At the end of this episode, EADA Ben Stone mentions the death of a "Richard Speck" in prison. Richard Benjamin Speck was incarcerated at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois for the rape-torture murders of eight student nurses on July 13 and 14, 1966. He died of a heart attack December 5, 1991, at the age of 49 while serving a life sentence that had been commuted from death.
This episode appears to be based on several mass murder cases including:
- The 1962-1964 Albert DeSalvo (aka "The Boston Strangler) case. DeSalvo was a criminal in Boston, Massachusetts, who confessed to being the murderer of thirteen women in the Boston area from 1962 to 1964. The M.O. of the Boston Strangler was to talk his way into victims' apartments by pretending to be a maintenance man. The crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo based on his confession, though DeSalvo was not imprisoned for these murders but for a series of rapes. His murder confession has been disputed and debate continues as to which crimes DeSalvo had actually committed. In July 2013, a DNA match--between seminal fluid found at the scene of the rape and murder of Mary Sullivan and DNA obtained from DeSalvo's nephew--linked DeSalvo to the Sullivan murder and excluded 99.9 percent of the remaining population. Authorities exhumed DeSalvo's remains later that month and confirmed that the DNA match details revealed in court during a separate case and DNA evidence linking him to his last alleged murder victim. In the original investigation, parties investigating the crimes had suggested that the murders (sometimes referred to as "the silk stocking murders") were committed by more than one person.
- The 1966 Richard Speck case. Richard Benjamin Speck was an American mass murderer who systematically raped one and tortured and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital on the night of July 13 into the early morning hours of July 14, 1966. He was convicted at trial and sentenced to death, but the sentence was later overturned due to issues with jury selection at his trial. Speck died of a heart attack in 1991, after 25 years in prison. In 1996, videotapes featuring Speck were shown before the Illinois State Legislature to highlight some of the illegal activity that took place in prisons.
- The 1950's Harvey Glatman (aka "The Lonely Hearts Killer"/"The Glamour Girl Slayer") case. Harvey Murray Glatman was an American serial killer active during the late 1950s. He would use several pseudonyms, posing as a professional photographer to lure his victims with the promise of a modeling career. He was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, a sentence that he accepted willingly. He specifically asked the warden to do nothing to save his life. He was executed in the gas chamber of San Quentin State Prison on September 18, 1959.
- The 1987 Timothy Wilson Spencer (aka "The Southside Strangler") case. He was an American serial killer who committed three rapes and murders in Richmond, Virginia, and one in Arlington, Virginia, in the fall of 1987. In addition, he is believed to have committed at least one previous murder, in 1984, for which a different man, David Vasquez, was wrongfully convicted. He was known to police as a prolific home burglar. Spencer became the first serial killer in the United States to be convicted on the basis of DNA evidence, with David Vasquez being the first to be exonerated following conviction on the basis of exculpatory DNA evidence.
- The 1971-1979 Rodney Alcala (a.k.a. "The Dating Game Killer") case. Alcala was an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979, receiving an additional sentence of 25 years to life after pleading guilty to two further homicides committed in New York State in 1971 and 1977.
Michael Moriarty and Jay Patterson previously worked together in Tailspin: Behind the Korean Airliner Tragedy (1989).
Chris Noth (Detective Mike Logan) and Matt Malloy (CSU Technician) also worked together on In Sickness (2011) (episode 2.21), as Peter Florrick and Kevin Haynes, respectively.