Killer of 8 nurses ‘confesses’

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 9

Killer of 8 nurses ‘confesses’

;NZPA Chicago Richard Speck has confessed that he took part in j the killing of eight nurses in Chicago almost 12 years ago and murdered “an effeminate homosexual” confederate as well, the “Chicago SunTimes” has reported. The confession was reported by a columnist, Bob Greene. Speck, who is 34, is serving a life sentence in Stateville penitentiary for the killing of eight nurses and student nurses in their townhouse on Chicago’s far south side that night of July 13-14, 1966.

He had maintained his innocence. No accessory had ever been suggested in the killings.

Greene said that Speck told him in an interview at Stateville, “Yeh, I killed them. I stabbed them and choked them. If that one girl wouldn’t have spit in my face, they’d be alive today.” Greene quoted Speck: “It was just one of them weird coincidences. I was high on heroin that night. Heroin and whisky. I’d never shot heroin before. So eight people got killed. Eight girls and that effeminate homosexual.”

Speck was quoted as saying he “killed seven of them, the other guy killed one. We left. He’s frantic .... He’s dead now. I know he’s dead because I shot him six times.”