European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 4, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday August 4, 1990 the Statts and stripes Page 7,. By the los Angeles times Anaheim Calif. A six pairs of spit shined Cowboy Bools were lined up on the floor of Douglas Ridenour s closet like soldiers standing at attention. The office desk that Ridenour and his wife Dana shared at a local real estate Agency was left clean and empty and their sunday newspaper subscription had been cancelled last weekend. According to those who knew them Douglas and Dana Ridenour planned their deaths in the same meticulous and methodical Way that they had lived. In interviews with relatives co work cars and neighbors thursday a picture has emerged of two people who led very private lives that were marked by a passionate Devotion to each other and an unusually orderly lifestyle. The bodies of Douglas 48, and Dana 43, were found Early wednesday lying on separate couches in the family room of their Home Here. Police believe that the couple killed by Shotgun blasts to their Heads died As the result of a murder Sui cide pact that they had planned for several months. Relatives and acquaintances have been grappling for answers As to Why the Ridenoure by All accounts a Happy and successful couple would want to end their lives a and in such calculated fashion. In april the Ridenoure began to put in motion their suicide plan. That month the couple quit their jobs and made a videotape in which they explained that they feared growing old and intended to end their lives a very they subsequently purchased a 12-Gaugc Shotgun Drew up a will paid for cremation and reportedly withdrew their life savings a about $50,000. They then apparently relaxed at Home until they decided that the time was right said Ridenoure a brother Ronald their last chore before they died was to arrange for Ronald to receive the videotape will and cremation instructions a Day after their deaths a i know most people done to understand a the brother said thursday. A but he was a determined individual. As a brother i can to emotionally understand it either. But i know he believed in what he was Ronald and his father Floyd described Douglas As a meticulous determined Man who paid attention to detail in his appear Ance his work and his Home. Occasionally Ronald said he would talk about life and death with the couple who both Felt strongly that a person has the right to choose the time and circumstance of death. He said that the couple was not religious and their discussions never included the possibility of an afterlife. _ a i can assure you that there a really not much More to it than the fact that he wanted to pick his own time and place a Ronald said As he sat in the couple s tidy Anaheim Home thursday Floyd who last visited his son in March 1989, described his son As a a Strong willed boy and when he made up his mind there was no turning a this Mother had a terrible fear of growing old a the father 69, said from his Troy Ohio Home. Quot i guess he thought he was getting older Ridenour said his wife died in 1980 at the age of 56 of heart problems. Ronald said he Learned of his brother and sister in Laws suicide plan in a 15-minute videotape that the couple recorded april 19 and mailed to his Santa Barbara Home monday morning the Day they arc believed to Nave died. Although the videotape has not been made Public Ridenour and police say that the couple used the videotape As a sort of suicide note calmly explaining that after 22 years of marital Bliss they dreaded growing old and were ready to a Send it All very Floyd said that he last talked with his eldest son july 5, when Douglas called him after receiving a birthday Check in the mail. A the bawled me out for sending the Money a the elder Ridenour said. A the told me a i done to need any Money. I Don t need a since moving into the Central Anaheim neighbourhood the Ridenoure preferred their privacy neighbors said. Shortly after they moved in next door neighbor Angie Rossol said they installed a High Blue awning around their backyard to ensure their seclusion. A i never met More private people a Rossol said. During the period since they quit their jobs the couple was often heard splashing playfully together in the they were always together a Rossol said. Quot they sounded like they were having a real Good solar plane starts trip Al the solar powered aircraft Sim seeker tastes to the air thursday at desert Center Calif., starting a flight to Kitty Hawk . Piloted by Erie Raymond of Elsinore Calif the plane is expected to Complete the trip in about two weeks. . Town eagerly awaits annual invasion of bikers Sturgis . Apr tens of thousands of motorcyclists arc converging on this Small unassuming town from All Points of the Compass but the Welcome mat is out. Every year since 1940, this town of 7,000 on the Edge of Western South Dakota a Black Hills has played Host to motorcyclists out to enjoy races Tours and general communal Good limes. The we Klong 50th Black Hills motor classic starting monday is expected to draw anywhere from 140,000 to 400,000 to a town that on a Normal Day you can drive through in less than five minutes. Most of the visitors own Harley David sons. A last years rally attracted Only an estimated 60,000 people at least partly because of this year s anniversary said Ron Pauli of Spokane Wash. He and his wife Jean Are running a to shirt stand for Spokane Slatus motors Harley Davidson for the fourth year. During the rally main Street and two other thoroughfares Are taken Over by vendors Selling every kind of biker paraphernalia imaginable from to shirts to knife cases. By wednesday main Street was a study in Blue jeans Blackt shirts and Hellas Angels from Ohio roared Down main Street the Paulis talked about How they first came to the rally As part of a Christian Bike group. They said that in the five years they be attended they be met people from France Austria Australia South Africa and West Germany a a lots of West some rally goers belong to established groups such As Hellas Angels bandits and sons of silence. A Man was shot during one rally but that a beyond the Norm said police chief Jim Bush. A it goes pretty Well usually a said Bush a 12-year Veteran of the 10-member Force who a in his first year As chief. Quot we be never had a whole lot of great big overturns ruling on woman a name change Providence . Apr a judge s ruling that forbade a woman from changing her last name without her husbands permission has been overturned. However the Superior court decision stopped Short of barring the probate judge who issued the original ruling from doing so in the future. A the reversal. Is not surprising Quot said Steve Brown executive director of Rhode islands american civil liberties Union. Superior court judg Antonio Almeida a has simply recognized the very . If obvious principle that women Are no longer the chattel of their husbands.�?�. A a in a Happy in one Way. But in a unhappy because it another woman goes into his courtroom. Its possible that he could do this again a Lucille Ann Rice itch said. Rice Lelli 41, decided to resume using her Maiden name when her father died with no sons. Her sister uses a hyphenated name she said. She changed the name on her Driver s License. Social Security card and a Bank account. But Fleet National Bank refused to change the name on the Bank account Rice Lelli held jointly with her Mother without a court document substantiating the name change she probate court judge Anthony b. Sciarretta Learned Rice Lelli was married he told her to get her husbands consent. She refused and he denied the name change petition. In March Rice Lelli represented by an attorney appealed the ruling and also asked that Sciarretta be forbidden from requiring a husbands permission in any future eases. A Almeida in a Brief opinion written july 28 and released wednesday formally changed Riccio Llis name. A under common Law individuals have a right to change their name provided they do so with a Noil fraudulent purpose a Almeida wrote. A since no fraudulent purpose exists on the part of. The Appellant the probate court s denial of said petition was in error and is hereby n. he denied the motion preventing. Sciarretta irom requiring a husbands consent in the future a we Are disappointed the judge did not go further a Brown said. A however 1 am hopeful that this will prompt judge Sciarretta to rethink his anachronistic ways. Otherwise we will find ourselves Back m court seeking future Sciarretta could not be reached for comment. He said previously that he has a a firm policy when there Are family he said he feels spousal consent is needed a if there is to be any integrity m the family Rie Zitelli said the experience in which she was made to Leel a like a Little Lias made her More aware against women a a it a a form of harassment Thal happened that opened my eyes in some she said. A i am really definitely More aware of things like that and 1 am willing to stand up for i Longs much More Rie Ciletti said she has started volunteering at the women Scenter of Rhode Island a shelter for abused women and their children. R
