As requested: three more samples of Ron Tammen’s handwriting…

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that, after I learned that the notation “366 m hau” wasn’t in reference to Robert Maheu that I’d probably given up on a Robert Maheu connection to Ron Tammen altogether. But that’s not the case.

I have absolutely, 100%, not given up on a Maheu connection. The reason is that I continue to believe that Ron’s “Hac” notations could be in reference to Howard Hughes. HAC was a commonly used acronym for the Hughes Aircraft Company, which, according to Larry DuBois and Laurence Gonzales in their explosive 1976 Playboy article, had a tidy relationship with the CIA. My theory is that Hac was FBI shorthand for Howard Hughes. Supporting evidence is that Hac is also found on at least two of Hank Greenspun’s FBI records as well as one record for the New England chapter of the Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA). Hank Greenspun was friends with Howard Hughes as well as Robert Maheu, Howard’s long-time public-facing representative after Hughes began living life as a recluse. The CNVA was opposed to underground nuclear testing, an issue that Hughes also felt passionate about, especially if the testing was conducted near Las Vegas. I think it’s entirely feasible that Hughes supported them financially.

If I’m correct that Hac stands for Howard Hughes, then Robert Maheu knew Ron Tammen.

And so…remember when I discussed the possibility that a man with phone-tampering skills who went by the alias J.W. Harrison and who worked for Robert Maheu just might have been our Ron? I haven’t given up on that possibility either. In that post, I showed a handwriting sample of Harrison’s and suggested that, at some point, we might want to hire a forensic document examiner to compare his writing to Ron’s signature. I then wondered if it would be possible to obtain at least two other writing samples of Ron’s that were lengthier than just his signature.

Well, guess what, Good Man readers. Our dear friend Grace, Ron Tammen’s date to his senior prom, has kindly provided those samples to us. Better yet, she provided, not two, but three samples.

Here they are:

Are those great, or what?

Now, for your comparison, here’s the hotel registration written by J.W. Harrison in October 1960, nine years after Ron Tammen signed Grace’s sophomore yearbook.

Look, I’m no expert, and I definitely see differences. But nine years is a long time, and our handwriting does change over the years. I used to be so careful with my own handwriting, and now I can’t read it.

For me, I can see two similarities: the balloon-like initial J compared to Ron’s R, and the curlicue in the front of the F in San Francisco.

Ron made curlicues too. You can see a big one at the front of “My” over Ron’s picture above. You can see other attempted curlicues in the front of the T in Tammen in the signatures below, which were written in other people’s 1950 and 1951 yearbooks.

In my post on J.W. Harrison, I said that it probably wasn’t Ron, but it’s still a question worth asking. Right now, I need to save my pennies, but when the time is right, I’ll definitely be hiring a specialist to give us the final word.

In the meantime, happy Labor Day and thank you to all of America’s workers.