Speaker 1: A woman that would give her shoelaces, offers shoes if
Speaker 1: she knew it would help you. Ruthie McCoy spent a
Speaker 1: lifetime struggling with mental health, but she was entering a
Speaker 1: phase of life where things appeared they may turn around.
Speaker 1: That was until the night of April ninth, nineteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: when Ruthie would fall victim to the projects of Chicago
Speaker 1: and her apartment would be broken into in the most
Speaker 1: unfathomable of ways.
Speaker 2: Good morning.
Speaker 1: The following podcast and these graphic content and materials intend
Speaker 1: for a mature audience. Listener dis question is a hey,
Speaker 1: how's it going on, Nicle?
Speaker 2: I'm bed you are listening to Wiken.
Speaker 1: And Grim, a true crime podcast.
Speaker 2: We stumbled every time.
Speaker 1: I will literally fuck up the intro.
Speaker 2: Well, no, we we do fail. We usually get it
Speaker 2: good on the actual podcast, but anytime you start it,
Speaker 2: you're like, what do I do again?
Speaker 1: I know, I literally like, we're almost like approaching our
Speaker 1: one hundredth episode, and I'm like, what do I do?
Speaker 2: Which we are on? This is episode ninety eight?
Speaker 1: Okay, well just wait, let's just I might have e
Speaker 1: f this up to.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: Okay, that was like kind of pitiful, but.
Speaker 2: It worked you slightly like Crack the Seal a bit
Speaker 2: before you I was like, eek, yeah, so ninety eight,
Speaker 2: hey ninety eight, and which means on Halloween Week, our
Speaker 2: one hundredth episode will be aired.
Speaker 1: It's like we plan that or something.
Speaker 2: It's almost like we did.
Speaker 1: Oh we didn't.
Speaker 2: We certainly did not.
Speaker 1: That would have been amazing if we plan that, right.
Speaker 2: But yeah, So Halloween weeks coming up, a whole ass week,
Speaker 2: seven days, awesome, great days of our podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we have a little schedule. We got it
Speaker 1: all laid out.
Speaker 2: We asked our patrons if they want to see the schedule. Surprisingly,
Speaker 2: they're like no.
Speaker 1: I think one person said yes, yeah, but it.
Speaker 2: Was overwhelming because I was like, I'm going to do
Speaker 2: a poll today if you guys want to know the schedule,
Speaker 2: and just everyone started commenting Nope, don't want to see it.
Speaker 1: And We're like, I was surprised because that one person
Speaker 1: that said yes, Like I would have said yes.
Speaker 2: As well, so I thought I would have too, But
Speaker 2: I guess everyone just wants to be surprised and just
Speaker 2: enjoy the Halloween week as it happens.
Speaker 1: Well, there aren't many. I just feel like I haven't
Speaker 1: said this to someone the other day. Actually, there's just
Speaker 1: not a lot of surprises in this world anymore that
Speaker 1: are like good.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 1: Actually, so maybe people just need some of that in
Speaker 1: their life.
Speaker 2: Maybe. So while we're on the topic of patreons, we
Speaker 2: do is shout out our patrons joined us this week.
Speaker 1: Thank them. Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2: So we had Jennifer Davidson, Samuel Elkins, Jacqueline Binzer, and
Speaker 2: Lexi Jordan all join us, all join us over on
Speaker 2: Patreon this week.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: So they're getting behind the scenes stuff, they're getting some
Speaker 2: extra episodes episode. Yeah, it's been a little bit quiet
Speaker 2: this past week as we work on the Halloween week,
Speaker 2: but we're making up for that during Halloween week because
Speaker 2: Patreon is getting some awesome stuff over there as well
Speaker 2: for Halloween Week two.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited. It's gonna be grand.
Speaker 2: It's going to be super grand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be good.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So what else are you going to talk about anything?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, we have a ton of photos that we
Speaker 1: have to publish too.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, definitely of our.
Speaker 1: Halloween stuff, we'd the run reel we did post was amazing.
Speaker 1: It was gosh, I watched that daily. It makes my day.
Speaker 2: Oh and I just thought of something else. I don't
Speaker 2: know if we knew this prior to last episode. If
Speaker 2: we did, we forgot to talk about it. But Kate
Speaker 2: Yup the Muckbang pod or YouTuber, posted another video.
Speaker 1: The other Yeah, you were just like shocked. I was,
Speaker 1: I should screenshot the text that you sent me.
Speaker 2: I was blown away. I was like, no fucking way.
Speaker 2: So that whole conspiracy just like blew up. There's new
Speaker 2: shit going on. I'm sure, havingt dove into it, but yeah,
Speaker 2: I know the internet's ranting and raven right now.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's a lot. I know. Even some people
Speaker 1: made comments about just like, oh she probably I wonder
Speaker 1: how she feels that she's on like true crime podcasts,
Speaker 1: and then also people not even believing that that's her,
Speaker 1: or commenting.
Speaker 2: About how how she's dressed looks.
Speaker 1: And from like what you can see of her.
Speaker 2: And yep, I did watch the video. She commented. She
Speaker 2: made some comments in captions because.
Speaker 1: She doesn't talk okay, so yeah, she doesn't talk to.
Speaker 2: About her tooth, her broken tooth. She made some little
Speaker 2: comments about that and stuff. So it's interesting. You should
Speaker 2: go check it out.
Speaker 1: I think I'm actually okay.
Speaker 2: Fair enough. You were obsessed with the case when I
Speaker 2: talked about it.
Speaker 1: Though I was a little bit, but also not with
Speaker 1: like watch the videos. Okay, understandable, but I you know,
Speaker 1: I honestly like hope that she's just good and she's
Speaker 1: fine and everything's fine, and it just.
Speaker 2: Ended up being a big conspiracy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that would be That would be what I
Speaker 1: would hope for.
Speaker 2: That's the ideal world. Yes, So should we get into it?
Speaker 1: You ready?
Speaker 2: I'm ready? What do you got for us?
Speaker 1: So today we're chatting about the sad story of Ruthie
Speaker 1: may McCoy, and so I'll probably refer to her most
Speaker 1: as ruth right as we chat here.
Speaker 2: You did post this on our socials to see if
Speaker 2: people can guess. Yeah, through some people for a loop,
Speaker 2: didn't it?
Speaker 1: I know, because I actually thought for some reason that
Speaker 1: they was like, so now I feel kind of like
Speaker 1: a jerk. It was like, someone doesn't get this in
Speaker 1: two minutes because I thought it was the easiest hint
Speaker 1: that we've almost ever put out for some reason. But
Speaker 1: I guess it wasn't because it is misleading. It's misleading
Speaker 1: because it can be other things, is the thing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: because some people guess bloody Mary and then some people
Speaker 1: guess candy man.
Speaker 2: But we've covered both those already, we.
Speaker 1: Have, and like because candy Man, like we were chatting,
Speaker 1: can be a few things.
Speaker 2: There's a few cases that kind of get.
Speaker 1: Referred to as candy Man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is not that, but kind of candy
Speaker 2: man esque all at the same time.
Speaker 1: I'll touch on that on the end.
Speaker 2: I know, a little brief overview of this story, but
Speaker 2: not all the details. Some stoked here the details.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay. So Ruth was born in Hughes, Arkansas, and
Speaker 1: was one of eight siblings. When she was young, her
Speaker 1: family moved to Chicago due to better work opportunities. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: as it turned out, the opportunities did not turn out
Speaker 1: to be what they had hoped for, which is kind
Speaker 1: of like a grass ain't always greener thing, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Her father ended up working in coal wagons and would
Speaker 1: barely make enough to feed the family. But I mean
Speaker 1: the family, that's a fairly large family to.
Speaker 2: Feed, right, no kidding, I don't even want to like
Speaker 2: feed the dogs half the time. You eat too much food.
Speaker 1: Their doghood is expensive, like holy shit. So Ruth attended
Speaker 1: Phillips High School for a little more than a year,
Speaker 1: but she would quit school all together in the tenth grade.
Speaker 1: In her twenties, signs of mental health would begin appearing
Speaker 1: when she started the habit of talking to herself. She
Speaker 1: would also have unexpected outbursts of anger. Dang, so not great.
Speaker 2: Real quick side note, I do want to feed our dogs.
Speaker 2: You know that was just a joke.
Speaker 1: Just oh yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 2: I know, I know. I just want to just throw
Speaker 2: that out there. I do want to feed our dogs.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to get you.
Speaker 1: Said, then I guess you said you don't even want
Speaker 1: to feed them somebody, I.
Speaker 2: Don't even want to feed them half the time, because
Speaker 2: it's oh, we.
Speaker 1: Joke about shit like that all the time. That I
Speaker 1: was just like, oh, that's just been joking.
Speaker 2: Love her dogs, want to feed them? Oh they're just expensive.
Speaker 1: People aren't aware on here that we're obsessed with our dogs.
Speaker 1: Then they haven't been listening to enough episode.
Speaker 2: True enough.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Ruth never married and she was twenty seven,
Speaker 1: but she did, however, become pregnant and was twenty seven
Speaker 1: when she gave birth to her only child, named Vernita.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for them, though, Vernita's father did not end up
Speaker 1: sticking around, and this, rightfully so left a bitter taste
Speaker 1: or bitter like. Ruth was a bit bitter about men
Speaker 1: in general after this. Not all men are bad, but
Speaker 1: that that sucks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not all men are bad, that is for sure.
Speaker 2: Not everyone is like that.
Speaker 1: No, I would say most people are not like that.
Speaker 1: But still something like that happening to you, I could
Speaker 1: underderstand why you'd be like.
Speaker 2: He a dick, Yeah, definitely a dick.
Speaker 1: Absolutely so. Vernita would bounce back and forth from her
Speaker 1: relative's home and Ruth's home due to Ruth's mental illness
Speaker 1: issues and having to on occasion be institutionalized.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Her mental health issues were later diagnosed as being being
Speaker 1: a residual type of schizophrenia. Ruth worked many jobs, including
Speaker 1: as a housekeeper and law dream man attendant, but her
Speaker 1: mental health again prevented her from holding a job for
Speaker 1: any substantial amount of time, and much of her adult
Speaker 1: life was spent on financial assistance.
Speaker 2: Mental health can be such a fucking weight.
Speaker 1: Man, I know, and especially back then, like I think
Speaker 1: it every year, I feel like it gets a little
Speaker 1: bit better where people are more understanding of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're talking about it, vocalizing it.
Speaker 1: This was like, you know, seventies eighties kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and like so probably it was even harder for her
Speaker 1: to succeed in life having that, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we just watched the Candy Man movie. Yeah's
Speaker 2: kind of loosely based on this. I'm sure you'll touch
Speaker 2: on that, but there was that one scene where the
Speaker 2: woman is like being strapped down in like a padded one.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because they said, like she's going.
Speaker 1: Crazy, i know, like literally her arms and legs strapped down,
Speaker 1: which like they just wouldn't do that.
Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, and then like injecting her with whatever. And
Speaker 2: it's like, probably it's dealt with a lot different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not having permission for doing any of that.
Speaker 2: Ugh.
Speaker 1: Okay, So in nineteen eighty three, Ruth's basement apartment in
Speaker 1: Humboldt Park flooded and she went about applying to the
Speaker 1: Chicago Housing Authority for emergency housing. She specifically asked not
Speaker 1: to be placed in a high rise project, as those
Speaker 1: places due to the violence they faced they terrified her.
Speaker 1: But due to a long waitlist for the row houses
Speaker 1: and walk ups. Unfortunately, this was the only option with
Speaker 1: an immediate opening.
Speaker 2: Huh no, I know.
Speaker 1: So in May of nineteen eighty three, ruth moved into
Speaker 1: a high rise building.
Speaker 2: I mean, at least she has a place that's definitely
Speaker 2: good there.
Speaker 1: It is, it is. It just would be really nice
Speaker 1: if it was a better place, because you'll kind of
Speaker 1: hear a bit more here. So it was a high
Speaker 1: rise building near Southside Chicago Housing Authority project known as ABLA.
Speaker 1: I think that's how you go about pronouncing that. It's
Speaker 1: an acronym. So it's a BLA for the names of
Speaker 1: the four different housing developments that together form one large site.
Speaker 1: So it's Adams, Brooks, Loomis, and Abbot and they total
Speaker 1: about four thousand units.
Speaker 2: Just shy of Wow, four thousands, that's sick a lot.
Speaker 1: It's a lot, But I mean Chicago is a pretty
Speaker 1: big city, right, true. So Ruthie was in the Grace,
Speaker 1: the Grace Abbot development, and sorry, sometimes I referred to
Speaker 1: as ruth and sometimes I referred is Ruthie. For some reason,
Speaker 1: I went back and forth as I was doing this,
Speaker 1: but you get the gist. So she was in the
Speaker 1: Abbot development, which was a fifteen story brown y shaped
Speaker 1: tower rise and allegedly one of the most dangerous buildings
Speaker 1: in the a ABB but projects.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's where she got put.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, and so I'm probably gonna be referring to
Speaker 1: the more so as just the projects going forward. So
Speaker 1: the building so at described as dark with pitch black stairwells,
Speaker 1: and I'll just I don't have this written here, but
Speaker 1: this black stairwells is pretty much because they would replace
Speaker 1: the light bulbs often, maybe not often, but they get stolen.
Speaker 1: So like, the stairwells were literally always pitch black, which
Speaker 1: is terrifying.
Speaker 2: That's terrifying the issue whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And the elevators most of the time weren't working, so
Speaker 1: like shit, I mean, I guess you could just start
Speaker 1: carrying a flashlight.
Speaker 2: I yeah, but even still, I'm sure people are worried
Speaker 2: about their possessions getting stolen or maybe. I mean, in
Speaker 2: a development like that, I'm sure a lot of people
Speaker 2: may not have had the financial situation to even.
Speaker 1: Have a fast right, Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2: And let alone if you have a flashlight, maintaining batteries.
Speaker 1: For it, because the next line here unpleasant people who
Speaker 1: do not have your best interest at heart, were like
Speaker 1: always lurking around the corner like you, Yeah, you had
Speaker 1: to watch your back. One article I read said you're
Speaker 1: crazy if you're not always looking over your shoulder. So
Speaker 1: just a really unfortunate place for Roo, and I can
Speaker 1: imagine many others. And they had no choice but to
Speaker 1: live there, right, And Ruth lived at the end of
Speaker 1: a corridor on the eleventh floor and her apartment was
Speaker 1: eleven or nine. So yeah, huh, I mean there's more
Speaker 1: I could describe about the places, but yeah, get the gist.
Speaker 2: Places like that they break my fucking heart. Man, Like
Speaker 2: people need housing, they really do, so they're forced into
Speaker 2: the situation, just like Ruth is yeap oh man. Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So being that Ruth was fifty three year old
Speaker 1: year old year old, oh god, oh my gosh. Okay,
Speaker 1: so she was like fifty three, Like so we've kind
Speaker 1: of progressed here in her life.
Speaker 2: Three years old.
Speaker 1: Fifty three years old.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: It's because I typed it fifty three years old, That's
Speaker 1: why I stumbled. But yeah, so, like, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: not old, but it's not like young either, to be
Speaker 1: living in a situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, that's not young and spry. That's that's
Speaker 2: definitely old enough that whether you're in a good apartment
Speaker 2: building or a terrible one eleventh floor is not easy
Speaker 2: access exactly.
Speaker 1: So then she was also suffering from a mental illness
Speaker 1: where she was known to look disordered and would often
Speaker 1: curse at strangers. The project was not an ideal location
Speaker 1: for her to live. What she, however, did have on
Speaker 1: her side, though, was her size. She was not a
Speaker 1: small woman at the time of her death. She was
Speaker 1: five feet eleven and two hundred and fifty one pounds
Speaker 1: and knew how to fight, so you could say she
Speaker 1: could hold her own.
Speaker 2: Ruth is going to kick your ass.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what you're saying, yeah, which is good. That's good,
Speaker 1: right because I think it was an article where her
Speaker 1: brother had commented that she knew how to fight or whatever.
Speaker 2: So fucking go, Ruth. I like this woman.
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, Ruth. So not long before Ruth's final days,
Speaker 1: she was in the process of trying to create a
Speaker 1: better life for herself. She started dressing better, and she
Speaker 1: tried to be kind to everyone around her. Neighbors had
Speaker 1: even seen her leave early in the mornings to go
Speaker 1: to school to retrieve her ged.
Speaker 2: Fucking everyone needs to be more like truth, just fucking kind.
Speaker 1: As shit, And she had even mentioned wanting to become
Speaker 1: a nurse, which I'm like at fifty three years old
Speaker 1: and you're thinking.
Speaker 2: That, like, yes, no kidding, that just bettering yourself and
Speaker 2: bettering your environment and bettering the world around you, honestly.
Speaker 1: She also became somewhat of a motherly figure for her
Speaker 1: neighbors at the projects.
Speaker 2: For fuck's sakes, I know, you're literally like breaking my
Speaker 2: heart right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really am.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: As an example, because you're in a lovery more, she
Speaker 1: would go about opening apartment doors and if they are unlocked,
Speaker 1: she would then like lecture caution her neighbors that they
Speaker 1: needed to lock their doors. I'm like, our kind woman, Like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's the best.
Speaker 2: Wow. She can teach a Canadian how to be polite.
Speaker 2: That's that's how good Ruth is. Let's say that so now.
Speaker 1: A reason that Ruth was starting to dress better was
Speaker 1: because in February of nineteen eighty seven, she went to
Speaker 1: seek psychiatric help and was approved to receive Social Security
Speaker 1: income as well as federal aid for the disabled. This
Speaker 1: help increased her monthly income from one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: four to three hundred and forty so like doubled it
Speaker 1: really right. She also received a check for just shy
Speaker 1: of two thousand dollars, which was retroactive to when she applied.
Speaker 1: Of course, this excited her and it gave her hope
Speaker 1: this money would give her a chance to be able
Speaker 1: to move out of the projects. Yeah, and it may have.
Speaker 1: It just may have. But but first it put a
Speaker 1: target on her back, and this target led to her
Speaker 1: murder on April nine, nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 2: How did he put her target on her back?
Speaker 1: Well, the people were noticing, so, like she had some
Speaker 1: new clothes. Oh and like so I don't know if
Speaker 1: rumors went around or whatever, but people notice that she
Speaker 1: had some sort of money.
Speaker 2: It could even be like, oh, she's purchasing some nicer
Speaker 2: groceries this week. Yeahh wow.
Speaker 1: Okay, like it literally Okay, that's just enough to just
Speaker 1: make you want to saw BROLLI oh man, like if
Speaker 1: you think, if you think about it too hard, holy shit,
Speaker 1: my heart. Okay. So on April ninth, oh, this this
Speaker 1: gets worse, and I'm like, I don't even want to
Speaker 1: do this. Okay, it's on April ninth, at around aprilty
Speaker 1: five pm, Ruth herself made a call to nine oh
Speaker 1: one in a panic, stating, I'm a resident at one
Speaker 1: four four zero West thirteenth Street and some people next
Speaker 1: door are totally tearing this down, you know. The frantic
Speaker 1: woman being Ruth said, what are they doing? Ma'am? Asked
Speaker 1: the dispatcher. Ruth's response is basically incoherent on tape, but
Speaker 1: apparently the dispatcher caught her. Gist they want to break in.
Speaker 1: They yeah, they throwed the cabinet down. Dispatcher says from
Speaker 1: where Ruth says, I'm in the projects, I'm on the
Speaker 1: other side. You can reach can reach my bathroom. They
Speaker 1: want to come through the bathroom. The dispatcher, all right, ma'am,
Speaker 1: at what address Ruth? One four to four zero West
Speaker 1: thirteenth Street, Apartment eleven o nine. The elevators working And
Speaker 1: a little side note comment regarding the elephant elevators working
Speaker 1: is apparently authorities would come to the projects and if
Speaker 1: they found out the elevators were not working, instead of
Speaker 1: climbing the flights of stairs, say it went up to
Speaker 1: fifteen floors, they would often just leave. Really, yeah, so
Speaker 1: she's stating, like, help me, the elevators are working. WHOA yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like pissed when I read that.
Speaker 2: WHOA, Holy that.
Speaker 1: Is another heartbreaking thing. So dispatcher confirmed eleven o nine.
Speaker 1: All right, what's your name, ma'am? Ruth said Ruth McCoy. Dispatcher,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll send you the police. The dispatcher was
Speaker 1: not entirely certain what Ruth had been trying to say.
Speaker 1: They were unsure what she could have meant by they
Speaker 1: throwed the cabinet down and they want to come through
Speaker 1: the bathroom. But even so, the dispatcher assigned a twelve
Speaker 1: district car to answer a disturbance with a neighbor complaint
Speaker 1: at Ruth's address. However, not choosing to report the call
Speaker 1: as a break in attempt explains why the police had
Speaker 1: not arrived before another nine to one one call was
Speaker 1: actually made concerning apartment eleven o nine. The call came
Speaker 1: from a woman who said she had been walking through
Speaker 1: the hallway and her gunshots come from the apartment. Again,
Speaker 1: at around nine oh four, another neighbor called and had
Speaker 1: reported gunshot and yelling coming from apartment eleven o nine.
Speaker 1: Two more police cars headed to to the scene. You're good.
Speaker 2: No, fuck, I know, And I mean I'm I'm not
Speaker 2: faulting anyone in this situation because the choice to go
Speaker 2: disturbance or break an enter, it could that might be
Speaker 2: a fine line. I mean, of course you should have
Speaker 2: reported as breaking enter. But it's just.
Speaker 1: And the thing is, they get a lot of calls
Speaker 1: for these areas, and a lot of them apparently like
Speaker 1: aren't even legit exactly.
Speaker 2: So that's where my mind was going. So I'm not
Speaker 2: faulting the dispatcher whatsoever. No, and I'm not faulting the
Speaker 2: police whatsoever.
Speaker 1: You may at some point here though as.
Speaker 2: Of right now, I'm not. But the whole situation on
Speaker 2: being in that position where, for example, those false claims
Speaker 2: for example people the project situation as an entirety, paints
Speaker 2: this whole picture of poverty in people being subject to,
Speaker 2: for lack of better terms, the system, and it's just
Speaker 2: this domino effect that's breaking my fucking heart. Basically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just like, it's just like a whole pile
Speaker 1: of shit, really, Like there's just no good here.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So four police officers were said to have arrived at
Speaker 1: Rufe's door around ten minutes after nine, so they proceeded
Speaker 1: to pound on the door, announce their presence, and called
Speaker 1: out for Ruth. When they received no answer, they asked
Speaker 1: a dispatcher to attempt to call Ruth on her phone.
Speaker 1: We think somebody may be in there holding somebody, an
Speaker 1: officer informed the dispatcher over the radio. The officers listened
Speaker 1: to the phone ring and ring and ring. The two
Speaker 1: officers who were downstairs decided to drive over to the
Speaker 1: project office, which was only a block or so away,
Speaker 1: to retrieve a key to Ruth's apartment, but when they
Speaker 1: returned with the key, the key they received didn't fit
Speaker 1: Ruth's lock. This left the officers puzzled and wondering what
Speaker 1: to do. They were not sure if they should break
Speaker 1: into the apartment. Talking with neighbors did not help them much.
Speaker 1: No one across the hall seemed to answer. The apartment
Speaker 1: next door was vacant, and the neighbors in the apartment
Speaker 1: down the hall said they hadn't heard or seen anything.
Speaker 2: Snitches get stitches. It's probably the.
Speaker 1: Act exactly exactly. Other neighbors on the floor said. An
Speaker 1: elderly woman lived in eleven o nine. They say that
Speaker 1: she always answers her door. One of the officers told
Speaker 1: the dispatcher in a hesitant voice, and there's no answer,
Speaker 1: So I don't know if maybe she answered to the
Speaker 1: wrong person or what. The officers then contacted the project
Speaker 1: office again, but the janitor said she had no other
Speaker 1: or he or she said they had no other key
Speaker 1: for eleven o nine. So then at nine point forty
Speaker 1: eight pm the police left left.
Speaker 2: Fuck yeah.
Speaker 1: So the next evening, police received a call from Deborah
Speaker 1: lace Lacey, an eleventh floor neighbor of Ruth's. Deborah explained
Speaker 1: that Ruth had always stopped by her apartment on her
Speaker 1: way out of the building every morning and when she
Speaker 1: would return in the afternoon, but today she did not
Speaker 1: stop by at all. Deborah had seen police at Ruth's
Speaker 1: door the night before, and she grew worried. Later, nearly
Speaker 1: half a dozen police officers and four to five cha
Speaker 1: security so like the security of the housing, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure guards arrived at the apartment. Their knocks and calls
Speaker 1: for Ruth again went unanswered. A majority of the police
Speaker 1: officers thought they should break down the door to check
Speaker 1: on her, like duh right. The security guards discouraged them
Speaker 1: from breaking down the door, though, to check on Ruth.
Speaker 1: One of them mentioned the possibility of the tenant suing
Speaker 1: them if the police were to break in. Also, if
Speaker 1: you break down the door, the security guards told the
Speaker 1: police officers, you have to get someone here to like
Speaker 1: secure it. You can't leave this. This door just broken.
Speaker 1: So the police again shrugged and left. Okay, the amount
Speaker 1: of like candy and crackers and shit that are just
Speaker 1: shrubbing in my mouth as I was typing this up
Speaker 1: because this was stressing me out, like that is brutal.
Speaker 1: It is like brutal. Wow, it's hard to even know
Speaker 1: what to say there.
Speaker 2: You tell me the police don't have resources to get
Speaker 2: a door fixed.
Speaker 1: I know after breaking well, and there was so there
Speaker 1: was like half a dozen of them and four to
Speaker 1: five security people. So like one of them can stay,
Speaker 1: you'd think so the next day and this is day
Speaker 1: three at this point, good old Deborah, thank you. Deborah
Speaker 1: again notified the project office of her concerns. At about
Speaker 1: one pm, a project official arrived at Roofs Store with
Speaker 1: a carpenter who then drilled through the lock and lo
Speaker 1: and behold. Lying there, they found Ruth in the bedroom
Speaker 1: on her side in a pool of blood, with her
Speaker 1: hand over her chest. Thrown around on her floor were papers, magazines,
Speaker 1: and coins, and the police were notified. And when they
Speaker 1: arrived later and turned Ruth over slightly, a faint aroma
Speaker 1: of rotting flesh rose through the apartment. The smell gave
Speaker 1: the police reason to believe she had been dead since
Speaker 1: the first day they came to check on her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't fucking say, bra.
Speaker 1: Like, did the freak wow reports of the gunshots in
Speaker 1: the freaking goddamn apartment not give that away?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would think so. Yeah, one of the officers
Speaker 2: in charge must have been named Carl, because not cool.
Speaker 1: Carl suit not cool. I just feel like more like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it almost seemed obvious that something was wrong
Speaker 1: in there.
Speaker 2: Oh, definitely so.
Speaker 1: The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Rufe's body
Speaker 1: stated that she had been shot four times, most likely
Speaker 1: with a gun of medium caliber. One bullet passed through
Speaker 1: her left shoulder, another passed through her left thigh, A
Speaker 1: third entered the right side of her abdomen, piercing her lever,
Speaker 1: and exited the left side of her abdomen. The fourth
Speaker 1: and fatal bullet passed through her upper right arm, then
Speaker 1: entered her chest and severed her pulmonary vein. The official
Speaker 1: cause of death was reported as internal bleeding.
Speaker 2: Geez. They weren't able to retrieve any bullets, by the
Speaker 2: sound of it, which could have been helpful as evidence.
Speaker 1: I don't know, yeah, nothing ever said anything about bullets actually,
Speaker 1: So Ruth was said to not have died immediately according
Speaker 1: to the examiner, but because of the injury to the
Speaker 1: pulmonary vein, which is like a main vessel in the lung,
Speaker 1: he doubts she did last long. So, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: She probably wouldn't have been saved regardless what I'm trying
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 1: Yes, so even if the police probably got to her
Speaker 1: and like rushed through the hospital, she probably would have
Speaker 1: died anyway, right. So she was later pronounced dead at
Speaker 1: Cook County Hospital at four thirty five pm on or Friday,
Speaker 1: April twenty fourth. So two men were arrested for Ruth's murder.
Speaker 1: They were both also residents of the projects, Edward Turner,
Speaker 1: who was nineteen, and John Honderas, who was twenty five,
Speaker 1: and it was theorized that the men were aware Ruth's
Speaker 1: knew monthly income and thought she had stashed it away
Speaker 1: in her apartment somewhere.
Speaker 2: Wow, like brutal eh, no kidding.
Speaker 1: So here's another kicker though, but how did these two
Speaker 1: men get into Ruth's apartment?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this part I know.
Speaker 1: Did she just answer the door, as it was mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier to the wrong people. Well, the answer is no.
Speaker 1: These two individuals broke into Roof's apartment via the bathroom mirror.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Like horror movie material right there, one hundred percent literally, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that shortly here. It was in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, so a year prior to Rufe's deaths
Speaker 1: that the medicine cabinet break ins began, which is something
Speaker 1: I just never even.
Speaker 2: Knew existed until research.
Speaker 1: I feel like sad that someone has to be fearful
Speaker 1: of that. So apparently the pair of apartments at the
Speaker 1: end of each floor in the high rises have adjacent bathrooms.
Speaker 1: In between their medicine cabinets is a pipe chase of
Speaker 1: about two and a half feet. If you remove six
Speaker 1: screws from one mass medicine cabinet, pull the cabinet out
Speaker 1: of the wall, crawl through the pipe chase, and kick
Speaker 1: in the other cabinet, you're in the next apartment.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Like fucked.
Speaker 2: It's basically a window facing a window. You kick one
Speaker 2: in and kick the other out. You're in another apartment.
Speaker 1: Like that's insane to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So in some areas of the building you can even
Speaker 1: climb vertically in the pipe chase to an apartment above
Speaker 1: or below the one you start in.
Speaker 2: Oh shit, that I didn't know.
Speaker 1: And people who live at the end of the corridor
Speaker 1: with a vacant apartment adjacent are particularly susceptible to this.
Speaker 1: Rus's building at the time of her murder was nearly
Speaker 1: thirty percent vacant, so there was a lot of like
Speaker 1: empty space, and I'm pretty sure the ones at the
Speaker 1: end were only the ones that had these adjacent mirrors.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like everybody in there. So often gangs would
Speaker 1: take over multiple apartments that connected, while keeping the bathroom
Speaker 1: cabinet open so they could move or like make fast
Speaker 1: getaways if police or security were to come after them.
Speaker 2: Gotcha.
Speaker 1: When the breaking started, some residents would pull their coaches
Speaker 1: in front of their bathroom door or secure their bathroom
Speaker 1: door knob with rope before turning in for the night.
Speaker 1: Oh the buildings were designed this way, with the pipe
Speaker 1: chases behind the medicine cabinets to provide the janitors with
Speaker 1: easy access to the plumbing. You know, no one in
Speaker 1: their right mind would have ever thought something like this
Speaker 1: would be happening, and not to.
Speaker 2: Uh, to give anyone credit for you know, breaking and
Speaker 2: entering into homes. But I mean, that's some clever shit
Speaker 2: to find that out and figure out how to use
Speaker 2: it for getaways and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But I feel like it has it would probably, I
Speaker 1: bet you anything, it was not smart or almost completely
Speaker 1: random someone doing some stupid.
Speaker 2: Oh, probably, but then like to take advantage of it
Speaker 2: for getaway purposes and stuff and like maze out through
Speaker 2: the apartment building and stuff like that. It's relatively clever.
Speaker 2: Let's say that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, okay, okay, the last episode I said that
Speaker 1: someone was clever.
Speaker 2: And you're like, now, okay, how's this. I'm impressed with
Speaker 2: the engine, Not even the engine. I'm just impressed with
Speaker 2: the situation.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll take it. I'll take it.
Speaker 2: It's some like fucking mcguy ver shit. Give him a
Speaker 2: paper clip and a rubber band and see what he does. So.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, Ruth's murder did not receive a lot of media coverage.
Speaker 1: Many the theorized it was likely due to the fact
Speaker 1: that this happened to a black woman who had been
Speaker 1: living in the projects.
Speaker 2: Yeah, most likely, who also.
Speaker 1: Was not one hundred percent mentally stable. So like, that's
Speaker 1: really unfortunate. Residents are blown away, knifed, kicked to death
Speaker 1: almost every week, and that number apparently increases in warmer weather.
Speaker 1: Two days after Rufe's body was found, unknown assailants used
Speaker 1: a stick and their hands and feet to beat to
Speaker 1: death a forty year old man who lived in an
Speaker 1: Abla row house. And three days after that, another murder
Speaker 1: took place outside of Rus's building, where a twenty five
Speaker 1: year old female was stabbed in the chest. Wow, so
Speaker 1: things like this were a weekly occurrence.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The story did gain some attraction when word got out
Speaker 1: that Roof's killers entered through a medicine cabinet, but this
Speaker 1: didn't shock many who lived in the high rises. The
Speaker 1: janitor said, you get desensitized by what goes on here
Speaker 1: every day. It's animalism over here. That's the prevailing life
Speaker 1: condition of the people. Animalism where you worry about those
Speaker 1: who are stronger and you care nothing about those who
Speaker 1: are weaker.
Speaker 2: Wow, those are some seriously heavy words.
Speaker 1: I know, so sad like and imagine his job is
Speaker 1: probably just terrifying, no kidding, being like having to work
Speaker 1: in that, I mean live and.
Speaker 2: Work in it.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's all this bad here. So to conclude,
Speaker 1: Ruth has spent a majority of her life living afraid
Speaker 1: and filled with paranoia. She had her locks changed a
Speaker 1: few times, hosing records show, and I think one of
Speaker 1: the time she did have them changed, she never gave
Speaker 1: them the key, which is why that key didn't work.
Speaker 1: She tried her best to fight her internal battles along
Speaker 1: with protecting herself from the exterior battles she was facing
Speaker 1: with her living situation. And when her life was taken off,
Speaker 1: taking off in a direction she had always hoped, her
Speaker 1: worst fears became a reality and she didn't deserve any
Speaker 1: of this.
Speaker 2: Fuck poor Ruth.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, which brings us to two other things that
Speaker 1: I wanted to mention and talk about. First, Candy Man.
Speaker 1: So I've probably going to get some slack for this,
Speaker 1: but I literally just watched this movie like right before
Speaker 1: we recorded for the first time. Yep, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know why. So it's a nineteen ninety two film that
Speaker 1: was actually redone last year in twenty twenty one, So
Speaker 1: now I want to watch that because we were actually original.
Speaker 1: So and remember when I said this was horror movie material, right, yep. Well,
Speaker 1: there are several parallels between Russ Murder and the movie,
Speaker 1: and I, yeah, I'll just go through these and then
Speaker 1: we'll chat about them after. So one being the fact
Speaker 1: that the film also takes place in Chicago in public
Speaker 1: hosting complex, and they did actually mention projects, they said
Speaker 1: the projects in the movie. And so while the horror
Speaker 1: flick references the Notaorus, I think they called it the
Speaker 1: Cambrina Green Complex in Chai toown, the real life murder
Speaker 1: took place at the Grace Abbot Home, which is not
Speaker 1: far from that. And the candy Man protagonist who investigates
Speaker 1: the site of the bathroom based killings in the movie,
Speaker 1: but friends a woman with a similar name to Ruth,
Speaker 1: and her name was Anne Marie McCoy, with Ruth's name
Speaker 1: May being Ruth May McCoy. So those are kind of
Speaker 1: the similars because that movie is like, when you look
Speaker 1: it up, it says it's based on something else, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there there's a few things that you have to
Speaker 1: think that they took some reference from this case.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent did. And there's actually something you said
Speaker 2: earlier a couple of minutes ago reminded me because you
Speaker 2: said that Rufe's case didn't get much media coverage, most
Speaker 2: likely because she was a black woman and living in
Speaker 2: the projects. Right. In the Candy Man movie, Helen, the
Speaker 2: protagonist gets attacked while kind of investigating the area searching
Speaker 2: for the candy Man, and she says that she's getting coverage,
Speaker 2: but like, probably because she's a white woman. All these
Speaker 2: black people prior to her haven't been getting any coverage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because she pretty much like got instant and
Speaker 1: they caught.
Speaker 2: The people the perpetrator.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did this to her instantly.
Speaker 2: Because she's white.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, so just just wrong, Like, and I do
Speaker 1: think that the they had to uptaken something from this.
Speaker 1: They had to. There's just too many little similarities that
Speaker 1: definitely it's not that's not a coincidence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the whole Candy Man definitely not taken from. But
Speaker 2: the bathroom window actually the bathroom mirror, and like the
Speaker 2: project's settings and stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent they definitely took at least like
Speaker 1: what would be the word influenced.
Speaker 2: I guess influenced or inspired by yeah so.
Speaker 1: And then the second is a TikTok video that went
Speaker 1: viral and parched twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: I heard about this, but I have no very little details,
Speaker 2: so I'm excited for this.
Speaker 1: It was interesting, so I did go about finding it.
Speaker 1: So I think, how did I think? I just went
Speaker 1: to TikTok and typed in Samantha heart shoe, So Samantha
Speaker 1: and then the last name is h A r T
Speaker 1: s o E. And so she went viral on TikTok
Speaker 1: when she posted a four part series where she discovered
Speaker 1: a hidden apartment behind her bathroom mirror, a whole ass apartment.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: She noticed a cool breeze blowing in her bathroom and
Speaker 1: like she shows in one of her videos, and just
Speaker 1: there was no window or working air vent, but and
Speaker 1: she had covered the like the the hole that the
Speaker 1: door knob, I don't even know what you call that
Speaker 1: would go in, like she thought it was coming through
Speaker 1: like the door frame of sorts, I guess. But then
Speaker 1: she was like, I can still feel it. And she
Speaker 1: showed her hairs like her hair was moving like there
Speaker 1: was a breeze, right, And so as she went about investigating,
Speaker 1: she removed the mirror from the wall and discovered a
Speaker 1: large hole, and like most people I think at that
Speaker 1: point would just like call the landlord and be like
Speaker 1: what the shit, but.
Speaker 2: Like fuck this shit out sort.
Speaker 1: Of thing, like suit it up and went in there.
Speaker 2: Matt the balls. She must have like that.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know if I would be even
Speaker 1: to do that, Like that's a little terrifying. But she
Speaker 1: did have a friend over when she did this, which
Speaker 1: is a good thing I think.
Speaker 2: And then my first word would be getting spiders in
Speaker 2: my beard.
Speaker 1: She like she wore a mask and then she had
Speaker 1: like some sort of makeshift like headlamp thing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: she'm where am I here? I'm like all over the
Speaker 1: place because I'm kind of just like reliving those videos
Speaker 1: in my head. So then she goes through the space
Speaker 1: and then literally like it was running through this whole
Speaker 1: abandoned apartment. Wow, that's like no one's living in there,
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 2: Just like is it furnished or empty?
Speaker 1: Empty? Pretty much like it's it's literally the most bizarre
Speaker 1: thing in the whole world. But then one of the lock,
Speaker 1: like the lock it was unlocked, So then you see
Speaker 1: in the video like she locks it. I'm just like
Speaker 1: at that point, i'd be like, I'm just so done here.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So her video obviously is being compared to Candy Man
Speaker 1: and Rufe's murder, right, So, like I said, she's seen
Speaker 1: locking this abandoned apartment behind that's behind her mirror, and
Speaker 1: then she obviously goes back into her own apartment and
Speaker 1: then says she's like I'm gonna be calling my landlord
Speaker 1: kind of thing. But I think like the moral of
Speaker 1: the story here is along with locking your doors and windows,
Speaker 1: you now have to be concerned about what maybe lurking
Speaker 1: behind your motherfucking bathroom mirror. Like I'm just like I
Speaker 1: can I'm done. I'm like tapping out at this point here.
Speaker 1: We're just not safe. We're not safe.
Speaker 2: It's like the hide your kids, hide your wife thing,
Speaker 2: but it's like lock your door, lock your window, lock
Speaker 2: your mirror.
Speaker 1: Like Okay, I'm I know I'm safe in my tiny
Speaker 1: home because like our mere medicine cabinet thing is on
Speaker 1: the exterior wall. But like every hotel I go into now, dude,
Speaker 1: like I'm fucking checking, like I'm gonna have to check,
Speaker 1: like this is fucked just gonna.
Speaker 2: Be going around looking for a breeze or what.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and seeing if I can pull off the medicine cabinet.
Speaker 1: Just I'll probably end up like damaging something, no kidding.
Speaker 2: But just don't say candy man and all times when
Speaker 2: you do.
Speaker 1: It, yeah candy Man or Helen Candyman? Am I allowed
Speaker 1: to say that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So yeah, there you go. That's this case. This case
Speaker 1: is is sad. It's it's very interesting and like the
Speaker 1: things the show and now this viral TikTok thing, because
Speaker 1: you're kind of like, oh that, like does that actually exist?
Speaker 1: But it's like still exists.
Speaker 2: Can we put it in the show notes, like a
Speaker 2: link to the TikTok videos? Do you have a link
Speaker 2: or can we link it? I don't know. If we
Speaker 2: can link it, we'll put it down below, I think so.
Speaker 1: But she does like you just have to search. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure I'll you just search her name and then
Speaker 1: like she has them pinned, so she has the three
Speaker 1: first ones pinned and then you don't have to scroll
Speaker 1: very far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but if if we can find it like a
Speaker 2: YouTube video.
Speaker 1: Or something, yeah, actually, yeah, there's because she was on Ellen.
Speaker 1: She went on Ellen, Oh yeah, you mentioned that so
Speaker 1: maybe we can find a link of that. So yeah, like, honestly,
Speaker 1: I guess check your bathroom mirrors and I'll leave you
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 2: I have another request, Yeah, can we make Ruth the
Speaker 2: badass of the day for how kind she was trying
Speaker 2: to be and how positive she was trying to make
Speaker 2: the world around her?
Speaker 1: I know, like she wasn't. I don't believe she was
Speaker 1: really always that way, but she really had at one point,
Speaker 1: I think, decided to change her life and she was
Speaker 1: going about doing that.
Speaker 2: She was trying. She was in a desperate situation and
Speaker 2: she was trying, and that takes a lot of strength
Speaker 2: to even just try.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Yeah, she needs to be because this
Speaker 1: is so sad.
Speaker 2: So official, I'll let you name it.
Speaker 1: Yep, Ruth is the badass of the day.
Speaker 2: Awesome, Yeah, well well done in that episode? Could that
Speaker 2: My fucking heart broke for Ruth that whole time? It
Speaker 2: was like slowly just falling to pieces. So thank you
Speaker 2: for that. Yeah, much appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, gosh, what you do to me? So
Speaker 1: sleep with that? That's always your response, Sleep.
Speaker 2: With the Yeah, we got a lot more coming up
Speaker 2: next week for Halloween week, like I said, seven whole
Speaker 2: days in a row, epic stuff coming down the pipe.
Speaker 2: And even if you want to check out the more
Speaker 2: extra content that'll be over on Patreon, you can check
Speaker 2: it out there. We also have other social media like Facebook, Instagram.
Speaker 2: We have a website, you name it, so go check
Speaker 2: it out all links down below. Yeah, even if not,
Speaker 2: you appreciate you still, Yeah.
Speaker 1: And get excited because next week, like Tuesday to Monday, right,
Speaker 1: Tuesday to Monday.
Speaker 2: Tuesday Monday, yeah, so that our normal Tuesday. Yeah, on
Speaker 2: the which is November one, we won't be posting that
Speaker 2: day because the whole.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're gonna be able to get caught up
Speaker 1: on the seven days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we need to catch up on sleep on
Speaker 2: that November first day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But honestly, until then, stay wicked