Susan Gorman:1975, Butler, Kentucky
Was the wrong man jailed for Susan Gorman’s 1975 murder?
Susan Gorman was born on August 18th, 1956. She was the daughter of Mary Ellen and Frank Gorman. Her mother was a nurse and her father was a musician. They had a big busy family life with many siblings and their various activities.
Susan Gorman lived in Price Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio with her parents. Susan was a pre-law student at the University of Cincinnati. She loved the show “Dark Shadows” so much that she got a petition together to protest its cancellation. In November of 1975 she was working at Hickory Farms for the holiday season to earn a little extra money. The store was only a few blocks from her home. She could easily walk to and from work and save money on gas.
Susan Gorman had worked only three weeks at Hickory Farms. She had worked a couple of summers at Kings Island Amusement Park. She had even met her fiancé there. Martin Gehring was away at basic training that Thanksgiving.
On Wednesday, November 26th, 1975, the night before Thanksgiving, she left work to walk home. She was looking forward to cooking the Turkey the next day on a rotisserie that she had assembled herself. When she failed to show up back at home her family was immediately worried. They began searching, asking neighbors for help and they called the police.
The family received a call on Thanksgiving day asking for a ransom for Susan. It proved to be a hoax.
Agonizing days passed with no word from Susan. November became December.
Susan was found near Butler in Pendleton County on 12/03/1975.
A man named John William Boyd of Middletown, Ohio was accused and convicted in the crime. His parents were Mildred and Dr. M.A. Boyd, a local dentist. He was a resident of the State Hospital but worked as a caretaker/handyman at a Christian summer camp in Kentucky in the summer. He had checked out of the hospital to spend Thanksgiving with his family in Middletown, north of Cincinnati Susan’s jacket was found on the same road as that summer camp that he worked at. It was miles away from the camp but investigators felt that this pointed to his guilt. He supposedly confessed to the crime. We know now that confessions can sometimes be faulty. Confessions can be fairly easily extracted from a person who is under duress or from someone of limited cognitive abilities. John William Boyd was handed a sentence of a maximum of 60 years. I don’t believe he served his maximum sentence though. He was not convicted of the more serious charges. The jury wouldn’t go that far.
But, I doubt that he was guilty at all. Why do I doubt that he was guilty? Because I think I know who actually did it.
To understand this case it helps to understand the general crime scene in the Cincinnati area in the 1970’s and 1980’s. At least three serial killers were active in the area.
Eugene William Gall Jr. was one such serial killer. He was convicted and is currently serving a life sentence because he abducted, assaulted and murdered two young girls. He committed an armed robbery and shot and killed a police officer in Kentucky after dumping that second victim, Lisa Janson in 1978. He didn’t kill Susan Gorman because in 1975, he was still incarcerated for a series of 1970 abductions, rapes and armed robberies in the Lima area. He was released in April of 1977 and by April of 1978 he had committed two murders. He abducted Beth Ann Mote from Dayton in October 1977. He assaulted and stabbed her to death. He later abducted Lisa Janson as she walked to school in Cincinnati in April 1978. He assaulted her and murdered her in Kentucky in 1978. But, he could not have killed Susan Gorman because he simply was not free yet.
Larry Ralston was also abducting, assaulting and killing women and girls. He was convicted of assaulting and murdering 5 young women who he had become acquainted with at parties between 1975 and 1977.
In 2022, a man named Ralph Richard Howell would come into the news. A young woman, Cheryl Thompson, was abducted, assaulted and strangled with rope in 1978. In 2022, DNA left on her body would match the DNA of Ralph Howell. Investigators had not really heard of him.
So, they looked into Howell’s background. He had only one, but very telling, run-in with the law in 1983. A victim said he offered her a ride when her car broke down. She very reluctantly accepted. He talked her into it in a rather manipulative way. As soon as she was getting into the truck he placed a loop of rope around her neck and began strangling her. She struggled, begged for her life, and asked if he would want his wife treated this way. That seemed to work. He let her go. She went to the police but Howell pled down to a misdemeanor charge. He escaped all serious charges and sailed out of the courthouse as free as a bird.
All three of these men were active at the same time. The bodies of young women and girls were being found all over southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky. It was in the newspapers daily. So many families were grieving and looking for answers. Sorting out the murders would take decades. But the public was pushing police to catch the killer or killers now and bring an end to this nightmare. Sometimes when there is a great amount of pressure on police they end up finding a suspect who is easily convictable. Maybe that’s what happened here.
Susan Gorman was found in December of 1975. In 1976 an unidentified body of a woman was found in Crittenden, Kentucky which is on the border of Kenton County. Was she also a victim of Ralph Richard Howell?
Charmaine Stolla, 17, also from Price Hill, in Cincinnati was found off old Colerain pike near Butler/Hamilton County line on March 3rd, 1978 by hunters. She had been strangled and raped. Howell is suspected in her murder. Possibly because the rope is a match to the rope used to kill Cheryl Thompson in 1978.
Linda Sue Dyer was found in Colerain Township on August 22, 1976. She had been strangled. Was she also a victim of Howell?
Cheryl Anita (Arrowood) Hughes was taken from Chillicothe on July 10th 1977 after picking up a pizza. She was found in Kentucky not too far south of the small town of South Shore on July 13th. South Shore is in Greenup County just over the Ohio River bridge from Portsmouth, Ohio.
Nancy Ann Theobald was taken from Cincinnati in 1977 and dumped near West Chester, Ohio. That’s in Northeast Ohio. She was also a University of Cincinnati student. Nancy was walking home from her job at Arby’s. Ralph Richard Howell is suspected of her murder. A rope was found around her neck. I imagine that matching rope was found on Cheryl Ann Thompson.
Cheryl Ann Thompson was abducted in 1978, as mentioned before, and, in 2022, DNA testing proved that Ralph Richard Howell was responsible for her abduction, rape, and murder. Prosecutors actually indicted him posthumously as the evidence was so compelling. That’s an unusual legal step. Likely prosecutors were wanting to get this on the record in an official way.
I think Howell often drove a circular route from Cincinnati north through Dayton, turning east toward Springfield, then Columbus and then turning South on 23. At the Ohio River he could take the road that followed the river’s edge in Ohio. Or, he could cross the bridge at Portsmouth, Ohio and make his way back to Cincinnati while driving on the Kentucky side. That takes him through Chillicothe, Ohio and then south over the Portsmouth Bridge.
Ralph Richard Howell died in a car accident on March 29th, 1985 in Kenton County, Kentucky. What was the nature of the car accident? Was he alone? What had he been doing in Kentucky just before the accident?
I keep going back to that 1983 attempted abduction. Howell had that rope ready to go. He spoke to the victim in a very manipulative way. “Come on, get in. I’m not an animal. I’m not going to hurt you.” That’s an odd power dynamic. He is making her feel bad for judging him harshly. Women were raised back then to be pleasant and not at all offensive. So, she’s embarrassed and ashamed and gives in. It seems to me that Ralph Richard Howell was very practiced in this approach.
But, maybe John William Boyd did abduct, assault and strangle Susan Gorman instead of going to his parent’s house for Thanksgiving. Maybe he did. But, I think there’s a reason why a jury did not convict him of the most serious charges. I think the evidence just wasn’t there.
What kind of “ligature” was used to kill Susan Gorman? Does it match the rope that was around the necks of Charmaine Stolla, Nancy Ann Theobald, Victoria Hinscher and Cheryl Thompson? Was it the same rope used to tie up bundles of newspapers for delivery?
Re-examining these old cold cases can help us understand and track the movements of a killer. Did Ralph Howell murder Susan Gorman? Was the same rope used? Or, if we can eliminate Ralph Richard Howell from the Susan Gorman case; do we now have to consider that John William Boyd was also a potential serial killer?
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