Gin Ruiz Cam was a ruthless drug king Penn in Dallas, Texas during the late 19 eighties. Connected to a powerful Mexican drug cartel, Cam had an ins lust for violence. Fellow drug dealers noted that he could turn his brutality on and off like a light switch. Cam once told his right hand man that he planned to cut out a guy's hard and eat it and make him eat it too. During his capital murder trial, a prosecutor described Cam as a mad dog killer.
After Jurors sentenced him to death, The judge remark that the trial had featured the most g test and bizarre set of facts ever heard in a courtroom in this nation since the Charles Manson Killings in California, call the verdict exceedingly appropriate. Just how g tests you wonder? Cam put a woman through a tree mulch and murdered a 4 year old boy and his mother. Fbi special agent Ta Bailey of the Dallas violent crime task force pursued Cam for 2 years.
At the time of the trial, Bailey said Cam was the worst criminal he'd had come across in 21 years. In 2024, long retired from the bureau, Bailey sat down to talk to me about the case that still haunt him today. We had a history together from my reporting years earlier on bank takeover gangs and wanted violent fugitive. 19 99, bailey presented me with the first ever Dallas Crime Commission award for excellence in crime reporting.
And Ta Bailey joined the Fbi after serving with the marines in Vietnam. After 14 years with a bureau, Bailey transferred to the Dallas field office to head up the Dallas swat team and work violent crime cases. So we we covered everything from bank robber, to kidnapping, ex, Armored car Robber and fugitive. Most of the fugitive being wanted as unlawful was called unlawful flight. They've been charged by state authorities for some type of a
violent crime. It could be murder could be armed robbery kidnapping whatever the state had charged a felony in on with belief that the person had travel in interstate commerce. The cam case began with a brutal murder in kidnapping at a crack house in pleasant grove, A notoriously violent neighborhood in Southeast Dallas. And to this day, pleasant grove remains a hotspot for crime. On the day in question, 33 year old Gin Cam arrived outside the house with 3 acc.
Cam a stock and sw 5 foot 7, 175 pound drug dealer was already wanted in South Texas for killing a man with a shot gun over a trivial name calling dispute. His presence ex a sinister Aura reminiscent of a malevolent nineteenth century ghost. Cam parked in from the d 2 story crack house, psych himself up for the confrontation by banging his fist on the steering wheel.
He had fronted 30000 dollars worth of marijuana to 31 year old Evelyn banks an occasional drug dealer who lived there with her 3 year old son Andre and her common law husband, 52 year old Sam junior wright. Right, the boy's father was also a wanted fugitive drug dealer. It was time for Evelyn to pay the piper. She had about 30000 dollars was to drugs she was gonna sell in into projects. But when she went down there, she got ripped off. So she didn't have the money.
So Cam kept calling wanting his money, and she wouldn't answer the phone, wouldn't blow him off and wouldn't come to the door. So he finally got fed up. Cam rounded up some muscle to assist him in collecting his dead. He and Juan Jackson his girlfriend's 24 year old brother, headed to Eddie Blaine Cummings 2 bedroom apartment. Cummings, a muscular 24 year old known as fast eddie had been cam cell made in the Dallas County jail a few months earlier.
He already had a long rap sheet, including narcotics violations. Legal possession of firearms and stealing several thousand dollars from his mother. Cam burst into the apartment shouting wake up, we've got work to do. But cummings who was in bed with his 23 year old girlfriend Pamela Miller was sleeping off a hangover. The night before cummings and Cam had been out at baby dolls, a strip club where Pamela worked as a top list dancer. Groggy and irritable,
cummings refused to budge. He told Cam to round up his roommate, George David Cook, and 38 year old Larry Gene Merrill known as the Indian to help with the job. They went to the house. When they got there, the house has a front porch, But they had burglar bars on the front, all the around the front with a chain around it to keep it locked, and the padlock lock on it. So when they got to the house, Cam sent juan jackson around to the side, and told him to cut the telephone line.
Which she did, and then they came and cut the chain on the front door, kicked in the front door, David Cook had a 03:57, and I'm not sure if it was juan, or Larry Mer had a Mac 10 submachine gun. They kicked in the front door. They grabbed devil and they sent 1 of the guys up the stairs, grab Sam wright and Andre banks, Evelyn 3 year row boy and brought him downstairs. And Cam started screaming at. He wanted his money. He wanted his money he was gonna
get his money. Well about that time, David Wilbur, who was Sam Rights and nephew. Came to the house because they were planning on going this report for a funeral that day, and Sam did not wanna drive. Sam had been convicted in federal court for drug trafficking. While the jury was a deli, and they were in recess, Sam walked down the stairs and walked out of the courthouse. So he was a federal fugitive on the drug charges. He didn't wanna drive because if they got stopped,
he'd get arrested. So David Wilbur was gonna drive because he was clean. Well, they brought Wi, and they put him down on his knees and add him lie down flat on the floor. And cam kept screaming for his money and said to show Business, he told David cook to shoot. Wilbur in the head. Well, David couldn't do it. So Cam took the gun away from him and shot Wilbur in the back of the head, with the 03:57. He then grabbed Sam, Evelyn and Andre and said let's go.
And they started marching them out to the car. They were driving and I think the Lincoln Continental that belonged to David Cook mother. Well, as they were getting into the car, Sam wright, broken ran. And he sent juan after him, but juan couldn't catch him. So they took Evelyn and Andre took off and went to the apartment at royal and central and left Evelyn there. With cook, Eddie Blaine cummings, and Larry Mer realizing what was going on. Said I'm getting out of here and he left.
Ta Bailey watched the television news coverage of the murder and kidnapping, While sitting in the hospital where his daughter was recovering from a tons. When you saw on television, what was it about your instincts that you said, this drug related. We had so many... We had so many kidnapping that you could tell you could tell by the neighborhood, the victim, the circumstances of the kidnapping, you, that this was not a sex related kidnapping.
This was to collect a drug debt. Sam reid, the fugitive drug dealer who had escaped call the Fbi and inform them that Cam had taken Evelyn banks under son Andre Hostage over the 30000 dollars she owed him for 25 pounds of marijuana. Authorities were unaware that the mother and child were being held at the apartment of Eddie Blaine Cummings fast eddie with his girlfriend, Pamela Miller, the stripper. In the meantime, Bailey tracked down Cam wife Vicki.
And she tells us about Cam girlfriend named Wanda Jackson and Wanda lives in Richardson. And she's a black female with blue eyes. And so we took that information. She said, she was trying to get a divorce from Cam, but Cam had threatened oliver of her lawyers, so she was having trouble. None of the lawyers wanted to take the case because they were afraid of Cam. She was divorcing him because she caught him mole lasting. Their daughter. So so anyway, she said the girlfriend was Wanda.
So he's started doing some background on wanda Jackson we found her address in Richardson, Texas. We went up to interviewer. She said, no. She said, she hadn't seen Cam since the previous Thursday when they had gone to a funeral of 1 of her family members. But she didn't know anything else about. We found out later that as soon as we left, she called Cam and said, Big brother's been here, and he says you've been a a very bad boy. The Fbi quickly identified Cam and his 3 acc.
But by the end of the week, the trail had gone cold. Cam had made no effort to contact anyone to demand ransom for Evelyn banks and her 3 year old son Andre. There were no clues about the location of the kidnapped victims are, Cam whereabouts. A new lead emerged when Pamela Miller, the top list answer and girlfriend of fast eddie cummings was reported missing.
A friend informed the police that Miller had mentioned witnessing something she shouldn't have and that she was planning to go away for a while. Another acquaintance recognized Cam from newspaper stories as the man she had seen with a strip and others at baby dolls. 3 months into the investigation, the first of 2 significant breaks came the Fbi's way. A snitch reported that Eddy Cummings was hiding out in his hometown of Lot, Oklahoma and planned to visit a restaurant.
Us Marshals apprehended him serving him dessert in handcuffs. Cummings unravel the story of the murder and abduction revealing the involvement of David Cook, who had hesitate to pull the trigger to kill David Wilbur. Cook agreed to plead guilty to 1 federal count of kidnapping and exchange for sharing what he knew. What he revealed was horrifying. 2 days after the murder and enraged Cam informed cook that his girlfriend Wanda Jackson had just been interviewed by Fbi agent Ta bailey.
Furious that the Fbi was closing in on him Cam ordered cooked a snatch Evelyn banks in her son Andre from the apartment shared with fast eddy cummings. Cam, then directed Cook to find 26 year old spencer Stanley, a dangerous psycho path who did his dirty work. The group transported banks and her son north to ar more Oklahoma just across the border from Texas. Cook recounted how K banks calm by telling her they were going to fly her to California from a Clan airs strip.
So they went up to Ar more Oklahoma, and they checked into a motel room, and Cam hotels Spencer Stanley. Go find a place to get rid of these 2. With that, but he's he doesn't say that in front of Evelyn and andre. Spencer Stanley was from Oklahoma knew the area. He went out to a remote area on the back roads, went back into the woods and Doug a very long deep hole. It came back to the hotel and told Cam it was done.
The next morning, Cam told Evelyn that he had a Clan landing strip out in the woods, and he was gonna have a plane come pick them up take them into California, and they were to stay there in California until all the heat died down, then they could come back. So they drove to this remote area in these dirt road, and they walked back into their woods and as soon as Evelyn saw the hole she knew what was coming, and she led out a scream and collapsed. And Spencer Stanley had Andre on his shoulders.
He threw him down in the hole and Cam pumped 4 rounds into his head, a 3 year old, a 3 year old, from a 3 80. He then pushed the evelyn in the hole and pumped several rounds into her. And then he sprinkle cat litter over her. And then they filled up the hole, and covered it up with brush.
Then they drove over to Tis to a boat ramp on the lake t, and they threw the 3 80 out into the lake After bumping along the back rows of Southern Oklahoma for 2 days, David Cook finally located the remote graves side of Evelyn banks at her son Andre. On a sw August afternoon in Texas with no breeze to offer relief. Fbi just began their Grim task of digging. They soon uncovered spent 3 80 caliber cartridges. A chilling testament to the violence that had occurred.
After 2 hours of labor, an Fbi agent standing way steep in the hold, une earth the remains. A foul stan fill the air overwhelming the agents. They neutralize the odor by smear Vic vapor rub under their noses. As they continue to dig, they found Evelyn lying as she had died on top of her son. Both bodies were partially mum by the cat litter, the killers had spread over them. Another g revelations awaited.
En route from Dallas to search for banks and our son, David Cook and a matter of fact tone, made a startling disclosure about the disappearance of Pamela Miller, the top list dancer from baby dolls. David Cook told us when we were taking him up to Oklahoma, would it happened there. And we were driving up 35, and we knew Pamela Miller was missing and then.
She supposedly had seen something she wasn't supposed to see, which was what she saw at the apartment, and we asked David Cook we had heard that Cam took her to Mexico with him? We asking, where's where's Pamela Miller now? Where in Mexico is he? And he's he said she's not in Mexico. She's dead. We said, Well, where she buried? He said you'll never find her. And we said why not? He said, well, we ran her through a tree altar.
Bailey recalls nearly running off the road when Cook revealed that Cam had grown in increasingly suspicious of Pamela Miller. Cam decides to take Pamela with him because she'd seen too much. And they went to a hotel out in irving, out near the airport. When they got there, Cam was trying to make another drug deal to make a sale of a quantity. And he met with a guy named Michaels at a hotel there In Dallas, I wanna say, may have been Ana, and they took Pamela Miller with them.
Well, when they got there, Pamela had a lot to drink, and she said something to the guy Michaels who was there to buy the drugs I've seen seen you a baby dolls where I dance. And Michael started getting nervous, and he excused himself to use the restroom and he slipped out the back door never came back. Well, this scent cam through the roof, and he dragged her out to the car soon as he got in the car, he
started punching owner her. And of course, she made derogatory comments to him about is mask lack of mac masculinity entity, which made him even matter. So they drove to the back to the hotel, they picked up David Cook, and Cam started str her, in the back backseat of the car. And then when he thought she was dead, he got in the front seat, and Stanley said, Gin, I think she's still alive.
So they pulled her out of the car, slammed her on the side of the road and had cooked drive over a couple of times. Threw in the back in the car. Stanley said, I think she's still alive. So little farther down the road, they pulled her out, ran her over again. Then they drove down to Steven where David Cook had an apartment, and they stuck her in a barrel. And left her there for a couple of days, then they had David Cook call his friend, Steve Smith.
And told Steve Smith to go rent a tree altar, come to Steven Bill. And when Smith got to Steven, Spencer Stanley, David Cook, Steve Smith drove out to David Cook family's ranch, way out in a remote area of Steven. And Steve Smith just kinda sat back over to the side. He didn't want any part of this, but he was pretty well stuck. They then dumped Evelyn out of the barrel.
They Spencer Stanley commenced to chop her up with an axe, and then feed the body parts through the tree mulch and sprayed it into the wood area. They're in a remote area of the ranch. And then they took the tree altar to a car wash, ran it through the car wash, spray washed it through the inside, and then had Steve Smith. Return it to the rental place. Bailey escorted cooked to his mother's ranch located West of Fort Worth, where she willingly consented to a search of the prop pretty.
Without even getting down and digging around, we found them pieces of bone chip with notches through it. That obviously had been through a grinder of some sort. And we said, well, this is a spot. But we'll have to come do a a thorough search. So we came back a couple of days later. We took the area, and we grid it off into 20 foot by 20 foot squares, and we put an agent in each square with a pair of grass clippers and a trial, and they went through line by line, digging through the grass.
Until they could pick up bone chips. We picked up pieces of tissue that were hanging in the trees that had been hanging there since this happened in June. So there'd been no rain, so it pretty much the tissue had dried and was just hanging in the trees, we were able to take that out. We found a piece of a jaw bone with some teeth seal in it, which would help in identification. Bailey successfully apprehended all of C acc.
It was a motley crew, particularly David Cook, the criminal who struck a deal with prosecutors to expose the full extent of the crimes. David Cook was the 1 that purchased the Mac tens. He was he was a sadistic individual. We found out later on, he actually tortured animals, which Showed was pretty sadistic. Mh. There was there was a story that he had actually taken a litter of kittens and buried them up to their neck and then run over them with a lawn mower. He was any tortured dogs.
He was he was pretty sadistic. Spencer Stanley was he was just very uncontrollable. I mean, very hyper individual. Eddie Blaine cummings was basically just a punk. Larry Merrill just got wrapped up in this situation. Didn't... He was kinda light using the marijuana, he hung out for the drugs. But once he realized what he got into, he got out of there. Eddie Blaine cummings. Like I said was a punk, but he really did not and get involved in any of the murders.
Fbi special agent Ta bailey discovered that Cam had fled to Mexico. The Mexican government declared it would require military action to capture Cam effectively rendering him untouchable. Meanwhile, Dallas County Sheriff's intelligence agents, intercepted a letter from Cam to a Jamaican drug dealer, solicit listening ahead on David Cook, the Fbi inform. Determined to bring Cam back, bailey devised several schemes to lure him across the border.
A breakthrough came when a Dea inform managed to in ent Cam. The inform boasted about his connections with mob. Figures in Kansas City and mentioned that organized crime associates were interested in purchasing 10 tons of marijuana. Figures At the time, Marijuana wholesale price on the border was about 300 dollars a pound making it a potential 6000000 dollar deal. Anticipating that Cam would verify the inform credibility.
Bailey contacted 1 of his own confidential sources within the Mexican drug trade. He alerted the source that Cam might call for verification. When Cam did, Bailey source assured him he was dealing with legitimate contacts. Bailey source reinforced the inform credibility by emphasizing his connections and financial backing Despite the setup, Cam still hesitate to come across the border.
To sweet the deal, The inform offered Cam 100000 dollars in earnest money, which he could personally collect in Mca, Texas just across the Rio grande. Cam took the bait. So we set up a hundred thousand dollar advanced payment, on a drug deal. That would take place in Mc. You'd come across the border as a tourist carrying a bottle of tequila and meet with the inform, with the drug dealer, in a hotel there in mc allen and then he could go back and set it up.
So the inform gave him a set of clothes, pair of white shorts, turquoise blue and white, C Loafers, Hawaiian shirt, and a hat. I never forget. Blue and white hat to match the C loafers that said, beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes to the bone. So you gave him those clothes. He said that way you we'll recognize you when you come across. So we set up this deal that we're gonna give him a hundred thousand dollar advance of money.
So he's coming across the bridge. We set up with Fbi agents and Dea agents in plain clothes, all around the the bridge, watching flooring. And pretty soon we seem him coming across the bridge, and 1 of the D agent says he's on the bridge now. And I and I said over the radio. Are you sure that's him. He said, yeah. He's wearing those goofy clothes, the inform gave him. So I said, okay, let him get across. So we had a plan. Of 3 different stop locations.
The first 1 being to try to get him as soon as he stepped on the Us soil but if we couldn't get him without the chance of him running back, we'd let him go to the next spot, which would be the parking lot. And if we couldn't positively grab him in the parking lot, we grabbed him at the hotel. But as it turned out, as soon as he came across the bridge, the Dea and Fbi agents close off the bridge, grabbed him told him that they were, border patrol, and that they thought he was an illegal
immigrant. Where's is his Id? He said, well, I don't have my Id. I just went across to get a bottle of tequila Here it is. My name's Thomas, Sanchez. They say said, well, we think you're an the illegal immigrant. We're gonna have to take your prints to make sure you are a Us citizen. So they take him down to border patrol, and they put him in the lock up. At this time, I my blood pressure's pumping.
I waited about 2 hours, 2 or 3 hours because we wanted to make it look like, he hadn't been set up because we didn't wanna burn Dea foreman. So waited about 2 or 3 hours. I walked into, cell block with his fingerprint cards. And I said, Tomas, I'm I'm Ta Bailey, from the Fbi. I think you know who I am. So no, I don't know. I don't never heard of you which I knew he did. Mh. Because I knew he got it from
Wanda. Yeah. I says, well, u, your fingerprints came back, and they say that your genome Cam, and I pulled out his mug shot, and I said, and that's you right, And he said, I guess so think prince must be right. I says, well, I have a warrant for you for murder and kidnapping. And said, well, it must be. I says, well, we're taking you back to Dallas. I don't have anything to say. I said, okay.
As we're flying up to Dallas, we go through some kinda turbulent, Whether I'm sitting through directly across from him, and I just keep staring adding the whole time, just looking at me. Why do you keep looking at me? I said, I'm just watching you. And and he put his head down and he looked up, and I'd just be staring at it. Well then we go through some turbulence and and this little 6 seater single engine plane starts bouncing around.
And he says, are we gonna die and Tom Porter, the pilot turned and said, we're not, but you are. So we landed at Dallas at Red bird airfield, and the marshall service are there to meet us. A marshal service taking, and he goes before the mag straight in Dallas, and he goes to the Dallas County jail, Now we had made arrangements with the Us attorney's office that he would first be tried for capital murder for killing David Wilbur. And they would seek the death penalty.
Then after that, he would be tried in federal court. For the kidnapping of Evelyn and Andre. That way that if the death penalty was overturned, He would have the federal life without parole, and he would never see the light a day. In the spring of 19 90, Dallas County jury sentenced its gin Cam to death for the execution style murder of David Wilbur 2 years earlier.
Wilbur, as you may recall had tragically shown up at the wrong place at the wrong time, interrupting the abduction of Evelyn banks in her 3 year son Andre. During the 2 week trial held under maximum security, the jury heard harrowing testimony for about Cam brutal crimes. They learned how he had murdered Pamela Miller and fe her body into a tree and how he had ordered the execution of Evelyn banks at her young son.
Why did the 3 year old have to die prosecutor Hugh Lucas asked the jurors before turning to look directly at Cam. He wasn't going to be an eye witness to anything. Prosecutor Addressing the jury, Lucas continued, you at this point but become conscious of this community. Lucas call Cam, the bad of the bad, the mean of the meme. He asserted if this death penalty was ever warranted. This is the case. Several jurors visibly shaken after more than 4 hours of deli declaration.
Set crying as district judge Ron Chapman read their verdict. A 35 year old Cam made the sign of the cross as sheriff's deputies escorted him out of the courtroom. There were fears that the cartel might attempt to help Cam escape. The sheriff's office arranged that as soon as he got the death penalty. They took him back to the lock up, they put him in the orange jumpsuit the handcuffed. They drove him with a guarded vehicles out to a airs strip in Me mosquito.
Put him on a Dps plane, and they flew him straight to Huntsville. Did Death. To death row, put him immediately on death row, so that he would not be in the Dallas County Jail. Ta bailey in the Fbi continued hunting Cam acc Juan Jackson. The television show unsolved mysteries aired a segment about the Fugitive, leading to a breakthrough. The manager of a soft drink bottling company and Compton California recognized Jackson as an employee loading trucks at his plant.
Coworkers workers knew him as country for his thick Texas accent and notified the Fbi. Fbi just quickly moved in an apprehended Jackson, Bringing him back to Dallas to stand trial in federal court. Jackson and Cam were tried in convicted of kidnapping Evelyn banks, and her 3 year old son Andre. This conviction served as an insurance policy, ensuring that Cam would spend the rest of his life behind bars if his death penalty sentence were ever overturned.
In late August 19 98, exactly 10 years to the day since Ta bailey, fellow Fbi agents ex zoom the bodies of Evelyn and Andre banks. Cam faced the Texas execution. Bailey, and his former boss on the Violent crime squad, Joe Hers, and Pamela Miller mother, Mickey Miller. Were present inside the Huntsville walls unit death chamber. Mickey Miller, the mother of the dancer who had been fed into a tree mulch, pressed herself against the glass window of the booth reserve for victim's families.
Cam Leon Ga with his arms outs stretched. Intravenous tubes inserted. She chanted, you're paying. You were finally paying. Bailey mu under his breath, suck it up mister Badass. You're going to be dead in about 5 minutes. When they brought him in. Pamela his mother Mickey Miller. She pushed her chair right up next to the glass. She had her face right up on the glass. Looking into the execution chamber watching.
And Cam came in. He was a little late coming in because they were having trouble finding a vein, vein kept rolling. Finally, they got an Iv in his arm, and they brought him in. They brought him in on the Gu, he strapped down, feet, waist and arms. And the 1 arm is out on a separate. Arm and strapped down with Iv in it, and he's hooked up to the Iv with the lethal injection there's a chaplain standing at the foot? The warden is at the front at the head of the
Bend asked gin. Do you have any last words his family was in the room adjacent to us. And his words to his family was, I'll see you on the other side. And then they put the injection of the fluid in, and you could hear in the next room, the family, somebody was pounding on the glass in the next room, and then you hear him kinda sn and then he was pronounced dead. And you're feeling and the feelings of the to the victim's mother? I thought he got off easy.
The out the way he did compared to what his victims had to go through. After it was over, we went back to the hotel where Mickey and Joe and I were staying and Mickey brought, broke out a bottle of sparkling wine and popped the cork and a toast to pamela. What is it about this case that has stayed with all these years. The vicious cruel vicious. Still gets to you today. Yeah. You know, and what I've saw in my career, it's unthinkable. You're just like How did the person every kit
to be so brave and brute. Yeah. Yeah. The the description of of what was done the Pamela Miller was was really brutal. And as a side note when we found out where the molt had been rented we sent Chris La out there to get the mulch so we could bring it in to have it for a for forensic exam. And the manager's thought somebody was playing a joke on it, and said, Yeah. Who's sent to here? This is a joke cry. Chris said, no. It's not. He said, this was used to dispose of a body.
And we need it for a forensic exam, and the manager says, okay. I'll give it to you, but would you give me a subpoena just to cover me So we went and gave him a a subpoena for that made him happy again and We took down to our garage and the lab came out and examined it. But the brutality of the disgusting nature of someone being chopped up and put for a mulch like that, Was pretty gruesome.
You know, I... Over the years I spoke into groups and stuff and and I always talk about evil walks amongst us, and I have a lot of people don't believe it, you know, especially academics. Would you say in your career you saw it? There are people that find it hard to believe, but I think people in law enforcement they're well aware of it. You see it every day. Yeah. You see it, especially especially if you're working violent crime cases, you see it every day.
After all these years are doing you ever come away with any kind of explanation because I tell people I can't explain it. It just No. Just it some people are just pure evil, pure evil. And I think When you look at what's going on in Mexico today, which is where this all originated from, and you see the brutality of the cartel down there. I think you can understand what we're dealing with here. It's an offs shoot. Of what's coming out of those cartel south of.
The case of Gin Cam stands as a stark reminder of the capacity for human brutality and the relentless pursuit of justice by Fbi agents. It is a testament to the determination of the brave men and women in law enforcement who fight on our behalf and the age o conflict of good versus evil. This is Robert Rig reporting.