Ruth Ann Steinhagen Trial: 1949

Medics and police arrived. They took Waitkus to the hospital, where doctors gave him a 50-50 chance to live. They took his assailant, Ruth Ann Steinhagen, a 19-year-old typist, to jail. "I just had to shoot somebody," Steinhagen said by way of explanation. Interviewed at the Cook County jail, she told reporters, "I've never been so happy in my life." She said she liked Waitkus "best of anybody in the world," although she had never met him, that she had dreamed of him and prayed for him during the night. She said she had brought a knife and the rifle to her hotel room. She planned to stab Waitkus as soon as he entered and then shoot herself. The baseball player entered the room too briskly for her to use the knife so she shot him. She decided not to shoot herself.