50 Years Ago Tonight, The Nation Learned Of Richard Speck

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A half century ago on this night, a horrific crime shocked the nation.

Eight student nurses were murdered in their home on the city's far South Side.

CBS 2's Jim Williams spoke with two of the men who prosecuted Richard Speck, all those years ago.

One of the prosecutors, William Martin, was only 29.

"It not only traumatized Chicago," Martin said. "It traumatized the nation."

James Zagel, just out of law school, called it an "absolutely horrifying crime."

These two young men, taking on such an important case 50 years ago, were assigned to prosecute Speck.

It was a case that shattered notions of personal safety.

"People everywhere the night before the murders may have left their windows open or even unlocked their doors," Martin said.

Speck armed with a gun and knife, broke into the townhouse on East 100th Street, where the student nurses lived.

"He put them at ease. He sat on the floor. He smiled, joked with them and said I'm not going to hurt you," Martin said.

But after tying up the women with torn bed sheets, the 24-year-old Speck stabbed and strangled the young women one by one.

The lone survivor, Corazon Amurao, hid under a bed and then dramatically identified Speck in court.

She "walked right up to him, close as I am to you, pointed her finger at his forehead and said, 'This is the man.' "

Amurao went on to become an intensive care nurse. Today, she is a 73-year-old wife and grandmother.

"She still on occasion has nightmares about Speck," Martin said. "I can imagine. But she's a very happy person."

In 1991, Richard Speck died in prison. A few years before, he showed little remorse in a conversation with a fellow inmate.

"If you're asking if I felt sorry," he said. "No."

Zagel, a federal judge for decades now, has presided over big trials but often reflects on the terrible case that launched his career a half century ago.

"it's not theater," Zagel said. "It's real business with an absolutely horrid crime that I still think about periodically. Many times every year."

Martin said his hardest job was describing how the young women were murdered as their parents listened in court.