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By Marshall Jones
I was standing in line at the grocery store the other day feeling rather satisfied. News was passing through the line about a couple of early forest fires in West Kelowna. Kelowna.com was the first and for a long time the only ones on it, so I knew we started this conversation.
More details were added from people who either were told about it or read it. The story and surprise went around until it got to the front of the line where more news was added.
“Really?” someone asked of this new information.
“That’s what I was just told,” she said. “But it was a reporter, so who knows.”
Ouch. Satisfaction denied.
The relationship between writer and reader is never an easy one, particularly with journalists. We jam our noses into other people’s business and hopefully offer information you need and write provocative stories. We rely on public trust for those stories to be effective. Too bad we rank somewhere between lawyers, politicians and Jesse James in that regard.
This is about a reader who doesn’t trust me. She wrote me out of the blue about the conviction of Ronda Black for the second-degree murder of her husband Keith Black.
A few years ago, I left my reporter’s desk to devote my time to covering the murder trial of Ronda Black and her accomplice—if you can call him that—Howard Steadman.
Though it was largely for my own satisfaction, I wanted just once the opportunity to grasp all the tiny of details and put it together in a book I titled Black Lies. I self-published in 2008 and sold it exclusively in local book stores. Ronda Black killed her husband in the basement of the family home and then did perhaps even more despicable things. You don’t need me to rehash all the details. Let’s just say marriage isn’t for everybody.
Especially Ronda Black.
What really lit my fire was her constant lies. She swore on her own special Bible that she didn’t do it. She through her own dead father under the bus and said he did it. No one should believe her and I only hope I did my small part to ensure that.
But last week I got an email from a woman who was so certain I was wrong, she was hesitant to even read it. She’s become familiar with the story through a newfound friendship with someone close to the case, someone who continues to perpetuate the lies and eat away at the truth.
“Perhaps the truth is stranger than fiction,” she wrote. “One would wish that (everyone involved) could perhaps have some peace from all of this… if indeed the truth was told.”
I did my best to persuade her, but finally gave up. She had already bought what someone else was selling and like the ladies in the grocery store line up, she felt she had the inside information. There was no convincing her otherwise.
As I said, the relationship between writer and reader is a difficult one. But it’s always been that way. So fine. Don’t believe me. On any story, all we can do as reporters is put out there what we think you should know. Consider that an invitation to check out the details yourself. You are certainly free to form your own conclusions.
So long as you are talking about it.
Oh, and by the way, the long tortured legal history of that case still isn’t over. Howard Steadman, you may recall, was the Alberta mountain man, Keith’s best friend, who helped Ronda cover up the crime by helping her dispose of the body in the mountains near Canmore and perhaps the most intriguing character I’ve met before or since.
He was convicted of accessory to murder after the fact and in October 2008, he was sentenced to four years in prison. He still hasn’t spent any real time behind bars. He was freed shortly after sentencing on appeal.
That’s not due to be heard until August. By the time a decision is made, it may well be two years since he was convicted. And he may still be granted a new trial. Stay tuned.
Tags: Howard Steadman, marshall Jones, Ronda Black
