This episode involves discussions about child abuse and suicide. Please take care before listening.

The opinions expressed in this episode do not necessarily reflect those of the Murderish Podcast.

Sensitive topics are discussed. Listener discretion is advised.

In the spring of 1985, 78-year-old grandmother and retired Bible study teacher Ruth Pelke

was found brutally stabbed in her Gary, Indiana home. For years leading up to the tragedy,

her family had tried to convince her to move out of a neighborhood that had grown increasingly unsafe.

But this was her home. The elderly white woman, who chose to see the best in everyone,

believed her religious faith would keep her out of harm's way.

Ruth's case wasn't difficult to solve, yet it remains one of the most historically controversial.

It involves prevalent social issues like juvenile incarceration, capital punishment, and racial bias.

This is Jamie and you're listening to Murderish. Join me in exploring the reasons Ruth Pelke's case

made international headlines and how it remains relevant nearly 40 years later.

This case takes us to Gary, Indiana, which sits on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.

The city is known for its steel production, which significantly boosted the Midwest's industrial economy.

During the Great Migration, millions of Black people relocated from southern states to Gary and nearby Chicago

in search of work opportunities.

With this mass migration came white flight, the relocation of white residents when a minority population moves into cities.

The city of Gary flourished from the 1930s to the 1960s when US steel dominated the industrial market.

Following World War II, manufacturing competitors created a bust that made workers scatter to more prosperous cities.

Steel mill closures left many impoverished and the city became a shell of its former self.

Racial segregation and income disparities led to the development of predominantly white and largely black or Mexican neighborhoods.

According to the 2000 US census in the 1990s and early 2000s, Gary's population was 84% black, the highest percentage of any US city with 100,000 or more citizens.

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