Rufus Riddlesbarger

Riddlesbarger is believed to have been an Army Air Corps pilot during World War I. He later worked for the U.S. Post Office, flying air mail starting in 1920, but was grounded in 1921 for failing to promptly report a forced landing, resulting in delay to the mail.{{cite news|last=Allen|first=Paul|title=Inventors' paradise|url=http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue2/2003/04/07/20206-inventors-paradise/|accessdate=2 July 2013|newspaper=Tucson Citizen|date=April 7, 2003}}{{cite web|title=Pilot Stories: Riddlesbarger, Rufus|url=http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/airmail/pilot/pilot_rest/pilot_rest_riddlesbarger.html|work=Fad to Fundamental: Air Mail in America|publisher=National Postal Museum|accessdate=2 July 2013|year=2004}} Riddlesbarger invented a diaphragm that was successfully marketed through his firm, Lanteen Laboratories, using storefront clinics called "Medical Bureaus of Birth Control Information" and a variety of media, including radio, direct mailings to doctors, and in packages of sanitary napkins.Holz, p. 134 One of Riddlesbarger's clinic operators, Adele Gordon, was, with her husband John, unsuccessfully prosecuted in 1935 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for selling birth control devices.Holz, pp. 123-126 Lanteen Laboratories had been organized in 1928, with 90% of its stock owned by Riddlesbarger.{{cite web|title=200 F.2d 165: Riddlesbarger, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue|url=http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/200/165/236605/|publisher=Justia|accessdate=2 July 2013}} Lanteen sold a comprehensive line of products, including contraceptive jellies, douches, tampons and suppositories.{{cite web|title=Birth Control: A Healthy Necessity in Marriage|url=http://www.mum.org/lanteen5.htm|date=1930|publisher=Lanteen Laboratories, U.S.A.|accessdate=3 July 2013|location=mum.org}}

The proceeds from Riddlesbarger's venture went to purchase a ranch in southern Arizona which he named Lanteen Ranch, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Kinjockity Ranch.{{cite web|last=Pry|first=Mark E.|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Kinjockity Ranch|url={{NRHP url|id=96000759}}|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=2 July 2013|year=1996}} Riddlesbarger commissioned Phoenix architect Edward C. Morgan to design the Pueblo Revival house and guest house, and the interior was decorated by designer and sculptor Raymond Phillips Sanderson. Riddlesbarger, through the Lanteen Arabian Foundation, bred Arabian horses at the ranch, most notably owning Antez, a famous sire originally owned by Will Keith Kellogg. Antez sired Palominos while with Riddlesbarger. Bamboo Harvester, who played Mister Ed in the eponymous television show, was a grandson of Antez.{{cite web|title=Bamboo Harvester|url=http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/bamboo+harvester|publisher=Pedigree Online All Breed Database|accessdate=2 July 2013}}

Although he intended to live at the ranch full-time, Riddlesbarger sold the ranch in 1946 and moved to Tucson. He had lost a substantial judgment in tax court over Lanteen's purchase of the ranch lands and subsequent payment of the ranch to him as a dividend. He was unsuccessfully prosecuted in 1948 for statutory rape for an alleged affair with a house servant,{{cite news|title=Ex-Chicagoan Found Innocent of Rape Charge in Arizona|newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune|date=July 4, 1948}} and left the United States shortly thereafter. A final divorce decree was granted in favor of his former wife Fay Riddlesbarger in 1948, apparently concluding proceedings that began in 1931{{cite news|title=Daughter Tells of her Father's Tangled Loves|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=May 27, 1943}} that had been accompanied by allegations of coercion,{{cite news|title=Riddlesbarger Divorce Ruled Out As "Fraud"|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=November 7, 1944}} but further appeals continued into 1952, reaching the Illinois Supreme Court.{{cite web|title=Riddlesbarger v. Riddlesbarger|url=http://il.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19520909_0000384.IL.htm/qx|publisher=Findacase.com|accessdate=2 July 2013}} Rufus had two daughters with Fay.

In the 1950s Riddlesbarger settled in east Africa in what was then Tanganyika, where he was involved in more litigation.{{cite journal|title=Riddlesbarger and Another v. Robson and Others|journal=Journal of African Law|volume=3|issue=2|publisher=Journal of African Law, v. 3. No. 2|date=Summer 1959|pages=121–122|jstor=744702}}{{cite book|last=Bwonwong'a|first=Momanyi|title=Procedures in Criminal Law in Kenya|year=1994|publisher=East African Publishers|page=147}} During that time he established Manyara Ranch near Esilalei in the northern part of what is now Tanzania.{{cite web |title=The Many Iterations of Manyara Ranch |url=https://www.awf.org/sites/default/files/2024-07/202606_Manyara-Ranch-Overview_Final_Spreads.pdf |publisher=African Wildlife Foundation |access-date=28 July 2024}} Following two more marriages, he died in Addis Ababa in 1968.{{cite web |title=Descendants of Christian [Rötlisperger] Retelsberger |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f7f81cd67b88d47b94051ed/t/5fa32bc4169809153ba6f784/1604529103848/Five+Generations+of+Descendants+of+Christian+%5BR%C3%B6tlisperger%5D+Retelsberger.pdf |access-date=15 May 2023}}

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Category:20th-century American inventors

Category:1890s births

Category:Year of death missing

Category:Birth control in the United States

Category:United States airmail pilots