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A Good Man Is Hard to Find — My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

A new take on Ronald Tammen's 1953 disappearance from Miami University

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Backgrounder

Introduction
Who Is (or Was) Ronald Tammen?
April 19, 1953
The Investigations
My Ongoing Quest…
On Not Taking ‘No’ for an Answer
FAQs
Putting Things Together (Discussion)
The ‘Good Man’ Public Records Request Score Card — Last updated 10/7/22 — 2 updates
NEW! The 10-Minute Ronald Tammen Speed Read
Room 225 Fisher–The Ron Tammen Chat Room

Blog Posts at a Glance

YEAR 2023

January 20 -- Follow the inconsistencies: one tape, two very different explanations
January 15 -- Announcing: something new and something that’s growing very old
January 1 -- Breaking the CIA’s MKULTRA code, part deux

YEAR 2022

December 29 -- More evidence that St. Clair Switzer was on the CIA’s payroll
December 19 -- On the extraordinarily, mind-bogglingly stupendous value of editors…and how they just may help us find the interview with Carl Knox’s former secretary
December 9 -- FAILURE! My wild ride through the Ohio Court of Claims has come to an end
November 27 -- Ron Tammen had two missing person file numbers
November 22 -- The hockey coach tape was produced for the Miami Stories Oral History Project. So why did so many people act so bizarrely as soon as I started sniffing around?
November 16 -- In honor of gaps and holes: how missing numbers and deleted video footage can provide clues to an interview with Carl Knox’s former secretary
November 12 -- Miami U officials sent me a hockey coach recording in which the first 5 minutes had been cut
October 28 -- The ‘Miami Hockey Coaches’ interview was made into a perfectly good, perfectly wonderful DVD. So why does the university keep sending me damaged tapes?
October 27 -- I think the hockey coach tape had been successfully converted to DVD…
October 13 -- There’s a Miami Hockey Coach tape, and I just finished watching part one
October 12 -- Who is Athena and what does she know about the Miami Hockey Coaches tape?
October 6 -- The disappearance…and reappearance of 3 hockey coaches and a broadcaster
October 1 -- Was Ron Tammen spotted by H.H. Stephenson at the Adirondack Inn?
September 25 -- The backup tape
September 20 -- My latest discovery re: accession numbers and archive numbers and their relationship with a certain hockey tape
September 14 -- It’s raining hockey tapes…hallelujah
September 2 -- Miami U can’t produce the hockey coach tape. Here’s why that’s a very big deal
August 25 -- More evidence that St. Clair Switzer was involved in something in 1956-57 that he didn’t want to talk about
August 19 -- A rift between friends: Did Doc Switzer and Everett Patten have a falling out?
July 22 -- The missing hockey tape
July 3 -- In honor of July 4th, some additional musings on FOIA and Ron’s missing person documents
June 24 -- I’m back from my search for the third unposted recording from Miami University’s Oral History Project. Here’s what I found.
June 9 -- A very brief debriefing
May 27 -- I now know for sure where room 1126 was…
May 4 -- I believe I know who two of the three unposted Oral History Project interviews were with
April 18 -- FOIA follies, part 2: ‘Lost’ mail, an old Steve Martin bit, and the interview with Carl Knox’s former secretary
February 23 -- You guys. The ‘Ident Missing Person File Room’ wasn’t in the Hoover Bldg after all. And wait till you find out who I think was overseeing it.
February 1 -- Tuesday two-fer: two new pieces of evidence that support our theory that Ron Tammen was alive in 2002
January 23 -- Mini bonus post: Were Richard Cox’s FBI documents kept in the Identification Division’s ‘missing person file room’ too?
January 21 -- I think I may know where the FBI’s ‘missing person file room’ was located

YEAR 2021

December 30 -- More smoking evidence that Ron Tammen was alive in 2002
December 19 -- On this date in 1958, FBI Headquarters wrote an ‘airtel’ to the Cincinnati Field Office that might have something to do with Ron Tammen…why?
December 4 -- The Cincy files, part 2: some quasi-relevant reading material in honor of today’s game
November 16 -- Putting a dent in the Ident files: more evidence that the FBI knew what happened to Ron Tammen in 1973
October 28 -- Halloween 2021 and the muzzling of…me
October 22 -- Halloween 1973 and the muzzling of Joe Cella
October 6 -- The tinderbox and the match: the honest truth about the St. Louis fire of 1973
September 24 -- Zeroing in on Ron’s ‘zero’ file
September 17 -- The second man, part 2: a Friday-night document drop
September 4 -- Did Richard blackmail Ron?, part 2
August 29 -- The second man
August 15 -- The sabbatical: how I think St. Clair Switzer and a well-known MKULTRA psychiatrist spent the summer of 1957
August 6 -- The Cincy file
July 23 -- For Marjorie, the woman who brought Ron Tammen into the world
July 11 -- The FBI’s plagiarized narrative
July 10 -- As long as we’re talking about 2008…why did the FBI destroy a file on Tammen in the middle of a reopened investigation?
July 9 -- Why did subsequent FBI reports fail to mention what officials had learned in 2002?
July 7 -- The eager, anguished fingerprint expungement of June 2002
June 26 -- Miami University’s deafening silence: proof of a cover-up, part 3
June 12 -- If the Privacy Act was the reason that Ron Tammen’s fingerprints were expunged, then guess what? Ron was alive in 2002
June 3 -- Breaking: the 9-5-52 Project Artichoke report wasn’t typed on St. Clair Switzer’s typewriter*
May 20 -- How did Doc Switzer get tangled up with the CIA? All roads lead to the RDB
May 10 -- Here it is: the document that allowed the FBI to expunge Ron Tammen’s fingerprints 30 years ahead of time
May 5 -- Finally, an answer: Why Ronald Tammen’s fingerprints were expunged and why it makes so much sense
April 30 -- Lies, deceit, and why I’ve come to believe that Ron Tammen’s story is bigger than we realize
April 18 -- 68th anniversary bonus post: What does Ron Tammen’s handwriting say about his personality?
April 11 -- Purged: All about the OTHER document that used to be inside Ron Tammen’s fingerprint jacket…
March 5 -- The blog post I was hoping never to write
February 19 -- That cryptic note about H.H. Stephenson? It was probably written in 1976, NOT 1953
January 18 -- A Friday night insurance payment

YEAR 2020

December 23 -- Proof of a cover-up, part 2: hidden buzzers, forbidden words
November 30 -- Wait…was Ron being blackmailed by Richard?!
November 21 -- A 1950s Thanksgiving meditation, by Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.
November 17 -- Was Ron being blackmailed?
November 15 -- Follow the lie$, part 2: But wait, there’s more
November 14 -- Follow the lie$
October 28 -- The Official AGMIHTF Guide to ‘Who’s Who’ in Oxford Cemetery
August 31 -- Remembering Marcia Tammen
August 18 -- Proof of a cover-up
August 11 -- My theory on Ron Tammen’s exact location the moment he disappeared, and other thoughts*
July 8 -- The layperson’s unofficial, unauthorized FBI fingerprint protocol playbook**
June 14 -- The Ident files
April 19 -- The Wright Patt Connection, Part 2 — BONUS EDITION
April 18 -- The Wright Patt Connection

YEAR 2019

April 19 -- The ‘I&I’ guys: Why I think Ronald Tammen’s psychology professor had a hand in his disappearance
April 7 -- MKULTRA and ‘U’
March 25 -- Hypnosis—what’s doable, what’s doubtable (part 2)
March 5 -- Hypnosis—what’s doable, what’s doubtable (part 1)
March 1 -- The hypnotists of Oxford, Ohio
February 16 -- A chance encounter in Wellsville
February 2 -- The accidental, unlikely, real-life, and unsung heroes of MKULTRA
January 20 -- The return of Commander Robert Jay Williams
January 11 -- Was the CIA secretly recruiting gay men in the 1950s?

YEAR 2018

December 23 -- An ode to Joe on his 98th birthday
December 7 -- FOIA follies
November 22 -- Your Thanksgiving dinner icebreaker: Was Ronald Tammen gay?
November 1 -- A late-night knock at the door
October 6 -- A dead body in Georgia
September 15 -- The fish in Ron’s bed
August 29 -- A case of amnesia, part 3: Three youths from Ohio
August 9 -- A case of amnesia, part 2: Things in Ron’s background
August 2 -- A case of amnesia, part 1
May 14 -- Ronald Tammen’s moment of crisis
April 28 -- You have questions? Here are some answers.
April 19 -- The open psych book
April 9 -- Closing a couple loops: Why Ronald Tammen was fingerprinted as a child, and why the FBI considered his prints ‘criminal’
March 10 -- On April 19, 2018, Ronald Tammen will be missing for 65 years. Here’s how the ‘Good Man’ blog is commemorating the anniversary.
February 22 -- Was Ronald Tammen hiding out as a technician at Welco Industries in 1973?
February 3 -- Hoover, JFK, and the day the FBI stopped writing to the Tammens
January 16 -- The dog handler, the dad, and the director
January 1 -- Did Ronald Tammen cross paths with Richard Colvin Cox?

YEAR 2017

December 14 -- The missing fingerprints, part 4*
November 30 -- The missing fingerprints, part 3*
November 9 -- The missing fingerprints, part 2
October 29 -- The REAL phantoms of Oxford, Ohio
October 22 -- The missing fingerprints
October 8 -- Chuck Findlay’s story
September 25 -- What would an introvert do?
September 16 -- Ronald Tammen’s hectic, demanding, difficult, jam-packed, very busy day, part 2
August 30 -- Ronald Tammen’s hectic, demanding, difficult, jam-packed, very busy day, part 1
August 18 -- Why did Ron Tammen get his blood typed?
August 4 -- The woman from Hamilton
July 23 -- Happy birthday, Ronald Tammen
July 16 -- Hitting the lottery
July 8 -- 8:30, 10:30…does it really matter?
July 4 -- On birthdays, memories, and song practice
June 28 -- When memories collide, part 2: Song practice, the University of Kentucky, and a meeting over coffee
June 16 -- When memories collide, part 1: The Delts, song practice, and a momentous walk home
April 14 -- Seeking Grace — the girl who went to the prom with Ronald Tammen

Latest AGMIHTF Updates from Facebook

If you're interested in keeping up with the finer details of my research (e.g., small developments that may not warrant a full blog post), here are some quickie updates on Facebook.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

1 week ago

One tape, two different stories. Who's a girl gonna believe? ... See MoreSee Less

Follow the inconsistencies: one tape, two very different explanations

ronaldtammen.com

This morning, I was doing a little rereading of a blog post—the one from September 2, in which I wrote about the first time our Ohio Court of Claims mediation process had been declared a failure. A....

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

2 weeks ago

Be sure to stop by our new Ron Tammen chat room, and introduce yourself!Plus: according to a university spreadsheet, two hockey coach tapes were assigned to box CDS 18 in University Archives. As we already know, one tape---Hockey Tape #2 (EDIT)---was severely damaged and unwatchable. Now we learn that the other one is inexplicably missing. You guys? This really isn't normal. ... See MoreSee Less

Announcing: something new and something that’s growing very old

ronaldtammen.com

Let’s start with the fun news: we now have a chat room, a dedicated space on this blog site where you can discuss Tammen-related topics without interference from me. Oh, OK, I’ll be checking in no...

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

4 weeks ago

This may be the strongest proof yet that St. Clair Switzer (Ron Tammen's psych prof) was CIA. ... See MoreSee Less

More evidence that St. Clair Switzer was on the CIA’s payroll

ronaldtammen.com

Plus a bonus puzzler: Let’s make a little history and break some CIA code Have you had enough holiday yet? Same. You want to do something kinda wild during this down week before New Year’s? Me too...

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

1 month ago

Gosh, who should we nominate? (Deadline is Jan 6.) ... See MoreSee Less

It's time once again: Share your transparency horror story with a nomination to The Foilies 2023

www.muckrock.com

We are now accepting submissions for The Foilies 2023, the annual project to give tongue-in-cheek awards to the officials and institutions that behave badly (or ridiculously) when served with a reques...

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find: My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr.

1 month ago

Greetings, and a quick question for you: What do these two video cassettes have in common?Here's my latest post on the extraordinarily, mind-bogglingly stupendous value of editors…and how they just may help us find the interview with Carl Knox’s former secretary: ronaldtammen.com/2022/12/19/yay-editors/ ... See MoreSee Less

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© 2017-2023 A Good Man Is Hard to Find–My Search for Ronald H. Tammen, Jr. and ronaldtammen.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jennifer Wenger and/or ronaldtammen.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

FBI FOIA Documents on Ronald Tammen

The Phantom of Oxford, part 1 of 2 (YouTube.com)

The Phantom of Oxford, part 2 of 2 (YouTube.com)

Ronald Tammen’s birth certificate

Ronald Tammen’s Selective Service Records (5th row from bottom)

Ronald Tammen’s Selective Service Registration

St. Clair Switzer’s Yale Transcripts (includes Miami Univ and Univ of Wisconsin)

A large sample of Carl Knox’s Notes

Pages in Tammen’s Psychology Book

My theory is that Tammen's psychology book was open to these two pages on his desk when he disappeared. Although Carl Knox said in his notes that the book was open to HABITS -- all caps and underlined twice -- I believe Tammen was reading the other page with the subhead "Post-hypnotic suggestion." See the 65th anniversary video on facebook.com/agmihtf for how I reached this conclusion.