“It just wasn’t their night” – Richard SpeckOn the evening of 13 July 1966, an intoxicated Richard Speck broke into a townhouse at 2319 East 100th Street in Chicago, to rob a group of student nurses. Speck woke the residents and ordered them into a room, calmly requesting money in exchange for their safety. The young women obliged. They believed that he was just going to take the money and leave … the money and leave but Speck had other plans.
He tied them all up with strips of bed linen, and led one of the girls into a separate room to “talk alone”. The situation took a turn for the worse when two more resident nurses burst into the townhouse, surprising Speck in the act. What transpired in the following hours would grip the nation with fear and forever change the perception of society.
The Townhouse Massacre is a chilling and gripping account of one of the most brutal and gruesome true crime stories in American history. Ryan Green’s riveting narrative draws the reader into the real-live horror experienced by the victims and has all the elements of a classic thriller.
CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further
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The Townhouse Massacre: The Unforgettable Crimes of Richard Speck was a good read by Ryan Green. On July 13, 1966, Richard Speck was intoxicated and broke into a townhouse in Chicago. He went to rob nursing students and ended up waking them up and demanded they go into one room. They were willing to give him the money he wanted in exchange for their safety. He had other plans that didn’t include sparing their lives. This was a good read that followed a true crime story that gripped and scared the nation. I can’t wait to read more by Ryan Green.
Richard Speck is a very chilling figure. His descent into madness started as a general dislike against women that turned to an unholy loathing. The famous line “It just wasn’t their night” gives me chills. The thought that he could slaughter eight women in the span of a night and not feel a thing is a testament to the man’s insanity.
Very powerful true crime book as always.
Narration was spot on.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
Another provocative and compelling story…
The story of Richard Speck and his brutal acts of misogyny are clearly detailed in all their grim horror as is the nightmarish evolution of a young boy into the infamous monster whose devilish deeds garnered massive national media attention in 1966. The anger, rancor, and mental machinations of Richard Speck are presented in the unique “novelized” style for which Ryan Green has become known. Like all good true crime offerings, the copious amount of tedious research (culling through mountains of witness documentation, interviews, and police reports…) is evident but is imparted not as a laundry list of dry facts, figures, and dates but, rather, as an account of events as told from the perspective of the perpetrator, himself. Deftly combining keen psychological analysis with medical findings and the aforementioned research, the author is able to weave an absorbing, if not incredibly disturbing, account of the man responsible for one of the most shocking and atrocious incidents of the twentieth century.
I chose to read along while listening to the audio version of this book and must comment on the superb performance of the narrator, Steve White. His pace, cadence, and inflections were wonderfully complementary to the narrative.
While I did purchase a copy of this book, the author provided me with a copy of the audio version for which I am voluntarily offering this honest and unbiased review.
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WOW! This is a thoroughly researched and well written book about the nursing students who were murdered by Richard Speck on July 14, 1966. More information than I’ve ever seen before, about Speck, is in the story, along with information about the actual murders. It’s macabre, gruesome, frightening and
fascinating reading. I’ve seen at least one of the movies about the murders and read two different books years ago and never ran across all the information that Ryan Green was able to find out. If you like true crime, whether you have read about the murders in the past, or if you never known about the murders, you will really appreciate reading this book.