The Revenge of the Night Nurse | The Case of Corazon Amurao | UNSEEN

This student dormitory on 100th Street in Chicago holds the most disturbing secret. On July 14, 1966, a crime was committed here that would shake the city to its core. Eight student nurses were found murdered inside, after neighbors heard screaming from the house, alerted by a ninth nurse who somehow was still alive. What happened that night was so unthinkable at the time it brought the entire city of Chicago to a standstill and launched a manhunt to find one of America's first mass murderers. "But at the time that this happened wasn't just like the first of its kind." "As I said before, this is the crime of the century." And with the whole city gripped in fear and precious little to go on, the police must turn to their only eyewitness. An eyewitness who to help bring an end to a madman's reign of terror, have to confront him again, this time, face to face. Chicago, July 1966. Corazon Amarau was one of many living the new American dream during the post-war economic boom of the '50s and '60s. Having left her home in the Philippines, Corazon moved to Chicago only three months earlier in May 1966 as part of a nursing exchange program and became a member of staff at the South Chicago Community Hospital. Life in the United States was tough, but it allowed Corazon to send money back home to help her family attend school as she did. On July 13, 1966, Corazon takes her usual bus back to the townhouse. At 2319 East to 100 Street, she shared with eight other nurses. After another long day, Corazon is looking forward to relaxing in her room and studying. The calm of the following morning is shattered at 6am. When a neighbor hears the panic, frantic pleas for help coming from the students home. I had heard some noise outside in the morning and looked out of my front bedroom window and saw Corazon on the ledge. On the couch in the living room was one of my classmates. 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Finding out what happened that night becomes priority number one, and Corazon could be the key to solving the entire case, not only as a sole survivor, but the sole witness as well. We took her and mother and her cousin all the way from the far southeast side of Chicago to the very far north side, or resort, put her under an assumed name. We had four policemen to protect them. God be front. They embrace me and they treat me like I'm their daughter. Back at the crime scene, police worked tirelessly to put the pieces of that night in order. A ground floor window was found to have knife marks, and it's quickly determined to be the likely spot the intruder made entry. An abundance of fingerprints are also found, over 30 being from the killer, but in 1966, each print would have to be matched by hand to those of the suspect, a suspect that still eludes the police. With little else to go on, the police turned to Corazon to help make sense of what happened on that night. 10-30pm, Corazon hears a knock on her bedroom door. I got up from the bed and I opened the door without asking who he is because I thought it was one of the nurses from the other room that they just want me to wake them up in the morning or something. As she opens the door, however, the first thing she sees is an intruder holding a gun. It doesn't take long for the intruder to round up the six nurses at home and gather them in an upstairs bedroom. It seems like the way he talked to us, it seems like she's not going to do anything. When we were there in that big bedroom, he just said, "I just want some money, I'm going to New Orleans." After collecting the money, only $23, the intruder gathers up some of the bedsheets and cuts them into strips using a hunting knife. While we were sitting there, he got up, you know, he was also sitting in there in front of us, he got up and got a bed sheet on top of the bunk bed and he said it into pieces. And that's the first time I saw that knife. One by one, he ties the hands and feet of all six women. It isn't long before noise is heard downstairs, the man-demand silence, but they can all hear someone else entering the house and turning to make their way up the stairs. For a moment, it must have felt like a chance, a chance for someone to intervene to send for help, but those dreams are dashed as the door opens and the intruder takes control of his seventh nurse. He takes a time to bind her and add her with the others. It's clear now to some that this is more than a robbery, and the nurse's worst fears are confirmed when two more housemates arrive back at the townhouse, and instead of restraining them like the others, the intruder forces them both into another room. "We started to stick the bath and then Gloria came in and then the other two came in later on." Seven nurses lay on the ground, unable to move, and unsure of what is happening to their friends across the hall. They do all they can to stay calm and quiet, hoping not to draw the attention of their captor, but when he makes his way back into the room, he takes another girl and leads her away. "So were you thinking that he's going to kill you?" "No, I wasn't thinking of that." Six remain, still tied, and with few options, they listen. It's painfully quiet, though, not a sound until the wash basin is heard outside the door. "And then after she's talking, some of the girls out, and before she came back, he was his hand. I heard the water running from the faucet." Whatever is happening out there, the man takes his time to clean up before returning, and when he does, he takes yet another nurse. "But I still did not thought that he was killing them." Five are left, and again, the pattern continues, near silence, agonizing waiting, and finally, the running of the tap before the door opens again, and another nurse is taken. Four women wait in the darkness, some attempt to hide under the beds, but it isn't long before the intruder once again returns and claims another for himself. "All of us tried to crawl under the bed. I hide and one of the bed and some of the other girls also hide under the bed, but he found them, yeah." Three nurses are hidden. This time when the man returns, he has to drag his next victim from under a bed, only two are left, and when the man returns, he leaves just the last woman alone. Finally, once more, the door swings open, and the man steps inside. He takes the time to rummage through the purses, looking for more money, but he finds nothing. And without searching for the ninth and final nurse, the intruder leaves. "But why, you know, while I was hiding under the bed, I thought he saw me." Hours pass, and for CoreZone Amarow, each ticking minute is just a step closer to whatever fate waits for her outside that door. "I was just lying there under the bed, and I was trying to untie myself." She struggles to loosen the binds quietly, not wanting to make a sound. 5.30am, the first alarm in the house goes off. "And then when the alarm goes off, I still under there, but I wasn't doing anything, because you didn't know if he was still in the house. I didn't know whether he was still there or what." But she worries she may not be alone in the house, that she might be walking into a trap. A silent half an hour passes, and CoreZone makes her decision to escape. CoreZone crawls out from under the bed, crosses the room silently, and opens the door, what she sees confirms her worst fears. "I set up everybody's dead. Everybody's dead, yeah." She is the only one alive, unwilling to risk what she might find downstairs. She runs across the hall to her room, and forces a window out of the frame. She climbs through onto a ledge, overlooking East 100th Street, and as Chicago starts its day, CoreZone screams for the whole city to hear. Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Joshmail, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Ferris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merleeta Gargolo, and Valentina Paseon were all murdered that night. "I can't believe that they were dead and I'm still alive. And God has some, you know, I think He's spared me." And for Corazon, it becomes her mission to make sure the man who did this is brought to justice. And what Corazon saw that night provides the Chicago police with just the break they needed to catch a killer. First, she's able to provide them with a detailed physical description of the intruder and his sketch is made up and handed out to the city's entire police force. And second, Corazon is able to reveal the killer had a unique tattoo on his left arm, reading, "Born to Raise Hell." And with this information, the hunt for one of America's first mass murderers is just about to have its first major break. Police start the search across the street from the scene at the National Maritime Union Hiring Hall. Incredibly, they find a photo of a member with a striking resemblance to the sketch. The photo is brought back to Corazon in protective custody. No one is expecting what they hear next. Corazon confirms the photo is of the same man she saw that night. After only one day, the Chicago police have a suspect, Richard Speck. 24-year-old Richard Speck fled to Chicago in April of 1966. For years, he has been on the run and has a criminal history, including 41 arrests in Dallas, Texas. In fact, it's this criminal history and Corazon's identification that allows Chicago police to match a few of the fingerprints found at 2319 East 100th to the fingerprints in Speck's Dallas file, with the potential threat to the public and the mounting evidence. The Chicago police superintendent, O.W. Wilson, makes the bold decision to publicly announce Richard Speck as the sole suspect. But the only way to know for sure is to find Richard Speck. For days, police come to the city following every clue, but find nothing. It's not until three days after the killings that a lead presents itself. A man is recovering after trying to take his own life with a glass from a broken bottle in a skid row hotel room. "Mashing a bottle, that's all I heard, and he needed an other one word. When you open a door or he was a mess, he starts from one end to the other." After he was rushed to the emergency room, the attending doctor made a discovery. "This guy just appeared to be a fellow, you know, the eyedron. They were looking for, because they had all these tattoos on him. Did you check the tattoos? So I took just some right-hitter saliva and they just washed the blood off the nerve and I, and a bee started coming out, and I got kind of faster. And as I said, born, you know, so I went a little bit further, and it's a born to raise health." The patient is quickly sent from Cook County to the prison hospital after work gets out that the man all of Chicago has been hunting for could finally be in custody. All that is needed is a positive identification. Running his fingerprints will take time, so the police ask Corazon to do something unimaginable. They need her to make a positive identification in person. Against all odds, Corazon agrees, and she's brought to the hospital with a protection detail. She's dressed in a nurse's uniform and brought to the suspect's room, not wanting to tip him off. The police detail must stay behind, and Corazon is forced to confront the man that may have killed eight of her friends all on her own. And after looking into the eyes of the man in the hospital bed, she knows. It's the same man. Having the confirmation they needed, Chicago police arrest Richard Speck. April 3, 1967. The trial begins in Peoria, Illinois. The case hinges on two vital pieces of evidence. Number one, the fingerprints. The crowning jewel of the physical evidence was three fingerprints. It's hard to explain how they could have ended up in the house, and especially on the second floor. But still, they are not proof he killed the women. Second, however, is Corazon's testimony and eyewitness to the crimes. The crowning human jewel was Corazon Amaral, who was simply the bus witness. I've ever seen before since. When Corazon is finally able to take the stand, she does something that shocks the court. You see in the courtroom today that man who came to your door on the night of July 13. Corazon finally stood off, walked directly over to the fence table, and within inches of his forehead pointed and said in an unshakably clear voice, this is the man. She gave the most striking courtroom identification that would lie among the annals of American years. April 15, 1967. The trial of Richard Speck wraps up, and after less than an hour, the jury returns a verdict, guilty on all charges. Richard Speck is sentenced to death. Exactly nine months and two days ago, eight student nurses were stabbed, beaten, and strangled to death in a Chicago townhouse. Today, here in Peoria, 25-year-old Richard Speck was convicted of murdering the eight girls. And the jury chose to send respect to death. But, on December 5, 1991, Richard Speck died of a heart attack at the Stateville Correctional Center. It was one day before his 50th birthday. For Corazon, Amarau, that day meant freedom. And with the help of her family, she was able to put the trauma of her past behind her. In 1969, Corazon married her husband, Bert Edinze, and they have spent the last 54 years together building a loving family. Her two children have grown up knowing a mother who would do anything for them. Corazon went back to nursing, helping people heal as she went through her own journey of healing. Her son grew up to be a successful accountant, and her daughter followed in her footsteps, and joined a fulfilling career in healthcare. Corazon is now retired and spends as much time as she can with her grandkids at the family home in Virginia. She remembers every day that life is a precious gift and to live life to the fullest. I want to be happy all the time. Life is too short. Every time I wake up in the morning, I thank God that I am still alive. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mabelane.