Prison Video Shows Killer Taking Drugs, Having Sex
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - In the videotape secretly recorded in a maximum-security prison, mass murderer Richard Speck strips off his jumpsuit to reveal women's blue underwear.
Along with another inmate, he snorts a white powder that appears to be cocaine, engages in sex and tells the camera how he's had the time of his life behind bars.
"If they only knew how much fun I was having in here, they would turn me loose," Speck says.
The videotape, portions of which began airing last week on Chicago's WBBM-TV, shows no contrition from the man who murdered eight student nurses nearly 30 years ago. Speck died of a heart attack in 1991, one day shy of his 50th birthday.
The tape has proved to be a major embarrassment for Illinois corrections officials, who beginning Wednesday will be called before a state legislative panel to answer questions about how closely they watched one of the nation's most notorious killers.
The two-hour tape surfaced last summer when an attorney approached WBBM anchor Bill Kurtis. The tape appeared to have been made over two days, and one inmate is heard saying it is 1988, Kurtis said.
Speck admitted he committed the killings - breaking for the first time his claim of drug-induced amnesia.
Speck had been sentenced to die for the 1966 murders, but in 1972 the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment. His sentence was commuted to eight consecutive terms of 50 to 150 years.