True Urban Legends: Candyman, with Ashley Flowers

·33 min·3 clips

Ashley Flowers reveals the real-life murder behind the Candyman legend and dares you to say his name five times in a mirror.

This episode is part of a special October series called True Urban Legends, where each week a different host examines a classic urban legend and its true story. Guest host Ashley Flowers, known from Crime Junkie, presents the case of Candyman. The legend originated from a 1992 Hollywood film, but the episode reveals it may have roots in the real-life murder of Ruthie Mae McCoy. Ruthie lived in ABLA public housing on Chicago's south side in 1987, an area plagued by the crack epidemic and high crime. On April 22, 1987, she called 911 frantically reporting intruders trying to break into her apartment through the bathroom. Police dismissed the call as a neighbor disturbance and did not respond promptly. Neighbors later reported gunshots, but officers waited hours and then left without entering her apartment. Ruthie was found dead 48 hours later, shot four times. Investigators discovered the killers had entered through a hole behind her medicine cabinet, a known security flaw in the building. The case received little media attention until this bizarre detail emerged. Two men were charged but acquitted due to insufficient evidence, leaving the murder unsolved. The episode contextualizes the crime within the violent environment of ABLA housing, where residents faced high rates of assault and murder, and distrusted law enforcement. Reporter Steve Bogira covered the case extensively for the Chicago Reader. His article caught the attention of actor John Malkovich, who considered adapting it into a film. The Candyman movie parallels Ruthie's story, with a setting in Chicago public housing and a victim named Ruthie Jean. The episode concludes by reflecting on how urban legends can stem from real tragedies, emphasizing the social and racial issues underlying both the crime and the film.

As heard by us

A Chicago apartment murder gives the legend its ugliest hardware.

This True Urban Legends episode uses Ruthie Mae McCoy's murder to pull an urban legend back into apartment-level detail, from the missing phone to the break-in through a bathroom medicine cabinet.

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If you like your urban legends with a true story behind them, press play.

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