The Crime of the Century

Richard Speck and the Murders That Shocked a Nation

By: Dennis L. Breo, William J. Martin

Narrated by: Christina Delaine

Length: 18 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

On July 14th, 1966, Richard Franklin Speck swept through a quiet Chicago townhouse like a summer tornado and stabbed, strangled, and killed eight young nurses in a violent sexual rampage. By morning, only one nurse, Corazon Amurao, had miraculously survived, and her scream of terror was heard around the world.

As the eight bodies were carried out of the small building, the coroner, who had seen the carnage up close, told a gathering crowd: "It is the crime of the century!"

Now, the prosecutor who put Speck in prison for life (William J. Martin) and the author and journalist who won an award for his coverage of the crime (Dennis L. Breo) have teamed up to recreate the blood-soaked night that opened a new chapter in the history of American crime: mass murder.

Corazon Amurao, the nurse the killer left behind, confronted Speck at trial and told jurors, "This is the man!" Richard Speck was spared execution by Supreme Court rulings and here is the inside story of how he confessed to the murders in a sordid prison video made three years before his death of a heart attack in 1991. And here is the life today of the nurse who survived the crime that murdered American innocence.

©2016 Dennis L. Breo and William J. Martin (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Former prosecutor Martin and Chicago journalist Breo present a fast-paced, solid reconstruction of Martin's biggest case: the fatal stabbing, strangling, and sexual assault of eight young nurses by drifter Richard Speck in Chicago in 1966." ( Publishers Weekly)

Way too long

This really would of been more enjoyable if it was closer to 10 hours, instead of the 18. I gave up when it went into talking about Gacey.

The reader was a poor choice, really should of been read by a man. Her male voices were poorly done. She also mispronounced Oquawka and Des Plaines.

Horrible narrator.

The narrator was horrible, there is nothing worse then a woman imitating a male voice especially a killers. Good story, but listening to the narrator attempting to do the male voices was irritating, more so since it was a very bad impression.

Informative and Terrifying

True crime is a favorite of mine, whether it be TV Shows, Documentaries, or Books. It does make for a hard read or listen due to the nature of the evil is showcases but is still a fascinating subject for me.

The Crime of the Century is one said read. I listened to this one and it gave me chills. Despite this having happened so long ago, it's still a dark look into madness and evil. The narrator does an amazing job with this one, and I flew through this.

Definitely recommend this one for true crime fans, or those who have heard of this crime, but wanted to know more. The author does a great job bringing out the tragedy and events.

Love It

TearJearker If you love Crime this is a good book to Read Listen to it while I was at work

Disturbing True Story

Unbelievable that there is such evil in the United States in the late 60s, a total heartless act!

I remember

I was 14 years old when Richard Speck murdered eight nursing students. This book is amazing mostly concerning the bringing to the the victims and details z about the arrest and trial. I couldn’t put this book down. Also the book is narrated by my favorite narrator, Christina Delaine.

Narration fair but acceptable

The narration with the female voice took from the effective import of the story.othewwise a good job was dome

Well done

A great well-researched account of a terrible crime. A lot of detail with full portraits of victims, legal participants, and the evil that was Richard Speck.

Chilling

I remember when this happened. I was only 11 but I remember how horrified I was that anything like this crime was possible. We had already lived through the Kennedy assassination, and the Vietnam War raged on our TV sets every night, but there was still an innocence in our lives at the time.
I agree with others that the narrator did a terrible southern drawl, but overall she did a good job.
Didn’t quite understand all the Gacy stuff at the end. I just finished reading a book on him so I thought Audible had mistakenly started that book again. I get that the prosecutors in Gacy’s trial used the Speck case as a model, but I don’t think it added anything to the story. It could have ended after the transcript of Speck’s jailhouse interview, which I wish had been the real audio instead of just the transcript. I also didn’t see the point in bleeping out the expletives. People who read these types of books are *probably* not sensitive to foul or obscene language.

4 hrs to long

Very very good but it was so long & the story wrapped up with 2 hrs left to go