Going West: True Crime - The Michigan Murders // 55

Episode Date: January 29, 2020

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What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Today's case is actually something I'm reading a book on which I'll go into a little bit more later. There's a lot of details in this case so we're gonna cover as much as we can but this is a long case. So before we get into it we wanted to give thanks to everyone who gave us a five-star review on Apple Podcast this week. Thank you so much to Whitney from Benton, Kentucky, Jasmine from Troy, New York, and Dee from California.

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If you were alive in 1969, you remember the serial murders. If not, you're about to hear a story that will scare you. 50 years ago, young women kept disappearing in broad daylight at the college towns of Ann Arbor and Ipsilanti. College students, high school students, even a middle school girl vanished. University officials both here and at the University of Michigan say that they really can't provide maximum protection for the girls Most of the girls were sliced throat for slice He was just Follow me home and you know I said no, no really. I'm okay And he said you mother ugly

Aren't you gonna get in the f**bor Ypsilanti area, and people of the area were terrified that they or their loved ones would be next. This case begins in Ypsilanti in the summer of 1967. Ypsilanti, Michigan, is a city just outside of Ann Arbor that, around this time, had a population of about 30,000 people. A 19-year-old named Mary Flesher went out for a walk to get some fresh air. She was living in an off-campus apartment just less than a mile

from her school, which was the Eastern Michigan University in Ipsilanti. Mary was born on December 4, 1947 in Ipsilanti, Michigan, but she grew up nearby in the town of Willis on her parents farm out in the country. She lived with her three sisters and three brothers and even her aunts and uncles and their kids and her grandparents lived on the farm as well. So everybody loved this because this was like a huge family environment. So there was always a lot of fun going on and Mary was surrounded by love. Her dad's main job was a mechanical engineer, but he also worked on the farm and her mom raised her in her siblings.

Mary went to Catholic school until high school where she began attending public school at Lincoln High. Mary loved listening to the Beatles and she loved sewing and painting as well. On July 9, 1967, it was a hot summer day and Mary Flesher told her roommate that she was going to go for a walk and that she would be back. At school, Mary was studying to become an accountant while she was simultaneously working as a secretary at the school's service office. When Mary left for her walk, she was wearing a bright orange tent dress with big white polka dots.

She was 5'5", and had brown hair and wore glasses. This would be the girl that the town of Ipsilanti would be looking for after this day. Because after she didn't return to her apartment that day, her parents were informed and they ended up calling police and reporting her missing. There was one person who stated they saw Mary the day that she went missing, and that was her neighbor. They told police later that they spotted her walking

towards her apartment, so likely on the way back from her walk, and there was a likely on the way back from her walk. And there was a blue-gray car slowly driving next to her. The driver stopped to talk to Mary and appeared to ask her a question, because the neighbor saw Mary shake her head no and continue walking. And that was all they saw. Considering she was close enough to her apartment to be seen by the neighbor, she was likely taken right after this sighting. So although this encounter sounds strange and a bit alarming, the

neighbor had decided to continue on with their business and stop watching. Something I'm sure they regretted later. Nearly one month later, two teenage boys came across a badly decomposing body on an old abandoned farm. Because of the state that the body was in, police had to wait for a medical examiner to identify them with dental records. And once they did, it was confirmed to be the body of 19-year-old Mary Flesher. She had been stabbed 30 times in her abdomen and chest, and her feet had been cut off. Her thumb was also missing, along with some of her other fingers on one of her hands, while

the other arm had been severed at the forearm and taken away from the scene. The coroner also determined that Mary had been beaten badly before her death due to the abrasions on her chest and her abdomen. Although there is no proof, police believed that she was likely raped. After studying the state of the decomposition and exposure as well as the abandoned farm, they were able to establish that Mary's body had been moved three times before it had been found. They think that she was first placed on bottles and cans by some trees where she wasn't

exposed to direct sunlight. Then she was dragged just a few feet away into an open field. Then the killer left the scene and at another date moved her body a few more feet away. And you just wonder why the killer did this. Each time they only moved it a few feet, so I mean what was the reason for it? I think that says a lot about the killer. Yeah well one thing that we know from that is that this killer was coming back to visit the crime scene, probably because it gave him pleasure in doing so, but I really don't

understand the moving of the body a few feet over. It's weird. This murder was incredibly gruesome, and it really shook the community. People didn't know what was coming next. But as time passed and no one else had been murdered in this brutal of a fashion, the town of Ipsilani started to believe that they were safe. But just less than a year after Mary's death on June 30, 1968, another young woman went missing. Her name was Joan Shell, and she was a 20-year-old girl

who also attended Eastern Michigan University to study art, and strangely enough, she only lived three blocks away from Mary. Born on December 1, 1947, and new Paris was consen, she spent a lot of her upbringing and life in Plymouth, Michigan before moving to Ipsilani to begin attending college. While in school, she worked part time in the student cafeteria. Joan was known to be a quiet, just worked part-time in the student cafeteria. Joan was known to be a quiet, just very well-liked young woman who was very close with her family. She was a gorgeous, stylish brunette who, on the day she disappeared, was on her way to Ann Arbor so she could visit her boyfriend. Her roommate Susan walked her to the bus stop

so she could take the 20-minute ride to Ann Arbor. Joan realized she missed her bus, so she decided to hitchhike, which obviously was more popular back then for girls this age. I think it's just more widely known to be a dangerous thing now, so less people do it, but... Yeah, definitely. I think back then it wasn't as scary because a lot of people didn't know of the dangers of hitchhiking, but now we do, and I think that the hitchhiking population has probably gone down. Exactly, so while Susan waited with Joan for about 45 minutes, a red and black Pontiac Bonneville with three young white men inside pulled up to them. Susan later stated that they seemed to be about their age and that the driver had dark hair. They asked the girls if they wanted a ride, and Joan said yes. Susan, again, is her roommate. She tried to convince her not to go. Probably

since there were three boys, and it didn't seem like the most trustworthy ride choice, but she won anyways. And the driver was wearing an Eastern Michigan University sweatshirt, so that probably put Joan a bit more at ease since they went to the same school. And Joan told Susan that she would call her when she got to her boyfriend's apartment. But nearly three hours passed and Susan hadn't gotten a single phone call. It was only supposed to be 20 or so minutes away. So within three hours, she definitely would have gotten there. And since Joan had gone off with three young men who were strangers, Susan called the police to file a report.

So five days later, on July 5, 1968, Joan Shell's body was found in a storm drain near the side of the road and Ann Arbor by construction workers. She had been raped and stabbed 25 times. Her carotid artery had been slashed due to her throat being cut along with her liver and her lungs had been punctured. Her skull was fractured and her blue mini skirt was tied around her neck. It was determined that Joan's body had been lying there for less than a day, despite the fact that she had been dead for about 5 days.

So this could have been another situation where the killer moved her body multiple times since she had been dead for days before she got to that final spot. Also, I wonder if the killer had put Joan's skirt around her neck or if she had done that. Because she had obviously been stabbed many times, but I wish that we knew if her mini skirt was tied in an attempt to strangle her or if she had been alive when the killer left her and maybe she put her skirt around her neck to stop the bleeding because we know the carotid artery was slashed which would cause her to bleed severely not to mention she'd been stabbed 25 times. It just doesn't seem like it makes very much sense why the killer would put it there

since he had slashed her neck so strangling would kind of be out of the question. Yeah I wish I can't I wish I knew that information as well. I don't really know just because he had moved the body. It seems like he had moved the body probably like the first victim Mary Flesher. I don't know if she would have been alive at that time to be able to put the mini skirt around her neck. She probably would have been dead by the time the body was moved the last time no i don't mean like her skirt around her neck when she got to the final resting place i mean like maybe he killed her and then left and she was still alive so she was like i have to stop the bleeding and she pulled up her skirt kind of thing because it just doesn't really make sense why he would do that yeah i give I give what you're saying. I totally get what you're saying. I don't really know. Now that police knew Joan was murdered and not just missing, they looked for every person in

the state of Michigan who owned a red and black vehicle. But there were about 150 of them, and they had Susan actually helped them narrow down the search since she had seen both the car and the driver. They found a few men who seemed to fit the description of the men Susan described, but remember, this is the late 60s. So they didn't have the same access as we do today as far as information and photos go. But after this, the lead went cold and no new information surfaced for nearly two months. In the end of summer 1968, a witness came forward and told police that they saw Joan Shell on the evening that she would have disappeared and that she had been walking with a young man. Both this witness and Joan's roommate Susan came up with a description of the men that they saw,

and it appeared to be the same kind of person. That's when the name John Norman Collins first came up. He was also a student at Eastern Michigan University, and at this time was around 21 years old. He was also an honors student, a football and baseball player, and Catholic. He was very much like an all-American guy, so although he didn't seem like he would be guilty of brutally murdering anybody, police brought him in for questioning. When asked if he knew Joan Shell, he said that he had never met her or even seen her and that he was in Detroit visiting his mom when she disappeared.

He also said that he had stayed with his mom until July 1st, which was the day after Joan went missing. Police didn't see him as a threat, and he seemed like a pretty nice guy who stayed relaxed during their conversation. So, they didn't even check out his alibi. They just believed what he said and decided to set their sights elsewhere. They also, of course, questioned Joan's 19-year-old boyfriend, Dale Schultz.

He was living near the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and working at a restaurant. He had been in the army and went AWOL, which peaked the police's interest. They gave him a polygraph test which he passed, and after questioning him, police didn't consider him a suspect. And they had actually questioned Dale before anyone else, and just two hours after they found Joan. When they told him what happened to her, they said he seemed shocked and very upset. He broke down into tears right away.

And even worse for him, police released him to military personnel since he had gone a wall and he was put in an army prison. So he finds out his girlfriend was brutally murdered and then because of that, he goes to prison for something unrelated. Copies of the composite sketch were dispersed all around the area, and a $15,000 reward was set up to be given to anyone who could provide information regarding the killer that would lead to an arrest. Since they knew that Jones' body had been moved, they also knew that wherever the murder

was committed, there would be a lot of blood. They just didn't know where to look. Again, months passed and things kind of tapered off until another body was found the following year in 1969. On March 20, 1969, so nearly nine months after Joan was murdered, another young woman disappeared. She was 23-year-old Jane Mixer, a University of Michigan law student who was incredibly intelligent and bright. She had posted on a bulletin board at her school asking if someone could give her a ride to Muskegan, which was her hometown located on the Lake Michigan shore. She was planning to go home to her family and tell them about her engagement to her boyfriend,

who was in graduate school at the time, and their plans to move to New York City. Jane told her parents that she was leaving Ann Arbor at 6 p.m. and that she would be home around 9.30 p.m. But when it was 11 p.m. and Jane still hadn't come home, her dad got into his car and started driving around looking for her. The next day, her body was found in Denton Cemetery. Denton Cemetery is in Belleville, Michigan, which is just outside Epsilonty. But since Jane was living in Ann Arbor, it was strange that she would end up in Belleville since it was 20 miles east. Especially since her hometown of Muskegon was 172 miles in the opposite direction.

On March 21, 1969, at around 10 a.m., a woman who lived just near the cemetery was on a walk, and she saw someone laying in the grass on a grave. It startled her because she didn't know why someone would be laying in a cemetery, so she decided to get a closer look. As soon as she saw that it was a young girl who appeared to be dead, her body was covered with a raincoat. She screamed and ran to her sister's house who was also nearby, so she could call the police.

The police arrived quickly on that chilly Michigan morning, and immediately noticed that the young woman had been shot in the head. But after examining the scene further, they noticed a lot of very strange details. Jane had been strangled with a pair of pantyhose, which were not hers, but she was also shot in the head twice, once in the front, and once in the back. Her pantyhose had been pulled down while her skirt was pulled up, yet there was no evidence of sexual assault at all. Like Daphne said, there was no evidence of sexual assault at all.

Like Daphne said, there was a raincoat laying on top of her body, and her arm was covering her face. Almost as if the killer was trying to maintain her modesty, there was a copy of Joseph Heller's best-selling novel Catch 22, lying next to her body. And I wonder if that was her book, or if that was supposed to be like message from the killer? Yeah, I kind of wish we knew that information. I, I mean I would reach to say that it was her book, but it very well could have been placed there as like a sign or some sort of mysterious message. Right. So the corner determined that Jane was murdered around 3 a.m. in a different location and

was then moved to the cemetery once she was deceased. When police checked Jane's dorm for any kind of evidence that could prove who she got a ride from, they opened her phone book to see a mark next to the name David Johnson, who was also a University of Michigan student. When they questioned him, he was quickly ruled out because of his airtight alibi, and he was actually acting in a play, so many people could confirm this. Her fiance Phil was mortified and shattered when he heard the news, and police questioned him as well, but didn't consider him a suspect either. And if anyone is interested in learning

more about Jane specifically, her sister Barbara's daughter is Maggie Nelson, who's a poet, and she wrote a beautiful book that's one of my all-time favorites. It's called Jane a Murder. It's a poetry book that kind of helps you get to know Jane a little bit more through her journal entries and through Maggie's representation of who she thinks Jane, her would-be aunt, was. And Maggie wrote a follow-up book called The Red Parts. That's about Jane's trial, and I'm reading that right now. The Red Parts isn't a poetry book,

it's more of like an autobiography and it's great. Jane's murder was very different from the other girls, but brutal nonetheless. And since there weren't a lot of horrific murders against young college girls in the area, police believed that they were all connected. Both Mary and Joan had been stabbed while Jane was shot and strangled. And while it appeared that Mary and Joan were sexually assaulted, Jane was not. But they still believed that they were all committed by the same person. Since it took place in the very same area and again, they were all young, beautiful, brunette, college girls.

Just four days after Jane's body was found, yet another body was discovered in the area. It was 16-year-old Marilyn Skeleton, who was just in high school when she disappeared while hitchhiking in Ann Arbor. So these girls already have another thing in common. They were all looking for a ride. Well, except Mary who had been on a walk, but still she was on the road nonetheless. Marilyn was last seen outside a restaurant just two days before her body was found

by a crew who was working on a house on the property, which was just about 400 yards away from where Jones' body had been found. Her body was found nude and her head had been so badly beaten that one third of her skull was shattered. There was a shirt jammed into her throat and a garter belt was around her neck. She had been sexually assaulted with a tree branch and there were signs that she had

been whipped with a leather strap. Her body had no identification on it, so police had no idea who she was. They started looking at missing people in the area and quickly found a flyer for a teenage girl named Marilyn Skeleton. She hadn't shown up to meet her friend and she also hadn't shown up for an appointment that she had at Eastern Michigan University, so she was reported missing by her parents. Police made the connection between the missing girl and the poster to the body they found and broke the heartbreaking news to her family. The injuries that Maryland subdued were the worst that one of the investigators had ever seen in his 30 years of police work.

So bad that during her funeral, they had to tilt her head to one side so that they could cover up the damage that she sustained. So now the police were dealing with a real issue. More bodies were turning up, and they had virtually no evidence whatsoever about who exactly was committing these horrific crimes against young women in the area?

But luckily, they were taking it very seriously, and 20 investigators were assigned to work the case. Here's a list of what they knew. All the girls except Jane Mixer had been beaten before they died. They were all found in the same general area. They were all brunette, white, and young. They all, again, except Jane Mixer, had their throats cut or had some sort of knife wound to their necks. They all had a clothing article of sorts tied around their neck, and they were all menstruating when they died,

which is just an odd coincidence. Since Jane Mixer's death was the only one that seemed a bit different than the others, please begin to believe that she may have been killed by someone who was trying to copy this killer. But they didn't have evidence to prove it. So they felt at least three of the four murders were done by the same person. Just about two weeks later, on April 16, 1969, the body of 13-year-old Don Louise Bassam was found on a deserted road in Ipsilanti. So now we have a victim whose 10 years younger than one of the other victims, which really brought in this whole case.

The killer wasn't just targeting college girls anymore. Even though Marilyn Skeleton wasn't in college, she did have a meeting on campus, so she may have been confused as a college student. Don was in eighth grade in middle school at the time of her death and had spent her last night walking home from her friend's house after they all hung out for a while. She walked with her other friend about halfway before they went their separate ways, and then Don just had about five blocks to go until she would have reached her house in Ipsilanti. This all happened around 7.30 pm, so it wasn't too late, and since it was April, it wasn't dark outside yet, but the sun was setting. When she didn't come home

that night, her mom reported her missing, and she was found dead the following day. Don had been stabbed in the chest and genitals multiple times, and her body had been slashed in many different places. But her cause of death was strangulation by an electrical cord that was found knotted around her neck. Her bra had also been tied around her neck, and a hanker chip was found stuffed down her throat. She only had a blouse on when they found her and the rest of her was nude.

So her death was very similar to 16-year-old Maryland's who had been killed just a couple weeks prior. Police searched the area and found Don's orange sweater in an abandoned barn, and it bore blood stains. There was also a piece of an electrical cord found there, so police believed that this was the other part of the one that was around her neck, and that she had been murdered in that barn. A little less than three months later, a sixth victim would be found in a field near the farmhouse that Dawn had been killed in. Three teenage boys had discovered the partially nude body of 21-year-old Alice Elizabeth Kaelum, who was a student at the University of Michigan.

And, I just wanted to state some things so no one's confused. The University of Michigan is in Ann Arbor, and the Eastern Michigan University is a different college that's in Ypsilanti. So some of the victims went to one college and some went to the other, but they're just about 15 to 20 minutes away from each other, so it's all very close. Alice was a fine arts graduate student who originally was from Indiana, and on the night of Saturday June 7th, 1969, she went to her musician friend's house to celebrate their birthday. She was last seen dancing the night away at the party until around midnight. Alice's partially nude body was found in Ann Arbor and a field of tall grass two days later at around 4pm. She had suffered multiple stab wounds to her body, one of which severed her spine.

One of her thumbs had been shot off, which police believe occurred when she was trying to defend herself by holding up her hands hands and she had been raped. Again, no evidence had been left at the scene and the police had no leads. There were no witnesses to any of these crimes and the only lead that they had was the description of the driver of the car that Joan Shell had gotten into, thanks to her friend Susan, along with the witness who spotted Joan walking with a young man. But other than that, police didn't have any solid leads. Women in the area, especially young women and college students, began carrying knives and pepper spray and they tried not to hitchhike.

The news was everywhere, so people were being much more cautious of their surroundings. At this point, there was a $42,000 reward being offered to put this killer to rest once and for all. Meanwhile, police looked into over 1,000 sex offenders in the general area and followed up on hundreds and hundreds of tips, but each one led them to a dead end. There was even a group of Michigan businessmen who raised money in order to hire an LA psychic to travel to Michigan and develop a profile of this killer. I don't know if this guy was really well known, maybe he's the best in the biz, but I would assume so if they flew out from California. But the psychic felt that the killer was a muscular white male under the age of 25 who was born outside

of the US. He stated that he wrote a motorcycle and even told the police that the killer would strike one more time and that it would be soon. In the psychic from LA, his name was actually Peter Herkos and he had worked on finding clues for the Manson family murders as well as the Boston Strangler case. Okay, so he was the best in the biz. Basically, yeah, he had worked on some very big cases before he jumped on the Michigan murders case. And I think it's pretty cool that complete strangers who just had money decided to do this to try and save this community

because these young women, I mean, as you can tell so far, were brutally murdered and it was just scaring this town. I mean, they had nothing to go off of. So the fact that these strangers were just like, we're gonna bring this psychic in and see what he can do to help was really cool. Right, and I know how a lot of our listeners, I mean, not all of them, but some of our listeners probably feel about psychics and maybe don't believe in that or whatnot. But at this point in time, investigators really had no leads, so people around the area were doing literally anything that they could do to try and solve this case. I feel like a lot of people who don't believe in psychics feel like they can use psychics

as a last resort to just kind of see. Actually, Heath and I last night we watched this movie from 2000 with Kate Blanchett and Keanu Reeves it's called the gift and Basically the main character Kate Blanchett. She's a psychic and her fortune teller whatever they call her in the movie and They use her for help in a murder case and like the the sheriff doesn't really believe in what she does, but even he's like, okay, let's see what she can do. So I mean, I think it's kind of like Mayaswell try it. Right, especially if you've got really nothing to go on, you might as well try that. Too bad in that movie, Keanu Reeves is actually a bad guy. We love you Keanu.

The last victim in this case was 18-year-old Karen Sue Beniman. She was a student at Eastern Michigan University in Ipsilanti. She was last seen at a local wig shop where she had picked up a hair piece and one of the clerks remembered seeing her leave and getting on the back of a young man's motorcycle. And that's really areas well that the psychic had said the last victim would die very soon and that the killer roto motorcycle because up to this point there was no evidence or like any piece of information that made anyone believe that the killer roto motorcycle at all. Yeah, there was no mention of any motorcycle by any of the witnesses or anyone else.

Yeah, anyone who saw anything like the neighbor with Mary, the neighbor had seen a car pull up to Mary and same thing with Joan, with the Pontiac, that Susan saw, so we're always talking about cars. So the fact that the psychic brought up a motorcycle is weird. Well, and it's also kind of crazy because we have three different vehicles used during out, during this string of murders. So we have the blue and gray car, the red and black car, and now we have three different vehicles used during this string of murders, so we have the blue and gray car, the red and black car, and now we have this motorcycle coming into play. So Karen disappeared about two to three weeks after Alice was killed, and Karen's roommate was

the one to report her missing when she didn't show up for their dorm curfew. Especially with all the horrifying news circling the area, her roommate immediately was worried that something had happened to her. And three days later, she was found nude about 30 miles north of Ipsilanti along the Haran River Parkway. Her cause of death was strangulation, but she had also endured multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to her head and face. She had chemical burns on her body and even inside her throat after the killer had likely made her ingest some kind of toxic substance.

Karen had been raped and a hankerchief stuffed down her throat like many of the other victims. Unlike in the other murders, though, there was seaman found on her. There was also some small blonde hair clippings found there, but Karen was brunette, so this stood out to investigators. And the really unfortunate thing about this is that there was Seaman found at the scene, but back then there was no DNA testing, they didn't have the ability to test that Seaman, and because if they could have, I'm sure they would have been able to catch him. Because remember, this is the late 60s, so there may have been semen found at the other scenes, but maybe it was harder to identify, but that's kind of the unfortunate thing, but also the great thing about us having this DNA technology today.

After this murder, the police conducted a news blackout. The reason that they did this was because they wanted to try and trick the killer. And this was actually really smart on their part, because they knew that he was the kind of killer who liked to return to the scene and move the body. So they decided to take Karen's body away from the scene and replace it with a mannequin. Then they planned to stake out the area and try and catch the killer, who they were now calling the Ipsilanti Ripper and the Coed Killer. Not to be mistaken with Ed Kemper, the Coed Killer. Yeah, so basically this guy was the original Coed killer. The following morning at around 2 a.m., an investigator spotted someone running through

the scene during a rainstorm, but the officer couldn't immediately report the sighting due to a bad radio connection from the storm. While some investigators staked out the crime scene, a couple others went over to the wig shop to get more information from the clerk. The owner of the shop, whose name was Diana, had also seen the man. She said that he had dark hair and was waiting outside for Karen to come out. She had accepted the ride from him before she even entered the store, so while Karen was in the store, she actually told the owner, I've got to be either the bravest

or the dumbest girl alive because I've just accepted a ride from this guy. So that gave the owner the impression that Karen didn't know this young man, but that he had approached her on her way into the shop. And I think it's really interesting that she said that I wonder if she said that because of all the murders that were happening, so saying, she's got to be dumb to accept a ride from this guy because there's a killer out there like I wonder, I wonder what exactly she meant by that. I'm kind of assuming that that's what she meant, just because there was so much chaos going

on in this area, this small area of Michigan at that time. Which makes it even crazier that it turned out to be the killer, because obviously she felt safe enough about him and accepting a ride from him that she didn't think he would be the killer. Right, and what are the chances? I mean, it may have been possible that people in this area had a rough description of the killer, but what are the chances that it would actually end up being him? Right, and the only real description we had was after Jones' death when she had taken a ride from a young man, but they didn't know if the young man had dropped her off an Ann Arbor and she was

killed by somebody else, so they really didn't know who this guy was. So I mean, especially with Karen taking a ride from a young college student, she didn't think that that would be bad, which makes sense. I mean, someone your age who seems like a nice guy, it makes sense that she wouldn't seem threatened. I suppose I just don't know what the reason would be for her to say that about herself. Yeah, I agree with that, especially if you're going to say, why I must be really dumb to take a ride from this guy means that there's a potential risk.

Yeah, definitely. And obviously we're not trying to victim shame anybody. She took the ride, and I'm sure a lot of people would have taken that ride, but it is very tragic to hear that she had thought it was kind of risky and it ended up being that way. Right, and that's what I meant by saying that I understand that she would, and we'll get more into this when we talk

more about the identity of the killer, but I mean, it makes sense that she felt safe by this young college student, because she herself was a young college student. So after hearing the description of the young man from the Wig Shop owner, the officer immediately thought of John Norman Collins, the guy who had been questioned after Jones murder, but he had told police that he was visiting his mom

in Detroit that weekend. Apparently, he was known to ride motorcycles around campus. When police brought him in for questioning, he admitted to have been on his motorcycle that day Karen disappeared. But he had an apparent alibi yet again. He said he had been visiting his ex-girlfriend. So the officer took photos of John over to the Wig Shop owner Diana to see what she thought. And as soon as she saw the photo, she knew that was the guy she had seen outside

her shop on a motorcycle with Karen. So, at this point, they only had circumstantial evidence on him, but they also used this opportunity to watch him and see if they could catch him slipping. They also started questioning people who knew John, and they got back some interesting stories. Some people told the officers that John was very aggressive towards women and had even raped a schoolmate who rejected him. His former friend, brother, stated that he was a thief, and even his co-worker said he talked about the murders. Just a day after Karen's body was found, the Wig Shop owner positively identified John once again, but this time it was in a police lineup. John didn't want to take a polygraph test and continued to deny his involvement

in the crimes. John's roommate, whose name was Emmett, went to police later that day and told them that he had seen John leaving their apartment carrying a box covered with a blanket. He said that the box contained a woman's purple shoe, rolled up denim, and a purse. And when John came back later, he didn't have a box with him. It's important to note here that John Norman Collins was the nephew of police sergeant David Lake.

But sergeant Lake wasn't trying to cover up anything for John. He didn't know if his nephew was involved, but John had told police that the only reason he knew about the murders was because his uncle told him details, which the sergeant outright denied. Two days later, sergeant Lake had returned home from vacation with his wife. While they were gone, they asked John to house it for them. But when they got back, they noticed that washing powder, black spray paint, and ammonia had been taken from their home.

Along with the missing items, they noticed multiple paint marks on their basement floor. That's when Sargent Lake found out that his colleagues were investigating his nephew. Also, I forgot to mention earlier that when Alice died she was missing a shoe and she was wearing purple shoes. So that's really important when Emma is describing that there was a purple shoe in that box. I don't know if it matched. I never ended up finding that out but that's just really interesting because not many people were purple shoes. So after Sergeant Lake found out that his colleagues were looking at his nephew, he started to become a little bit suspicious about the paint stains and the missing cleaning products.

He had his colleagues come by and test some suspicious looking stains in his basement, and they turned out to be blood. And I just want to kind of commend the sergeant for doing this because you know his nephew is watching his house. He notices something weird and he also knows that his nephew is now a potential suspect in a multi-murder case. So I feel like for him to say, hey, he watched my house and now suddenly there's these weird stains on the floor and there's some cleaning products missing. I'm getting a little suspicious. And for him to have the police come check it out is really cool instead of just turning a blind eye and saying, oh, this is my family member.

I can't, you know, turn them in like this kind of thing. Yeah. And we see that happen in a lot of different cases where there's the son of a wealthy man or the son of a wealthy man or the son of a police chief or something similar like that. And a lot of times I think that there is evidence covered up, but in this case, the sergeant did what was right.

Especially because this was such a big deal. I mean, now there is a confirmation that there is blood found in the basement that wasn't there before the sergeant and his family went on vacation, and the only person who was supposed to be in the house was John Norman Collins. So I think that, I mean, this really cracked it open, and if it wasn't for the sergeant telling them about this suspicion, then maybe it wouldn't have gone anywhere. So going back to the basement, police also noticed some small-blonde hair clippings, which

turned out to be from the haircut that Sergeant Lake's wife gave their children before they left for vacation. The hair samples appeared to be the very same that were found at the scene of Karen's murder. When they tested the small blood stains on the basement floor, it was determined that they were type A, which was the same blood stains on the basement floor, it was determined that they were type A, which was the same blood type as Karen. And again, this was 1969, so they couldn't actually test it against her real blood confirming that it was the same, but this is as close as a match

as they could get in this day and age. Right, there's only so many different blood types, so being able to at least identify that it was the same was a step closer. And with the hair clipping thing, like we had stated, she was a brunette and these little pieces of hair, you know, when you cut your hair, you got these little pieces of hair, like these little cuts. Right. Those were found on her body and they were found in the basement. That's just like what are the odds? They're slim to none. Yeah, exactly. Police again had questioned John and told him what they had found in his uncle's basement, and he immediately broke down into tears. Then he calmed down and told police that he knew nothing about Karen's death, but police had enough evidence to arrest him. So on July 29, 1969, just six days after Karen's body was found, and over two years after Mary, his first victim had been murdered, John Norman Collins was arrested. But just for the murder of Karen Sue Beniman, since that was the only evidence that

they had at the time. After the news of his arrest hit the streets, multiple young women called into police and stated that John had been aggressive with them after he offered them a ride and they rejected him. Right, and I mean luckily those women didn't get in the car with him, but that kind of gives you a glimpse of his anger and I don't know why multiple women would lie about this because so many people before this also in the police interviewed his friends and I don't know why multiple women would lie about this because so many people before this also in the police interviewed his friends and classmates and stuff also said that he was aggressive towards women So this really aligns in the story

So it's kind of strange that he would play this whole nice guy Hey, can I give you a ride and then when he was turned down? He just immediately flipped and got super angry and aggressive down, he just immediately flipped and got super angry and aggressive. John Norman Collins was born on June 17, 1947 in center line Michigan to his mother Loretta since his dad was completely out of the picture. Loretta married a man shortly after and John took his last name, but the marriage didn't last long at all since he was very abusive and an alcoholic.

So Loretta divorced him by the time John was just four years old. John was always known to be very shy and polite as a kid, and he loved playing sports. He was raised in a Catholic household, and he was an honor student, along with being Tri-Captain of the football team, President of the C club, which is an organization devoted to building a better community, and he was a star pitcher on the baseball team. So this is a very promising young man who could have achieved greatness, but he had his demons. And Heath and I had a whole debate about this a couple days ago because it's

pretty shocking that all these horrific things were done by someone who seems so unsuspecting. And for those of you who aren't driving, go to our Instagram at Going West Podcast or our Twitter at Going West Pod and check out the photos of him. I hate to say this because of what he's done, but he's almost handsome or at least charming enough looking to where you might feel like you could trust him. I mean, you would never look at him and assume that he would be a killer or a rapist and going back to what we were saying about Karen getting on his motorcycle, he just looks like someone you could trust. Like I said earlier,

he's like an all-American boy. He doesn't look like he would ever do something as horrific as the things that we mention, which just makes his whole thing so much scarier. And I know that this is somewhat speculation, but I feel like killers who, when they're younger, maybe aren't attractive or aren't popular or are kind of loners. Those are the ones that feel like they're getting back at the world for being so mean to them, so to speak. But I feel like in John Norman Collins case, he was a good-looking guy, you know, he was an athlete, he was an honor student, so in my opinion this is kind of open and shut narcissism because I feel like when you're a good looking kid And you have everything going for you and you start committing murders

I think in my mind to me it tells me that you're trying to prove that you are God or better than the police or smarter than the community And I'm not a psychologist, but I think it also does go back to his childhood Which I think every killer we can look back at their childhood and say something You know his dad was totally out of the picture and a lot of people will say that men or boys need their father Kind of thing and he didn't have a father figure and the only one that he did was an abusive alcoholic So I feel like that probably affected him a lot to the point where like you said he's a narcissist He's like I'm handsome. I can get whatever I want I'm talented la la la and that also makes sense to why he would get so angry when women would reject him you know like what do you mean you're rejecting

me kind of thing? Yeah exactly like you're rejecting this good looking young guy who's offering you a ride I totally get that and I'm not like I'm not a psychologist either, and I'm not trying to say that I'm right about this, but in this sense, I mean, he really had a lot of things going for him. I totally agree with you. Yeah, and you know, maybe a lot of this anger and a lot of this hatred really does stem back to his mother being in abusive relationships with men who were alcoholics. And John was a very popular guy, and girls seemed to actually really like him until they got to know him. Many stated that John seemed very respectful and nice, but when it came down to it, he was extremely aggressive,

especially when it came to sex. He was very angry. So, centerline is just outside of Detroit, but when it came time for college, John decided to head over to Ipsilani and study education at Eastern Michigan University. He joined the Theta Chi fraternity, became the president of the ski club, and played a ton of other sports at school. But after someone had suspected him of stealing from the fraternity, he was forced to leave. At this time, he was also working part-time on campus as a clerk. John had a petty criminal record before he ever committed murder.

He had stolen a ton of parts for his four motorcycles, and although cheating isn't a crime, he had been caught cheating a couple times in college and became short on credits, but John didn't seem to really mind having to stay in school longer because of it. At the time of his arrest, he was only 22 years old, and in many of the photos you'll find of him in handcuffs, he's smiling big for the camera. And this says a lot to me too.

There's also a picture that I saw there, Polaroids of him taking at the station, and he literally is looking at the camera with a big smile on his face, which I just, no one in this said would do that. Yeah, that screams attention secret to me. It seems like. Yes. Exactly, he wants people to see him in handcuffs.

He wants the media to be there. I mean, he already knows that he's pretty much going down for these crimes, so for him to get as much attention out of the situation as he can, he's knows that he's pretty much going down for these crimes, so for him to get as much attention Out of the situation as he can, he's gonna do it. There was one more murder that police believed John was behind On June 30th, 1969, so over a month before John was arrested, a 17-year-old girl and Salinas, California, named Roxy Anne Phillips, was murdered. girl and Salinas California named Roxy Ann Phillips was murdered. Someone contacted investigators in Salinas to state that they believed a Michigan man named John had killed Roxy. And that's when police contacted the investigators working on the

Michigan murders. One of Roxy's friends had told police that Roxy told her she had started talking to a young man named John who was a student at Eastern Michigan University. At that time, he was visiting the area which is how they met. The friend also stated that she heard from Roxy that he drove an old-smobile cutless. Turns out on June 21st, so nine days before Roxy was found dead, John and his roommate Andrew had traveled across country to Monterey, California Which is just 20 miles from Salinas in John's olds mobile cutlass. He and Roxy had met two days before she was found dead The friend also mentioned that he was supposedly around 5'11 Clean cut and had dark brown hair hair which sounds exactly like John Norman Collins.

And she even mentioned that he wanted to be a teacher which we know that John was attending EMU to study education. Police question Andrew about this and he denied knowing anything about Roxie's death. There was no evidence to indict John Norman Collins for Roxie's murder but it's heavily believed that he was behind it. And even scarier when we talk about the fact that John was trying to get into education, he was actually trying to become a kindergarten teacher.

No. Could you even imagine this guy, this multiple murderer becoming your child's kindergarten teacher, what a horrifying thought. I've never heard a case about a killer being a teacher or wanting to be a teacher, have you? I mean, I'm sure there's a bunch out there. I haven't heard of any specifically, but I'm sure there are some. I'm sure. Well, actually, the reason I bring that up at Heath, like, read me the list of the most popular jobs for serial killers, it's really interesting to read that, by the way.

But obviously, teacher is a horrifying job because you're surrounded by kids all day long. I mean, that's scary. Yeah, and surprisingly on that list, police and security guards and military personnel were on that list, which makes a lot of sense. I mean, if you were a killer, that's what you'd want to be, you know? Yeah, you'd have a lot of opportunity that way. On August 14, 1969, John attended his pre-trial hearing in Ipsilanti, where it was determined that there was enough probable cause to put him on trial for Karen Benemons' murder, and remember Karen is the last victim who had likely met John outside of the Wig Shop. The following year, on June 2nd, 1970, the trial began. The prosecutor stated their beliefs that John had taken Karen to his uncle's house,

where he tortured, battered, and strangled her to death before moving and disposing of her body. Several witnesses testified in trial, saying that they saw John doing something suspicious or they experienced him acting out in anger or aggression. There were 47 witnesses. The last witness was a chemistry professor who analyzed the hair samples found on Karen's body versus the ones found in the basement. He explained how remarkably similar they were, and again, like we said, there wasn't good enough DNA technology available at this time to actually prove it, but this man who is a professional looked at the samples and to him they looked the same. So the trial went on for about two and a half months, and this was just for the one murder, remember. On August 19th, 1970, after 27 hours of deliberation total for the jury, John was found guilty of the first degree murder of Karen Benhamon.

It was stated that he didn't express any emotion when this verdict was read while his mom and sister burst into tears in the audience. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And while this all was happening, a grand jury was attempting to extra-dite John Norman Collins to California for Roxy Phillips murder, because they actually had the most physical and circumstantial evidence connecting him to this murder

than any of the other ones that we mentioned in this story. But since he had just received a life sentence in Michigan, they also didn't think that his case deserved priority over others in the state. So they waved the extradition proceedings. For years, John didn't want to be interviewed by the media until around six years later when he requested an interview with the Ann Arbor News. He stated that he was innocent and the jury was just biased. In November 2019, they discovered a DNA match on Alice

Calum's clothes. She was the sixth victim. Around this time, it was also discovered that John had written his cousin two letters back in 2013 detailing the murders and basically stating his guilt. But he later denied that he ever said these things. But his story also changed, and he stated in an interview that he had taken Alice on a motorcycle ride, but that he didn't kill her. And Karen was the one outside the wig shop who we know that he took on a motorcycle ride. So he's now saying that he took Alice on one too, but that he didn't kill her. And then he also said that he had met Karen before she died, but that he didn't actually kill her. So either way, he changed his story, which is always very suspicious. Police always had a feeling that the death of 23-year-old

Eastern Michigan University lost student Joan Mixer didn't quite fit with the other murders, and they were right. In 2005, a 62-year-old man named Gary Leiterman, who was a nurse, was convicted of killing Jane Mixer after a DNA match was made. When Jane's crime scene was being examined, there were two conflicting samples, so Gary's DNA had been matched after he had entered the system after getting arrested for forging a prescription for opiates since he was addicted to pills. And the other sample was a drop of blood found on Jane's hand. The weird thing is that the blood matched the DNA of a man named

John Ruless, who was a convicted killer that murdered his mom. But when Jane's murder took place, John was only 4 years old. So, people think that he may have come across the crime scene and blood on her, and he was known to be a nose bleeder as a kid. Other than the DNA match, Gary's old roommate stated that, at the time of the murder, Gary was an avid hunter and even owned a 22 caliber gun. The same kind Jane was killed with. And Gary never admitted his guilt. I think he pled not guilty.

He still went to prison for it, but he didn't admit to killing Jane at all or give any details about her murder. But you can read more about this trial and the death of Jane Mixer in the book The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson, who again is Jane's sister Barbara's daughter, so she would have been Jane's niece. John Norman Collins is currently still serving his life sentence at the Marquette Branch Prison in Michigan, where he maintains his innocence in the Michigan murders. One major thing that I'm confused about

is how they haven't gotten John for more DNA comparison, because in Alice's death, there was semen found. Yet I didn't find anywhere in my research that it matched John's DNA or anyone else's. So obviously when the murders occurred, they couldn't do the DNA testing, but they still collected a lot of evidence that could be tested today, just like they did with Gary Leaderment,

because with Gary what happened was they had entered the DNA into the system when the system was created, and then when Gary's DNA was put, because they had to take a swab of his mouth when he was arrested, so what they did was they put that swab of DNA into the system and it came up as a match for the DNA that was found on Jane's body. So you would assume that that would have happened with John as well for the DNA that they did collect. And I know that for a lot of the murders they said, oh, there was no DNA found. But for the murders where there was like like IE, the semen,

I don't know what happened with that. And I looked into this specifically for a while. And I couldn't find it. If anyone else has researched this case, I mean, I know there are books on it. This case has so much information. We could cover like four episodes on this case alone, but I couldn't personally find,

in the research I did this week. Anything about this specific thing. It's strange to me that he was only found guilty for the one murderer and they didn't really even try to go after him and try him for these other murders. Well, it was just because they only had circumstantial evidence. I mean, the same thing with Jane Mixer, because we know that that was done by somebody else. So technically, the other murders could have been done by somebody else too. So it's not like they can say,

oh well, we got him for this one. So obviously he did all the other ones because they didn't have any hard evidence of that like they had the blood and the hair clippings for Karen. Right, but what I guess what I'm saying is if he had explained that he had given Alice a ride on his motorcycle, I think that maybe they should have taken another look at that

and maybe just tried to see if maybe there was any other evidence that they could test. And like I said, I mean, if you're gonna change your story, that's textbook suspicious. And if you're even gonna change your story and say, oh, And if you're even going to change your story and say, Oh, I did meet these girls before they were murdered. Like that doesn't happen. You don't just happen to meet these two girls and then have all these other ties. Like, no, you did this. Right. I'm a convicted killer. And I met these other victims who were

murdered, but I didn't kill those other victims, which I guess I understand with the Jane Mixer case, that was kind of like honestly like a stick thrown in the spokes because I think that kind of threw investigators off at the time. In my opinion, in my mind, he's guilty of these other murders. What I do wonder though with Joan Shell's murder, so she was the one who was hitchhiking,

and she had gotten into the Red and Black Pontiac, according to her roommate Susan. And I wonder, so they had originally found John Norman Collins after this when they were looking at everyone in the state of Michigan who was a registered owner of a Red and Black Car. That kind of tells us that it is very likely that he actually did pick up Joan, but there were two other guys in the car. So I wonder if that was indeed John why these other guys didn't come forward and say I was in the car with John and maybe they weren't a part of the murder, but they at least knew, hey, that girl got into John's car. And at first I thought when I

was originally researching this, I thought, oh, maybe that wasn't him. And at first I thought when I was originally researching this, I thought, oh, maybe that wasn't him. And he did bring her to Ann Arbor and just drop her off. But now knowing that he had the same kind of car, it's, it had to have been John who picked her up, but then who are these other two dudes and why didn't they come forward. And I've thought about that as well. And there's a couple different scenarios that play in my mind Possibly they were worried about being implicated in the murder and then the second one is that It's possible that they were involved or had information or knew about the murder But we don't really know because we don't have any evidence of this We don't have any statements by these two boy other boys that were in the car

So I guess we'll probably never know. Well, that's a good point actually because if they were involved or it weren't accomplices in some way, then they would have gotten in trouble. So, you know, we hear about this all the time. People knowing about crimes are having seen it, but don't want to talk about it or say anything because they don't want to get in trouble themselves. But it's like, this is what police make deals with people for.

Like, give us the information and you'll get off. And if they would have done that, assuming that this was John in the car and that his two friends knew about it, then so many women wouldn't have died. Right, and I have to think in my mind that the two guys that were in the car knew John to a certain extent. So it's not like they were dropped off before John was dropped off, and then they just never heard about the string of murders happening or hear about John's trial.

They had to have known why didn't they come forward. And then also going back to the very first victim who is Mary, the neighbor had seen her walking back to her apartment and that there was a grayish car driving next to her. So I know that John had four motorcycles which makes me think that maybe he was like a autom, like an, what is the word guy? Yeah, he was a car guy, he was a motorcycle guy, he was a mechanic guy. Yeah, which makes it seem not surprising that maybe he also had a gray car. I mean, I wish that's something we knew too. Maybe that information's out there, not that I saw, but that would be good to know, because what if he did have a gray car, then that would tie this up even more.

But it's possible that that gray car wasn't connected to Mary's death. But then you think about it in that short distance of her walking to her apartment, to where her neighbors saw her. Obviously, she wasn't far away. It would make sense. I really wish the neighbor didn't look away, but it's not their fault. They didn't know. From what I heard, Mary had actually turned the corner out of the view of the neighbor,

and so at that point, the neighbor wasn't really going to go chase after this girl to figure out what was going on. So in my mind, it could have been somebody else in this great car and then she was picked up by John around the corner or taken by John who knows. There's just so many details to this case and I think just this has to point to John, but our condolences go out to all the victims and their families in this horrifying, horrifying case. Thank you so much everybody for listening to the longest episode yet of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everyone for sticking around

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