Pic of "deranged girl" that shot "The Natural"
 

Most Net54 folks know that the book and movie The Natural was inspired by the real life tragedy of Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus. Waitkus' 1955 Bowman briefly tells the story in the first person. Perhaps the Bowman writers could have come up with a more approproate title for the bio than, My Biggest Thrill in Baseball. The "deranged girl" that he speaks of is Ruth Steinhagen. I had never seen a picture of Miss Steinhagen until I recently ran across the photo below in the October 1957 Police Gazette.

The picture shows a court room setting with standing room only. SRO! Look at all those dang people! Waitkus is seated, apparently still recovering. Miss Steinhagen, later to be played in the movie by Barbara Hersey, stands by demurely as the prosecutor(?) fires a finger gun at her.

Now that we have her picture wouldn't she be a great fantasy card project for one of our creative members?

Tim Pulcifer has an interesting group of web pages that include a very cool tribute to Eddie Waitkus. http://nowbatting19.com/WAITKUSpage.html

moved
 

I moved this thread to the front page even though it's a '50s card as I thought it was interesting and made a managerial decision. Great story, neat card and thanks for sharing.

I never knew that! Interesting and thanks for posting that.

very cool.

Amphibious Engineer Sargeant with 4 Battle Stars vs
 

.........a crazed girl. Place your bets.

There's something very disturbing about that photo. Considering Steinhagen shot Waitkus, why is she standing so close to him in the courthouse? Shouldn't there be a little more of a buffer zone between them?

Very interesting thanks for bringing this to us. Good call Leon!!!

I was thinking the same thing Barry.

I was thinking "why isn't she in Jail??" :confused:

In the Police Gazette photo it says: "Eddie was innocent but incident scared players." What does that mean?

i was thinking the same thing, if she shot him, why is she just two people away during this hearing and the person in-between is hardly an officer of the court?

I took up the challenge, but used a different photo.

I think it scared more than players, much like the recent movie "Fatal Attraction" scared the bejeezus out of a lot of men who watched it. :eek:

My wife used to sit down with me and watch it everytime before I left on a business trip. Then one day she realized I'm really not very attractive or interesting.

That was an interesting piece. Good call Leon. I would not have seen it on the other forum and enjoyed it immensely.

Check out Nurse Wratchet standing behind Eddie. With the stink-eye she is giving Ruth, security is not a problem.

If I were Waitkus, being that close to her....I would have reached over and punched her lights out.

The note she left for Waitkus, just shows how seemingly sane an insane person can be:

"It is extremely important that I see you as soon as possible. We are not acquainted, but I have something of importance to speak to you about. I think it would be to your advantage to let me explain this to you as I am leaving the hotel the day after tomorrow. I realize this is out of the ordinary, but as I say, it is extremely important.”


Interesting, but mainly forgotten part of baseball history.

Very cool card, Andy! Thanks.

This link gives a very good overview of the story as well as othe pictures.
http://darkdeeds.susanfleet.com/blog...ann+steinhagen

Is she still living?
 

In an attempt to avoid work this afternoon, I've spent a little time online trying to find out more. His life ended at a young age, what happened to her? I can't seem to find anything out after her release three years later, apparently being declared sane.

According to Jean Hastings Ardells' book "Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime" she spent thirty three months in a psych ward before her release. She moved to a home on the Northwest Side of Chicago with her sister, Rita. She avoids reporters and refuses to speak publicly about the incident. She has never married. This book was published in 2005

I can not find an obituary for Ruth Ann Steinhagen the past eight years which makes me believe she is still alive.

Would be a pretty interesting ball if you had both on it.

great article
 

I loved the movie but didn't know the real story.
I just picked up the '55 Bowman.

good call leon by putting it on this thread.

thanks,
john

Interesting Article: The Shootings of Billy Jurges and Eddie Waitkus
 

Doing some "googling", I found an article entitled, The Shootings of Billy Jurges and Eddie Waitkus.

Approximately 17 years before Waitkus was shot, another major league
player Billy Jurges was shot by a 21-year-old Violet Popovich Valli, a
“cabaret girl” in Chicago.

According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, Billy Jurges had been “playing
brilliantly” for the Cubs prior to July 6, 1932, the day that 21-year-old Violet
Popovich Valli, a “cabaret girl,” put his career on hold for a while. They had
been seeing each other for about a year, and Valli said that Jurges was “one
in a hundred thousand. I met him at a party, and I fell hard.”

Apparently Jurges (age 24) did not share the same feelings. After he broke
off the relationship, she confronted him at his room in Chicago’s Hotel Carlos,
where several other Cubs players lived. (The hotel, just a couple of blocks
from Wrigley Field, is now called the Sheffield House, though the old name
can still be seen above the door.) The New York Times related that
Valli “made one final plea for his love” and pulled a .25 caliber pistol from her
purse. As Jurges made “a wild lunge” for it, the gun went off. One
bullet “struck him in the right side, ricocheted off a rib and came out the
right shoulder. The second ripped the flesh about the little finger of his left
hand.” The third bullet hit Valli, striking her in the left hand and traveling “up
the arm six inches.”



According to the article:
This photo appeared in newspapers on July 16, 1932. From left to right:
Herbert G. Immenhausen, defense attorney; Violet Valli; James M. Burke,
another of Valli’s attorneys; and Billy Jurges (with handkerchief to his face).
Although Jurges refused to sign a complaint, Valli signed a contract to sing in
local nightclubs, billing herself as “Violet ‘What I Did for Love’ Valli.”


http://jackbales.com/files/2012/01/Jurges_no-border.jpg


From the article:
This photograph appeared in newspapers around the country on June 21,
1949. The caption in one paper reads: “Ruth Steinhagen (right) tries her
hand at first base, Eddie Waitkus’ position, in practice baseball session among
inmates at the jail. Mrs. Ann Markov, chief matron, takes the ump’s role.”
Other posed (and rather strange) photos show Steinhagen in jail admiring
photos of Waitkus.

http://jackbales.com/files/2012/01/r...-baseball1.jpg


As for the Waitkus photo, according to the article,
"With a nurse behind him, Eddie Waitkus sits in his wheelchair in a crowded
Chicago courtroom as State’s Attorney John S. Boyle (far right) gestures to
Ruth Steinhagen (far left). Standing next to Steinhagen is Deputy Bailiff
Jennie Du Bray. Behind Du Bray is Steinhagen’s attorney, Walter Steinbieber
(wearing bow tie)."

http://jackbales.com/files/2012/01/ruthanncourt1.jpg


Here's the URL for the entire article:

http://jackbales.com/the-shootings-o...eddie-waitkus/

Maybe the players of the era looked a little more cautiously before they leaped?:D

When my friend Steve Gold was still with us he attempted to book her for an autograph session at his store. SHe accepted but the outcry amongst collectors was too much and the appearence never was completed.

I think perhaps as a private signing that might have worked.

Rich

.

Ruth Ann Steinhagen, the woman who shot Eddie Waitkus back in 1949, just died this past December:

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story...atural-dead-83


Steve

"Baseball's Natural - The Story of Ediie Waitkus" by John Theodore
 

I have a copy of the book above that I'll pass on to anyone interested in reading it. PM me.

Pm sent

Wow. Best first line of a baseball card bio ever!!!

very interesting i didnt know that. and yea why does it say hes innocent? innocent of what? was he accused of something?

Great thread. Fascinating story. I knew most of it already, but the pics were new and I didn't know Ruth had passed away. Eddie's career and personal life went downhill for a long time. From what I've read the shooting weighed on him pretty heavily. Lots of drinking, but he came out of that and was doing well until cancer took him at an early age. As for Ruth she was obviously seriously mentally ill at the time, but she did some time, apparently was at least mostly cured, and lived a quiet normal life for 60+ years. I think Eddie forgave her and we can all do the same.

Very interesting story! The Natural is one of my favorite movies but I've yet to read the book. Years ago I was surprised to see the movie on the shelf of a lady I worked with. She explained it was one of her favorites, not because of baseball but because it's(the book) also based on Arthurian Legend. She explianed the parallels such as the cup being the Holy Grail, many of the other characters and how Hobbs fails in the book.

Eddie & The Plowboys
 

I hope this post does not stretch the rules too far ( auto on the main board).....but here is a young and healthy Eddie on a 1939 Moline Plowboys team ball.

I don't want to get off topic, but I couldn't help notice in reading about this case that Ms. Steinhagen's family and friends realized she was not well and they "tried" to get her to get help. I know from personal experience that trying is not enough. YOU GET THEM HELP! God forbid that anyone here would have to deal with such a thing, but I had a close relative and one of my very best friends develop schizophrenia in their late teens. I was like everybody else for a long time. Try to ignore it or make them try to see they need help. Doesn't work. I was having a conversation with one of them one day and I got so alarmed over the things they were saying that I called the police. 15 minutes later two officers were on the scene talking to both of us. They readily saw there was a problem and within an hour the person was hospitalized. Both my family member and my friend suffered through a lot of hospitalizations and medications, but they both came out on the other side and are leading pretty healthy, happy lives. Sorry if that is preachy, but mental illness is not something to ignore.

Did anyone else happen to hear the story about this pop up on NPR today? Seemed somewhat fishy to me...they took credit for noticing Ms. Steinhagens obit in a Chicago paper and did not cite this message board for piquing his interest in the story. The fact that this thread would pop up here AND the exact item would be on NPR seems pretty far fetched. The reporter was Bob Goldsboro or similar. I was driving from Austin to Dallas so I may be mis-remembering his last name.

Interesting coincidence at the least.

Yes quite a coincidence. A 60 yo story resurrected hours after it was brought up here.

Ruth Ann Steinhagen passed away on Dec 29, 2012 at the age of 83. Get John Theodore's book about the incident ( it is non-fiction) called : Baseball's Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus" . It's available in paperback and hardcover on amazon. The 1984 movie "The Natural" was based on a novel by Bernard Malamud. It was inspired (fictional) by the Waitkus
incident. The real details are in the Theodore book.