MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Dead Man's Riddle

Episode Date: November 30, 2023

Today’s podcast features 3 mysterious stories with uncrackable clues. The audio for all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "John Doe" -- Man stays home alone to watch the Super Bowl... what he does next is hard to believe (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/phJD8mb0Tfs?feature=shared)#2 -- "Single Blow" -- Man thinks someone is out to get him (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/phJD8mb0Tfs?feature=shared)#1 -- "Riddle Me This" -- The FBI has a world-class code breaking team, but sometimes the riddles they come across are impossible to crack, so they appeal to the public for help (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/Kv2wCsWqrNs?feature=shared)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast features three mysterious stories with uncrackable clues. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called John Doe, and it's about a man who stays home alone to watch the Super Bowl, but what he does next is hard to believe. The second story you'll

hear is called Single Blow, and it's about a man who thinks someone is out to get him. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Riddle Me This, and it's about an impossible riddle that even the FBI's world-class code-breaking team could not crack. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious Delibered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, the next time the Amazon Music Follow button takes their full kitchen trash bag out to the dumpster, immediately throw an open container of clam chowder into their

trash before they can come back and put a new bag in. Okay, let's get into our first story called John Doe. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast British Scandal. On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round the world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail, almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most

complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Hello, I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No? Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers?

OK, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's stone-cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all, but behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making, with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. In 1993, David Lewis was an accomplished lawyer living in Amarillo, Texas,

with his wife Karen and his nine-year-old daughter. He was known to be a devoted husband and father who spent much of his off time supporting various charitable causes. On January 28th of that year, Karen and their daughter decided to leave Amarillo and go to Dallas to spend the weekend shopping together. David, who would normally go with them, decided to stay home because he did not want to miss the Super Bowl, which was that Sunday, the 31st. So Karen and their daughter left, and then a couple of days later, on the 31st,

they returned to Amarillo, and they actually got back to their house right after the Super Bowl had ended. And so they anticipated going into the house and finding David either cleaning up after himself or maybe watching the postgame. But when they walked in, the TV was still on and turned to the channel the Super Bowl had been on, but David was nowhere to be found. Karen noticed that the VCR was actually still recording. David was known to record all major sports games and watch them again, and so clearly he had not turned off the recording. As Karen walked around the house yelling for her husband, she wasn't that concerned.

She figured he must have stepped out or something, but she went into the kitchen and she opened up the fridge and she found there was a plate with two freshly made turkey sandwiches on it, which was a sandwich David would often make. And she thought that was pretty weird that he would have made them and then let them sit inside the fridge.

And so she closed the fridge and turned around and on the counter in the kitchen was his wedding band and his watch. And so even though there were all these kind of strange things that Karen was finding in the house, she really wasn't that concerned. There was no sign of forced entry. There was no sign the house had been burglarized. There was no sign of a struggle. And so she assumed her husband must have stepped out to watch the second half of the game at a friend's house and that he would be back later. And so Karen stayed up for a little while, but then ultimately she went to bed thinking he would be there in the morning. But the next morning when she got up, there was no sign of her husband, and so she went to the police. Within 24 hours, the police located David's abandoned car downtown near the courthouse.

Under one of the car's floor mats, they located his car keys as well as his house keys. And then within the car, they found his checkbook, his credit cards, and his driver's license, all in the places they should be. They looked into his bank activity and they saw there was a recent deposit for $5,000 into his family's account. They also saw that he recently purchased two plane tickets. One was from Los Angeles to Dallas and the other was from Dallas to Amarillo, but it wasn't clear if he had used either of these tickets. When Karen was told about the found car and the strange bank activity, she told police that her husband had recently told her that he actually thought he might be in danger because he was scheduled to give a deposition in Dallas later that month in a conflict of interest case between his old law firm

and a wealthy client. And David was being pressured to cover up some of the wrongdoings of his previous law firm and he just wasn't willing to do that. He told his family that he was going to tell the truth no matter who it hurt. David understood that put a huge target on his back. While police were certainly intrigued at this new information, they didn't have any evidence to support the idea that someone was actively trying to silence David. It was just a conspiracy. And so for 11 months,

they looked for new leads and new information, but nothing came out and David never popped up. He never called home. There was no sign of him. And so after 11 months, the police decided that David must have left of his own accord and that there was no foul play here. And so they closed the case. And after that, David's family unfortunately just had to accept the fact that he was gone

and that more than likely no one was ever going to find him again. But in 2004, a state trooper in Washington state was on the internet just researching unsolved mysteries and he came across a picture of David Lewis. And immediately he recognized that he looked exactly like an unidentified victim of a hit and run case he covered back in 1993. And so he pulled up the details of this hit and run, and he found the victim had been struck a day after David Lewis had gone missing. When this John Doe got hit, he was dressed head to toe in military clothing. He had no bags, he had no ID, and he was walking aimlessly down Highway 24 in Washington State.

So 1,600 miles away from Amarillo, Texas, where David Lewis had gone missing. So 1,600 miles away from Amarillo, Texas, where David Lewis had gone missing. But despite the enormous distance between these two events, this trooper was convinced David Lewis was this John Doe. But as he's looking at the picture of David Lewis, he realizes he has glasses and he didn't think the John Doe was wearing glasses. But just to be sure, he checked the belongings list of the John Doe and it said he did have glasses. And it was the exact same kind that David was wearing in the picture. And eventually, DNA would confirm that David Lewis was the John Doe. Now, this solved the mystery of where David Lewis went, but it did not solve the mystery of why he went there. Why did David go to Washington, a place where he has no ties? And if David was the one who hit record on his VCR on the night of the

Super Bowl, that means he would have only had less than 24 hours to move 1,600 miles to Washington State without his car. And why was he wearing military clothing? Was that his clothing? Did he buy it? Did someone make him wear it? Where was his luggage? What was he doing walking down the highway? David's assertions to his wife that his life was in danger, his demeanor as a loving family man, and the nature of his job as an attorney

has many people, his family included, believing that he was the victim of foul play. But officially, the police have said David left the house of his own accord and his death was ruled an accident. Our next story is called Single Blow. In 1996, Blair Adams was 31 years old and living in Surrey, British Columbia. Although in the past he had struggled with substance abuse and alcoholism, over the previous two years he had really gotten his act together and got a great job

as a foreman at a local construction company. He was known to be a cheerful and friendly guy that did not have any known enemies. But that summer, Blair started exhibiting uncharacteristic mood swings that his mother would describe as being frequent and wild. In a matter of weeks, Blair transformed from being very calm and relaxed and friendly to being totally panicked all the time and always looking over his shoulder. And he was so stressed out he couldn't sleep at night. And he began telling his co-workers that he was fairly certain someone was trying to kill him.

And they would say to him, Blair, I don't think you're okay. You really need to see a doctor. When his mother confronted him about his erratic, paranoid behavior, he told her, Mom, I really shouldn't tell you about it. And she said, What's it? And he said, Mom, I can't say anything else. And that was it. She could never get any more information out of her son. Blair's strange behavior came to a head on Friday, July 5th, when he went to his bank and withdrew all of the cash out of his account,

totaling $6,000, and he also emptied his safety deposit box, which contained thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and gold. Two days later on Sunday, he left his house and drove 30 minutes to the Canada-USA border, and he attempted to enter the United States. But being a single guy carrying a bunch of cash and jewelry and acting really nervous, he fit the profile of a drug trafficker,

and so he was denied entry. Frustrated, Blair left and went back to his house and the next day, which was Monday, he went to his construction site and he abruptly told his boss that he was quitting. And he didn't even pick up his final paycheck, he just left. After leaving the construction site, he went straight to the airport where he promptly purchased a $1,600 round trip to Frankfurt, Germany. Although we don't know why he wanted to go to Frankfurt, Germany, he did work there briefly the year before. His flight was supposed to leave the following day, which was Tuesday, but immediately after purchasing this plane ticket, Blair suddenly decided that he needed to try again to cross into the USA.

suddenly decided that he needed to try again to cross into the USA. So he rushed to a friend's house. He knocked on her door. She opens it up and he looks totally disheveled. And he's telling her that someone's trying to kill me. I need your help getting across the border. I just got rejected a couple of days ago. Can you please drive me across? You got kids. It'll look much more convincing. Can you do that for me? And she was really spooked by his behavior and felt like this is not something I want to get involved with. And so she said, sorry, I can't help you. So Blair headed home where he hid out for the day. And then the next day, Tuesday, he went to the airport. But instead of getting on his flight to Frankfurt, Germany, he went to the front desk and requested a refund and it was granted. He told them that the person he was going to meet in Germany had gotten sick

and so now he couldn't go. And so the only person he could have been talking about that the person he was going to meet in Germany had gotten sick and so now he couldn't go. And so the only person he could have been talking about was the girl he had briefly had a fling with when he was there for work the year earlier. But later on, investigators would talk to that German girl and she would say she was not in touch with Blair and she definitely was not expecting him. Blair left the airport and rented a car, which was a Nissan Altima, and he immediately went to the US-Canada border, except this time he was able to get across. He made his way to Seattle, Washington, where he went over to their airport and then abandoned his Nissan in the middle of a parking lot and then went down and bought a one-way ticket to Washington, DC. Now he paid $770 for this one-way ticket, but he could have just

purchased a round trip for half the price. But either way, he boarded the plane that night, and by Wednesday morning, he was in Washington, D.C. He got off the plane and rented another car, which was a Toyota Camry, and then drove 500 miles southwest to Knoxville, Tennessee. Blair was not seen in Knoxville until about 5.30 p.m. that evening when he showed up at a gas station complaining of car troubles. And so the gas station attendant came out to try to help Blair, and he immediately diagnosed what the problem was. Blair was trying to start his Toyota Camry with the key to his Nissan Altima that he had abandoned in Seattle, Washington. And so the attendant pointed out that it was the wrong key and Blair held it up and said,

no, this is the one I was using. And the guy's like, no, it clearly says Nissan on it. And so Blair and this gas station attendant look around the car inside and out for this missing Toyota key. Blair's reaching in his pockets, he can't find it. Blair ends up calling the rental company, but they wind up being closed.

And so the gas station attendant says, unfortunately, we're gonna have to tow your car, but I'll give you a ride to a nearby hotel. And so Blair accepted the ride. And just after 6 p.m. that night, Blair walked through the front door of the Fairfield Inn and then promptly turned around and walked out and then walked in and then walked out over and over again, five separate times over the course of an hour before he finally walked up to the front desk and asked for a room. The front desk attendant at the hotel said Blair was totally paranoid, constantly looking over his shoulder and just totally on edge the entire time. And then after she gave him his room and he paid for it,

he took the key and instead of going up to his room, he just walked out again and then never came back. The following morning, two workers arrived at their construction site right across the street from the Fairfield Inn, and they discovered a body, and it would turn out to be Blair's. He was missing his socks, shoes, and pants, and he had scratches on his hands as well as on his face, but none of the abrasions were that significant. patches on his hands as well as on his face, but none of the abrasions were that significant. There was $4,000 in German, US, and Canadian currencies lying on the ground around him.

Also spread out around Blair was his fanny pack full of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and gold, a black duffel bag that contained maps and receipts, and then also that missing Toyota car key that they could not find the night before. That was lying on the ground as well. missing Toyota car key that they could not find the night before. That was lying on the ground as well. Blair's autopsy showed that he had died from a single violent blow to his stomach, but they had no idea what actually struck his stomach. Toxicology reports showed that Blair had no drugs or alcohol in his system. The only DNA evidence that was found at the crime scene was a single long strand of hair that Blair was clutching in his fist, but there's no more information about this hair online.

There were no witnesses, but there was a security guard who claimed to have heard screaming, a woman's scream coming from the area where Blair was discovered at about 3.30 in the morning. The only lead police had was the sketch of this guy that apparently people had seen Blair talking to outside of a Cracker Barrel restaurant right after Blair had left the hotel. But police were never able to identify this man. Investigators were baffled. Was Blair telling the truth that someone had been trying to kill him for weeks leading up to his death and they finally caught up to him? And if so, why didn't he tell authorities? Or was Blair delusional and he just happened to

run into another killer when he was in Tennessee? Unfortunately, we still have absolutely no idea. I'm Peter Frankopan. and I'm Afua Hirsch and we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy covering the iconic, troubled, musical genius that was Nina Simone Full disclosure, this is a big one for me Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time somebody who's had a huge impact on me

who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and he seemed really unwell. So she wound up taking him to the hospital right away

so he could get treatment. While Dorothy's friend waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab a car to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and so many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try and discover what really happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. The next and final story of today's episode is called Riddle Me This.

At around 5 o'clock in the evening on June 25th, 1999, a man named Ricky McCormick stumbled into an emergency room in St. Louis, Missouri with his hand over his chest, complaining that he couldn't breathe. He said he had asthma, and earlier that day he had been cutting the grass, and so maybe that had caused a flare-up. But either way, here he was in a lot of discomfort, saying, you know, I need help. Ricky was 41 years old, and for his whole life he had had heart and lung problems and so him arriving in this state in the ER was actually not all that uncommon for him. And so this hospital did what they did with anyone who came in complaining that they couldn't breathe. They immediately took Ricky

to a back exam room and they hooked him up to all these monitors to make sure his heartbeat was steady and that his oxygen levels were plenty high. And once Ricky was in the exam room getting hooked up, he started acting really agitated and he kept looking around the room like he was scared that someone was going to jump out at him. And he was also sweating profusely. And whenever he did speak, he spoke so quickly, no one could really understand him. But despite Ricky's odd behavior, the heart monitor showed his heart was beating steadily, his oxygen levels were perfectly fine, and when the doctor came in and examined Ricky, even though he clearly saw that something was off about Ricky, there wasn't any sign that there was anything physically wrong with Ricky. And so the doctor

and the nurses agreed that whatever was going on with Ricky had to be psychological. And as it happened, Ricky did have a long history of psychological issues. He was known for making things up all the time, just telling people these crazy stories about himself, like how he was this talented singer and he was about to go on tour, or that he was actually a prince, or that he was studying to be a doctor. I mean, things that nobody thought was true, but Ricky would say as if this is just common knowledge, this is who I am. And so Ricky's family for the longest time had just assumed

that Ricky was either bipolar or maybe schizophrenic. Those are both serious mental health disorders that totally disrupt normal thinking. But Ricky, despite being encouraged by his friends and family to go get help, never got help for any of his psychological issues. And so Ricky's life had kind of gone off the rails. He had dropped out of high school and not gone back to any sort of schooling, and he had spent some time in jail. and he had spent some time in jail. Now, Ricky was living in a low-income, very dangerous part of St. Louis, which is a big Midwestern city on the Mississippi River,

that in 1999 had a very serious issue with gang violence. Ricky absolutely hated it there, but he had no way to actually leave St. Louis. In fact, Ricky didn't even have his own place. He bounced around from his mother's place, his aunt's place, and his girlfriend's place. Ricky did work, but the work was very sporadic, and it was for the most part just night shifts for random odd jobs, and when Ricky was actually working, he really just spent his time chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking literally gallons of coffee. Back at the ER, Ricky, who was still in the exam room, had only been there for less than an hour when the doctor came back in and told Ricky that he was okay and he was going to be discharged. Now, Ricky immediately said, no, no, I have to be here tonight.

I need to stay here. You need to admit me. But the doctor just kind of ignored what he said and handed him the discharge paperwork. Fifteen minutes later, when a nurse came back into the exam room to get this paperwork from Ricky, she would walk in and see Ricky still sitting on the exam bed, kind of fidgeting around, looking down at this paperwork on his lap that immediately she saw he had not filled out. He had just signed his name at the bottom. And when she walked in, Ricky looked up at her and he kind of shrugged his shoulders and looked at her and was like, I don't know how to read or write. Can you help me? And so the nurse immediately felt bad for Ricky. I mean,

he's got dirty clothes on. He looks thin and frail, he's clearly very down on his luck, there's some issues happening with this guy, and he can't even fill out his discharge paperwork. And so she said, no problem. She sat down with him and together they filled out his paperwork. And then afterwards, when she walked him out of the exam room back to the front of the hospital, Ricky turned to her and said, you know, instead of going home, can you just let me stay here in the lobby just for tonight? And this nurse, who knew she was not allowed to do this, she looked around and saw it was not a busy night there. And so she said, okay, as long as you don't bother anyone, you can stay here. And so Ricky thanked her repeatedly and then walked over to the corner, kind of far away from the front desk and far away from the front door. And he sat down and folded his arms and then he just stared at the front door.

And so this nurse assumed that Ricky actually must be homeless, especially based on, you know, how he came in and how he was acting. And so she figured, you know, he needs a place that's warm to stay tonight. And so the nurse went back to her station and over the course of the next several hours, she would periodically look out into the lobby expecting to see Ricky kind of curled up asleep in the corner. But every time she looked out there, Ricky was still sitting upright, arms folded, staring at the front door of the hospital as if he was expecting someone to come in at any moment and he needed to be ready. And so she thought this was unusual, but she decided not to intervene.

She just let him sit there and do his thing. Later that morning, at 11.30 a.m., when the nice nurse who had allowed Ricky to stay in the lobby was leaving her shift, another crew of nurses came in and right away they noticed Ricky was just sitting in the corner for no apparent reason. And when they walked up to him to ask if he was okay, you know, what are you doing here? What can we do for you? Ricky, instead of trying to talk to any of these nurses, just got up and walked out of the hospital. After leaving the hospital, Ricky walked to a nearby payphone and he called his girlfriend, Sandy. And when Sandy picked up the phone, she immediately recognized her boyfriend's very familiar voice, but she also picked up that he sounded really tired and kind of out of it. And so when she asked him, you know, are you okay? What's going on?

Ricky would tell her that he had just spent the night in the hospital, but he didn't clarify that he just spent the night in the hospital. But he didn't clarify that he had spent the night in the lobby of the hospital, not admitted as a patient at the hospital. But to Sandy, it really didn't matter because already this was raising red flags for her because this was actually the second time that Ricky had gone to the ER just that week. Just a few days earlier, Ricky had been released from a different hospital in St. Louis after telling doctors there that he had had these chest pains and he couldn't breathe, and so he had been admitted for a couple of days,

but ultimately they determined that there really was nothing wrong with him, and they too believed whatever was happening with him had to be psychological, and so he had been released. Additionally, Sandy had been growing increasingly worried about Ricky because over the last several weeks, Ricky had begun acting really paranoid, to the point where anytime he was in her apartment and somebody outside the apartment just walked down the hallway, Ricky would jump as if he was worried whoever was out there was going to barge in at any moment. But whenever Sandy asked Ricky, you know, what's going on? Why are you so paranoid?

He refused to elaborate. So feeling very concerned about Ricky, on this phone call, Sandy would say to Ricky, please come to my apartment and let me take care of you. If you're not feeling well, I'll make you feel better. Just please come to my apartment right now. But Ricky said no, he did not want to go to Sandy's apartment. He told her instead he was going to walk to a nearby gas station to get a bite to eat, and then afterwards he would give Sandy a call. And so the two of them agreed to this plan, they hung up, but then Ricky did not call Sandy later. A worker at the gas station where Ricky said he was going would later tell authorities that Ricky did come into the gas station and he got a hot dog on that day, the 26th. And then the next day, the same worker said,

yep, we saw Ricky again on the 27th. He came in here, he got a bite to eat, and then he left. But after that, nobody saw Ricky. Not his aunt, not his mom, not his girlfriend. He didn't show up in any other emergency rooms in Missouri. He just disappeared. On June 30th, so three days after Ricky was last seen at this gas station, a woman was driving her car 20 miles north of St. Louis on this highway when she looked out into this cornfield that butted up against the highway, and she saw kind

of in the middle of it was this dark shape that looked totally out of place. And so she was intrigued enough that she actually pulled over on the road, she got out, and began walking into this cornfield to see what this thing was. And when she got up to this thing and saw what it was, she froze in horror. And then she screamed, turned around and ran back to her car and she flew to the nearest gas station. She grabbed a payphone and she called 911. When the police arrived at this cornfield, they too walked out towards this dark thing, and then finally they saw what this thing was that had scared this woman. It was a dead person who was lying face down, their body was very badly decomposed, and in fact, their body was very badly decomposed, and in fact their body was just kind

of falling apart, like the fingers of this person's body had just kind of crumpled off of their hands. Now based on what this person was wearing, they appeared to be male, but there was no way to tell how this person died or really how long they had been dead for. But despite the advanced decomposition, authorities were able to get a good fingerprint and it would turn out that this body belonged to Ricky McCormick. The day after Ricky's body was found, the police would come out and say they were treating his death as a homicide. This area along this highway in this cornfield was actually a fairly common place for murderers to dump their victims. And it was very unlikely that Ricky had gotten there by himself. He didn't have a car, in fact he didn't even have a driver's license,

there was no public transportation that could have brought him to this spot, and if Ricky had decided to walk to this area for some reason, it was a solid 15 miles from where he lived and worked. Also, Ricky's body was way too decomposed relative to when he had last been seen alive, just three days earlier, and so there was a theory that perhaps he was killed somewhere else and then kept indoors in heat and that had accelerated his decomposition and then at some point whoever had killed him had moved his body and dumped it in this cornfield. And so on that first day of the homicide investigation, July 1st, the police put 18 detectives, so a ton of detectives, on this case, and they also appealed to the public to come forward if you had any information about what could have happened to Ricky McCormick.

But just a day later, on July 2nd, the police came out and made an announcement that, you know, after looking at all the evidence and looking at Ricky's body again, it did not appear, in fact, that he had been murdered, but instead he must have died of natural causes. This is a guy that had lung and heart problems, and so that is likely what killed him. Case closed. And so after this announcement, all of the evidence in Ricky's case was bundled up, put into storage, and people just kind of forgot about it. Six months later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, got a tip that involved Ricky McCormick.

They were working on a case in St. Louis, Missouri, about this major drug dealer who apparently was ordering hits on his rivals, and a confidential informant came forward and told the FBI that this guy, Ricky McCormick, had gotten wrapped up with this major drug dealer. But they didn't really know what role Ricky was playing with this drug dealer. It was just kind of a rumor on the street that, Ricky was involved somehow. This did not make any sense to the FBI because they're thinking, why would this big-time drug dealer who really was a mover and shaker in St. Louis get involved with this guy Ricky McCormick, who was obviously deeply mentally ill and borderline homeless? I mean, what role could Ricky play for this drug dealer? But the FBI still did follow up on this tip because it was very

credible. And when they spoke to the local police who had investigated Ricky's death, they got Ricky's file, which meant they got all of the evidence. And immediately, the FBI realized the local police had overlooked a very strange piece of evidence found in Ricky's pocket. very strange piece of evidence found in Ricky's pocket. This strange evidence was quickly sent to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, and it landed on the desk of a forensic analyst named Dan Olson. Dan was relatively new to the FBI, but he was highly disciplined and very methodical. And so when he received this piece of evidence, he got to work right away trying to figure out what it was, you know, what it meant in relationship to Ricky and this drug dealer. Maybe does it answer the question of how these people are connected?

But despite his best efforts and calling in the experts and using every computer program to analyze this evidence, he just could not figure out what it meant. At the same time that Dan was doing this, the big drug dealer who was the target of that big FBI investigation in St. Louis was arrested on gun and drug charges. And so the big case was now over. And suddenly trying to figure out what connection Ricky McCormick had to this drug dealer was kind of irrelevant because the drug dealer was behind bars and Ricky was already dead. And so the FBI kind of put a pause on trying to figure out what this evidence was. And so Dan, even though he was really curious now, he was fully invested in trying to figure out what this thing was.

He realized he had to give it up, up too and move on to something else. And so, the strange evidence went back into storage, and once again, everyone just kind of moved on from Ricky McCormick. But Dan never really forgot about this mystifying piece of evidence. It was always in the back of his mind. Twenty-two years later, Dan Olson had now become very senior at the FBI. He was actually in charge of their cryptanalysis and racketeering unit. Basically, he was in charge of the people at the FBI who specialized in code breaking,

meaning they were the people that would pull any sort of secret messages embedded inside of evidence. pull any sort of secret messages embedded inside of evidence. And so at some point after taking over this unit, Dan pulled out of storage this strange piece of evidence connected to Ricky McCormick. And he said, you know what? I just need to know what this means. I have to figure it out. I've never been able to. It's haunted me ever since. And so Dan went public. He went to the media and he asked the world to take a look at this mystifying piece of evidence and come forward if you have any idea what it means. When Ricky was discovered in that cornfield, the local police quickly emptied his pockets. And in his pants pocket were two documents that contained an incredibly complex cipher or code.

It was basically 30 lines on each piece of paper with different symbols and letters and capital letters. I mean, it looked like total gibberish to the untrained eye. But to people like Dan and his code-breaking team, these symbols and letters could mean there was a secret message hidden inside of these documents if you could break the code system. But of course, no one could ever break that code. So how in the world does a guy like Ricky, who is basically functionally illiterate and can only write his name, he's clearly mentally ill and he's not really in touch with reality all the time, how does a guy like that come to be in possession of these complex ciphers? And if he didn't write these ciphers, because that's possible, maybe somebody else

gave them to Ricky, well, why would anyone who came up with this very complex cipher entrust a guy like Ricky to be the one to carry these things around. I mean, presumably they contain confidential information that's been very carefully hidden inside of the cipher. And so why give it to Ricky? He's such a liability. And also, what happened to Ricky in that cornfield? I mean, we don't even know how he got there. We don't know how he was killed. All we know is that he had these ciphers in his pocket when he was found. And so many people believe, including law enforcement, that the answer to, you know, what happened to Ricky and what was his connection to this drug lord in St. Louis, if any, or, you

know, what was he up to, will all be solved if we can just figure out what these two ciphers mean. But as of right now, no one has solved the riddle of what these two ciphers mean. All we know is that Ricky McCormick, a couple of weeks before he died, became increasingly paranoid and was so scared of someone or something that he was likely running into these hospitals just to hide out. But eventually, whoever or whatever Ricky was scared of very likely caught up to him and killed him. But until we crack these ciphers, we very likely will have no idea what actually happened to Ricky McCormick.

Today, the FBI has set up a special website where you can look at these two ciphers that Ricky had in his pocket, and if you're able to crack them, because someone's going to eventually, you can tell the FBI through this website and potentially help solve Ricky's murder. be sure to check out all of our other studios' podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, and Run Full. All you have to do is search Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So, that's going to do it.

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