Talk:Richard Speck/Archive 1

Chicago Sun-Times series
The Chicago Sun-Times is running a series about Speck, starting with http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-speck10.html. Cheers, CWC (talk) 16:49, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Should we add a link to Crimelibrary.com?
Not too familiar with Wiki policy, but I was looking up additional info after hearing his name on a show, and http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial%5Fkillers/predators/speck/ seemed to contain additional and more detailed info that was not included with the Wiki on him. Should we add a link to that site/article, or incorperate the extra info to his wiki page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Coradon (talk • contribs) 07:51, September 30, 2006 (UTC) ‎

Improving this article
Hi. Not much action here for awhile. The subject needs serious resourcing and I propose to line up what I can and place it on the external links. Getting primary sources (court records for example) will be a problem but let's see what good secondary sources we can get. Malangthon 16:57, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

External Link: Carpenoctem.tv. is technically a small independent media source. It does not cite references but much of what is written was stated elsewhere in mainstream media sources. As such it is pretty average for Wikimedia but it is fairly well written. If anyone has a problem with it, don't just delete it, let us know here on the talk page. I have sent the site owners a request for background references and will post them here.

We can use sites like this for initial references and then move on primary sources but we are building now so. . .. Someone here said they'd had a teacher who was on the trial jury. Any chance of getting a source for actual trial records and the news being reported in Peoria and Chicago during the trial? In some cities you can just pick up the phone and ask for references for court records and even view them without much trouble--if you are so inclined.Malangthon 17:15, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Crime Library: Someone here mentioned putting this link on the article. I say yes to that. It cites its sources, to wit:

Bibliography Malangthon 17:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Dennis L. Breo and William J. Martin (1993) Crime of the Century; Richard Speck and the Murder of Eight Student Nurses. William J. Martin was the prosecutor that succeeded in getting Speck imprisoned.
 * Jack Altman and Marvin, Ziporyn, M.D (1967) Born to Raise Hell: The Untold Story of Richard Speck.  The Man, The Crime, The Trial by . Grove Press, According to Crime Library, Dr. Ziporyn interviewed Speck approximately twice a week over a period of six months before Speck's trial and was an expert witness for Speck's defense.
 * Jay Robert Nash (1995) Bloodletters and Badmen. M. Evans and Co. Contains a chapter on Speck
 * Additional information is available from Chicago newspapers, such as the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times

Changing layout
Ok, we're going to have a more readable, more detailed article here, and the first thing that has to happen is a layout arrangement for the subheadings, and I'll work on that over the weekend: If anyone can get pics uploaded and tagged, post them within this page...they will be used. Carajou 21:39, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Lead paragraph...include slightly more detail, and polish it for a better introduction.
 * Early life...remove the choppyness of the sentences; add relevent detail.
 * Early crimes...separate subheading for that subject.
 * Mass murder...extensive detail about what he did to the nurses.
 * Search and capture...the way he eluded police and how he was caught demands a separate subheading.
 * The trial
 * Sentencing and re-sentencing...both can be combined.
 * Prison life...this also can benefit from detail.
 * Death
 * The video

According to Time magazine, http://www.time.com/time/2007/crimes/9.html, there were not 9 nurses. There were 8. A friend was visiting, and Speck expected 8 women. After killing the guest, he never looked for the last nurse, thinking he'd killed them all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.174.254.228 (talk • contribs) 18:39, March 1, 2007 (UTC)


 * News sources are much better to use if they are dated to the time it took place, rather than some fourty years later, hence the newspaper image. What I think would be better would be a list of the victims and their status in the apartment at the time, because frankly Speck didn't really care about the number there...he didn't care about anything for that matter.  Carajou 17:28, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Cleanup needed
This article has a number of grammatical errors, such as problems with tense, interspersed throughout, so I've placed the cleanup template. --Yksin 18:43, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Psychiatry testimony
Added information about the "leading psychiatrist" who said Speck had the Madonna-whore complex, including identifying him, adding information published about his motives and outcomes, from Crime of the Century. At the same time, I did some rearranging of the section regarding the murders. Wildhartlivie 05:32, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Areas needing work
Three major points need attention:
 * First, the issue regarding XYY theory needs expanding and reworking. There is conflicting information out there regarding whether this was used in initial trial preparation or in preparation for appealing the death penalty. A personal bias of mine is the reference from the Crime Library which, to my experience, often has errors. The portion dedicated to XYY is nearly verbatim from that site. I am researching this area at this time.


 * Another area that needs attention is the paragraph that starts with the use of the nickname birdman, and ends with the statement Speck allegedly made regarding having 1200 years. This needs a citation.


 * The last point is technically correct for citations, but seems awkward in context of the rest of the article. The early life section has 3 paragraphs which are cited from the Time-Life book. Wouldn't it be more consistent to format these citations in the same manner as the rest of the article?Wildhartlivie 01:50, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Speck in Media
The comment left was not intended to be personal, but only a description of why I did what I did so it wouldn't be seen as simple vandalism or whatever. Sorry if it felt personal. I have added the movie and CSI episode back to the Speck in Media section. There is another movie mentioned which is only based on Specks story (and not an accurate retelling) and I have sourced them both to IMdB. If you watch closely you'll see at the trivia section of the movie (in IMdB) that its based on Specks story. Everybody who wants to can borrow (or buy or whatever) these movie or CSI episode and verify what is written in Wikipedia. You'll need no dissertation to know if a song is sung about Richard Speck, you'll need none for a movie or CSI episode either. ColdCase (talk) 00:15, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Odd reference
Of what relevance is Simon and Garfunkel's song, "7 O'Clock News?" It's listed at the bottom, but I can find nothing of relevance in the article to the song. What am I missing? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Edarrell (talk • contribs) 12:52, June 21, 2007 (UTC)
 * Speck's indictment is mentioned in the song. Nibios (talk) 23:36, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Recent change
An editor recently expanded a large section of content covering in great technical detail, issues relating to the XYY issue with Speck. I feel this expansion is overly technical for the routine reader of a crime biography, with information far removed to the specific and immediate relevancy to Richard Speck in particular. The reader can be directed to more extensive discussion of the issue on an appropriate page, but the specific details of initial studies is simply beyond the scope of this article. The reader does not have to know how the researchers formed their later debunked study, or how developments regarding unfolded beyond the relevance to Speck. All this section needs to do is state that based upon faulty assumptions regarding the study and whether or not it pertained to Speck and his supposed appeal, and perhaps simplified content on how it became part of textbooks. As it is, it simply is too complicated and technical and overwhelms the more pertinent content of the trial and outcome. Also, it makes reference twice to a "outrageously false caption", which veers into the POV. I'm not quite sure how to go about this, but I do feel the section as it currently exists unbalances the article, both in variation of technicality and weight to the debunking of the Telfer study and methodology, which has less relevance here.

The former content was very limited, but essentially said the same thing, stating "According to one theory briefly advanced, the XYY syndrome rendered a person more likely to commit crimes, and it was suggested that Speck had the syndrome. Later it was proven that he did not. The theory that there is a relation between XYY syndrome and criminal behavior was rejected soon afterward." Too simplistic? Perhaps but there must be a midway between the two versions. How the debunking occurred is far less important than that it simply was. Wildhartlivie (talk) 03:59, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm still having issues with this section, mostly that besides the technicalities included in it, the way it is written is more in keeping with a research paper in that it uses references to scientific articles and constructs it in a way that reads like original research. I've tagged the section and am going to ask other editors to weigh in on the section. Wildhartlivie (talk) 21:46, 8 April 2009 (UTC)


 * An encyclopedia article like this one is used by a wide range of users—including those with interests in science, medicine, education, journalism and ethics—it is not used only by users with interests in true crime stories.
 * The origin of the persistent false association of Richard Speck with a genetic condition—affecting over 150,000 boys and men in the United States and over 3 million boys and men worldwide—merits a section in this article sizable enough to explain it.
 * The only two scientific studies cited are:
 * the Jacobs, et al study of 9 XYY males in Scotland that mischaracterized them as aggressive and prompted Engel to write Getty to ask for permission to do a confidential chromosome analysis of Speck
 * the Telfer, et al study of 5 XYY males in Pennsylvania that erroneously concluded that acne was a characteristic feature of XYY, and after an inquiry from Getty about her study, led Telfer to erroneously conclude that the acne-scarred Speck was the archetypical XYY male.
 * The follow-up reports on these two studies with revised conclusions by the original investigators are cited along with the misleading preliminary reports, to:
 * document when and where the follow-up reports on these two studies with revised conclusions by the original investigators were published, and because
 * only including the misleading preliminary reports would be ... misleading.
 * The overall story presented in this section is not original research, it is the story found in the only three sources cited multiple times in this section:
 * Eric Engel's 5-page article "The making of an XYY" in the September 1972 American Journal of Mental Deficiency; subsequently renamed the American Journal of Mental Retardation (1987–2008) and now the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2009– ). After Patricia Jacobs 1959 report of the first chromosomal aneuploidy in man—that Klinefelter's syndrome is caused by the sex chromosome trisomy 47,XXY—Eric Engel, after visiting Jérôme Lejeune's laboratory, set up the first chromosome analysis laboratory in the endocrinology department at Massachusetts General Hospital where two decades earlier Harry Klinefelter and Fuller Albright had described Klinefelter's syndrome.
 * Jeremy Green's 23-page chapter "The case of the criminal chromosome" in the 1985 book Expository science: forms and functions of popularisation ISBN 9027718318
 * Jon Beckwith's 19-page chapter "The myth of the criminal chromosome in his 2002 book Making genes, making waves: a social activist in science ISBN 0674009282
 * The specific example in this section of the persisting false association of Speck with the XYY genetic condition in a current medical school psychiatry textbook (Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry) is the same specific example cited by Beckwith (2002) on pages 120–121.
 * The section is not constructed "in a way that reads like original research"—it is constructed in chronological order to address the first of three major points that you, twenty months ago in Areas needing work, said needed attention.
 * Panda411 (talk) 19:50, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I did say it needed attention, but it did not particularly need a mini-dissertation explaining the origins of the early condition studies and the overly technical treatment of it, which is in contrast to the tone of the rest of the article. It doesn't need to be in such explicit detail and can be summarized more succinctly in how it applies to Speck. Whether it is of interest primarily to those who are interested in true crime stories or not, it needs to fit in with the rest of the article. As it is now presented, it really goes beyond what is required to explain how it applies to the Speck case.

For purposes of this article, it can be greatly condensed and some of the more unrelevant details removed. For example:
 * "In December 1965 and March 1966, Nature and The Lancet had published the first reports by British cytogeneticist Patricia Jacobs and colleagues of a chromosome survey of Scotland's only security hospital for the developmentally disabled, that found nine patients, averaging almost 6 ft. in height (range: 5'7" to 6'2"), had a 47,XYY karyotype, and—based on no evidence—mischaracterized them as aggressive and criminal.


 * In August 1966, based on those mischaracterizations, Eric Engel, a Swiss endocrinologist and geneticist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, wrote to Speck's attorney, Cook County Public Defender Gerald W. Getty, and proposed confidentially karotyping Speck, who was 6 ft. 1 in. tall and had an IQ of 85. Getty agreed, a chromosome analysis was performed, and the results—showing Speck had a normal 46,XY karyotype—were reported to Getty in a September 26, 1966 letter, one month before a court-appointed panel of six physicians concluded that Speck was mentally competent to stand trial."

can be summarized to say (with relevant supporting citations):
 * "Studies in December 1965 and March 1966 reported on characteristics present in some individuals who had a 47,XYY karyotype that characterized them as criminal and aggressive. As a result of those reports, an endrocrinologist and geneticist from Vanderbilt University contacted Speck's attorney, Gerald W. Getty, and proposed testing Speck, who had physical characteristics similar to the persons in the study, including height and an IQ of 85. Getty agreed to the chromosome analysis, the results of which he received in September 1966, which showed Speck had a normal 46,XY karyotype. The following month, the court-appointed panel of physicians concluded Speck was mentally competent to stand trial." And then briefly include the Telfer study and conclusion.

I see no need to include extensive details which treats the subject beyond what is necessary for this article. A link to the article about XYY syndrome should provide the relevant details about the condition in greater detail, as it should about the origins of it. All of the relevant sources can and should be linked to allow the reader to investigate those in more depth if they wish. If those who are interested in the medical details desire more information, that is for the article about the condition. It is really quite sufficient to simply say that the misinformation regarding Speck led to its inclusion in textbooks, with some details of that. It doesn't need to go to the depth that it does. It unbalances the article and veers too far away from the scope of the article. If not a scientific paper, it still has the tone of an expose story. If this is of such importance that it is beyond the scope of the XYY syndrome article, I'd suggest spinning this story itself and the extensive details into a sub-article of the Speck one and only including a summary of it in the main bio article. Wildhartlivie (talk) 21:51, 10 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The False reports that Speck was XYY section is not primarily about how false reports that Speck was XYY apply to  Speck's case, it is about how Speck's case led to  false reports that Speck was XYY and prevented timely correction of those false reports.


 * This article is chock-full of trivia and unreliably-sourced inaccurate information contradicted by Breo & Martin's authoritative 1993 book, and has gaping omissions in the Early life section, that if fixed would help balance the article without inappropriately condensing the False reports that Speck was XYY section. Panda411 (talk) 22:25, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Which someone else should do? Wildhartlivie (talk) 00:54, 16 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Which I do not have time to do today. Panda411 (talk) 15:36, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree that this section is a bit too detailed and the Early life section needs expansion. I may be able to assist in addressing these issues this weekend when I have full internet access. One thing I can do now is clean up the References section. The references and notes will be clearer to readers if they have their own sections; see Serial killer for an example.  momoricks   (make my day)  00:14, 18 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Rewrote and expanded the Early life and crimes section
 * Expanded and updated the Further reading section
 * Removed inappropriate April 2009 Template:Section OR from the False reports that Speck was XYY section:
 * WP:I just don't like it is not a valid reason for adding this tag to a section that is exhaustively sourced to multiple reliable sources and does not contain original research or unverifiable claims.
 * Panda411 (talk) 01:51, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Speck's middle name
I changed the middle name from "Richard Benjamin Speck" to "Richard Franklin Speck" which is what newspapers like the Chicago Tribune suggest his name was. If there's evidence that he started out with the middle name "Benjamin" then it should be changed back.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 14:36, 2 June 2010 (UTC) The spokesman said that to use more than one name in an indictment could be considered prejudicial by indicating that the defendant was using more than one name."
 * He was born Richard Benjamin Speck:
 * "A spokesman for the state's attorney's office said that the office was not at all concerned that indictments were returned against Richard Franklin Speck, the name he used most frequently, instead of Richard Benjamin Speck, as shown on his birth certificate.
 * "Richard Benjamin Speck was born on December 6, 1941, in Kirkwood, Illinois, a sleepy, decrepit little village located a stone's throw from Monmouth, in the central part of the state."
 * "Speck was born Richard Benjamin Speck on Dec. 6, 1941, in Downstate Kirkwood. Later, he took Franklin—his father's middle name—as his own middle name. With five sisters and two brothers, Speck came from a family of respected, churchgoing people. One of his older sisters was a pediatric nurse."
 * Panda411 (talk) 23:27, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Tattoo?
The section "The murders" indicates Speck was recognized by his surgeon because of his tattoo, but this is the first time Speck's tattoo is mentioned in the article. Unfortunately the link for the citation (#10: Fornek, Scott...) no longer exists. I think this section should be reworded to introduce the tattoo for the first time, or there should be a reference to the tattoo earlier in the article, and/or an accessible citation should be provided. Starrynight06 (talk) 02:41, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

article title
The article title and the format of the article should be changed to focus on the eight nursing students and not the killer, as this glorifies the killer and not the victims. This is the formatting etiquette in the Elements of Style (Strunk) and MLS based publications and I believe Wikipedia should follow suit. Chantoke (talk) 06:32, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

I agree and in fact found the whole article something of an (inadvertent, I assume) glorification of Speck. I also felt there was relatively undue emphasis on the XYY issue (though it might fit into a discussion on the role of the media!), vs a lack of examination of police failures in not getting him off the streets sooner. The whole item was disturbingly unbalanced. Professor alacarte (talk) 00:18, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure this sentence reads right
"Prior to the nurse murders, Speck is known to have been arrested for burglary and stabbing, although he got away with raping Virgil Harris (65), and beating Mary Kay Pierce to death; in both cases, he avoided in-depth interrogation."

I don't know anything about he case but "he got away with" doesn't read as the right language for what the writer is saying. Thoughts?

I kinda see what you mean. Not sure if rephraseing that is what your looking for, but maybe adding something to the effect that "in both cases, he avoided in-depth interrogation which might have brought him to the attention of law enforcement personel sooner in relation to the later murders" Would need some re-wording, but I think you have an idea what I'm suggesting. Coradon 11:58, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

He did "get away with" murder. I think the issue of police inaction in Speck's case deserves a lot more attention. Professor alacarte 00:18, 3 April 2014 (UTC)