On a sweltering July night in 1966, eight young student nurses gathered in their modest Chicago townhouse, studying, laughing, and planning for bright futures devoted to healing others. By dawn, all but one would be dead — victims of a crime so brutal and senseless that it forever changed how Americans understood violence, safety, and evil itself. In this powerful episode of The Guilty Files, we revisit one of the darkest nights in American history — the Richard Speck murders.
We begin with Speck’s troubled childhood in rural Illinois, tracing his transformation from an abused and neglected boy into a violent, drifting man. Through court records, psychological profiles, and witness testimony, we follow the sequence of events that led him from one bar to another that night, driven by rage, addiction, and a lifetime of trauma — until he found himself at 2319 East 100th Street. Inside that small townhouse lived eight remarkable women — future nurses united by their compassion and courage.
We remember Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion — honoring their dreams, their kindness, and their shared commitment to care for others. Through meticulous research and survivor testimony, we recount the investigation that gripped the nation — how a simple tattoo reading “Born to Raise Hell” led detectives to their suspect.
We revisit the bravery of Corazon Amurao, the sole survivor who hid beneath a bed for hours, bearing silent witness and later testifying to bring Speck to justice. The trial that followed revealed not only the depths of one man’s depravity but also the flaws and limits of the American justice system.
Though sentenced to death, Speck’s life would end not at the gallows but behind bars — where years later, a shocking prison video reignited public outrage and reopened the wounds of those still grieving. Beyond the crime, this episode examines its lasting impact: reforms in nursing education and hospital security, the birth of modern criminal profiling, and the cultural shift that redefined how Americans viewed personal safety and random violence.
This is not a story told to glorify evil — it is a story to remember courage, humanity, and loss. The lives of these eight women remind us that even in the face of unimaginable darkness, compassion and justice endure.