OH OH - Ronald Tammen, 19, Oxford, 19 April 1953

[Noirdame79]

 

[Rayemonde]

When I read about this case, my immediate thought was thay he was being picked on/ bullied by the other students, it all got on top of him and he left with the intention of committing suicide. Maybe he thought he could rip the pillowcase and make a noose out of it.

 

[colette]

When I read about this case, my immediate thought was thay he was being picked on/ bullied by the other students, it all got on top of him and he left with the intention of committing suicide. Maybe he thought he could rip the pillowcase and make a noose out of it.

Not me, I thought foul play. But you never know, it was strange that he left his instrument in the car.

 

[Alleykins]

Such a good looking guy.
I'm thinking hazing incident gone wrong or suicide.

 

[Grainne Dhu]

When I read about this case, my immediate thought was thay he was being picked on/ bullied by the other students, it all got on top of him and he left with the intention of committing suicide. Maybe he thought he could rip the pillowcase and make a noose out of it.

It's possible, I suppose, even though he was described as being popular and very involved in student activities.

To me, the biggest drawback to this is that his body was never located. In the midwest, almost all suicides are found. There just aren't that many places where human eyes don't see the ground. In my state of Iowa, farmers and hunters tend to find hidden bodies, such as the cousins case of Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook-Morrissey. The relatively few who disappear and are never found are almost always the victims of crime rather than suicides.

In mountainous areas, it is a lot easier for someone who commits suicide to find a place where their body will remain hidden (by choice or coincidence).

 

[Vegas Bride]

From all accounts he really does sound like a very well balanced young man who had a lot going for him.
He was active in many things and getting good grades.

I’m not thinking mental illness, if he had started to unravel then there would be things building up which in hindsight could have been red flags.

The blood test is puzzling, especially that he chose to pay for something he could have had done for free. Back then twenty dollars was a lot of money for a young guy in college. Why go to the coroner?

He was a musician, how close was he to the other members of the band? How much were they ever questioned? Is it possible that he had started to get in with a wrong crowd because of being out playing music?
My ex was in a band and I might be projecting a bit, but it was very common for the players to get exposed to the drug culture and of course also a lot of attention from females.
Could he have been seen as a romantic rival?

I wish there was more more information about the fish. Was this a fish pulled out of a river, or could it be something like a simple goldfish that could have then just be flushed down a toilet?

Were there more facts known, but kept quiet because the college wanted to avoid any type of scandal?

19 is so young and he had his whole life ahead of him.
If he had succumbed to the elements, I would have expected him to be found years ago if he was close to any kind of road.

If he had been abducted as a prank, why didn’t anyone else in the building hear him being taken out? Are there any stories of this happening earlier that year?
If days went by and others knew he was missing, wouldn’t there have been at least one who would make an anonymous call to report seeing him walking on a certain road? If you were involved in a prank and then worried perhaps it went wrong, would you go out there then and search that area yourself?
How hard did the fraternity brothers get involved with the search?

There has to be someone out there who knows something.

 

[Ozoner]

There has to be someone out there who knows something.

Respectfully snipped.

I agree that there was someone out there who knew something, but considering the passage of time, it's entirely possible that everyone who had information is now dead.

 

[MaryLiz]

Glad to see the recent posts on this case. It's always intrigued me for so many reasons. I think about it a lot and every time, I always come back to that blood test five months prior to his disappearance. Agree with Vegas Bride that the blood test is very puzzling, the fact that he did pay for it and went to the coroner for it. I know it's an old case, but I still hold out hope it will be resolved someday, because I also believe someone out there knows something.

 

[VikingBookLady]

Tammen was a Resident Advisor in Fisher Hall. Has anyone investigated the possibility that he was killed by students in the dorm? Say, if Tammen was a strict RA who enforced the rules, some guys may have resented him enough to want to "teach Ron a lesson" and things got out of hand. Or he was murdered because he knew more than was good for him.

I wonder if any students were suspended, expelled or arrested around the same time and if Tammen was the one who reported them for conduct violations?

Grainne's theory about the blood typing is interesting. I'd like to elaborate on her ideas to wonder if Tammen was killed because of the blood typing. For example if he got tested to help a friend by also claiming paternity, but then refused to lie, the now ex-friend may have had a motive for murder.

One final thought: Perhaps Tammen was accused of fathering a child, but refused to take responsibility (whether or not he actually was the father). The woman's brother(s) were Miami students who put the fish in Tammen's bed to lure him out of the room so he could be taken somewhere and roughed up.

It's a very sad case, no matter what the scenario. I agree that someone knows more than they're telling.

 

[Savemecastiel]

Ohioan here! I first heard of this case while reading a book of haunted places in Ohio many years ago. This man is who got me interested in missing persons. I've never had a real clue as to what happened to hi , and still don't. I just hope that someday something comes to light. Its so frustrating.

 

[Kodiak]

I still believe Ron Tammen was recruited by the CIA in 1953.

And I believe the oddities surrounding his disappearance were staged to make the event look even more perplexing, such as the fish in the bed, etc., to make such plans seem less "covert."

From the CIA website, I discovered this "Secret" Career Designation was released within the agency on April 20, 1953.
It was released into the public domain in May 2000. Highlighted sections were done by me.






https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp78-02990a000100030175-6

Also, here is the link to the 1953 CIA CAREER SERVICE REFERENCE BOOK
Pay close attention to the dates starting on section #7 on the fourth page. Also within the document, there numerous deadline dates for April 24, 1953 and May 1953.

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-03578A000200020001-8.pdf

 

[silverjug]

I still believe Ron Tammen was recruited by the CIA in 1953.

And I believe the oddities surrounding his disappearance were staged to make the event look even more perplexing, such as the fish in the bed, etc., to make such plans seem less "covert."

From the CIA website, I discovered this "Secret" Career Designation was released within the agency on April 20, 1953.
It was released into the public domain in May 2000. Highlighted sections were done by me.

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp78-02990a000100030175-6

Also, here is the link to the 1953 CIA CAREER SERVICE REFERENCE BOOK
Pay close attention to the dates starting on section #7 on the fourth page. Also within the document, there numerous deadline dates for April 24, 1953 and May 1953.

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP78-03578A000200020001-8.pdf

How about the evidence from Mrs. Carl Spivey, do you think this was part of the plan, she said his eyes were "vacuous?"

 

[Kodiak]

How about the evidence from Mrs. Carl Spivey, do you think this was part of the plan, she said his eyes were "vacuous?"

The Butler County detective (now retired) in charge of the case back in 2011 stated the mysterious man on Mrs. Spivey's doorstep did not happen on the night Ron Tammen went missing. Her son also verified this to the detective as well. And the detective also believed that Tammen was recruited by the CIA too: Trail to the truth: The Ron Tammen mystery 58 years later

 

[Kodiak]

Also, be sure to check out A Good Man Is Hard to Find -- My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

The lady that owns the website is writing a book about Tammen's disappearance. Read her Blog section–all twenty entries so far. She has uncovered a lot of answers to the questions sleuthers have been asking in this thread the last several years. She even discovered the man who put the fish in his bed the night he disappeared. There is an audio recording you can listen to as she talks to him via phone about the fish which was harmless prank between him and Ron.

Also, she discovered numerous documents about the case from the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act and shows them on the site. She also learned that Tammen and his younger brother, Richard, had a nasty fight on the second floor bathroom in Fischer Hall on that last night too. And on that night, she learned from various students he was last seen getting into a mysterious car with an unknown woman and they drove away together--never to be seen again. I'm looking forward to her book when she's finished and published.

 

[Alleykins]

That book does sound intriguing

 

[Kodiak]

That book does sound intriguing

Yes. It's very intriguing what the author has discovered.

When finished, I hope she acquires a literary agent to shop her manuscript around to top book publishers. And without a doubt, the film/TV rights would be optioned or sold immediately because Tammen's life/disappearance/case would be a great major motion picture.

The author's research is impressive and so meticulous. Her blog postings are basically a preview of the book itself. She explains everything clearly, making all the information easy to understand. She even got copies of Ron's college transcript and learned he wasn't doing so well during his second year leading up to his disappearance. And he was withdrawing from classes, notably his Psychology class–twice.

And the kicker is ... Tammen was studying the Psychology book for the class that he had already withdrawn from. So the question is, why was he studying that book and why did he leave it open on his desk? The author was able to get a hold of the same edition of the book and researched "HABITS" that was notated by Carl Knox, the school's Dean of Men. And it's interesting the author discovered that the latter had been keeping notes about Tammen which can be seen in her blog post below. It mentions the Dean notating that Tammen was "tired lately" and was "reading [his] Bible 5-6 times since Spring Vacation–Doesn't talk much about it."

One of the comments to her blog suggested that maybe Tammen was being hypnotized during that time or year, and he was realizing it, or knew about it, as one of the sections of the Psychology book was on Post-hypnotic Suggestion.

One theory could be he was taking part in a government program. Perhaps knowingly or unknowingly, speculating toward the CIA's MKUltra program which began in April 1953 ... and in which the CIA admitted years later that they purposely targeted individuals for LSD and hypnotic experiments–both their own employees, and unsuspecting civilians, throughout the U.S., namely students at 80 colleges and universities at the time. Students who did not know they were targets for experimentation. The case of Army Scientist, Frank Olson, who became a subject of this program died that same year in 1953. And in which this account was told in Netflix's Documentary Drama series, WORMWOOD which aired in December 2017, and is still available to watch via their streaming service.

Could this be what was happening to Tammen during his second year at school? Did he suspect or learn he was apart of some experiment manipulating his mind? Hence, leaving the book open to provided major clues? And the strange note from Carl Knox, keeping track of his behavior? Was Knox selected or required by a higher authority to keep watch on Tammen? Perhaps!

BLOG POST: The open psych book

 

[liz b.]

Wow, this is really interesting. Going to read that blog carefully.

 

[dms]

Wow, this is really interesting. Going to read that blog carefully.

It's superb. I read it all in one sitting one night. Then I got to the post that said the author was taking a couple of months off from blogging, and I wished I had portioned my reading out instead!

 

[Kodiak]

And also ... I recently discovered this:

It's a May 2017 article on Smithsonian.com titled, The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America, by Timothy Melley, professor of English at Miami University and author of The Covert Sphere: Secrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State.

Article: The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America | History | Smithsonian

 

[liz b.]

Two things stand out for me : the fight between Ron and his brother that night. And the woman in the car who Ron supposedly left with. Did he get the blood test so that he could later apply for a marriage license ?