Ron Rickman the Green Bay Murder Case is Based on a True Story

2011-03-01T17:25:00.000-08:00

Extra Tidbit: At age 17, Vonnie's daughter stated that when her mom disappeared she always thought that she was just hiding. Ron Rickman died in prison of natural causes in 2004.

Photos of Yvonne Rickman, Ron Rickman, and Kristina Rickman Case

2011-03-01T03:03:00.000-08:00

Yvonne Rickman, Vonnie Rickman

Kristina is all grown up and married with a child

Ron Rickman

Brief interview with Kristina Rickman.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Kristina Rickman, the daughter of Yvonne and Ron Rickman, today about the case. Here is what she shared with me.

Traciy Curry-Reyes: Did you maintain a relationship with your father?

Kristina: Yes, my father and I remained close and visited frequently up until his death in 2004. He maintained his innocence until the day he died. Although I don't know what really happened in 1981, I love and respect my father for how he took care of me. He raised me with morals and a conscience.

Traciy Curry-Reyes: How has life been for you since this tragedy?

Kristina: Since this tragedy I have married (2003) and we have a son (2007). Ironically, with my father's blessing, I have been a Corrections Officer for the State of Wisconsin since 1995. This year will mark 30 years that my mother has been gone. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her and wonder what happened that day.

Extra Notes

Vonnie Rickman's sister Corrine was tenacious in her fight to have Ron convicted of her murder. She continued to tell her story until she caught the attention of a journalist who took her seriously. (here is an article about the journalist's experience with Corrine) Sadly, Corrine passed away about 15 years ago, not long after the movie premiered. Kristina and Corrine were not close...

Vonnie Rickman Movie, and Kristina Rickman

2008-08-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

FACTS
With all disputes resolved in favor of the state, as this court is required to do when reviewing challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence, State v. Poellinger, 153 Wis.2d 493, 501, 451 N.W.2d 752, 755 (1990), the facts are as follows: Yvonne and Rickman lived in Green Bay with their daughter, Kristina. The last date Rickman and Yvonne's relatives saw or heard from Yvonne was August 14, 1981, the date Yvonne and Rickman had scheduled a shopping trip in Appleton. Although their daughter, Kristina, was to accompany them on the trip, the night before Rickman told Yvonne that Kristina could not go along.
Prior to her disappearance, Yvonne had been very close to her siblings. Yvonne spoke to her sister, Corinne Kaczmarek, every day, and her brothers William and Donald Nelson each visited her several times a week. Yvonne was devoted to her daughter. Although she was a heavy smoker, Yvonne was in good physical and mental health.
Yvonne, an organized woman, left behind a variety of personal items, many of which were found in a box in the attic of the Rickman home. Among the items found in the box were Yvonne's cigarette [*4] case, wallet and her travel toiletries kit. The wallet contained Yvonne's social security card, medical insurance cards, state identification card, a list of addresses and family photographs. The travel kit contained a toothbrush holder with a toothbrush in it, toothpaste, cosmetics and hair styling items. Yvonne also left behind a full social calendar. She was an avid bowler and had registered for a bowling league for the 1981-82 season. Her bowling bag, containing her bowling ball and 1981-82 bowling schedule, were also found in the attic. She was also planning a bachelor party for her brother later in August. Yvonne never lived alone and did not have a driver's license. Yvonne gave no indication to her family that she would not be returning from the shopping trip to Appleton.
Rickman handled all of the finances during the marriage. Yvonne did not have access to a checking account and had no credit cards. During the marriage, Yvonne did not work outside the home and had no independent source of income. Yvonne seldom traveled, and never alone. Yvonne's sister, Corinne, testified that Yvonne was incapable of leaving Rickman and her family and living an independent life. Additionally, [*5] despite marital problems, Yvonne had expressed her unwillingness to leave Rickman. Although Yvonne knew that Rickman was found not guilty by reason of insanity to two murders in 1962, she apparently did not tell her family about the murders.
Sometime during 1981, Yvonne and Rickman apparently began having marital problems. Rickman spoke negatively about Yvonne to several people. Yvonne often complained that Rickman did not spend enough time with her and Kristina because of his heavy involvement in a youth group called SCOPE, which met several times a week at Rickman's house. Rickman told Kathy P., a sixteen-year-old member of SCOPE, that he and Yvonne were no longer having sexual relations. During the summer of 1981, Rickman fondled Kathy several times while they were in his car. Rickman attempted to have sexual intercourse with Kathy on two occasions, once in July or August 1981 and once in September or October 1981. Rickman was also infatuated with Janice K.D., another SCOPE member. She received special treatment and several affectionate letters from Rickman. After Yvonne's disappearance, Janice received a letter from Rickman that said, in part, "During the next couple weeks I will [*6] be removing and changing a lot of things, sort of wiping away memories of the past. Just as soon as funds allow, we will start redoing things, but for the time being let me clean things up and destroy the past. … Please raise my daughter as you would your own."
Corinne reported Yvonne missing to the police on September 18, 1981, despite Rickman's attempts to discourage her from involving the police. After Corinne contacted the police and Rickman was questioned at the police station, he telephoned Corinne because he was angry that she had reported Yvonne missing. However, Rickman told Donald Nelson that he had immediately reported Yvonne's disappearance to Appleton police.
Rickman told the police and the jury at trial that in Appleton, after they had finished shopping and were stopped at a streetlight, Yvonne took concealed suitcases out of the car's back seat, left the car and disappeared. He also told the police and the jury that Yvonne had telephoned him several times and had entered their home after her disappearance. After Rickman authorized the placement of a monitoring device on his telephone, he reported no phone calls from Yvonne. Additionally, Rickman misled police about [*7] Yvonne's access to a checking account and at first did not tell police about a handgun registered to Yvonne that he apparently sometimes kept in the car under the front seat.
Rickman gave several conflicting accounts of Yvonne's whereabouts and the circumstances of her disappearance to different people, some before and some after Yvonne was reported missing. He told Sherry Cudnohufsky, an adult SCOPE member, that Yvonne had gotten into a cab in Appleton and disappeared. He told Rebecca Kupsky, another adult SCOPE member; Shirley Willis, a coworker; and Debra Rouse, a neighbor, that Yvonne disappeared after he had dropped her off at a store in Appleton. He told Nancy Stammer, a former employer; and Daniel Rosinsky, a junior SCOPE member, that Yvonne had started a new life in Fond du Lac. He told Donald Strutz, another Green Bay police officer, that Yvonne was living with her sister. He told longtime friend Raymond Anderson, one of Kristina's babysitters, Colleen Paterski; and Colleen Denamur, whom he dated, that he came home from work one day and Yvonne was gone. He told Paterski that Yvonne was a lesbian and told Denamur he later divorced Yvonne. He told Kathleen Nielson that he [*8] believed Yvonne had amnesia. He told Christine Steinbach, another of Kristina's babysitters, that Yvonne was mentally ill and living in a mental institution. He told Laura Kowalski, whom he met at a party, and David Topel, who met Rickman at a restaurant, that Yvonne had died.
In May 1990, while Rickman was incarcerated for a different offense in the Huber section of the Brown County jail, he spoke about Yvonne's disappearance to Jimmie Cline, who was incarcerated in the same section. Cline testified concerning this conversation:
[Rickman] said he took [Yvonne] shopping in Appleton at the K-Mart store to buy [Kristina] some school clothes because she was starting first grade. He said while they were shopping he told [Yvonne], "You have what you need. Let's go." He says she said, "Wait a minute," and he says, "Well, I'm going out to the car. If you ain't out in the car, I'm going to leave you," so he said he went out to the car, and he said it was hot that day, and he got aggravated and finally she came out and asked him what was wrong. … [Rickman] said, "Well, you took all damn day in the store," and they had an argument, and he said he slapped her, and a couple of miles from [*9] where the K-Mart store is in Appleton they stopped at a stop sign. He said he kept a black box up under his seat with a pistol in it, and he said that [Yvonne] reached for it and he reached for it and the next thing he remembers he was home with [Kristina]. ? [Rickman] said he felt the same towards [Yvonne] at that moment [when she was reaching for the gun] as he did them two loggers he killed back in 1962. … [Rickman] said he was hunting [in 1962] and he was shooting his gun off too close by these two loggers and they came up and started bitching at him about shooting the gun off too close to them. He said he shot them in the head, and the next thing he remembered [the police] … picked him up a mile away from where the two dead loggers were found. He said he didn't remember [anything]. … He told me he didn't know [if he killed Yvonne]. … [Rickman] said he gave the police department a bullshit story about his wife disappearing. … He said that … "Well, I told the police a bunch of bullshit stories because they keep hounding me about my wife. I told them she jumped out of the car and she ran and she calls me every now and then … but she [doesn't]. … [Rickman] said [*10] it was hard to charge him because … nobody had the gun or the body. Cline stated that Rickman smiled when he talked about shooting the hunters and when he said he did not know if he killed Yvonne. Rickman was found not guilty of the two 1962 killings by reason of mental disease or defect.
Despite significant publicity of Yvonne's disappearance and a diligent search for Yvonne, including computerized searches of criminal, social security and credit records, she was never found. Rickman was arrested and charged with Yvonne's murder in August 1990, nine years after her disappearance.
During the trial, the court admitted Cline's testimony concerning Rickman's comparison of the 1962 killings with Yvonne's disappearance, despite its prejudicial nature. The court concluded that the evidence concerning the 1962 killings was necessary to enable the jury to understand the significance of the rest of Cline's testimony, because "certain statements made now would have no rational meaning to the jury unless they understood what happened in 1962 because they're interrelated." The court noted that, if true, these statements "could be interpreted as damaging admissions [by Rickman] against interest." [*11] Additionally, the court found the 1962 killings had "striking similarities" to the alleged murder of Yvonne: In both cases the weapon was a gun, Rickman was alone with the victims, Rickman was provoked to anger by the victims and Rickman has no recollection of what happened after he became angry. The court also admitted testimony concerning Rickman's alleged sexual contact with Kathy and infatuation with Janice, based on its conclusion that the evidence tends to show a possible motive for Rickman to kill Yvonne.
At the jury instruction conference, Rickman requested the court to instruct the jury that the law presumes that, because there is no physical evidence that Yvonne died, she is still alive and that, in addition to proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Rickman murdered her, the state must prove that no evidence exists to raise a reasonable hypothesis that she is still alive. The court refused, concluding that the instructions concerning the substantive elements of first-degree homicide adequately apprised the jury that it must first find that Yvonne is dead.
After a thirteen-day trial and approximately three and one-half hours of deliberation, the jury found Rickman guilty [*12] of first-degree homicide. The court entered a judgment of conviction and sentenced Rickman to life in prison.

To read more true stories www.moviesbasedontruestories.blogspot.com

The Disappearance of Vonnie

Ron Rickman the Green Bay Murder Case is Based on a True Story

Photos of Yvonne Rickman, Ron Rickman, and Kristina Rickman Case

Vonnie Rickman Movie, and Kristina Rickman