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Candyman - A Murder in the Projects · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, So get this. We're diving into this story and
• 0:04
  it's pretty messed up. Oh yeah, it's about this woman,
• 0:06
  Ruthie May McCoy. Okay, and she was really, you know,
• 0:10
  trying to get her life together in like one of
• 0:12
  the toughest places you can imagine, what the Grace Abbot
• 0:15
  Homes in Chicago. Oh yeah, I know that place part
• 0:18
  of ABLA public housing projects, you know, notoriously bad for
• 0:23
  violence and neglect.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing that's really going to like get you.
• 0:29
  What's that The killers in this case, they actually got
• 0:31
  in through her medicine cabinet.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, through the medicine cabinet.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Isn't that wild?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah? That is both bizarre and sadly symbolic. Yeah, and
• 0:41
  we've got a whole stack of sources here, like news articles,
• 0:44
  court documents, even letters that Ruthie May wrote, wow to
• 0:48
  the Chicago housing Oh wow, to the cha trying to
• 0:50
  get help.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Really.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So our mission today is to really like go
• 0:54
  beyond just the headlines, right and understand you know what
• 0:58
  led to this tragedy. Yeah, because it really is a
• 1:00
  story that speaks volumes about systemic failures and the human
• 1:06
  cost of neglect.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. So let's rewind the clock back to April nineteen
• 1:11
  eighty seven. Okay, Ruthie May is fifty two years old.
• 1:15
  She's living in one of the high rises in the
• 1:17
  Abbot Homes, Yeah, which were considered to be like the
• 1:20
  most dangerous buildings in the whole project.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, But she's.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Not giving up. You know, she's going to ged classes
• 1:26
  at Mount Sinai Hospital, trying to get back on her feet.
• 1:29
  She even started receiving SSI benefits.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Wow. So she's really so you.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Can sense that she's got this like little glimmer of
• 1:37
  hope for the future. Yeah, this dream of you know,
• 1:40
  maybe getting out of the projects.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: That's what makes this so tragic. Yeah, here's Ruthie May.
• 1:45
  You know, she's actively fighting to overcome these incredible challenges
• 1:49
  in her life, right, and the systems that are supposed
• 1:52
  to be there to support her, Yeah, end up failing
• 1:55
  her in the most devastating way.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: It really is like a punch to the gut. So
• 1:59
  let's let's walk through what actually happened on that night.
• 2:03
  It all starts with these nine one one calls.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: It's a Wednesday evening, Okay, and Ruthie May calls nine
• 2:09
  one one a complete panic. Really, she tells the dispatcher
• 2:14
  that people are breaking into her apartment.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, and.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: She specifically says, they throw the cabinet down, they want
• 2:21
  to come through the bathroom.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Wow, through the bathroom. So they're already in.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And you have to remember she was dealing with
• 2:27
  mental health challenges, so it seems like maybe the dispatcher
• 2:30
  didn't fully graft the seriousness of the situation. Yeah, you know,
• 2:34
  he sends a patrol car, okay, but he codes it
• 2:38
  as just like a disturbance with a neighbor.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Oh so, not even.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Not an urgent break in, not a break in at all.
• 2:44
  Really no, And that hesitation, that failure to recognize the urgency,
• 2:50
  you know, turns out to be fatal, because minutes later,
• 2:53
  more nine to one one calls come flooding in. Oh no,
• 2:56
  this time from neighbors.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: They're reporting gunshots and screams coming from Ruthie May's apartment.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Oh no. And so the police arrive at this point.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: They do.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: They don't break down the door though, No.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: They knock, they hear the phone ringing inside, but ultimately
• 3:11
  they decide to leave without actually checking on her hold on.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Wait, why didn't they just break in.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: It's almost as if they were more worried about a
• 3:18
  potential lawsuit than a woman's safety.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: And tragically, it took two whole days for someone to
• 3:25
  finally find Ruthie may Wow dead in her apartment.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. Two days, two days, just unbelievable.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: And when they do find her, the way the killers
• 3:34
  got in is what really sends chills down your spine.
• 3:37
  Oh no, they entered through the pipe chase, okay, behind
• 3:41
  the medicine cabinet.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Design flaw that was apparently common knowledge in the projects.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: So you've got this vulnerability built into the very structure
• 3:51
  of their homes.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: That's being exploited by criminals.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: It's terrifying.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't even a secret. The article we have
• 3:58
  here says this method of entry wasn't new. Residents knew
• 4:03
  about it, especially gang members. They used it to move
• 4:06
  between apartments, sometimes even to escape from the police.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Like this vulnerability just became part of the fabric of
• 4:14
  life and Abbot homes and the authorities has simply turned
• 4:18
  a blind eye.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: So right, off the bat, we're seeing this pattern of
• 4:21
  systemic neglect. Yes, you've got this dangerous design flaw that's
• 4:27
  left unaddressed, right, nine calls that aren't taken seriously enough,
• 4:32
  and this underlying sense that the lives of people living
• 4:35
  in public housing just don't matter as much.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: It's a pattern we see repeated time and time again
• 4:42
  in these kinds of cases, and when you connect it
• 4:44
  to the bigger picture, it really makes you question, you know,
• 4:48
  how societal biases and prejudices might have played a role
• 4:50
  in this tragedy.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we have to remember that Ruthie May was
• 4:55
  more than just a victim. She was a woman with
• 4:58
  hopes and dreams.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, So before we.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Go any further, let's paint a picture of what life
• 5:03
  was actually like for her in the Abbot Homes, the
• 5:05
  kind of environment she was desperately trying to escape.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Well, the Abbot Homes were plagued by just violence and
• 5:13
  crime and neglect. Gunshots were a regular occurrence, the Paymaster
• 5:18
  gang had a grip on the drug trade, wow, and
• 5:22
  residents lived in a constant state of fear.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: It sounds like a war zone, yeah, it does. There's
• 5:28
  even a quote from a janitor who describes the atmosphere
• 5:31
  as animalism.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Oh wow.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: He talked about seeing kids as young as five or six.
• 5:36
  Oh my god, throwing bricks and bottles at each other.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Their childhood's completely warped by the violence around them.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: That image is so powerful. Yeah. And it speaks to
• 5:46
  the cyclical nature of poverty and violence. Right. You know,
• 5:49
  when children grow up surrounded by that kind of brutality,
• 5:52
  it becomes normalized. It impacts their development, the opportunities.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that is the reality that Ruthie May was
• 5:57
  facing every day.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Every single day.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: She was battling mental illness, poverty, and the constant threat
• 6:04
  of violence.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: But it's important to highlight her resilience, Yeah, her sheer
• 6:08
  determination despite all of this. She was taking those ged classes,
• 6:13
  uh huh, going to Mount Sinai for treatment.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: And she even started managing a future for herself outside
• 6:18
  of the projects.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. She wrote in one of her letters to the
• 6:21
  cha Oh really, I am trying to better myself. I
• 6:24
  want to move out of here.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Wow. You can just feel her yearning for a better life. Yeah.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: In her words, it's heartbreaking to think about how close
• 6:32
  she might have been to escaping that nightmare. But while
• 6:36
  Ruthie May was making strides towards this like brighter future. Yeah,
• 6:40
  there were these dark forces lurking in the shadows of
• 6:44
  Abbot homes.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, forces that would ultimately cut her life tragically. Short.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about those forces in part two.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: It's kind of remarkable about Ruthie may Is, even with
• 6:54
  all the chaos in Abbot homes. You know, she had
• 6:57
  these moments of triumph. She wasn't always just isolated and afraid.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she actually worked before her mental health struggles made
• 7:05
  it tough to like hold down a.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Job exactly, And unfortunately one of those downs became a
• 7:09
  turning point in nineteen eighty six. Okay, it kind of highlights,
• 7:13
  you know, the complexities of her life. Yeah. So she
• 7:17
  was taking care of her four year old grandson's body
• 7:20
  when he was seriously injured. Oh no, she claimed that
• 7:24
  he fell down the stairs, but hospital staff suspected abuse, really,
• 7:29
  and they called child protective services.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, So was there evidence of abuse? It must have
• 7:35
  been so stressful for her trying to manage her own
• 7:38
  mental health, yeah, and take care of a young child
• 7:40
  in that environment.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Right. There's no official record of abuse, Okay, but the
• 7:44
  sources suggest this incident put a lot of pressure on
• 7:48
  Ruthie May. Yeah, and it all came to a head
• 7:51
  when they tried to commit her to a psychiatric hospital.
• 7:54
  Oh wow, she had a complete breakdown. Oh no, and
• 7:57
  even had to be restrained.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: You can only imagine howwelm she must felt at that point, right.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: It's a stark reminder of those immense challenges she was facing.
• 8:05
  So this incident ultimately led to her diagnosis of residual
• 8:10
  type schizophrenia okay, and a recommendation for follow up care
• 8:14
  at Mount Sinai.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: And that's where things start to take a turn for
• 8:18
  the better. Really, you know, Mount Sinai Community Psychiatric Center
• 8:21
  became a lifeline for her. Wow, this place of support
• 8:25
  and community outside the chaos of the projects.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: So she found like a safe haven in the middle
• 8:30
  of a storm.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. Can you tell me more about her experience
• 8:34
  at Mount Sinai.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Well, it seems like she really blossomed there. She joined
• 8:38
  gd classes, participated in group therapy, and even found a
• 8:42
  mentor in Sandy Siegel, the clinical coordinator.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: That's great.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: It sounds like she was finally getting the help she
• 8:48
  needed and starting to build this new life for herself.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Sandy Siegel described her as engaged and opinionated. Uh huh,
• 8:56
  even offering advice to younger women. Oh really about the
• 8:59
  days of getting involved with the wrong men in the projects.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: That's really telling, you know, even while she was struggling,
• 9:05
  she was still looking out for others, trying to help
• 9:07
  them avoid the same pitfalls that she'd faced.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly, And her GED teacher, Linda Norman described her as
• 9:14
  a dedicated student. Wow, someone determined to improve her life.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Good for her.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: She was on track to earn her GED certificate, which
• 9:22
  would have been a huge accomplishment.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Think about what that would have meant for her, you know,
• 9:26
  to finally achieve something she set her mind to, a
• 9:29
  tangible sign of progress.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Right. It's so sad.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: It is so sad.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: And remember all of this was happening while she was
• 9:36
  desperately trying to get out of abbot homes. Right. She
• 9:39
  had requested transfers, but the CHA ignored her.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Police it's like they didn't even see her as.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: A person, right, just another case file.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: It's infuriating. Here she is trying to do everything right
• 9:50
  to better herself and create a safe life. Yeah, and
• 9:53
  the system keeps failing her.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: And the most devastating part is with her SSI benefits
• 9:59
  finally coming through, she was starting to see a glimmer
• 10:01
  of hope, a chance for a fresh start. But then
• 10:04
  you have these two individuals, Edward Turner and John Hondras,
• 10:07
  both residents of Abla, who preyed on her vulnerability.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: It's just sickening. Did they know her? What was their motive?
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Well, the sources suggest they targeted Ruthie May because they
• 10:17
  thought she had money stashed away. Really that SSI backpay.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Oh wow.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: They knew she lived alone, was mentally ill, and therefore
• 10:27
  less likely to be believed if she reported.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: A crime, so they saw her as like an easy target.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, someone they could take advantage of without consequence.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Right, And this wasn't just like a random act of violence.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: No, they planned this really. They knew about the medicine
• 10:40
  cabinet vulnerability. They removed the cabinet and the adjacent apartment
• 10:44
  likely an abandoned unit frequented by drug users, oh wow,
• 10:48
  and broke through to her side. They even knew they
• 10:50
  could use the pipe chase to escape if needed.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: It's just chillin that level of calculation and cold heartedness.
• 10:56
  It is Knowing all of this, it's even harder to
• 10:59
  process that the police didn't do more to help her
• 11:02
  that night.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Let's delve into that police response and the broader context
• 11:07
  of systemic failures that contributed to this tragedy in part three.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: You know, it's just so frustrating to think about how
• 11:14
  many things went wrong, all those missed opportunities to save
• 11:18
  her life. It's like everyone, yeah, the police, the cha
• 11:22
  security yea, even some of the neighbors. Right, they were
• 11:26
  almost like conditioned to expect the worst, Yeah, just from
• 11:30
  the project. So they didn't see the urgency.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that sense of resignation. Yeah, this belief that violence
• 11:36
  is just inevitable in places like abbot homes. It's a
• 11:39
  dangerous mindset, Yeah, because it just allows these tragedies to continue.
• 11:44
  It blinds people to the individual lives at stake, exactly. Yeah.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: So let's go back to the police that night. Okay,
• 11:52
  they got those desperate calls, they went to her door, right,
• 11:55
  but they didn't force entry.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: It's mind boggling, it really is. Their justification for not
• 12:01
  taking action is really revealing. They said they didn't have
• 12:05
  enough evidence to believe a crime was in.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Progress, but they could hear the phone.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Even though they could hear the phone ringing inside. They
• 12:12
  also brought it the fact that there are a lot
• 12:14
  of prank calls from housing projects.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: So wait, are they saying they didn't take her fear seriously? Yeah,
• 12:20
  because of her address.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: It's like they were profiling.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Her based on where she lived exactly.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: It's just a chilling example of how those systemic biases
• 12:28
  can play out in real life situations. And it's not
• 12:32
  just the police real the cha security guards also discouraged
• 12:37
  the police from breaking down the door. Why would they
• 12:40
  do that even when they went back the second night,
• 12:43
  right after neighbors reported her missing.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Didn't they understand she might be in danger?
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Their reasoning was that they were worried about a potential lawsuit.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Really, a lawsuit if.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: They damage the property?
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding me?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: It's just a shocking display of bureaucratic indifference. Yeah, seemed
• 13:00
  more concerned about protecting the institution then protecting the people
• 13:03
  who lived there.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. And the worst part is the CJ knew
• 13:07
  about this vulnerability, right, they.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Had reports of similar braakens.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Right, But they didn't do anything to fix it.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: They blamed a lack of funds. But it makes you
• 13:16
  wonder if they truly grasped the severity of the situation. Yeah,
• 13:20
  did they not understand that this wasn't just about property damage?
• 13:24
  This was about people's lives exactly?
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: So what about the killers then? Okay, what happened to
• 13:29
  them after all this?
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Well, both Edward Turner and John Hondras were charged with
• 13:33
  murder okay, home invasion, armed robbery, and a whole list
• 13:37
  of other offenses.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: The fact that they were charged with home invasion tells
• 13:41
  us that the state believed they knew Ruthie May was home.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Right, so they went in there to confront her exactly,
• 13:47
  probably to try to force her to tell them where
• 13:49
  the money was right.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: And it seems like the police had a strong case. Okay,
• 13:52
  they found some of Ruthie May's belongings in one of
• 13:56
  the suspects apartments. Uh huh. They also had witnesses who
• 13:59
  placed the sub specs at the scene and described how
• 14:02
  they use the medicine cabinet to get in.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: But even if they're convicted, does that really bring justice
• 14:08
  for Ruthie May?
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: That's a question I keep coming back to. You know,
• 14:12
  the legal system can punish the individuals. But it can't
• 14:15
  address those underlying issues, those systemic failures that really pave
• 14:20
  the way for this to happen. It can't bring her
• 14:22
  back or erase the trauma inflicted on her family and community.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: It just feels like such a hollow victory. You're right,
• 14:30
  it does, like a tiny band aid on a gaping wound.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Sandy Siegel, Ruthie May's mentor from Mount Sinai, summed it
• 14:39
  up perfectly when she said, what kind of person would
• 14:42
  murder someone like Ruthie?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: That question haunts me too. It speaks to that dehumanizing
• 14:47
  effect right poverty and violence and neglect. It forces us
• 14:51
  to confront this uncomfortable truth. Yeah, that society often fails
• 14:55
  to protect its most vulnerable members.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: This deep dive into Ruthie May's story is a shark
• 15:02
  reminder that we can't afford to look away. It's easy
• 15:05
  to just dismiss this as an isolated incident, a product
• 15:09
  of a specific time and place, But the truth is
• 15:12
  the same systemic issues that led to her death are
• 15:15
  still present today.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we can't wait for another tragedy to happen before
• 15:19
  we demand change.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Exactly, we owe it to Ruthie May. And to ourselves.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, to do better, we have to remember that every
• 15:26
  life has value, absolutely, and we can't allow ourselves to
• 15:30
  become desensitized to the suffering of others.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: This deep dive is a call to action, yes, a
• 15:37
  reminder that we all have a role to play in
• 15:40
  creating a world where everyone feels safe and valued, no
• 15:43
  matter where they live.