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

I'm Harvey Ghien, and this is Killer Stories. Every Monday, I'm cutting the lights. I'm telling you a bedtime story. Except, these stories are all real. We're talking brazen heist, devastating cons, serial murders, and cases that defy tidy categories. So join me for new episodes of Killer Stories with Harvey Ghien, every Monday. 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 this 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 had 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 student's home. I had heard some noise outside in the morning and looked out of my front bedroom window and saw Coral on the ledge. On the couch in the living room was one of my classmates. Before we continue, we'd like to take a brief moment to thank our sponsor, Rocket Money, for helping us bring more incredible survival stories to life. Have you ever felt overwhelmed trying to manage your finances? Tracking spending and building a budget can be very time-consuming. And we often find it takes so much more organization and management than we think to stay on top of things. And that's where Rocket Money comes in. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bills so you can grow your savings. 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Inside the townhouse are the bodies of eight nurses, all either stabbed, strangled, or both. However, in the middle of this disturbing scene, against all odds, one of the nurses is found alive. The police do all they can to make Corazon feel safe and comfortable, but the task is easier said than done as the killer is still on the loose. 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 mother and her cousin all the way from the far south east 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, 10.30 pm. 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 dinners from the other room and 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 gonna 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 bed sheets 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 back bed and he stayed fit 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. I said, "How come we did not even fight him?" You know, when he was doing it. 'Cause every time he's done one move, he has a, the gun will point on you. 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 bus, 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. Were you thinking that he's going to kill you? No, I was not 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 took some of the girls out and before she came back, he washed his hands. I saw, 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 try to crawl under the bed. I hide in one of the beds 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 while I was hiding under the bed, I thought he saw me. Hours pass. And for Corzone Amarau, 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. 5.30 AM, the first alarm in the house goes off. And then when the alarm goes off, I still under there, but I was not 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 Corzone makes her decision to escape. Corzone 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, core zone screams for the whole city to hear. Gloria Davie, Patricia Matusek, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Ferris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merleita Gargolo, and Valentina Paseon were all murdered that night. "I can't believe that they were dead, and I'm still alive, and God have some, you know, he, I think he's parent me." And for core zone, it becomes her mission to make sure the man who did this is brought to justice. And what core zone saw that night provides the Chicago police with just the break they needed to catch a killer. First, she is able to provide them with a detailed physical description of the intruder and as sketch is made up and handed out to the city's entire police force. And second, core zone 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 core zone and protective custody. No one is expecting what they hear next. Core zone 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 core zone'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 comb 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. After he was rushed to the emergency room, the attending doctor made a discovery. 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 core zone to do something unimaginable. They need her to make a positive identification in person. Against all odds, core zone agrees, and she's brought to the hospital with a protection detail. She's dressed in a nurse's uniform and brought to the suspects room, not wanting to tip him off. The police detail must stay behind, and core zone 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 Piorria, Illinois. The case hinges on two vital pieces of evidence, number one, the 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 core zone's testimony and eyewitness to the crimes. The crowning human jewel was core zone Amaral, who was simply the bus witness I have ever seen before since. When core zone 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 the door on the night of July 13th. Core zone quietly 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 animals of American years prudent. April 15th, 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 the 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." On December 5th, 1991, Richard Speck died of a heart attack at the Stateville Correctional Center. It was one day before his 50th birthday. For Core Zone 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, Core Zone 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. Core Zone 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 health care. Core Zone is now retired and spends as much time as she can with her grandkids at the family home in Virginia. He 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.