“It’s straight down the line for both of us, remember?” — Cold-blooded vixen Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) in the classic 1944 film noir, Double Indemnity.
Director Billy Wilder hit the bullseye when it came to lust careening off the rails and ending in bloodshed.
The femme fatale ended up being murdered by her paramour, patsy Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who landed a date in the gas chamber at San Quentin. Edward G. Robinson as insurance investigator Barton Keyes should have won an Oscar.
Double Indemnity was based on the book by former New York Post rewrite man James M. Cain who pegged it to real-life black widow Ruth Snyder.
And on the rosters of homicide in this country, women are increasingly playing a starring role.
On Saturday [November 13th], Victoria Rolfe, 25, and her boyfriend, Ryan Cannon, 27, both of Hamilton, were arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the Oct. 27 slaying of Jacob Ardagna, 47.
Cannon, according to Ardagna’s daughter, Tay, is the murder victim’s son. Tay Ardagna took to Facebook, as we do these days.
“So the truth is out, my own brother, Ryan Cannon, murdered our dad,” Tay wrote on her page.
Tay Ardagna added: “She got to be the last one to see my dad alive. You took a loving father, son, brother, cousin and friend of many away from us.”
What struck his daughter with horror is what might have been her father’s dying minutes if the allegations are true.
“All I can think about is his final moments, how he was thinking about how his own son could do this to him, the son he loved very much. Ryan, he talked about us all the time, that’s all he thought about was his kids. You’re some other kind of evil to be able to do this to such a kind, gentle soul. Question, was it f——- worth it? I’ll see you both at your trials.”
So far, cops have been tight-lipped, but what is known is that emergency personnel were called to 2130 King St. on Oct. 27 for an unresponsive male inside an apartment. Ardagna was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives later discovered that the victim had visible injuries to his body. The apartment indicated there had been a disturbance, and cops determined that Ardagna had been murdered.
On June 13, 2021, Victoria Rolfe posted a photo of the couple to her page with the missive: “My heart and soul; my soul mate. I’ll love you forever Ryan Cannon.”
He replied: “Soul mates without a doubt baby xo.”
Thirteen people liked the saccharine interaction.
Now, like Phyllis Dietrichson and Walter Neff, the cops say they have closed in on another rogue Romeo and Juliet.
It’s been that kind of year in Hamilton.
Responses