The Deck - Ruth Carter (King of Diamonds, Ohio)

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

Our card this week is Ruth Carter, the King of Diamonds from Ohio.When 50-year-old Ruth Carter was found murdered in her home in Dayton, Ohio, suspicions immediately turned to her former roommate. But no physical evidence could tie him to the scene, and years started to tick by without any leads to point investigators to her killer, until 2005, when a young man came forward with information that took detectives to the people who may have been responsible.If you have any information about the murder of Ruth Carter, Jerron “Buck” Ball, or Justin Turner, please call the Dayton Police Department Cold Case Unit at 937-333-7109.  To apply for the Cold Case Playing Cards grant through Season of Justice, visit www.seasonofjustice.org. Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllc The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Follow The Deck on social media and join Ashley’s community by texting [phone] to stay up to date on what's new!

Our card this week is Ruth Carter, the King of Diamonds from Ohio. The woman whose friends called Mama Ruth or Miss Ruthie was only 50 when she was found gunned down in her home on the northwest side of Dayton. Despite several people pointing to a single man as the likely culprit, her case didn't see resolution, not in 1999, not in the decades that followed. But maybe that changes today, with you. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. . December in Dayton, Ohio is always cold and December 13, 1999, was no exception.

But even at 10pm, 32-year-old Jack Baosman was braving the chilly weather to make his way to the home of his good friend Ruth Carter. Jack had just gotten off of work and although 10pm might be a little late for some, Jack Ruth and a lot of their friends were night owls. So he wasn't worried about showing up that late. Plus, Ruth had something she wanted him to take care of. Between noon and 1230, Ruth Carter, he called her a mama Ruth, had called. And she said there was a mouse in her room You want him to come over and get it?

He told her he had to go to work it too Couldn't make it, but he would Come back when he got off work at 10 p.m That was retired detective Doyle Burke who's one of the investigators working Ruth's case today He told our reporter that Jack arrived shortly after 10 and let himself in the locked front door with a key that Ruth had given him. When he entered, he was met with relative silence. Normally the TV would be blaring and Ruth would call out to him when he walked in, but

tonight all that could be heard was the soft chatter of the TV upstairs. As he made his way inside, Jack spotted something else out of the ordinary. Ruth's purse was sitting on the floor by the stairs leading up to the second floor, and this really stuck out to him because she normally kept her purse in her bedroom, never downstairs just out in the open. Now I'm not sure what he felt in that moment, maybe confusion or worry. Maybe he tried to brush the growing list of oddities away as he made his way up the stairs to figure out what was going on, but it didn't take long to find Ruth.

The 50-year-old woman was lying on the floor of her bedroom in a pool of blood, wearing a dark blue almost black t-shirt dress with her hands clasped above her. In that moment, Jack couldn't tell exactly what had happened, just that she was cold and still. He touched your felt she was cold, he said he immediately knew that she was dead, so he didn't try to move her. He called her mother then ran out. Jack was running out to get his friend Victor, who was good friends with Ruth, too.

And the pair raced back to her home. Once they arrived, Victor checked her pulse, but he didn't feel anything. And this time they tried to do CPR, and Jack called 911. But once police and paramedics arrived, they quickly realized there was nothing they could do. Although Jack and Victor hadn't realized how Ruth had died, officials at the scene put two and two together when they noticed a shell casing

on the floor near Ruth's body. This was a homicide. So they needed to work to figure out what exactly happened here. In Ruth's bedroom, they found a small spatter of blood on the wall where her feet were pointing, in addition to the large pool under her head. There was also a 380 caliber shell casing, along with 15 grams of cocaine, all found in her bedroom.

In another room, they found two dollars in cash with what appeared to be cocaine residue on them. It turns out Ruth was known to deal drugs, and she allowed her acquaintances to sell out of her apartment too. This meant there was a pretty regular revolving door of people coming in and out of her home, so other things that they collected, like cigarettes from an ash tray, might not have meant anything in terms of evidence, but they still collected them anyway. Now of all the things that were collected, it was what they didn't find that was most telling, like a gun or her wallet, which they knew she had.

So signs were pointing toward a robbery, either for money or the drugs that she was selling, maybe both. To find the who of all of it, they turned to Jack, the guy who found Ruth, and the person they would come to learn probably knew her best. Jack relayed how he found Ruth's body and elaborated on how he and Miss Ruthie had been good friends for years. He was over at her place a lot, either hanging out or doing odd jobs for her. He'd actually been over there earlier that morning at like 4 a.m. doing just that, hanging a cabinet and wrapping Christmas presents. Victor backed up Jack's story and added that when he had been over earlier that morning, he

noticed that one of Miss Ruthie's purses had actually been laying on a table. But that wasn't there anymore. Now, I'm not clear on if that was the purse that was found on the floor by the stairs, but knowing how Ruth always kept her purses upstairs, it felt like a detailed worth mentioning. He also told detectives that although Ruth lived alone, she'd been married to a man that they hadn't seen in a while. But it doesn't seem like Victor necessarily suspected the ex. And spoiler alert, police look into the ex and he isn't listed as a suspect.

But when he and Jack were asked who they thought could have killed Ruth, they both had the same answer. Without missing a beat, both men gave the name, Damon Flippin. Flippin had been staying with her off and on. She thought that Flippin had stolen some things from her, and she didn't want him back in the house. Jack and Victor told investigators that she was afraid of Damon. So much so that she wanted to get a gun to protect herself, but neither of them knew if she'd actually done that yet.

No who did know though? Ruth's sister. Detective spoke with her later that same day, and she told them that she'd recently seen a gun at Ruth's place. One that Ruth told her was a 9mm. But if that was true, it meant that her killer took off with it. Or it meant that her sister was just mistaken. No one else investigators spoke to could confirm that she'd purchased a gun.

Not even her son, Lamar, who helped fill in some of the important details about who had access to Ruth's home. He said that his mother had a key and Jack Balsman had a key. And that was the only people he knew would have a key to her residence because he got to remember the door's not broken down or anything. So I mean, she let them in. That was kind of where the investigation was leading. Did somebody with a key get in or how many people have keys or did she as his case let her kill her in. Lamar was also instrumental in helping detectives narrow down an estimate of when Ruth was killed.

narrowed down an estimate of when Ruth was killed. Talked to his mother on the telephone between noon and two. He wasn't work at the time. And one note would be okay for him to come over and do some laundry later on. And he did. He went over about 3pm that day. Knocked on the door, but no one answered. He's just estimating the time because again,

there was nothing to really say I'm going to mark this time down like him or her knocked on the door. But he said everything seemed okay." After he left, Lamar went to his grandmother's to do his laundry there and tried calling his mom a few times to check in. But she never answered or called back. Detectives believe that she was likely already deceased at that point, a fact that the coroner later confirmed.

Based on the state of her body, it's believed that her time of death was in the early afternoon. They also determined that the single gunshot to the back of her head that killed her came from pretty close range. Not point blank range, but likely within a few feet. Although she'd only been found wearing a t-shirt dress, there doesn't appear to be signs of any kind of sexual assault. At least, it's not mentioned in any of the reports that I've read. And even though they took fingernail clippings and swabs of everything they could, they didn't test them right away. Since this was back in 1999, DNA testing wasn't as readily available as it is today. What was prioritized was getting the spent shell casings off for ballistics testing,

and then entering those results into Nibin. And wouldn't you know it? When they did that, they got a hit, and all roads led back to Damon Flippin. It turned out that the gun that had been used to kill Ruth had also been used in a shootout on March 25, 1999, almost nine months before her murder. One person who was injured in that incident was none other than Damon Flippin. Here's a retired detective dud Rodrick who's working alongside Burke on this case. He was shot in the leg, and it was through and through, so no bullet was recovered, no guns recovered, but two, three-addy shell casings were recovered. Now at the time, Damon hadn't been keen on working with police to find whoever shot

him. He gave a very big description of a young black man named Leonard, but that was about it. And so the case just fizzled. And really, it wasn't even clear if he'd been shot with the 380, or if he had been the one using it. But Detective Rodrick says that he has a strong feeling he knows who had it. He had to have been the one that had the 380. I mean, it doesn't He had to have been the one who had the 380. I mean, it doesn't make a lot of sense the other way. Unless he's lying about Leonard. And he very well could have been.

With such a vague description of Leonard, it's totally possible that Leonard didn't exist, and Damon was making up a name to keep police off his trail. How he got shot with his own gun is beyond me, but like Roderick said, not a whole lot else makes sense. Either way, once that niban hit came back, he wasn't just linked to Ruth through word of mouth, he was forensically linked to her as well. So detectives tracked him down and finally brought him in for an interview. But he did not want to talk.

Not about Ruth, not about his shooting, nothing. And with no way to prove that he shot Ruth, or even a way to prove he owned a 380, they had to let him go. Even despite the fact that they had a report come in saying that a man matching Damon's description was seen walking around Dayton on the day of Ruth's murder with a 380 handgun. Slowly over the coming months, her case began to grow cold. Damon was still suspect number one, but he remained uncooperative. It was one of those frustrating cases where investigators just needed one more piece of

the puzzle to tie it all together. Fingerprints proof maybe Damon owned a 380 and I witnessed putting him at the scene of the crime when it happened to anything, but there was none of that. And that could have been where Roof's story ended. Had another homicide, with eerie similarities not occurred almost a year later. On November 18, 2000, a man named Jaronne Ball, who went by Buck, was murdered in his home in Dayton, less than a mile from Ruth's home. Shell casings were recovered at the scene, and when Ballistics came back, it turned out that he had been killed with the same gun that had killed Ruth. But unlike Ruth's homicide, I'm not sure if there was anyone who could point to a potential suspect.

It would stand to reason that Damon Flippin was likely considered, and I'm sure the similarities of them both being shot in the back of the head wasn't lost on investigators either. But the information that we have about the investigation into his homicide is murky, which is so frustrating. I mean, they had two homicides, plus a non-fatal shooting that all involved the same gun, and that gun was likely in the possession of the man numerous witnesses said may have wanted to hurt Ruth. I mean, it feels like there's a there there, right?

But it just wasn't that simple. So years began to pass. 2000, turned into 2001, 2002, 3, 4, but then finally something popped in 2005. That's when a young man that we've been asked to call Dave came forward and told police that he knew who killed Ruth Carter, and it wasn't Damon Flippin. Now at first, it seems like the officer here originally spoke to didn't take him very seriously.

They, at some point in time, voluntarily entered himself into a mental health facility, which can cause some concern, but that's not uncommon either for someone. You're given a lot of information, like about a lot of people, there are murderers, of just going somewhere where we are a little safer. When that officer compared the details Dave gave to the incident report about Ruth's murder, they realized there might have been more to his story than they first thought. So homicide investigators brought him in for an interview. He claimed that two people he knew were responsible for Ruth's death.

Two young men that were going to call Mike and Tony. And he says that a third man, Justin Turner supplied the gun, which he described as being a 32, not a 380. But that piece wasn't too concerning to investigators, because a 32 is actually the same size as a 380, so it's easy to mistake one for the other. Dages gives information. Kind of generalistic stuff on Mike and Tony and Justin that they were in

and out of prisons. He believed Tony was in for drugs. He's not sure what Mike was in for, but they all have been released. He says that Tony actually shot Ruth Carter and that Mike was there and that Justin Turner had provided the gun. Speaking of that 380, Dave told investigators Mike had actually been the one who killed Buck with that same gun, but he says the gun wasn't around anymore. After Buck's murder, it was thrown into a river

that runs through Island Metro Park on the north side of downtown Dayton, when asked why they'd killed Ruth. Dave said it was all for drugs. They all bought from her and Mike and Tony thought that she had a large stash. Large enough that they were willing to kill for it. He told detectives that Ruth didn't end up having the drugs that Mike and Tony wanted. In fact, all they could find was 500 bucks which they split evenly between them. Dave also mentioned that Roops homicide really impacted Tony specifically. So much so that he'd even walked in once on Tony trying to take his own life,

but he hadn't, and he was still alive, as was Mike. The thing is, back then, no one ran with this, likely because Dave had admitted himself to that psychiatric facility. Now, it's not a big deal to the current detectives today, but back then, it was a big deal. And so, no one ever spoke to Tony or Mike about Ruth or Bucks Murders.

They don't seem to have even searched the river for the gun. They also weren't interviewed when just in turner, the man Dave said supplied Mike and Tony with the weapon that killed Ruth, was murdered himself nearly a year later in 2006, with a 9mm, which if you remember is the same type of gun that may or may not have been taken from Ruth's home. But again, even then, nothing happened. Justin's case went cold and Ruth and Bucks just got colder. By 2008, in an effort to drum up something, those fingernail clippings and swabs from Ruth's autopsy were finally tested, along with cigarettes found in the ash tray.

And they did yield some interesting results. He says that because this wasn't an up close and personal crime, it's possible Ruth died without ever making contact with her killer. But the cigarettes came back with three profiles too, and they think that might mean something. Now the profiles from the cigarettes don't match the unknown male DNA from her fingernails. They don't know what that means just yet if anything. But they do think it's important to find the people who have the same DNA profiles as the ones found on the cigarettes. Because that at least puts those people in her home. They submitted all the DNA to Kodis, but that

was another dead end. Maybe if they ever got Mike Ortoni's DNA for comparison, it could at least prove that they were in her apartment around the time she was killed. But if what Dave said back in 2005 was true, I mean, they all bought drugs from Ruth anyway, so then being in her home wasn't exactly proof of her murder. And speaking of Dave, in 2008, he wanted to talk again.

Dayton investigators were contacted by police in Zinha, Ohio, roughly 20 minutes away. Zinha said they had Dave there on a domestic violence charge, and he wanted to give them information on a few murders, hopefully to help him out of the DV case. Ruth's case was one of them, and this time, he gave them a lot more to work with. Dave says that my contoni told her that there was a mouse in the house, and she should look down.

They said there's the mouse. So when she looked down, Tony shotted in the back of the head. She took a breath and then fell down. Dave, he said it was on the news that they found her. He adds then that the money they got, again he already said $500. He's been consistent, within a black pouch that they took from her. The comment about the mouse peaked their interest because if you remember, that's the whole reason Jack said he'd gone over to Ruth to begin with, to get the mouse. Only someone who knew her or had talked to her close to the time of her death would have

known that. It also struck investigators how similar his 2008 statement was compared to the one he gave in 2005. Now, in sure, some details were a little different, but the core of his story never changed. He just elaborated on the details. He also spoke in more detail on the motive. He says that the big dope boys, mean the suppliers for all of them came to Miss Ruthie's house and so they were hoping that the big dope boys had

given her a lot of dope to sell so they're hoping for more than what they got but there were a number of reasons to go there that night. He added in 2008 that Miss Ruthie got her drugs from the same guys that they went to all the time. So I mean, they're all intertwined in the drug world. Now you might be wondering how Dave knew all this. Well, he says that the day Ruth was killed, he and his cousin, who he wouldn't name, were sitting on the stairs at their house smoking when suddenly Mike and Tony burst through the door. They didn't seem to realize that Dave and his cousin were there and they were talking

about Ruth's murder and how they had taken the $500 and a small amount of weed from her. In that moment, Dave said he didn't really know what to think. But later, they saw that Ruth's homicide had made the local news, and then he realized that they had been serious. So, you'd think that this would push investigators to actually bring Mike and Tony in for an interview, right? Wrong. Apparently Dave's previous admittance to that psychiatric facility was still giving people pause in 2008, same as it did in 2005. And the same thing happened when he came forward in 2010 again, with pretty much the same story.

Although this time he did name that cousin he was on the stairs with. We're gonna call that cousin Sam. And, this time around, Dave didn't just have information on Ruth's murder. He told them how Bucks murder happened, too. Dave says in relationship to Bucks homicide, he said he had an ounce of crack and the money that he wanted for it, Sam thought was outrageous to have to pay. So they tricked him into a deal and Tony went into the bathroom and came out. It was at that point Sam said, look out the window, I think the police are coming.

And Sam said when he looked out the window he shot him and then he ran out with the doe and a little bit of money and two bags of weed. So it's the same gun and it's the same ammo of getting the tension diverted to something else so their back is exposed and they can shoot them in the back and kill them and take what they want and leave. Day touched on one more murder in his 2010 statement, just in turners in 2006. Now Justin had been in prison and had gotten out shortly before his death. And according to date, it was Tony and Mike who'd killed him, possibly so he wouldn't tell anyone that they had been responsible for Ruth's death.

Now like I said earlier, Justin had been killed with a 9mm, and even though that's a common caliber, Detective Burke thinks that he knows where they got it. Justin is shot and killed with a 9mm, it's a far stretch but he's incremental and involved in all three of these others in one way or another on the outside or the inside and a 9mm taken from Carter's homicide. Now I know that was a lot of information so let me just give you a quick recap. According to Dave, you got these three guys, Mike, Tony, and his cousin Sam. Dave claimed that Mike was involved in the murders of Ruth Carter in 1999 and just in Turner in 2006.

Tony was involved in Ruth Carter's murder, Justin Turner's murder, and Buck Bahl's murder in 2000, and then there's Sam, who Dave said was involved in only Bucks homicide What is the common denominator besides the evidence in all these they all sell drugs Including Miss Ruthie. It's what you're known as with Carter who's 60 the 380 casings match Carter ball in flipping The only one that wasn't killed by the 380 is Justin Turner. He's killed with a 9mm and there was a 9mm taken in the Ruth Carter homicide. Don't know if it's same because we never had it before and we don't have it now. Now I'm sure by this point you can probably guess what I'm going to say next.

Mike, Tony and Sam weren't brought in for interviews. Neither the 380, nor the 9mm were found, and there wasn't even a search for them. They all went on to serve sentences for other charges. Tony's actually still incarcerated on an aggravated robbery charge from 2015, which brought up kind of an interesting point for me. Since aggravated robbery is a felony, his DNA should be in codis, I would hope.

Which means that they should be able to compare his DNA to the sample from under Ruth's fingernails and the ones on the cigarettes. But retired detectives Berk and Roddrick told our reporter that it's not always that cut and dry. Yes, they should have his DNA. But hold up in the system, or just a lack of due diligence, might mean that it's still not in the system. It's something that they want to double check just to be sure. But until they do, Ruth's murder, and Bucks and Justin's all remain unsolved. And how Damon Flippin's shooting fits into all of this is still a bit of a mystery

on its own as well. They don't think Damon killed Ruth, but maybe if they knew more about his shooting, it would help. Burke and Rodric have plans to re-interview Dave, and to finally bring Tony and Mike in for interviews. They also want to compare those DNA samples to the guys in question just in case any of them match. Additionally, they're hopeful that the attention the debt can bring to Ruth's case might help them put together the final few pieces of this puzzle. No one, I could say, was some certainty certainty had ever put out these cases were involved together or linked together by anything I guarantee you that's never been made public knowledge until now

But I think it's been official and trying to solve it If you have any information about the murder of Ruth Carter or any of the other cases I mentioned Jeron Buckball or Justin Turner Please call the Dayton Police Department cold Case Unit at 937-333-7109. The Deck is an audio chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?