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Growing up in Southeast Iowa in the ’90s, we all knew the legend of the Candyman. It was one of those terrifying stories that spread like wildfire among kids, whispered on playgrounds and at sleepovers. The idea was simple yet horrifying: say his name five times in the mirror, and he would appear, bringing a gruesome fate.

To us, it was just another urban legend, like Bloody Mary or the Hookman—pure fiction meant to give us chills. But what most of us didn’t know at the time was that the roots of this tale weren’t just some made-up ghost story. It was based on something horrifyingly real.

The Real Candyman: A Murder in Chicago
On April 22, 1987, a chilling crime took place in Chicago’s Abbott Homes housing projects, proving that sometimes, reality is more terrifying than any myth. That night, 52-year-old Ruth Mae McCoy made a desperate call to 9-1-1, her voice filled with panic. She told the dispatcher that someone was breaking into her apartment—not through the front door or a window, but through her bathroom cabinet.

It sounded impossible, absurd even. But McCoy wasn’t imagining things. In the low-income high-rises of Chicago, there was a terrifying reality lurking behind the walls. Due to the way the buildings were constructed, the bathroom medicine cabinets were installed back-to-back, with only a thin partition separating them. This meant that, in some cases, someone in the neighboring apartment could remove their cabinet, crawl through the wall, and emerge inside another person’s home.

And that’s exactly what happened to Ruth Mae McCoy.

A Cry for Help Ignored
Despite her frantic call, help did not arrive in time. McCoy was shot four times in her own bedroom. Neighbors heard gunshots and screaming, but it took the Chicago police nearly two days to finally enter her apartment—by then, it was too late.

Two men, Ted Turner and John Honduras, were arrested and charged with her murder after being seen carrying McCoy’s stolen belongings around the housing project. But with a lack of solid evidence, the case against them crumbled, and they were eventually released.

From Reality to Urban Legend
This gruesome murder didn’t just fade into obscurity—it took on a life of its own. The horror of someone creeping through your bathroom mirror and emerging in your home played directly into deep-seated fears of urban life. It wasn’t long before the story mutated, evolving into a legend of a supernatural killer summoned by calling his name in the mirror—The Candyman.

The legend was cemented in pop culture by the 1992 horror film Candyman, which took heavy inspiration from McCoy’s murder and the eerie reality of Chicago’s housing projects. The movie, based on Clive Barker’s short story The Forbidden, shifted the setting from a British slum to the infamous Cabrini-Green projects, another real-life location with a dark history of crime and violence.

The Lingering Fear
What makes this story so chilling is the truth behind it. Unlike most urban legends, which are often based on superstition, misunderstanding, or sheer fiction, the Candyman myth is rooted in a real crime that took a real person’s life. The idea that your home—the place where you should feel safest—could be invaded through something as unexpected as a bathroom cabinet is a fear that lingers long after the ghost stories end.

While McCoy’s tragic death is often overshadowed by the fictional horror that followed, her story serves as a grim reminder: sometimes, the things we tell ourselves aren’t real… actually are.

If you’re interested in more information about this story, check out https://chicagoreader.com/news/cause-of-death/
That article goes into a lot of details about the actual case and trials.