As many know, the famed and brutal mass-murderer Richard Speck made a video from prison in 1988 (it wasn’t shown to the public until 1996) which shows him with breasts - apparently grown through the use of female hormones - and wearing women’s underwear, engaging in passive sex with other male inmates and using drugs.
The video caused a sensation around the country, with people both shocked and outraged. The prevailing opinion seemed to be that Speck had been coerced into this role as a female-gendered sexual submissive, by stronger, tougher prisoners, and that he was doing it to stay alive, not because he really enjoyed it.
Here is a video (probably NOT safe for work) which shows excerpts from Speck’s video as well as commentary on it from others, including journalist Bill Kurtis (mislabeled as “Bill Kutis”, amusingly enough.)
Here’s what I don’t get: why in the name of God would Richard Speck, of all people, become a sex object in prison? At the time of the video, he was 46 years old; he had an unmistakably scarred and weathered face, and he didn’t even have a good physique. Weren’t there young, thin, handsome and effeminate-looking male prisoners at this prison who would have been, willfully or not, cast in the role of “punks” and used as sex slaves? I completely fail to see why Richard Speck would have taken on this role, or even been coerced into the role.
The murders were extremely sensational for that age, and the fact that all the young women were killed on the same night (as opposed to the notorious BTK killer of later years) made his crime even more heinous.
Richard Speck had probably endured plenty of prison-style justice, and I’d bet the guards didn’t observe any of it. (please note, this is just my conjecture here) Much of sex in prison is about power, and it could be that he bargained his submissiveness in order to survive.
I really doubt the prisoners who targeted Speck for sex weren’t looking at his FACE.
The younger, more attractive prisoners might have more protection than Speck did.
Notorious felons oftentimes get beaten to death–Jeffrey Dahmer comes to mind.
So, it seems Richard Speck bargained for his survival. That’s a helluva lot more than he allowed his victims.
~VOW
From my very vague memory of the case, I thought that was what Speck said as well.
In fact, I thought that was what the controversy was about, that a prisoner had taken what was supposed to be a punishment and turned it into some weird alternative sex vacation.
As I recall, the outrage when those videos were released was because he was able to get the hormones, illegal drugs and other contraband in prison and use these products so openly. I doubt there were many people who thought poor li’l Dickie Speck had been victimized. I think a lot of people were really surprised to find out he was still alive.