BORN
TO
RAISE
HELL
A
Thesi?
Presented
to
the
Faculty
of
the
School
of
Humanities
Morehead
State
University
In
Partial
Fulfillment
'
of
the
Requirements
fo'r'
the
Degree
Master
of
Arts
by
Wayne
McDaniel
May
1981
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The largest section of the screenplay, this part contained conversations between Richard Speck and the Cook County Jail Psychiatrist, Dr. Marvin Ziporyn.
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BORN TO RAISE HELL
A Thesi? Presented to the Faculty of the School of Humanities Morehead State University
In Partial Fulfillment'
of the Requirements fo'r' the Degree Master of Arts
by Wayne McDaniel May 1981
Accepted by the faculty o f the School of Humanities , Mo rehead State University, in parti a l fulfil lment of the requir eme n ts for the Master o f Arts degree.
~~~€bi rec t 0 r,() 'f hes
Maste r' s Comm i ttee : ~·~~ Cha ir man
-'~WC ~?,I '
( di't e ) >
BORN TO RAISE HELL
An Original Screenplay I. Preface II. The
A.
B.
Problem The Purpose Justification
- To Describe and Analyze the Speck Mass Murders
- To Put the Murders into Proper Perspective for Audience ~valuation III. Previous Studies/Historical Research A. Newspaper Article•/The New York Times B. Magazine Articles
- Time
- NeWSweek
- The Saturday Evening Post
- Life
- United States News & World Report
- Good Housekeeping C. A Book~-Born To Raise Hell: The Untold Story of Richard Speck IV. Method A. Purpose B. Questions that the Screenplay Attempted to Answer C. Procedure Used for Producing the Screenplay
- Research/Historical
- Compiling and Evaluating the Research
- Drawing Final Conclusions
- Writing the Screenplay V. Results/Screenplay A. The Events Leading to Speck's Arrest B. Interviews with Speck in the Cook County Jail/ Possible Psychological Motives for the Murders
- Exploration of Speck's History of Brain Damage/Use and Abuse of Drugs and Alcohol
- Exploration of Speck's Relation with his Mother.
- Exploration of Speck's Relation with his Ex-wife.
i ir
C. Interviews with Speck's Relatives to Confirm his Statements D. Speck's Trial and Conviction E. Subsequent Events and Conclusions VI. Summary and Conclusions
vii
This screenplay is based on the possible implications of those interviews.
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
This pa;Per explores and analyzes, f_rom a psychological point of view, the possible motives for the Richard Speck mass murders, as shown by an historically ac-0urate screenplay detailing the possible psychological motives of his act. The year of 1966 was marked by a wave of mass murders throughout the United States. The first to catapult into public awaren~ss was the July 14 killing of eight nurses in Chicago. Less than a month later, Charles Whitman killed thirteen peopl,, shooting from a clocktower overlooking the University of Texas campus. In November, an eighteen year old high-school senior coolly shot and killed four wq~en ahd a little girl in a beauty parlor in Mesa, Arizona. What was particularly disturbing was that the victims were all taken at random, that there was no relationship between killer and victim; no apparent motive. The acts were clearly outside the bounds of ordinary reason and experience. The destruction of human life is always repugnant and unacceptable. However, when murder can be linked to the rational in some fashion, it can be faced and
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less frequently survives to be examined. For this reason, psychiatrists firmly believe that Richard Speck should be studied intensively rather than punished severly by society. While science may never develop a foolproof psychiatric Geiger counter or a cerebral scan for spotting every psychotic in advance, there is no doubt that far more can be done within the resources of American society to pare the danger of sudden, irrational murder. 2 This screenplay, therefore, will attempt to explore, analyze, and evaluate the events of the Richard Speck mass murders and, then, to interpret these events to a large audience.
(^2) Ibid., pp. 18-19.
CHAPTER II
PREVIOUS STUDIES
This screenplay was based primarily on researchable sources, documents, an·d other written records, to order and evaluate the evidence yielded by them.· These sources were divided into three main categories; (1) Ne~spaper articles, (2) Magazine articles, and ( 3) A book. The primary newspaper used in this research was The New York Times. One-hundred articles, from July 15, 1966, to December 18, 1968, chronologically traced every aspect of the Speck mass murders from the day atter the murders until the 1968 order signed by Judge Daniel P. Ward of the Illinois Supreme Court staying the scheduled January 31, 1970, execution of Richard Speck. The magazine articles researched included Time, Newswe·ek, The Saturday Evening Post, Life, U.S. News & World Report, and Good Housekeeping. These magazines, like the newspaper articles--but with greater detail-- chronologically described the murders, gave brief biographies of Speck and the nine student nurses involved, detailed the police investigation and Speck's arrest, and described his trial and conviction.
CHAPTER III
METHOD
This paper explores and analyzes, from a psycholo- gical point of view,. the possible motives for the Richard Speck mass murders, as shown by an historically accurate screenplay detailing the possible psychological motives of his act. The procedure used to produce this screen- play attempted, first, to answer these questions:
- Are the Sp~ck murders a good subject on which to base a screenplay?
- What were the possible psychological motives· for the Speck murders? A. Why did Speck select the student nurses' boarding house tq preak into? B. Why did Speck break into the boarding house-- what was his purpose and motivation? C. How exactly did Speck kill the nurses? D. Why did Speck kill the nurses? E. How did Speck manage to escape the dreadful scene without the ~lightest alarm being raised?
3, Was the evidence against Speck conclusive in
proving his guilt?
7
A. Could Speck have had an accomplice? B. Is there any chance that Speck might be totally innocent of the crime?
- What was Speck's personal reaction to the crime?
- Can society learn anything (sociologically, culturally, psychologically, etc.) from an analysis of this crime in order to prevent similar acts fr9m occurring?
- How can these events.and motives be interpreted and aesthetically represented in cinematic terms? The design of this screenplay was along the lines of a case history using hi~toric re~e~rch. The procedure used to carry out i;his .design an.d to answer these questions included four basi~ steps .. 'The four step~ involved in the production of the ·.screenplay from conception to completion included:
- Researching 2.. Compiling and Evaluating the Re.search J. Drawing Final Conclusions
- Writing the Screenplay Researching: The. research utilized in this paper ~as generally focuse~ upon documents and other written records (magazines, newspapers, and a book) for the purpose of ordering and
CHAPTER IV
RESULTS
The results of this historical research, as outlined in Chapter III, led to an historically accurate screen- play. The screenplay not only followed the general practices of writing techpiq~es, but also contained such cinematic devices as narration and .diilogue, as well as, detailed description of all the visuals and graphics. (Graphics include charts, graphs, illustra- tions, artwork, c~rtoons, and title slides. The screenplay, based on the research, was divided into five general sections:
- The Events Leading to Speck's Arrest
- Interviews with Speck in the Cook County Jail 3. ·Intervie.ws with Speck's Relatives to Confirm _his Statements
4. Spec]>' s Trial
- Subsequent Events and Conclusions The Events Leading to Speck's Arrest: The introductory section briefly described the day preceding the murders. The^ people^ involved^ and^ the^ events leading directly to, but not including, the murders were traced.
Interviews with Speck in the Cook County Jail: The largest section of the screenplay, this part contained conversations between Richard Speck and the Cook County Jail Psychiatrist, Dr. Marvin Ziporyn. Three possible reasons for the murders are brought forth and explored: Speck's use and abuse of alcohol and drugs, combined with intensive brain damage, Speck's relation with his mothe:r and stepfather, and Speck's relation with his ex-wife and the resemblance of one of the mur- dered nurses to her. Interviews with Speck's RelatiYes to Confirm His Statements: This section detailed (^) "Zipo'~yn's •I visits with Speck's two sisters and his mother in 'order to- confirm or expunge Speck's statements.· The :results of this section were largely inconclusive--either Speck's relatives were lying to help Speck or the·y wer'e .telling the truth, which invalidated much of what Speck.had confided to Ziporyn.
Speck'-s Trial: The fourth section detailed the trial itself. Again conflicting versions of the event made for indefinite conclusions as to Speck's guilt "beyo_nd a reasonable doubt.'' Witnesses confirmed Speck's guilt, while others denied it. In^ the^ end^ the^ jury's^ decision,^ based^ largely
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Earlier the author posed a series of questions relating to the Richard Speck mass murders. The answers to the questions regarding the psychological reasons and motives for the murders may, unfortunately, never be answered. William Henley_'_.s poem, "Invictus", declares: I am the master of my fate I am the Cap~ain of my soul. to which Clarence Darrow, an influential turn-of-the- century criminal lawyer, rep~ied: "A fine_Captain, a fine master of his fate!. He,.wasn' t master enough of
his fate to get himse'.lf^ ..^ ,born,.-^ 'which is rather important,
nor to do much of anything' ·• else.except brag about it. Instead of being the captain of his soul, man isn't even a deckhand on a rudderless ship. 113 Does the author, then, feel that persons such as Richard Speck, should be left at large and their actions condoned? Of course not, the author feels that the answer lies in rehabilitation and re-education rather than punishment, and in some cases, such as that of the brain- damaged individual whom we do not know how to rehabilitate or 3c1arence Darrow, "Facing Life Fearlessly; Omar Khayyam and A. E. Housman,'' Verdicts Oht of Court (Chicago: Quan- drangle Books, 1963), p. J.
12
13
re-educate, perhaps permanent institutionalization until science finds the answer--but certainly not punishment as though the person willed himself to be a criminal. The concept of talion punishment--an eye for an eye--is at least as old as Hammurabi. It has not solved the problem of crime in the last 4,000 years, and yet mankind stubbornly insists on applying it. If a person attempted to leave a room through a wall, it would take only a few failures to convince him that his tactic was ineffective and wrong--he would try a different maneuver. Yet, society has tried punishment for thousands of years, failed completely, and do-ggedly persists. No one would think much of a doctor, who had just one treatment for all illnesses. Crfme, : lik~ illnesses, is due to many factors--yet societ'y has one cure--punishment, Society is so punishment-oriented that it loses its sense of reason. If a man commits a crime, society rejects all psychological, as well as, physiological explanations. If it is denied that a man acts in an antisocial manner because of his environment or heredity, what, then, is the explanation? To say simply that he is ''bad'' ignores the question--it clarifies nothing, explains nothing, offers no understanding of the cause or operative mechanism of the "badness." It is a completely meaning- less term. Where does the evil come from? Surely the