OH OH - Ruth Baumgardner, 21, Delaware, 4 May 1937

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

JeannieC said:
I just located and article that I know I haven't seen before. It might already be posted but I missed it if it was. Interesting article about Ruth hitchhiking, having a car accident and her companion being killed, ending up in Cal and having no memory prior to the accident...........

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...sNAAAAIBAJ&dq=coed missing oh&pg=3852,5309271
Click to expand...

Interesting article. I'd like to know the timeline for the hitchhiking and NM sightings. I guess it could be possible that Ruth took off after that brothel was busted?

I'm curious about the logistics of fitting 6 people into a typical car from the 1930s. I'm not terribly familiar with old cars, and it seems to me that even with one bound and gagged, there would be too many people to fit into the car. If Ruth was bound and gagged, and was in the trunk, could five adults reasonably fit into a 1930s car? Does anyone know about these types of cars? For some reason, I'm thinking that cars in the 30s were much smaller than the big boaty cars of the 50s (which I think would have been able to hold 6 adults). I could be wrong though, since I know nothing about old cars.
 
Here's a link to some 1937 sedans. I think I read that they were driving a sedan. Might not have been a 1937 but I doubt if they changed that much from year to year.

It would have been a tight squeeze for 6 people IF they were large people. Sereno and Marzulla were Italian and looked thin. They would fit easily in the front seat a little snugger with a slender woman. Ford and Johnson looked bigger but who knows. One in the trunk would fit.

I saw a "pay for article" that said someone went to NM to check the signature on the register that someone signed, "Baumgardner, Ohio". I couldn't read the results but it seems like it wasn't a match. Or possibly her father didn't let it get out.

http://www.google.com/search?q=1937...FJ43rgQeMt729DQ&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=586
 
One thing that would puzzles me IF the hitchhiking story is true........what did she do for money. She had to eat. If she was with a guy he might have paid but once he was killed what did she do?

If this is true and she made it to San Francisco she could still have ended up in a brothel or she might not have made it past Pompano, Ca.

Her family could have gotten her from Ca and then sent her to a insane asylum. Its a real mystery that I hope someone solves!
 
JeannieC said:
One thing that puzzles me IF the hitchhiking story is true........what did she do for money. She had to eat. If she was with a guy he might have paid but once he was killed what did she do?

If this is true and she made it to San Francisco she could still have ended up in a brothel or she might not have made it past Pompano, Ca.

Her family could have gotten her from Ca and then sent her to a insane asylum. Its a real mystery that I hope someone solves!
Click to expand...

Her father said she had amnesia........... I wonder what the time line is from the time he said that and the sighting in Sonoma, Ca?
 
JeannieC said:
One thing that would puzzles me IF the hitchhiking story is true........what did she do for money. She had to eat. If she was with a guy he might have paid but once he was killed what did she do?

If this is true and she made it to San Francisco she could still have ended up in a brothel or she might not have made it past Pompano, Ca.

Her family could have gotten her from Ca and then sent her to a insane asylum. Its a real mystery that I hope someone solves!
Click to expand...

If it is true, then perhaps she sold some jewelry along the way? I wonder if she had an engagement ring? She could have sold her sorority pin-those usually cost around $200 and up, and are almost always made of real gold and can have pearls, diamonds, etc added to them. I was not in the same sorority as Ruth, but I was a member of another national sorority that was around at the same time as Ruth. Old pins turn up from past generations, and they're still worth a lot of money. Many of them have gemstones, pearls, etc. If she sold this and an engagement ring, it might have allowed her to head west.

Where is Pompano, CA? I'm from California, and I've never heard of it. I tried to google it, and it gave me an office park in Foster City, which I don't believe would have been around in the 30s (and Foster City is an upscale suburb of SF).

Thank you for the car info! Those cars don't look to me like they'd fit six adults. I'm a short-ish person, and I don't think that six of me would fit. I could be wrong though.
 
Just read the article that Jeannie posted. I guess Ruth didn't have an engagement ring at the time of her disappearance. Her fiance was having his grandmother's ring reset and was planning to give it to Ruth at her graduation.

She could have sold her sorority pin if she needed money, though. I wonder if that was missing from her belongings? I don't know what else she could have done for money to travel (outside of getting money from illegal activity).

Edit: and apparently her sorority pin was found in her room. Never mind, lol. I also wonder how she got money if she did travel west.
 
marie-chantal said:
If it is true, then perhaps she sold some jewelry along the way? I wonder if she had an engagement ring? She could have sold her sorority pin-those usually cost around $200 and up, and are almost always made of real gold and can have pearls, diamonds, etc added to them. I was not in the same sorority as Ruth, but I was a member of another national sorority that was around at the same time as Ruth. Old pins turn up from past generations, and they're still worth a lot of money. Many of them have gemstones, pearls, etc. If she sold this and an engagement ring, it might have allowed her to head west.

Where is Pompano, CA? I'm from California, and I've never heard of it. I tried to google it, and it gave me an office park in Foster City, which I don't believe would have been around in the 30s (and Foster City is an upscale suburb of SF).

Thank you for the car info! Those cars don't look to me like they'd fit six adults. I'm a short-ish person, and I don't think that six of me would fit. I could be wrong though.
Click to expand...



Pompano is just south of San Francisco. I went to a map to find it. Looks like a small town.

She could have sold jewelry if she had any but the reports of her belongings all being left in her room sounded like she left everything behind. I think her mother would have mentioned missing jewelry. I wonder if she had been saving her money.
 
JeannieC said:
White Slavery Ring Busted

I'd love to know the names of the girls found!
http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...FAAAAIBAJ&dq=white slavery oh&pg=2114,5257393
Click to expand...

Great find! I wonder what ever happened to Bernice? I know that she had an alias, but I suppose that it's possible that she had more than 1 alias. I wonder if she was involved in this ring as a recruiter or captor? I know that this is a few years after Ruth, but it's highly likely that given the type of crime and the location that some of the same people could be involved. I'd like to know where Ruth was during this time. If she had been involved in something like this, then it's not too far-fetched to believe that she could have ended up on the other side of this type of crime (some victims have been known to turn to crime themselves later on).
 
marie-chantal said:
Great find! I wonder what ever happened to Bernice? I know that she had an alias, but I suppose that it's possible that she had more than 1 alias. I wonder if she was involved in this ring as a recruiter or captor? I know that this is a few years after Ruth, but it's highly likely that given the type of crime and the location that some of the same people could be involved. I'd like to know where Ruth was during this time. If she had been involved in something like this, then it's not too far-fetched to believe that she could have ended up on the other side of this type of crime (some victims have been known to turn to crime themselves later on).
Click to expand...


I wondered the same thing. Could Bernice be a recruiter and could Ruth have switched sides and joined the predators. (That is assuming that Ruth was a victim of white slavery) Ruth was educated, pretty, well spoken, and lets be honest, if given a choice between servicing a lot of strangers or having the freedom to get out and do something else which would most people do. Its not like she could ever get away from her captors. She was probably convinced that her family would be killed if she ever tried. She probably would have believed her family would never take her back after being a sex-slave. jmo
 
I was curious as to the location of Portsmouth. It's in the southern part of OH, not far from WV and KY. It's basically directly south from Delaware, which was where Ruth was last seen. Let's plot out our supposed sightings of Ruth. We've got Delaware, Portsmouth, supposed sightings of Ruth hitchhiking in the southern US-TN was where a truck driver thought he picked up Ruth and a man called Frenchie, TX and NC. Then we've got the shooting in Steubenville, which is near the border with PA. There's also the supposed sighting of Ruth in Zanesville, OH right after her disappearance with a man wearing a "letter sweater". Zanesville is (today, thanks to the freeway system, which wasn't around during Ruth's time) 1.5 hours from Delaware. I'm trying to see if there's a pattern here, but I'm not able to see anything. Due to transportation back then, I tend to think that Ruth probably didn't get very far. I tend to discredit the sightings of her in the south. Zanesville, Steubenville, and possibly Portsmouth (if she was involved in this) are somewhat close to each other. Maybe someone else can see a pattern. I'm not too familiar with OH and those towns are the only thing I can see that could be connected due to their proximity to each other.

By the way, I got most of the location info from this link that JeannieC posted earlier:
http://plus.familylink.com/viewnews...1,+Zanesville,+Ohio,+United+States+Of+America
 
Forgot to mention-Ohio State University is located in Columbus, which is the biggest city in between Delaware and Zanesville. She was supposedly seen walking with a man in a letter sweater. Maybe she met a boy from OSU through a sorority event. Maybe she ran off to meet him, things didn't work out, perhaps she was then trying to get back to her school, and was kidnapped by the Steubenville gang? Or if we take the Steubenville men out of the equation, maybe the boy she met in the letter sweater did something to her? Maybe he was a bad guy who turned her over to the guys who secured women for brothels? It seems more likely to me that she would run off to meet a boy who was in her social class than a random guy from Pittsburgh who was a bit on the rough side-like Masulla, Sereno, et al. She might have thought that letter sweater was a harmless boy whom she could trust, and that she had a crush on. This might have been why she let down her guard.
 
I checked a lot of white slavery articles from 1935 through 1950 and remember reading one with a Frenchman who was busted. I believe it was in one of J Edgar Hoover stings. I can't seem to find it again and that bugs me. Remember Frenchie? From all I read she could have been taken anywhere in the USA or even out of the country. That was a really big thing back then. (Hate to believe it but it still is.)
 
In one of my trashy 'true-life' magazines that I was reading this morning, there was a feature called Psychic Detective, where medium Bernie Howard 'solves the unsolvable crimes'. This week's featured case was that of Ruth Baumgardner, so I thought I'd share with you her views on what happened to Ruth (I've checked the magazine's website but there doesn't appear to be an online copy of the article, I hope it's OK that I just type it out for you!). Most of the article is just a summary of the case, with a picture of Ruth and her (or a) car. Here's what Bernie thinks happened:

'Despite the stress she was under, Ruth did not run away, or commit suicide. But she did get up in the early hours unable to sleep and decided, fatefully, to go for a walk.
She was standing on a corner, gathering her thoughts, when a car pulled up and a man asked her if she needed a lift. Ruth had a bad feeling - after all, it was late and this was a stranger, so she lied.
"I'm meeting someone," she said.
"Yeah, me," he'd snarled back, leaping out.
Now [Ruth] tearfully explains what happened. "He jumped out and grabbed me," she sobs to me. "I kicked and screamed, but there was a second man in the car and he held me down while they drugged me."
They took her to a dingy, rundown house, where she was forced to sleep with strangers for money. Her kidnappers held her against her will for decades, discarding her on the streets when she got too old.
Ruth lived out the rest of her years homeless - never to be the successful woman she might have been.'
 
Han-Tastic said:
In one of my trashy 'true-life' magazines that I was reading this morning, there was a feature called Psychic Detective, where medium Bernie Howard 'solves the unsolvable crimes'. This week's featured case was that of Ruth Baumgardner, so I thought I'd share with you her views on what happened to Ruth (I've checked the magazine's website but there doesn't appear to be an online copy of the article, I hope it's OK that I just type it out for you!). Most of the article is just a summary of the case, with a picture of Ruth and her (or a) car. Here's what Bernie thinks happened:

'Despite the stress she was under, Ruth did not run away, or commit suicide. But she did get up in the early hours unable to sleep and decided, fatefully, to go for a walk.
She was standing on a corner, gathering her thoughts, when a car pulled up and a man asked her if she needed a lift. Ruth had a bad feeling - after all, it was late and this was a stranger, so she lied.
"I'm meeting someone," she said.
"Yeah, me," he'd snarled back, leaping out.
Now [Ruth] tearfully explains what happened. "He jumped out and grabbed me," she sobs to me. "I kicked and screamed, but there was a second man in the car and he held me down while they drugged me."
They took her to a dingy, rundown house, where she was forced to sleep with strangers for money. Her kidnappers held her against her will for decades, discarding her on the streets when she got too old.
Ruth lived out the rest of her years homeless - never to be the successful woman she might have been.'
Click to expand...

Wow! If that is true it is very sad. There was another co-ed that went missing about the same time as Ruth and forced prostitution was very prevalent during that time so it is possible in both cases.

It would be great to know for certain at least for those of us who care about things like this. The mystery...............
 
Han-Tastic said:
Here's what Bernie thinks happened:

'Despite the stress she was under, Ruth did not run away, or commit suicide. But she did get up in the early hours unable to sleep and decided, fatefully, to go for a walk.
She was standing on a corner, gathering her thoughts, when a car pulled up and a man asked her if she needed a lift. Ruth had a bad feeling - after all, it was late and this was a stranger, so she lied.
"I'm meeting someone," she said.
"Yeah, me," he'd snarled back, leaping out.
Now [Ruth] tearfully explains what happened. "He jumped out and grabbed me," she sobs to me. "I kicked and screamed, but there was a second man in the car and he held me down while they drugged me."
They took her to a dingy, rundown house, where she was forced to sleep with strangers for money. Her kidnappers held her against her will for decades, discarding her on the streets when she got too old.
Ruth lived out the rest of her years homeless - never to be the successful woman she might have been.'
Click to expand...

This is basically exact to one of the stories reported about Ruth. I believe it's cited further up in the thread but I'll be honest--I'm too lazy to go look for it. It's kind of funny, actually. Makes you wonder that the psychic heard it too.
 
Han-Tastic said:
In one of my trashy 'true-life' magazines that I was reading this morning, there was a feature called Psychic Detective, where medium Bernie Howard 'solves the unsolvable crimes'. This week's featured case was that of Ruth Baumgardner, so I thought I'd share with you her views on what happened to Ruth (I've checked the magazine's website but there doesn't appear to be an online copy of the article, I hope it's OK that I just type it out for you!). Most of the article is just a summary of the case, with a picture of Ruth and her (or a) car. Here's what Bernie thinks happened:

'Despite the stress she was under, Ruth did not run away, or commit suicide. But she did get up in the early hours unable to sleep and decided, fatefully, to go for a walk.
She was standing on a corner, gathering her thoughts, when a car pulled up and a man asked her if she needed a lift. Ruth had a bad feeling - after all, it was late and this was a stranger, so she lied.
"I'm meeting someone," she said.
"Yeah, me," he'd snarled back, leaping out.
Now [Ruth] tearfully explains what happened. "He jumped out and grabbed me," she sobs to me. "I kicked and screamed, but there was a second man in the car and he held me down while they drugged me."
They took her to a dingy, rundown house, where she was forced to sleep with strangers for money. Her kidnappers held her against her will for decades, discarding her on the streets when she got too old.
Ruth lived out the rest of her years homeless - never to be the successful woman she might have been.'
Click to expand...

Intereting.
Dumb question.....I'm just wondering about the psychic.... Was this person speaking as Ruth or is Ruth telling her stoy through him? Was he possessed by Ruth? Is this person a medium who speaks to the dead?
It just sounded like the story is being told in the first person. If so it would be cool if he could have gotten more information like locations and date of death.
 
momtolil said:
Intereting.
Dumb question.....I'm just wondering about the psychic.... Was this person speaking as Ruth or is Ruth telling her stoy through him? Was he possessed by Ruth? Is this person a medium who speaks to the dead?
It just sounded like the story is being told in the first person. If so it would be cool if he could have gotten more information like locations and date of death.
Click to expand...

I think Ruth was telling her story to the psychic, who then recounted it, if you see what I mean.

I don't really have an opinion on psychics either way, I just found it interesting that a lot of the information she included in her article had already been discussed in this thread... On the one hand I guess you could be cynical about it and say that this 'psychic' stole her idea of what happened to Ruth from sites like this, or it could be that this scenario really DID happen. Who knows ;)

If she really did have an other-worldly conversation with Ruth, I just wish she could have got the names of those who took her, you know? At least to give us something!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2022)?

Members online

... and 170 more.
Total: 2,543 (members: 171, guests: 2,372)

Online statistics

Members online
171
Guests online
2,372
Total visitors
2,543
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
603,407
Messages
18,156,016
Members
231,721
Latest member
poohgirl2001w
Back
Top