Don't look behind the mirror!! The unknown Candyman case and famous horror story | Mystery & Makeup

hi friends how are you today I hope you

are having a wonderful day so far my

name is Bailey seran 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 look if you

follow me on

Instagram and like I think Tik Tok too I

post it on there then you would know

about like two weeks ago or 3 weeks I

think it is now I got my nose fit fixed

you see going off track here really

quick my nose has been broken since high

school I haven't been able to breathe

through my nose since high school so

about 3 weeks ago I got it fixed I know

insane right they like rip me open fix

my nose it's still healing I'm swollen

and all that jazz and I'm telling you

this because I don't know if I'm going

to put face makeup on because it's so

sensitive right here so I think I'm

going to do like eyes is that cool let

me know if not doesn't matter cuz I'm

going do it anyways thank you so much um

but for the most part like I'm look I'm

not that bad looking for getting beat up

I can't wait to breathe it's going to be

incredible I hear breathing yeah you're

so lucky if you can breathe whatever

products I'm going to be using I'll list

them like down below but really just go

into this with like no judgment because

I'm just I want to play I just want to

like try this palette and I don't know

if I'm going to like actually like

create a full look we'll see go on me

with this journey cuz today we're

talking about the candy man yeah you

know the Candy Man sheesh let's get into

it horror horror movies you know horror

not horror horror okay great movies

that's where today's episode is 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

uh 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 Candy Man an instant

cult favorite when it came out in 1992

it was about like a a creepy serial

killer who was like haunting the Chicago

tenement area and um he was being

summoned 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 Candy Man

specifically it was like if you go on to

the bathroom and you said his name five

times like candyman candyman like he

would come through the bathroom mirror

like uh 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 but what was even more

horrifying is that the Candyman it turns

out like mimics a true case that

happened in the Chicago projects back in

April of 1987

so April um 22nd 1987 so on that day

that's when Ruthie May 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 May'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 like on like the 11th floor

apartment in a complex called Abbott

Holmes Abbott was actually a cluster of

like seven

highrises in sprawling mass of housing

projects that locals called The Village

or they would just call it the vill

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 uh the CH projects that year

like holy right so it was said that

like Ruthie may 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

chha 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 uh 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 ginor

eyes sour in like the bleakest parts of

town and give minority

applicants uh 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 we should do a dark

history on

that but that's on the point so but

Ruthie may she had moved to Abbott after

getting flooded out of her basement

apartment in a different project area so

she moved into this abot area and it was

said she hated it from the GetGo you

know it was rough they were like gang

bangers there and they would like roam

the Halls at all hours uh there would be

loud music playing there'd be partying

in vacant apartments and a lot of the um

vet Apartments were turned into like

drug dens I guess break-ins were very

common and CJ 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 I know I look abs absolutely

crazy right

now okay but I think this might be going

somewhere we're going to find out 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 um

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 pay masters and any tenant

that the pay masters 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 um reporting like any

crime they happened to witness or like

suspect and people were just like you

know scared of telling ation so they

wouldn't report anything so on Ruthie

May 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 pay

masters okay sorry I'm giving myself

literally a black eye 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 um in broken

toilets the boiler systems didn't work

for for weeks in the dead of winter so

like freezing your ass off people got

exposed to mold into lead from the paint

that peeled off the walls chunks of

plaster sometimes would just like fall

from the ceilings trash would pile up in

building basements because the shoots on

each floor were like too narrow to

handle the debris of so many people

crammed into a single building okay

I'm not liking this eye so I'm going to

take it off thank you 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, 1500 elevator repairs one

year in just a single building let's

rebuild shall we great so at Abbot 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

um and they were

enclosed and with Ruthie may 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 right

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 bogira 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

to her so Ruthie like

wasn't afraid to stand out 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 so 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 asks 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 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 asks

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 I don't even want to do my

makeup so I'm just don't know what to do

I don't understand these

Shadows okay I'm taking this

off 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

Breakin in

progress so they ended up like taking

their time so at 9:02 p.m. another woman

calls 911 and reports hearing gunshots

from Ruth's Apartment 2 minutes later

there's another neighbor who calls 911

and also reports like the same thing at

9:10 25 minutes after Ruthie May 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 asked the

operator to call Ruthie May back because

they quote think somebody might be

inside holding somebody end quote so

dispatch dials ru'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 the

building and this office is like a block

away and they try and get a key for the

apartment one

109 so they get the key they go back and

I guess the key doesn't fit the lock got

to be frustrating so officers they 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

in19 and that you know she always

answers her door so it's kind of weird

that she wasn't one of the officers ERS

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 p.m. 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 like 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 I think I'm giving up on my

makeup you guys this might be the first

non murder mystery

makeup I just want to crawl in a hole

but I'm going to keep telling you my

story okay so she's worried about Ruthie

cuz 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

and like this was concerning enough that

she called police okay so the police

show up at ruthies and this time like

half a dozen officers come by and

they're at Ruth's house with four or

five cha security guards so they knock

on Ruth's door and they're calling her

number her phone number ring ring ring

no response soort reps show that most of

the police officers agreed at this point

that they should break down Ruthie's

store but the douchebags at chha

security well the 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 criminal which gives like the

justification for break 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

Deborah she's still concerned so she

notifies the project office that you

know she's really worried about Ruthie

May's welfare and someone needs to check

on her so around 1:00 p.m. a project

official brings a carpenter around to

drill through Ruthie's lock so they're

getting in okay so they are able to get

in they open up the door and inside they

see Ruthie May 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

AB her abdom abdomen side note I hate

that word abdomen I don't know why it's

so hard for me to say abdomen

abdomen there was an a fourth shot that

went through her right arm and into her

chest where it like severed a major vein

to the L 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 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

May's body was already beginning to

decompose by the time they reached her

so who was Ruthie may let me tell you so

Ruthie May McCoy she had been born in

Arkansas but she ended up moving to

Chicago as a child 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 verita but I guess like the father

didn't stick around because of Ruth's

illness you know so verita 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 freaking measly $154 a

month like thanks what's that going to

do so she and her daughter Vanita they

managed to like maintain a good

relationship despite you know everything

and then eventually I guess verita you

know she grows up she gets older verita

uh her boyfriend and their two children

they end up sharing Ruth's two-bedroom

apartment at Abbot but I guess the

friction between Ruthie and Vera'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 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 uh oh

and then on hot summer days they would

see um Ruthie outside bundled up in like

layers of heavy winter clothes and it

was kind of clear that like her mental

health was going down Hill it was

getting worse and worse and Ruthie was

becoming just more and more vulnerable

this is a side note this is why I always

do makeup because I never I'm so like

antsy touchy I don't know how to sit

still so

like okay anyways so I guess like Ruthie

was just paranoid about locks she would

always like jiggle door she would go up

to all of her neighbors doors and just

jiggle them just jiggle random door

knobs she would like go up to cars and

um you know trying to open them up to

see if they're locked or not and it

would like set off the the car

alarms and um 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 burglar burglarized

burglarized so verita remember Ruth

daughter she ended up telling journalist

Steve borera 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's

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 the center's like mother h social

workers told the Chicago Reader that um

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 work

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's like helping Ruthie collect

um supplemental Social Security SSI is

for people with like physical or mental

handicaps and the additional assistance

would help out like it would more than

double ruthy's income to

$340 a month Ruth cashed her first check

just 2 months before she was killed so

with this extra money which I'm sure we

can all agree is 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 she seemed better like she

was doing a lot lot better so verita her

daughter remember so verita told Steve

Oria at the time her mother was keeping

like any of the extra money an 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

ruie 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 19in 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 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 cuz it's kind of it was

confusing at first but so at the end of

each Corridor in the Abbot Towers the

two End Apartments had bathrooms that

like Bud it 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 since I have

nothing to do I'm going to clean my

brushes so you could see your neighbor's

cabinet through the hole there was like

I guess this Narrow 2 and 1/2t 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 cuz they could like get into

this crawl space and like get out when

pressed by that reporter Steve Borgir 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