What Happened To Ronnie Howard after The Manson Trial?

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