Born in Skidmore, Missouri, Speakman received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1912 and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1915.
He was in the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps from 1917 to 1919 and was a private.
[2] In 1932 in Phoenix, Speakman presided at the murder trial of Winnie Ruth Judd, a case which achieved considerable notoriety.
[3] Speakman was nominated by President Harry S. Truman on March 27, 1946, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Arizona vacated by Judge Albert Morris Sames.
[2] Speakman served in that capacity until his death on June 17, 1952, at the Long Beach Veterans Hospital, in Long Beach, California, while he was vacationing in southern California.