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In the late 1970s, Wichita secretary Ruth Finley began to receive cryptic letters and chilling threats from a mysterious figure known only as ‘The Poet.’ For years, The Poet tormented Ruth and her husband Ed, leaving them in a constant state of confusion and fear. Despite relentless efforts from the police, The Poet continued to evade detection. But as the investigation unfolded, the truth that emerged left everyone questioning what was real.

Team:

Anonymous Host - narration

Milly Raso - research, writing, creative direction

Mike Migas - production, music

Andrew D.B. Joslyn - music

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Comments

Niki Walkey

WOW, what a ride, thanks for this one. 💚

AR

Ahh you guys know I am among your biggest fans, but it's WILD and honestly unlike Casefile to treat the junk psychology in this episode with such reverence? It's not even a debate at this point that repressed memories aren't real, and the fad of psychologists "uncovering" them in the 80s did far more harm than good. The possibility that Ruth just swapped one self-indulgent, grandiose form of attention-seeking for another via the drama of making up trauma for a shrink eager to profit from her notoriety really should be part of the framing of this case, imo. By the same token, "split personalities" in the sense they seem to be portrayed here are well established as not being real either; dissociative identity certainly is real, but it doesn't lead to the kind of memory blackouts and lack of awareness that Ruth and her doctors claimed. I'm not sure how the new documentary handled all this, but I'm really surprised you guys just presented all this debunked outdated 80s pseudoscience without any contextualization or critique. And of course none of that precludes her trauma being real and her healing through therapy being real! I'm just saying it's really irresponsible to present this therapeutic method as legitimate when it's profoundly illegitimate. Maybe you are trusting us to fill in these gaps and be skeptical of Ruth and her claims of abuse, but i didn't get that sense from the last third of this at all. All that said, this was scary and dark and mildly depressing, and if all the incidents are true, then there's no way Ed didn't know about this because they were *both* downstairs when their window got smashed that one time. So either he just nodded along while she made up the details of this one false incident, or he must have been creating the incidents with her. I kept waiting for you guys to come back to this moment! A mystery. Hmmm. Hmmmmm.

David Byers

What an oddly sad story.

Bob Trenwith

Casefile - do you have an error at the 57 minute mark? You said "a few weeks earlier in mid-September 1980", but you had just been talking about 1981.

Jaye Leppky

Thank you so much for saying all this. It epically infuriates me when podcasts share not just incorrect psychological information, but diagnoses that have been debunked for years already, ruled as junk science. It's such a disservice to...listeners, patrons, victims...everyone! In particular, I cringe when thinking about how many lay people hear this bs, and they have no reason to question it, I mean, why would they? They have full trust in, and believe these podcasters have done their due diligence and researched it all...so why would they think twice about it? I mean, a quick Google search by the writers and/or "researchers" would have given them all the answers they need to make an informed decision to NOT present that crap as fact. And yes, while DID is real, it is very rare, and scarcely diagnosed without many hours of evidentiary behaviour. I’m practically speechless that the writers/researchers for Casefile couldn't be bothered to do even a minimal amount of research about repressed memories and DID. I've always trusted the integrity of Casefile's team, and I'm as disturbed as you seem to be as well. For me, this kind of fractures my confidence in Casefile – should I be concerned, going forward, about their integrity? Their loyalty to their principles? Am I being hyperbolic? I don't think I am....but I'm open to discussion on it.

Amanda Perkin

Whichever is or isn't I'm truly grateful that casefile still continues there mouthwatering stories.. Keep it up guys

Bob Trenwith

It's so easy for people who've never experienced these issues to deny their existence. Kind of like people who believe in a flat earth because they've only ever experienced their immediate surroundings.

AR

Pseudoscience is pseudoscience, Bob. Made-up scientific techniques don't automatically undermine the patients' experiences, but they necessarily call them into question. See also "Michelle Remembers" and a whole litany of repressed memory hysteria that fed into Satanic Panic throughout the 80s. Comparing skepticism about this to being a flat-earther is wildly inverse to reality.

AR

Milly is the writer on this and usually does a decent job threading the needle between sympathy for a subject who's undergone trauma and any related morally grey issues. Hopefully they have time to do a bit more research and editing for this one?

Bob Trenwith

Dissociative disorders are not pseudo-science. Yes, they made the mistake of referring to 'repressed memories', but that is not what they were actually describing.

TheodoraTheExplorer

The fact that the chief detective basically solved the years-long investigation after spending a weekend studying the file though. Oof this must have been a tough day at work for the detectives.

Green Thumb

You guys ever think about changing the name to Cakefile and discuss all things cakes instead.

AR

If you reread my comment you'll see i addressed dissociative identity separately from repressed memory pseudoscience and explicitly said that DID is real. But a "split personality" causing someone to lose their memory or blackout--my understanding is that that's a product of fiction and that in reality DID doesn't cause that. People with systems know what the system is doing.

Ndm3

Man I was really not expecting this to take the turn that it did. I was certain for a while that this woman was the victim of an ongoing harassment by actual people. When the twist came though… I was shocked.

Rosie Overell

I think the main thing from the psychoanalysis here is the master signifier of ‘cry baby’ and her embodiment of an unwanted child. She wanted recognition for her cries! Likely the rest of the childhood abuse is factitious.

MG

What a brave woman! Thanks for relating this story.

Patrick Gadoury

Cakefiles pending, this was a standout telling of the story. At one point im like, why we reading this sickos poems so much? Then the twist. It felt like all the stylistic choices in narration fell into place at that point. Great work to the writer, and our eternal Narrator.

Bob Trenwith

No it is not fiction. ALL sources refer to gaps in memory when personalities switch. Your 'understanding' is wrong.

Caroline O'Dea

Hi team, ever think about switching off the comments ???

Jean Pierre Linares

There is no reverence for the science. They don't stop the story to point out that lie detectors are bunk, either. You're just upset that the straight-laced, objective presentation of events didn't lecture the audience to say things you agree with. You want them to plant the notion that everything Ruth says after the reveal was a lie instead of trusting the audience to come to their own conclusions about a woman who was already lying for most of the story.

Zac

I picked it in the first 20 mins. Was driving home with my wife and we were listening and I said, “it’s always when she’s alone, I bet I know where it’s going”.

Suicide Sauce

I am a person who suffered a great deal of abuse as both a child and a dependent adult, and I know more than a few people whose trauma has manifested into "headmates," i.e. different voices or personalities that come forward or fade back at times. My username is Suicidesauce, for chrissake, I know what all of this is like, I know what trauma is like, I know what feeling like there are different people inside of you is like. But if I had multiple personalities and one of them was someone who wrote frankly awful poetry I would definitely not go on the news about it. I was listening with my head in my hands like "oh god, PLEASE learn to paint"

Suicide Sauce

I think it only crosses their mind when I start thirstposting about Anonymous Host. How you goin sweetheart

Suicide Sauce

yeah Bob, you-- wait, what were we talking about? I asked my other personality to listen in but they weren't paying attention either

Susan Dixon

Incredible episode!

Sian kennedy

I mean, this is a version of Munchausens or factitious disorder except using the threats & police as the outlet for validation rather than illness & trips to the hospital. Having worked with my fair share of mothers who suffered factitious disorder imposed on another (or Munchausens by Proxy), I’m not sure they are overly conscious of what they actually do in order to keep the narrative that perpetuates the validation. And I would say the findings about Ruth ware contemporary for the period in time when this took place: as you said, “repressed memories” were all the rage in to 1980-90s so a lot of the writing from people who actually observed Ruth (rather than the armchair experts who saw the materials at a later point) would be reflective of the best thinking/understanding available during that period of time. Fascinating upside regardless…

Renae Bartlett

But maybe also a lesson to him that he needed to be more involved in the cases.

Courtney Mackey

Can I just ask fellow listeners to please title their comments with SPOILER warnings to avoid giving away the contents of the episode? Thanks 🩷

Courtney Mackey

I said the same thing to my partner. Many people go through severely traumatic events but they don’t resort to creating a fictitious criminal that harasses them and their family for years on end. This was definitely an attention seeking stunt. She was clever enough to deceive professionals the entire time during the ordeal, so she was surely clever enough to continue deceiving them with bizarre and unscientific reasons as to why she did what she did. I don’t have anything against Casefile for telling these kinds of stories, they often leave similar stories up to the listeners interpretation as the “accepted” version of events. I think they know most of their listeners will be skeptical to these kinds of things. Cindy James is another similar story they’ve covered.

Ally Jakubicka

I also don't know how anyone believed anything she said ever again. A man tied her up? Maybe she's a compulsive liar. The end.

Bob Trenwith

Interesting how people here believe their personal opinion about someone they've never met and who they've only heard about for an hour somehow overrides the opinion of professionals who have spent so much time with her.

Katy Turley

Holy. Sh*t. OMG. What an episode!!!!!!! You all are amazing.

Magz

Don’t read the comments until after you listen to it if that’s an issue

Parrots Liz

Did Ruth place the call ‘from the hospital’ saying a man came in looking for her? Police went to the hospital after a nurse said she thought the man may have been ‘Ruth’s assailant’, but he was gone when they arrived.

Parrots Liz

I think it was probably embarrassing for the people who did the profiles of the poet.

Parrots Liz

Also - the real victim here is Ed. He was terrorised by the poet for years… he slept with a gun, had to drive his wife to the hospital because she had been stabbed, had the phone lines cut in Xmas Eve like… poor Ed

Parrots Liz

So it was Ms Ruth who left piss and shit at her own front door 🙃

Courtney Mackey

I accidentally read the top comment shown to me which revealed the outcome of the case within a few keywords. It was hard to avoid.

May Yang

That was a beautiful story.

Iain Strachan

Thought the 'twist' was pretty obvious but a very well told story nonetheless.

Ali

Really enjoyed this one, great work guys. So good to have you back!

Megan

Therapy just makes manipulative assholes like Ruth better at lying.

Miri Dean

Crazy case, really well crafted episode! Are we assuming now that the initial branding episode was similarly self-inflicted? I just heard an episode on another podcast where police called BS on someone’s story after they claimed to have been rendered unconscious overnight with chloroform. I was confused when I heard the same claim being made here, but had no other reason to doubt the branding story until much later in the episode. It’s just mind boggling to consider that Ruth caused herself so much physical pain, between the branding and the stabbing.

Miri Dean

I wondered about Ed with the window thing too… The glass broke when the fire from the burning wreath got too hot against it, so maybe it’s theoretically possible that Ruth went up and started the fire, and then the glass broke once she was back downstairs…? If Ed was really clueless, he sure had to endure a lot of unnecessary stress with his heart condition.

AR

Oh that's probably what happened with the wreath/glass shattering, I hadn't considered that but I'm sure you're right. It reminds me so much of Liz Golyar scheduling texts to send to her phone and Dave's at the same time, so they'd both be in the same room together when they got them. Absolutely next level duplicity.

Demi

Pro: the police took a case of stalking seriously and took actions to protect the individual Con: there was no stalker...

Demi

I think this would be a great discussion for BTF. I definitely heard a disclaimer that repressed memory therapy was discredited but it still plays a part on the story so I get why they discuss it still but maybe it could have been done with more nuance to keep reminding us it's been discredited?

Emma G

This is honestly one of the most uplifting Casefile episodes I've ever heard! Nobody got killed, nobody went to prison. Ruth finally got the mental health care she sorely needed and went on to enjoy the rest of her life happily with her husband. Crazy how all it needed was one unbiased person to review her case without having met her to figure out what was going on. I don't blame the other officers for not noticing it themselves, they were probably too invested and too emotionally connected to Ruth to look at it objectively. Not often I finish a Casefile episode feeling more cheerful than before!

Casefile

We added a paragraph to make clearer the above points raised. Thank you for your feedback.

AR

Thank *you*!!! You guys continue to be the best 💙

ally

Truly a fascinating case, very surprised I'd never heard of it before. Great episode!

Annie G

Or, we as community, could choose to be considerate of others and simply title our comments with "SPOILER". It's really not that hard.

Georgie

I never thought we would have a somewhat happy ending in a casefile episode. Great episode guys

Cat Warren

Wow, some people really got to live in a much kinder, gentler, more humane and understanding world. That story is wild just from the standpoint of modern comparison... And of course the loose ends. The broken window incident, etc.

Katie Melaugh

Great episode!! Not once did I suspect she was the one doing it

J. Chips

You know it’s my own fault for opening the comments before I finished the episode 😂

Katie Melaugh

Omg sorry!!!! 😭😭🫡 it was such a good episode too. I will not put anymore spoilers in the comments!!!