did not know Richard had been married and had a child. Richard had been sentenced to death by the electric chair, but the Supreme Court overturned it. Richard was serving a life sentence when he died of a heart attack in jail at the age of 49. He never confessed to the crimes.
