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Eddie Waitkus may not have been a
natural, but he was good enough to be leading National League first
basemen in balloting for the 1949 All-Star team. By the middle of
June he was hitting over .300. However, he has the misfortune of being
stalked by a fan who is obsessed by him.
Eddie Waitkus' roommate and best
friend was Russ "Monk" Meyer. On the afternoon of June 14, 1949, Meyer
pitched the Phillies to a 9-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs. That evening
Waitkus and Meyer went to dinner with Meyer's parents and fiancé.
About 11 p.m. they returned to the
Edgewater Hotel. Waitkus told Meyer that he was going down to get a paper.
Meyer went to his parents room with his fiancé. About 11:45 p.m. Meyer went
to his room where he found a note (see picture below) from a Ruth Ann Burns.
He knew that Waitkus had been going with a Ruth Ann who was from his
hometown of Melrose, Mass.
A few minutes later Waitkus returns
to his room and Meyer tells him that Ruth Ann is in the Hotel. Waitkus,
knowing that Ruth Ann came from a wealthy family, had in the past flown in
to watch him play, also knew she would call first.
Waitkus went to room, No. 1297, as
he was told to do. Meyer would later relate the story he said Waitkus told
him.
"Eddie goes up to the room, knocks
on the door, and this broad answers the door. Eddie thinks he in the wrong
room. She said, 'No you're Eddie Waitkus, aren't you? I'm a friend of Ruth
Ann's.' She tells Eddie "Ruth Ann went to get a newspaper and she will be
right back. Why don't you come in?"
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Ruth Ann Steinhagen and
the note she left for Eddie Waitkus |
Waitkus figuring the story is true
enters the room. Newspaper accounts said that Waitkus went directly to a
chair, upsetting the woman, who told police she planned to stab him.
She then goes to a closet and takes
out a 22 caliber rifle and shoots Waitkus in the chest. Remarking that if
she can't have him no one can. She then calls the desk and says, 'I just
shot Eddie Waitkus'. It was because of this action that Waitkus did not
bleed to death on the spot.
The woman was later identified not
as Ruth Ann Burns, but as Ruth Ann Steinhagen, a 19 year old, 6-foot
brunette (see photo) who not only had newspaper clippings and photos of
Waitkus on the walls of her apartment, but also had a blown-up photo of
Waitkus on the ceiling over her bed.
The following day the police took
Ruth to Waitkus' hospital room, where he identified her as the "shooter".
When Waitkus asked her why she had shot him, she replied, "I'm not sure"
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Front row - from left to
right
Ruth Ann Steinhagen, her
mother, Eddie Waitkus and State Attorney John S. Boyle |
She will later tell the State
Attorney, "I'm not really sorry, I'm sorry that Eddie had to suffer so. I
had to relieve the tension that I have been under the past two years."
On June 30th Steinhagen was
arraigned for the shooting of Eddie Waitkus. A Criminal Court jury found her
to be insane and she was committed to Kankakee State Hospital.
Dr. Klein, superintendent of the
state hospital would later say that Ruth had responded well to electric
shock treatments. On April 17, 1952 Ruth Ann Steinhagen was adjudged sane
and released from the state hospital. This was less then three years after
the shooting of Eddie Waitkus.
The strange part of this is that
Eddie Waitkus was dating a woman with the same name, Ruth Ann.
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