In May 1996, Chicago television news anchor Bill Kurtis received video tapes made at Stateville Correctional Center in 1988 from an anonymous attorney. Showing them publicly for the first time before the Illinois state legislature, Kurtis pointed out the explicit scenes of sex, drug use, and money being passed around by prisoners, who seemingly had no fear of being caught. In the center was a fat, ugly Richard Speck, performing oral sex on another inmate, sharing a large quantity of cocaine with another inmate, parading around in silk panties, sporting female-like huge tits (allegedly grown using smuggled hormone treatments), and boasting: "If they only knew how much fun I was having, they'd turn me loose." The Illinois legislature packed the auditorium to view the two-hour video, but stopped the screening when the tape showed Speck performing oral sex on another man.
From behind the camera, a prisoner asked Speck if he had killed the nurses. Speck responded: "Sure I did." When asked why, Speck shrugged and jokingly said: "It just wasn't their night." Asked how he felt about himself in the years since, he said: "Like I always felt ... had no feeling. If you're asking me if I felt sorry, no." He also described in detail the experience of strangling someone: "It's not like TV ... it takes over three minutes and you have to have a lot of strength.