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Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick, and
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with me as always is a man that knows that the Zapruder film was edited, and it turns out JFK shot first. He is the
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Captain. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's good to be seen, and it's good to see
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All right, Captain, that's enough of the business. Everybody gather around, grab
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a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Late June, 1999. A woman finds a body near cornfield off
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a rural road just about 20 miles north of St. Louis. Investigators are quick to make an
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identification. However, the medical examiner is uncertain as to how the man has died.
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Police have their theories and suspicions. They believe the man had been killed somewhere else and dumped in a spot
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between the road and cornfield. The man was 41-year-old Ricky McCormick, a loner.
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His friends called him a vampire because he would leave home after the sun went down and not return until it was coming
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up again. Ricky had a checkered past and a police record. Some suspect he may have been dealing
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drugs. Ricky was associated with some bad people. Is it possible that Ricky's past, or the
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circles that he may be running in, led to his death? Ricky was always a little odd,
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but leading up to his death, he was behaving especially strange. Did Ricky know he was in trouble?
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And if so, did he know who was after him? Why didn't Ricky seek the help of others
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around him? Did Ricky fear that his loved ones would be in danger if they knew what he knew?
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After his death, police discovered some strange clues. Clues that suggest Ricky knew who was
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after him and why. This is the case of Ricky McCormick. June 30th, 1999, near West Alton,
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Missouri, a woman is driving her car on a road off of Route 67. There is a large
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cornfield that runs along the side of this road. Well, she spots something in the open part of the field. The kind of
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find that is going to ruin the rest of your day, Captain. It appears to be a dead human body.
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Police are called to the scene and they find what most reports say, a body that was very badly decomposed.
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Later, the authorities used fingerprints to identify the body to be that of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick. McCormick
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was a high school dropout who had held multiple addresses in the Missouri-Illinois regions of St. Louis,
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Belleville, and Fairview Heights. At the time of his death, Ricky worked and lived about 20 miles from where his body
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was found. Ricky did not drive or own a vehicle, so finding his body there was strange in
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itself. Mhm. Due to the decomposition of the body, the medical examiner could find no cause of death. There was no
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indication that anyone would have a motive to kill Ricky McCormick, and no one had even reported him missing.
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So, the authorities at the time initially ruled out homicide. But, keep in mind, his body where I have
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an issue with this, Captain, is his body is found almost 20 miles from where he lived and worked. Right. is the reason
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that he was miles away from his current address? And as we said, he did not own a vehicle
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and the area that he was found in, there is no public transportation in that area. He didn't take a bus to get there.
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He wasn't reported missing, which is strange as well. Now, Ricky McCormick, he was last seen alive just 3 days
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earlier before his body was found. The body was found on June 30th. So, when the reports come out that his body was
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badly decomposed, I'm thinking that they mean in relation to either when Ricky was last seen or
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when they believe the time of death to be. Now, both of these would be on the 27th,
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just 3 days earlier. So, was this a murder? Wasn't this area known to be a dumping ground
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for Yeah. Yeah, police would later say that this was a dumping ground for quote known criminal activity. Mhm. But it was
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also very hot, so the decomposition could have happened quicker because of the temperatures.
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And Possibly, yeah. So, let's go through this. I actually looked up the weather report for that week that he was
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missing. So, uh some reports state that he went missing on the 25th. We now know
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that not to be true. There there are reports that would later come out that he was seen on the 26th and then the
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27th. Mhm. So, let's start with the 27th. That was a Sunday and it's June, it's the end
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of June, so you would expect a hot day. 90° was the high, Captain, and 69° was the low.
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So, a pretty warm day on that day. Now, on Monday the 28th, 86° was the high, 71
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was the low, and then on Tuesday, June 29th, 75° and 62°. So, the 29th is not particularly hot, I would say. 75 being
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the high, 62 the low. There was no rain uh uh on two of those days and a very light rain on the Monday before he was
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found on that Wednesday, June 30th. Here's the thing that that jumps off the page to me is when we hear the
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description of this area of where his body was found. Now, I know that that we said a country road, okay? So, probably
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not traveled often or, you know, you wouldn't expect a lot of traffic going through there.
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Right. However, this body doesn't seem to be concealed in any manner. There's a cornfield near this road. If somebody
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wanted to conceal him, you could have put him in the cornfield. Mhm. However, it looks to me like somebody just pulled
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up and dumped him. That that he would have been killed elsewhere and dumped in this area because it states he's found
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in an area an open area in a grassy area between the country road and the cornfield. Now, keep in mind the person
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that found him, first discovered this body, she's not she's not looking for anything. She's not walking alongside
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the road when she spots this body. She's driving. So, it it to me seems like it's
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right out in the open where just about anybody, if you were traveling during daylight on that road, that you would
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see his body. It's never a mannequin. Right. Right. Right. It's never. Well, I was actually very
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happy that when I found reports about this, no one mentioned the word mannequin because they always do.
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Um the thing though that gets me, Captain, is I think this has to be a murder. And
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I'll tell you why. Because I think that if he would have somehow died there, Mhm. you know, let's forget about how he
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would have got there. Let's say he manages to get there or he's there for some reason and he dies there. Yeah,
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okay. Let's just stay on that point real quick. Okay. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities that this
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individual that does not have a car and probably has multiple times used his feet as transportation.
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Oh, of course. that it's not out of the realm of possibilities that he would travel. Now,
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this is a far This would be a very long walk. Mhm. Um this would take several hours.
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Right. Well, this was a man, too, that was known to hitch rides. And I And I don't I I say hitch rides because that's
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how his family described it. I don't think of him as a hitchhiker, but this would be somebody that would wouldn't
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would often ask people for a ride. Right. so he could have got a portion of the way without even walking. Exactly. So,
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let's forget about how he could have got there, because we we both agree he he could have potentially got there, right?
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This is what I have a problem with. If he would have somehow died of natural causes at that spot on the 20 He was
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last seen on the 27th. Mhm. His body was badly decomposed, and we're stating So, you can't say like, all
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right, he managed to get there, and he didn't die until the 29th or the 30th. He probably most likely died on the
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27th, when they believe the time of death to be. If he died and fell in that spot, I think he would have been found
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before the 30th. You know, we have 2 and 1/2 3 days go by. His body wasn't concealed in any manner at all. Somebody
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else would have spotted this body. Possibly, but I I guarantee you there was people that drove by that body. She
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wasn't the first person that drove by the body and said, "Oh my god, it's a body."
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So, my other thought, too, Mhm. is regarding the badly decomposed body. I I don't think that we're seeing
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temperatures or the elements being harsh enough to expedite the decomposition to this point.
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I think I think what we're looking at is that he was killed elsewhere, and he was
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kept somewhere, and probably dumped in off the side of the road in the middle of the night before she found him the
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next day at daylight. Yeah, the temperatures weren't that hot. I also just question, you know, this
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Ricky seemed a little bit of a loner and yeah, they have eyewitness reports saying that they saw him 3 days earlier.
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But there's a lot of people that mistaken, you know, can be mistaken when they Oh, yeah, I saw him on Thursday,
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but you actually didn't you saw him on Monday. So that is a possibility. Well, and the thing I think here,
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Captain, this is just my suspicion. What would speed up the decomposition process?
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If he was in somebody's trunk, in the trunk of somebody's car for a for a couple days, it would get it would get
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quite a bit hotter in that trunk in that vehicle. Yeah. And that could speed that up. So, I think that might be
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what we're looking at. But what we do know we're looking at here, Captain, is that they do eventually change this to a
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homicide investigation. And I think what we have is, you know, when Well, let's let's talk about that for a little
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bit because initially the the coroner couldn't really figure out the time of death.
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Mhm. Um cuz the autopsy I don't think was done correctly. They also didn't state it was a homicide
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at the initial um autopsy. Right. They just said he died. How? We don't know. Well, they they were actively
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investigating a homicide in this situation. And what I why though? Because your coroner comes
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out and says, we don't know how he died. Right. Right? And then so they're actively pursuing it
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as a murder investigation, but why? We have no cause of death. Well, because they did change it to
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possible homicide. Right, this is where the case to me just starts getting weird.
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Right right from the get-go. Well, is is that you have one person saying we don't know how he died and then later
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on, we have the FBI coming out saying, "He died by a gunshot." So, how was that gunshot not found in
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the first autopsy? We have the I We do have the FBI stating that. I found one local report of the police a police
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officer stating that the man appeared to have suffered a head injury. Now, they don't go into specifics on the head
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injury. What my guess is, Captain, is that either A, you're right, and this this
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examination was not done properly, or B, it was conducted properly, that they don't come up with a
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cause of death. Mhm. And so, what happens in a lot of these cases, and we've seen it in other cases, I believe
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it was the Bill Comings case as well, where if they're not certain as to the cause of death,
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you got to keep in mind, they're making that recommendation based off of the evidence that's in front of them, off of
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the information that they have at the time. So, if they examine the body and they say, "Well, we can't determine that
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this was a homicide, it's an unknown cause of death." Well, then the investigators, the
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detectives that that responded to finding this body, come to the medical examiner and say, "Look,
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from our trained eye, from our years of expertise in this area, we feel we have a homicide here. And why? Because we
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suspect this, this, this, and this." That's why I think in that first report we see where it says
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he it wasn't known, you know, he didn't seem to have any known enemies. Or they couldn't find any known motive for
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somebody to want to kill him. So, I think what we have here though is I think we have the police and the
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investigators going back to the medical examiner and saying a couple things. One, we think he was killed elsewhere.
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Why do we think that? My guess is that they they share my thought that his body probably would have been found earlier
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Had he Had he remained there for days. The other thing, too, is the speeding up of the decomposition to the body. You
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know, that didn't just happen on its own. And if you can if you can prove or if you can say that, you know what, the
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the natural elements, the elements in the weather at at that time and that place did not speed up this process at
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all, then he has to have been elsewhere for a portion of his death. Well, then um Ricky, wasn't he known to have some
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health issues? Yes, he did have some health issues and I think that's what led to some of this
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confusion. You know, he had um some asthma issues and he had some heart issues, as well.
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Well, I'll tell you what, let's let's go through his background. Let's go through
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uh the timeline leading up to what I'm going to go ahead and call a murder. Well, you have every right to do that. I
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mean, that's what the FBI calls it. Okay. Well, Ricky was born June 14th, 1958. Uh he grew up living in the St. Louis
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area and he lived there throughout different times of his adult life. In fact, his address at the time of his
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death was a St. Louis address. His mother, Frankie Sparks, describes her son as challenged. Now, I have some
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questions about the relationship that he had with his mother. His Frankie his mom
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is she's a straight-to-the-point kind of blunt-speaking person, right? Mhm. Uh she uses some negative
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terminology when she speaks about her son, but then on the other hand, Ricky lived with his mother as an adult, not
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all the time, but on and off. Right. So, where one gives the appearance of a poor relationship between the two, the
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other may suggest otherwise. Ricky's cousin, this is Charles McCormick, these two guys, they were
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tight. They had a relationship that was much more like two brothers uh for most of their lives.
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Charles says Ricky would often talk like he was in another world. Mhm. And he suspects Ricky might have
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suffered from maybe schizophrenia. Okay. Yeah. Or bipolar disorder. Yeah, didn't he his like doctor when he was a
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kid uh see the mom called him slow, right? This is what the mom called him, not what we're we're calling him. But
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she called him slow, and then the doctors were saying cuz he was he wasn't he was never diagnosed with
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anything. Right. But didn't one of the doctors say something about that he had a brick in his a brick wall? Yeah. In
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his mind. Well, and like you said, you know, even though his cousin suspected these possible disorders, nothing was
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officially diagnosed, of course. Mhm. So, some people close to Ricky suggested that um But but his cousin would
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possibly be right on the bipolar or schizophrenia if he if he was talking in such a way. There are some people that
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go into a manic state, and they kind of talk in a way that almost makes sense, but almost seems from another world.
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And speaking of people that Ricky was close with, he was also close with his aunt Gloria
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McCormick. The family calls her Cookie. Hey, Cookie. It's unclear if Ricky ever received any
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formal treatment for any type of mental illness, but his family members recall Ricky's displays of what they call
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unusual behavior. And they also stated that uh he was known for concocting and telling tall tales.
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Now, teachers when he was in school, teachers kind of just shuffled him along from grade to grade, but it's believed
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that he could hardly read or write uh as a youngster. Yeah, for I think his mom said he couldn't read or write. The only
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thing he could actually write was his name. He did eventually drop out of school. He
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dropped out of high school. Ricky McCormick usually relied on occasional odd jobs to help support his income.
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He did things like mopping floors, washing dishes, bussing tables, service station attendant. He did receive
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disability checks due to those health problems that you had mentioned earlier. He had a chronic heart problem. And he
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had you know, so he was These health issues probably limited the amount of work or the types of work that
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he could perform. Ricky preferred the night shift when he did work. He did he developed a
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reputation as a night owl. He worked at night and he did his thing at night. Often he would be leaving his place of
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residence when the sun was going down and returning home when the sun was coming up.
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As a teenager and later as an adult, he was known to frequently hitch rides or take the bus to distance himself, this
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is his family saying this, to distance himself from the street toughs who were dealing drugs and picking fights on the
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street. Just to be you know, just to be safer. Now St. Louis is a tough city. There are
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some very rough parts of old St. Louis. Ricky did have a police record. He was arrested when he was 34 years old. This
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was in November of 1992 in St. Louis for statutory rape. He had some kind of ongoing relationship
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with this girl that was far too young to even know or understand being in a relationship with a an adult. Ricky
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fathered two children with this girl. They were together I believe for like three years in this
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quote unquote relationship. He had been sleeping with the girl since she was 11 according to the court files.
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Um, which the court files protect the girl's identity. So, we do not know the name of this uh, person. Now, while
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awaiting trial on the first-degree sexual abuse charge, Ricky was represented by a public defender. His
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counsel noted that there was reasonable cause to believe Ricky was suffering from some mental disease or defect. Mhm.
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And his counsel requested that the judge order a mental health exam. Now, this was granted by the court. However, the
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court certified Ricky McCormick as fit for trial. Six weeks later, on September 1st of 1993, Ricky pled guilty to the
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crime. At that moment, Ricky became Missouri state inmate number 503506. He spent 13 months behind bars in the
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Farmington Correctional Center before being sent home a year later. Now, let's fast forward to June of 1999.
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So, just days before the disappearance and murder of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick.
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Mhm. Now, we said that Ricky often worked odd jobs. Well, 1999 was no exception for that. He was employed uh,
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working at a gas station. I believe uh, part-time hours. So, in June of 1999, actually, Captain,
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I I'm wrong. We need to go back a little earlier than that. We need to go back to
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uh, the early morning of Tuesday, June 15th, 1999. So, this is 2 weeks, about 2 weeks before his death. All right. Ricky
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McCormick walked up to the counter at a Greyhound bus terminal in downtown St. Louis, and he purchased a one-way ticket
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to Orlando, Florida. This was not the first time making such a trip and traveling by himself. It
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would turn out to be the last of at least two brief trips to Florida that he had made that year. Right. On this trip,
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once he got there, he checked into and stayed at the Econolodge Motel in Orlando. Uh he was in room number 280.
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Phone records show that either Ricky or his girlfriend, this is Sandra Jones, they made a lot of calls to several
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different people in Central Florida just a couple of weeks before Ricky traveled
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to Orlando. And the reason why we say either Ricky or his girlfriend was he was living with his girlfriend at the
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time. Yeah, we talked about how he did odd jobs sometimes to make extra money. Mhm.
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One of the things that he would do was, you know, if you have something that you
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need to give to somebody, well, I can take it there. You know, I can hitch a ride. Mhm. And so there was a lot of
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speculation that he was running some drugs for some people. Mhm. That's possibly what he was doing down in
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Orlando. Well, while he was there, Ricky and his girlfriend exchanged many short phone
00:24:01
calls during the two days that Ricky had stayed in Orlando. And he made at least
00:24:07
one call to the St. Louis gas station where he worked those part-time hours. Mhm. Ricky's girlfriend, Sandra, told
00:24:15
police after his death that she suspected Ricky was running drugs, that he went to Florida to pick up some
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marijuana. According to the sheriff's department, uh their investigative report, the girlfriend's explanation
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went something like this. Ricky would like you said, would accept offers to pick up and deliver packages for money.
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Mhm. And he made trips to Florida before and on several occasions, when he came back,
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he brought marijuana into their apartment where the two lived in this poor area, this uh poor area
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south of downtown St. Louis. Right. The drugs would usually be sealed in Ziploc bags rolled together into
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bundles, she told the police. Ricky told his girlfriend that he was holding the stashes of weed for a guy
00:25:02
named Baja Hamdala. Okay. All right, the police reports Baja Hamdala. Yeah, the police report
00:25:10
states this. You can't make this stuff up. Baja Hamdala Um everyone called this dude Bob. Thank
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God for me cuz I I'm I'm probably not saying his name correctly. It's Wooster. So, Bob and Ricky not only, you
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know, Ricky not only held weed for Bob, but he also worked for him at the gas station. Mhm.
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Ricky didn't tell Sandra much about these trips to Orlando. He actually told her very little about these trips. She
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didn't know who he met with while he was there or even, you know, by name who he
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might have been going to Orlando to see. But his girlfriend Sandra said that the
00:25:53
last trip had been very different from the other trips because when Ricky got back from Orlando,
00:26:01
she said Ricky was different. He was very scared. All right, we're back. Cheers, me
00:26:22
mateys. Cheers, captain. Let's go to June 22nd, 1999. So, just about about 8 days before Ricky's body was
00:26:33
found. Now, on the afternoon of June 22nd at 3:00 in the afternoon, Ricky McCormick walked into the Barnes Jewish
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Hospital uh into the emergency room. Mhm. He's complaining of chest pains and shortness
00:26:46
of breath. He was by himself when he checked into the hospital. Now, Ricky, as we had stated, he had
00:26:53
suffered from both asthma and chest pains since childhood. Yeah. He told his doctors that he did
00:27:00
not abuse drugs or alcohol. And now, this is a statement that friends and family would later back up as well.
00:27:07
Ricky did, however, and this is not good if you have asthma and chest pains. Well, not good anyway. Uh he did smoke
00:27:15
at least a pack of cigarettes a day since his childhood. Mhm. Uh and he drank a lot of coffee, practically all
00:27:23
day long by his own estimate, by Ricky's own estimate. He told his doctors that he drank, on average, more than 20
00:27:30
caffeinated beverages a day. That's a lot. That's a lot. And I like my coffee, but
00:27:36
that's a lot. That's a lot of coffee. Well, doctors ruled out a heart attack, uh but they decided to keep Ricky there
00:27:43
for observation for 2 days. Mhm. So, Ricky didn't leave the hospital until June 24th.
00:27:50
Uh he was scheduled to return for a follow-up visit. Uh this was scheduled for the following week, but of course,
00:27:57
he never made it to the follow-up visit. Now, Ricky uses public transportation. Uh he took the bus to get to his Aunt
00:28:05
Cookie's house, uh to her apartment. And once he arrived there, she said that he only stayed for about an hour.
00:28:14
Uh she told police that he would visit her often. He was extremely close to her. He was actually by her account
00:28:21
closer to her than his own mother. Mhm. And Well, that's cuz your own mom thinks
00:28:26
you're slow. So, maybe that has a reason why you're not visiting her all the time.
00:28:31
And like we said, she has some negative things to say about her son. Right. And here's one thing that proves that he's
00:28:38
closer to his aunt than he is to his mother. His mother lived right around the corner from Cookie's apartment. Yet,
00:28:45
he would often go and visit Cookie's house without ever going over to his mother's.
00:28:50
Mhm. So, she said that Ricky would go over there and talk with her sometimes for
00:28:55
hours. Uh but as mentioned on this occasion, he only stayed for about 1 hour. And she
00:29:01
said that he seemed less chatty on this visit than typical. She said that she thinks he had
00:29:09
something on his mind, something intense, let's say. Mhm. She said that she offered him a ride, uh but he
00:29:17
insisted that he not take the ride. And he left her house on foot. Yeah, maybe something intense on his mind or maybe
00:29:24
the fact that he was in the hospital for 2 days. With With chest pains and Possibly, but
00:29:30
but Cookie looking back what she she said something like he appeared to be mindfully
00:29:37
watching his words when he was speaking with her. She thinks that he was worried
00:29:42
that he was going to say something that he didn't want to tell her. You know, that he that he didn't want to
00:29:48
reveal too much to her when he was there visiting with her. Mhm. Now, Cookie's last image of Ricky
00:29:55
is of him walking down her street. Around 5:00 p.m. the next day on June 25th, Ricky once again was in the
00:30:03
emergency room, but this time he went to Forest Park Hospital. This is less than
00:30:08
2 miles from Barnes Jewish Hospital where he had been just days before. Mhm. This time he complained that he was
00:30:16
having breathing following an afternoon of mowing grass. Doctors diagnosed his wheezing as an
00:30:23
asthma attack. He was not admitted to the emergency room, however, he was officially released at 5:50 p.m. So,
00:30:32
less than an hour after arriving there. Now, it's not clear what time he actually left the hospital because
00:30:39
Cookie says, his aunt says that she heard from some people that Ricky actually spent the night at the
00:30:45
hospital, but he stayed the night in the waiting room before leaving the next morning. And that's going to bring us to
00:30:51
June 26th, which is 4 days before Ricky's body would be found. Mhm. Now, on that day, uh Ricky's
00:30:58
girlfriend told police that she spoke with Ricky on the phone around 11:30 a.m. on the 26th.
00:31:06
Right. She said that he told her he was out of the hospital and he was on his way to the Amoco gas station
00:31:14
to get a bite to eat. Yeah. At least Go ahead. Okay, so Amoco is that's a gas station,
00:31:21
right? So, you're smoking more than a pack a day. Right. You're drinking 20 some
00:31:29
20 some caffeinated 20 some or more caffeinated beverages a day. And you're eating at gas stations. Yeah,
00:31:36
well, we got to keep in mind Ricky didn't have a lot of money. No, I know that. I'm just
00:31:41
you know, I'm just putting out there that that's another source of not living healthy. Right.
00:31:48
a bunch of cigarettes, you're drinking a bunch of coffee. All the nutritious foods served at the uh Amoco station.
00:31:54
Yeah, and look, trust me. You just put Amoco out of business. No, no, no, no, cuz 3:00 in the morning
00:32:00
when I'd be driving home from gigs, I mean, I tried some weird [ __ ] you know. Mhm. You know, like you're you're
00:32:06
driving and you're just hungry and there's some hot dogs and you don't know how long they've been there. Mhm.
00:32:12
I'll try them. You know, 3:00 in the morning. Roller food is what I call it. The food that's
00:32:18
cooked on the rollers. That's when you know you're desperate for for food. I want but I should have been a little
00:32:23
more clear because this Amoco gas station, that's the same one that he works at part-time. Where he says he's
00:32:29
going to get a bite to eat. Okay, so maybe he's going to go there. involved in this trip to the gas
00:32:34
station. Possibly or the fact that, you know, he could go get a couple hot dogs for free
00:32:40
there. Right. I used to I worked at a BP gas station briefly, and there were a lot of free meals
00:32:48
Yeah. from the roller food section at the BP. Anyway, so he go he's tells his girlfriend that he's going to go to this
00:32:55
Amoco gas station to get a bite to eat. He also works at the Amoco gas station. Now, one thing here that I would love to
00:33:01
know, and I couldn't figure this out because it's not stated anywhere the person's name, but what is stated is at
00:33:09
least one gas station employee, who remains nameless for some reason, told the police that he saw Ricky there that
00:33:17
day at the Amoco station. But, this employee also says that he saw Ricky at the gas station the next day,
00:33:26
on June 27th. Right. Now, medical examiners, while not having determined an exact cause of death, they managed to
00:33:34
determine that they believe that Ricky had died on this day. So, sometime after leaving the Amoco station on the 27th,
00:33:42
Ricky, in my opinion, was killed by somebody. Right. So, let's go through some of the
00:33:47
statements that Ricky's aunt Cookie that she has stated when she looks back to the last time that she had saw him in
00:33:55
regards to the last week that Ricky was alive. She says that she suspects Ricky's
00:34:01
hospital visits could have been attempts to find a hideout. You know, a place where he could lay
00:34:07
low, that maybe he was hiding from somebody. Right. And she said, quote, "Maybe he knew he had got into something
00:34:14
that put his life on the line, and that he knew he could have stayed here." She says, meaning at her home. But,
00:34:23
maybe he didn't want to put her life on the line, as well. So, following our timeline, Captain,
00:34:29
that brings us back to the day when Ricky McCormick's remains were found. Badly decomposed in an open field, he
00:34:37
was lying face down. Ricky was wearing a filthy pair of Lee brand blue jeans, and
00:34:44
he had a stained white t-shirt. Now, Ricky was only 5 ft 6 in tall. And his badly decomposed body
00:34:53
um it only weighed 72 lb when they examined it at the autopsy. Advanced decomposition made the autopsy
00:35:01
very difficult. The pathologist with the St. Charles County Medical Examiner's Office ultimately ruled Ricky's cause of
00:35:08
death undetermined. But the police this is where the police come in and they're talking to the medical examiner and they
00:35:16
say, "We suspect foul play." Okay, so let's chat about a few things here, shall we, right? Time of death.
00:35:24
How if they don't know how he died, you know, bullet wounds, no stab wounds, possible head injury
00:35:31
uh time of death uh how do they come up with this answer if they don't know how he died?
00:35:37
My guess would be stomach contents. Right? We we know that he tells his girlfriend that he's he's going to this
00:35:44
place to get something to eat. Mhm. We know that police spoke with someone at that gas station
00:35:51
who confirmed that he he had seen Ricky on that day and the next day as well. Yeah, that's so weird cuz you got a
00:35:58
placing twice, you know, and then we also said that he whoever he worked for, he was also known to you know,
00:36:06
transfer some drugs for that individual as well, right? Right. So, was that the guy or was it another co-worker? Right,
00:36:14
it does not give the name. All we know is that it's a man that that saw him because the police in
00:36:20
in their report it says he. Right. He states that he saw Ricky on this day and that day.
00:36:27
Now, the curious thing to me, too, Captain, is I don't know the the situation with him and his girlfriend. I
00:36:32
actually I'm guessing, and I have little to go off of here, but I'm guessing that
00:36:36
they weren't super tight. Because uh you know, I've been in relationships and and think about this. He goes down
00:36:44
to Orlando and then basically tells her nothing of this trip. Mhm. I don't know about how relationships work for other
00:36:51
people out there, but relationships I've been in, you better tell the woman why you're going to Orlando and what you
00:36:57
were doing when you were there. You can't just go to Orlando and come back and be like, "Mhm, not going to talk
00:37:02
about it." Yeah. None of your business. The weather was nice. But here's here's the weird thing,
00:37:08
though. We have the gas station person stating that they saw Ricky on two days, leading the two days the
00:37:17
day before his death and the day that the medical examiner determined he died. Mhm. We have his girlfriend saying that
00:37:24
I last spoke to him on the phone the day before the medical examiner says that Ricky died, right?
00:37:30
Right. The gas station is blocks. It's it's literally a couple street blocks from where Ricky was living at
00:37:39
the time. So, for him to be at that gas station on two different days, but not have stayed at his apartment that night
00:37:45
is very strange to me, as well. I'm assuming he didn't stay there because we have Sandra, the girlfriend, saying the
00:37:51
last time she saw him was the day before they said that he was dead. Yeah, or maybe she was staying somewhere
00:37:57
else that night. Right, or she wasn't there. I mean, he the guy goes to the hospital, you know,
00:38:02
twice in 2 weeks. Mhm. And she doesn't go visit him once at the hospital. So, I mean, what kind of relationship is
00:38:10
that? Now, the the the uh death was ultimately changed to a suspicious death. Mhm. Um
00:38:18
not quite a homicide, but I think this is what we were talked about earlier, where we have the medical examiner
00:38:24
saying, "I don't know." And then we have the police saying, "We suspect foul play." So yeah, what I stated earlier
00:38:30
was that the FBI then comes out years later and says that he died from a gunshot wound. That's actually not
00:38:36
factual. Uh we can't find the cause of death. And it's reported in multiple sources that
00:38:43
possibly there's a gunshot uh wound or possibly a stab wound or possibly um head injury. Head injury. Mhm.
00:38:53
So it's not clear either way. Yeah. I To me though, like I said, I think that because it took so long for his
00:39:00
body to be found, I don't think he was in that field the entire time from the from the time of his death to when he
00:39:07
was discovered. It's almost 3 days. Mhm. And I just feel like that to me, and I think that's probably what the police
00:39:15
were working off of, is we suspect foul foul play because a dead body just doesn't transport itself 20 miles away
00:39:23
and put itself in a field. Yeah, but there's also other reports. I mean, this is what drives me nuts about
00:39:30
the news is, you know, there was a report that he's found by this lady, right? She's driving along the freeway.
00:39:35
She found a There's other reports that he was found by a farmer. So She could have been a farmer. Well,
00:39:42
possibly. Or he could have been not as close to the road back a little bit further and was found
00:39:49
by a farmer. Mhm. This I mean, that's possible, too. That's all I'm saying. So is it
00:39:55
you know, could he have been there for 3 days? Very possible. You know, depending on
00:40:00
where he was found, in what location, and by whom, right? So if he's If he's If he's found by the side of the road by
00:40:09
this lady, then probably not likely that he was there for 3 days. Right. But if his body was further back, he's
00:40:16
found by a farmer, It's very possible that he could have been there for 3 days. Could have been there for weeks
00:40:21
and nobody found him. Well, he couldn't have been there for weeks. Well, no, but what I'm saying you know
00:40:27
what I'm saying. Something could have been there for weeks. But the thing here is though the the local
00:40:31
reports that I found, multiple reports state that he was found by a woman and I I think at one point I even had her
00:40:39
name. I didn't see a point in including it here in my notes, but um I am all reports saying she by a woman,
00:40:47
but all the reports stating it was an open area. That it's an open grassy area. That it wasn't concealed in any
00:40:53
manner. Right. Um that it was just laying out in the open. Now, one thing you mentioned earlier is that this was a
00:41:02
quote-unquote dumping ground, right? Uh the strip of land where he was found has
00:41:08
been quoted as criminal dumping ground for years. This is what the police say. Mhm. Uh and to
00:41:15
back that up, we have in 1995 authorities discovered the bullet-ridden body of a woman in an abandoned house
00:41:24
along the same stretch of US Route 67. And then 2 years after Ricky's death, state road crews mowing grass some 300
00:41:34
yd, approximately 300 yd away from where they found Ricky, they found the nude bodies of two more women. So
00:41:44
yes, this appears to be an area that for some reason dead bodies keep turning up here. Okay,
00:41:51
so Ricky is unemployed. And he gets disability. Mhm. So he to supplement his income, he he runs some
00:41:59
drugs. So there's this guy at the gas station that he works part-time at the gas
00:42:03
station, but also possibly runs some marijuana for this individual. Mhm. Mhm. And then we have his girlfriend saying
00:42:10
that well, he went to Orlando and that was possibly cuz he has been there before to get marijuana.
00:42:18
So then he goes possibly gets marijuana, possibly doesn't get marijuana, but when he comes
00:42:24
back he's noticeably different. Almost like he's scared. That is what the girlfriend says. Right.
00:42:30
Then we have a noticeable difference reported by his aunt. Right? And then we have these things where he's
00:42:41
checking into the uh hospital, but she says that's a way to um get away from somebody.
00:42:48
And then he's last seen at this gas station, which would be the place that he was employed at the gas station, but
00:42:55
also to possibly run uh marijuana for this individual. For Bob. And then he's Right, for Bob. And then he's found
00:43:05
dumped in this area that's known as kind of a dumping ground. Mhm. So if you follow that trail, then
00:43:10
your number one suspect is Bob. Oh, yeah. And and so why are they not saying who saw
00:43:20
um Ricky last? Is that to protect them from Bob? I would guess. I would guess that it's one
00:43:28
of two things. It's either Bob himself or it's somebody that they want to protect from Bob. Let's Let's get into
00:43:39
this cuz you're you're you're circling around something very important here. Is that when
00:43:46
he was discovered dead, when Ricky was discovered dead, when they when the police started interviewing Ricky's
00:43:51
relatives, his friends, his girlfriend, people that knew him, this is one thing that stood out. When
00:43:58
his girlfriend was asked, was there anyone that may have wanted to hurt Ricky or kill Ricky, she told the
00:44:04
detectives that Bob she suspected Bob would want to hurt or kill Ricky. The man that Ricky worked for at the
00:44:12
Amoco station. Yeah, why? And that that she said she suspected he was the same guy that was sending
00:44:19
Ricky on these drug runs to Orlando. Mhm. Now So So here's the thing. Let's go through
00:44:26
this Amoco gas station cuz this is where I think this is the last known sighting
00:44:31
of him Mhm. and there's some bad people that are involved with this gas station. So the
00:44:38
original owner of the business, listen to what's going on here at the the gas station with the different owners over
00:44:43
the years. So this guy, the original owner, he killed his neighbor with a butcher knife during a front yard
00:44:50
argument. This was in May of 1994. That's how I settle all neighborhood arguments.
00:44:57
Mhm. Oh, really? You don't want to cut down that tree? Let me go get my butcher knife.
00:45:03
Mhm. Yeah, and he ended up He ended up serving um He was later He himself was later killed
00:45:10
in prison while serving a life sentence for that second-degree murder charge. Karma's a [ __ ] Yeah, so now we have a
00:45:17
another guy. Um he's a um It's another Hamdallah, okay? I His first name is Somebody's going to have
00:45:25
to tell me how to say this. J U M A. Hamdallah. He's a Palestinian immigrant who until 2002, he used the name David
00:45:35
Radigan. Mhm. He then became the president of the business after this other guy went to
00:45:41
prison for killing his his neighbor, right? Yeah. Well, he hires his brother Bob
00:45:47
Hamdallah, okay? Mhm. Now these two brothers, they have a very rocky relationship to say the least. In August
00:45:56
of 1999, less than 2 months after Ricky's death, police from Maryland Heights investigated an incident in
00:46:04
which David allegedly shot Bob. Bob survived the shooting, but filed no charges against his brother, according
00:46:13
to police reports. Detectives looking into the shooting gathered information linking Bob to a gang in St. Louis. Mhm.
00:46:24
So, these were They also linked Bob to narcotics. Yeah. Bob is reported to be a violent man and in possession of several
00:46:33
weapons, including handguns. Police reports and witness statements spanning several years illustrate
00:46:40
repeated episodes of violence by this man. Right. Shortly after moving to St. Louis in 1997 from Cleveland, Ohio, Bob,
00:46:50
who was then 22 years old, he was cruising the streets of St. Louis in a blue Mazda Protege when a police
00:46:57
detective saw him pull up alongside a man named Terrance Clark. And they saw Bob lean out of his car
00:47:05
window and fire a shot at this man with a .38 caliber revolver. According to the police report of the
00:47:13
incident and a and witness statements. Well, these are bad dudes. It's the dick nose brigade. Well, not only bad dudes,
00:47:20
Captain. This Bob guy, apparently he's a bad shot as well because he pulls up next to this guy, leans out his car,
00:47:28
fires at the guy. The guy is unharmed. He's like, you know, like the Matrix. He He doesn't get hit by a single bullet.
00:47:35
Now, you know, witnesses saw this. We have a police officer that sees this go down.
00:47:42
They end up arresting Bob for this, but he ends up never being prosecuted. About 9 months later, in March of 1998,
00:47:52
Bob was visiting one of his older brothers at his brother's job. His brother worked at a
00:47:58
like a family market, Mhm. small grocery store or something. And Bob goes there to visit his brother.
00:48:05
At some point they get in some kind of argument. And then Bob allegedly grabs a gun
00:48:13
and he goes across the street and he starts firing from the other side of the street at his brother. These guys are
00:48:19
big [ __ ] is what they are. So, several shots were fired and he ended up actually hitting his brother
00:48:25
with one of those shots. So, he he was shot but the brother shot him at some point.
00:48:31
And then A different brother. Different brother. Yeah. It's a violent family. No, but I just
00:48:38
love it too though. It's like, you know, just be a man if you really want to fight him, but do a little fisticuffs,
00:48:44
right? Step put toe to toe, Yeah. Get your Get your fist out. Do a little fisticuffs. Well, he Bob took off after
00:48:53
shooting his brother. He but any six days later he ended up turning himself in. Um and
00:49:00
Yeah, and they me. They charged him with it. Now, then his brother comes forward and tells
00:49:06
police that he doesn't want them to prosecute his brother for this. Right. So, later that same month while working
00:49:14
at the family's Amoco station, Bob was arrested again this time on a felony charge of second degree assault for
00:49:23
allegedly beating a man with a rusty hammer. Mhm. So, Bob allegedly threatened to kill this man
00:49:30
that was described by his family and acquaintances as a sometimes homeless drug addict.
00:49:37
Now, Bob beat the man because according to Bob, he wanted the man to get off of the property.
00:49:45
And according to the incident report, Bob told the police, "I just figured I'd take care of this myself."
00:49:52
Yeah. On August Dick Dick knows. Look, he he he's probably one of these guys I'd love if
00:49:58
there was a picture of this guy, but he's probably one of these guys he's all big and tough and he goes out there
00:50:03
and there's this homeless guy that you know, is bothering him, right? And bothering the customer. So, he has to go
00:50:10
out there. You know, somebody goes, "Well, just call the cops." No, I'm just going to go beat him up.
00:50:16
Yeah. Loser. Well, the here's another strange incident. This could just be a coincidence. Could
00:50:24
be a coincidence, I don't know. But on August 7th of that same year, this is just 2 weeks before
00:50:30
that was that case was scheduled to go to court Mhm. for Bob beating this guy with the rusty hammer.
00:50:36
The man the victim that the the guy that he beat, he's gunned down just blocks from the
00:50:42
Amoco station on a residential street. Oh, really? Yeah. In a neighboring housing project. So,
00:50:49
the pending charges went away and the man's murder remains unsolved to this day.
00:50:54
Mhm. Now, confidential informants have told the police that this man was killed because Bob either A, paid for the man
00:51:03
to be killed or that he ordered it to be done according to St. Louis police reports.
00:51:10
Well, he probably ordered it or paid it because we know that his shot is so bad.
00:51:14
Mhm. That you know, he he he had to hire somebody. He probably couldn't even you
00:51:19
know, hit a sleeping homeless man. Here's the thing though. By the end of 1999, it was learned that
00:51:27
the St. Louis Police Department, they were investigating a man named Gregory Lamar Knox. Mhm. Now, Knox was a major
00:51:36
drug dealer who operated in and around a housing complex where Ricky McCormick had lived. Mhm. Knox was also a suspect
00:51:46
in several homicides, including at least two murder-for-hire schemes. And according to police records, a
00:51:54
confidential informant also told police that Knox was responsible for the murder
00:51:59
of a black man who worked at a gas station whose body was was dumped near West Alton. Sounds to me like they're
00:52:08
describing Ricky McCormick without saying his name. Yeah. Yeah. So, St. Louis police captain, they've
00:52:16
they've also linked uh the Bob guy and his alleged family to criminal activity and and a possible
00:52:23
connection with this Gregory Knox. Okay. This is a lot to uh unwrap here. Mhm. Okay, so first of
00:52:34
all, if he was murdered, {quote} {unquote}, most likely Mhm. he's working for Bob.
00:52:42
Bob's a piece of [ __ ] Mhm. Right. Bob, you're a piece of [ __ ] Probably Bob, right? Right.
00:52:50
If he's going to If he's going to die, I'm guessing by uh gunshot. Mhm. But we have no evidence of a bullet
00:53:00
hole, right? Right. So, then I'm guessing no gunshot. Guy says they saw him at the gas station
00:53:08
the day before they think he died. And the day of. And the day of. So, and the cops think that the the body
00:53:18
was moved. Yeah. You killed him at the gas station. Then you move the body. Yeah, and here's
00:53:25
the thing. Ricky would have gone to that gas station. It would have been his natural habit to probably go to that gas
00:53:31
station multiple times a day. Within the same day. Right, but he he we have no report of him going there,
00:53:38
you know, recently, right? So, all I'm saying is No report of him going there recently.
00:53:46
What do you mean? Well, just go down this rabbit hole with me for a second. Okay. So, he gets back
00:53:49
from Florida. We have no report of him going to the gas station that he works at,
00:53:56
that he possibly runs some drugs here and there for Bob. I think we could we should assume that he had visited the
00:54:03
gas station at some point between returning from Florida and going into the hospital.
00:54:09
Maybe, but he goes to the hospital twice, but at some point he gets out of the hospital the second time and he
00:54:13
tells his girlfriend, "I'm going to go there to get something to eat." And maybe he was going to do that, but also
00:54:19
maybe he was going to try to set something right. I need to go talk to Bob. I need to go apologize for whatever
00:54:25
or I just need to see if he needs any work done, whatever. So, last place seen a a bunch of,
00:54:35
you know, criminals working there, running the place. Um, possibly murderers. Guy ends up dead. If he was murdered,
00:54:45
that's that's the place you look. The second one where he lived in this uh community where it was run by a drug
00:54:53
dealer. Is it possible that um Ricky ran some drugs for him? That's very possible, too.
00:55:01
But because the cops believe the body was moved, I'd say it's more likely Bob and the gas station.
00:55:09
Yeah. And well, what's what is Bob's relationship with this Gregory Knox? Because you have Okay, here's the the
00:55:17
word on the street is this, right? That they're the police are being told by people on the street that this Gregory
00:55:24
Knox is rumored to have killed a black man that worked at a gas station and his body was dumped near West Alton. That
00:55:31
100% describes our victim, Ricky McCormick. Right. Okay? And then there's other people stating that, you know,
00:55:38
this guy was a big-time drug dealer in Ricky's neighborhood. The problem with that though is we have the gas station,
00:55:44
which is essentially in the same neighborhood. Right. So, you have two things. Either did did
00:55:50
Ricky do something to piss somebody off enough to want to kill him, like his girlfriend told the police, you know,
00:55:57
look at Bob, Mhm. or was he competing with this drug dealer and lost some kind of turf war that that that Knox killed
00:56:07
him to win some kind of turf war. Yeah, over Bob, not over Ricky. Well, after the police find out about all this
00:56:14
information, all the things that they're hearing from these people on the streets, they decide that, you know,
00:56:19
within weeks they start conducting stakeouts of the gas station and of several homes of the owners and the
00:56:27
employees of this gas station. Now, this doesn't turn into any arrest. It doesn't
00:56:32
lead to any arrest. Despite their ongoing suspicions and investigation, the detectives they could never
00:56:39
substantiate claims from the informants suggest suggesting a connection between Bob and his family and Knox to prove
00:56:49
that one or either, you know, that one or both of them were responsible for Ricky
00:56:54
McCormick's death. Mhm. But both of these men, Bob and Knox, they both they still ended up going to
00:57:02
prison. Knox was arrested in July of 2000 and he pled guilty to charges of possession with intent to distribute
00:57:09
crack cocaine and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. Mhm. A March 2001 report to Congress noted
00:57:20
Knox was a suspect in at least four homicides that occurred in 1998 and 1999 in the St. Louis area. He was also the
00:57:30
number one supplier of narcotics to LaSalle Park Homes area in South St. Louis. On October 13th, 2000, your boy
00:57:41
Bob uh he was He's a dick nose. He was now managing another store at the time. This is
00:57:48
called uh Charlie's Food Market in Madison, Illinois. Where he got into an argument with a
00:57:54
customer. Different versions of this event uh would be later presented in court, but ultimately a jury convicted
00:58:01
Bob of first-degree murder after he shot the man in the face with a 9-mm Glock outside of the store.
00:58:10
Yeah. This guy is a real piece of work. In September of 2002, a judge sentenced Bob to 38 years in prison for the
00:58:18
killing. However, later Bob, when he's going through the appeals process, he caught a break in
00:58:23
which later the courts decided that the gun went off while Bob and the man were struggling for control of the gun. Mhm.
00:58:31
So, on May 15th, 2008, Bob walked out of court a free man. And he has since married and relocated to
00:58:40
Cleveland, Ohio. of a [ __ ] Yes, he's he's starting over in good old Cleveland, Ohio.
00:58:47
And as for Knox, I think he was Don't quote me on this, but I think he was released from prison in 2013 or 14.
00:58:55
Great. Great. So, we we have some bad criminal elements that are very close to Ricky
00:59:02
McCormick. All right. So, if he was murdered, if Ricky was murdered, Mhm. then it's one it's by one of these guys.
00:59:10
Right? I think so, yeah. I think That's pretty simple. It seems like that to me.
00:59:15
Now, now something that we purposely have not mentioned yet uh this is because it was not publicly
00:59:21
known until 12 years after Ricky McCormick was murdered. Mhm. That when they found Ricky's body, homicide
00:59:29
detectives, they searched the 41-year-old's victim's pockets for clues regarding his identity and possible
00:59:36
leads as to who could have killed this guy. Yeah. And they found several things in his pockets. Now, one of them was a
00:59:42
ticket for an emergency room visit. We knew he had those two visits uh shortly before his death, but they
00:59:49
also found two pages of notes. These were written in some strange kind of code. The detectives eventually passed these
00:59:57
coded pages on to the FBI, and after examining the documents, the FBI concluded that these ciphers could tell
01:00:05
us who killed Ricky McCormick. All right, thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. We'll see you guys
01:00:20
tomorrow as we dive into the cipher. And until then, everybody be good, be kind, and don't litter.