In college, he drank beer, joined Theta Chifraternity and dated often. Living with Mom, and then moved into the basement of his uncle's house. The rookie cop soon found out his football fraternity's rival: it was John Norman Collins. John Norman Collins eventually found his way into a Washtenaw County, Michigan, courtroom. In an email to the Free Press sent this week, Collins maintainshe is innocent. Her birthday was on Christmas, and she sought toget into U-M's graduate school for social work. Butback then, DNA profiling didn't exist, and authorities only proved Collins killed 18-year-old Karen Beineman. [36], The victim was identified as a 16-year-old Romulus[37] high school student named Maralynn Skelton, who had disappeared while hitchhiking in Ann Arbor. She also orchestrated the evidence locker. 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. Investigators determined the knife was consistent with the weapon used to stab Kalom. [119], In November, Ryan, in an effort to determine the most effective defense strategy, persuaded Collins to undergo a private and independent polygraph test. It was a travesty of justice that took place in this courtroom. dear retrokimmer & brother, I dearly love that you did this memorial to the poor victims of that sadistic monster,My father & I were going to do this very thing, but Then I got very badly injured,and couldn't finish our memorial, (there;s next year) fine job thank you for remembering the girls !!!!! More often than not, we continue on our, On this edition of 89.1 WEMUS "Hidden In Plain Sight," our own Lisa Barry takes you to a west side Ann Arbor shoe store that first opened downtown in, Being a mom is hard, regardless of who you are or what your background may be. [123] Judge Conlin set a trial date of June 1. I wasn't until our LAST VISIT together that I told her the WHOLE STORY. 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. She was never seen alive again. 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. Dr. Jervis testified as to his belief that insufficient chemical samples had existed in the samples retrieved from the basement which the prosecution scientists had worked with to form their conclusions, and that to form a conclusive neutron activation analysis, at least ten components in a hair sample must be compared, whereas only five components had been used by the prosecution's forensics experts to determine their findings. She supported herself by waiting tables at a Detroit restaurant. I didn't even know his name at the time," Larry said. [106] Collins had later returned to Michigan alone in his vehicle; Manuel would later be located in Arizona following Collins' arrest. Buton June 7, 1969, she went out to a party in Ann Arbor and never came home. Found as a mass of rotting flesh. He writeshe ran into Beineman, "she SMILED AT ME and WAVED her hand." [75], The 47th and final witness to appear for the prosecution at Collins' trial was a University of California chemistry professor named Dr. Vincent P. Guinn, who testified on August 5 as to his conclusions that the hair samples retrieved from Beineman's panties bore "a remarkable similarity" to those retrieved from the Leik household and that, upon statistical calculations he had begun the previous month, the odds of erroneous matching of the hair samples earlier testified to by Walter Holz were quite low. Collins, now known as John Chapman, proclaims his innocence to this day. In a final address to the jury on August 14, Judge Conlin informed the panel they had two choices in the verdict they could render: Guilty of first-degree murder, or not guilty. And to your new HOME! This is part two of our Michigan Murders series. [28][n 1], Four days after the discovery of Mixer's body, on March 25, a surveyor discovered the nude, mutilated body of a teenage girl lying upon a blue jacket behind a vacant house on a remote, rural section of Earhart Road,[30] just a few hundred yards from where the body of Joan Schell had been discovered eight months previously. John Collins grew up in Center Line, north of Detroit. Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. [68], Mindful of the fact the killer had evidently returned to sites of his previous murders to move the bodies, possibly in a sexual ritual, police theorized he may also attempt to return to this latest crime scene. Karen had left to walk to a wig shop in downtown Ypsilanti, yet she arrived on the back of a motorcycle. Maryann Struman is Freep Now director at the Detroit Free Press and project leader. [48], Investigators found no definite evidence Basom had been subjected to a sexual assault prior to her murder. He once told a girl that he had strangled a cat with a clothesline. Sheri, I grew up in Farmington and in 1978 Timmy King the last victim of the Oakland county child killer was found a mile from my home SO yes I understand how life was scary MY world stopped that day of my innocents Im still haunted by that.. The DNA evidence, combined with what Collins said in his prisoninterviews with detectives and what he wrote in never-before-published letters to his second cousin in Canada,refocused attention on Collins as a suspectin some of the unsolved cases. 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. [49] Sales of tear gas, knives, and security locks increased,[64] hitchhiking became a rarity among students, and the reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer increased to $42,000 (the equivalent of about $341,046 as of 2023[update]). 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. Collins rented a room on the second floor of a Ypsilanti building on Emmet Street. 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. I remember the day they began to extract evidence from Collins apartment and car just down the streetvery, very spooky Geez! Evaluation of individual will and moral restraints within society, written by Collins while enrolled at Eastern Michigan University. Hetook her there, waited for her and then, they ended up at his uncles house. I was in Ypsi when all this was happening. "I was on patrol the afternoon of the 23rd of July, and turned the corner down by Sill Hall on the campus and there was John Collins. Moreover, a psychologist retained by the defense had testified as such on April 20, 1970. [127], The prosecutors at Collins' trial, William Delhey and Booker Williams, opted to charge Collins only with the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, with the state contending that she had been murdered by Collins in the basement of the Leik household. In 1970, John Collins was tried for the murder of Karen Beineman. ". It would seem unlikely he didn't know Mary. For those of us who lived here during those years, the palpable fear in the air at the time will always be a strong memory. They took him at his word. 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. Roxie Ann Phillips (17): June 30, 1969 (California), 7. Two of these bloodstains[75] were discovered to be type Athe blood type of Karen Sue Beineman. [88] Later that evening, Collins informed Davis he had simply decided to "get rid of" the box and its contents. he writes. Muddy Waters, coach at Hillsdale, would take us (freshman) there to make us tough JNC was a little sh*t, smart alec and cocky wore a stocking cap under his helmet played middle linebacker and would cuss at and spit upon the offensive line men (ME) anyway, thanks for the memory, albeit sad. 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. SoHarvey called the prosecutorand Collins' attorney. Evidence fromJoan Schell, 20, of Plymouth and Maralynn Skelton, 16, of Romulus, hasyet to be tested, the detectives said. A forensic examination of this trailer revealed it had been completely wiped of fingerprints. The driver had been aged around 20 and clean-cut with short, dark, side-parted hair. A low-maintenance backyard with irrigation is the perfect place to relax and entertain guests. Another individual would be convicted of the murder of Jane Mixer in 2005. But as Leik walked into the basement, he found a mess of the hair and there was blood on the basement floor. [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. Enjoy your days sitting under the private pergola, listening to the elegant turquoise Collins says he vomited in the laundry tub. [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. [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. The man who put the cuffs on JNC!!!). 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. [32] A subsequent autopsy revealed the victim had died of numerous fractures covering one-third of her skull and one side of her face,[33] all of which had been inflicted with a heavy blunt instrument. I know for a fact that John confessed to him," Sheriff Harvey said. In 1967, John Norman Collins lived in a rental about one block south of EMUs campus. Among those cops was a rookie campus police officer at Eastern Michigan University: Larry Matthewson. She had been strangled. Her body was later found with multiple stab wounds, and more grotesquely, no hands or feet on August 7. Collins then offers a similar account, but in more detail, that he gave the detectives. [97], The hairs found upon Beineman's panties and those recovered from the basement of the Leik home were subjected to a detailed forensic neutron analysis[98] to determine whether they had sourced from the same individuals. ", After 10 p.m., he claims an upset-looking Davis said he "needed to talk to me.". He was polite and handsome, but the boy next door image was a farce. 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. [114] An FBI arrest warrant was issued against Andrew Manuel, who was located in Phoenix on August 6[115] and detained by FBI agents. The 619 Emmet house is actually a sorority house, not a fraternity house. jc painted basement floor, uncle was suspicious had test done found blood, thats how jc got caught, "I was a 6th grader at Fletcher Elementary School and I can remember that my older sister knew Dawn. The corpse was badly decomposed, although the pathologist who examined Fleszar's remains was able to determine she had been stabbed approximately 30 times in the chest and abdomen with a knife or other sharp object, that her feet had been severed just above the ankle, the thumb and sections of the fingers of one hand were missing, and that one forearm had been severed from her body (these severed appendages were never found). I walked over to see if he was playing a JOKE on me and had a dummy there to scare me. But Bundshuh who has a tattoo on his arm that says, unus veritas, Latin for "one truth" noted that throughout their conversations,Collins seemed to have a lot of rehearsed answers, as if he had been thinking aboutwhat to say for years. Watch where you walk, tell people where you are going, when youre coming back, have pepper spray on your key chain, and don't go to people's houses/take rides with people that you just met. [128], The two primary questions before the jury, Delhey stated, would be the accuracy of eyewitnesses who would be called to testify and, ultimately, whether the more than 500 hair samples found upon Beineman's panties matched the hair clippings later recovered from the basement of Collins' uncle. Although forensic experts would deduce later that morning that the stains covered by the black paint had actually been varnish stains, one of the investigators discovered numerous hair clippingsmany measuring less than three-eights of an inchbeside the family washing machine. [114] No hard evidence would ever arise suggesting his involvement in any murders, and the Washtenaw County prosecutor's office would publicly announce on December 18 their satisfaction that Manuel had "no knowledge of the murders. [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. I hope some day it will be corrected; second, I never knew a girl named Karen Sue Beineman; I never had a conversation with her. Yet, investigators added, as Collins and any other potential suspects age, the window of time is closing on whether the casescan be prosecuted tobring justice and resolution for the victims and their families. There have been six before her, five in southeast Michigan and one in California - though that one was not connected at the time. Although neither eyewitness was certain, both believed this student to be John Norman Collins: a student at Eastern Michigan University majoring in elementary education,[20] who lived directly across the street from Schell at 619 Emmet,[23] and whose physical features bore a likeness to the composite drawing police had generated of the driver of the vehicle Schell had entered. [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. Decades later, Fournier showed the former sheriffCollins'letters. They saw a clean-cut man sitting on a Triumph motorcycle and got a good look at him before he turned away. Then-Gov. Two months after Schell's murder, police inquiries produced two further eyewitnesses who stated they had observed Schell walking with a young man along Emmet Street on the evening she disappeared. Seems basic enough, but a lot of this could have been avoided (or just brought the killer behind bars faster) if these girls would have followed these basic precautions. These horrific acts of violence held our community in terror until Collins arrest in July 1969. 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. Triad Animal torture Yes. Collins writes that Davis had a "twin brother" with a car fitting the description of the vehiclea witness saw giving anothervictim, Joan Schell, a ride in. She replied that it was probably stupid but that he was just taking her home. I had no idea that a murderer lived there!-C. Welcome to Lakeside. "We were trying to figure out not just on the Kalom casebut all the cases was, was he to the point he wanted to talk?" they didn't clean well enough??!! By that point, Larry had been brought in to share what he had with Michigan State Police, the Washtenaw County Sheriff, and other agencies. Folklore! Her body was found on an abandoned farm in Superior Township just about one month later. It seemed,Schroeder said, as if Collins was describing what "he had done himself. All the victims had been sexually mutilated. [34], These injuries had been inflicted after the victim had been extensively beaten and tortured: her killer had placed a section of her own shirt into her trachea to muffle her screams as she received extensive blunt force trauma to the face, head and body,[34] including several deep lacerations believed to have been inflicted with a leather strap. Evidently, despite Collins' protestations of innocence and denials of even knowing Karen Sue Beineman, she had been in the basement of Collins' uncle at the time of, shortly before, or shortly after her murder.[68]. Moreover, this search had also uncovered small bloodstains in nine areas of the basement. [12] Kolbe later informed investigators that Schell had informed her of her intentions to hitchhike when it became apparent she had missed the last bus, and that one of the first vehicles to pass when Schell had begun hitchhiking was a red-and-black Pontiac Bonneville containing three young white men. My brother and I, walk down the rickety steps down the basement as it explained in the book.with the cobble stone walls.let me tell you, something came over me it's hard to explain.but I cried uncontrollablyI will never forget that night ! Delhey formally closed his opening statement to the jury by requesting they return a verdict of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. That house still has a bad feeling to it, when I go by it!!! She researched the key suspects past, dug through hundreds of evidence photos and newspaper clippings and worked with Witsil to uncover new details in the cases. Several motions by the defense counsel throughout the jury selection process that the trial should be moved to a jurisdiction outside of Washtenaw County were rejected by Judge John Conlin, who ruled on June 29 that the 14 members of the jury selected from Ann Arbor by this date and considered satisfactory by both counsels would serve as jurors throughout the trial. This individual had asked for permission to take a photograph of the body as it lay in the coffin as a keepsake for her parents. Formal sentencing was scheduled for 8:30a.m. August 28. The clerk at the chocolate shop next door was a motorcycle enthusiast and also noticed the bike and the handsome man sitting on it. Although investigators had informally exchanged information with agencies from other jurisdictions on an irregular basis since the previous summer, no coordination to combine efforts and resources had ensued until the discovery of the third victim definitely linked to the series. It was July 23rd, 1969. The first known victim linked to the Michigan Murderer was a 19-year-old Eastern Michigan University accounting student named Mary Terese Fleszar,[8] who was last seen alive on the evening of July 9, 1967, by a neighbor walking towards her Ypsilanti apartment. 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. To go down into his basement and say 'whoa, something's different here'," Sheriff Harvey said. ", In 30 years of letters, Chapman said, Collins exhibited a domineering personality, expressed misogynistic views, and seemed to have "underlying anger toward his mother. Hurkos proved to be of little help and soon the police had yet another body on their hands, student Karen Sue Bieneman. He tries to give his cousin a glimpse of prison life. For example, in the case of Mary Fleszar, investigators discovered that at the time of her disappearance, Collins had worked part-time in the Eastern Michigan University administration unit, and that his office had been located directly opposite the hallway from the office where Fleszar had herself worked. Although police theorized that Fleszar had been raped, the advanced state of decomposition of the corpse had erased any conclusive evidence of sexual assault. Fournier said Karen was the only one to get on the bike. I asked him what was wrong and he just said something like, 'Come and see.' Then come back here for part two. In November 1969, Andrew Manuel would plead guilty to charges of, The death sentence was not an option for the prosecution to seek as Michigan had, DNA belonging to a convicted killer named John Ruelas4 years old at the time of Mixer's murderwas also found upon the victim's clothing. In the spring of 1969, he is connected to two murders, a 23-year-old Michigan law student named Jane Louise Mixer, and a 16-year-old Romulus High School student named Maralynn Skelton who was last seen alive hitchhiking in Ann Arbor. After a couple of pages, he hints at more. On August 3, two Washtenaw County detectives traveled to Salinas Police Department to review information and determine whether a connection existed between Phillips' murder and those which Collins was suspected of committing in Michigan. 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. [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. Clothing found near the body was identified as belonging to Mary by her parents. One neighbor, Dr. Marjorie Barnes, saw Collins leaving State Police Sergeant David Leiks home. During the course of the investigation, police determined that she had been killed in the basement of Collins uncles family home in the College Heights neighborhood. [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. The moment passed and they continued their ride uneventfully. [153], In each appeal instance, Collins' conviction was upheld, with successive appellate judges of the Supreme Court announcing in October 1974, their refusal to review his conviction[154] and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit announcing their own satisfaction with the earlier findings of the district court. ", Collins writeshe "got her shorts off, BUTT, no further,"and he "did not have intercourse with her." [11], A detailed examination of the crime scene revealed that the body had been moved three times throughout the month it had lain undiscovered:[12] initially, the body had lain upon a pile of bottles and cans obscured from view by elder trees, before being dragged five feet from this location into a field, where it had remained exposed throughout much of the time it had lain undiscovered. Collins has been locked up for 50 years - but that doesn't erase the pain. Karen was the latest girl in a two-year stretch to go missing. [144] The jury then retired to consider their verdict, and would deliberate for over 27 hours over a period of three days, with an additional five-and-a-half hours devoted to their re-reading portions of testimony, before announcing they had reached their verdict. Best wishes! "He suggested they had met within a day or so before she was murdered, and they had gone out scrambling on a motorcycle," Bundshuh said. At a second hearing in September, Collins refused to enter a plea; Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge John Conlin ordered a plea of not guilty entered on his behalf. 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. (I said) 'the polygraph is sitting over here'. Karen Sue Beineman (18): July 23, 1969, In the years immediately following his conviction, Collins' mother, siblings and several of his friends remained steadfast in their belief that Collins had been the victim of a. Collins' mother, Loretta, and his two siblings, Jerry and Gail, refused to speak with Sgt. [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. The car had Michigan plates. Nonetheless, the three appellate judges at this appeal hearing concluded thus: "In our view, improperly admitted testimony that is merely corroborative of properly admitted evidence is not the basis for holding the error reversible. By July 24, every cop in Washtenaw County was issued a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) for the bike and biker. 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.