Ty Ritter is a soft spoken man with impeccable manners
who sports a diamond earring in his left earlobe. He is also a man who, since he was a teen, has been obsessed with fighting injustice. Unlike most of us, he has backed up his words with action.
Ty was born December 16 in Burbank, California. He is the youngest of three boys. His father was a rancher, as well as a camera technician and electrician who worked for most of the motion picture studios, but primarily for RKO and Republic. His mother was a nurse who became a housewife.
Ty grew up in the San Fernando Valley. He went to high school at San Fernando High, James Monroe and Notre Dame. He played football at all three schools, usually left halfback. He was also a swimmer, specializing in the freestyle and breast stroke.
At the end of his junior year, Ty's father died and Ty had to help support his mom. He worked for the International Yamaha Factory motorcycle team and Bud Ekins, a famous stuntman.
Ty began his military duty as a junior Drill Instructor and soon after he was assigned to the 1st FSR (1st Force Service Regiment Marine Corps Unit) and sent to Vietnam. In Vietnam, Ty bodyguarded dignitaries, couriers and high ranking officers.
Ty returned to civilian life and worked for a Las Vegas casino owner. The owner arranged for Ty to have extensive additional bodyguard training from top bodyguarding experts and hired Ty to bodyguard him and his family for over four years.
Ty also did flat track motorcycle racing at Ascot and worked on and off with Bud Ekins. With the help of Steve McQueen (a regular at Ekins' motorcycle shop), Ty started getting involved in stunt work.
Ty is pictured second from right (with arm cast) with the world's best living stuntmen
Ty started his own bodyguarding business,
TyRitterProtection.com, specializing in high risk bodyguarding cases where clients had been subjected to death threats and attempted assassinations. Ty's bodyguarding work has taken him all over the world, from Israel and Europe to Asia and South America. Ty's company also contracted out to the United States Government for numerous special operations in Israel, Spain, Africa, etc.
In time, Ty opened a successful bodyguarding school in Orange County, California and provided extensive training to students from all over the world. He has also trained police departments, Federal Agents (Secret Service) and even bodyguards for the Olympics.
One day a family asked Ty to help them find their little girl, who had been kidnapped. Ty had no experience in that area, but gave it a try. He claims he 'got lucky'. It was his introduction to the international underground network of child pornographers.
While Ty felt good about reuniting the family, he didn't pursue that line of work. However, word of mouth soon brought him more and more cases. When he saw the scope of the problem and realized that no one else was doing anything about it, he was hooked.
Why? 'Because it's right. And I know how to do it.' 'When I'm on a recovery, it's when I really feel alive.'
Ty has received the prestigious Lifetime Appreciation Award from the City of Hope for his devotion to the safety and recovery of children.
During his career, Ty has bodyguarded royalty, Pat Buchanan, during his presidential bid, Bernie Cornfeld 'The king of Europe's cash', Hal Lindsey, CEO's of major corporations and scores of celebrities, from Sylvester Stallone, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Hutton, Kirk Douglas, George Michael, The Beach Boys and The Doobie Brothers, to Joan Crawford, Linda Evans, Robert Mitchum, Bob Hope, Doris Day, Paul Anka, Rick Nelson, Angie Dickinson, etc.
Ty founded Project Child Save, a 501c3 non-profit organization, which is dedicated to the prevention of child abduction through public awareness campaigns (Ty lectures, has published 'My Body Is My Own, The Complete Child Protection Handbook', and has been a guest on numerous shows, including Dr. Phil, Rita Cosby, and Geraldo), and, when necessary, finding and rescuing kidnapped children who have been sold into sexual slavery. Ty and his elite team have conducted countless missions. To date, his organization has rescued over five hundred children, worldwide, each extraction executed with stealth, safely and successfully.
I am able now to more understand many others as I see them for what they are by their foul deeds. I have come to realize that which is most important of all, fulfillment comes only when I push my intellect and heart to the farthermost reaches of which I am capable in this fight against wickedness. For the purpose of life is to matter, to count, to stand for something, to make a difference that I lived at all.'
Ty Ritter
