Slain Lover’s Family Is ‘Out to Condemn Me,’ Killer Complains

Linda Ricchio, convicted last month in the so-called “Fatal Attraction” killing of her estranged lover, told her probation officer that she is angry at the victim’s family because “they’re out to condemn me.”

“I’m not angry in a threatening way,” she said. “I’m just upset that they can’t look at this objectively. . . . I mean, Ron (Ruse, the victim) had some involvement with this, too. I had to listen to these people say . . . that he and I were never happy.”

In a letter to Ruse’s family, Ricchio wrote: “I am sorry for the heartache, the anguish, for the loss we have all suffered and endured resulting from this unintentional tragedy.”

But, in his report, the probation officer said there was nothing unintentional about Ricchio’s killing of Ruse, noting: “In effect, the defendant stalked her victim as efficiently and calculatingly as any hunter tracks game.”

‘Terrible, Horrific,’ Says Probation Officer

Probation Officer Chris Henley said the shooting death of Ron Ruse Jr. in December, 1987, was even more “terrible and horrific” than it appeared on its face.

Ricchio was convicted last month by a Vista Superior Court jury of the first-degree murder of Ruse and faces 27 years to life in prison. Sentencing of the 28-year-old Vista woman was continued Monday until June 5 after her attorney, Jack Earley, asked for a new trial. Earley maintained that his client was convicted on insufficient evidence and that the jury was given improper instructions by Judge Jeffrey Miller on conviction options.

Ruse was shot and killed by Ricchio when he returned to his Carlsbad apartment on a Monday night after work. When he arrived, he found Ricchio at the top of the landing, armed with a .38-caliber handgun. Ricchio, scorned that her lover of seven years had ended their relationship and had begun dating another woman, had stalked Ruse and rented the apartment next to his without his knowledge, bought a gun, took shooting lessons and stood outside waiting for him to come up the stairs.

Ruse was killed by two shots in his body. Ricchio ran from the scene and drove to Oceanside, where she called and turned herself in to police.

Eligible for Parole in 18 Years

Prosecutors asked that Ricchio also be convicted of special circumstances for lying in wait, which would have brought a mandatory sentence of either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury, however, did not make that finding, and Ricchio will be eligible for parole within 18 years of sentencing.

“Ricchio carried out a systematic campaign of torment and persecution directed at the victim, his family, friends and new girlfriend,” Henley wrote in a report that was filed Monday in Vista Superior Court.

“The planning and sophistication of (Ricchio’s) methods are evident in that she utilized DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and telephone records to locate and track the victim’s movements,” Henley wrote. “Ricchio appeared at the victim’s work, at sporting events, and became so tuned to his movements that she knew where to find him at almost any time. In effect, the defendant stalked her victim as efficiently and calculatingly as any hunter tracks game.”

Henley noted, too, that Ricchio “never did say . . . that she was sorry that she murdered Ron Ruse. Ricchio expressed sorrow for the Ruse family, yet immediately expressed her anger at them for not ‘seeing this objectively.’ Most of all, Ricchio takes the posture of a victim, and expresses sorrow for herself and her own pain.”

Henley said he asked Ricchio for her thoughts about Ruse’s death, and she answered: “What can you say when you have taken someone’s life? I mean, he’s dead, and there are still things that I need to say to him.”

Recounting court testimony that Ricchio had repeatedly announced her intentions to kill Ruse, Henley challenged her claim that she ultimately only wanted to kill herself. “She bought a gun and practiced using it. . . . (I) questioned the need of such actions if one’s intent is truly to commit suicide,” Henley wrote.

Ricchio, who got pregnant twice by Ruse and had abortions each time, told Henley she was especially saddened that she will never have children, given her expected prison sentence. “Now I feel real cheated. Now I don’t even lose my life, but I lose the opportunity to have children myself.”

Court files also include a one-page, handwritten letter Ricchio wrote to the victim’s family--a letter prosecutors believe was smuggled out of the Las Colinas County Jail in Santee because it did not bear the jail’s return address, as is customary with outgoing inmate mail.

Ricchio claimed in the letter--as she had while testifying on her own behalf during her trial--that she only planned to shoot herself in Ruse’s view, and that he was somehow shot when he lunged for her.

“Though inner self-peace will not settle within me in this existence . . . I find some comfort in knowing that, as long as his memories and his love lives on in my heart that he can never truly die,” she wrote.

Fantasy World?

Indeed, two psychologists who interviewed Ricchio in jail said the woman held a fantasy that Ruse would still, somehow, return to her.

“Ms. Ricchio has preserved his memory as loving her to the end by ruminating while in jail on the possible significance of many small acts he performed in the last few months of life,” wrote psychologists Edward F. Fischer and Francis Crinella.

“She concluded that he had changed his mind, and that he did love her and that it was his intention to reunite with her. Rather than feelings of loss, her affect while discussing Ron was more appropriate to one who felt loved and was happy about his coming back to her.

“On direct confrontation, she recognizes this conclusion as fantasy, but it is still difficult, to this day, for her to relinquish this quasi-delusion,” they wrote.

In a single-spaced, typed letter to her probation officer, Ricchio said she hopes to make the best of her prison experience--including trying to help other convicts deal with the consequences of their crimes.

“I hope to successfully share the immense wealth of knowledge that has brought me thus far with others who may prosper from my insight, my views, my interpretation, from my own experiences both tragic and fulfilling.

“As a direct result of this unfortunate incident, I envision as a main goal, founding a support group or organization for the families and friends of individuals who are accidentally responsible for the death of another individual,” she wrote.