john wayne gacy, convicted of murdering 33 young men and boys in the late 1970s, and richard speck, convicted for the murder of eight student nurses in 1966, were both condemned to die in stateville's execution chamber. speck died of a heart attack in 1991. gacy was executed by lethal injection in 1994. the last execution to occur at stateville took place in 1998. since then, all illinois state executions occur in a different maximum security facility. until it's torn down, stateville's death chamber remains fully operational as an emergency backup system. with such a high concentration of violent criminals in the prison population, it was only natural that the violence would continue within the walls of stateville. over the years, a number of incidents occurred that still reverberate among the old-timers today. >> in the old days we had quite a bit of violence here. you got up in the morning, you'd take a couple of magazines, go out and carry your shank wherever you want. you didn't know what was going to happen. who you was going to fight. there was always trouble. >> i've been up here 11 y