The Crime of the Century - Hardcover

Breo, Dennis L.

3.99

1,521 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553560255 ISBN 13: 9780553560251

Publisher: Bantam, 1993

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On July 14, 1966, Richard Franklin Speck murdered eight student nurses in their quiet Chicago town house. He broke in as his helpless victims slept, bound them one by one, and then stabbed, assaulted, and strangled all eight in a sadistic sexual frenzy. By morning only one young nurse had miraculously survived. The barbarity of the attack shocked a nation and opened a new chapter in the history of American crime: mass murder.

Here is the never-before-told story of Richard Speck by the prosecutor who put him in prison for life.In the Crime of the Century, William J. Martin has teamed up with Dennis L. Breo to re-create the blood-soaked night that made American criminal history, offerning fascinating behind-the-scenes descriptions of Speck, his innocent victims, the desperate manhunt and massive investigation, and the trial that led to Speck's successful conviction. In 1991 Richard Speck died of a heart attack in prison, but the horror of his crime still haunts the conscience of a nation.

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Review:

"They are all dead! My friends are all dead! Oh, God, I'm the only one alive!" Chicago, 1966: a drifter from Texas named Richard Speck broke into a small townhouse one hot summer night. He tied up nine student nurses, then methodically raped and killed eight of them, one after another. One of the roommates, a tiny Filipino woman, hid under a bed for hours, and survived to crawl out a window the next morning and scream for help. The Cook County coroner, having surveyed the carnage, said to a gathering crowd, "It's the crime of the century." After Speck died in jail, 25 years later, the prosecuting attorney for the case (Bill Martin) and the journalist who won an award for his coverage of the crime (Dennis Breo) teamed up to write this brilliantly crafted book. A bizarre murderer, a spunky heroine, a stormy period in U.S. history, fascinating legal maneuvers, a dramatic trial, and sensitive treatment of human suffering--The Crime of the Century brings it all together for a classic of true crime reporting.

From Publishers Weekly:

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. Drawing on a wealth of research (including interviews with surviving nurse Corazon Amurao), the authors cannot resist certain cliches but eschew reconstructed quotes and excessive melodrama. They amply detail Speck's "bragging, drinking and lying" before his violent sexual rampage in the nurses' townhouse. Their account of the search for Speck ranges through Chicago; after police missed opportunities to capture him, a doctor identified the injured suspect, who had slashed himself in a suicide attempt. The authors render Martin's investigation in the third person; most important was his effort to keep Amurao in a safe place. Inquiring into Speck's background, Martin discovered an abusive stepfather and a history of violence but not of mental illness; Speck was found competent to stand trial. The jury took 49 minutes to decide his guilt. Though jurors called for the death penalty, Speck's execution was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court, and Speck, who never confessed his crimes, died in prison of a heart attack in 1991.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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