Candyman: The True Story Behind The Bathroom Mirror Murder - The Wavering Witness: 5

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

The two young men arrested for Ruthie Mae McCoy's murder go on trial three years after their arrest. Prosecutors planned to rely on the testimony of a star witness, but everything changes once he takes the stand. Steve Bogira spoke to the relatives of both suspects for his 1990 Chicago Reader article: https://shorturl.at/xMQ77Get early, ad-free access to episodes of Candyman: The True Story Behind The Bathroom Mirror Murder by subscribing to 48 Hours+ on Apple Podcasts or Wondery+ on the Wondery app.Subscribe to 48 Hours+: https://apple.co/4aEgENoSubscribe to Wondery+: https://wondery.com/plus/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Explore themes of friendship, loss, and hope with Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Find what peaks your imagination. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial, and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. Ruthie Mae McCoy died in the spring of 1987. A month later, just as summer was heating up, Hondras and Turner were indicted. They were charged with murder,

armed robbery, home invasion, residential burglary and armed violence. It took three years for Edward Turner and John Hondras to go on trial after their arrest for the murder of Ruthie Mae McCoy. They don't have physical evidence to help them. No useful fingerprints were found at the scene. Ruthie Mae's medicine cabinet was missing. Plus, investigators never recovered the gun and got a late start securing the crime scene.

Another problem with the police not going in to the apartment originally is that by the time they got back there, the place had been wiped clean. The case largely hinged on the prosecution's star witness, Tim Brown. Brown told police that he saw Hondras and Turner go into Ruthie Mae's apartment. The two suspects spent all three years waiting behind bars. Steve Bagheera found out that Hondras lost three relatives while he was waiting for his trial in this case. First, his grandfather. Then his mother died of cancer. And just two days after her funeral,

a police officer shot and killed Hondras' 16-year-old brother. Authorities told Hondras' family that he was too dangerous to be released for the funerals, so he never got to say goodbye. John Hondras was in his mid-20s, and he'd been in prison before. He was convicted of auto theft and robbery. Detectives were told he had only been a free man for less than a week when Ruthie Mae was

shot. Edward Turner was just 18 when Ruthie Mae was shot. Edward Turner was just 18 when Ruthie Mae was killed. In the past, Turner, a high school senior, had been charged with unlawful use of a weapon. His mother, Aletha Turner, said that he liked to listen to the radio with friends, and never gave in when other young men pressured him to join the gang. She said Turner never would have hurt Rufy May. They knew her and used to live in the same high rise. The two suspects chose to have their fates

decided differently. Turner wanted a jury of his peers, while Hondras went with the bench trial, so a judge would decide whether he was guilty or innocent. When they finally went to trial, reporter Steve Bagheera was still on the case. Even though Turner had opted for a jury and Hondras was going to have his fate determined

by the judge, Michael Getty, they're going on at the same time. So you have a lot going on. They both had judge Michael Getty and each suspect had pleaded not guilty. The court decided to have both trials at the same time in the same room. Now, if there was a moment that was specific to only Hondras' case, they would escort Turner's jury out of the courtroom temporarily.

There were some relatives and friends of the defendants. The only person there on behalf of Ruthie Mae was her brother, Willie McCoy. Stephen Willie often talked while court was in recess. I really enjoyed talking with Willie McCoy. He was a born-again Christian who said he had had his problems before he was born again. He was messing with drugs. At the time of the trials, Willie was 57. Even though he was Ruthie Mae's older brother,

he said sometimes she would help him with his schoolwork back in the day. He said his sister was generous. Willie told Steve that she would have given you the shoestrings off her shoes if you needed them. He clearly loved Ruthie Mae and that came across. And he was like a lot of people who do come in support of the victim. He was not all about vengeance, like, you got to get

these people convicted. Steve said Willie had mellowed out with age. He witnessed an example of this in the courtroom. A friend of Edward Turner's family asked Willie point blank if he thought Turner had really killed Rufy May. McCoy shrugged and the friend said, I'll tell you truthfully, I don't believe he did, but if he did do this, I hope he burns because if someone did this to my mother, they wouldn't be here in court. I'll tell you that. Steve is reading from his own reporting. And Willie McCoy then smiled and he said, I know what you mean. I used to feel that way too, but I've grown some. I understand, the friend said.

And then McCoy told me that he wasn't always as forgiving as he is today. Had his sister been murdered like this when he was younger, he told me I would have gone over and tore the whole West Side up. I'd have found the people who did it and blew their brains out and kept walking. Willie came to almost every day of the trials. I liked what he had to say because he was ambivalent, because he knew how the world worked. Steve and Willie understood there was no guarantee

these suspects would be convicted. He was not naive, and yet he also had this compassion, this understanding of what life is like, how people can get messed up in things that they don't want to get messed up in. No one, not Steve, not the loved ones of the suspects, and certainly not the prosecution, could have predicted what would happen next. The prosecution was hanging this case on the statement that Tim Brown had given them.

The prosecution's star witness changed his story. I'm Dometi Pongo from 48 Hours. This is Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder. Episode 5, The Wavering Witness. No other reporter has followed what happened to Ruthie Mae McCoy more closely than Steve Boogera. I feel like I got to know Ruthie Mae somewhat in spite of her death. Steve and I spent hours on a Zoom one Wednesday afternoon.

She came here from Arkansas when she was young. D-Triple H, Jr. Steve was thin with white hair and was wearing a button-up shirt. Just off screen, he had several stacks of his old notes. Occasionally, he'd pause the interview, grab his glasses, and read through his reporting to make sure he was getting the story right. In his decades spent reporting in Chicago, he'd covered plenty of trials. The Cook County Criminal Courthouse, now known as the Layton Courthouse,

is commonly known as 26th and California. That's where it is, on the southwest side of the city. And it's the biggest and busiest felony courthouse in the country. The courthouse stood seven stories, adorned with cement-colored, neoclassical stone columns. And the place had a chill to it. Fluorescent lighting, gruff security guards,

a tense screening process. There was a sense of foreboding in there, just thinking about the decisions happening behind each set of doors. It's not a pleasant place to be. It's a courthouse where white people, if they experience it at all, it's because they got jury duty. Whereas a lot of poor Black people know the place pretty intimately. They know where their coke machines are. Thankfully, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to 26 in California, and none were pleasant.

The most recent was in 2018, when I was reporting on the trial of a white police officer found guilty of fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times. A lot of people also just want to stay away from 26 in California if they can. Bad things happen down there. That's how people look at it. So as odd as it might sound, I'm not surprised only a small group watched the Turner and Hondras trials. Very few people were spectating or watching her or there in support of the defendants who were there for the victim.

Edward Turner's mother, Aletha, was there, and Rufy May's brother, Willie, too. No other reporters covered the trial according to Steve. There wasn't broad interest in this case in public. Were you struck at all that it was just Willie who attended on the part of Ruthie Mae? Yes, absolutely was. Ruthie Mae's daughter, Bernita, for whatever reason did not attend. I have seen situations where sometimes just to relive in the court case, the pain of it all can be a lot for people, but you know. Yeah, I think a lot of people can think what good is it going to do for me to see what happens in the trial might not be what I'd like to have happen, then I'll just get hurt worse. On March 27th, 1990, the two defendants, Turner and Hondras, arrived in court wearing dark suits. Turner, 21 by then, was clean shaven with a short haircut. Steve wrote that he sat stiff and expressionless at the defense table.

By then, Hondras was 25. He wore wire rimmed glasses and had his hair pulled back into a ponytail. Because Hondras had three prior felonies, he faced up to 80 years if convicted. Turner faced an even more serious punishment. The state's attorneys had a little bit more evidence against Turner, so they made it technically a death penalty case. Multiple people told detectives that Turner had admitted he shot a woman the night Ruthie Mae was killed. Now, he hadn't said outright it was Ruthie Mae, but his alleged confession was the reason Turner faced the death penalty.

Turner's lawyers argued that he didn't shoot anyone and that he was just a teenager lying to impress someone. Willie McCoy was called to the stand. He identified his sister's TV and rocking chair. After him, the Chicago Housing Authority project manager who finally opened Ruthie Mae's door testified. She didn't know why the key the police were given for Ruthie Mae's apartment hadn't worked. The prosecution also brought Sonia Moore up to the stand.

She had lived in Abbott Homes, and at the time of the trial, she told Steve she was Turner's girlfriend. She testified that Turner came to her place the night Ruthie Mae was murdered, at around 10.30 that evening. He sat in her living room with her, her sister, and her sister's boyfriend. They were just hanging out when Turner started confessing that he shot a lady who had a daughter.

That's what Morris said on the stand. This alleged confession was notable because it happened before anyone had opened the door to Ruthie Mae's apartment or found her bullet-riddled body. That night, Moore said she pressed Turner. She testified that she asked Turner where this woman lived and did she have any kids.

He told her that she had a daughter. But then as fast as he made the claim, Turner backtracked and said that he wasn't serious. In court, Turner's attorney argued that he'd only made that claim to try to impress Moore. And he says that he saw that it wouldn't impress her, and he said, no, I didn't really shoot anybody. And his testimony was that he really didn't shoot anybody. He was just bragging.

But Turner hadn't just boasted. Moore also said that Hondras and Turner came back to her apartment and asked her to hide a black handgun. She refused. Now, if Turner was only joking about shooting a woman, why did he need help hiding a gun? On top of that, other witnesses claimed they'd seen both of the alleged accomplices after the shooting, the pair of them.

Detectives talked to a couple of women who lived on the sixth floor of the same building, who said that Hondress and Turner came to them with the TV and the rocking chair. One of those women was Lynette Fitch, Tim Brown's girlfriend. Fitch said that Hondras wanted them to stash the stolen items at her place. She refused. And she suggested that they try another woman who lived on the first floor of another avid

high-rise. And they ultimately took the TV and rocking chair to this woman's apartment. Hondras's attorney was a man named Alan Syncox. He admitted that his client did move the rocking chair to another apartment, but argued that Hondras was only offering Turner a helping hand. In other words, he was trying to say Hondras, the ex-con, might look like he was in charge, but actually, the high schooler was, according to Syncox. And in an effort to take suspicion off his client, Syncox argued the obvious, saying that any of the people

who hung out in the vacant apartment 1108 could have murdered Ruthie Mae McCoy, including, in his words, quote, "'Some of those will testify.'" What he's basically suggesting here is that Tim Brown, the state's star witness, could be pointing the finger at Hondras and Turner to hide the identity of the real killer or killers.

The police did not get a confession from anyone. And so the prosecution was stuck with the statement of Tim Brown. The prosecution needed Tim Brown to take the stand and reiterate everything he said in his signed statement. And he did not. That's when the case against Turner and Hondras fell apart. It was Tim Brown's word against the accused and Brown would no longer say they did it. In fact, he would make a damning allegation against the police.

Prosecutors often say, we don't choose our witnesses. You know, we have to go with what we got. That's Steve again, talking about Tim Brown. He isn't the kind of guy we choose as a witness, but that doesn't mean he wasn't telling the truth. Brown was 24 years old and a key witness for the truth. Brown was 24 years old and a key witness for the prosecution. Three years before he would testify in court,

Brown had signed a six-page statement. The state's attorney noted that it was taken in the dead of night at 4 a.m. on April 26th, 1987, just four days after Ruthie Mae called 911. There were challenges to Brown's credibility as a witness. Tim Brown had a couple of felony convictions, which were relatively minor, as I recall. I think they were possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. But that's the kind of thing that defense defense lawyers can make a lot of saying,

oh, he's a drug peddler, you can't trust him. When prosecutors called him to the stand, they wanted him to share how Turner and Hondras were in Ruthie Mae's apartment when he heard four shots, and how the pair had allegedly come back to the crime scene to collect the shell cases. The statement that police and the state's attorneys had from Tim Brown was what's called a handwritten statement.

So at trial, Tim Brown said, I didn't really say that. The police abused me. They grabbed me between the legs. Brown didn't only backtrack. He denied giving the police the statement at all and accused them of coercing him into signing it. It's clear that the case had fallen apart for the state when Tim Brown did that. He claimed police threatened him. And they said they might charge me as an accomplice. Former detective Anthony Manina, one of the investigators Brown

was accusing, blew off the idea that Brown was coerced. He said it was common for a witness to backtrack and accuse the police of misconduct. That was a standard procedure. You've got jailhouse lawyers that are constantly trying to get people off of their cases. The assistant state's attorney who took Brown's statement was Linda Woleshen. She testified at the time that no officers were in the room when she wrote down Brown's statement and that Brown had said he was treated well by officers. When we talked to her 30 years later,

she told us she didn't remember this case, but she did say that it was common practice for her to ask officers and detectives to leave the room when she took a witness's testimony. Brown's news story shifted the blame away from Turner, the teenager. He now said that Turner didn't even go through the bathroom mirror. It was Hondras, but the other guy was a guy named Bo. Remember, Bo was another one of the friends

at the apartment next door to Ruthie Mays. He was never arrested for this crime. And Brown said that when he heard the gunshots, Turner was still in 1108, sitting on the couch in the living room. Tim Brown and his friend, Corey Flournoy, first told police they weren't even in apartment 1108, the one next to Ruthie Mays the night of the murder.

One of them said that they stayed at somebody's house, the other one said they stayed in a motel afterwards. And so detectives used the inconsistency when they re-interviewed Brown. Eventually, Brown and Flournoy admitted that they were actually in that apartment. And that's when they got the statement that, yeah, I was there, and yeah, Hondrissa Turner did it,

once we went into the apartment. Former detective Menina described having to repeatedly re-interview witnesses as part of the job. He said it was rare for someone to tell the truth the first time around. We told him what he said the first time and he'd make a different line. So by the time he got through with three or four,

he didn't remember what he said and you eventually wound up with the truth. So Brown gave at least three different stories. His first story to detectives, his official statement, and now this new one that he was giving in court. But let's talk about that handwritten statement for a second. Steve pointed out that when you hear the phrase handwritten statement, the assumption might be that Brown handwrote the statement.

But actually the person being questioned, in Chicago at least, is just writing his signature. It's a state's attorney who's with felony review who is called to the station when detectives feel they have somebody solid ready to give a statement. So Tim Brown only signed the statement. Once the prosecution finished their line of questioning, the defense got their turn. There wasn't a lot that the defense lawyers really had to do because it was clear they had enough to impeach Brown. I mean, he was saying one thing at one point and another at another point. While we were talking through the case on Zoom, Steve turned to one of his stacks of papers

and grabbed a write-out of when John Hondras' attorney, Alan Sincox, cross-examined Tim Brown. Originally, Brown claimed a different friend named Bo was involved in removing the medicine captain. Attorney Alan Sincox said, "'Did you tell any of the police officers that Bo was one of the ones who did this? And Tim Brown says, yes. Syncox says, you told them that Bo was the person who

came through that hole and may have committed this crime? Yes. How many times did you tell them that? Tim Brown says, I don't know. It might have been just once. They asked so many questions day after day that I don't remember. Brown took his denial a step further and claimed he didn't even know Ruthie Mae McCoy. In his statement, he said he had told Honduras that an old lady named Miss Mae lived in 1109. But on the stand, he said that besides his girlfriend, he didn't know the names of any of the women. Steve read from his reporting how Brown contradicted even the most fundamental claims he made in

his statement. He said he had no idea you could break into apartments in the building via the medicine cabinets until the night McCoy was killed, which contradicted what he had in his statement. He said that the music they were listening to that night wasn't loud at all because, quote, we got neighbors up there. We give our neighbors our respect. It's not fair to him to say that he flipped for sure

because we don't know exactly what he told police and the state's attorney. But none of Steve's reporting suggested the police actually abused Brown. The detectives who were involved in this case, investigating this case, and the state's attorneys who took the statement did not have a reputation for coercing confessions. I think that's an important factor. In this case, even though it was a handwritten statement, it was a little more trustworthy than some other handwritten statement.

So you say these detectives and the state's attorney don't have a history of, of doing that kind of thing. Right. To my knowledge, that's true. In the majority of murder cases, I don't think detectives are physically abusing suspects. I think there's a lot of trickery that goes around and goes on and there's a lot of trickery that goes around, that goes on, and there's a lot of leaning on people.

So, you know, Tim Brown said they grabbed him between the legs and, you know, could have happened, but I doubt it. Again, the assistant state's attorney said no officers were in the room when she took the statement. While coercion may not have happened in this case, the Chicago PD during this time did have a notorious reputation for abuse and even torture of black men and women.

The United Nations has repeatedly condemned the U.S. and Chicago for not doing more to fix the problem. He said that they were threatening that he might be an accomplice, they might charge him as an accomplice. That's more believable to me, leaning on a suspect that way. Now, we don't know why Tim Brown might have changed his story, but the damage was done. The prosecution was stuck with the statement of Tim Brown. So when he backed off of that statement, the case was gone. The defense had questioned Tim Brown and made their point.

But at least Turner's attorneys thought hearing directly from the accused could help their case. So they called Turner himself to the stand. He saw that the door to her apartment was open. And so he peeked in and he saw Ruthie Mae's body. I can understand that from a detective's point of view that you would hone in on the two people who are mentioned regularly. But of course, that doesn't mean that they did it just because their names kept coming

up. Steve watched as the defense called Edward Turner to the stand, where the young man would make his own case. During the trial, Steve hadn't only gotten to know Willie McCoy, he also met relatives of the two accused men, Hondres and Turner. His mother, Aletha Turner, said that during one of the recesses when I talked with her, she said there have been so many lies. They take a truth and they wrap it up in a lie.

Then they take a lie and they wrap it up in a truth. My son wouldn't be here if it weren't so many lies. They said they were taking him for questioning. They kept it three years for questioning. He read straight from his reporting. She said, I know he did not kill anyone. He wouldn't do something like that. I know he wouldn't because I whooped his ass when he was coming up. His last ass whooping I gave him, he was 18 years old. Turner used to get into a lot of fights in school, he was 18 years old. Turner used to get into a lot of fights in school when he was younger.

That's how we got his nickname, Monofi. It was a reference to Monofiore, which used to be an alternative school in Chicago for kids who struggled with learning and discipline. Aletha Turner did not want to record an interview, but we talked to her for over an hour. She said her son knew her neighbor, Ruthie Mae. She said he wouldn't hurt her, and that she didn't let her son run the streets like other

teens. In the project, she was especially strict with Edward, she said, during those years. I didn't like him having any dealings with the young men in this area. He was in church mostly. As she argued her son's innocence, Aletha said Turner didn't easily give in to peer pressure. They would always threaten him to join a gang, but he never did let that bother him. Every time they asked him what he was riding,

what gang he was with, he'd tell them he was riding Jesus Christ, and they didn't understand that. Turner's mom said that when he turned 18, she loosened up a bit. When police contacted her in April 87 and told her they wanted to question her son, she thought they might want him for peddling drugs. His mom, Aletha, didn't think that he could be connected to a murder. In fact, the week this all was happening was normally a happier time for their family.

Both Aletha and Edward Turner's birthdays were coming up. It didn't come up at trial, but I think it was according to a witness that Turner said that he called his mom and said he was gonna give her a color TV after he had taken the TV from either Ms. May's apartment or the hallway up outside of it. When they did call Turner to the stand, he admitted that he was in Ruthie May's apartment

that night she was killed. But he said that he did not pull the trigger. Turner later testifies that yes, he took the TV that he saw was sitting outside of apartment 1109 later that night. Sitting next to the prosecution table was a 19-inch RCA TV and the rocking chair that belonged to Ruthie Mae. On the stand, Turner claimed that when he saw a light on in 1108 from outside, he went back up to the 11th floor. When he got there, he saw someone named Belder.

You haven't heard him mentioned yet. Anyway, Turner now said he saw Belder leaving Apartment 1108, the one next to Ruthie Mays. Belder had the rocking chair and asked Turner to grab the TV. Turner testified that's when he noticed the door to Ruthie Mae's apartment was slightly open. He kicked open the door, took a few steps in, and could see Ruthie Mae's body in the bedroom. He saw a woman's body laying in the apartment, And then he left with the TV and went downstairs. This is inconsistent with what the cops saw when they showed up at Ruthie Mae's. There were no signs of forced entry and the door was locked.

But that was Turner's story. He admitted that he didn't call for help. Aletha acknowledged her son looked into the apartment, saw Ruthie Mae lying there, and did nothing. And he hadn't reported it to the police. It just taken the TV. So she said, where I live at in the projects, the rule is, and she put a finger to her lips. Aletha then turned and pointed at Willie McCoy sitting on a bench behind her.

He knows about them projects. At that point, McCoy nodded and said, yes, I know about them projects. They would have probably hurt him. Steve told me that Aletha walked up the aisle of the courtroom to the bench where Willie McCoy was sitting and put her hand on his shoulder. She said, my son should have done something about her, meeting Ruthie Mae, if he seen her laying like that. But I understand why he just left with that TV.

He did what he had to do. If I see somebody shoot you, I cannot run and tell police because you see, I got to live there. If they can't see that, they should come live in the projects like we do. I feel satisfied now, she went on. I wanted to know, did my son have anything to do with the killing?

And now I know he didn't. To this day, Aletha Turner says her son was innocent, just as she felt back then. The question was, would a jury agree? Coming up in the final episode of Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder. From 48 Hours, this is Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder.

I'm your host and co-executive producer, Dometi Pongo. Judy Tygard is the executive producer of 48 Hours. Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount Audio, and Maura Walls is the senior story editor. Development by 48 Hours field producer, Morgan Canty. Recording assistance from Marlon Policarp and Alan Pang. Special thanks to Paramount Podcast Vice President Megan Marcus.

Candy Man, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder is produced by Sony Music Entertainment. It was reported, written, and produced by Alex Schumann. Our executive producers are Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch. Our associate producer is Summer Tamad. Theme and original music composed by Cedric Wilson. He sound designed and mixed the episodes. We also use music from APM. Fendel Fullerton is our fact checker. And our production manager is Tamika Balanskulasny.

We'll continue Ruthy Mae McCoy's story next week. Until then, leave a rating or review production manager is Tamika Balanskalasny. We'll continue Ruthie Mae McCoy's story next week. Until then, leave a rating or review of what you think so far. And thanks for listening to this episode. If you like Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, you can listen to the next episode one week early and ad free by joining 48HoursPlus on Apple Podcasts or WonderyPlus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.