Richard Speck had an acne-scarred face, and he, too, chose to adorn his body with tacky permanent ink. One of his many tattoos held an accurate and direct description of himselfBORN TO RAISE HELL.
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In an odd sort of way, Speck, Hickock and Smith sustained America. Reinforced stereotypes wrapped comfort into a neat little package which held the evil of the crimes together with the ugliness and utter wickedness of the men who carried them out. No room existed in such a package for handsome, bright, nice killers, especially mass murderers.
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During the same week that the mass media informed America of the horror Richard Speck had wrought in Chicago, Charlie Whitman, young John Whitman, and his friend visited the observation deck of the Tower. The power of mass murder to capture the attention of, to shock, and to break the heart of a nation could not have escaped Charlie. He had to have been impressed with the new notoriety of the demonic drifter. During that awful week, the infamous label "Crime of the Century" was repeatedly attached to the Speck murders. No one knew that the dubious distinction would last only nineteen days.
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On 5 April 1966, when Charlie should have been seeing Dr. Heatly for his follow-up session, he instead entered the Main Building of the University of Texas and boarded the passenger elevator to the twenty-seventh floor of the Tower. From there he ascended three steep half-flights of stairs and a short hallway leading to the twenty-eighth floor and a reception area for visitors interested in stepping onto an outside observation deck. A receptionist, whose duties included inviting visitors to sign the guest book and answering questions about the university, was stationed in the area.
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Three receptionists staffed the station in shifts. Each had a nameplate to put on a single desk that faced a glass-paneled door which opened onto the deck. A beige vinyl couch for visitors, especially those winded by the stairs, was located next to and east of the desk. Hanging on the east wall next to the couch was a telephone. One of the three receptionists, Mrs. Lydia Gest, later recalled that Charlie visited the deck many times and frequently sat on the couch for brief conversations, a common practice for many UT students.
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