Clackamas County investigators are still hunting an 80-year-old accused con man who has managed to stay hidden for more than five decades, allegedly bilking investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars before vanishing each time. Leonard Weston Ramey Jr. is suspected of running fraudulent investment schemes dating back to the 1970s, and detectives say his own family hasn't laid eyes on him since 1986.
Detective Jim Strovink, the lead investigator on the case, has spent years chasing leads on Ramey, according to KOIN.com. Strovink said Ramey's own mother and father were among his victims, a detail that underscores just how far the alleged con man was willing to go to fund his schemes. Investigators describe Ramey as a law school graduate who portrays himself to potential marks as a stockbroker, company owner, and financial marketing expert, though he reportedly never passed the bar examination.
Ramey's alleged method, per KOIN, was consistent for decades: he would befriend potential victims, tell them he could make them large sums of money in the stock market, and generate elaborate fake account statements designed to make it look like their investments were paying off. The schemes reportedly continued right up until a victim asked for a large withdrawal or requested tax forms — at which point, investigators say, Ramey would disappear.
A Wilsonville Family's $300,000 Loss
One of the families caught up in the scheme was the Timms of Wilsonville. According to KOIN, Michael Timm and his family gave Ramey $300,000 to invest in the stock market in 2006, only to accuse him later of taking their money and leaving town. Timm told the outlet that Ramey seemed personable and appeared successful at the time, which is part of what made the pitch convincing.
The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office estimated in an earlier accounting that Ramey defrauded would-be investors in the county out of roughly $600,000, according to Police1. That figure reflects only known local victims; Ramey is suspected of running similar operations well beyond Clackamas County over the years.
Charges Stretch Back Decades and Cross State Lines
Ramey was formally charged in Clackamas County Circuit Court in Oregon City on September 6, 2002, with felony counts including racketeering, money laundering, engaging in financial transactions derived from unlawful activity, selling securities without a license, securities fraud, and first-degree aggravated theft, according to a report by Business Insider. A little over a month later, on October 16, 2002, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland issued a federal arrest warrant charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
The Oregon case wasn't his first brush with the law. Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma, Washington, had already issued an arrest warrant for Ramey back on June 21, 1989, charging him with securities fraud and first-degree theft, the Business Insider report notes. Investigators believe he left behind a common-law wife and child in Oregon as he moved between states, and his family reportedly now resides in California.
Fifteen Aliases and a Handful of Physical Tells
Part of what has kept Ramey elusive, according to KOIN, is his reported use of at least 15 aliases, including Kenneth Walden, Hafoc Yates, Ron Henderson, Eric Ronald Henderson, Ken Dwight, Eric Radcliff, Ronald Eric Hollisen, and variations on his own name. The FBI includes him on its most wanted list. Anyone with information is urged to contact their local FBI office or the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office tip line at 503-723-4949.
Physical identifiers cited by investigators include a large scar on his right leg, a horsehead ring he's known to wear on his left ring finger, a slight shovel to his walk, and reportedly offensive body odor along with an aversion to secondhand cigarette smoke. Separately, an FBI profile described in a 2006 report by Fog City Journal noted habits including ordering Spanish omelettes with a glass of milk at diner breakfasts, playing the trumpet, and gambling heavily on blackjack and backgammon while carrying a handgun alongside large cash reserves.
Sightings Have Gone Cold Since the Mid-2000s
The trail has grown especially cold in the years since his disappearance. Ramey was reportedly last spotted eating breakfast at a restaurant in the Lake Tahoe area in 2003, per KOIN's report. Oregon authorities also received reports in 2006 that he had been spotted in San Rafael and Berkeley, California, which led investigators at the time to believe he was hiding somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the Fog City Journal account.
Given his current age and the decades that have passed since those last confirmed sightings, it remains an open question whether Ramey is still alive, still living under one of his aliases, or being supported by assets investigators haven't traced. Detectives say they believe someone out there knows something about where he ended up.
Keeping a Cold Case Alive Online
To keep the search from going stale, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office detectives post a video on the case every few years. When the sheriff's office launched its YouTube page in December 2008, the four-minute video detailing Ramey's case was the first criminal fugitive appeal the department ever published on the platform, Police1 reported at the time. The department has periodically re-shared that footage since, hoping fresh eyes might finally recognize him.
The Ramey case is also a reminder of how much money residents continue to lose to fraud in Oregon, even as tactics evolve well beyond the offline, in-person con Ramey is accused of running. Statewide consumer financial losses from fraud in Oregon reached $124 million in 2024 according to FTC data cited by the Common Sense Institute, while overall cyber-enabled financial crime reported to the FBI totaled $144 million. Oregon seniors alone reported $77.4 million in elder fraud losses to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025, with investment schemes representing the largest category at $29 million.
For now, the search for Leonard Weston Ramey Jr. continues, more than fifty years after investigators say his alleged crime spree began. Whether he's still out there to be found is a question Clackamas County detectives have yet to answer.
