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

[Richard]

This case is very similar to the disappearance of West Point Cadet Richard Cox, who disappeared without a trace in April of 1950. He was in his second year at the Military Academy when he went missing.

A book titled "Oblivion" details that case and puts forth some interesting theories, including the possibility of the missing cadet going into the CIA.

Here is a link to the Doenetwork case file on Ronald Tammen, which includes some updated information and several photos:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1562dmoh.html

 

[MaryLiz]

This case is very similar to the disappearance of West Point Cadet Richard Cox, who disappeared without a trace in April of 1950. He was in his second year at the Military Academy when he went missing.

A book titled "Oblivion" details that case and puts forth some interesting theories, including the possibility of the missing cadet going into the CIA.

Here is a link to the Doenetwork case file on Ronald Tammen, which includes some updated information and several photos:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1562dmoh.html

Yes, there are similarities to the disappearance of Richard Cox. I had never heard of the Richard Cox case before. Thanks for posting this. I'd like to read "Oblivion." It got fairly good reviews on Amazon.com

For many years I thought foul play was involved in Ron Tammen's disappearance, or that he became disoriented and lost and possibly died in a remote place out in the elements, but now I find myself wondering if maybe he actually did go missing on purpose. One of the strangest circumstances in Ron's case is the fact that he visited the Butler County Coroner in November 1952, requesting a blood test. The doctor never revealed this until 1973, 20 years after Ron went missing. I don't think he told the doctor why he wanted the test. The doctor said in his 35 years of practice, Ron Tammen was the only person to come to his office with such a request. Since he was so secretive about it, it made me wonder if Ron wanted the test to establish paternity or something. Whatever the reason, I can't help but think it might have had something to do with his disappearance five months to the day later.

 

[AnaTeresa]

The blood test is really what jumps out at me in this case - it's so unusual. I have to think it must be related somehow to his disappearance.

 

[Richard]

...
...One of the strangest circumstances in Ron's case is the fact that he visited the Butler County Coroner in November 1952, requesting a blood test. The doctor never revealed this until 1973, 20 years after Ron went missing. I don't think he told the doctor why he wanted the test. The doctor said in his 35 years of practice, Ron Tammen was the only person to come to his office with such a request. Since he was so secretive about it, it made me wonder if Ron wanted the test to establish paternity or something. Whatever the reason, I can't help but think it might have had something to do with his disappearance five months to the day later.

Back in 1953, there was no way of establishing paternity with a blood test. DNA was unheard of then. Blood typing could be used to disprove paternity, but only under certain conditions - and the blood type of mother and child would also need to be known.

For example, if the man had type O blood, and the child was type AB, then the man could be ruled out as the father. However, if the child had type A, type B, or type O blood, then the blood test would NOT rule the man out as the father.

It could also be possible that Ronald was trying to determine whether or not he had been adopted. If he knew his parents' blood types he may have wanted to see if his own was a possibility.

It certainly is a puzzling factor in the story, but possibly it had nothing to do with his disappearance.

 

[MaryLiz]

Back in 1953, there was no way of establishing paternity with a blood test. DNA was unheard of then. Blood typing could be used to disprove paternity, but only under certain conditions - and the blood type of mother and child would also need to be known.

For example, if the man had type O blood, and the child was type AB, then the man could be ruled out as the father. However, if the child had type A, type B, or type O blood, then the blood test would NOT rule the man out as the father.

It could also be possible that Ronald was trying to determine whether or not he had been adopted. If he knew his parents' blood types he may have wanted to see if his own was a possibility.

It certainly is a puzzling factor in the story, but possibly it had nothing to do with his disappearance.

Thanks, Richard. I didn't realize that about blood tests regarding paternity. I don't know why I zeroed in on that as a possible reason for the blood test, but it got stuck in my mind and I couldn't really see beyond it for some reason.

I agree, the blood test could have nothing to do with why he left. I only mentioned it because it was one of the stranger aspects of this case. If he met with foul play the night he disappeared, or suffered amnesia and got lost, then I'm sure the blood test had nothing to do with his disappearance; however, if he left on purpose, it might in some way figure into why he went missing.

JMO.

 

[Hails]

Found something interesting about blood type in the 1950s r/t the cold war.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18280343

http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/08/atomic-tattoo-expanded-edition.html

Makes me think Ronald was schizophrenic. His actions (checking blood type, using an off campus MD) could be interpreted as paranoid. However, I am too young to grasp the social and emotional effects of the cold war in the U.S....maybe he was very patriotic.

If he did wander off due to a psychotic break, maybe he died years later, unknown....

 

[MaryLiz]

Thinking of Ron Tammen and his loved ones on the 59th anniversary of his disappearance.

 

[necco]

Could he have gone for the blood test because he had gotten a girl pregnant and wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be an RH compatibility issue? I looked up the history of RH compatibility and it was treated prior to his disappearance. Maybe he disappeared to run off with the woman? 4 months to figure out she was pregnant and deal with it mentally, get the blood test, run off when she's about to give birth 5 months later.

 

[liz b.]

Found something interesting about blood type in the 1950s r/t the cold war.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18280343

http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/08/atomic-tattoo-expanded-edition.html

Makes me think Ronald was schizophrenic. His actions (checking blood type, using an off campus MD) could be interpreted as paranoid. However, I am too young to grasp the social and emotional effects of the cold war in the U.S....maybe he was very patriotic.

If he did wander off due to a psychotic break, maybe he died years later, unknown....

Great find about the blood tatoo.My first thought when I read about this case was that Ronald had been recruited by one of our intelligence agencies. MOO

 

[MaryLiz]

Found something interesting about blood type in the 1950s r/t the cold war.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18280343

http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/08/atomic-tattoo-expanded-edition.html

Makes me think Ronald was schizophrenic. His actions (checking blood type, using an off campus MD) could be interpreted as paranoid. However, I am too young to grasp the social and emotional effects of the cold war in the U.S....maybe he was very patriotic.

If he did wander off due to a psychotic break, maybe he died years later, unknown....

I've often wondered if he suffered a psychotic break and just took off. That certainly could fit. Interesting stuff in the articles above. I still can't get it out of my mind that requesting the blood test five months earlier was to disprove paternity, but the blood-type tattoo theory is very intriguing.

 

[necco]

I have a COMPLETELY out there idea. With talk of the blood types and military... could he have joined the French Foreign Legion? If he got a woman pregnant and needed to support her but wanted to be out of the ridicule of 1950s society, it might have been an idea. I'm going to do more research.

 

[GrainneDhu]

Back in 1953, there was no way of establishing paternity with a blood test. DNA was unheard of then. Blood typing could be used to disprove paternity, but only under certain conditions - and the blood type of mother and child would also need to be known.

For example, if the man had type O blood, and the child was type AB, then the man could be ruled out as the father. However, if the child had type A, type B, or type O blood, then the blood test would NOT rule the man out as the father.

It could also be possible that Ronald was trying to determine whether or not he had been adopted. If he knew his parents' blood types he may have wanted to see if his own was a possibility.

It certainly is a puzzling factor in the story, but possibly it had nothing to do with his disappearance.

There was another reason for a man to want a blood test in connection to possible paternity.

If a woman was impregnated by a certain man, one legitimate defence at the time was for that man to allege that she had had sex with other men in the relevant time period, so the paternity could not be proven (her word was not enough in those days).

If the woman protested, she was unlikely to be believed. After all, she had already shown herself to be of questionable moral character by getting pregnant.

The double standard was alive and well.

So, a man would ask around his friends to find someone who had his blood type and then they would both go before the judge and claim that they had both had sex with the woman in question.

I've wondered if Ron Tammen had been approached to have such a favour done. Why he'd choose a coroner to ask, I have no idea.

 

[Claudette]

How do we know he heard a noise? That had to have been speculation, otherwise the last known person to have seen him would have been someone he told that he had just heard a weird noise and was going to investigate.

 

[Stella]

Did anyone see Tammen leave Fisher Hall? His room was on the 2nd floor at the end of the hallway; he had to pass by every (open?) door to get downstairs. Odd that no one saw or heard anything. Then again, LE alledgedly didn't interview anyone in the dorm except his roommate and no resident apparently came forward to volunteer info.

Also telling is the university trying to quickly put an end to the investigation. Was it fear of scandal or perhaps they were covering up for the fraternity? All in all, a dreadful piece of investigating.

 

[Stella]

I'm giving the idea of CIA involvement a second look after doing some research. Beginning around the late 1940's, the CIA began looking to recruit on college campuses so the possibility does exist. Professors and administrators at certain colleges often referred names of students whom they felt had "possibilities" to the intelligence agency. Recruits had to complete detailed personal histories and submit to lie detector tests, as well as physical, psychological and psychiatric tests. In addition, they had to undergo a background clearance test of AT LEAST 4 MONTHS duration. That fits in with the blood test Tammen went for 5 months earlier, to a doctor off campus whom he never saw before or would not see again; rather secretive. Maybe he got those tests out of the way, then when his clearance time was up, he "disappeared", much like Richard Colvin Cox. I don't hold too much stock in this theory but I thought it interesting nonetheless.

 

[maz1rude]

I found a Ronald Tammen at Portland State University:http://www.pdx.edu/hatfieldschool/ronald-tammen

 

[Richard]

This month marks the 60 year anniversary of the disappearance of Ronald Henry Tammen, Jr.

 

[PFF]

Ronald Tammen
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=26056497&df=all&

Richard Cox
Richard Colvin Cox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Kodiak]

In two days, it will be 60 years since Ron Tammen's disappearance.

I did find a couple of new things that I found while researching Fisher Hall...

In Wikipedia, it mentions the Tammen case and Ron's roommate:

"Charles Findlay still believed he was alive and the two of them were “very, very close”. Charles was under a nervous disorder for some time after Ronald Tammen’s disappearance and still cannot talk about the situation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Hall_and_Marcum_Center_%28Miami_University%29"

But then... I also stumbled upon this on YouTube. It was a local Miami University documentary that was filmed in the mid-to-late 70's, before Fisher Hall was demolished in 78' for the Marcum Conference Center and Hotel.

The film is a half hour long in two parts with interviews of Tammen Sr., Barbara Spivey, who answered the door to the young man the night he vanished, and even Tammen's roommate.

In the second part, there was something I never knew before and it's just bizarre: The last known sighting of Tammen was in early August of 1953 in New York by none other than H.H. Stephenson, who was the man in charge of the housing assignments and permits at Miami University.

The Phantom of Oxford-Part 1

The Phantom of Oxford-Part 2

 

[Kodiak]

How do we know he heard a noise? That had to have been speculation, otherwise the last known person to have seen him would have been someone he told that he had just heard a weird noise and was going to investigate.

From researching this case, I, too, have wondered the same thing. If no one was around how did the police and others at the school come up with notion that he went to check out a noise in the hallway or the basement? In the documentary, the noise disturbance wasn't even mentioned, nor by his roommate. Neither the dead fish in his bed either.

But, then again, the investigation was poor and sloppy, and 25 years later the police had thrown out most the paperwork regarding the case. Perhaps journalist Joe Cella uncovered these things when he followed through with the case in the 70's.

I also looked at the actual photo of his bed in the room and did see that he never put the pillow case on the pillow–like he was interrupted or something. Also, after looking at the official police records with all the sloppy handwriting, they don't mention the noise or the fish, but they do comment on the pillow not being put into the case.

Hmm, sounds like some kind of coverup or sorts with intentional hearsay by both the school and police.

Somebody knows something.