Mass Murderer - Richard Speck - Part 1

Mass murder a very serious and dark topic, whether it's referring to modern unfortunate events with public shootings, cruel wars around the world, or historical cases like Richard Speck. Richard had a very dark history of his own, a dark history involving substance abuse and trouble with law. Everything he was involved with escalated throughout his life, and it would all come together in a tragically violent night where nine

Listener discretions advised.

Hey, how's it going.

My name's Ben and I'm Nicole and you're listening to Wicked and Grim.

True crime podcast. You're doing it there, it is boom, how's it going? Everyone? We're a day light, but it's gonna be worth it. We did a lot of a lot of research on this case, so sorry for that.

We apologize, but hey, better late than never.

That's true. Sometimes we need that little bit of extra time. We're human.

We're trying our best over here. We really are.

We work day jobs, you know. This is just kind of like a side hustle a fun thing that we do. So forgive us. Once in a while, these things happen, but we are still here and we got an epic case coming down for you guys.

Once in a while, life just happens. Yes's true, it's just the case for everyone. Life gets in the way.

I mean that was certainly the case for my parents when I was born.

Oh my word, they would not agree with that.

I know I'm the best child you are, I.

Am, by fine, I'm biased, but I very much so think.

So one to know who else is actually super awesome? Are patrons?

They are today?

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Brown right on.

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We just think everyone's incredible around here, pretty much, don't we.

Yeah, even the dog goes look a look at Ripley. She's curled up in a little ball right now.

She sleeps well. Actually, anything that dog does as cute as hell. Not gonna lie.

Okay, while I was just finishing the research for this case, she just walked over and she just set her chin on my knee and just looked up at me and stared, which you.

Think is adorable. But I literally that happens to me probably five times a day because I majored, like I mostly work from home. Yeah, and so that happens all the time. And it's almost like, yeah, but yes, Ripley.

My day job, like I'm at work for like ten hours plus drive so I'm not home for.

Like hours freaking melt into the ground.

Yeah, pretty much. But also back to our patrons, we also have someone we got to give a big old.

Congrats to an extra thank you too.

Do you want to do this this big old extra congrats shout out thank you whatever to well.

The thank you is in regards to We had a little contest over there, right. We had a short story. We did chat about this on the podcast already, I think we did.

We hinted at it, but we didn't want to give too much detail about it.

But yeah, you had to. Basically we had a couple submissions. It was amazing and you had to write a short creepy story. Basically they write and it got to be under five.

Hundred words exactly.

So it was a bit of a challenge, Like that's a challenge.

Yeah, So we put out this contest, you know, do your own creepy Pasta. If you don't know what creepy Pasta is, it's a web form where writers go and post their writings of creepy stories, fictional stories that make up or whatever. And yeah, we had a few submissions, awesome stories that people wrote over our Patreon. We have incredible writers over there apparently, I know, blew my mind.

Wow.

And a big old congrats to Sarah Granby who won. Yeah, so her story was incredible. It was entitled not Me.

Yeah, it was really well done. It was really well done.

So what did you win?

So we got to we have that exclusive merch that basically can only get by winning something.

Yeah, one of our contests or giveaways.

So she got a T shirt and then she got her story read by Jacko.

Which is epic, so epic. So we post that story recorded by Jacko over on Patreon. If you want to go give that a listen, and you're on Patreon, you can go check it out right now if you'd like. Yeah, and speaking of Jacko, actually he's going to be making a return this Halloween Week, which is basically a month away.

At this point, we get asked, actually, oh yeah, that is a hot, a hot question. Is Jacko coming back for Halloween Week?

Yes, so Jacko is one percent making his return. He will be our EMC for every episode. He might be involved a little bit more. We'll have to stay tuned to find out.

Okay, that literally makes me sover and excited.

Why is that?

I don't know, because it's like last okay, I've never super been like a huge Halloween person. Like I thought it was. It was cool and it's okay, and like you love it, so that's nice. But then last year I just like really loved Halloween. I don't know, it's this podcast made me love it even more. It was fun, it was really fun.

Yeah, and your guys engagement Actually last Halloween made it really fun for us too, not just the work in fun we were having putting it out there, but the reactions and engagement we were getting was incredible. So looking forward to that again too.

Yeah, and we're doing another photoshoot too for Halloween we are, which is very exciting. It's a different theme of course, but yeah, and.

We're planning to do a Halloween live as well. That'll probably happen on over Instagram. Do we think. We haven't really planned that out just yet. Details aren't for sure.

I think so.

But there is going to be a live happening at some point for Halloween, and we're dropping new merch, so he's going to be a few new Halloween centric designs, maybe just cool new designs in general. But the Halloween centric design may or may not include Jacko.

Himself, and it's all drawn by you in case people don't know.

It is I'm there. Very cool, but a really cool thing about the Jacko merch that's going to be released. This is technically the only piece of Jacko merch that is available or has been available to the public, because we had one piece that was only available for one week for patrons when we first opened up our Patreon yeah, so, and that design is never coming out again never. So those people with that design are like, they're like.

They have some spe never say never, never say never. One day, like the vault might just have to open or something.

The vault opens and that piece is released again, it cannot be the same. Maybe maybe a color palette change or something.

Yeah, that's true, that's very true.

Yeah, but it will not be the same, you know what I mean. There will be something to define it to be different, whether it changes slightly in one way or another.

Well, we're gonna be chatting a lot about Hallo Hallow in week and getting everyone excited because it's gonna be freaking awesome. Last year was awesome, and like it's going to be just as awesome, if not more.

Oh, it'll be more awesome.

Every year will just be more awesome, of course.

But do you want to know what's not awesome?

The person we're talking about today.

The person we're talking about today, Richard Speck.

Yeah I gathered that from the intro there.

Yeah, he's not a cool being. And to give you guys a bit of a heads up, this is part one of a two part episode regarding Richard Speck. I did not realize how involved this case is until I was researching, I knew it was a big case. But his background is very, very thorough. There's a lot of information on him. I'm not a huge fan of covering the history of a perpetrator, a murderer, someone like that. Generally we try and make it more about the victims

Yeah, and sometimes that happens. I don't know these people. There's a lot of information out there and it's interesting too sometimes to figure out how they got to where they are. So there are cases like that that are more heavy on the friggin'.

Definitely asshole, definitely, And that's what this is going to be. It's a lot of figuring out how he got to become who he became. So, without further ado, let's dive into this.

And I should say, actually I have I've never heard of this no, which I don't know if that's weird, but I definitely happened.

I've heard of the name, but that was about the extent of it. And then I ran across what he did and I was like, shit, shit, So yeah, okay, let's go, okay, let's dive into this. Richard Benjamin Speck was born in Kirkwood, Illinois, in nineteen forty one. He was a young boy who had several siblings. His parents, Benjamin Franklin Speck and Mary Margaret Carbo, had a total of eight children in fact. Oh wow, five daughters and

Wow, that's very small.

It's tiny. Now, Richard's parents were both very religious, and they were both tetollers to tollars. I'm not sure how you say it exactly. It's a word that I specifically had to look up for this podcast.

Okay, kiss, Yeah, I don't know what that is.

Yeah, it's a person who participates in abstinence from psychoactive drug ethanol, which is commonly referred to as alcohol.

Oh okay, okay.

So they specifically practice abstinence of.

Alcohol, so they don't have any drinks correct, beverages of alcohol.

Yes, and this is also extended to strict rules against smoking.

Okay.

Now this was so extreme to the fact actually, particularly with his mother, that Richard's father, Benjamin, would endure an extremely angry wife after having a single beer one night at a fish fry.

Really, yes, just one beer.

One beer, and he was getting scolded extremely by her apparently.

Yikes.

So his parents were both very hard working and they did their best to put food on the table and pay the mortgage of their modest family home. Now, Richard's father worked several different jobs, picking up extra hours when he could, and he did what he needed for his family. He worked as a packer, a roofer, a farm hand, and a logger.

Wow, I thought I was busy.

Yeah, he definitely did what he could, I mean bouncing around from job's job, he did multiple things, but doing what he could to provide. Now, the family, though rather large, seemed to be verily tight knit and did well as a wholesome unit. Now, when Richard was old enough, his father would actually frequently take him out to go fishing

And sorry, can I just ask a little question here? Of course, Richard? Is he the oldest of the boys, do you know?

No, he's the second youngest child after Richard. It was his sister, I want to say, Carolyn or something like that.

Oh, okay, okay, yes she was.

Yes that I'm going to point this out. There is some information like that that I have omitted because this is a very very very large history that they have documented with this guy's background.

Right, and I was just curious. It wasn't super important.

So if you have questions, feel free to ask. I'll answer what I can, but I have omitted some of the information because it's just so extreme, a lot of information that's kind of mundane totally. But any any case, Richard had a great relationship with his father and they became very very close and held these special moments. That is until nineteen forty seven. Now, by this time, Richard

No, I was not expecting that. I was like, Okay, what happened. Ooh that's sad. That's very, very very sad.

Yeah, Richard took the loss of his dad very hard.

Dang.

Yeah. So without his father, he actually began to act out in school in very odd ways. Now his elementary school co students or whatever the word you want to say, peers, that's a way better word than co students, thank you, noticed that he would actually frequently begin to like whine and almost act like a baby. He would whine often, he'd even eat crayons.

And that's so sad that that's so young to be losing a.

Parent, it is, dang. His teacher would actually almost have to coddle him and treat him like a baby, and one classmate actually once even saw the teacher letting him sit on her lap. Just because she didn't know what else to do with him. He's acting like such a baby.

Yeah. Well, and she also probably felt so fri and bad. Yeah, hard, but yeah, that's that's yeah, that's that's very difficult.

Yeah. But I mean it may not have been the lack of father figure though, too, because he didn't receive much attention from his grief stricken mother either.

Well, I mean she was dealing with a lot.

Oh yeah, rightfully.

So yeah, I mean, well, how many friggin children she had?

Yeah, she was also like affected completely. She just lost her spouse. I mean, though it's no excuse to ignore a child. No, but without her husband or parenting partner, she's now a single mother of eight, and that would be extremely difficult.

She was probably very overwhelmed and of also being like, well, how am I going to keep all these children alive by myself?

One hundred percent? And like, I have the utmost respect for any single parent, let alone someone who is the sole provider and caregiver for eight human beings. So and also on the other hand, perhaps it wasn't that she wasn't giving Richard attention, but maybe it was that she was spread a bit thin and she couldn't give Richard enough attention or the attention he demanded, right, So that's

Uh, okay, has this Sky a good guy?

Well, you'll find out here in a second. She would find what she was looking for during a train ride to Chicago, and three years after the death of her husband, she would marry a man on May tenth, nineteen fifty by the name of Carl August Rudolphdenburg in Palo Texas. Sorry, Palo Pinto, Texas.

It's quite the name.

Yeah, So Carl Lindenberg is what he often went by. We're just going to call him Carl.

Not cool?

Carl?

Is he not cool?

Carl's not cool? Carl?

Oh my god, he's Carl's.

I know, right. So, now, Carl was a far stone's throw from the man she was previously married to. He was a traveling insurance salesman from Texas who had a large twenty five year criminal history. Now this history or record would range from forgery to multiple DUIs, which leads me to mention that Carl was a very heavy drinker.

Oh yeah, and she wasn't for that, was she she was?

Heck, so she clearly let something slip. Maybe it was in her expectations of a partner, or maybe she's desperate to have someone else with her, but she let something slide regarding what her Uh, I can't think of words today, expectations are of someone.

I guess well, she should just spend a little tiny bit longer looking. She probably could have found someone better. Maybe that meant her, because that's a big one. Like she was so against el guy. He's pretty much an alcoholic, and like that's something.

This guy is an alcoholic.

Okay, he's an alcoholic, and we're gonna let that slide.

Yeah, So I don't know anyways. Now, while the couple were in Texas they were getting married, Richard had actually stayed with his older sister, who had recently married herself. Now. He had stayed there, back in their home for a few months to finish the second grade in school before he moved over to Texas with his mom and his new stepdad in Santo Texas. Now, Richard didn't enjoy his new father figure too much. In fact, many articles I

Dang, I mean it sounds like this person did have, like this new father figure person had like pretty big shoes to fill.

Oh definitely. But also I don't think he even attempted to fill those shoes in any shape or form.

Really, Oh shit's given not really.

In nineteen fifty one, the family would move to East Dallas. Now this would start a string of moves to the family where they would go from place to place and home from home. The family would actually go to ten different addresses, usually in underprivileged neighborhoods, over the course of the next twelve years. Oh shit, So essentially moving to a new home every.

Year, which is very hard for like kids who are growing up.

Well, I mean that's very hard for anyone, let alone kids growing up.

Ye.

Yeah, yeah, you don't have a stable home, you can't make friends very easily. You're bouncing back and forth. Now, to be fair, I don't know how many of those are different neighborhoods. Maybe he's still going to the same school in some of those moves. Not too sure now, But in that time, during nineteen fifty two, Richard would actually suffer another family loss when his eldest brother, Robert would pass away as a result of a car accident.

At a very young age.

Yes, so Richard's life by this time was very much so, extremely different than it had started out. Now, if the path had stayed true with when he was younger before his father passed away, who knows where he would have ended up. But he was on a different path now and taking after his new father figure. He began drinking at the age of twelve, and by the age of fifteen, Richard could have been considered and in fact was considered an alcoholic. And he drank consistently and was drunk almost every.

Day at fifteen years old. Yes, that's very very sad.

Can you imagine being I mean, well fair enough, I wouldn't have been able to handle my alcohol at fifteen, so it would have been very.

Easy to get drunk, but you build your tolerance like it sounds.

Yeah, of course, but could you imagine getting drunk every day at fifteen? Like what the fuck? Like, first of all, how can you, like, where are you getting that money?

Right? Yeah, getting the booze? I never even thought that.

I will touch on that a little bit here later, where he's getting at least some of the boots. Yeah, but yeah, like it's it's absurd to even think, how could a fifteen year old. I know, this is a prevalent thing, like it happens to a lot of people in society unfortunately. Yeah, but I just can't imagine being in that situation. It's tragic. It is what I'm getting too, basically.

Yeah, no, that's a great way to describe it.

Yeah. So in that timeframe he had also began his negative behaviors in other aspects. His first arrest was actually only at the age of thirteen in nineteen fifty five. Now it wasn't anything terrible, mind you. I mean illegal is illegal, and an arrest is an arrest, don't get me wrong. But it was for trespassing. Not cool for sure, But depending on the situation exactly I'm not too sure of the situation would have been a lot worse. Yeah,

So, Okay, this is sort of devastating because I feel like if his dad had not died, that this story probably would not exist.

That's a very big possibility.

I just I don't know. I just don't think he probably would still be like fishing with his dad and just like, oh my god, my heart, I just can't.

But such is life. Everyone loses someone eventually, some earlier than others. Yeah, everyone goes through something eventually.

It's not an excuse.

It's not an excuse.

Yeah, it's not.

I'm I understand. Shit. Happens, Shit hurts, But that doesn't mean you have to become toxic, you know what I mean. Everyone deals with things in different ways and that's that's okay, But for what he does later on in life, it's still not an excuse. No, no, where am I here now? Okay, I got it. So Richard hated Carl like their relationship was terrible, and Carl hated Richard and he actually even wanted to kick Richard out of the house because he

Cool. Yeah, that's great.

Yeah. So Richard fought back in spite of his stepdad, and he would this is where we know where he gets at least some of his alcohol. He would break into his liquor cabinet and have his fill on his stepdad's dime. And he'd do this when no one was watching his means of revenge. I mean, it's as best as a young team can do to fight back, right, So he drink and then disappear out of the house.

And the family didn't have a ton of money either, did they.

No, definitely not.

Yeah, So.

Richard's struggles would follow him seemly wherever he would go, not necessarily due to circumstances either. He hung out with the wrong crowd. He began smoking the Devil's lettuce and taking undisclosed pills. He also carried around a switchblade knife on him wherever he went and used it to do break ins. So it's not like he's necessarily being influenced in or cohersed into these things. Did you hear the way I said cohursed? Yeah, it was a very emphasis.

I feel like you say it like that. Course, so I didn't really do I react?

Do I really?

I feel like so? Yeah, that didn't seem abnormal.

Oh gross, that's like saying cool hip. Oh I go, don't do.

It, okay, well pointed out to you next time?

Please do I need to stop that? That's saying okay. Back to the case. I think it's safe to assume that no one will be surprised if I say he didn't do well in school either.

Though, No, that would makes sense.

Yeah. At one point, his vision began to actually decline and he needed to have glasses, but he refused to wear the glasses, apparently in fear of people staring at him and building up too much anxiety.

That they would stare more at him because he was wearing glasses.

Yes, he didn't like the idea of wearing glasses because people would look at him. Oh yeah, which I mean that's totally sad to hear that, right.

It is. But maybe back in that in the day, like I mean, this is a little bit back in the day, not super but maybe people weren't like not everyone were really wore class.

Yeah, it was. It wasn't a major thing or anything like that. Classes back I mean, glasses were glasses one hundred percent, but it wasn't as prominent. Now as his class did progress, he just fell behind and refused to speak up in class when asked. He just fell behind, fell behind, He just didn't want to speak up again because of that anxiety. He had to repeat the eighth grade. And in nineteen fifty seven, he was in grade nine in high school and he failed every single subject and

Sixteenth birthday in grade nine.

In grade nine, Now, I do want to preface this, just like we were kind of talking about the glasses thing. Ninth grade education in nineteen fifties was still rather educated. It's a significant like a significant amount of people didn't graduate high school in those days. It's not abnormal for people to drop out and pursue work and other endeavors, you know, after family family, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so ninth grade was rather normal as far as I'm aware. Like

It absolutely was.

Yes, so ninth grade that's not necessarily bad.

But he seemed like he kind of stopped because he was, like I have his anxiety and failing everything, and it wasn't necessarily because he had other commitments that he had to meet.

Correct.

So his I feel like, his circumstance isn't really great. For lack of better words, I guess.

One hundred percent you're right. He didn't have the same circumstances of it, or he didn't his circumstances were different than most for not finishing high school, right, Yes, so after he did fall out of high school, though, Richard's extracurriculars only escalated into the worse as criminal record expanded and he began experimenting with sex workers, which led him to develop an unfortunate opinion and view. Women in his eyes were either pure or I for lack of better word,

For them, Okay, And I do want to talk.

About this for a minute, and I want to talk about how unfortunately common it seems to be in the true crime world male serial killers like developing the ideology that promiscuous women are trash and for a lack of better word, like from their point of view, not that I agree with this word or definition or anything at all, but for what they view the word whore like, they're viewing these women as as such some people seem to get the idea of that if someone doesn't fit their

It is so there's like two boxes really yeah and only, but there's ridiculous amounts of in between.

Yeah, And they feel that they have the right to put people in those boxes judge as they see fit.

Yeah, that they can make that judgment call.

Yeah. And I do have a theory here. I don't think it has anything to do with actually being good, bad, pure, tainted, or however you want to word it. I think that it's someone finds themselves in a situation where they can take advantage of someone, which means they have some sort

So these people in the one box that they have judged are all people that they feel like they can overpower, that they're better in their mind.

Well, if you take a look at sex workers, they put themselves in a like a very vulnerable position. Okay, so the individual who hires a sex worker pays the person to be vulnerable. So they're paying them to let me have all the power over you. Yeah, simple as that. And they like that and they say, Okay, now that I have the power, I'm better than you. Yeah, and I just like this.

All of that is just like disgusting.

It's absolutely disgusting. But I think that's what's going on with these people when they get in these situations and why sex workers are generally targeted.

Well, then it's just like putting fuel to the fire. Really, oh definitely, And the more the more encounters and stuff that they have like that, it's just like it's gonna make them worse and worse and worse.

Yeah, Now there are other things at play, like definitely, like some sex workers may be living a life where they're a little bit more vagrant and they're not going to be understood if they're actually missing as soon as someone else or deemed what's the what's the best best way to put this, uh, deemed important to search for by police officers or something like that, like you know what I mean, there's other things at play. I think

Yes, very much so.

So anyways, back to this though, Richard had a large history of work, which honestly is rather well documented. But I'm not going into a lot of detail about it because in all honesty, we could literally do a whole episode probably just on his resume.

Is work really so this isn't necessarily surprising.

Actually, he hopped job to job to job to job to job quite a bit, and so I don't really want to do that cover a whole episode on his whole freaking resume because mostly just useless information and I can sum it up relatively easy.

Yeah, that's fine with me.

Yeah, So I'm basically going to try and cover the more important stuff. So from nineteen sixty to nineteen sixty three, he would work as a laborer for the seven seven up bottling company in Dallas.

Oh wow.

Then in October nineteen sixty one, he would meet a young fifteen year old girl while he was working there. Sorry, not while he was working there, while he's employed there at the time. Oh yes, outside of work I worded that weird. Sorry. So he's employed by at this company doing this thing, and he goes out to the Texas State Fair and he meets Shirley Annette Malone. Now Shirley is a fifteen year old girl. And by this time, Richard was twenty years old.

Okay, because I was Okay, how does he Yeah.

So he's twenty and now picture this. Richard had slicked back, slicked back, blonde hair, with a deeply pitted face from like kind of acme scars. He drank, he smoked, and he had a tattoo on his forearm that read born to raise Hell.

Oh wow, yeah, okay, that actually really fits the whole visual.

There, I know, right, like I almost picture. I can't remember the guy's name, but one of the guys from Greece. Okay, there's one specific character from Greece. I can't remember his name, but I believe he's the guy who was He was the Dick who who was dancing in the dance contest and he stole sandy from Danny or something like that.

Yeah, I know, I can't remember his name either. Someone will let us know.

That's guy I'm picturing. Anyways, though, I do think this tattoo was actually a reference to both his own birthday and his lifestyle that he led now clearly born to raise hell like he thinks he's cool. It's a statement about his life, right, But I do think there's a little bit of something else with his birthday in there too. Now.

H wow.

Yeah. So as kind of like surface level, like skeezy the tattoo sounds, I think there's a lot more depth to that tattoo, which, not that I respect it, I do think it's kind of cool that it's a little bit more personalized in that way.

Yeah, I mean, I'm glad you explained that but also he's a dick.

Oh yeah, he definitely is. We've hardly even scratched a surface.

I know, and I already really I just like, yeah, I don't I don't like I don't like them.

Yeah, well this want to be greaser. He managed to swoon this fifteen year old Shirley. The two began dating shortly after they met, and only three weeks after they began dating, Shirley got pregnant.

Holy okay, wow, like she's fifteen.

She's fifteen and now with a child on the way. The two did the right thing and decided to stay together and so doing and doing so, they got married on January nineteenth, in nineteen sixty two. I do want to say this, there's many ways to raise a child. It's not that you have to be together, you have to be married. I was worried about writing the sentence multiple times, from like, how can I word this? Best way? As long as you're together for the kid, right, that

Okay.

Now, Richard may have done the right thing to stay together for raising the child and standing by Shirley's side, but that didn't mean he continued to do the right thing going forward?

Well, yeah, now this is almost more cringe this story. The fact that he's a father.

Oh well, his daughter, Robbie Lynn Speck, would be born July fifth in nineteen sixty two, but he wouldn't be around for his wife or daughter, as he was in jail serving a twenty two day sentence for disturbing the peace during a drunken fight.

Okay, so it wasn't even there for the birth.

He wasn't right off the bad and the couple's relationship would get extremely rocky in their future. Now Richard would even well, he would earn a living, and he would do so you know, intent to hey, you know, bring home the paycheck, right, But he wouldn't even bring the paycheck home. He would go out use it, blow on drugs, alcohol, and sex workers.

Okay, yeah, real winner right here.

And during this time, his whole point of view on women, you know, whether being pure or not, would continue, and he actually began to develop these ideas for his wife, and he thought he started to picture her and think that she was actually having affairs, which led to him thinking, you know that she is not pure, whatever the hell you want to say, So we'll skip all those derogatory terms. But beneath what he thought, she swore she wasn't being unfaithful.

Okay, he doesn't do anything, does he?

Well, he does a lot, but we're gonna get on her.

No, okay, because I was like, that's the mom of his kid.

Well he does, well, he does, and he doesn't. We're gonna touch on to this.

Care I don't want to. Yeah, sorry, jumping ahead here.

What he would what he would do. He would blow his money on sex workers and drive by their house, park outside and begin lude acts so his wife could see, and then he would speed off into the note what.

The actual shit? Yes, you're serious?

That serious.

That is one of the most fucked up things I've ever heard.

Yeah, okay, So the relationship got worse where he did begin to do brutal things to her.

This person is a nasty motherfucker.

Oh he is. He's a douche canoe in a half.

Okay.

She was eventually living with a monster. Over the years, she began to live in fear of him and what he was capable capable of. She claims it got to the point where she was terrified for her life as he would rape her at knife point multiple times a day, up to five times a day.

Wow. Wow, wow wow, Yes, I hate this.

Yes. Now, by the age of twenty four, this is jumping ahead a little bit here, and we're going to kind of fill in the gaps. But by the age of twenty four, Richard will be arrested a total of forty one times.

Well, my gosh, they need to keep him in jail. This person needs to stay in jail. Yes, what the frig now? Richard's probation officer once stated when he's drinking, he will fight or threaten anybody as long as he has a knife or a gun. When he's sober or unarmed, he couldn't face down a mouse. Huh. So, I mean you like, alcohol does bring down a lot of bear or like barriers, would that be the right word.

It makes a lot of people think they can do a lot of shit, it does.

Yeah, But I mean also they say somethings, it's your true self.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I like to put it in the way of like hold my beer complex, like you know, like I can do that hold my beer. Yeah, whether it's I can win this fight, or hey, you know I can do a three sixty jump back flip off a swing set, whatever the case. Hold my beer, you know, gives you that confidence. Yeah, so, yeah, that's clearly what it did to Richard. It's not an uncommon way to describe him at all, a coward gutlass whether when he had a weapon, you know, he had power. So some of his criminal

Cat Oh my gosh.

He would only serve sixteen months, but his freedom only lasted a week after it was out because he was arrested again on January of ninth, nineteen sixty five, when he attacked a woman in a parking lot of her apartment building. He wielded a seventeen inch carving knife.

Oholy, yeah what.

However, even though she was at knife point, she managed to scream enough that he ran away. Police showed up quickly enough, and they were able to track him down via her description only a few blocks away.

Okay, and see it's probably it's going to just be getting worse here. But I breakin hate stories like this. Yeah, where the person if like he just was kept in jail, yep, like so much would just be prevented.

Yep. Oh, you're right, you're one hundred percent right. That's how this story goes.

I know, I know where it's going. Like this is not good yep.

So from this, he was convicted of aggravated assault and he was sentenced to sixteen months. However, due to an error, he was released in just six months later upon completing his parole violence sent violation sentence from the other one. Wow, because they were supposed to apparently compile on each other, but it only ended up that he served the remainder of his parole base. Yeah, so that's cool.

Not no.

But then he would work for three months as a driver for the Patterson Meat Company, where he had multiple accidents with their work truck, and he would be fired for not showing up for work one day.

Well I'm sure that was the last all.

I can't believe not showing up for work is what got him fired, though, I think like multiple accidents in the work.

Vehicle, that was probably the last.

Yeah, as the safety guy, I don't know's that's something that I wouldn't be able to look past just saying. In January of nineteen sixty six, Richard's wife would eventually file for divorce and she would get full custody.

Of the Yes by the girl.

Yeah. By this time they were separated for a few months, but she had filed for divorce officially, which is great. He had the month prior to their divorce, moved in with a twenty nine year old ex professional wrestler.

Oh wow.

Yeah, and she was a bartender at his favorite bar, Jenny's Lounge. He found work babysitting her three kids for a while.

Okay, that should not be anything that he does for work.

You say, like he shouldn't be around kids basically, Yeah.

Like he should not be a babysitter.

Yeah, probably not. Not long after this, Richard would stab a man in a knife fight at Jenny's Lounge. He was charged with again aggravated assault, but a defense attorney hired by his mother got the charge reduced to disturbing the peace.

Okay.

Yeah, Now Richard's mother being involved began to become a theme. She was often bailing him out of jail or hiring attorneys as needed, basically coming to his defense, you know, like ms Beck and call damn near.

Which I'm almost a little bit surprised, but I mean, grant you that is her son.

Yeah, I mean like they once had this broken relationship, you know, between the two of them, like when Richard was young. It's now become patched and back to what it was prior to sort of thing.

Well, it's because he's a kid that needs the attention exactly. Yeah.

And with Richard's point of view on women, you're either good or you're not, he had this ideal idea that his mother was like a damn near saint, right because before she wasn't and now she's they've fixed it and she is good again in his books. So with his mom in his corner now bailing him out whenever he needed, he just walked away and committed crime after crime after crime, just simply committing to commit, continuing to commit, or committing to commit. I guess actually that works.

Too, slipping through the crack. So as he went, yeah.

On March fifth of nineteen sixty six, he robbed a grocery store, stealing seventy cartons of cigarettes, which then he proceeded to sell out of the trunk of his car in that grocery store is parking lot.

Like I almost I just yeah, I'm just not going to say anything because I have to hold back my laughter.

That's ridiculous, that's it is. Honestly. The polast would actually trace his abandoned car and set out a warrant for his arrest, but he skipped down before they could get to him. This would have been his forty second arrest if it was made. Wow yep. So instead of going to jail again, though, he would make his way to his childhood home in Monmouth, Illinois. On April second, Richard to be caught red handed as he was robbing a home of a sixty five year old woman named Miss

Geese.

There stood this six foot tall, greasy douche canoe motherfucker with a knife in his hand. So apparently he gently and politely tied her up with shreds of her housecoat as he cut from the fabric, and he assured her that he wasn't going to hurt her. All she needed to do was comply with his demands. Then he raped her, ransacked her house, and stole the two dollars and fifty cents that she made babysitting that evening before leaving and going off into the night.

Seriously, Hey, yes, holy shit, this guy is fucking disgusting.

Oh he is. The woman would later describe her its attacker as this six foot tall white male who was very polite and spoke very softly with a Southern draw. Now this description didn't fit many people in the Illinois area and immediately put Richard under suspicion with his Southern draw. Police spoke with him briefly, but before they were able to really you make anything happen, he skipped down.

I knew that was coming.

Yeah. A week later, Mary Kathlyn Pierce, a thirty two year old barmaid, was last seen leaving a bar that she worked at at around twelve twenty am on April ninth. On April thirteenth, she was officially reported miss and then later that day her body was found behind the bar she worked at. She had died from a severe blow to her stomach, which had rubbed her her liver.

Oh wow.

Now police knew Richard frequented the bar, and they showed up to question him. Where he was staying. He was, once again already gone. I search for his hotel room that he was staying at. The police found a radio and costume jewelry that the sixty five year old Miss virgin Harris had reporting missing from her house, as well as items reported missing in a few other local burglaries in the previous month.

So do they know? Do we know that he killed that woman?

Or it's just like speculation, it's I don't think it's confirmed, but it's basically yeah, he pretty much did. Yeah.

Okay, Well, like I'm sorry, but just skipping town shouldn't be getting you away legit, like make you be able to get away with the shit, should it? Well it wasn't nowadays.

No, but nowadays it's a lot easier to get information out there. It's a lot harder to hide, you know what I mean?

That's true, But I'm getting pissed.

Yeah, Now where did I leave off here? Okay? Right? Okay, so April nineteenth of nineteen sixty six, Richard went to stay with his sister Martha and her family. He told them when he arrived that the mafia was after him because they were trying to wrangle him into selling narcotics. And he refused.

Yeah, he's at.

Exactly, which now meant they were after him. So he's he's, you know, turning over a leaf. He's a good guy, so, you know what, helping out her brother and this sort of stuff. So he stayed there with her. Now, through his brother in law, Richard found work on board a freight ship, but it didn't last too long, of course, just like everything else. His first time out at sea, he was actually found on the ship buckled over in pain,

Made it, no comment fair enough.

After the emergency surgery, he recovered and returned to work. But just like most things, like I said, it didn't last too long. He would get himself into trouble on several occasions, you know, getting drunk, taking pills and fighting

Officers that would probably do it, probably gave it. There's two incidents. He's freaking appendicitis and falling overboard. God does this person like, Wow, does he have any sort of I don't know, luck, Like, how is he surviving?

He's clearly got luck on his side, that's for sure.

He shouldn't.

Yeah, I mean not to say that anyone deserves death. That's not where I'm going to go with That's.

Not what I'm saying either. But I mean, I.

Know what you're saying. It's if this individual didn't have luck on his side, it could have saved others lives. That's what we're ultimately getting, not that anyone deserves to die. That's it. That's all I want to say about that. Now. Regarding his loss of job on this ship, though, his union officer actually told Richard that he was willing and confident that he could get Richard his job back, but Richard declined, telling him that he just didn't understand.

How on earth would he have thought he could get his job back.

But okay, damn good union officer, I guess, but Richard declined, you know what he's saying, You don't understand. You don't understand. And assumably Richard knew that like the union arbitration or whatever, would potentially dig up too much of his past history, you know, his forty one arrests, his open warrants in other states, something he didn't want an employer or anyone else to know about.

So he was being smart there. Really.

Yeah, So he was without a job, and luckily for him, he actually befriended a nurse while he was in the hospital with his appendicitis. Now, this was Judy Lacamanani. I think I said that name right, Really, hope I did. A twenty eight year old nurse aid. Now, Richard was apparently extremely kind to her and would take her out

Wow.

So on June twenty seventh, Judy would actually give Richard eighty dollars now that he's out of work, to help out while he continued to look for another job. But it didn't really help, as it just gave him a and a reason to not find work for the next two.

Weeks because he had money to be buying booze and stuff.

He had money to bum around.

Yeah h No.

Richard was staying with his sister still and was just being a lump on the couch drinking and reading comic books. But by July eleventh, he had overstayed his welcome. His bags were packed and he was on his way out the door. His brother in law drove him to the NMU Hiring Hall to find work. There, he found a room and stayed the night about a mile away. In the morning, he headed over to see what he could

But it's freaking shocking. I mean, background checks and shit not a thing then, Eh, not so.

Much, no, I mean back in those days, it's like, do you have a pair of work boots? Great, get well work.

And we're getting in to that a little bit again. Pretty a lot of people are really not able to find employees and stuff anymore.

Yeah, it's a weird time, actually it is. But needless to say, though, there was nothing Richard could do about it. So we went back to the hiring hall. But by the time he got back to the hall it was closed again, so he would have to wait another day and do it all over. But this time he didn't have enough money to get another room, so he found some shelter for the night in an unfinished house and again returned to the hiring hall the next morning. He

Well, yeah, I was going to say, has he had a gun on him prior too?

Not as much as we know. In the past few days, he's kind of been at his breaking point. Decline from job, decline from job, kicked from his sister's place, he's just sleeping under the stars, basically trying to find somewhere where he can get some shelter for the night. He's not doing too well, so in his head he had a plan. So he dressed himself up in all black with his knife and newly acquired pistol. Then he went out for a few more drinks until ten twenty pm to build

Oh my gosh, Okay, the one that he was like when he was with his sister that he saw. Yes, and you're stopping in there, yes, okay, okay, okay.

So to sum this up, Richard went through one hell of a life so far. He really did. I'm not going to take that away from him. He had a shit upbringing.

He's had a hard time, he's.

Had a very hard time. But also he brought a lot of hard times onto himself. He did a lot of absolutely horrendous things, and he's about to do something even more horrendous.

Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine because look at what he's already done.

Yeah.

Wow, wow, wow wow.

So if you want to hear what happens next, you'll have to listen next time on Wicked and Graham, we're gonna set the next episode out on Tuesday, as we generally always do a little bit late on this week, but.

So that means a little bit less of a wait.

Exactly, there you go, words right out of my mouth. Well done. In the meantime, if you're getting that itch for some more episodes, you can take a look at our whole library. We have almost one hundred episodes out there already. We have Patreon or we have exclusive content that you can go sign up for and listen to. You can find us over on Instagram. We can find us on our website. You can find us on Facebook.

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Totally and Facebook. Really yeah, yeah that's true.

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