May 31, 1936 – October 3, 1979
In November of 1969, former call girl Ronnie Howard was in prison at Sybil Brand for forging a prescription. Ronnie got a new roommate, Susan Atkins. Over the next couple of weeks, Susan would brag and recount the entire two nights of the Tate Labianca murders, in vivid detail, to Ronnie.
After the murders, Roman Polanski and friends offered up a reward for information leading to the conviction of the murderer or murderers of Sharon Tate and the others at the Tate house on the night of August 8th, 1969.
Ronnie Howard split this reward with the little boy who found the gun.
On September 21, 1979, Ronnie was kidnapped from a bus terminal at this intersection, by a person claiming to be a taxi driver.
This happened at 11:30 p.m. She had just arrived back to LA from Vegas, with her husband Rudy and his brother. As Rudy and bro in law returned to the bus station for the luggage, the cabbie took off with Ronnie. She was then driven to 60th and Western (don’t even THINK I was going to get pictures there. I made it to 40th and bailed.) where she was robbed and beaten. She lost consciousness and woke up in the gutter.
Find a Death pal Andre provided this Google picture of where Ronnie was found. Thanks Andre.
She was able to contact her husband, and a police report was made. She said she was robbed of $400 in cash and $800 in jewelry. Sure she was. There was evidence that she had been beaten about the head and thighs with a blunt instrument.
For several days after this incident, Ronnie had suffered from nausea, dizziness, headaches and was becoming increasingly lethargic. On September 25, she was taken to Queen of Angels hospital, treated and released.
10 days later, on October 1st she was at home and could not be roused from bed.
They found that she had been incontinent. She was taken to Cedars Sinai.
When they checked her in, they reported she had, “doll’s eyes” that were “absent.” She died at 12:30 p.m. on the 3rd of October, 1979. Brainstem compression, subdural hematoma, cerebral edema, blunt force trauma.
She was 43 years old.
Ronnie was cremated and is buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery, Los Angeles.
Police say that the murder was not related to her testimony at the Tate/Labianca trial.
Thank you Heaven, and C.
