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Before she loved Lucy, did a North Dakota actress escape a sex-trafficking ring in Panama?
The hometown rebuttal challenged a sensational account that said Baughman escaped a Panama trafficking ring after accepting a contract for work and pay.
- On February 19, 1922, The Minneapolis Journal published a sprawling feature detailing North Dakotan Ruth Baughman's alleged narrow escape from a sex-trafficking ring in Panama.
- During a 1921 New York scouting trip, recruiters offered Baughman a performance role at The Lobby Cafe in Cristobal, Panama, promising a room and $25 a week.
- The Herald later contradicted the sensational account, citing Baughman's mother who insisted her daughter "had had no such experiences" as those reported in the newspaper.
- After separating from her husband in 1943, Baughman headed to Hollywood, where she became known as Katy on Lucille Ball's CBS comedy "My Favorite Husband."
- Taking the truth of the Panama events with her, Baughman died in Los Angeles on January 6, 1996, at 96, leaving the incident's facts unresolved.
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Duluth News Tribune+19 Reposted by 19 other sources
Before she loved Lucy, did a North Dakota actress escape a sex-trafficking ring in Panama?
Decades before appearing with Lucille Ball in one of television’s most-watched episodes, Ruth Baughman Perrott became the heroine of a sensational newspaper tale seemingly made for Hollywood.
·Cherokee County, United States
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Total News Sources20
Leaning Left0Leaning Right8Center9Last UpdatedBias Distribution53% Center
Bias Distribution
- 53% of the sources are Center
53% Center
C 53%
R 47%
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