Steve Jenkins
Jr. Member
One of the things that has drawn me into the Adolph Ruth Mystery is trying to understand the motivation for the level of involvement regarding Maricopa’s in both the search for him and the investigation that followed.
If one stays with the accepted and uncontroversal facts, at least as I understand them, Ruth was last seen alive in Pinal County. His first and perhaps last base camp is also in Pinal County. His head was eventually discovered in Pinal County. The remainder of his remains were discovered in Pinal County.
The search by Adams and Barkley for Ruth was done on behalf of Maricopa and it was a serious effort that went on for weeks, much longer than an elderly man out in that area in June and on his own was likely to be still alive. They used two individuals who were highly qualified that were likely to have had better things to do than search for the bones of a missing elderly out of towner.
I realize pressure was being applied by the Ruth family but this could have easily been sidestepped with the reasonable claim that we have no jurisdiction. “Call Pinal, here is the number.”
Keep in mind that this was well into the Great Depression and resources were even more limited than usual and they are always limited. Time, energy, and money spent on someone else’s problem reduces those same resources for situations that are indisputably within your domain.
The same argument could be said for the investigation after the search was over. It seems like an awful lot of time and energy were spent questioning persons of interest and requestioning them over a period of time. This does not fit with something they considered to be a simple case of a death by natural causes conclusion and that goes double if they had no reasonable grounds for jurisdiction.
For the record I believe this department was very professional and as thorough as they could be, given the circumstances involved.
There were several easy way outs for them and the Maricopa Sheriff’s office did not take any of them. For example no jurisdiction, call Pinal or natural causes case closed. Another out they did not take which often happens in high profile cases is to pin the tail on the donkey. Find a suspect that looks reasonable and nobody will complain about. There was huge potential for such things in this case and the fact that that did not happen speaks volumes for the professionalism of those in charge.
Comments and questions?
Steve
If one stays with the accepted and uncontroversal facts, at least as I understand them, Ruth was last seen alive in Pinal County. His first and perhaps last base camp is also in Pinal County. His head was eventually discovered in Pinal County. The remainder of his remains were discovered in Pinal County.
The search by Adams and Barkley for Ruth was done on behalf of Maricopa and it was a serious effort that went on for weeks, much longer than an elderly man out in that area in June and on his own was likely to be still alive. They used two individuals who were highly qualified that were likely to have had better things to do than search for the bones of a missing elderly out of towner.
I realize pressure was being applied by the Ruth family but this could have easily been sidestepped with the reasonable claim that we have no jurisdiction. “Call Pinal, here is the number.”
Keep in mind that this was well into the Great Depression and resources were even more limited than usual and they are always limited. Time, energy, and money spent on someone else’s problem reduces those same resources for situations that are indisputably within your domain.
The same argument could be said for the investigation after the search was over. It seems like an awful lot of time and energy were spent questioning persons of interest and requestioning them over a period of time. This does not fit with something they considered to be a simple case of a death by natural causes conclusion and that goes double if they had no reasonable grounds for jurisdiction.
For the record I believe this department was very professional and as thorough as they could be, given the circumstances involved.
There were several easy way outs for them and the Maricopa Sheriff’s office did not take any of them. For example no jurisdiction, call Pinal or natural causes case closed. Another out they did not take which often happens in high profile cases is to pin the tail on the donkey. Find a suspect that looks reasonable and nobody will complain about. There was huge potential for such things in this case and the fact that that did not happen speaks volumes for the professionalism of those in charge.
Comments and questions?
Steve
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