In October 2019, 47-year-old Ella Jackson disappeared from her home in Richmond, Kentucky. Her cellphone, wallet, vehicle, and five-year-old son were left behind—but her husband, Glenn Jackson, claimed she had simply walked away.

Ella’s family knew better. Days before she vanished, the Ukrainian-born mother of two had met with a domestic violence advocate and consulted a divorce attorney. Investigators later discovered a large bloodstain and a knife in the trunk of Glenn’s vehicle. Six months after Ella disappeared, her partial skeletal remains were found in a remote wooded area of Pulaski County near property Glenn owned.

Glenn Jackson, a former Eastern Kentucky University lecturer, was charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. But after more than six years of delays—and years spent on house arrest rather than in jail—he avoided a murder trial by entering an Alford plea to reduced charges of first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence.

Now featured on Dateline NBC’s “The Bluegrass Mystery,” the case raises painful questions about domestic violence, delayed justice, and a family forced to wait years for answers that may never come.

If you or someone close to you is being stalked or threatened by a current or former partner, please contact local law enforcement or a domestic violence hotline for support and safety planning.

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When Ron Ruse Jr. ended his relationship with Linda Ricchio, he hoped for a clean break. Instead, he became the target of an ex‑girlfriend whose obsession escalated from constant phone calls and public confrontations to full‑blown stalking and death threats.

In this episode, we take a deep, narrative‑driven look at the case that would become known as the “Fatal Attraction Killer”:

• Ron’s life in Carlsbad, California and his years‑long relationship with Linda Ricchio
• The breakup and Linda’s refusal to let go, including her threats against Ron and his family
• The campaign of stalking that forced Ron to move, change routines, and live like a fugitive
• How Linda secretly rented the apartment right next door and positioned herself for an ambush
• The events of December 14, 1987, when Ron was shot on the stairs outside his home
• Ricchio’s claim that she meant to kill herself, not Ron, and the evidence that contradicted her story
• The trial, first‑degree murder conviction, and 27‑to‑life sentence
• Media coverage that branded her the “Fatal Attraction Killer,” and decades of parole hearings that have kept her behind bars

This episode uses archival reporting, court and parole records, and later true crime coverage to reconstruct the timeline and psychology behind the murder of Ron Ruse Jr. It is a story about obsession, entitlement, ignored red flags, and the deadly consequences when stalking is minimized or dismissed.

Listener discretion is advised.

If you or someone close to you is being stalked or threatened by a current or former partner, please contact local law enforcement or a domestic violence hotline for support and safety planning.

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Bathsheba Ruggles Spooner’s life had all the makings of a tragedy long before there was blood in the snow.

Born into privilege as the favored daughter of Loyalist Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles, Bathsheba married wealthy farmer Joshua Spooner and settled in Brookfield, Massachusetts. Behind the facade of status and respectability was a deeply unhappy, allegedly abusive marriage—and a woman who would come to say she felt “an utter aversion” toward her husband.

In March 1777, a teenage Continental soldier named Ezra Ross fell ill near the Spooner home. Bathsheba took him in, nursed him back to health, and began an affair that led to pregnancy in the middle of a war where divorce was nearly impossible and public flogging was the penalty for adultery. When two British deserters, William Brooks and James Buchanan, appeared at her door seeking shelter, Bathsheba saw her chance. Within weeks, a murder plot was in motion.

On the night of March 1, 1778, Joshua Spooner was ambushed near his own well, beaten to death, and dumped into the water. The conspirators burned his clothing, split his valuables, and tried to pass off his disappearance as an accident. They underestimated their neighbors, the blood in the snow, and a community already suspicious of the Loyalist general’s daughter.

This episode follows the case from plot to gallows:

• Bathsheba’s upbringing in an influential Loyalist family and her isolation in Patriot‑dominated Massachusetts

• The breakdown of her marriage to Joshua and the arrival of young Ezra Ross

• How the affair, pregnancy, and a failed poisoning attempt escalated into a murder‑for‑hire scheme

• The roles of British deserters Brooks and Buchanan, hiding in the Spooner barn

• The night of the murder, the disposal of Joshua’s body in the well, and the quick unraveling of the cover story

• The investigation, confessions, and the lightning‑fast trial before Chief Justice William Cushing

• Defense arguments about Bathsheba’s mental state and the political climate surrounding the daughter of a notorious Loyalist

• Bathsheba’s claim that she was pregnant, the examination by midwives and matrons, and the authorities’ decision to proceed with execution anyway

• The July 2, 1778 public hanging of Bathsheba, Ross, Brooks, and Buchanan—and the grim autopsy that confirmed she was five months pregnant

We also dig into the bigger questions: Was Bathsheba a cold‑blooded killer, a desperate woman with limited options, or someone whose mental state and politics made her an easy target for a new nation eager to prove its resolve? How did Revolutionary‑era law treat pregnant women, and what does this case reveal about gender, power, and justice in early America?

This is a narrative‑driven, heavily sourced deep dive into one of the most extraordinary crimes of the 18th century—blending courtroom drama, wartime politics, and true crime analysis to tell the full story of Bathsheba Spooner and the murder of Joshua Spooner.

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