On August 20, 1983, Pamela Marie Ryan, 29, was one of four women brutally murdered inside the Greenware by Mary ceramic shop on East Cass Street in Joliet, Illinois. Pamela had accompanied her 75-year-old mother-in-law, Anna Ryan, and 38-year-old Barbara Dunbar to the shop that Saturday morning; the store owner, 45-year-old Marilyn Baers, was also present. All four victims were attacked and killed, with a total of 43 stab wounds inflicted at the scene.

Pamela, Barbara and Marilyn died from multiple stab wounds; Anna Ryan was stabbed and also shot in the neck. The victims were found bound inside the shop and the attack appeared unprovoked. The killings were linked to a broader summer 1983 killing spree in the Joliet area.

Milton Johnson, a 33-year-old man from Joliet, was arrested in March 1984 after forensic evidence connected him to the ceramic shop murders and was later convicted for the killings that included Pamela Ryan.