THE "RH" FOOTNOTE OF ROSLYN ATWOOD

There may finally be a credible answer to the meaning of the 1966 Riverside Desktop Poem and the "rh" signature at its base. The first part of the poem, reminiscing in the present tense, is referring to the attempted murder of Roslyn Atwood (19), who was stabbed once in the lower abdomen by Rolland Taft while she was walking through a Riverside City College parking lot on April 13th 1965 at 9:30pm. Asking the college student if she needed a ride several times, she refused and started walking up the stairs on the north side of the lot east of Cutter Pool. After leaving his vehicle and approaching her, she resisted his attempts to grab her and was stabbed once. After he fled, she made her way to 4531 Lemon, across the street from her home at 4510 Lemon. A hunting knife with a 4 1/2 inch blade was found by officers on the steps. Miss Atwood was released from hospital on April 22nd 1965 after nine days. While there she helped create a photo-fit of her attacker. She attended night classes at the college. 

The poem's author probably read the retelling of the Roslyn Atwood story only four days after the Cheri Jo Bates murder on October 30th 1966, when the Riverside Daily Press newspaper on November 3rd 1966 compared the murder of Cheri Jo Bates to the Roslyn Atwood stabbing on the same campus (see below). But was the desktop author the murderer? Investigators realised Rolland Taft was still behind bars on October 30th 1966, so couldn't have been responsible for the murder of Cheri Jo Bates or the poem.

The Riverside Desktop author must have been inspired to search for details regarding this attempted murder in 1965, that would ultimately form the first part of the desktop poem, which borrowed from the Riverside Daily Press newspaper headline on April 17th 1965 entitled "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing".(Credit: MK Zodiac). The Riverside Desktop Poem began with "cut, clean, if red/clean. blood spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress". The second section of the poem moved from Roslyn Atwood to Cheri Jo Bates, stating "Someone'll find her. Just wait till next time. rh." The "rh" abbreviation can be found in a newspaper article about Roslyn Atwood from the Riverside Daily Press newspaper on April 29th 1965. It is not a signature.    

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It appears like the author of the desktop poem trawled through old articles from the local newspaper (the Riverside Daily Press), and created the beginning and ending of the poem from "Clean-cut youth sought in stabbing" and an educational footnote from a second article on April 29th 1965, entitled "Accused youth sent to Juvenile Court" (see below)..Two further communications would have relevance to The Press-Enterprise on November 29th 1966 and April 30th 1967 regarding Cheri Jo Bates. 

The author, by adding of the "rh" footnote in a poem shortly after the killing of Cheri Jo Bates, about the attempted murder of a woman with a knife, whose blood was "spurting, dripping, spilling; all over her new dress", may have been attempting to clue us in to the Roslyn Atwood story on the same campus. If the above newspaper article published by the Riverside Daily Press had been found, the "RH" abbreviation concerning blood may have peaked some interest - but does the RH factor have any bearing on the murder of Cheri Jo Bates, when the author declared "just wait till next time"?

The Rh blood group system is a human blood group system. It contains proteins on the surface of red blood cells. After the ABO blood group system, it is the most likely to be involved in transfusion reactions. The Rh blood group system consisted of 49 defined blood group antigens in 2005. As of 2023, there are over 50 antigens among which the five antigens D, C, c, E, and e are the most important. There is no d antigen. Rh(D) status of an individual is normally described with a positive (+) or negative (−) suffix after the ​ABO type (e.g., someone who is A+ has the A antigen and Rh(D) antigen, whereas someone who is A− has the A antigen but lacks the Rh(D) antigen). The terms Rh factor, Rh positive, and Rh negative refer to the Rh(D) antigen only. Antibodies to Rh antigens can be involved in hemolytic transfusion reactions and antibodies to the Rh(D) and Rh antigens confer significant risk of hemolytic disease of the newborn.

Cheri Jo Bates' blood type detailed at autopsy is rare in the USA population. It was AB RhD positive, which accounts for only 3% of the American population. Did the author of the poem use the "rh" footnote in the Roslyn Atwood newspaper article on April 29th 1965 because they knew the rarity of Cheri Jo Bates' blood grouping? Disregarding this last observation, we still have a November 3rd 1966 newspaper article from the Riverside Daily Press comparing the Atwood and Bates cases only four days after the Riverside murder, and another article from the same newspaper on April 29th 1965 about the stabbing of Roslyn Atwood with an attached educational footnote, reading "The RH factor in blood was identified in 1940". So did the author create the desktop poem shortly after the November 3rd 1966 article, that would ultimately shape the linguistics of the Confession letter on November 29th 1966? 

If we look at the desktop poem alongside the Confession letter, we need go no further than the title of the desktop poem, which reads "Sick of living/unwilling to die". The desktop poem begins with "Sick of living", and the Confession letter states "I am not sick. I am insane". The desktop poem title uses the word "unwilling", to which the Confession letter states "She was then very willing to talk to me" and "She went very willingly". One referenced an unwillingness to die, whereas one claimed Cheri Jo Bates went "willingly" to her death. In other words, Miss Atwood resisted her death and didn't die "that time", but Cheri Jo Bates died hard and willingly. The desktop poem title uses the phrase "to die", with the Confession letter stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". This brings forth another connection between both communications with the word "time" central to both. The desktop poem uses the word "time" twice, when stating "She won't die, this time someone'll find her. Just wait till next time", whereas the Confession letter uses the word "time" three times by stating "I said it was about time. She asked me "about time for what". I said it was about time for her to die". We have the words "sick", "unwilling" (in root form) and "time" from the desktop poem, used 6 times in the Confession letter by way of "sick", "willing", "willingly", "time", "time" and "time". In fact, the words "die" and "time" are used in the same context in both communications by the sentences "she won't die, this time someone'll find her" and "I said it was about time for her to die". If you add in the three Bates letters of "Bates had to die", "She had to die" and "She had to die" into the equation, we have the phrase "to die" used 5 times in all three communications.

Miss Atwood escaped the clutches of Rolland Lin Taft in 1965, expressed by the desktop author when they stated "she won't die, this time someone'll find her", but reminded everybody that the next time Cheri Jo Bates wouldn't be so lucky by finishing the poem with "Just wait till next time. rh".

Thanks to Jibberjabber for giving me access to a new newspaper database 

THE RIVERSIDE DAILY ENTERPRISE, SEPTEMBER 11TH 1965.