Anyone that is familiar with the Manson trial knows that the story of how it all happened was essentially broken when Susan Atkins went to Sybil Brand. For those that don’t know, in October of 1969, just a couple months after the Tate-LaBianca murders, Susan was arrested and put in jail for a whole other charge, arson. At the time, the police were really looking at the The Family for a series of auto thefts that kept happening in the area, and a burnt truck in Death Valley got their attention. In fact, a week after the Tate murders, she and others were initially arrested at Spahn Ranch, but were later released since the warrant used had an incorrect date. So after the first arrest, the group went up to their other hub in Death Valley-Barker Ranch. Through various things that led the police to them, Atkins and some of the others were arrested again, and incarcerated. Initially, it really only seemed that the group was an auto-theft, chop-shop ring, until Susan decided to explain it all.

Susan ended up in Sybil Brand Institute, in dormitory 8000. According to transcripts, Susan’s bed was next to Ronnie Howard’s, of which she told Howard she felt, “We are next to each other for a reason.”. At Sybil Brand, Susan earned the nickname of “Crazy Sadie”, the other inmates thought that she was a nut. She was seen dancing, singing, and generally way too happy to be in jail. For one reason or another, Susan felt that she could confide in her fellow inmates Ronnie Howard and Virginia Graham, not about the auto theft charges, but instead of the murders.

While in lockup, Susan would tell on multiple occasions, her story on the murders. She really seemed to relish in tell others about it, perhaps either as a trophy of sorts, or maybe she believed that they would be impressed with her. In reality, Ronnie and Virginia were horrified, and wanted to tell the authorities.

As the story goes, Ronnie Howard and Virginia Graham were conflicted about telling someone what had happened. In jail themselves, the two women weren’t squeaky clean and had been incarcerated in the past. At the time, Howard was in jail for forging a prescription, and Graham had a parole violation. The two women had also been call girls in the past. Knowing that snitches were frowned upon, the two were unsure what to do, but eventually decided to tell someone the truth.

It was hard to get into contact with someone for both women, as the system wouldn’t easily want to hear them, but to make a long story short, Ronnie Howard was able to make a phone call at a payphone (after paying other people ahead of her in line), when about to get on a prison bus to go to court. She was able to briefly get in contact with the LAPD and tell them what Susan Atkins had told her about the Tate case.

Even though I’ve read a few books, watched many documentaries and videos on the whole case, I never really came across much about what exactly happened when Ronnie went to court. All I really know is that Virginia Graham and Ronnie Howard both testified at the trial.

As a personal anecdote, when I came across this whole rabbit hole, it wasn’t until halfway through reading the Manson book by Guinn that I wondered what ever happened to some of these people. Ronnie was one of them, and I always figured that by now, in 2020, she surely wouldn’t be with us anymore, though probably lived a long good life. Unfortunately I was wrong.

Ten years after the murders, after Susan Atkins told it all at Sybil Brand, Ronnie Howard passed away. There are two main sources for this information, her Find a grave profile, and the end of ‘Helter Skelter’ by Bugliosi. Both sources state the same thing, though each have certain details that the other doesn’t have.

First of all, after the trial, both Ronnie and Virginia were considered snitches. On page 631 of my copy of Helter Skelter, near the end of the page, it stated that Ronnie tried to work as a cocktail waitress “but found it difficult to hold a job”. It is stated that she was looked down upon as the “Manson case snitch” and even had been beaten up several times on her way home from work. At one point, there was a bullet shot into her apartment, through the living room window. The bullet only missed her head by 6 inches. Apparently the next day she had talked to reporters, stating that she “should have kept my mouth shut in the first place”.

On September 21^st, 1979, Ronnie had came back to Los Angeles from Las Vegas. She had gone with her husband and his brother, and according to the two sources, she was waiting on the men as they got the luggage. Now, Find a grave states that she was kidnapped, by someone who claimed to be a cab driver. In Helter Skelter, Bugliosi wrote that Ronnie had been beaten by two unknown men. Either way, the person or men took Ronnie, just as her husband and brother-in-law were coming with the luggage. They drove her to 60^th and Western, where she was robbed and beaten.

Apparently after they robbed her of $400 in cash and $800 in jewelry, they dumped her in an industrial district, and later she called her husband telling him what happened. A police report was made, and it was found that she had been beaten with a blunt instrument on her head and thighs.

After the incident, Ronnie was described as having suffered from nausea, dizziness, and headaches. She became increasingly lethargic and was taken to Queen of Angels hospital on September 25^th of that year. Ronnie was treated then released, but on October 1^st, she was found incontinent, and unable to get out of bed. At this point, Ronnie was taken to Cedars Sinai and at this point her eyes were absent, like “doll’s eyes”. On October 3^rd, 1979, Ronnie Howard passed away at 12:30 pm of blunt force trauma, brain stem compression, subdural hematoma, and cerebral edema. She was 43 years old.

Those that have read about what happened believe that Ronnie was a target of the remainders of the Manson Family, since she snitched on what Susan told her. Police stated that her death was not related to the Tate-LaBianca case, though many people believe otherwise.

Ronnie Howard is buried in Los Angeles Odd Fellows Cemetery, in Los Angeles, California.

SOURCES:

Helter Skelter

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32243782/ronnie-howard

Where is Simone Ridinger?

Simone Stephanie Ridinger was born on January 5^th, 1960. Not much is known about her early life, though we can conclude that at some point her mother re-married, and she inherited a step-sister. It has been reported in articles that Simone was in and out of high school before ultimately dropping out. In a 1986 article, the assistant headmaster of her school recalled her as having been “a delightful girl who wasn’t fond of school, and seemed to be rebelling against something”. At some point she seemed to have been working on her GED. To her friends, Simone was a “gifted pianist, free spirit, and fiercely independent”.

Family photo from Facebook page

On September 2^nd, 1977, Simone was working as a waitress in cafe called the Rainbow Restaurant/Room located in Natick, Massachusetts. Simone planned to meet her mom/family (in what I would be called a vacation home) Chappaquiddick in Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, to celebrate the Labor Day Weekend. The story goes that Simone was going to hitchhike her way there to Cape Cod, and left work that day anywhere between 12-4pm (3pm is listed as the time on NamUS). Simone never showed up to Cape Cod, and her family never saw her again.

At the time, the vacation home that her mother was in didn’t have electricity or telephones, so when Simone didn’t show or contact them, they didn’t feel it to be weird at first. According to some articles, Simone supposedly had some friends in the Cape Cod area, though no-one ever knew or saw these people. It wasn’t until Simone’s family came home and she wasn’t there that the worry set in, and they tried to scrape up any information on her whereabouts. Starting on September 11^th of that year, they reported her missing to the authorities. They even went as far as hiring a private investigator and a psychic. Even through their efforts, they found nothing.

For over 40 years, people have wondered where Simone went, let alone what could have even happened to her. Simone’s body was never found or identified, let alone was there any official trace of her once she left work.

In between her disappearance and now, only few things popped up as clues. First in 1986, there was a report from a man in this 70’s that decided to come forth and state that he thought he may have given Simone a ride. The man has never been named, as articles that I’ve read stated that he didn’t want to be known to the public. The man was described as elderly when interviewed (or that’s what it seemed), so in the 70’s he may have been at least 50 or 60 when allegedly seeing Simone. The unnamed man stated that he had been pulled over on September 3^rd, 0645 in the morning, at an intersection between Routes 128 and 109, which according to NamUS, would be in the Westwood, MA area. When pulled over at the intersection, the man allegedly saw a girl in the back of the car in state trooper’s cruiser. The unnamed man stated that he was going to Osterville on Cape Cod to pick up ‘clock parts’, and when the state trooper learned this, he asked the man if he could give the girl a ride to Cape Cod also.

Modern day picture where she worked.

The unnamed man described the girl as wearing “grubby white shoes”, gaudy jewelry, blue jeans, a blue pull over blouse, and had a grey duffel bag. While on the ride there, they engaged in small talk, telling her he was from Framingham, and she told him that she lived not far from there, the man also stated that she went by the name ‘Sissy’; eventually he dropped Simone off by the Barnstable Air Port next to the Hyannis Rotary, where she walked into or near a restaurant called the Ground Round, or a Howard Johnson hotel. The man’s story has never been proven one way or another, but if what he said is true, then Simone would have been able to take a quick flight to the vacation home where her family was at.

On October 4^th of that year, there was full blown investigation as to her disappearance, though there were very few leads to go from.

There are some discrepancies in the description and stories of her, first off being that the old man who gave her a ride described her as having been 5’6”, when Simone was 5’2”. He stated that she wore a blue pullover blouse, where as later on, the waitresses that worked with Simone that day stated that she wore a white shirt with her outfit (the waitresses pointed out that they all had clothes they changed into when they left work, because they hated the work uniforms so much. Simone changed her clothes and put her uniform in the duffel bag). It should also be pointed out there was no way for the waitresses to know what the old man said Simone wore, since his statements weren’t made public until 2017, while the coworker’s was before that, in 2016 I believe.

This isn’t a huge difference, but I think that it is an interesting point. Essentially the man stated that Simone would have been wearing the pullover that was a part of her uniform. This is pretty interesting, if not weird, why would she wear a part of her uniform if she hated it? Personally, I think the old man is extremely suspect. Is it possible that he did something to her, and went through her bag, thus knowing this piece of clothing? Even further, as another article I read pointed out, why would the cop that pulled him over ask him to give this girl he didn’t know a ride? Why wouldn’t the cop at least take the girl to the police station to make her call or family? Then again, if Simone were to call her parents there’s no way they could answer, since the vacation home had no electricity or phones. Even further, what was she doing to have ended up in a state trooper’s car to begin with?

Apparently, the initial description of what Simone was wearing may have been incorrect also. According to detective Godinho, the man that gave a second life to her case, he found that she was stating as originally wearing, “an Indian print skirt, a broadbrimmed leather hat, brown boots, and silver and turquoise jewelry.”, of which, a missing persons flyer for her stated that she was in purple boots.

And while not necessarily a discrepancy, I read in one article that Simone’s step-sister offered to give her a ride to Cape Cod, though apparently Simone refused.

Route she would have potentially took.

I think it’s also important to point out the implication that Simone perhaps took a flight and went somewhere completely random, from the man who gave her ride. If, and I mean if, they even made it as far to the Hyannis Rotary, why would she get on a plane and go somewhere completely different? I honestly do not believe that Simone would run away and leave her old life behind.

One of my contentions for this is that she had a boyfriend in jail, in which she even had special visitation privileges. The boyfriend was incarcerated at the Billerica House of Corrections, current name Middlesex Jail and House of Corrections. Police visited the boyfriend on September 17^th, 1977 (that same year), and when he told them when she stopped writing, he got concerned.

My next contention that she did not simply run away and start a new life, is that according to investigative records, Simone’s bank accounts have remained untouched and her social security number’s never been used. Once again, this leaves me extremely suspicious of the old man that allegedly gave her a ride.

First of all, if this man really did have contact with her, it is important to know that the man’s son was contacted through police, (since the son would have been 30 at the time), and when asked about his father giving a ride to girl the son said that he never heard of his father talking about having done that. Now, this doesn’t immediately show guilt, but it is quite suspicious. Even more so when the man stated that he was from Framingham, and if Simone lived nearby, why did it take him 10 years to call the police and say that he knew something? Simone’s family seemed to have tried really hard to look for her, so it seems extremely unlikely to me that this old man never even saw so much as a flyer about her.

Unfortunately, the old man who gave her this alleged ride has passed away (I did the math, if he was in his 70’s in the 80’s, he may have been born around 1916).

In the years since, Simone’s DNA has been tested against 25 Jane Does. None ever came back positive as her. Unfortunately, we do not know which Does these are, so it may be possible we might think a certain doe is her, when it’s already been proven not to be.

In my personal opinion, I don’t think that she is with us anymore. I, like those on the police investigating about her don’t think that she even made it as far as Westwood, as the old man stated. The ride from Westwood to the airport by the Rotary is a really long drive, even if someone is going the same way as you. From what I’ve read, most people that hitchhike don’t get rides that stay very long, and most of the time you’re dropped off on random sides of the road. Though this is anecdotal.

Somewhere along the lines, that old knew more than what he was letting on. If anything, he probably called the police because he was the killer, and some people gain pleasure from knowing that their victims have ended up in the news. I do wish that we at least knew this man’s name, especially since he is dead. If we at least knew this man’s history, especially if he ever did anything criminal, then we could potentially rule him out.

Granby doe's shirt

There are two Jane Does that seem to be potential close ones. The first one is nicknamed ‘Granby Doe’, who is reported as having been murdered by a gunshot wound in the temple, and found in Granby, Massachusetts. The caveat is that Granby is about an hour west of Framingham, which if the old man, or anyone, killed Simone, she would have inexplicably been more than an hour from destination. Granted, Granby Doe is still a contention for some seeing that we haven’t had any official say that this isn’t Simone. The Doe is also listed as having been from the ages of 19-26 (15-25 on NamUS), a chunky build, with long light blond/brown hair. Unfortunately Granby Doe seems to have had a lot of decay, with the description even stating that her teeth had noticeable decay (though I am unsure if this because of the way she was found, or in her life she had decay). Granby is estimating as dying between 3-11 months before she was found. An interesting note though is that Granby Doe was found on Route 116, a popular hitchhiking route of the time.

Princess Doe Composite. Princess' face beaten severely

The second potential doe, that I actually put a lot of weight on, is someone called ‘Princess Doe’. Princess Doe, or Blairstown Doe, is a girl who was found in Blairstown, New Jersey at the Cedar Ridge Cemetery off Highway 94. Princess had brown shoulder length hair, was 5’2”, betwixt the ages of 14-18, and about 100 pounds. Granted, this person is a very far ways away from Framington, and the year is not really right, but I just felt that this person was pretty close. The facial reconstructions were similar to Simone in my eyes, though, if this really was her, this would raise more questions. Such as, how did she get there, and how did she die? If this is her, why did she disappear from Massachusetts to get to New Jersey? Interestingly, on the Princess Doe website, Simone has not been ruled out as having been her.

Simone herself was 5’2”, and about 120 pounds, brown eyes, and had long strawberry blonde hair (though some pictures look more brownish). She was known to hitchhike, liked wearing jewelry such as large “spoon” rings, bracelets, and turquoise rings, and had a mole on her back.

Beyond that, there is not much else that we know. The worst part is that Simone’s body has never been found. We do not know where she decided to go, or what route she went. She is listed as a missing person on the FBI’s ViCap page, NCMEC’s page, NamUS, and the Charley Project, among others. Family of hers has create a facebook page for the sake of potentially finding her.

If you or someone you may know might have information on the case, please contact the authorities at Sherborn Police Department at (508) 653-2424, or email Detective James Godinho at: jgodinho@sherbornpolice.org