[5] [12], Almost one year later, on July 5, 1968, the partially decomposed, mutilated body of a 20-year-old art student named Joan Elspeth Schell[15] was found by construction workers on an Ann Arbor roadside. In 1969.my family had a coney island in Annarbor.across from the Michigan theater..we all remember it well.I read the book and took the same tour.but at that time the old farm house was still standing.my brother and I went there late at night, and we walked the property.when U drive up the short driveway..when U reach leavel.that's were the lilac plums were placed togather..one extra flower to indicate there is an other death comming soon ! Anyways, in this sad state of affairs vigilance and protection is key. The following evening, Davis observed Collins emerging from his bedroom carrying a box partially covered by a blanket. As he had explained this to Davis, Collins had been carrying a red handbag, which he claimed Schell had left in his car. Glass particles found within this basement were of a similar consistency to those found upon the soles of Basom's shoes. ", But, a "cop car pulled through the driveway and he got nervous.". I lived on Leforge at the time and know the area well. [146] He remained impassive upon hearing the jury foreman announce the verdict, although many spectators gasped audibly,[102] and his mother and sister left the courtroom in tears. When Davis returned home, he told Collins he went to a partyandhad an accident in his car. John Norman Collins's age is 75. He has been connected by physical and circumstantial evidence to other victims, including the June 1969 murder of Roxie Ann Phillips in Monterey, California, but those cases were never pursued after his initial conviction. Upon tracing Collins' movements in relation to the dates of the disappearance and murder of the seven murder victims linked to the Michigan Murderer (which then included Jane Mixer), police discovered that, on June 21,[105] Collins and his roommate, Andrew Manuel, had traveled to Monterey in Collins' Oldsmobile Cutlass, which the pair used to tow a camper-trailer they had rented under false names, and had paid for with a stolen check, for the vacation. Hurkos proved to be of little help and soon the police had yet another body on their hands, student Karen Sue Bieneman. She came up missing on July 23, 1969, and was discovered a few days later, strangled and beaten to death. Hewent to Central Michigan University, thentransferred to Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. He writeshe ran into Beineman, "she SMILED AT ME and WAVED her hand." [58], The victim was identified the following day[59] as a 21-year-old University of Michigan graduate student named Alice Elizabeth Kalom, who had disappeared shortly after midnight on the morning of June 8. Found as a mass of rotting flesh. These two witnesses were followed by the individual who had found her body on July 26, and the medical examiner called to the crime scene, Dr. Craig Barlow. His mother worked as a waitress and told John and his siblings that their father had abandoned them. Thatseemed to make Collins happy. On August 17, 1970, John Normans Collins was found guilty by a jury. Instead, theyput the body in the trunk,rolled it into a ravine, and returned to the house to clean up. Still, in the police interviews and the letters, Collins steered clear of outrightconfessing to killing anyone, and in his email to the Free Press last week, he claims he has been exploited and wronged that in a way, he isthe victim. Had this violation of the county prosecutor's order not taken place, Collins may not have realized how seriously he was considered a suspect at that stage, and thus may not have disposed of the physical evidence which would have assisted in linking him to other killings linked to the Michigan Murders. "They took the car apart and they found under one of the seats, a swatch of fabric, I think was about the size of a dime. I knew he was guilty as sin,' " Harveyrecalled thinking when he read Collins' own words. Two people saw Roxie get in the car. While DNA matched in Kalom's case, no DNA was found on evidence connected to Basom of Ypsilanti or Fleszar, 19, of Willis. Enjoy your days sitting under the private pergola, listening to the elegant turquoise John Norman Collins, who was dubbed the "Ypsilanti Ripper," continued his spree until his arrest in 1969, just seven days after killing Karen Sue Beineman. "I would 'NEVER'hurt a CHILDEVER!!!" I remember being quite scared myself at the time and I still think of those girls as I pass the landmarks involved in the case. [137] On this date, Collins was formally sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. [153], His lawyers further argued that, at an evidentiary hearing in April 1970, shortly before jury selection had begun, Collins' indictment for the California murder of Roxie Ann Phillips had likewise received extensive media coverage in Washtenaw Countyfurther reducing the chances of potential jurors being unbiased. Since reading this book I have been assumed by every aspect of what happen.. This is the only murder for which Collins would ever stand trial. The Michigan Murders was a series of highly publicized killings of young women committed between 1967 and 1969 in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area of Southeastern Michigan by an individual known as the Ypsilanti Ripper, the Michigan Murderer, and the Co-Ed Killer. "[93] before angrily walking out of her apartment. [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]. [119], In November, Ryan, in an effort to determine the most effective defense strategy, persuaded Collins to undergo a private and independent polygraph test. We have been known to play those kinds of PRANKS on each other in the Fraternity.". That house still has a bad feeling to it, when I go by it!!! [40], Following the March 24 murder of Maralynn Skelton, police from the five separate jurisdictions where the murderer had abducted or disposed of the bodies of his victims formally combined resources in an effort to compare information and identify the perpetrator. "In my mind," the detectivesaid, "the Kalom case is solved.". Collins had returned to their shared apartment shortly thereafter and asked Davis to hide a knife for him. 50 years later, investigation into Michigan Murders leads to DNA revelations, Through interviews with John Norman Collins and DNA evidence, Michigan State Police look to solve the cold case Michigan Murders, a "wholesome-looking girl" with "a vivid imagination. He spilleda drink on the seat, reached for something to clean it up and grabbed a cloth wrapped around the .22 caliber pistol that "we had been shooting the day before. I don't think there was ever a farmhouse or barn in the area you referenced. JOHN NORMAN COLLINS Born in Windsor, Canada in 1947, John Norman Collins was the youngest of 3 children. It was a travesty of justice that took place in this courtroom. If police in Michigan were doubting Collins as their man, they got more evidence a few thousand miles away. She said they stopped for a moment and he asked her "What would you say if I told you I was the coed killer?" Found: August 7, 1967. Goshe recalled Beineman visiting her store to purchase a $20 headpiece in the early afternoon of July 23. To expand on their allegations that certain defense witnesses had been subjected to police harassment, and that eyewitness accounts had been flawed, defense attorney Joseph Louisell subjected Sheriff Harvey to a 45-minute cross-examination as to his contact with the two eyewitnesses prior to completion of this composite drawing. [147] In response, Collins rose from his chair and made the following speech:[148]. [121] Mrs. Collins reportedly remortgaged her home to secure their services. The killer had taken too big of a risk with Beineman however. Hetook her there, waited for her and then, they ended up at his uncles house. John Norman Collins, now known as John Norman Chapman, continues to maintain his innocence despite this evidence and having been convicted by a jury of his peers. This spokesman indicated the reasoning being that, as Collins had already received a life sentence in Michigan, the case therefore was undeserving of "priority attention" by California authorities, in part due to the fact Collins would be returned to Michigan to serve his sentence if convicted. On Sunday, July 27, police arrived at the apartment on Emmet Street Collins shared with his roommate, Arnold Davis. Between the summers of 1967 through 1969, before the term serial killer was coined, a predatory killer stalked the campuses of Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan seeking. Collins last victim was 18-year-old Karen Sue Beineman, another EMU student. Collins took Beinemans lifeless body to a gully off Riverside near the Huron River in Ann Arbor. After those two letters,they quit writing. Investigators also ascertained Collins had either been acquainted with most of the victims, had currently or previously lived close to their place of residence, or had likely established possible prior contact prior to their murders. Sad sad fact. 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. By July 24, every cop in Washtenaw County was issued a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) for the bike and biker. Davis wrapped the gun in a blanket and tossed them both into a garbage bin. He comes out and said 'take him back to jail.' The same day, the head of the state police crime laboratory, Sgt. She worked across the hall from where Collins had a student job," Fournier said. The failed sting caused Harvey substantialpublic embarrassment, and bringing it up again, Harvey said, was Collins' way of mocking him, as if heweresaying: "Ha. 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. Each testified on August 6. A state prosecutor charged Collins with the first-degree premeditated murder of 18-year-old Karen Sue Beineman, a student at Eastern Michigan University. [135] Immediately following the testimony of Walter Holz, a colleague of his named Curtis Fluker testified that the blood type of the tissue samples recovered from the Leik family basement matched that of Karen Sue Beineman. I know a woman who went bike riding with John during that period. [157], The state of California postponed their requests to extradite Collins to face charges relating to Phillips' murder in June 1971. It is Alpha Xi Delta, I am a member and will be living in the house next year. David Leik and his wife, Sandra, following their testimony against Collins at his trial. Greg takes us next to the last place 13-year-old Dawn Louise Basom from Ypsilanti was seen alive. The next year, hestarted tutoringinmates on how to pass theGED exam, the test for ahigh-school equivalency diploma. I spent one year in Marquette and knew john. Pretty weird at the time how close they came to catching him at different times. [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. "He reveals himself by what he doesn't say, as much as by what he says,"Fournier said of Collins. The victim's right thumb had also received a gunshot wound, suggesting the woman had instinctively raised her hand to protect herself before her killer had fired the gun at point-blank range. "This is what I knew deep down in my heart, and I felt so good knowing, without question, this is our guy.". [84] He held a part-time job as an inspector at a firm which manufactured drum brakes,[66] and was currently majoring in elementary education at Eastern Michigan University. Sex Slayer Could be Anyone! He tries to give his cousin a glimpse of prison life. Collins sayshe didn't expect the 2013 letters"would become such a 'FOCAL POINT'after 50 years," and accuses Fournier of using his cousinto "dig-up some dirt on me" and garner media attention for himself. Bundshuhadded that the new information, along with the DNA match, supported that Collins was the "perpetrator in that case." 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. [121][122], In January 1970, Neil Fink and Joseph Louisell, partners at one of Detroit's highest-priced law firms, agreed to take over Collins' defense. The jury did not take its task lightly, but, I think things were blown out of proportion. 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!'" Investigators didnt know it then, but this was the beginning of a series of murders attributed to John Norman Collins. Collins was "six feet . The two played intramural football. In addition, the "outstanding similarities" between the wounds inflicted upon her body and those inflicted upon Fleszar the previous year led investigators to establish a definite connection between both murders, and four detectives were assigned to work full-time on both cases. Some peoples facts are not so good but you did a nice job!!! 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. Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com. The 619 Emmet house is actually a sorority house, not a fraternity house. He is currently in Marquette Branch Prison at Marquette, Michigan. "This source that I have says he saw Alice on the back of Collins' motorcycle, driving away," Fournier said. She was reported missing by her roommate, Sherri Green, when she failed to return to her dormitory after curfew. Investigators noted strong similarities between this murder and previous killings attributed to the Michigan Murderer, including the fact that a garter belt had been tied around Skelton's neck[35] and her clothes and shoes had been neatly placed beside her body. It wasn't enough evidence for the state police to recommend new charges, butit was enough to convinceBundshuh. If a person wants something, he alone is the deciding factor of whether or not to take it, regardless of what society thinks is right or wrong if a person holds a gun on somebodyit's up to him to decide whether to take the other's life or not. Precisely what caused his parents Richard and Loretta to split up is unclear. [109] Upon questioning Manuel's grandfather, investigators were informed that his grandson and one John Collins had temporarily resided in the trailerwhich they had hired from an Ypsilanti rental firmbetween June and July, before both men had abandoned the trailer and (he believed) returned to Michigan. [76] In his opening statement to the jury on July 20, Delhey outlined the prosecution's contention that the evidence to be presented would form a clear pattern indicating that Collins had been in the company of Karen Sue Beineman at the time she was last seen alive by Mrs. Joan Goshe and her assistant; that he had taken her to the home of his own uncle, where he had tortured and beaten the girl before strangling her to death at this location; and that he had then discarded her body, before attempting to persuade his roommate to provide him with a false alibi. The man who put the cuffs on JNC!!!). On August 17, 1970, John Normans Collins was found guilty. "Mary worked at the university. Next, they went to "a really PRETTY SPOT that was on the outskirts of campus," which "led to sex.". [27], Despite the fact Mixer had not been subjected to a sexual assault, the fact her tights had been lowered to expose her thighs and sanitary napkin suggested a sexual motive behind the murder,[27] and although the victim had not been beaten, stabbed or mutilated, her student status, the tying of a garment around her neck, and the proximity of her abduction and murder led investigators to tentatively link her murder to those of Fleszar and Schell. "He had several fraternity brothers that rented an apartment there," Fournier said. [162] Nonetheless, the decision of the prosecution at his 1970 trial was to try Collins solely with the murder of Karen Sue Beineman. They had set up a task force at an old seminary. Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked Paperback - August 1, 2016 by Gregory A. Fournier (Author) 236 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle $6.95 Read with Our Free App Audiobook $0.00 Free with your Audible trial Paperback $22.95 12 Used from $12.59 15 New from $16.50 Audio CD $30.54 2 New from $28.44 Did I turn you on to the book Michigan Murders that had a bunch of stuff on John Norman Collins? Some know John Norman Collins, now 74 and serving a life sentence at Ionia Correctional Facility, as "the Ypsilanti Ripper," or "the Co-Ed Killer." Collins grew up in Michigan. But they were striking. Collins, Chapman recalled, give him explicit, sexually graphicinstructions on what to do with a girl, including suggestions that some women "like it rough.". And,Schroeder said, when they mentioned Dawn Basom, the 13-year-old victim killed in 1969,it touched a nerve. That same month, on the 26th, 16-year-old Maralynn Skelton was also found dead, beaten and bludgeoned extensively. [132] Mrs. Leik also testified to having cut her children's hair in her basement two days prior to embarking on a vacation with her family, and that when they had returned home, she had noticed that several items from her basement had been moved, that she had discovered a wet, soiled cloth containing hair aside a laundry tub, and that other itemsincluding a nearly-full bottle of ammoniawere missing.[76]. The point is: It's not society's judgment that's important, but the individual's own choice of will and intellect. Two days after the remains had been identified as those of Mary Fleszar, a young man claiming to be a friend of the Fleszar family arrived at the funeral home holding Fleszar's body prior to her scheduled burial. In September 1988, Chapman agreed to participate in a live interview conducted by the. In the case of California victim Roxie Ann Phillips, police had discovered that, prior to her murder, the victim had told a close friend she had met an Eastern Michigan University student named John, who owned a silver Oldsmobile Cutlass and several motorcycles; her nude, strangled body was found discarded in a patch of poison oak on July 13,[164] with the distinctive red-and-white floral patterned belt from her culotte dress knotted around her neck. The following day, following a consultation with opposing counsels, Judge John Conlin allowed Davis to testify as to having observed Collins hurriedly remove a laundry box containing women's clothing and jewelry from his apartment and place this box in the trunk of his car two days prior to his arrest. Welcome to Lakeside. And to your new HOME! Honest to God, that's what they said - apparantly, they didn't clean it well enough, and they came through the paint!Needless to say, Sherry and Mike were creeped out!!! He is known for being a Criminal. I walked over to see if he was playing a JOKE on me and had a dummy there to scare me. Just basicallyfraternity rivals and that.". The assistant DA was a friend of my Dad's! [88], Police had already established that Collins was a known motorcycle enthusiast[89] who owned several motorcycles, including a blue Triumph Bonneville. Norman Collins (1967-1969) aka "The Michigan Murderer" was a 30-year old resident of Ypsilanti, Michigan, and he killed 7 female students at Eastern Michigan University using a variety of methods -- guns, knives, blunt instruments, strangulation. 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. The letter was mailed so they knew she got that far. I have read all that is available on this story and feel this guy was wrongly convicted. Although this officer attempted to radio this sighting to his colleagues, the rain had rendered his radio inoperable. I said 'would you look at these pictures for me' and she said sure. [161] He had further informed his roommate he had agreed to drive Schell from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti the following day. He was held without bond. According to Davis, he had heard Collins and Kalom arguing behind closed doors, before Kalom had run out of his (Collins') apartment, with Collins chasing after her. Her body was found two days later in a field. 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 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. Larry turned to one of the girls he saw Collins flirting with to see if he was the same man that drove off with Karen in downtown Ypsilanti. Not something a mom wants to think about.". Schell had intended to travel to Ann Arbor to visit her boyfriend, and her roommate had accompanied her to the bus stop. 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.
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