Don't look behind the mirror!! The unknown Candyman case and famous horror story
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Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you are having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday. So you know what that means. It's murder, mystery, and makeup Monday. Welcome. Hi, how are you? I hope you're having a good day. Today we're talking about the Candyman. Yeah, you know, the Candyman. Sheesh. Let's get into it. Horror, horror movies.

You know, horror. Not whore. Horror. Okay, great. Movies? That's where today's episode is going to take us. And like, you know, if you pay attention, you know how the drill, the drill of horror movies go. It's like always a creepy building.

There's like a killer lurking around. There's always a helpless woman. She's like, oh my God, no. And then there's always some kind of like terrifying plot twist. When you think about it, it's the formula that made the movie The Candyman an instant cult favorite when it came out in 1992. It was about like a creepy serial killer who was like haunting the Chicago tenement area. And he was being summoned by,

via the bathroom mirror. Which is funny when you think about it. It's not funny. It's just like how come growing up like well with the Candyman specifically it was like if you go into the bathroom and you said his name five times like Candyman Candyman like he would come through the bathroom mirror. Like what's her name? What's her name? Bloody Mary. Remember her? Anyways what I'm getting at is that you know we all did that shit but what was even more horrifying is that the Candyman

Turns out like mimics a true case that happened in the Chicago projects back in April of 1987. So April 22nd, 1987. So on that day, that's when Ruthie Mae McCoy had dialed 911 to report that someone was coming through, literally through her bathroom medicine cabinet.

- What? - Yeah. So police would often get phone calls from Ruthie Mae's neighborhood, which was on the West side back then. Like they were always getting phone calls. The crack epidemic had, you know, crime rates were just going through the roof.

And there were tons of different gangs out there who were controlling the drug trade from Chicago's worst public housing projects. Most of the households there were headed by single black mothers, but Ruthie, she was 52 years old and she lived alone. And she lived on like the 11th floor apartment in a complex called Abbott Homes. Abbott was actually a cluster of like seven high-rises

in a sprawling mass of housing projects that locals called the village, or they would just call it the ville. There was like nothing cozy about this area. And there were thousands of people who lived there. And sadly, violence was like an everyday occurrence here. So compared to the rest of Chicago in this area, like your chances of being mugged, assaulted, robbed, raped, murdered,

or anything. It like more than doubled once you set foot in this area called the village. And in fact, the number of violent crimes alone hit 4,228 in the CHA projects that year. Like, holy shit, right? So it was said that like Ruthie Mae, she never ventured outside without something for protection, like usually a stick. Not that

really being inside was any safer, really. So Abbott's 15 story towers were among the first that the Chicago Housing Authority, CHA,

had built when it began developing like huge public housing projects back in the 1940s and the 50s. Originally, CHA proposed housing impoverished families in like little pocket developments scattered throughout safer middle class white neighborhoods. But you know, the big guys in charge, they didn't like that idea. Of course they didn't. So they squashed that real quick.

And they're like, hey, let's like clump cheap, ginormous eyesores in like the bleakest parts of town and give minority applicants no other option. So this choice like would later lead to a landmark federal lawsuit that held the CHA accountable for racial segregation and discrimination.

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So, but Ruthie Mae, she had moved to Abbott after getting flooded out of her basement apartment in a different project area. So she moved into this Abbott area and it was such, she hated it from the get-go, you know? It was rough. There were like gangbangers there and they would like roam the halls at all hours. There'd be loud music playing, there'd be partying in vacant apartments. And a lot of the vacant apartments were turned into like drug dens.

I guess break-ins were very common and CAJ was really slow to replace locks. So it's like even when you asked for help, you couldn't even, you couldn't get help. So part of this like original village concept meant that there were no through streets.

around Abbott. I guess this was supposed to create a nice space for kids to like run around and parents to socialize. But at the end of the day, like that pedestrian plaza only made it harder for police to reach the towers and like get to you if you need help. And it also made it easier for people to jump you. Abbott was controlled by a gang called the Paymasters and any tenant that the Paymasters thought needed like a reminder

of who was in charge would get their front door doused with gasoline and then set on fire.

Yeah, the charred doors made people think twice before reporting like any crime they happened to witness or like suspect. And people were just like, you know, scared of retaliation. So they wouldn't report anything. So on Ruthie Mae's floor, there were only four of the 10 apartments that were legally occupied. The rest were boarded up.

or they were taken over by the paymasters. So it wasn't just like, you know, the drugs and gangs that made life in the projects pretty hellish.

The CHA had stacks of complaints from residents. I mean, literally stacks. Like the sewage would back up in broken toilets. The boiler systems didn't work for weeks in the dead of winter. So they're like freezing your ass off. People got exposed to mold and to lead from the paint that peeled off the walls. Chunks of plaster sometimes would just like fall

fall from the ceilings. Trash would pile up in building basements because the chutes on each floor were like too narrow to handle. The debris of so many people crammed into a single building. So one of the most like upsetting problems for residents was I guess the elevators.

I mean, they were always out of service. And CHA logged over 1,500 elevator repairs one year in just a single building. Let's rebuild, shall we? Great. So at Abbott, like taking the stairs was, well, that was like one, your only option. Two, it was very dangerous because I guess the stairwells were really dark and they were enclosed.

And with Ruthie Mae, she had high blood pressure and she also had heart problems. And she lived on the 11th floor. So like going up and down 11 flights of stairs was not something she could easily handle. I guess she had like repeatedly begged CHA to move her to a lower floor. But the answer was always no. Even though Abbott had a 30% vacancy rate. So it's like what the fuck, right? Yeah.

Right. Ruthie's subsidized rent was $46 a month and I mean she couldn't find like a decent place on the private market for that price. There's no way. So she was just feeling really stuck. And it wasn't just her physical health that Ruthie struggled with. She also had a mild form of schizophrenia. She wasn't psychotic or hallucinating but people who knew her said that she could sometimes she would get paranoid and agitated.

Especially if she wasn't taking her medications. And you know the teenagers in the area they weren't very nice. Especially like the rowdy ones. They were known to harass her. And then they would just call her crazy old lady. According to Steve Bogera in the Chicago Reader. He was like the only reporter to cover the story when it happened. I guess the local police they weren't unfamiliar with Ruthie. They had...

come over like on occasion when she would get into fights with like the young kids who were fucking assholes to her. So Ruthie like wasn't afraid to stand up for herself is really what I'm getting at. So it's Wednesday night, it's like 8 45 p.m. Ruthie, you know, she's home alone. She gets startled.

because she hears some noises coming from her bathroom. She thinks someone's like breaking in. So she dials 911. She states her address and then she immediately asked for Chicago police. So Ruthie ends up telling the dispatcher that the people next door had pulled their cabinets out. So the operator is on the phone like, "I don't get, I'm not understanding."

Like what you're saying. I don't get it. Ruthie explains that she lives in the projects and they were trying or someone was trying to break into her apartment through the bathroom. The dispatcher asked for her address and like Ruthie ends up repeating it. And this time she makes a point to say that the elevator is working. So take the elevator because, you know, normally it's not.

So she provides her name when asked and the dispatcher promises to send a police officer like right away. So then at 8:47, the dispatcher assigns a patrol car to go out to Ruthie's address. It isn't given the high priority it would have gotten if the call had been correctly logged as like a break-in in progress. So...

They ended up like taking their time. So at 9:02 PM, another woman calls 911 and reports hearing gunshots from Ruthie's apartment. Two minutes later, there's another neighbor who calls 911 and also reports like the same thing. At 9:10, 25 minutes after Ruthie Mae McCoy called for help, four officers arrive at her apartment.

So they're at her door and they're shouting like police and like they're pounding on her door, but no one's answering. So then they, the police, they radio dispatch and they ask the operator to call Ruthie Maybach because they quote, think somebody might be inside holding somebody, end quote.

So dispatch dials Ruthie's number and the four cops, they listen. Like they can hear the phone inside just ring and ring and ring, but nobody picks up. By this point, two more officers had rolled up and they head over to the management office, the management office of like the building. And this office is like a block away. And they try and get a key for the apartment 1109. So they get the key.

They go back and I guess the key doesn't fit the lock. Gotta be frustrating. So officers end up knocking on nearby doors like the neighbors and whatnot but

That doesn't lead anywhere. The neighbors down the hall, they say they didn't see or like hear anything. They have no idea what's going on. So then someone else tells the officers that there is an elderly woman who lives in 1109 and that, you know, she always answers her door. So it's kind of weird that she wasn't. One of the officers relays this back to dispatch and adds, quote, I don't know if maybe she answered to the wrong person or what. So then the police on the scene, they contact

the building janitor to see if like maybe they have a key, but no. So of course they don't. So then at 9:48 PM, the police, they leave. They're like, "All right, guess we're going." Like, I don't know. Shouldn't they bust down the door or something you would think?

No? I don't know. I don't know how that works, but you would think. So the next evening, a neighbor named Deborah, who Ruthie was friendly with, she calls police to say that she's worried about Ruthie. Because normally every day, Ruthie would like stop by every morning on her way out. And then again, when she got home in the afternoon.

every day. But on April 23rd, I guess Ruthie hadn't stopped by at all. Like this was concerning enough that she called police. Okay, so the police show up at Ruthie's and this time like half a dozen officers come by and they're at Ruthie's house with four or five CHA security guards. So they knock on Ruthie's door and they're calling her number, her phone number, ring, ring, ring, no response. So reports show that

Most of the police officers agreed at this point that they should break down Ruthie's store, but the douchebags at CHA security, well, this is security guards, they were like, no, they argued against it. They don't want like the liability if the tenant sues. And technically, since the police, they didn't have a warrant and they weren't in an active pursuit of like a

a criminal, which gives like the justification for breaking in. Police kind of were like, okay, all right. And then they left again. They left again. I just feel like they should have broke down the door at this point, you would think. I don't know. You would think. Anyways, the next day, you know, that same neighbor, Debra, she's still concerned. So she notifies the project office and

that she's really worried about Ruthie Mae's welfare and someone needs to check on her. So around 1 p.m., a project official brings a carpenter around to drill through Ruthie's lock. So they're getting in, okay? So they're able to get in. They open up the door and inside they see Ruthie Mae sprawled dead on her bedroom floor in a pool of blood. So there was an autopsy done and it showed that she had been shot four times.

One bullet had passed through her left shoulder, another through her left thigh, and there was a third bullet that had pierced her liver on its way through her abdomen. Side note, I hate that word, abdomen. I don't know why it's so hard for me to say, abdomen, abdomen. Yeah.

There was a fourth shot that went through her right arm and into her chest where it like severed a major vein to her lung. And like, I guess that was the fatal shot. So the official cause of death was internal bleeding, but like she was shot to death, you know? The medical examiner concluded that Ruthie may probably, sadly, unfortunately, she didn't die like immediately. Poor thing.

But like she wouldn't have stayed alive for long after she was shot. And it was unlikely that she would have made it even if she had gotten, you know, swift medical attention. 41 hours after she called 911, after more than a dozen officers and half as many CHA employees stood outside her door and then walked away, Ruthie Mae's body was already beginning to decompose by the time they reached her.

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She was one of nine in her family. And she dropped out of high school in 10th grade and started showing signs of mental illness in her 20s. I guess she was like talking to herself. She'd be cursing at strangers. She was having like angry outbursts. And...

Yeah, it was just sad. It was going untreated as well. When Ruthie was 27, she ended up having a daughter named Vernita, but I guess like the father didn't stick around because of Ruthie's illness, you know? So Vernita was mostly raised by her family, her relatives. Sometimes Ruthie would work a month or so as a housekeeper or she would work like as a laundromat attendant.

But that never lasted. I guess they wouldn't last long. And most of her adult life, she would be on public assistance, which she would receive a freaking measly $154 a month. Like, thanks. What's that going to do? She and her daughter, Vernita, they managed to maintain a good relationship despite, you know, everything. And then eventually, I guess Vernita...

you know, she grows up, she gets older. Vernita, her boyfriend, and their two children, they end up sharing Ruthie's two-bedroom apartment at Abbott. But I guess the friction between Ruthie and Vernita's boyfriend, it was just too much and they ended up moving out. Friends and neighbors, they would say that like after that Ruthie just kind of was going downhill. She was spiraling really. She seemed really depressed.

or upset all of the time. Her neighbors noticed that she was like losing a lot of weight. She'd be out on the street or in the hallways like shaking her stick and just cussing at people. And it was clear that she wasn't taking care of herself. I guess there was one neighbor who started to notice her behavior was a little bizarre, a little odd. Like one neighbor had spotted her outside making snow angels.

It was like below freezing outside, okay? And she spotted Ruthie outside making snow angels, you know? And it was like, uh-oh.

And then on hot summer days, they would see Ruthie outside bundled up in like layers of heavy winter clothes. And it was kind of clear that like her mental health was going downhill. It was getting worse and worse. And Ruthie was becoming just more and more vulnerable. So I guess like Ruthie was just paranoid about locks. Sure.

She would always like jiggle doors. She would go up to all of her neighbor's doors and just jiggle them, just jiggle random doorknobs. She would like go up to cars and, you know, trying to open them up to see if they're locked or not. And it would like set off the car alarms. And if like a door was unlocked, she would go find the person and then lecture them that they need to lock their doors, which fair, but like.

It was a lot. She was just really paranoid is what I'm getting at and she was like living in constant fear of being like mugged or burglarized. So Vernita, remember Ruthie's daughter, she ended up telling journalist Steve Borghiera that her mother had complained to CHA in like 1986 that someone had kicked through her medicine cabinet via the one next door

and burglarized her, which might sound confusing, but I'll explain. In August of 1986, Ruthie ended up in a state psych ward and her medication, she got on medications. They were adjusted and they kept her for about a month and then she was discharged. And she was referred to like an outpatient daycare at the Mount Sinai Psychiatric Center.

which offered a free shuttle van, like to and from the projects. So it was like, this is like really good for her because Ruthie started going to the center like three times a week and it was making a huge difference in her life. She's on the proper medications. She's starting to trust that there's no one out there who wants to get her. Ruthie became...

Just like now the community or the center is like mother hen. Social workers told the Chicago Reader that she liked working on arts and crafts and would participate in group therapy. She would give advice to like the local younger girls. She was even studying to earn her GED.

And Ruthie had talked about like someday finding a job in the health field, like maybe even becoming a nurse herself. So when she first went to sign up for to take GED classes, I guess her teacher was like a little confused as to why Ruthie was there. She was like, why would you sign up three times a week for these classes? Like why would you start your academic career after 50? Like being judgmental. Like is this woman serious? But the answer was yes.

Like Ruthie surprised everyone with how fast she picked up everything. She took workbooks home and she religiously completed like every assignment. She was on track to earn her degree before Thanksgiving, but sadly she was murdered that spring. It was so sad. So there was a social worker who was working with Ruthie. You know how confusing the whole government system can be?

It's confusing as hell. They make it super difficult. But there's a social worker who was like helping Ruthie collect supplemental social security, SSI. It's for people with like physical or mental handicaps. And the additional assistance would help out. Like it would more than double Ruthie's income to $340 a month. Wow.

Ruthie cashed her first check just two months before she was killed. So with this extra money, which I'm sure we can all agree is not a lot, but with this extra money, like Ruthie was able to buy some new clothes, like a plain winter coat, nothing fancy. She also got a few like cheap little odds and ends for her apartment. And I guess like her neighbors had noticed and she even seemed more confident

And upbeat, you know? Nice. She just seemed better. Like she was doing a lot better. So Vernita, her daughter, remember? So Vernita told Steve Orguia at the time her mother was keeping like...

any of the extra money, that extra cash at home. And she was like stacking it, hoping to add a little bit more each month because, you know, she was talking, Ruthie was talking about putting the projects behind her and like hopefully moving to a better place. Okay, so back to the crime scene. The only things that were missing at Ruthie's house was her cane-backed rocking chair, her 19-inch color TV, and her phone.

Well, and her medicine cabinet. A detective went out there and interviewed the people next door in apartment 1108. Now next door, these were actually squatters living there. So he goes in, he checks the medicine cabinet in their bathroom. And it was like super secure. There was no evidence that was taken from this place. I don't know. He didn't know what he was looking for. Well, I mean, the detective said like, he knew he wasn't going to find anything because

They knew, the people next door, that they knew like police were going to investigate sooner or later. And they had a two-day head start to get rid of anything incriminating. Like plenty of time to clean up a crime scene if there was one. Here's how the bathroom situation worked because it was confusing at first, but...

So at the end of each corridor in the Abbott Towers, the two end apartments had bathrooms that like butted up to each other. So if you unscrewed a handful of screws and you took down your medicine cabinet, you could see the back of your neighbor's cabinet through the hole. There was like, I guess this narrow two and a half foot long crawl space in between. It was supposedly designed this way so like plumbers could, you know, access the pipes more easily if they needed to be repaired.

It definitely made it easier for, unfortunately, home invasions, 'cause they could like get into the crawl space and like get out. When pressed by that reporter, Steve Borghiera, a CHA official admitted that they had reports of quote, "fewer than 10 and probably around seven

medicine cabinet break-ins over a span of 18 months. Could you imagine though? Like you're just like in your room minding your own business and someone is crawling through your medicine cabinet. There was no cash that was found in Ruthie's apartment except for like some spare change that I guess was

scattered on the floor beside her body. Ruthie was found with one shoe off and the other on, and her right hand was like laying across her bloody chest. Poor Ruthie. She was like getting her life together, finally getting a chance taken from her, you know? Ruthie wasn't like a frail woman.

She was five foot 11 and she was around 250 pounds. And everyone knew like she wasn't afraid of confrontation, but there wasn't like when they observed her body and whatnot, there wasn't any mention of defensive wounds. And the autopsy found that there were no signs of sexual assault. So police are canvassing the Abbott area, right? For possible witnesses. And they learned that there were several people who had spotted two guys who were like carrying around a rocking chair,

and a TV around to different apartments and even like a different building. And they saw this like right after the murder. And even in the early hours the next morning, she was like, okay, tell us more. There was a scrawny guy.

sorry to call him scrawny, but he was, he was on probation for drug charges. And he stepped forward and said that he had been in apartment 1108, which was like the apartment right next door to Ruthie's the night of the murder. His name was Tim Brown. And he said that he knew the woman who had like moved out of the apartment. And I guess like she had given him the key. So that's why he was there. He said that like him and his friends would sometimes crash there.

I don't know, but that's why he was there. So Tim Brown is telling this to the police and they're like, "Hey, can you come downtown and like, like write down your account and sign it." So then several hours go by and Tim Brown, he ends up telling a grand jury that the statement that he was giving was true and accurate and that no one had threatened him or promised him anything for his cooperation, period. I guess the statement was like six pages long

But here's like the summary of what Tim Brown swore happened that night. So Tim Brown said that him and his friend Corey had spent the afternoon of the 22nd hanging out in...

1108 and they were like lifting weights. There were three friends with him, John Hondress, Edward Turner, and Ronald Coleman. But Ronald goes by Bo, so I'm just gonna call him Bo, okay? John, Edward, and Bo. So I guess they came by at around 8 p.m. and everyone was there and they were like hanging out and listening to music. Around 1130 p.m.,

John and Bo went to the bathroom. Bo, I guess, was like telling John, like, hey, look, it's possible to break into like the neighbor's apartment through the medicine cabinet. Like, let me show you how to do it. So then Bo and Corey, they left, I guess they left shortly after this.

And then John and Edward, they ended up heading back to the bathroom. So John, who just now realized how to break through to the neighbors through the medicine cabinet, he does so once everyone leaves. He pulls out the medicine cabinet and then the two of them, John and Edward, they were able to see straight into Ruthie Mae's bathroom. Now they could see through her bathroom because her medicine cabinet was already missing.

So it was just like an open hole. So John made the assumption that the apartment was probably empty, but Tim told him that he heard that there was actually an old lady who lived there. Her name was Miss May. So he didn't think it was empty, but John believed like no one was home. And he climbed through that whole space

and climbed onto the sink and like crawled through the hole into the bathroom of 1109. And at that point, Tim said that he heard a woman's voice call out, who's there? So then he watched John run out of the bathroom and like deeper into her apartment. He runs more in to wherever she's at. Then he heard a knock on his front door and it was John. I guess he wanted to borrow Tim's jacket. So I don't know.

I was like what? I don't know, but he did. Okay, so John tossed a jacket over his head and then went back inside of Ruthie's apartment. So Tim then goes to the bathroom and saw now Edward go through the bathroom hole. So then Edward I guess had yelled get down, which was then followed by the sound of four gunshots. So five or ten minutes later,

Tim saw John and Edward carrying a rocking chair and TV through his front door. So two or three hours later, which would now be like two in the morning, this is again, Tim, his accountant, right? John and Edward returned to retrieve the shell casings from Ruthie's apartment. They entered through the front door. And then when they came out a few months later, John said that he scooped up the three shells.

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So because of this account, police arrested Edward Turner the day after interviewing Tim Brown. When they arrested him, it was Edward's 19th birthday. Edward Turner, he had been raised in the projects and even lived in Ruthie's building for a while. Edward, he didn't have any convictions as an adult, but he was free on bond for unlawful use of a weapon. Two weeks later, police had found like John

They couldn't find him, they couldn't locate him. But they found him hiding under a bed in one of like the Abbott Towers. He was 21 and he had three felonies on his record. One was robbery and then two grand theft auto. So both of these guys were charged with murder, home invasion, armed robbery, armed violence, and residential burglary. There was a bond set, it was like $10 million for John.

And there was no bond set for Edward. Now, prosecutors believed he was the gunman. And I guess they had heard that he was boasting about it.

So they were actually seeking the death penalty. So unfortunately then like there was absolutely no physical evidence. It was completely non-existent. There were no fingerprints that were lifted. I guess investigators, they found like a damp sheet and a blouse that was in a plastic bag, which was put underneath Ruthie's mattress. And...

I guess investigators had assumed that this was used to like wipe down the apartment. So at this time, I guess like DNA evidence was literally just taking off as a forensic tool, but it wasn't like applied here, okay? Because in like 1986 was the first year that DNA led to a conviction in a homicide case. But there was no mention at the trial of this trial that there was like any DNA samples being taken from like the sheet, the blouse, the bed.

the bag, nothing. There was no gun that was ever found. And there was only one bullet and one cartridge that was collected. So remember when police were like standing outside Ruthie Mae's locked door and they asked the dispatcher to try and like call her and they heard her phone ringing and ringing and ringing and they could hear it inside. But then...

When they got in there, they noticed that the phone was gone. Well, the detective admitted to the Chicago Reader afterwards that it was possible that the killer or killers were like still hiding out somewhere on the 11th floor while police were on Ruthie's doorstep. Or it was possible they were probably even inside her place, just like being really quiet. So...

Now what? Well, it took three years before like the case would be brought to trial. So by this point, there was a second court case involving Ruthie Mae's murder was also underway. Her daughter Vernita was suing the Chicago Housing Authority and its security company for negligence in the wrongful death of her mother.

Good for her, right? And she was demanding like 1.5 million damages. How she should. So the murder trial actually started on March 27th of 1990.

And inside the courtroom, they had like the rocking chair and the television set was on display. And it was like right next to the prosecution table. So Edward Turner had opted for a jury trial, but John Hondras, he didn't. The judge would decide his case.

So the case against the two defendants really depended on the testimony of the prosecution's star witness, that guy Tim Brown. Now something was kind of off though because his signed statement, the timeline, it didn't align with the time of the 911 calls or the police arriving at Ruthie's door, but

You know that was really all they had and they were just like counting on this Tim Brown guy. But people like brought up that even Tim Brown himself, he like had some red flags, you know? He had some or yellow flags. Like he was a convicted drug dealer and he was currently in prison for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. He had been on probation for a similar offense when police first interviewed him about

the murder that took place. And he had spent some time in county jail, housed in the same unit as Edward Turner. So people were like, well, like what's in this for him? What's in this for him? Well, it didn't matter. So he's brought in, right? Now under oath on the witness stand,

Tim Brown, his freaking story changed. Oh yeah, his story changed. So he said, "Yes, I saw John and Bo go into the bathroom together, but this time Tim said that those two never came back out and that while they were gone, he had heard three or four shots coming from next door." Tim, Tim Brown,

Said he checked his bathroom, saw a hole in the wall, and figured John and Bo had gone through to the next door apartment. Tim said that he and everyone else in his apartment, 1108, they ran downstairs to the lobby when they heard the gunfire. Then he was asked, well, where was Edward when, you know, you heard the gunshots? And Tim said that Edward was sitting on a couch in the living room.

What? So the prosecutors were like, were stunned. They're like, did Tim Brown not remember signing a six page statement? Like he gave to the police, you know, what is going on? Like, why is this story changing? So then they asked him, they asked Tim on the stand, like, don't you remember signing that statement? So like, are you lying now? And like, Tim was like, yeah, I remember signing it. But the only reason he signed it was because a detective had sexually harassed him.

or like got aggressive with him. Tim was claiming that the detective who was questioning him grabbed his balls and squeezed them while he was handcuffed to like, he was handcuffed to like the wall. So Tim Brown testified that the only reason he said John and Edward were the killers was because police like told him that they were the killers and that's what they wanted to hear and he was being harassed

And that's why he said it. But the truth, Tim Brown like now swore, was that John and Bo, they did it. So Tim was now saying that the truth was under oath that John and Bo were the ones who did it.

and he insisted. He had told cops this like back in 1987 when they first interviewed him. While on the stand, Tim denied knowing Ruthie McCoy and he denied like even knowing that anyone lived next door and he also said that he had no idea that you could creep from apartment to apartment in the building using the medicine cabinet and he didn't know this until the murder. Now the judge during this trial was taking notes and at some point during Tim Brown's testimony,

the judge had scribbled a few words like on his paper, just like turned in, and he wrote like "this is a total liar." So I was like what do you even believe? Like what's the truth here? There were various women that John and Edward allegedly asked to like stash the rocking chair and TV and they were like brought in to testify. There was one who finally agreed to take the stuff and it was like 3:30 in the morning

And this was John's girlfriend at the time, Theola. And she testified that neither John nor Edward would say like where they got the things. But when they showed up, they had it and they plugged in the TV and it didn't work. Then-

Sonia Moore, she went by the name Sweetie. She also invited Edward into her home just hours after the murder took place. Edward was said to be, he had like a crush on Sweetie and she showed up in the courtroom and it was said that they like were smiling at each other and stuff. But Sonia was like entertaining her sister and her sister's boyfriend in her apartment, which was like five floors below Ruthie's when Edward knocked on her door

around like 10 30 that night. So she invited him in and everyone's like hanging out in the living room. And like during the conversation, this is according to Sonia's testimony. She said that Edward announced that

he had shot someone. Like he said it out loud to everyone who was there. So she was like asking for details like, "What? You shot someone? Like who?" And Edward was like kind of bragging that he had shot a lady who had a daughter who was around Sonia's age. So I guess she just was not impressed or whatever, but I guess some time goes by and then he like takes it back. He was like, "Oh, I was just kidding. I wasn't serious. I didn't really shoot anyone."

Kind of weird thing to say. Why would you say that? But okay. So then after a few hours go by, Edward ends up leaving and he then returns later after Sonia had gone to bed. Now she had testified that she heard him pounding on the door and like calling her name, but she didn't get up.

She's like, I'm sleeping. I'm not getting up for him. Edward Turner's attorney played the stupid card in his defense. Like, yes, he carried Ruthie McQuay's television to another apartment the night of the murder. But John had asked him to. And he was just helping a friend. And of course, like, yeah, yeah, he said he shot someone. But he was just lying to impress someone.

So yeah, he just wanted to impress this woman. When the evidence was before them, the defense attorney suggested that jurors might be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Edward was very stupid, but not a murderer. He did not murder Ruthie McCoy. Edward's defense attorney instead was saying that the killers were not Edward, they were John and Howard Govan. I know, so you're probably thinking, "Who's this Howard guy?"

I know, I was like, same. So this Howard guy, he didn't know like the finger was gonna be pointed at him. He actually appeared on the witness stand as a defense witness for Edward Turner. He had come from jail where he was serving time for drug dealing and also jumping bail. He admitted that he had been at a party within the apartment of 1108. And this party had taken place on April 22nd.

but he said that there was more than a dozen men and women who were at this party. Howard's story was that John took him into a bedroom, showed him like a bunch of guns that were hidden beneath a bed mattress, and then led him over to the bathroom and showed him the whole medicine cabinet situation. Howard said that like, okay, they took the medicine cabinet off. He looked through the hole to the neighboring apartment

then left and went down to the building's lobby. He said he was still in the building about a half hour later when people who had been at that party came running down the stairs. Like he wasn't sure whether Edward Turner was in that group, but he was certain that John was not because he saw him come down later. Well, then finally Edward ends up taking the stand in his own defense.

Edward had denied that he shot Ruthie McCoy or that he was even in her apartment when she was killed. He admitted that he knew like an older lady named Miss May had lived next door in the apartment, but Edward insisted that he had been sitting on the couch in the apartment

and like left with everyone else in the living room after they heard the gunfire. He then said that John came down to the lobby like by himself about 30 minutes later. Edward like he said he did tell Sonia about the whole like I shot someone story. He said he wanted to be her boyfriend. So he told her that he shot a woman just to like brag.

and that he ended up taking it back when he saw that Sonia was not impressed. And that's why he was like, oh, just kidding. I didn't do that. I was just kidding. Edward said that he ended up leaving Sonia's apartment around 2 a.m. and then turned around and went back up to 1108 when he noticed a light on in the window. So he testified that he spotted a TV set sitting in the hall and a guy he knew carrying like a rocking chair

out of this apartment on 108. This guy supposedly asked Edward if he would give him a hand and carry the TV. And Edward was like, sure, I'll help, you know? I guess at this point, Edward noticed that the neighbor's door was open a little and he told the court that he kicked it open even more and like went a few feet inside and saw a body on the bedroom floor. So I guess he sees the body. He runs out of there.

He goes back to the hallway, he picks up the TV and like carries on. So Edward notices John then a few minutes, like seconds, minutes later, like comes out of the apartment where he sees the body and like starts helping move the rocker and the TV. So I don't know. That's why he said happen. So who's the killer?

I don't even remember names. I don't even remember at this point. Edward was essentially saying that he didn't do it, okay? Period. He didn't do it. Everyone thinks it was John. They think John did it. So the prosecutor of course like wanted to focus on the fact that like he went to this lady's apartment and he saw her dead body and like didn't do anything. And Edward said that he saw the body and saw the blood but didn't get close enough to tell whether she was alive or dead.

So then they're giving him a hard time. Like, why didn't you call police? Why didn't you inform the CHA people? Like something. And Edward didn't really have a response. He didn't do anything. Instead he walked back to the hallway and picked up the TV, you know? So it was just not a great look. In closing arguments, the defense suggested that John and Howard likely went through the medicine cabinet together. Or maybe it was John and Beau, or John was by himself.

But there was no evidence proving that Edward did anything. As for keeping quiet after seeing like Ruthie McCoy's bloody body, I mean, that was...

really the way a young black man survived within this area. The jury had deliberated less than four hours before finding Edward not guilty on all counts. So that all but made John Hondra's verdict a foregone conclusion and his defense team didn't even bother calling additional witnesses before resting. So the judge, his name is Michael Getty, he acquitted John Hondra's

The whole case, the judge said, hung on the dubious stories of Tim Brown. But the judge would say like Ruthie McCoy's brutal murder wasn't the only tragedy in this case. It was because the incompetence of Chicago police was what really cost Ruthie McCoy her chance at justice. I mean, look, after the fact, it's unclear when or even if any attempts were made to like seal off this like

network of medicine cabinet passageways after Ruthie Mae McCoy died. So no one got like charged with her murder. So we did like a little investigating of our own here at Murder Mystery Makeup. Thank you so much. We found out that CHA quietly settled the lawsuit that Vernita filed over her mother's death. There's one public document and it doesn't reveal how much she got.

I don't think it matters, but at least she got something, right? It's not her mom, but it's some accountability. As for like the both of the guys who were acquitted, a deep dive into court records reveals that both unfortunately like racked up some felony charges since walking out of the courtroom in 1990. I say unfortunately because it's just sad. Like once you're in the system, it's hard to get out of it. So that's just facts. And it's just sad. John...

He would be like 58 now and seems to be settled in Kansas. After the whole court stuff, he spent some time behind bars after pleading guilty to second degree robbery. And also he got charged for like occasional drug possession charges, etc.

And I guess he owes like thousands of dollars from civil suits over several evictions and unpaid child support. John had bounced around treatment facilities and halfway houses for a while and was like the subject of a missing person search in Kansas a few years ago. Police described him as a schizophrenic who could be at risk if he's off his medications. They found him safe like five days later. And that's what we know about him now. So Edward Turner...

Now apparently is living in Florida. He's like 56. He actually admitted on the record to the Chicago Reader after the murder.

that he was in fact a member of the Paymasters gang. But then he said he would probably leave the West side of Chicago and hopefully like get his high school degree. But unfortunately, again, he got into some more trouble. Edward ended up doing two years in Illinois State Prison for felony drug manufacturing and possession with intent to sell. There was like a bunch of drug charges as well as ones for burglary and disorderly conduct.

but the court docket just notes like they were disposed of, so no idea how they got resolved. In 2010 he had pled guilty to possession of burglary tools and property damage in Cook County, but I guess he's got disposed of as well. There was a couple of marijuana charges and then nothing for the past decade, so hopefully he's out of this and like moving. I have hope for these people.

Okay, I'm gonna go on a long tangent, but it's just hard to get out of this system for when you're born into this. So I hope he's doing well. Okay, I hope, I just hope everyone's doing well. So I guess like the Chicago Police Department is currently revamping its gang database.

But as recently as 2020, the police superintendent confirmed to reporters that there were over 117,000 known gang members active in the city. So that's the murder of Ruthie Mae McCoy. Sadly, like technically not really solved, right? And also very creepy and unfortunate. And the fact that like all of her complaints are brushed off, could have been prevented if actually people tried to help. Not really.

Not people, but like the people in charge. It's just sad. It's a sad story, really. And there's no closure. Anyways, let me know your thoughts. I don't know what you can say to that. I kind of believe that Tim guy. I mean, there's gotta be some truth in this story, right? I don't know. That, my friends, is the story of like the real life Candyman, whoever the hell that person is, right? But other than that, I hope you have a good day. You make good choices. You be safe out there, okay?

Lock your doors and stuff. And I'll be seeing you guys. Bye. Bye.