The Connecticut General Assembly

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH

February 21, 1997 97-R-0242

TO:

FROM: Lawrence K. Furbish, Assistant Director

You asked for background information on a videotape made of Richard Speck in an Illinois maximum security prison and other charges about problems in Illinois prisons. You were especially interested in the results of any investigations into prison conditions that may have been completed.

SUMMARY

Richard Speck was convicted of murdering eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966 and sentenced to death, later changed to life imprisonment. He died in prison of a heart attack in 1991. In May, 1996 a videotape of Speck was shown in which he engaged in sexual activity with another inmate, flashed money, appeared to snort cocaine, and bragged about living the good life in prison. The tape was apparently made in 1988, but how or by whom is not yet known. A Chicago television journalist obtained it from an Illinois attorney (not identified) who got it from an inmate.

Two other criticisms were leveled against the Illinois Department of Corrections at about the time the Speck tape was made public: that prison guards were having sex with inmates at a women's prison and that a Chicago street gang leader was running a drug distribution network while he was an inmate in the state's prison system.

The Attorney General's Office has been investigating all three issues, but the investigation is not yet complete and officials will not comment on it. Beginning shortly after the tapes were aired and running into the Fall, the House Judiciary Committee held a series of hearings on correctional issues, not focusing specifically on the Speck tape. This investigation also continues, but some changes have been made in the corrections system as a result of the hearings.

BACKGROUND ON RICHARD SPECK

In 1966 Speck was 25 years old, divorced (supposedly because of his wife's infidelity), using drugs and alcohol, frequently involved in bar fights, and reportedly obsessed with sex. On July 13 he was fired from his job in a boat yard after a fight with a ship's officer. Before leaving work he borrowed money to buy alcohol and drugs. After injecting himself with an unknown drug and while armed with a gun and knife, he approached a south-side townhouse rented by nine student nurses. Telling the woman who answered the door that he needed money, he forced his way inside and tied up the six people in the house. He added to the captives three other women who came to the house while he was there; all but one of the nine women were residents of the house.

Speck became increasingly agitated and led the women singly and in pairs to different rooms in the house where he stabbed and strangled them. He raped the final victim before murdering her. One woman managed to hide under a bed where Speck did not see her, and after he left she called the police and gave them a partial description, including that he had a distinctive tattoo that said “Born to Raise Hell.”

A massive manhunt was instituted, but a few days later Speck slashed his wrists and was subsequently arrested when a doctor treating him at Cook County Hospital recognized the tattoo. Speck was convicted and sentenced to death; he appealed and was resentenced to 400 years in prison. He was suspected in the death or disappearance of five other women between May and June 1966, but he was never formally charged with these crimes. He died in 1991 at the age of 48 of a heart attack while still incarcerated.

THE VIDEOTAPE

Sometime in late 1995 or early 1996 an Illinois lawyer (who has never been identified) contacted Bill Kurtis, a news anchor for WBBM-Ch.2 and host and producer of documentaries for the A&E cable network and PBS. The lawyer apparently had been given a video tape by an Illinois prison inmate, and Kurtis and his staff agreed to pay roughly $5,000 for the tape with the money going to an Illinois victim assistance fund. Kurtis used the tape for a series on his news show and in a documentary shown on A&E. We have ordered a copy of the A&E documentary and will notify you when it is available.

We have not seen the tape but as described in press reports it shows Speck and two other unidentified inmates. The tape was made in an unidentified part of the Stateville prison, a maximum security facility in Joliet that was used for filming the movie “Natural Born Killers.” It has a reputation as one of the toughest prisons in the United States. On the tape Speck acknowledged that he killed the nurses. (At his trial he claimed to have no memory of the events because he had blacked out from the drugs.) He flashed money before the camera, he and the other inmates appeared to inhale drugs, Speck was shown performing oral sex on another inmate, and he talked about how great prison life was. Speck or one of the other inmates apparently say that the year is 1988. The transcript seems to indicate that Speck made the tape to help the inmates behind the camera, with the idea that they could sell it or otherwise profit from the venture; he refers to the men as “my two rides.”

OTHER CORRECTIONS RELATED ISSUES

Two other correctional issues arose at about the same time that the Speck tape appeared. Several prison guards were dismissed and charged with having sexual relations with women inmates at the Dwight Correctional Center. And Larry Hoover, a Chicago street gang leader, supposedly bragged about the freedom he and his top lieutenants enjoyed at Stateville and another correctional center, including receiving conjugal visits and receiving 30-pound shipments of marijuana. Hoover is being held awaiting federal trial on charges of running a large drug distribution network while being an inmate in state prison. Police and federal agents charge that not only was Hoover able to direct his drug operation from prison, but that he was able to build his gang into the largest in the state while incarcerated.

During hearings held by the Illinois House Judiciary Committee in the summer of 1996, other allegations were made about the Illinois prison system. These include that gangs “run” the state prisons, that when new inmates enter prison they must either pay for protection from gangs with money or sex or ask to be placed in segregation, and that friends and relatives of gang members were periodically allowed on prison grounds to have “picnics” with incarcerated gang members. Some prison employees testifying at the hearings alleged that prison administrators consulted with gang leaders in prison administration decision making, a charge the administrators denied.

INVESTIGATIONS

The principle investigation to result from the Speck tapes is a criminal one initiated by Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan. This investigation was announced on May 14,1996, and it includes not only the Speck tape but also the allegations of sexual activity between guards and female inmates and the Hoover case. The investigation is not finished and no results have been released. The Attorney General's Office told us that they would not comment on an “ongoing investigation,” and they were unwilling to predict when it might be completed.

According to Representative Tom Johnson, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the legislative investigation is also not complete. A new special committee has been formed and is beginning a two-year study of the Illinois correctional system. According to Johnson, several specific steps have been taken or begun as a result of last year's hearings. These include designating one prison as a segregation and permanent lock-down facility; designating one gang-free facility; ordering new electronic equipment to check all people, including employees, entering the institutions for contraband; eliminating visits that allow physical contact between inmates and visitors in maximum-security institutions; increasing the use of dogs for drug searches and similar duties; and stopping the picnics described above.

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