by Lee Taylor
Vivian somehow managed to get most of the charges dropped against me. I don’t know how she did it or why, but Mike and I have been in awe of her kindness ever since. She’s really an extraordinary woman and once I was able to sincerely apologize for my irrational and dangerous behavior, we became life-long friends. She doesn’t work at the prison any longer. They stopped all forms of entertainment years ago. Vivian runs her own business now in interior design and is quite good at it. Her clients seem to love her enthusiasm.
I don’t hear the voices anymore and I try not to dwell on the past. Have more good days than bad, and I’ve learned that’s all anybody can really ask for. I’ve also learned how to think straight at AA meetings, and more importantly, how to stay sober. I still attend the meetings twice a week, sometimes more.
As for the videotape—seems a gang member had it. Held onto it for eight years. Bill Kurtis at WBBM-TV ended up with the prize. The House Judiciary Committee analyzed every scene. It caused quite a stir in the Illinois prison system just like Captain Bob said it would. Only Bob wasn’t around to catch the glory. One night on his way home he became a victim of a drive by shooting. A witness said somebody in a Cadillac did the deed, but the police never could find the shooter. The newspapers chalked it up to another gang shooting, but I have a different opinion.
Mike and I were married a few years ago. Partners for life. He still works in the film business, but I opted out. Needed to help out a few people. I graduated from Urbana with a degree in psychology and work with kids now, inner city kids mostly. Guilty kids, and kids who witness evil or had something evil done to them, but can’t shake it loose.
We adopted an eight-year-old boy and his sweet sister, a six-year-old girl. They lost their mother to violence. Got them to accept our home and our love, then a year later, we had a baby girl of our own. Named her Vivian. My beautiful family is the reason why I get out of bed each morning. Why I take in air. They’re what’s good in the world, and I’ve come to appreciate the good more than I ever thought possible.
* * * * *
On December 5, 1991, Richard Speck died of heart failure. He was cremated and his ashes scattered in a secret location somewhere in Illinois. There was no funeral, no service. No one bothered to claim him. Not even his mother, Mary Margaret.
In 1995 a videotape of Richard Speck was given to an Illinois lawyer for services rendered. Since then, it has been televised and made into a documentary; however, parts of the tape are so graphic they have never been shown to the general public. The circumstance surrounding the making of the videotape remains a mystery.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make…”
~ Paul McCartney
Author’s Note
This story is based on actual events and actual characters. However, prison personnel are purely fictional, and any resemblance to real people is coincidental. The details of Richard Speck’s movements in South Chicago are factual, the depiction of the videotape is also factual, but the time and place of the making of the videotape is fiction. The elements of shooting a movie scene inside Stateville is factual, the insider information on the talent is based on interviews with the staff who cast the extras for the movie, Red Heat. How Richard Speck lived inside Stateville and the depiction of conditions inside the prison at that time are a matter of public record. The details of the murders are based on fact. However, the depiction of two of the victims while they were alive is based on an interview with a classmate.
I grew up only blocks away from the townhouse where the nurses were murdered, spent many nights sleeping out in a tent with my friends next door to Pauline’s boarding house, and it was a good friend who actually cast the extras for the movie, Red Heat, while Richard Speck painted parts of the movie set.
I’d like to thank Nic Howell for all the phone interviews, Bill Kurtis for allowing me to view the entire Richard Speck videotape in his Chicago offices, the guards at Stateville for giving me an in-depth tour, Barbara Roche and Cathie Holzer for the information on Extras Casting, and for providing me with the details of the workings of a movie crew inside Stateville. I’d also like to thank Dennis L. Breo, the author of “The Crime of the Century,” for providing much of my research on the nurses.
But most of all I’d like to thank the women of Writers Anonymous for listening to all the drafts of this book; to my fabulous friends: Sylvia Mendoza, Chris Green, Cheryl Howe, Ara Burklund, Judy Duarte, Ann Collins, Lorelle Marinello, and Cathy Yardley for your continued love and support, Erin Quinn and Calista Fox for cheering me on, Liz Jennings for your encouragement, Janet Wellington for your undying belief in this story and for your many reads of the manuscript, my two grown children, Jocelyn and Rich, my favorite son-in-law, Paul Milton, and the love of my heart, Terry (Rick) Watkins.
