Monday, January 25, 1999
Ralston time line
• Sept. 24, 1977: Larry Ralston offers a ride to three 15-year-old girls from Price Hill, offering to drop them off at the movies. Instead, he drives to Round Bottom Road in Clermont County's Union Township, blocks the passenger side of the car against an embankment and rapes the girls. They escape when a car approaches two hours later.
• Oct. 19, 1977: A Clermont County grand jury indicts Mr. Ralston on three counts of rape and three counts of kidnapping involving the girls.
• Oct. 22, 1977: The skeletal remains of Diana Sue McCrobie are found at East Fork State Park in Clermont County.
• Nov. 10, 1977: Mr. Ralston is arrested at his sister's house in Mount Prospect, Ill.
• Nov. 15, 1977: Investigator Bob Stout picks up Mr. Ralston in Illinois and transports him to the Clermont County Jail in Batavia.
• Feb. 16, 1978: A Hamilton County grand jury indicts him for the aggravated murder and attempted rape of Mary Ruth Hopkins.
• May 4, 1978: After more than seven hours of deliberation, a Clermont County jury convicts Mr. Ralston of aggravated murder and rape in the death of Elaina Marie Bear.
• June 28, 1978: Mr. Ralston is sentenced to death in Miss Bear'sslaying and scheduled to die in the electric chair on Oct. 31, 1978.
• July 6, 1978: Mr. Ralston is convicted in the slaying of Miss McCrobie and sentenced to life in prison.
• July 26, 1978: Mr. Ralston's death sentence is commuted to life after the U.S. Supreme Court rules Ohio's capital punishment law is unconstitutional.
• Aug. 2, 1978: Mr. Ralston is convicted of aggravated murder in the slaying of Linda Kay Harmon and is sentenced immediately to life in prison.
• Aug. 24, 1978: Judge William Young, a visiting judge from Warren County, convicts Mr. Ralston in the death of Nancy Grigsby and sentences him to another life term.
• Sept. 25, 1978: Mr. Ralston pleads guilty to two counts of rape involving the three Price Hill teen-agers. One count of rape and kidnapping charges are dropped in the plea bargain.
• Oct. 18, 1978: Mr. Ralston received two concurrent seven- to 25-year terms for the rapes to run consecutively with four life sentences.
• Nov. 7, 1979: The state appeals court overturns the Grigsby conviction, saying the prosecutor did not establish a cause of death during trial.
• Feb. 22, 1980: The Ohio Supreme Court dismisses the aggravated murder charge in the Grigsby case after Clermont County prosecutors were late in filing an appeal to the Nov. 7, 1979, decision.
• May 11, 1983: The Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals upholds convictions in the Bear, McCrobie and Harmon cases.
• May 15, 1984: Mr. Ralston pleads guilty to aggravated murder in the death of Ms. Hopkins and is sentenced to life in prison.
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