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Short Synopsis
On July 14th, 1966, Richard Franklin Speck swept through a quiet Chicago townhouse like a summer tornado and stabbed, strangled, and killed eight young nurses in a violent sexual rampage. By morning, only one nurse, Corazon Amurao, had miraculously survived, and her scream of terror was heard around the world . . .

Full Synopsis
On July 14th, 1966, Richard Franklin Speck swept through a quiet Chicago townhouse like a summer tornado and stabbed, strangled, and killed eight young nurses in a violent sexual rampage. By morning, only one nurse, Corazon Amurao, had miraculously survived, and her scream of terror was heard around the world. As the eight bodies were carried out of the small building, the coroner, who had seen the carnage up close, told a gathering crowd: "It is the crime of the century!"

Now, the prosecutor who put Speck in prison for life (William J. Martin) and the author and journalist who won an award for his coverage of the crime (Dennis L. Breo) have teamed up to recreate the blood-soaked night that opened a new chapter in the history of American crime: mass murder. Corazon Amurao, the nurse the killer left behind, confronted Speck at trial and told jurors, "This is the man!" Richard Speck was spared execution by Supreme Court rulings and here is the inside story of how he confessed to the murders in a sordid prison video made three years before his death of a heart attack in 1991. And here is the life today of the nurse who survived the crime that murdered American innocence.

"Former prosecutor Martin and Chicago journalist Breo present a fast-paced, solid reconstruction of Martin's biggest case: the fatal stabbing, strangling and sexual assault of eight young nurses by drifter Richard Speck in Chicago in 1966." ---Publishers Weekly

"The prosecutor of Richard Speck in the 1966 murder of eight student nurses, William Martin, in collaboration with Dennis Breo, has written the definitive account of the murders, the pursuit and capture of the suspect, the trial, and its aftermath." ---Booklist

The Crime of the Century

Richard Speck and the Murders That Shocked a Nation

Author Dennis L. Breo, William J. Martin

Narrated by Christina Delaine

Publication date Mar 31, 2017

Running time 18 hrs 28 min

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