Maryland State Police are investigating the death of Ralph Ruark, an 80-year-old inmate at the Western Correctional Institution in Allegany County.
Ruark was serving a sentence at the maximum security prison for a triple murder he committed in 1972 in Salisbury, Maryland. On October 14, 1972, Ruark shot and killed his estranged wife, Glenda Smack Ruark, 25, in a bookstore in the Salisbury Mall. News reports at the time said the incident occurred in front of several customers and that Ruark was arrested shortly after the shooting.
Investigators were initially unaware that the shooting was not Ruark’s first murder of the day. When police arrived to notify Glenda Ruark’s parents of her death, they found her father, Glen, 53, shot to death and her mother, Louise, 49, beaten to death in their home.
Ruark remained in prison for the rest of his life until his recent death at the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland.
On June 22, 2024, at 4:10 p.m., the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit was contacted by investigators from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections Internal Investigation Unit (DPSCS IIU) regarding Ruark’s death, which occurred shortly before 3:30 p.m. that same day. The Homicide Unit is leading the investigation with assistance from State Police crime scene technicians and DPSCS IIU investigators. Once the investigation is complete, it will be reviewed by the Allegany County District Attorney’s Office, officials said last week.
Ruark’s body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy to determine cause and manner of death. The results will be submitted to the Allegany County District Attorney’s Office for further review.
