Launius Birthplace Revealed
Ron was born in Shawneetown, Ill. This is not to be confused with Old Shawneetown, which got wiped out by the Flood of 1937. Old Shawnee is still around but has a scanty population and few businesses and fewer homes. The newer Shawneetown was set up about 3 miles NW of the old river town and far enough away from the unpredictable Ohio River.
New Shawnee sports around one-thousand folks and it is your typical small Midwestern town, a lot smaller when Ron was born there though. Today there is a quik-mart, gas station, pizza joint and one complete neighborhood of mixed-size homes and few zoning laws. It is completely surrounded by farmland.
For it was here in May, 1944 that Ron was born. His mother was about 17 or 18, and dad was in the US Army Air Corps, probably stationed at Scott AFB or one of the others nearby or off in a foreign land. Shawneetown is where Betty grew up in Gallatin County, Ill. She lived with her mom and stepdad and had two step-brothers, no blood-siblings that I could find. They may have lived on a farm.
After having three boys together, Betty left Arlin for a forklift operator named Marvin Bryson. She fell in love with him in the early 60’s while she was working at a hospital; he was a patient there. But they were divorced in 1967. Arlin Launius died in 1964 in an alcohol-related car accident, allegedly after drinking at the “Stockton Club” bar near Betty’s house in Stockton. It was a bar at the end of a strip mall. The old Stockton Club location is now a Latino bar. Betty lived across the street. For it was at this house in 1973 that the FBI and cops went looking for Ron after the Mexico business, when he initially fled the country amidst smuggling charges. Betty was handcuffed, roughed up, the whole nine-yards. It is no wonder Ron was the coldest person that that one cop had ever met.
This info comes from a friend who lived near the Launius family in the late 1950s/early 60s.
brian, 
jimmy chicago, and 
criticextraordinaire are discussing. 
criticextraordinaire 6:33 pm on August 17, 2016 Permalink |
Wow this is some good research John. You are nothing if not thorough.
I make my way into the Midwest quite often. I’ll see if I can make it into Ronnie’s home town. ‘Twood be nice if at some time in the future, something is done to commemorate Ronnie in Shawneetown.
I would not be surprised if Ronnie had tracked down the guys who disrespected his mother and gave them a colossal ass whipping.
jimmy chicago 1:49 pm on August 18, 2016 Permalink |
If Ronnie was the size of josh lucas mabe .Even billys son said that ronnie was a little shit that his father could smack him around.Ronnie is about the size of charles manson and manson had to come up with the psycho herky jerky thing in the joint swinging his arms and body around to ward off potential problems with other inmates.Holmes was bigger than ronnie and had more hand to hand combat training as a paratrooper in the army than ronnie in the air force as a supply clerk.I think Holmes was more afraid of David Lind and being cut off from the drugs. Ronnie was just a hardened junkie a scrapper not a real in your face fighter more like dont turn your back on him type thing.When I first saw wonderland I thought ronnie was a lot bigger but this blog really schooled me on ronnie and the rest of the gang
brian 12:01 pm on February 5, 2019 Permalink |
I guess Ronnie wasn’t bigger than 5’6″ or so. Holmes was very light for his height, at least by today’s standards. I think Manson was about 5’2″.