Richard Speck: Bad Dream or Hellish Nightmare?

Obviously, Lucifer is dark; even though his name means "light bearer".

Lucifer's proselytes are dark as well.

Serial killers are Lucifer's proselytes.

They employ graphic, gruesome, violent methods to stalk and murder their prey. When the law finally catches up with them, they resign themselves to being caught. They know they're guilty and they don't care.

Many want to study the mind of a serial killer, like Richard Speck and others. Their rationale or reasoning is that if they could learn what is in the mind of a serial killer, perhaps they could profile and predict attitudes and behavior, and equipped with this knowledge, intended victims might be spared.

Naïve thinking, wouldn't you agree? Hey! Argue with the statistics.

Surmise is to infer with little evidence or GUESS!

Surmise is what one does because one refuses to go into the mind of a serial killer to try to figure out what makes them tick!

Perhaps some of them have real genuine stories about horrible childhoods, suffering abuse at the hands of their primary caretakers, etc. Perhaps these murderers are misunderstood, they've been hurting a long time, and it's a means of releasing rage and making others feel their pain.

But here is a salient fact and it is a contrast and comparison that anybody would be hard-pressed to ignore. There have been children who have endured unimaginable cruelties and they have grown up to become ... non-serial killers.

It was 1966 and I was 10 years old. There was an article in the Miami Herald (I grew up in Miami, Florida) describing what Richard Speck had done and explaining that the police were looking for him. One of his intended victims had escaped his killing spree by hiding under a bed and staying there until she mustered up enough courage to roll out from under the bed, get herself untied, climb out of a window onto a ledge and start screaming for help! The news article had an artist sketch of Mr. Speck based on the description the student nurse had given. Following up in a subsequent article when they reported his capture, his real picture was placed next to the artist sketch. Yep. The sketch sure did look like him.

I remember my late mother commenting:  "You know if he had only counted the number of girls, he would have noticed one of them was missing."

I also remember thinking: "Stabbing, shooting, strangling ... He forgot to count? (???)"

This minor detail is mentioned only because, most reports indicate when a serial killer is finally arrested, during the interrogation they can usually state the number of victims who perished at their hands and fill in many other missing details that nobody else would now except them.

Please. Please don't strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Please don't split hairs and argue that technically Speck wasn't a serial killer. Please don't draw a fine line and say he was a mass murderer, not a serial killer, since he did away with all of his victims in one session. Whatever! I say: He was a serial killer who got lucky!

Movies like "The Silence of the Lambs" and TV series like "Dexter" popularize the serial killer image. The script writers try to paint a picture of "everyday people" - cultured, educated, average, even law-abiding (sort of) - i.e. they're only eliminating people who are distasteful or displeasing or are somehow unsatisfactory and don't deserve to live and/or they make a tasty meal. One could say they're "cleaners".

The writers try to humanize them.

What person is human who can repeatedly commit disgusting, coldhearted, brutal murders? Such a "malevolent creature" should only exist in a nightmare. But the reality is: serial killers are living nightmares. There is only one English word that paints them in their true colors: BLOODTHIRSTY.

I read the account of Richard Speck's murderous rampage in 1966. I never did follow up on his life in prison until recently and realized that he had escaped the executioner. Now I am convinced that capital punishment is the only fair way to treat a serial killer. If there is a God, then let Him deal with them. If there is no God, then we the people have a moral obligation to remove these loathsome creatures from our society, so we don't have to deal with them.

• {Photo of Speck's victims. Public domain images.}

I read the account of Richard Speck's murderous rampage in 1966. I never did follow up on his life in prison until recently and realized that he had escaped the executioner. Now I am convinced that capital punishment is the only fair way to treat a serial killer. If there is a God, then let Him deal with them. If there is no God, then we the people have a moral obligation to remove these loathsome creatures from our society, so we don't have to deal with them.

On the plus side ... A horrific and tragic incident could have been even worse.  Suppose Richard Speck was a doctor!!

• Evil Doctors | The Worst Doctors in History

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Halloween image found at at glitter-graphics.com