Rita Dianna Patterson:1963, Daleville, Indiana
Rita Dianna Patterson was born March 17th, 1957 to Virgil Patterson and Josephine Crull. (Josephine Crull was actually the wife of Virgil’s cousin.) Rita had an older sister named Patricia. The two were born 13 months apart. They were very close. (I could not find a photo of Rita Dianna Patterson. It may be that there are no existing photos of her.)
The sisters lived in Daleville, Indiana in 1963 with their father, Virgil, and their stepmother Rowena Jean Patterson and her children from a previous relationship.
On Friday morning August 30th, 1963, Rita supposedly died after a fall down the stairs. Her 27 year old stepmother, Rowena, told neighbors and later told police that the six year old had been fighting with her older sister and then she tripped over a toy.
Rowena Patterson stuck to that story for years. Virgil and she went on to have more children together.
In 1983, Patricia Patterson and Bennie Magers, a child protection advocate, went to the police to tell Patricia’s side of the story.
Patricia said that they were both beaten by Rowena Patterson daily. That Friday morning Rowena was angry that the girls had wet the bed. They were 6 and 7 and enduring a terrible life of daily abuse. Abused children often have anxiety and depression and that can actually cause or prolong bed wetting issues in ones so young.
Rowena told Patricia to sit at the bottom of the stairs and watch Rita get a “whipping”. Rowena told 7 year old Patricia that she would be next.
Rowena used a length of hard wood from an old washing machine. (There are very old washing machines that are hand cranked with a long wooden handle to cause the agitation.) It was described as a club. It was essentially something very like a baseball bat. She hit Rita all over her body. Her head had 21 raised lumps on the back at autopsy. She also kicked Rita many times in her abdomen and torso. Rita was screaming, crying and begging her step mother to stop. Rowena then picked up the child and slammed her down in the bath tub and Rita went suddenly silent.
At a certain point that morning, 27 year old Rowena called a neighbor over to help her with Rita. Rowena said Rita was sick. The neighbor exclaimed “She’s not sick…she’s dead!”
Patricia remembered that Rowena cleaned and dressed Rita’s body and laid her on a bed before the ambulance arrived. Patricia remembered hearing one of the EMT’s exclaim, “This child’s been beaten to death.”
Rowena told police and the EMT’s that Rita’s older sister, Patricia, had been fighting with Rita. She said Rita had tripped over a toy and then fallen down the stairs. She blamed Rita’s own sister.
Rita was officially pronounced dead at St. John’s Hospital in Anderson, Indiana.
Rowena was investigated. She was given a lie detector test and the result was said to be inconclusive. (Rowena claimed for years that she passed it.)
The medical examiner in 1963 felt that Rita’s injuries were not caused by a fall down the stairs. She had bruises and contusions from her head all down her back and legs. Rita’s liver and spleen were ruptured and so the six year old child had died of internal bleeding.
I wondered what happened to Patricia and the other children then. Surely the police didn’t let all the kids go back to that house. I’m not sure but I think Patricia was raised by other relatives after this.
As the years went by, the social workers who were involved in this case in 1963 never forgot it. It was a social worker who spoke to a children’s advocate about the case who sparked a renewed investigation. There’s no statute of limitations on murder. They approached Patricia about pressing charges. Patricia was actually shocked to learn that her stepmother had not faced any criminal charges for Rita’s murder.
In March 1984, the first trial ended in a mistrial after someone mentioned the 1963 lie detector test. That had been ruled inadmissible prior to the trial.
On May 18th, 1984, Rowena Jean Patterson was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. She and her lawyers appealed the conviction.
In the original trial, Rowena’s sons were not allowed to testify. They were four and five at the time of the murder. Rowena’s lawyer felt that they should have been allowed to testify.
On July 25th, 1986, Rowena Patterson’s appeal was successful. Her conviction was overturned. A new trial was granted.
In February of 1987, Rowena Patterson was convicted again. Another jury heard all the evidence and testimony and found her guilty of beating six year old Rita Dianna Patterson to death on Friday August 30th, 1963.
At this trial, just as before, the defense tried to paint Patricia as a liar. They brought up her marriages and relationships. They said she was a drinker and unreliable. They put her biological mother on the stand to testify that Rowena had always been a good mother to her daughters. Getting Justice for Rita Dianna Patterson was an incredible uphill battle for her sister but she went through it.
Rowena Patterson was again sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled in August of 2003.
Her obituary says that she worked at Headstart. That’s a child care facility. Did she work there before her convictions? It’s hard to believe they hired her after her parole. Her obituary also makes much of her church attendance. She mentions Rita and Patricia as her daughters who had passed away before her. Rowena, it appears, never accepted responsibility for her actions.
Patricia A. Patterson Jackson passed away in 1998 at the age of 41 of cancer. She did not live to see her stepmother paroled from prison. She did, however, get to see her convicted of her sister’s vicious murder.
I wondered about Rowena Jean Patterson. Who was she? Where did she grow up? She was born in Van Nuys, California. I think I found her in a 1940 census. As a three year old she was a “boarder” with several other children and adults in a home in Compton. No one there shared her last name of Pederson. Was she left there by a parent who was off working somewhere? Was she in foster care? Life couldn’t have been easy for her there.
Rowena Jean Patterson was likely also abused as a child. Traumatic reenactment can be a reason why she beat Rita and Patricia. Cruelty to children as a way of life was how she was raised. It can be very difficult to not repeat those cycles of abuse. Hurt people hurt people. Traumatic reenactment doesn’t excuse her crimes. It explains it. But, we all have choices to make in life. Rowena chose to beat Rita to death.
Sometimes today you will hear people say “My parents whipped me with a belt and I turned out fine.” “What kids these days need is a good whipping.” People will often deride gentler parenting techniques as “too soft”.
Don’t fall into that trap. Cruelty and abuse never makes a successful person. It just doesn’t. I grew up in an abusive household. When my father died in a car accident when I was 18 all I felt at first was relief. The relief was immense. Then I felt guilty for years for feeling relieved. Then I felt so sad for the person he could have been if he hadn’t been raised in a house where abuse was seen as discipline. I felt sad for all of us. It was incredibly difficult to overcome my childhood. I can’t say that I have completely recovered from it.
My childhood gives me some insight into what Rita and Patricia endured though. It gives me some insight into what life was like for Patricia in the years after this trauma too.
Rita Dianna Patterson is buried in Daleville, Indiana at Saunders Cemetery. (Sadly, her stepmother is buried nearby.) Patricia is buried in Anderson, Indiana at Maplewood Cemetery. I like to think that Rita and Patricia are together now in a better place. I think Rita would be proud of her sister’s long fight for Justice.
Rest in Peace, Rita Dianna Patterson and Patricia Patterson Jackson.
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