Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - Ronald Tammen - A Special Presentation from Already Gone

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

This week, we have a presentation from the Already Gone Podcast hosted by the awesome Nina Innstead. She recently made an episode about the disappearance of Ronald Tammen. Ronald was only 19 when he disappeared from his Miami University of Ohio dorm room. This is one of Nina’s greatest episodes to date, and she was able to interview Ronald’s roommate’s son. It highlights how these cases affect the entire community. We are so grateful to Nina for allowing us to share this story with all of you. https://www.alreadygonepodcast.com/missing-in-ohio-ronald-tammen/Domestic Violence Resourceshttp://sinspod.co/resourcesClick here to become a member of our Patreon!https://sinspod.co/patreonVisit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag! Get ad-free access for only $1 a month or ad-free and bonus episodes for $3 a monthApple Podcast Subscriptionshttps://sinspod.co/appleWe're now offering premium membership benefits on Apple Podcast Subscriptions! On your mobile deviceLet us know what you think about the episodehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2248640/open_sms Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.

To listen ad-free, visit Zinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show. Hello, and happy new year to all. I'm Sean, and with me, as always, is the one and only John. I am the only John in the room. This week, John and I are taking a break

and we have a presentation from the Already Gone podcast hosted by the awesome Nina Instead. She recently had an episode on the disappearance of Ronald Tammen. Ronald was only 19 when he disappeared from his dorm room at Miami University of Ohio. This is one of Nina's greatest episodes to date, and she was able to interview Ronald's roommate's son. It really highlights how these cases affect the entire community. We are so grateful to Nina for allowing us to share this story with all of you. And now, a special presentation of Already Gone. Ronald Henry Tammen Jr. was born July 23, 1933. He grew up in Maple Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. He was the second of five children. His two younger siblings came along much later, so Ron, as he was known, grew up the middle child. His childhood was largely uneventful, and he was known as a nice kid.

He was also known for his good looks, looks that were slightly yet endearingly flawed by a crooked front tooth and a cauliflower ear developed after years of wrestling. When Ron got to college, he was tall, handsome, athletic, and musically inclined, playing the stand-up bass. It's in college where the mystery develops, because tall, handsome, athletic, and musical Ron was last seen in Old Fisher Hall, a former Victorian-era mental asylum converted to a dormitory at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, on April 19, 1953. Not only did Ron live at Fisher Hall, he was also a resident hall advisor. For that school year, Ron and his dorm mate, Chuck Finley, resided in room 225. Room 225 is at the end of the hall. You have to walk by several other dorm rooms to get to 225.

The window of room 225 overlooked the awning on a covered porch. On the night of April 19th, a fellow student played a prank on Ron, and at 8 o'clock, Ron requested new bedsheets because someone had put a dead fish in his bed. Now, people put a lot of stock in this dead fish, but it appears to be only a prank and not indicative of something more serious. We're going to come back to the fish. Ron was alone in his dorm room that weekend. His roommate was back in Dayton visiting family. The roommate, Chuck, would not return until late Sunday night. As to what Ron did that weekend, well, according to the website RonaldTammon.com, on Saturday, Ron played music with the Campus Owls, a music ensemble at the

Omicron Delta Kappa Carnival, which was a fundraiser for the Honor Society. Ron's brother, Richard, who was also attending Miami University, was with Ron until roughly 11 o'clock that night. Ron may have also paid a visit to the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house that evening. On Sunday the 19th, the last day that anyone would see Ron, he was busy and spotted all around campus. In the afternoon, about 3 o'clock, he was seen in his dorm room studying psychology. And this is unusual. We'll come back to him studying psychology, but make a note of it. Ron would have dinner in the dining hall that night, sitting at a table with other students. I want to note that there was a dress code for the dining hall.

Shirt and tie were required garments. One of the people Ron sat with that late afternoon as he had dinner was a man named Ken McDiffitt. McDiffitt would later say that the conversation at the table was friendly and upbeat. Ron's main topic of conversation was music, specifically the Campus Owls, which is the band he'd played with the previous night. It's after five o'clock when another resident of Fisher Hall sees Ron, and they don't notice anything strange or unusual about his activities or his behavior. Other students will report seeing Ron in a towel, likely headed for the showers, but the timing of this is in question. One person said they saw him in the afternoon, another said it was the evening.

Either way, Ron is clean and fresh by 8 o'clock Sunday night. At 7 o'clock that evening, Ron is in his dorm, and he spent a bit of time helping a fellow student, Richard Titus, with his schoolwork. At some point, Ron says he has his own studies to focus on, and he returns to room 225. At 8 o'clock, Ron is seen again. He's going downstairs to request clean linens because someone left fish in his bed. Richard Titus, the student that Ron had been assisting with his work, will later take credit for the prank. Ron had short-sheeted Richard's bed and Richard was getting even. Mrs. Todd Hunter, the residence hall manager, told Ron that he looked tired. Ron agreed with her and said that he was headed to bed.

He took the clean linens and walked back to his room. We know he made it to his room because his bed was made up. Chuck Finley, Ronald Tammen's roommate, came in between 9.30 and 10 o'clock that evening. He found the room empty. Chuck figured that Ron was spending the night at his Delta Tau Delta fraternity house and did not report Ron's disappearance until the next day. While Chuck is settling down for the night, a mystery is unraveling around him. Now, looking at the dorm room, there is no evidence that Ron was forced from the room. Nothing was disturbed. His clothing, car keys, wallet, identification, his watch, high school class ring, and other personal items all left in the dorm room.

He also left the lights on, the radio playing, and a psychology textbook laying open on his desk. While Ron was alone in his room that evening, no one residing in Fisher Hall heard anything resembling a disturbance. Now, we mentioned earlier that Ron was studying psychology that weekend. But Ron was no longer enrolled in the psychology course. He had dropped his psychology class a few weeks earlier. Yet it was the psychology textbook that was left open on his desk in the dorm. If Ron's not taking a psychology class, why is he studying psychology? The book was open to pages 294 and 295. One of the subheadings on that page is

post-hypnotic suggestion. Could this be a clue as to what became of our missing student? While investigators searched for him, they discovered Ron's gold 1938 Chevrolet sedan in its place in the school parking lot. Inside the car, they found his base fiddle. Ron's bank account was untouched. He had about $200 in savings. That's the equivalent of $2,200 in today's money. And remember, Ron's room, 225, is at the end of the hall. If someone came for him, they would have to pass several other dorm rooms to get there. If they wanted to kidnap Ron, they had to pass a lot of occupied rooms to do so. And Ronald Tamman was a healthy, athletic young man. It's likely he would have put up a fight.

Well, nothing eventful happened in the dorms that evening. Late that Sunday night, something odd happened in Oxford, about 12 miles from campus. A woman claimed that a young man came to her door at 11 o'clock. The evening Tammann disappeared and asked what town he was in. She told him, and then he asked directions to the bus station, which she gave him, and he departed. However, the bus line had suspended its midnight run, so this young man could not have gotten on a bus. The witness says the man she spoke to was disheveled and dirty and appeared upset and confused. He was not wearing a coat or a hat, although it was a cold night and there was snow

on the ground. He was apparently on foot as the woman did not see or hear a vehicle. The man did match the physical description of Ron and was wearing similar clothes, but it was never confirmed that they were the same person, and Ron's brother later stated he did not believe the man the witness saw was Ronald Tammen. There was another odd occurrence, but this took place five months before Ronald Tammen disappeared. Ron went to the Butler County Coroner's Office in Hamilton, Ohio, and he asked for a test to have his blood typed. The coroner claims that this was the only such request he ever got in 35 years of practice, which is why he remembered it so well. We can't say why Ron wanted the test done and why he didn't have

it conducted in Oxford, where local physicians or the university hospital could have typed his blood for him. Ron was scheduled for a physical examination by the Selective Service for Induction into the Army, but inductees did not need to know their blood type in advance of the physical. Ron's parents, who lived in Maple Heights, Ohio, last saw Ron a week before he disappeared, and they said he did not appear to be troubled during their visit. And we'll be right back after a word from this week's sponsor. Ronald Tammen appeared to have a normal life for a male college student in the 1950s. He was well-liked by his peers.

He was dating at the time that he vanished, but he did not have a steady girlfriend. Ron was on the wrestling team, he played in the school dance band, the Campus Owls, and he was a business major who got pretty good grades, although by the end of that semester, he was no longer a full-time student, having dropped a class and his grades were sliding. This is important to note because the draft was in effect and Ron was at risk of losing his selective service deferment. When Ron disappeared, a full investigation took place. For the university, a man named Carl Knox headed the investigation. The Oxford, Ohio police and the Ohio State Patrol also investigated. In the days following his disappearance, Miami University students joined the local ROTC for

searches of the campus and nearby wooded areas. The FBI also became involved in the search for Ron Tammen, and they did have Ron's fingerprints on file. They'd been taken years earlier when Ron was in elementary school. In the summer of 1953, weeks after he disappeared, Ron's draft status changed, and the FBI really started to look for him. Selective service violation and all that, but they closed the case on Ronald Tammen in 1955. Investigators turned up nothing. Not a single confirmed sight or sign of Ronald Tammen since April 1953. When Fisher Hall was demolished in the 1970s, extra care was given to search the building and the debris for his remains. They were able to check the wells and

cistern beneath the building, but nothing of interest was recovered. A couple of odd little bits to mention. Ronald Tammen had dropped his psychology class, yet the night he disappeared, he was studying psychology. During the 1952-53 school year, Ron's psychology instructor, St. Clair Switzer, was a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Air Force Reserve while he taught at university. Dr. Switzer was also a hypnosis expert and a pharmacist. CIA documents show that Switzer was likely involved in Project Artichoke, which was a forerunner of MKUltra. One of Ron's classmates remembers men on the lawn of Fisher Hall recruiting volunteers for a study. Could Ron, who was just another cash-strapped college student, have participated in something

top secret, and his disappearance was part of a larger plan? Well, possibly. It's hard to know where to look when there are so many possibilities and so few clues to sort through. In the 1952-53 school year, Ronald Tammon roomed with Chuck Finley, who we mentioned earlier in the episode. And during my research, I was thinking about how this must have impacted Chuck. For the remainder of his college career, Chuck Finley was that guy. That guy who roomed with Tammen. That guy who reported him missing. What do you think that guy knows?

After Ron disappeared, Chuck was moved to a different room with a new roommate. His own room was a crime scene. While the Tammen family suffered and struggled, Chuck Finley faced his own challenges in the days, weeks, and years after Tammen vanished. Today, we're talking with David Finley, Chuck's son, who has a special interest in seeing Ronald Tammen's case resolved. I came back to campus, to Fisher Hall, and went to my room as normal. And the light was on in the room. And in the room, the door was unlocked, and Ron's book was open on his side of the desk. And the desk chair was pulled back as though I got up and went somewhere.

So I thought not too much about that and I studied I think till 11 o'clock that night. I got back to school about nine o'clock, went to bed as usual and got up the next morning and didn't see Ron in his bed. I still wasn't too excited about it because I thought he might have spent the night at the fraternity house. So today we're talking about Ronald Tammen, who disappeared from his dorm room back in 1953. And you, David, have a unique connection to this disappearance. Yes, my father, Charles Finley, was Ronald Tammen's roommate at the time of his disappearance. And for those of you who may not be familiar with the story, I can tell you some things from my father's point of view. He returned to the dorm at Miami University at approximately 9.30, between 9.30 and 10 o'clock on April 19th, 1953. And he found

his roommate, Ron Tammons, desk light on, radio was playing, his class ring, his checkbook, his wallet and personal effects like that were on the desk. We had a psychology book open on the desk. Now, when this happened initially, you know, my dad's just come back from being in Dayton over the weekend home with his family. And he just walked into the room and it's like, well, it's just kind of not that unusual, really. You know, Ron could have emptied his pockets and stuff and gone down and taken a shower or something. Dad said nothing crossed his mind that really at the moment that was that unusual.

So it wasn't concerning what he came back to? At that moment, no, it wasn't concerning. And dad said it wasn't unusual for Ron to go to the fraternity. His older brother, Richard Tammen, was also a student on campus, and he sometimes hung out with him. So dad didn't think anything about it. He settled in for the evening, of course, not realizing what was going on around him. And dad said, you know, the next day, the next morning, he was on his way to class and ran into Richard Tamman and said, hey, have you seen Ron? He wasn't back at the room last night. Richard said no. And neither one of them

at the moment really gave it much of a second thought because this is college kids, you know, and teenagers, teenagers. So it wasn't until that next day they had a, uh, like a house meeting for the dorm. Dad and Ron were, were both advisors. They were like student advisors for the dorm. Yeah. They were both student advisors. Dad brought it up at that point and said, Ron didn't come back last night. I haven't seen him. Richard hasn't seen him. And I don't, I can't tell you all the stats and when the police were called, but very shortly after that, the police were called. And still, my dad said this, at that moment, it was like, well, he could be off on a lark or something, you know. Yeah. Nobody was panicked. Nobody was afraid. Nobody was panicked. Right. Nobody was that upset at that moment. But my dad said a day or two later, the National Guard showed up

and started dragging the pond on campus. And my dad said the moment that happened, for some reason, that hit him. And at that moment, he was like, oh, something really terrible could really have happened. And it really, at that moment, something about, you know, dragging the pond, just that moment really hit home with dad and really had a, you know, a big effect on him. At that point, things are starting to get more serious, you know, and the police showed up. Dad was, of course, interviewed by the police and the FBI didn't, that wasn't until later, their involvement. But the gravity of the situation really didn't hit home until the National Guard showed up. Yeah.

And they had, I mean, they had students searching the grounds. I mean, there were search parties everywhere and no Ron. And then strangely, dad got moved to a room at the other end of the hall, still in Fisher Hall, and spent the rest of the semester pretty much without a roommate, which I don't think mentally could have been good for him at all. No, that must have been difficult. I think it was, he should not have been alone. I want to talk just briefly about their room, because people say, well,

he must have been dragged from his dorm room, but that's not really possible. Yeah, their dorm room was on the second floor. So you would have to go in, really, probably the front doors of the dorm. And it was a big old building built in the 1840s. And you had to go to the central stairs and go up to the second floor. Then you had to turn left and go all the way to the end of the hall. And it was quite a long, it was a huge building. It was quite a long hall. And of course, dorms on either side. So this is not a situation where somebody would walk in the front door up a flight of stairs, down a long hall

and abduct someone who is an athlete, who's in good shape, right? Yeah. He was a good sized guy. Yeah, he was a healthy young man, a wrestler. Yeah, and so the scenario of somebody taking Ron out of there, you know, bodily is just not I don't know how it ever, ever, ever could happen. I see no scenario where that would have happened.

And we know from what we discussed in the episode that the hallway of the dorm was occupied. There were students in and out helping someone with homework. Yes. It was not. He was at the end of the hall. So he would have to go by several dorm rooms to exit the building. Yes, absolutely. Ron's disappearance, if you think about the 50s, 1953, a college campus, this is a safe place. It becomes their home. And it's a safe place in general. Well, it's Ohio. It's not like he was in Manhattan. Right. Not a huge university. And I think that's another thing that had a huge effect on my dad,

because this was Miami University. This was a safe place. And to have this happen in a place that essentially it's your home. I think that was one of the things that really affected my father, that this was a safe place and this happened. I should say, and this is all not necessarily in order, but my dad always maintained that he just had a feeling that Ron was always alive until it got much, much later, decades and decades down the road. And certainly at that age, natural causes could have taken him. But dad always felt that Ron was alive. Couldn't explain it. He just always felt that Ron was alive. And your dad had lived with Ron for several months. They weren't tight. They were friendly. They were friendly and they got along great. They were a lot alike. They were

both very hardworking students. You know, college wasn't a breeze for my dad. He worked very, very hard at it. And, you know, Ron was a member of the campus owls. He was a wrestling team, you know, student. He was busy. Yeah, fraternity. They were both busy. They were both a lot alike, focused on what they were there to do, but got along great and were both advisors. But they lived together for months. Yes, they had lived together for months. This had such a profound effect on my father. He actually graduated from Miami in 56, early winter graduation. It took a little bit longer to graduate. And once he graduated from Miami, well, this is interesting. After this incident, the following year when dad moved out

of Fisher Hall, my father never returned to Fisher Hall. In his life, he never returned to Fisher Hall. He was on campus until 56. At any point, he could have gone back to Fisher Hall easily, of course. And then after graduation, he never went back to Miami. My dad lived to be 85 years old and never returned to Miami. My dad did not speak about what happened to his roommate. It was something that he did not speak about to friends, family. It wasn't something that anyone that knew him, unless they were a Miami and knew what happened. Right, from the university. From the university.

One of his college friends. They did not know. And he didn't speak of it. It really affected him very deeply. We talk about in the episode how your dad became that guy. Yeah. Yeah. That's sort of a really strange thing. That guy, Ron's roommate, that guy, that also had an effect on dad. Sure. For the next three years, I mean, anybody that he was in a class with, there was a hand over the mouth. Do you know who that is? Of course. Right. That guy roomed with Ron. Right. So that was another factor,

for sure. So dad didn't speak of it. And after graduation, my dad with this business degree from a very well-known prestigious business college didn't pursue business. He went to a little town south of Cleveland, Worcester, Ohio, where his younger brother was a nationally known roller skating professional teacher. And my dad had skated and had done a little teaching with his brother in the past. And my dad went to Worcester, Ohio and spent a year and a half, two years maybe, with his brother teaching skating. He needed some sort of a reset. He had to decompress after what he'd been through. Yes.

And I think that's a good comment because I think because of his studies and the energy that it took for his studies, there was no time to decompress and to process. It was all, I have to get this done, right? You know, dad worked really hard to be able to go to school. There was no money to pay for it. So he worked at Graf Hardware in Dayton during the summers. And he worked in the mail room, I think, at Fisher Hall and delivered the mail to the students. He also worked in the dining hall, and that allowed him to get free meals. So he had a really full plate as a 19-year-old whose roommate just disappeared. Yes.

And he was not getting grace from his professors for exams or papers or anything. There was no grace for anything. And dad had all these things to maintain. And he did. But I think afterwards, you know, he just, you stop a train and all the cars come together and come right at you. Right. And I think that's what happened. So he went to Worcester, Ohio to decompress and to have a reset, I think, you know. And in that process, you know, it's very strange.

I'm sitting here talking with you. And Ron disappeared. Dad went to Worcester, Ohio, which was not in the cards prior to that, of course. And there he meets Judy Schweitzer, who would become my mom. And so, if Ron hadn't disappeared and all these things hadn't happened, we wouldn't be speaking today. And so, continuing on that, dad only shared the story of Ron and his disappearance with my mom after they'd known each other about two years. And he spoke about it to her one time and did not speak about it again for decades and decades. Again, 1953, small-ish university, and this happens. So this can happen

anywhere. Anywhere. Anytime. Yes. And that's a hard, that's a, I think it's a really hard thing And so this can happen anywhere, anytime. And that's a hard, that's a, I think it's a really hard thing to, to walk around with. Like this has happened in this situation and this can happen anywhere, anytime. I know that was really difficult for my father. You know, our house was a house, the doors were locked. When I was a teenager, I smoked. I walked out the front door to have a cigarette. It's 10 degrees. I can't get back in the house because dad saw the door and locked it behind me. When you went somewhere, you knew there was no not calling. I'm here. I'm doing this.

My parents always knew where we were. But you didn't know why. That you're right. Such a good point. We did not know why at that point. My father was always like that. And that was just the way dad was. Dad was being a bit of a hard ass. Right, right. But you didn't know there was a good, good reason for it. We did not know. We just knew dad was really extreme with security and personal safety. He talked to us about situational awareness when you're out somewhere. It's important that you don't get so focused on what's going on in front of you. You're not so aware of what's going on around you. Which is not a conversation. I mean, I think today it's a conversation you have with your kids, but in the seventies and eighties,

nobody had that conversation with their kids. There was stranger danger. Of course. Yes. But not what you're talking about, you know, looking for the exits, making sure you lock the door when you come in and you're not followed. Right. That sort of enhanced awareness. Right. And that's what it always was around our household.

Following on that, in the 1970s, they made a documentary called The Phantom of Oxford. And it was a Channel 7 out of Dayton, Ohio. And they wanted to delve into it and explore what they could. Well, they started calling our house. My mom was taking calls and they wanted to speak to my dad and he was not available. He was not available and he was not available to discuss the subject. And after literally, I don't know, it was weeks and weeks of them calling and calling and calling, for some reason, my dad finally acquiesced and said, yes, I will do it. And so the day I heard the story of Ron Tamman's disappearance was the night Channel 7 came to our house.

And it was the 70s, so it wasn't a little handheld thing. It was all big lights. Quite a setup. The whole setup and took over half the house. And I sat cross-legged on the living room floor out of camera shot and sat and listened to my dad tell the story. That's the first time I had heard the story. And, of course, at that moment, I understood a lot of things that I had not understood. But I also understood more the effect this had on my father. And then, you know, it ended. I don't even know.

I can't remember as a family if we watched it when it aired. And then it wasn't spoken about. So it wasn't like the TV cameras came and then your dad sat down and had a heart to heart with the family about it. It was like the TV cameras came and then they left. And that was sort of the end of it. It was sort of the end of it. Dad didn't speak about it. Because it was such a touchy subject, we didn't really bring it up.

Dad didn't talk about college. I mean, this is one aspect of his college career, right? This is just one moment in time that affected so much. He didn't talk about college. When we were kids, he didn't go, I was in college, I did this or, you know, whatever. There was no discussion of it. The one thing he did say over and over about Miami, he loved how beautiful the campus was. I know my dad used to talk about his college roommate, a guy named Terry.

So I heard all about Terry growing up. Right. Well, that's kind of a normal thing, right? My college roommate. A lot of people have a college roommate that's my buddy. That's a buddy. And they talked about it. Dad didn't speak about it at all. He really didn't. And then, of all things, my youngest brother is a three-time world champion roller skater. Wow. And as his career in skating started to progress, he got to the point he was competing in the International Sports

Festival, Pan American Games. So he's skating and he comes home and says, well, you're supposed to go to Germany. I could just see the terror in my dad's face. My brother was maybe 16 and they're supposed to go to Germany to compete in the world level. And it was a big deal. My dad finally said, okay, I found this out later. I'm not going to keep him from doing anything he ever wants to do like this. But it was very difficult for my father. It wasn't like you understood his hesitation. You just saw dad trying to hold him back a little bit and thinking, why is dad being like this?

And then things got really serious when it was International Sports Festival of Pan American Games. It was in Cuba. Oh, and we didn't do Cuba back then. No. So mom and dad were like, well, we're not going. Oh, no. He comes and he said, they're going. The team is going to Cuba. And my dad was just, you know, like sending him to Cuba. And my dad was just, you know, like, sending him to Cuba. During the Cold War? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

But anyway, so he went, but it was a lot for dad. You know, it was an awful lot. So later in life, my dad passed away in 2017, but probably about five years before he passed. He had Parkinson's. And he was getting to the point where he was better off if he was with someone. He could still function and, you know, he had all, he was totally intact, his faculties and everything, but he just got to the point where the Parkinson's would be like daily tasks became how do I use this electric razor again? Or how do I clean this electric razor again? You know,

kind of things like that. He needed support. But he was mentally completely intact. And so I started spending a lot of time with him several days a week. And he would ask me questions. You know, what's the difference? What's Netflix and YouTube? And what are all these different things? And how are they different? What does each one do? And I said, well, dad, YouTube is anything and everything. You wouldn't believe what you can find on YouTube, right? I said, you know, from old movie clips to current,

how to trim your toenails, like anything and everything. And my dad said, really? So I thought, what can I punch in and show dad that's on here that would be interesting to him. So I punched in the documentary that he did in the 70s, that dad did in the 70s. And I said, here it is. I said, what's on YouTube? You, here you are. And the footage of him in the documentary, the Phantom of Oxford. And that actually was the impetus to start the discussion about Ron in Miami. And he let me go there. But it took 50 years. It took 50 years. Yes. And he went there. And we talked about it for a long time. I got on Miami's site and sort of pulled up some different buildings and asking him things,

whatever. Then I went on the National Archives and pulled up old pictures of Fisher Hall from the 1840s when it was, you know, just built. An asylum, yeah. Yes, asylum. And that's what really started it. And he was open. I don't know if it was late in life. And at that point, he was like, maybe I should tell somebody how I feel about this and how it affected me. That's when we really got into it. And I learned so much about my father. And all these light bulbs kept going off like, oh, that's why he did that. That's why he did that. That's why he was so extreme with that. The other thing too is,

a wonderful thing about this is it taught my dad, you can lose anything anytime. And I think because of that, we never left his presence without him saying, I love you. He became very, he was to begin with, because both his parents were like that. He was always very expressive and very- Demonstrative. Demonstrative, yes. But he was such a loving, caring man. But I think Ron's disappearance and the fact that anything can happen to anyone at any time situation really caused him to be so much more.

Being on the other end of that was really wonderful. He loved us and he always told us that he loved us and showed us. He told me about a prank where they, I think they got the rope off the flagpole and went around Fisher Hall and tied all the doorknobs together so everybody wasn't, no one could get out of their dorm room. I'd never heard anything funny about that, about Fisher Hall or anything. So I think it was really good for me because I got an insight into my father that I hadn't had. And I think it was really good for him. We've always been very close. And I think it was a really good thing for him to be able to share it with me and share his thoughts. So later in life, about a year or two

before my dad passed, I can't remember what precipitated it. Jennifer Winger may have called. Okay. And Jennifer Winger has the Ronald Tammen website. She has the Ronald Tammen website. She's sort of the expert. She's devoted more time, probably a decade of time, to this unsolved mystery at this point. But I think it may have been the last call from her. And he hung up the phone and he said, I will probably not live long enough to know the answer to this, but it's really important to me. I hope someday you know the answer. So I don't follow absolutely every word that's written about Ron Tammen's disappearance and updates on every site and everything, but I'm watching and waiting

somewhat patiently. I know there will be an answer to this, but Dad always believed that Ron did something on his own, meaning Ron made a decision. Maybe one of the ultimate life changes. But Ron was not forced out of that building. Ron chose to go. Absolutely. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense that he was forced out of the building. It just doesn't. There are too many people around. If you do some reading about Ron

Tam and his disappearance, there's a lot to read, but there are so many factors that point to Ron was, how do I say this? Ron was up to something. Ron was involved with, I believe, one of our governmental agencies. We touch on that a little bit in the episode with Project Artichoke and MK Ultra. It was a precursor to MK Ultra that he may have been based on his psychology professor dabbling or on the periphery of some of this. Yes. But there are so many things, the fact that he left his personal effects. He didn't take his car. His car was right outside the window. Right. With his musical instrument. Exactly. Exactly. His class ring, his wallet. His class ring. Right. So basically,

what's interesting is if you look at it, anything besides his DNA that could identify Ron Tammen stayed and Ron left with nothing that would identify him as Ron Tammen, nothing on his person. And I think that was for a reason. I really do. And this is an opinion and it's my opinion. It doesn't mean it's right by any means, but there are an awful lot of things that point to involvement with a governmental agency. You know, the other thing to remember is this is a college student that disappeared,

what, 71 years now. And the FBI still, if you put in a Freedom of Information request or information about Ron Tammen, a huge percentage of it is redacted or they don't supply it. Now, if this was just a simple case of a college student wandered off and got killed or, you know, something in the body has never been found, why would the FBI 71 years later be guarding his file and all the information so closely? Project Artichoke and MKUltra are public knowledge. It's all been made, not all, but 90% of it has been available. Right. We're aware. Yeah. We're aware that the government did this. So it's very incongruous that anything nefarious happened and he was hauled out of the building by someone. He was involved in this and this is a theory.

And that's what we're talking about. We're talking about theories and experiences with this disappearance. Right. Did your dad have an opinion? I mean, he thought that he left on his own accord. So my dad, in later years, after reading and hearing about information that had come to light, that of course he did not know at the time, and so much has come to light since then, my father's belief was that, yeah, Ron got involved with a governmental agency. And, you know, there's speculation that Ron could have been gay.

And if you were a gay male in 1953, you couldn't have a life. No. Not in this country. And so the possibility exists that Ron did this to have a life that he wasn't allowed to have in this country or on his present path at the time. So there were a lot of things going on in Iran's life that at the moment, in 1953, Iran was probably the only person that knew all these things were happening. So some unusual things about Ron and what was going on with him at that time. One was that he had a scholarship from, I think his family lived in Shaker Heights outside of Cleveland, but some country club or something, he had a scholarship.

But the guidelines for that scholarship were that he had to maintain a certain grade average and he had to be a full-time student. Well, he had dropped a psychology class and another class and so he had lost his full-time status. So he was going to lose that. And he also didn't come from a wealthy family. So he was relying on that money. That's correct. He did not come from a wealthy family. He had a lot of siblings. They did not come from a lot of money. So that was very important. The other thing is because he had dropped enough classes that he lost his full-time status, that meant he became eligible for the draft. He would lose his deferment.

Those things we know for sure were going on. If he was gay, if someone approached a young man in that situation and said, look, we can offer you this, right? We can offer you a situation where you can spend a certain amount of time overseas in countries that are much more understanding and accepting of folks like you. And it makes sense. I can't cite all of the evidence and everything to back all that up completely. But it's there. It is. And we talked about it a little bit in the episode with his psychology professor,

the class that he dropped, the class where the book was open on his desk the night he disappeared. The psychology professor was known to have connections to the Department of Defense and the Air Force. So there's... Sinclair Schweitzer. So we're not pulling this theory out of thin air. There's, there's breadcrumbs that lead us in this direction. Yes. So, you know, 71 years later, it's still, to me, a very, very, very fascinating and complicated and intriguing mystery. The Fisher Hall was an asylum in its early life. And my dad

said it was kind of creepy. He said the dining room was on the second floor and the kitchen was in the basement. And dad said when the cooks used to spend the weekend, we used to stay at Fisher Hall for the weekend, they would sleep in the old cells in the basement. Fisher Hall was, you know, it was, the building was so old, you know, besides the cells in the basement. And dad said, you know, there were weird things, like all the steps in the building were stone or granite. But he said, in the middle of them, they were half gone. They were so worn for so many, you know. From all the traffic. And he said, the third floor was closed off because it was not in good condition. And he said, what would happen is, you know, all the traffic. And he said the third floor was closed off because it

was not in good condition. And he said, what would happen is he said the plaster would fall off the ceiling on the third floor, then hit the floor on the third floor, which was of course right above the second floor and you would hear it. So there are sort of weird, you know, weird things. The building went bump in the night. The building definitely went bump in the night. Very well put. Yes. You know, weird things. The building went bump in the night. The building definitely went bump in the night. Very well put. Yes. You know, and there are stories of the people citing the ghost of Ron wandering through the formal gardens behind Fisher Hall.

You know, when Fisher Hall was still standing. They tore it down almost 50 years ago. And they looked for him. We talked about that briefly in the episode. Yes, they did. They searched the rubble. They searched the cisterns and the well under the building. Yes. They did not for him. We talked about that briefly in the episode. Yes, they did. Yes. They searched the rubble. They searched the cisterns and the well under the building. Yes.

They did not find him. There are things that the university didn't do what I would consider a great job investigating. They didn't follow all leads. And looking back, there were leads that they definitely should have followed but did not. So there's a lot of inconsistencies in that. There's two things I want to talk about. One is the New York sighting. Months after Ron's disappearance, a professor from Miami, he was in a restaurant in New York, looked across the restaurant at a table, and there were approximately five men sitting there. And he swore one of them was Ron Tamman. And I believe he made eye contact with him.

Professor got up shortly after that, went to use the restroom. And when he came back, the whole table was cleared. The men were all gone. It's never been substantiated, but... It makes you wonder. It certainly does. Well, for me, it follows in with my idea. He's out there, you know, he's working for the government, whatever. The other thing that I wanted to talk about, because when you told me this, I was just like, what were the fingerprints? Ron's fingerprints were in the system from when he was a child. So when he went missing for the Selective Service, they pulled his fingerprints and they had them in a database. Eventually, as technology caught up, they were entered into a database, the national database, probably APHIS or CODIS or one of those. But then in the early 2000s, something happened.

Well, they were removed. And that's strange because normally when they're removed, that means the person is deceased. So why in 2002? Right. Why were they just out of the blue removed? We don't know. The FBI won't answer. They won't tell us why they were removed. I'm so intrigued. I want to know what Ron did. I'm the type person, it's just how David Finley is, wired. I feel immense connections to people. I am terribly, terribly close to my father. Matter of fact, his ashes are with me today in my ring that I'm wearing. So, yes, my dad always wanted to know.

It was really, it was important to him. He never expressed that through his life to myself or I don't think anyone, not even my mom. But later in life, he told me that it was really important to him. He really, really wanted to know what happened to Ron. And as I said earlier, if he couldn't find out, he really hopes that in my lifetime, I know. But again, I go back to if this was just a college student that wandered off somewhere in 1953, why is all the information so impossible to get your hands on? Yeah, why is it redacted? Jennifer Winger has had to pull teeth to get information.

I think by the FBI guarding all this so closely. It adds to the mystique. They just throw up red flags everywhere. They're just like, hello, look at us, because, right, something's going on here. Something to to the mystique. They just throw up red flags everywhere. They're just like, hello, look at us because, right, something's going on here. Something to see here. Right. Very strange. But I really hope we have an answer. But until then, it's a very, very intriguing mystery. A mystery that has had an effect on my life and my family's life in a way that I never would have imagined. And I don't think a lot of people would think about this collateral effect. Yes. That was one of the reasons I wanted to talk

with you about this today is because we talk about how an incident like this can impact the community. And you give us such a clear example of how not only it impacted your dad, but it impacted you and your siblings and the way life ended up. If Ron hadn't disappeared, it would have been completely different. And, you know, this is not so much about my family, but I've read enough. I'm aware of the effects that this has had on Ron's family. Yes. And that's really, really, really tragic.

Speaking of Ron's family, I'm going to end this episode with a word from Ron's father. I have never lost hope, but sometimes, somehow, something would come up. So we'd have some evidence of either his death or his disappearance or the reasons for it. I've never given up. In fact, a lot of times I've thought that, oh, he's going to show up. He's going to show up here pretty soon. While there is a ton of coverage about Ron's case available online, I strongly suggest you visit www.ronaldtammen.com,

which I linked to in the show notes. This website offers the definitive look at Ron's case. I'm your host, Nina Instead. I appreciate you listening, and please, be safe. I'm already gone. Facebook, TikTok, and threads at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at sinsandsurvivors.com. If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, is research written and produced by your hosts, Sean and John.

The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com.