Investigators determined the knife was consistent with the weapon used to stab Kalom. The hairs found in Karen's underwear matched hair in his uncle's basement - which is where she was believed to have been killed. Sherry and Mike (my bro and sis) went down to babysit some kids whose parents who'd rented the house afterwards, and actually saw the bloodstains!!! [42], Little physical evidence existed beyond eyewitness descriptions and forensic reports. Ryan further stated at this hearing he was "undecided" as to whether the upcoming trial be held away from the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti district due to pretrial publicity, and this final motion was held in abeyance until an impartial jury could be selected. [159] At the time of the announcement of this decision, preliminary legal maneuvers between Michigan and California authorities had been ongoing to extradite Collins to Monterey County to face trial for Phillips' murder.[160]. He is currently in Marquette Branch Prison at Marquette, Michigan. In September 1988, Chapman agreed to participate in a live interview conducted by the. Then-Gov. [49] Many female students opted to arm themselves with knives, with others adopting a "buddy system" whereby they would refuse to walk anywhere unless in the company of a trusted male friend or at least three other girls. You need help desperately. Upon questioning Collins' co-workers, investigators learned that Collins had repeatedly taken delight in describing, in graphic detail, details of the injuries inflicted upon each successive victim linked to the Michigan Murderer to his female colleagues;[19] he had claimed these details had been provided to him by an uncle of his named David Leik, who served as a sergeant in the police force. In response to questions as to her personal character, Goshe further conceded she had previously lied under oath on two occasions (one instance of which was unrelated to the trial). Enjoy dual pane vinyl windows, high 9' ceilings top & bottom floors, a spacious loft 10' x 10' that can be used as a bedroom or game room, a 10' x 5' Harry Potter closet previously used as an office, hand-carved lightly distressed maple hardwood flooring-Ponto . Kennard Christensen, testified as to the results of forensic tests conducted in the Leik family basement: the results of these tests confirmed evidence of bloodstains in four separate areas. She chose the car. [56] She had also been raped, although the pathologist was unable to determine whether this act had occurred before or after death. Like 89.1WEMUonFacebookand follow us onTwitter, Patrick Campion is the WEMUProgram Director. [149][n 5], Upon receipt of the guilty verdict against their client, Collins' defense attorneys announced their intention to appeal upon the grounds of "tainted identification and the change of venue question." She was reported missing by her roommate, Sherri Green, when she failed to return to her dormitory after curfew. He also triesto discredit his cousin for disclosing his private letters,suggesting what he wrote ismostly fiction. Karen had been tortured before her death, beaten on the head, had been strangled to death and dumped, naked, off Riverside Drive. "There were seven women that he tried to get on that motorcycle before Beineman got on it," Fournier said. [118] At this hearing, Collins' court-appointed attorney, Richard Ryan, challenged the validity of the physical evidence and the credibility of the circumstantial evidence before formally requesting the case against his client be dismissed and the evidence seized from his rooming house and vehicle suppressed upon the grounds Collins had not consented to a police search of his property. I was in prison for seven years. He comes out and said 'take him back to jail.' Found: August 7, 1967. Citing Collins' then-ongoing appeals against his convictions in the state of Michigan as the cause, and their likely resubmittal should any of his Michigan appeals be successful. And she looked at them and I don't know, the third or fourth picture was Collins and when she saw it she just dropped her sandwich in her lap and said 'oh shit, that's him!'" [46], The orange mohair sweater belonging to Basom was found in a deserted farmhouse just 100 yards from the desolate road on which her body had been placed after her murder. "A lot of the girls were beaten about the face, and so on, let alone the stab wounds," Harvey said. [132]), Also to testify at the trial on behalf of the prosecution was Marjorie Barnes, who testified on July 30 to having observed Collins leaving his uncle's home carrying a laundry box covered with a blanket on either July 24 or 25, 1969. "He had several fraternity brothers that rented an apartment there," Fournier said. John Collins grew up in Center Line, north of Detroit. A veteran Detroit journalist, she joined the Free Press in 2012. Living with Mom, and then moved into the basement of his uncle's house. Thank you for doing this.I read a book called Michigan Murders, I think, in 1977 and I was shocked this happened.This really gives visuals to the descriptions the book gave and its interesting & sad to see where they were found, where they were last seen, where all the locations were.To this day, some 33 years after reading the book, it still haunts me. [88], Evidence of culpability in remaining cases. Age: 19 year-old. Jim Bundshuh the 53-year-old detective whosename rhymes with gumshoe andgoes by the nickname Bunny because it's easier to remember said heinterviewedCollinsthree times. [77], At approximately 12:15a.m. the following morning,[78] in the midst of a heavy, humid storm, one officer observed a young man running from the gully;[79] the heavy rain and insect irritation had prevented the officer from observing the young man actually approaching the gully. [21] Nonetheless, the inquiry into both murders remained active, and a reward then-totaling $7,800 for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrator of both homicides remained.[22]. Collins graduated from St. Clement High, a Catholic schoolin Center Line. As for the youngest victim, 13-year-old Dawn Basom, he was connected to her too: he had friends that lived in the apartment building near Dawn's home. [68][81] In total, seven witnesses would be found who would later testify to having seen Collins in the area between the university campus and Mrs. Goshe's wig shop between 11a.m. and 1p.m. on July 23; including three young women who stated Collins had attempted to entice them onto his motorcycle.[95]. Glass particles found within this basement were of a similar consistency to those found upon the soles of Basom's shoes. Fournier said his frat brothers learned that the hard way when he was thrown out because of theft. Their lease expressly forbade any "painting" or tampering with the Basement. The killer, a charismatic, athletic E.M.U. I have two things to say: I think they [the jury] conscientiously tried to give me a fair trial. Three days later it was discovered, and this set a strange sequence of events into effect that would eventually lead to the capture of who many had dubbed the "Ypsilanti Ripper.". He was known to engage in sexual violence, including one instance in which he had raped a woman who had resisted his advances. From what I read, the city and officials were so quick to get this solved (perhaps their donuts were getting cold) that they failed to look at anyone else. The timing of these four witnesses' recollections as to when Collins had actually entered the motorcycle shop varied slightly, although consensus among three of these men was that he had entered the premises as they were eating lunch, which they typically did anytime between 1 and 2p.m.[138], Upon cross-examination, the time factor of these witnesses as to when they had actually seen Collins expanded to between noon and 2p.m. Two of these employees had signed statements affirming the time Collins had entered their premises was approximately 2p.m., although one of these witnesses stated he had been repeatedly harassed by an Ann Arbor Police Sergeant as to the actual time he had seen Collins. [55][63], By the spring of 1969, public outcry regarding the murders committed by the individual dubbed by the press as the Michigan Murderer and the Co-Ed Killer was increasing, particularly among the student population of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. But Collins wasn't all that he seemed. My name is C and I have been doing some research about the co ed killer. In response to questioning from prosecution attorneys, Goshe described how, on the afternoon of her disappearance, Beineman had informed her she had accepted a lift home from the man waiting outside the wig shop. Collins' grip of terror on our community ended officially on August 19, 1970, when he was found guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for this final murder attributed to the Michigan Murderer on August 19, 1970, [4] and is currently incarcerated at G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility. Randy/Jerry--C'mon! The two played intramural football. The first victim, Mary Fleszar was last seen being cut off by a guy in a shiny car just a block from Collins' room. He was polite and handsome, but the boy next door image was a farce. I spent one year in Marquette and knew john. When questioned Collins claimed that he was with his mother at the time in Centerline, MI and it was probably just a case of mistaken identity. Davis "told me that he tried to make a move on her and she resisted," Collinswrites. We have been known to play those kinds of PRANKS on each other in the Fraternity.". In an effort to discredit Goshe's testimony, Fink diverted questioning as to the model of motorcycle she had seen outside her shop, to which Goshe conceded her initial belief as to the model being a Honda 350 was inaccurate. They focused on Kalom, who, like Mixer, also was shot; Basom, the youngest of the cases,and Mary Fleszar, the first woman slain. The victim had received multiple slash and stab wounds to the body (including two stab wounds which had pierced her heart),[55] and a gunshot wound to the forehead before her neck had been cut through to the spine. Since reading this book I have been assumed by every aspect of what happen.. Some of my Fraternity Brothers lived in the Emmet House in 1990. The detectives said they tracked Davis to New York but were never able to interviewhim. One of the men in the car Schell had entered was Collins' roommate, Arnold Davis, who later informed police the girl had indeed entered the car he had been driving, but that Collins had insisted he give Schell the lift she was seeking to Ann Arbor in his own car. Both roadmap the journey of the book and John Norman Collins, who was convicted of one of the murders and linked to six of them, in the years after the original 1976 publication date. Although Collins emphatically protested his innocence and insisted the eyewitnesses' identification of him had been an error, he refused to return to the police station to take a polygraph test. I grew up in YPSI. John Norman Collins (John Norman Chapman) an American serial killer who is a suspect in The Michigan Murders, a series of highly publicized killings of young women committed between 1967 and 1969. She had made arrangements to meet Collins at her home on the evening of June 30, but Collins had never arrived. Her fully clothed body, covered with her own raincoat and with a copy of the novel Catch-22 placed by her side, was found the following morning atop a grave in Denton Cemetery in Van Buren Township. Everything matched the belt and that swatch, which connected the two," Fournier said. [92] Moreover, several of these female acquaintances divulged that Collins would become enraged upon learning a woman was menstruating: one woman revealed to police that on one occasion, when Collins had begun groping her breasts, she had informed him she was experiencing her period; in response, Collins had yelled, "That is really disgusting! It was across the street from where the second victim, Joan Schell, lived. [3], All the victims of the Michigan Murderer were young women between the ages of 13 and 21 who were abducted, raped, beaten and murderedtypically by stabbing or strangulationwith their bodies occasionally mutilated after death before being discarded within a 15-mile radius of Washtenaw County. [137] On this date, Collins was formally sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. [147] In response, Collins rose from his chair and made the following speech:[148]. That seems tocorrelatewith a memory Collins describes in his longletters. Defense attorneys Neil Fink and Joseph Louisell, in their opening statement, labeled the eyewitnesses' identification of both Collins and his motorcycle as flawed and unreliable, and stated their intentions to introduce several witnesses who would provide an alibi for their client in the early afternoon hours the prosecution contended Karen Sue Beineman had been abducted and murdered. The clerk at the chocolate shop next door was a motorcycle enthusiast and also noticed the bike and the handsome man sitting on it. The following day, Washtenaw County Sheriff Douglas Harvey testified as to the discovery of Beineman's body, her subsequent autopsy, and his obtaining an updated composite drawing of the suspect with whom Beineman had last been seen alive from Mrs. Joan Goshe and her assistant, Patricia Spaulding. Having compared case notes, investigators in both California and Michigan agreed enough similarities existed between the murder of Roxie Ann Phillips and the Michigan Murders to establish a definite connection between the cases,[113] and on August 5, this connection was formally announced. Sad sad fact. [133] In addition, Mrs. Sandra Leik testified to Collins being given a key to the family home in order that he could feed the family's German shepherd. But as Leik walked into the basement, he found a mess of the hair and there was blood on the basement floor. [3] Although Schell had been dead for several days, her entire lower body was in a remarkably preserved condition, whereas her head, shoulders and breasts were in an advanced state of decomposition, leading the pathologist to conclude her body had been stored in a naturally cool environment, but with the upper third of her body exposed to natural heat. He adds:"Now I hope that you will simply leave me alone.". Delhey also stated the prosecution's intent to prove that Collins had had sole access to his uncle's home and basement on the afternoon of Beineman's disappearance, and although he had made concerted efforts to remove physical evidence from the crime scene, blood samples recovered from this location were a match for the blood type of the victim. Hewent to Central Michigan University, thentransferred to Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. William Milliken promised to leave "no stone unturned" to find herkiller. [57] Sections of her clothing were scattered around her body, although one of her shoes was missing. Her body was found on an abandoned farm in Superior Township just about one month later. The increase in frequency in which the killer was striking throughout the spring and summer of 1969coupled with the fact most victims had been connected to the University of Michigan or Eastern Michigan University, suggesting the killer may be a fellow studentfurther compounded the concerns of female students. I walked over to see if he was playing a JOKE on me and had a dummy there to scare me. [26] The pathologist also stated that Mixer had not been sexually assaulted, that death had occurred at approximately 3a.m. on March 21, and that she had not been killed at the location where her body had been discovered. All had been killed and then dumped on back roads. (FOX 2) - By July 23, 1969, panic is in the hot, muggy, southeast Michigan air. Karen was the latest girl in a two-year stretch to go missing. This is part two of our Michigan Murders series. Aside from being the last person seen with Karen and living directly across the street from Joan Schell, there was more to link John Collins to the murders. This neighbor twice observed a young man in a blue-grey Chevrolet slow to a halt beside Fleszar and begin talking to her: each time, Fleszar had shaken her head and walked away from the car. His mother attended every single day of the trial. With the mounting evidence, Collins was arrested on July 31, 1969. ICK!!! She had been slashed across the throat,shot in the head and stabbed in the heart. When I was first arrested my Mother asked me if I had done this and I told her 'NO' and she never asked me about it again. Folklore! [131], Although subject to intense cross-examination by defense attorney Neil Fink as to the credibility of her testimony, Goshe remained insistent in her identification of John Norman Collins as being the individual who had waited for Karen Sue Beineman to return to his motorcycle. In the 1970 trial, Joan Goshe, the owner of Wig's by Joan in Ypsilanti, testified that she saw Collins and Beineman the Eastern Michigan University coed from Grand Rapids outside the shop. Although never tried for the murders of Fleszar, Schell, Skelton, Basom, Kalom or Phillips, physical and circumstantial evidence exists in each case indicating that Collins had indeed committed these murders. By that point, Larry had been brought in to share what he had with Michigan State Police, the Washtenaw County Sheriff, and other agencies. [72], Beineman had died of strangulation, although the pathologist noted the blunt force injuries inflicted to her skull and brain had been so extensive they would likely have proven fatal. [90], Collins had established a reputation among his peers at Eastern Michigan University as a habitual thief who had once been evicted from a fraternity house for stealing from his roommates. "The Leik children, the three boys were all white blonde little guys and that hair, color wise, the first original look at it, seemed to be a fit," Larry said. She also recalled having observed a young man with short, side-parted dark hair, wearing a horizontal striped sweater, waiting on a blue motorcycle outside the shop as Beineman made her purchase. The physical and circumstantial evidence linking Collins to this particular murder was stronger than any of the six outstanding murders then linked to him in Michigan, and authorities in Monterey did file several motions to extradite Collins to California to stand trial for Phillips' murder in 1970 and 1971. Collins claims he left the house alone, but came back and foundBeineman dead. In a new twist just this week,Collins revised his story yet again. Perkons testified as to his belief that the hair samples retrieved from Beineman's panties were of a "different origin" than the hair samples retrieved from the Leiks' basement,[140] whereas Golub stated that because he had found only one single fiber upon the victim's panties, the likelihood of her undergarments accumulating these hairs from a basement was extremely remote. Dual sink vanity in main bathroom, with walk-in shower and tub. [9] Her nude body was found by two 15-year-old boys on an abandoned farm at Superior Township on August 7, and was formally identified via dental records the following day. Sowhen DNA matching Collins turned up on Alice Kalom's clothing, it was significant. The owner of the wig shop, Joan Goeshe, and her assistant stepped out to watch the young girl on the bike. Both women had agreed this composite drawing was accurate, and only disagreed as to the structure of the suspect's chin. They wanted to see whether they could find aDNA match with other victims. Collins last victim was 18-year-old Karen Sue Beineman, another EMU student. Upon conducting a search of the basement of this farmhouse, investigators discovered a further garment of her clothing, a length of electrical flex of the same type used to strangle the victim, and fresh human bloodstains, indicating this location as being the site of Basom's murder. They saw a clean-cut man sitting on a Triumph motorcycle and got a good look at him before he turned away. Victims like Mary Terese Fleszar, a 19-year-old EMU accounting major and Joan Elspetch Schell, a 20-year-old art student. Investigators had established that each victim had been menstruating at the time of her death, and had theorized this may be a factor in the sexual violence exhibited upon the victims. "Was he still going to deny everything?". She had been strangled. [125][110] He was tried in Ann Arbor, before Judge John Conlin. On top of that, Collins, in two 2013 letters to his cousinJohn Chapman, revealed inhis own words what he said "really happened" all those years ago, confirming details from the cases and recanting his claim that he never knew his victim. In part three of our special series, we'll meet the women who had close calls with the killer, including one woman who says he's still luring women into his clutches today, from his prison cell. On October 14, Judge Conlin rejected defense motions to dismiss the case, or suppress any evidence obtained; ruling Collins' arrest had been on the reasonable grounds he had committed a felony. At the time of his arrest, hishigh school girlfriend, Burnadetta Hudak, describedCollins aspolitewith "manners galore," opening the door for a ladyand standing when a woman or older personentered the room. Then famed psychic Peter Hurkos was hired to use his skills to find the killer or lead to new clues. "Roxie is walking down the street, mailed a letter a block away from her house. [119], In November, Ryan, in an effort to determine the most effective defense strategy, persuaded Collins to undergo a private and independent polygraph test. The rented trailer in which Collins and Manuel had traveled to California was located on August 1 in Monterey County, behind the home of Andrew Manuel's grandfather. "He said he kept trying and she said she was going to call the police and he SNAPPED and choked her. Police had noted (and would continue to note) common denominators in the physical characteristics of the victims, and the manner in which they died: all of the victims had been brunette Caucasians; each (excluding Mixer) had been the recipient of extensive violence inflicted with a blunt and/or bladed instrument prior to her murder; each of the victims' bodies had been found within a 15-mile radius of Washtenaw County; and each victim (excluding Mixer) had received knife wounds to the neck.
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