Victimization is a subcategory of criminal justice and something that the courts still have some inaccurate ways of thinking towards. True crime has always fascinated me ever since I was little. Unsolved Mysteries, Cold Case Files and other shows acted as baby sitters a lot of the time for me. One case that screams victimization is the case of Ron Ruse. Around 1981, Ron Ruse met Linda Riccio at an auto shop in which they both were employed. The couple became official and Linda ends up moving in with him shortly after under false pretenses. Her obsession with Ron was pretty much apparent shortly after that event. Even though she was a student at the time and had her own schedule, she put everything to the side and accompanied Ron wherever he went, with his objections only fueling her more.

The couple dated for around 6 years until Ron finally couldn’t take any more of Linda’s controlling behavior. He informed Linda that he was moving out, but he agreed to still take care of her at first. He assumed that it would take time for her to get past the break up and move on, so he was more than willing to be patient with her. Linda didn’t take the break up very well at all so she began stalking Ron. She followed him and harassed him relentlessly. Whenever he went to the beach or something as simple as a bar with his friends, someone would always spot her watching them. His friends took on a sympathetic approach with Ron. They knew that he didn’t want this kind of attention from her.

Ron decided to move once again in any hope of getting away from Linda. For a while it seemed like it worked. Things quieted down and Ron fell into a false sense of security within his own life. He met and fell in love with a woman named Vickie and moved her into his apartment. As the couple grew closer and became very serious, Linda found him. She started to stalk both Ron and Vickie. At this point, Ron is so fed up with the entire situation so he decided to file an official restraining order on Linda. The courts unfortunately didn’t take him seriously. The judge was said to have told Ron that he should be proud that someone like Linda wanted to be with him. Linda was a beautiful woman and when you looked at her, you didn’t see what she really was.

One night, the couple was awakened by someone knocking on the door. Vickie got up to answer it and found a box containing some of Ron’s belongings and on top was a letter for her. It was from Linda and contained threatening messages meant for Vickie, so naturally it scared her and she ended her and Ron’s relationship. By this time, Ron is starting to really fear for his life. He had talked with his friends about getting a gun and finding ways to protect himself. Unfortunately, all of that came too late. Linda ended up seeing the bright green light to act when she found out that the apartment next to Ron’s was vacant. She rented out the apartment and started to listen closely to what he did inside his own apartment.

On December 14, 1987, Ron returned home with groceries when Linda surprised him from her new apartment. She shot him twice in the chest and watched as he staggered down to his friend’s apartment for help. She quickly left the scene and Ron was rushed to the hospital. She wasn’t interested in learning if she killed Ron or simply wounded him, unfortunately Ron didn’t make it. She ended up turning herself in stating that she was going to commit suicide but got scared when he lunged at her so she shot him. With eye witness testimony regarding Linda’s harassment and her threats, the jury didn’t believe anything she said and she was convicted and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. To this day, every time she was up for parole, she has been denied. Linda physically pulled the trigger, but the courts helped kill Ron. If the judge would have taken his complaints seriously then maybe things would’ve been different. But because for some people it is hard to imagine a man in fear from a woman, he wasn’t taken seriously and lost his life solely because a woman couldn’t control him.

Ron was portrayed adequately in this show, Deadly Women. A few minor details were left out but the main take of the crime stayed. Ron didn’t contribute in his death. I personally believed that if Ron moved to the next state that she would have still found him eventually. The show portrayed many different cases where the victims were blamed but the victims would react differently in each case. The courts didn’t directly blame Ron for Linda’s stalking, but they were clear in the idea that a man had nothing to legitimately fear from a woman. And, because Linda was such a beautiful woman who had so much going for her, why would any man take her actions as anything other than love and affection? The courts in his case basically told him to man up and did very little to help him.

The media in this case, never blamed Ron for his murder. They looked at the facts, eye witness testimony and Linda’s own words on somethings. When it got out to the public that Ron was a victim of stalking regardless of his gender, they automatically sided against Linda. I think that is why Linda has been denied parole each time. She’s proven that she’s dangerous, other cases have proven that women can sometimes be more violent than a man, and the victim shaming in this case is probably too much for the justice system. Keeping her in prison until she dies isn’t enough of a make up to Ron’s family, but it helps.

References

Gorman, T. (2019, March 10). Victim Feared Violence From Ex-Lover, Hearing Told. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-30-me-185-story.html

Mohr, Marie (producer). Deadly Women, Tainted Love, Season 14, episode 1, Investigation Discovery, 17 June 2021.