Overview

Date last seen: October 3, 1977
Location last seen: Johnston, Rhode Island

Main Points

Although Parillo was convicted in 1982, the Rhode Island Supreme Court overturned the convictions in 1984 due to trial errors. He was never retried for the murders, leaving the case officially unresolved despite longstanding investigative conclusions.

Ronald Raymond Leone, 28, disappeared after leaving his family home with 17-year-old Rudy Baronet.

The pair reportedly left to meet someone after Leone received a telephone call.

Neither man has ever been seen again, and their bodies have never been recovered.

Prosecutors later alleged that organized crime figure Anthony Parillo murdered both men.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Ronald Raymond Leone Disappearance (October 3, 1977): Case Summary, Timeline, and Latest Investigation
Brief Summary
Date last seen: October 3, 1977
Location last seen: Johnston, Rhode Island
Main Points
Ronald Raymond Leone, 28, disappeared after leaving his family home with 17-year-old Rudy Baronet.
The pair reportedly left to meet someone after Leone received a telephone call.
Neither man has ever been seen again, and their bodies have never been recovered.
Prosecutors later alleged that organized crime figure Anthony Parillo murdered both men.
Although Parillo was convicted in 1982, the Rhode Island Supreme Court overturned the convictions in 1984 due to trial errors. He was never retried for the murders, leaving the case officially unresolved despite longstanding investigative conclusions.

Ronald Raymond Leone Case
On the morning of October 3, 1977, Ronald Raymond Leone, a 28-year-old Johnston, Rhode Island resident, received a telephone call at his family home. Shortly afterward, he left with his friend, 17-year-old Rudy Baronet, reportedly to meet someone. It would be the last time either man was seen alive.
Ronald’s mother reported him missing later that evening after neither man returned home. Investigators quickly determined the disappearances were suspicious, but despite extensive searches and numerous interviews, neither victim has ever been located. Their disappearance remains one of Rhode Island’s most well-known unresolved missing person cases.
As investigators developed leads, suspicion centered on Anthony Parillo, an alleged organized crime associate. Prosecutors argued that Leone and Baronet had been lured to a meeting and murdered. Much of the state’s case relied on testimony from a key witness who claimed Parillo admitted involvement and described the killings.
In 1982, Parillo was convicted of:
First-degree murder in Ronald Leone’s death.
Second-degree murder in Rudy Baronet’s death.
He received consecutive life sentences. However, the convictions did not stand. In 1984, the Rhode Island Supreme Court reversed both convictions after determining the defense had been improperly restricted from cross-examining the prosecution’s primary witness and denied access to medical records relevant to that witness’s credibility. The court ordered a new trial.
Despite the reversal, Parillo was never retried on the homicide charges. Because the victims’ bodies have never been found and no subsequent prosecution occurred, the disappearances officially remain unresolved.
Today, Ronald Leone remains listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). Investigators continue to classify him as a missing person whose disappearance is believed to involve foul play. Although decades have passed, no confirmed location of either victim has been discovered, and authorities have not announced any recent arrests or significant public investigative breakthroughs.

Latest Investigation Information
The case remains open as a missing persons investigation.
Current publicly available information indicates:
Ronald Leone continues to be listed in NamUs as Missing Person MP42893.
Authorities continue to believe foul play was involved.
No human remains have been identified as belonging to Leone or Rudy Baronet.
No additional suspects have been publicly charged.
No recent public announcements indicate that new forensic evidence or DNA testing has solved the case.

It’s also worth noting that Ruby’s Page on NamUs is supposed to be listed under the number: MP 42892 however – the page states the it doesn’t exist, but there continues to be an active investigation. No photo of Ruby currently exists online sadly.

Facebook Post:
Vanished Without a Trace: The Mystery of Ronald Leone & Rudy Baronet

On the morning of October 3, 1977, 28-year-old Ronald Raymond Leone and 17-year-old Rudy Baronet left Ronald’s family home in Johnston, Rhode Island, reportedly planning to visit a friend. It was an ordinary day that would turn into a lifelong nightmare for their loved ones. Ronald’s mother, Josephine Pezzulli, became concerned when they failed to return and reported Ronald missing to the Johnston Police Department that very evening. Tragically, neither Ronald nor Rudy has ever been seen or heard from again.

Ronald was described as a white male, 5’8″ tall and weighing approximately 140 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a distinctive lion’s head tattoo on his right arm. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt. While Ronald’s case has remained documented over the years, very little information about Rudy Baronet exists publicly today, making his disappearance all the more heartbreaking and mysterious.

For more than four years, the disappearance of Ronald and Rudy remained an agonizing mystery. Their families were left with unanswered questions, forced to endure the pain of not knowing what happened to their sons, brothers, and friends. Then, in 1982, a Rhode Island grand jury secretly indicted a man for the murders of both Ronald Leone and Rudy Baronet. The prosecution’s case relied heavily on the testimony of Janice Manfredi, who claimed she witnessed the aftermath of the killings on the very day the two young men vanished.

According to her testimony, she returned to an apartment in Providence and found Ronald and an unidentified teenage boy lying dead on a blood-covered kitchen floor. She stated that the defendant and another man were placing the bodies into sleeping bags and later removed them from the apartment. Despite the graphic and chilling account, the bodies of Ronald and Rudy were never recovered, leaving their families without the closure that comes from bringing loved ones home.

Although the defendant was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to consecutive life terms, the Rhode Island Supreme Court later overturned those convictions, ruling that the defense had been improperly restricted from fully cross-examining the prosecution’s key witness. The court determined that these constitutional violations warranted a new trial. As a result, the legal outcome remains complicated, and the ultimate truth about what happened to Ronald Leone and Rudy Baronet remains shrouded in uncertainty.

Nearly five decades later, the disappearance of Ronald and Rudy continues to haunt Rhode Island. Two young men walked out the door that October morning and seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. No bodies have ever been found. No definitive answers have ever been given. What remains are grieving families, fading memories, and a mystery that refuses to be forgotten.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Ronald Leone or Rudy Baronet, please contact the Johnston Police Department at 401-231-8100 or email tips@johnstonpd.com.

Even the smallest piece of information could help bring long-awaited answers to a case that has remained unsolved for nearly half a century.