Ricky McCormick /// The McCormick Code /// Part 1 | Forensic Files

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

Ricky McCormick /// The McCormick Code /// Part 1

Part 1 of 2

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Episode 187 - Late June, 1999 a woman finds a body near a cornfield off a rural road just about 20 miles north of St. Louis. Investigators are quick to make an identification however the Medical Examiner is uncertain as to how the man has died. Police have their theories and suspicions. They believe the man had been killed somewhere else and dumped in a spot between the road and cornfield. The man was 41 year old Ricky McCormick, a loner. His friends called him a vampire because he would leave home after the sun went down and not return until it was coming up again. Ricky had a checkered past and he ran in some circles that likely could have led to his death. When searching the dead man’s pockets police discovered a strange clue. Two pieces of paper and on each of them long messages written in code. The FBI has released these codes to the public with their own message that these notes could tell us who killed Ricky McCormick.

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Brief Summary

Ricky McCormick's mysterious death in 1999 raises questions about foul play, drug involvement, and coded notes found with his body.

Key points

Ricky's Unusual Behavior. Friends describe Ricky as a loner with strange habits, raising suspicions about his death.
The Mysterious Death of Ricky McCormick. A body is found in a cornfield, leading to questions about the circumstances of death.
Conflicting Autopsy Reports. Initial autopsy fails to determine cause of death, raising questions about the investigation.
Ricky's Mysterious Last Days. Ricky McCormick's final days are shrouded in mystery, with hospital visits and odd behavior.
The Gas Station Connection. Ricky's last known sighting was at the gas station where he worked, raising suspicions about Bob.
Violent Family Dynamics. Bob's history of violence is revealed, including shooting incidents involving his brothers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the case of Ricky McCormick.

Introducing the main case being discussed.

3:52WatchNov 26, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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