The Michigan Murders is a series of murders published by young women conducted between 1967 and 1969 in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area of ​​Southeastern Michigan by an individual known as Ypsilanti Ripper , Michigan Murderer , and Co-Ed Killer .
All Michigan murder victims are young women between the ages of 13 and 21 who were kidnapped, raped, beaten and killed - usually by being stabbed or strangled - with their bodies sometimes mutilated after death before being dumped within 15 miles of the Washtenaw County radius. The actor, John Norman Chapman (then known as John Norman Collins ) was arrested a week after the last murder. He was sentenced to life in prison for the final murder was attributed to the Michigan Murderer on August 19, 1970, and is currently imprisoned in the Marquette Branch Prison.
Despite never trying for the remaining five murders linked to the Michigan killing, or the murder of a sixth girl killed in California whose death was linked to the series, investigators believe Chapman is responsible for all seven murders linked to the same perpetrator.
Video Michigan murders
Murder
The first known victim
The first known victim associated with Michigan Murderer was a 19-year-old Eastern Michigan University accounting student named Mary Terese Fleszar, who was last seen alive on the night of July 9, 1967, by a neighbor walking into Ypsilanti's apartment. This neighbor twice observed a young man with a gray-blue Chevrolet slowly stop beside Fleszar and start talking to him: every time, Fleszar had shook his head and walked away from the car. Her naked body was found by two 15-year-old boys at an abandoned farm in City Superior on August 7, and was officially identified through dental records the following day.
The corpse had decayed, though the pathologist who examined Fleszar's body was able to determine the young woman had been stabbed about 30 times in the chest and abdomen with a knife or other sharp object, that her legs had been broken just above the ankles, thumbs and finger parts of one hand lost, and that one forearm has been decapitated from his body (this disconnected complement is never found). Despite the state of further decomposition, the pathologist may also find several abrasion lines in the victim's chest and chest, indicating that Fleszar has been extensively beaten before his death. Although police theorized that Fleszar had been raped, the state of decomposition of advanced corpses had removed any conclusive evidence of a sexual assault.
A detailed examination of the scene reveals that the body has been moved three times throughout the month it has not been discovered: initially, the body has been lying on a pile of bottles and cans obscured from view by old trees, before being dragged five feet from this location into a field, at where it remains exposed for most of the time undiscovered. Just before the body was found, the killer had returned to his body and moved his body for another three feet.
Two days after the body was identified as belonging to Mary Fleszar, a young man who claimed to be a friend of the Fleszar family arrived at the funeral home holding Fleszar's body before his scheduled burial. This person has asked permission to take photos of the body when it lay in the coffin as a memento for his parents. When told that his request was not possible, the young man replied, "You mean you can not fix it so I can only get one picture of him?" Firmly told a second time he would not be allowed to see the corpse, the young man without words out of the funeral home.
The receptionist could not give a clear description of the man outside that he was a handsome young white man with black hair, that he had been driving a gray-blue Chevrolet, and that he had not brought a camera.
Next killing
Almost one year later, on July 5, 1968, the body of a partially partial and mutilated art student named Joan Elspeth Schell was discovered by a roadside construction worker in Ann Arbor. He has been raped, then stabbed 25 times with a knife that is estimated to have a length of four inches. Some of these injuries have pierced his lungs, the liver and carotid arteries, with one additional injury inflicted behind his left ear which broke his skull. In addition, her throat has been cut, and her miniskirt is then tied around her neck. Although Schell has been dead for several days, his entire lower body is in a very well preserved condition, while his head, shoulders, and breasts are in a state of advanced decomposition, so the pathologist concludes his body has been stored in a natural cool environment. , but with the upper third of his body exposed to natural heat.
The lack of blood beneath or near the corpse, plus eyewitness testimony, led investigators to determine that Schell's body had been lying in its present location for less than 24 hours. The killer may be pushed to a location to dispose of his body, before making an imperfect attempt to hide the body with a clump of grass. In addition, the "extraordinary similarities" between the wounds that happened to her and those of Mary Fleszar in the previous year led investigators to establish a definite relationship between the two murders, and four detectives assigned to full-time work in both cases.
Schell came from Plymouth and recently moved to a house on Emmet Street in Ypsilanti; he was last seen by his roommate, Susan Kolbe, at the Washtenaw Avenue bus stop on the night of June 30th. Schell intends to go to Ann Arbor to visit his girlfriend, and his roommate escorts him to the bus stop. Kolbe then informed the investigator that Schell had told him of his intention to ride when it was discovered that he had missed the last bus, and that one of the first vehicles to pass when Schell began to board was a red-black Pontiac Bonneville containing three young white men. The vehicle slowed to a halt before the driver asked him, "Want to ride?" The driver is about 20 years old with short, dark hair, and the side.
Kolbe then states that he has tried to block Schell from entering this vehicle, but Schell has chosen to accept the driver's offer, promising to call his roommate to convince him of his safety once he gets to his girlfriend's Ann Arbor home. Less than three hours later, Kolbe reported his roommate missing after failing to receive any contact.
Despite tracking down and removing more than 150 registered owners of red-black vehicles in the state of Michigan, and establishing alibis of individuals whose physical features resemble the composite image of drivers acquired by police from Schell's roommates, all the investigation paths for the murder of Joan Schell failed to produce results. On August 18, the researchers announced that all important clues had been exhausted, and that the number of officers assigned to investigate the case had been reduced. Nevertheless, the investigation into the two killings remained active, and the prize then totaling $ 7,800 for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrators of the two murders remained.
Two months after Schell's murder, a police investigation resulted in two more eyewitnesses stating they had watched Schell walk with a young man along Emmet Street the night he disappeared. Although there are no sure eyewitnesses, both believe that this student is John Norman Collins: a student at Eastern Michigan University who majored in primary education, living just across the street from Schell in 619 Emmet, and whose physical features bear a resemblance to the image composite. police have produced driver vehicles Schell inserted.
Asked by police, Collins firmly denied even knowing Schell, and insisted that he had spent the weekend of 29-30 June with his mother at his home on the outskirts of the Detroit Center Center, and had not returned to Ypsilanti until the morning of July 1st. Initially, the police arrested him for his words, and made no attempt to verify his alibis.
Spring 1969
On March 20, 1969, a 23-year-old University of Michigan law student named Jane Louise Mixer disappeared after posting on a college bulletin board looking for a statewide ride to his hometown of Muskegon, where he intended to notify him of his engagement family and soon move to New York City. His fully clothed body, covered with his own raincoat and with a copy of the Catch-22 novel placed next to him, was found the next morning on a grave in Denton Cemetery in Van Buren Township. An autopsy revealed that the Mixer had been shot twice in the head with a.22-caliber pistol, then was scratched with a nylon stocking that the pathologist did not think belonged to. The pathologist also stated that the Mixer had not been sexually assaulted, that the death had occurred around 3 am on March 21, and that the Mixer had not been killed at the location of his corpse was found.
In spite of the fact, Mixer has never experienced a sexual assault, the fact that his tight pants have been lowered to expose his thighs and sanitary towels show the sexual motive behind the murder, and though the victim has not been beaten, stabbed or mutilated, his pupil status, garment ties around his neck, and the proximity of his kidnapping and murder led investigators to link his murder to Fleszar and Schell, although there were doubts that he had been killed by the same perpetrator.
Four days after the discovery of the Mixer body, on March 25, a surveyor found the naked and dim body of a teenage girl behind an empty house in a remote countryside on Earhart Road, just a few hundred yards from where Joan's body was. Schell had been found eight months earlier. Researchers summoned to the scene recorded a dramatic increase in the cruelty shown against the victim, with one investigator describing the injury suffered by the victim as the worst he has seen in 30 years of police work. The subsequent autopsy revealed the victim had died of multiple fractures covering a third of his skull and one side of his face, all of which had been inflicted with a heavy blunt instrument. This injury has been inflicted after the victim has been massively beaten and tortured: the killer has put his own shirt into the trachea to dampen his scream as he receives extensive blunt trauma to the face, head and body, including some deep wounds. laceration is believed to have a leather strap. The Welt sign on the chest and shoulders indicates the killer also uses restraint to hold a vulnerable victim as he whips the body and legs with a leather belt before tearing off a branch from a nearby tree and inserting this instrument eight inches into her vagina. Damage to blood and turbulent ground near the crime scene shows he has been beaten near where his body was found, and that he may have been trying to escape his assailant.
The victim was identified as a 16 year old high school student named Maralynn Skelton, who disappeared while riding in Ann Arbor. He was last seen alive outside the drive-in restaurant on Washtenaw Avenue two days before his body was found (though an autopsy report showed Skelton died between 24 and 36 hours before his body was found). The researchers noted a strong resemblance between this killing and the previous murders associated with the Michigan killing, including the fact that the garter belt had been tied around Skelton's neck and his clothes and shoes were neatly placed beside his body. However, a dramatic increase in cruelty is exhibited against victims and the fact that Skelton is a known drug user and dealer as opposed to a university student leading some young researchers to speculate his murder might be related to drugs. Nevertheless, Ann Arbor Police Chief Walter Krasny officially linked Skelton's killing with the series.
Maps Michigan murders
Coordinate task formation
Following the assassination of Maralynn Skelton on March 24, police from five separate jurisdictions where the killer has kidnapped or dumped the victim's body officially combines resources in an attempt to compare information and identify the perpetrator. Although researchers have informally exchanged information with agencies from other jurisdictions irregularly since the previous summer, there has been no coordination to incorporate the efforts and resources that have occurred until the discovery of the third victim is definitely tied to the series. In early April, each of these law enforcement agencies collectively assigned 20 investigators to work exclusively on four murders.
Little physical evidence exists beyond the description of eyewitnesses and forensic reports. The police have recorded (and will continue to note) the common denominator in the physical characteristics of the victims, and the way they die: all victims are Caucasian Caucasian; respectively (excluding Mixer) are the recipients of extensive violence imposed with blunt instruments and/or bladed before their killing; every body of the victim was found within a 15-mile radius of Washtenaw County; and each victim (excluding Mixer) receives a knife wound in the neck. Furthermore, each victim was found with a garment tied around his neck, and every woman had menstruated at the time of his death. These factors caused the police to publicly conclude that the same perpetrator was responsible for at least three murders committed thus far.
The fifth and sixth killings
At 6:30 am on April 16, the body of a 13-year-old girl named Dawn Louise Basom was found dumped beside a deserted road in Ypsilanti. Wearing only a white blouse and a bra, which had been pushed around his neck, he was repeatedly stabbed in the chest and genitals, had received multiple cuts across the breast, buttocks and stomach, then strangled to death on two legs. long electric flex is still knotted around his neck. A handkerchief found in his mouth was most likely placed there to muffle his cries during torture, and his killer had placed his body in a location where rapid discovery was ensured.
The researchers found no definitive evidence that Basom had suffered a sexual assault before his assassination.
The last basom is seen alive at 7:30 am. the night before, walked home from a friend's house just a mile from his own home. He had been accompanied partly by a friend by the name of Earl Kidd, who told police that he and Basom had split on a deserted road five blocks from his home, where Basom began walking alone beside the railroad tracks to his house. One eyewitness reported seeing the girl minutes later, around 7:35 am, although his movements were never verified.
The orange-colored orange mohair sweater of the victim was found in a quiet farmhouse, just 100 meters from a deserted road where his body had been placed after his assassination. The glass particles found in this basement have the same consistency as those found in Basom shoe soles. After searching the basement of this farmhouse, investigators found a further clothing garment, the same length of electric flexure used to strangle the victim, and fresh human blood stains, indicating this location as the site of the Basom murder..
One week after the killing of Dawn Basom, a detective who had a routine check in the basement of this farmhouse found a piece of cloth from Basom blouse, plus an earring that was later determined by Maralynn Skelton. Every item has been deliberately placed at this location, showing that the killer has returned to the scene of the crime, and the exact relationship between the two murders. (The farmhouse itself was destroyed in the arson action on May 13, when the fire was extinguished, the five cropped lilac were found in a row of flat on the entrance to the building, leading researchers to theorize that they had been placed there by the killer. symbolizes every victim.)
Less than two months after the Dawn Basom killing, on June 9, three boys found a naked body of a young woman in a field near an abandoned farmhouse on North Territorial Road. The victim has received several cuts and stab wounds to the body (including two puncture wounds penetrating his heart), and a gunshot wound on his forehead before his neck is cut down to the spine. The victim's right thumb has also received a gunshot wound, indicating that the woman instinctively raises her hand to protect herself before the killer has fired a shotgun at close range. He has also been raped, though the pathologist can not determine whether this action has occurred before or after death. Parts of her clothes were scattered around her body, even though one of her shoes was missing.
The victim was identified the next day as a 21-year-old University of Michigan graduate student named Alice Elizabeth Kalom, who disappeared shortly after midnight on the morning of June 8th. She was last seen walking home to her apartment on Thompson Street, attending a friend's party. The discovery of several dried blood stains and two buttons missing from the victim's raincoat in the commercial gravel pit Northfield Township on June 10 showed the victim was killed at this location. (Investigators have publicly claimed before the Kalom killing they were satisfied that the third victim initially associated with Michigan Killer Jane Mixer had been killed by a separate offender: the fact Kalom had also received a gunshot wound to the head causing the investigators to reconsider Possible Mixer may have been killed by the same perpetrator.
Public unrest
In the spring of 1969, public condemnation of the killing by individuals dubbed by the press for the Michigan Killers and Co-Ed Killers increased, especially among the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti student populations. The increase in the frequency at which killers striking throughout the spring and summer of 1969 - coupled with the fact that most victims have connected to the University of Michigan or the University of East Michigan, suggests that the killer may be a fellow student - further exacerbated the concerns of female university students. Many female students choose to arm themselves with knives, with others adopting a "friend system" where they will refuse to walk anywhere except in the company of trusted male friends or at least three other girls. Sales of tear gas, knives, and security locks increased, leaps became scarce among learners, and prizes offered for information leading to the arrest and assassination of the killer increased to $ 42,000.
In July 1969, as a result of a coordinated investigation into the killings, over 1,000 convicted sex offenders have been investigated and eliminated as suspects; more than 800 tips from informants have been actively investigated; and several thousand people interviewed regularly. Although Washtenaw County Sheriff Douglas Harvey acknowledged at a press conference held that same month that investigators â € <â € At the request of the Ann Arbor community, a Dutch psychic named Peter Hurkos went to Washtenaw County on July 21, to produce a paranormal profile of the killer. The profile produced by Hurkos shortly after his arrival in Ann Arbor accurately predicted that the killer was a very strong white male under the age of 25, who was born outside the United States, and who rode a motorcycle. After leading investigators to the exact location where each of the bodies of the victims were found, Hurkos also revealed details of the murder to investigators who have not been released to the press. Although this information proved to be of little help during the actual hunt, Hurkos also predicted that this individual would soon strike for the last time.
The last murder
The final murder attributed to the killer dubbed the Michigan Killer and Co-Ed Killer is an 18-year-old Karen Sue Beineman, a student at Eastern Michigan University who was last seen alive on July 23, 1969. He was reportedly missing by his roommate, Sherri Green, when he failed to return to the dormitory after the curfew. After asking the two Beineman roommates, the police were told that he (Beineman) last seen shortly after noon on his way to the wig shop downtown.
Three days after Beineman's disappearance, his naked body was found with a nape in a forest trench along the banks of the Huron River. The medical examination showed Beineman had been widely beaten on the face and body, with some lacerations which caused the skin to be so badly removed, showing subcutaneous tissue. He has received extensive skull and brain injuries that have been inflicted by blunt instruments, forced to ingest caustic substances, and his neck, shoulders, nipples and breasts have been burned with the same caustic agent. As happened to the previous victim, the killer had placed a piece of cloth in his throat to muffle his scream along his torture.
Beineman had died of suffocation, though the pathologist noted that the blunt injuries inflicted on his skull and brain had been so wide that their chances would prove fatal. (The blunt instrument used to cause injury to the skull and Beineman's brain was never found.)
Forensic examination of Beineman's body further reveals that she had been raped before her murder, and that her torn panties had been placed forcibly inside her vagina; these pants reveal the existence of human semen and 509 human hair pieces measuring less than three-inches from an inch in the material. These haircuts are mostly blond, and therefore not the victim's, whose own hair color is dark brown.
Given the fact that the killer had returned to the previous murder scene to remove the corpse, possibly in a sexual ritual, the police theorized that the killer might as well try to return to this last scene. Despite earlier attempts to impose blackouts about the discovery of Dawn Basom and Alice Kalom victims proved unsuccessful, on this occasion, police managed to blackout news related to the discovery of this latest victim. Beineman's body was replaced with a tailor's mannequin, and the gully that surrounded the mannequin was monitored by an undercover officer.
At about 2 am the following morning, in the midst of a heavy damp storm, an officer observed a young man running from a gap; heavy rain and insect irritation have prevented officers from observing the young man actually approaching the gap. Although this officer attempted to broadcast this sighting to his comrades, the rain had rendered his radio inoperable.
Investigation
After reviewing Karen Sue Beineman's movement on the day she disappeared, the police questioned the owner of the wig shop that Beineman had visited shortly before she disappeared, Ny. Diana Joan Goshe. Goshe remembers Beineman visiting his shop to buy a $ 20 iron hat on the afternoon of July 23; She also remembered observing a young man with short hair, parting, wearing a horizontal striped sweater, waiting for a blue motorcycle outside the shop when Beineman bought it. Reportedly, Beineman himself insisted on her. Goshe watched the man with whom he received a ride, stating that he had made two stupid mistakes in his life: bought a wig; and accept a ride from a stranger, before declaring: "I must be the bravest or most foolish living girl, because I just received a ride from this man." Mrs. Goshe then watched Beineman climb onto the motorcycle before the young man who took the ride away.
Although Mrs. Goshe initially - and mistakenly - described the motorcycle as a Honda 350 model, when police questioned Carol Wieczerca, a store clerk near a wig shop, Wieczerca was able to state that the motorcycle model Beineman's pedestal from the wig shop was actually a Victory.
The description of the young man with whom the last Beineman was seen living was heard by a patrolman named Larry Mathewson, who believed the person described by Ny. Goshe and the others may be one of John Norman Collins: a former member of his fraternity who had been interviewed but removed from a police investigation, and whom he himself had seen riding his motorcycle around the campus of Eastern Michigan University on the afternoon of 23 July. When Mathewson questioned Collins on July 25 for his movements two days earlier, he admitted that on the date in question he had drove the Triumph Bonneville around him, and that he stopped to talk to his ex-boyfriend while doing so (the point where Mathewson had observed it). The former girlfriend is able to give Mathewson two recent photos of Collins. When Mathewson showed these pictures to Mrs. Goshe and his assistant Patricia Spaulding, the two women insist the man in the photo is the same person as the last Beineman seen alive.
Police have determined that Collins is a famous motorcycle enthusiast who has several motorcycles, including the blue Triumph Bonneville. He holds a part-time job as an inspector at a company that produces brake drums, and is currently majoring in basic education at Eastern Michigan University. Before enrolling at Eastern Michigan University in the fall of 1966, he became an honorary student and co-captain of football in his high school.
Collins has built a reputation among his colleagues at Eastern Michigan University as a habitual thief who has been expelled from a fraternity home where he previously lived after allegedly stealing from his roommate. Despite his acquaintance because of his modesty around women, the close acquaintance of the woman who had dated Collins described him as an aggressive, angry, over-zealous individual who is sometimes involved in violence against women, including an example where he has raped a woman who resisted his attacks. In addition, some of the women's acquaintances revealed that Collins would be very angry when he found out a woman was menstruating: a woman revealed to the police that on one occasion, when Collins began to grope her breasts, she had told her that she was having her period; In response, Collins shouted, "That's so disgusting!" before angrily walking out of his apartment.
After questioning Collins's colleagues, investigators learned that Collins had repeatedly been pleased to describe, in graphic detail, the details of the injuries suffered by each successive victim associated with Michigan's killing of his female counterparts; he claimed this details had been given to him by his uncle named David Leik, who served as a sergeant in the police force. The injuries described by Collins are consistent with those inflicted on the undisclosed victim to the news media, and David Leik will inform investigators that he has not disclosed any information about the Michigan killing to his niece.
The researcher also ensures Collins has become acquainted with most of the victims, current or formerly living close to where they live, or may have established the possibility of prior contact before their killing. In the case of the victims of Mary Fleszar and Joan Schell, investigators can prove that she is a neighbor of both women, and at the time of Fleszar's disappearance, Collins has worked in an office at Eastern Michigan University located just across the hall from the office where Fleszar himself works. Through an interview with Collins lover recently, investigators also learned that he lived in an apartment complex just across the street from the home of the Dawn Basom victim, and that, during their courtship, Collins had been a regular visitor to his apartment. Thus, he may have met Basom all the time he often visited his girlfriend.
Identify and suspect questions
After the identification of Collins's photos, the police further questioned the owner of the wig shop where the last Beineman looks alive, asking him to identify the man he saw with Beineman in the police ranks. In this line, Ny. Goshe positively identifies the man he saw with Karen Sue Beineman as John Norman Collins. In total, seven witnesses will be found who will then testify to see Collins in the area between the university campus and the Nyonya Goshe wig shop between the hours of 11 am and 1 pm. on July 23rd; including three young women who claim Collins has been trying to pull them onto his motorcycle.
On Sunday, July 27, police arrived at the apartment at Emmet Street Collins along with his roommate, Arnold Davis. Although Collins firmly protested that he was innocent and insisted that eye-witness identification was wrong, he refused to return to the police station for a polygraph test. The following night, Davis watched Collins emerge from his bedroom carrying a box that was partially covered by a blanket. When Davis opened the door for his roommate to leave the apartment, he noticed that the contents of this box included purple women's shoes, materials such as rolled jean, and burlap bags. That night, Collins told Davis that he just decided to "get rid of" the box and its contents.
Capture
Uncle Collins, State Police Sergeant David Leik, had vacationed with his family at the time of Beineman's disappearance, and returned home on July 29 - three days after the discovery of his corpse. Throughout their holidays, Collins has been living temporarily at the Ypsilanti home of the Leik family, who have been given sole access to the house so he can feed their German shepherds. After they returned from their vacation, Leik's wife, Sandra, had recorded many paint marks covering the basement floor of the family, and some items included a bottle of ammonia, some washing powder, and a black spray paint tube missing from the household. On the same day, Leik was advised by the investigator â € <â € The cellar of Sergeant House Leik was subjected to intense forensic examination. Although forensic experts will conclude later that stains covered by black paint have actually become varnish stains, one of the researchers found many haircuts - many of which are less than three inches per inch in size - next to the family washing machine. When asked about the source of this clipping, Leik (who has not been informed of the invention of a haircut found in Beineman's pants) informed investigators that his wife regularly cut their children's hair in this dungeon, and that he had done so long before families start their holidays. In addition, this search also found small blood stains in nine areas of the basement. Two of these blood stains are known to be of type A - blood type Karen Sue Beineman. The hairs found in Beineman pants and those taken from the basement of Leik's house are subjected to detailed forensic neutron analyzes to determine whether they are sourced from the same individual. Samples recovered from both locations will prove to be the right pair. Evidently, despite Collins 'innocent protests and rejection of even knowing Karen Sue Beineman, the girl was in Collins' uncle's basement at the time, shortly before, or shortly after his murder. Questioning Leik's neighbors resulted in additional indirect evidence: a neighbor, Marjorie Barnes, recalled watching Collins leave his uncle's house with a luxury detergent before the Leik family returned from their vacation; another neighbor told investigators that he had heard the screams of a young woman from the Leik family on the night of Beineman's disappearance. The same afternoon police searched the Leik family's basement, Collins was confronted with evidence so far obtained and inferred. Although Collins cried when told that the paint-covered stain had become a varnish, she quickly regained her composure and continued to deny knowledge of Karen Sue Beineman. Later that day, after receiving an initial laboratory report showing the hair samples recovered from Beineman's pants matched with those found in the basement of Leik, and that the recovered blood stain from this location was of the same kind as hers, Collins was captured and his apartment and his vehicle really searched. Despite recovering much of the stolen property from his apartment and being told by Arnold Davis that Collins had been accustomed to theft with his former roommate Andrew Manuel, there was no incriminating evidence linking Collins to Beineman or the Michigan murder victim. Although the officer was informed by Arnold Davis on the date of this incident two days earlier where he (Davis) had watched Collins carry a laundry box of women's clothing and jewelry from his apartment and headed for his car.
Arraignment
On August 1, 1969, John Norman Collins was formally indicted for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman. He was detained without ties. At a press conference related to Collins's arrest and accusations in connection with the latest Michigan murder held on this date, Police Inspector Frederick Davids revealed that Collins had been a suspect in the Beineman case since the day he disappeared, and that this suspicion increased after their forensic examination at David Leik's basement; Furthermore, Collins' supervision began on 26 July, following the submission of a report compiled by Patrolman Larry Mathewson detailing the identification of the positive eyewitness he obtained, and he was officially arrested on charges openly the night before his indictment.
Link to additional killing
In early August, researchers were contacted by their colleagues in Salinas, California who stated that they had reason to believe a Michigan individual named John might be responsible for the June 30 death of a 17-year-old girl named Roxie Ann Phillips.
On August 3, two Washtenaw County detectives went to the Salinas Police Department to review the information and determine if there was any connection between Phillips's murder and Collins's alleged murder in Michigan. Reviewing information about Roxie Ann Phillips's murder, investigators discovered that shortly before his departure, Phillips had told a close friend that he had met an East Michigan University student named John, who drove a silver-gray Oldsmobile Cutlass and who temporarily stayed with friends in the camper-camper.
After tracking Collins's movements in relation to the date of disappearance and the murder of seven murder victims associated with the Michigan Killer (later including Jane Mixer), the police found that, on June 21, Collins and his roommate Andrew Manuel had traveled to Monterey at Collins' Oldsmobile Cutlass, which the couple used to pull the trailer camper they rent under a fake name, and had paid with the stolen checks, for the holidays. Collins then returned to Michigan alone in his vehicle; Manuel will then be stationed in Arizona following Collins' arrest.
Through Phillips's acquaintance interviews, investigators determined that he had been introduced to an individual he called "John from Michigan" through a 17-year-old friend named Nancy Ann Albrecht, who told police he had come to know Collins about June 29, and that he has mentioned his friend (Phillips) to Collins on this date. Albrecht describes this individual, whose last name he does not know, as high as 5 ft. 11 in., Clean-up, with dark brown hair and who describes himself as a senior University of Eastern Michigan with aspirations to become a teacher. Albrecht has given researchers an identical Monterey County who, in addition to his description of the property, circumstances, and status of the suspect, has a striking resemblance to John Norman Collins. He had made an appointment to meet Collins at his home on the night of June 30, but Collins never came.
Phillips's bare body, has been found in a ravine in the Carmel Highlands on July 13, with a belt belonging to his culotte dress tied around his neck. He had been strangled to death and, like some Michigan victims associated with Collins, one earring was missing. Some of Phillips's personal possessions will later be found strewn along the State Route 68.
The trailer home where Collins and Manuel traveled to California lies Aug. 1 in Salinas County, behind the house of Andrew Manuel's grandfather. This trailer forensic examination indicates that the fingerprints have been completely removed. After asking Manuel's grandfather, investigators were informed that his grandson and a John Collins were temporarily staying in the trailer - which they rented from the Ypsilanti rental company - between June and July, before the two men left the trailer and (he believed) back to Michigan.
After comparing case notes, researchers in California and Michigan agree that there is enough similarity between Roxie Ann Phillips' murder and the Michigan assassination to establish a definite relationship between cases, and on 5 August, the relationship was officially announced. The FBI arrest warrant was issued against Andrew Manuel, who was in Phoenix on August 6 and arrested by FBI agents. Manuel was widely questioned about his potential involvement in the Phillips murders and those committed in Michigan whose investigators have linked up with Collins, and agreed to take the polygraph test. No strong evidence will emerge that shows his involvement in the killings, and the Washtenaw County prosecutor's office will publicly announce Dec. 18 on their satisfaction that Manuel "did not know about the killing."
An official indictment would then be filed against Collins for the first-degree murder of Roxie Ann Phillips in April 1970, although the evidence surrounding the indictment was ordered to be sealed until after Collins's trial of Karen Sue Beineman's murder concluded.
Pre-trial hearings
On August 14, 1969, Collins attended a pretrial hearing at the Ypsilanti District Court. After hearing six hours of testimony from nine prosecution witnesses, Judge Edward Deake ruled that a possible cause had been set, and Collins was officially ordered to stand trial for Beineman's murder.
At the second hearing in September, Collins refused to file a plea; Washtenaw County District Judge John Conlin ordered an innocent defense in his name. At this hearing, the court-appointed lawyer, Richard Ryan, challenged the validity of physical evidence and the credibility of indirect evidence before formally requesting a case against his client being dismissed and evidence confiscated from his home and vehicle was oppressed the reason Collins disapproved of police search for his property. Ryan further stated at this he he "has not decided" whether the upcoming court will be held away from the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti district due to pre-trial publicity, and the latter movements are held in despair until an impartial jury is eligible.
On October 14, Judge Conlin refused the defense movement to refuse the case, or suppress the evidence obtained; Collins' detention in power is a plausible reason that he has committed a crime.
Independent polygraph test
In November, Ryan, in an effort to determine the most effective defense strategy, persuaded Collins to undergo a personal and independent polygraph test. Attorney William F. Delhey agreed with the stipulation that the tests were conducted without a record and the results remain confidential. Upon examination, at a meeting with the family in the room of Justice Conlin, Ryan summarized his tentative conclusions and suggested "reducing capacity" to defend insanity. Mrs. Collins, angry at the implications, immediately dismissed Ryan from the case.
In January of 1970, Neil Fink and Joseph Louisell, a partner at one of Detroit's highest-priced law firms, agreed to take over Collins's defense. Mrs. Collins is reported to have sent back his home to secure their services. Judge Conlin set the date of the hearing on 1 June.
Trial
John Norman Collins's trial of Karen Sue Beineman's murder began at the Washtenaw County Courthouse on June 2, 1970. He was tried in Ann Arbor before Judge John Conlin.
The initial jury selection starts on this date, and will continue until July 9th. Some movement by defenders throughout the jury selection process that the trial must be transferred to a jurisdiction outside Washtenaw County was rejected by Judge John Conlin, who reigned on June 29 that the 14 jurors selected from Ann Arbor on this date were considered satisfactory by both advisors to be the jury during the trial. On the recommendation of his lawyer, Collins chose not to testify in his own defense.
The prosecutors in Collins court, William Delhey and Booker Williams, chose to accuse Collins only with the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, with the state that he had been murdered by Collins in the basement of the Leik household. In his opening statement to the jury on July 20, Delhey described the prosecution claim that the evidence to be presented would form a clear pattern showing that Collins was in Karen Sue Beineman's company when she was last seen alive by Ny. Joan Goshe and his assistant; that he took him to his uncle's house, where he had tortured and beaten her before strangling him to death at this location; and that he then threw away his body, before trying to persuade his roommate to give him a fake alibi. The two main questions before the jury, Delhey stated, were the accuracy of eyewitnesses who would be called to testify and, finally, whether more than 500 hair samples found on Beineman underwear match the hair clip that was later found from Collins's basement. uncle. Delhey also declared the prosecution's intention to prove that Collins had single access to his uncle's and basement homes on the afternoon of Beineman's disappearance, and although he had made a concerted effort to erase physical evidence from the scene, the blood sample taken from this location was a match for the blood type victim. Delhey officially closed his opening statement to the jury by asking them to return a life sentence sentence without the possibility of parole.
Defense argues that although Beineman's murder was a "cruel and sadistic attack" that had lowered his body "almost beyond human comprehension," the prosecution case that Collins was the perpetrator was the weakest. Defense counsel Neil Fink and Joseph Louisell, in their opening remarks, identified both Collins' eye witnesses and his motorcycles as flawed and unreliable, and expressed their intention to introduce some witnesses who would provide an alibi for their clients in the afternoon. the prosecutor argued that Karen Sue Beineman had been kidnapped and murdered. Lawyer Collins also accused the alibi witness of having been harassed by police, that tests performed on hair samples found on Beineman pants are unreliable, and that Collins's uncle, Sgt. David Leik, refused to divulge family blood types to defense lawyers.
Witness testimonial
The witness's official testimony began on July 20, 1970. The first two witnesses to testify were two Beineman roommates; each discussing the Beineman character, and his movements on the day of his departure. These two witnesses were followed by the individual who had found his body on July 26, and the medical examiner was summoned to the scene, Dr. Craig Barlow. Barlow gave testimony of the fact that although Beineman had died nearly 72 hours, his body was just lying in a location where it was found for 24 hours before it was discovered. The next day, Washtenaw County Sheriff Douglas Harvey testified about the discovery of Beineman's body, the next autopsy, and he got the latest combined image of the suspect with whom the last Beineman was seen alive from Mrs. Joan Goshe and her assistant, Patricia. Spaulding. Both women agree that the composite image is accurate, and just disagree with the suspect chin structure. Furthermore, Goshe had identified a photograph that was shown to him about Collins as the man he had seen with Beineman.
To widen their allegations that certain defense witnesses have been subjected to police abuse, and that eyewitness records have been defective, defense lawyer Joseph Louisell handed Sheriff Harvey a 45 minute cross-examination of his contact with two eyewitnesses before the completion of this composite image. In this cross-examination, Sheriff Harvey claimed to have brought Ny. Goshe and his assistant to East Lansing to see the latest composite image of the suspect in Beineman's murder, and that he has shown photographs of various suspects, including Collins, to Goshe earlier. to him formally identifies Collins in a row.
Three days after the two advisors began to introduce witnesses, Joan Goshe was summoned to testify on behalf of the prosecutor. Responding to a question from the prosecutor, Goshe described how, on the afternoon of his disappearance, Beineman had informed him that he had received a ride home from a man waiting outside a wig shop. When asked to identify officially the individual whose motorcycle he was observing while waiting outside his shop, Goshe pointed directly to John Norman Collins. Joan Goshe's testimony was further supported by Patricia Spaulding, who testified to have watched Collins for between three and four minutes as she waited for Beineman to return to her motorcycle.
Despite being subjected to a strict cross-examination by defense attorney Neil Fink regarding the credibility of his testimony, Goshe insisted in the identification of John Norman Collins as the man who had been waiting for Karen Sue Beineman to return to his motorcycle. In an attempt to discredit Goshe's testimony, Fink turned his question to the motorcycle model he saw outside his shop, which Goshe admitted to his early belief that the Honda 350 model was inaccurate. In response to questions about his personal character, Goshe further admitted he had previously been lying under oath on two occasions (one of the events unrelated to the trial).
On July 27, Arnold Davies testified when he was at the Collins company all afternoon and evening of July 23, 1969 (hours after the last Beineman appeared alive). The next day, after consulting opposing advisors, Judge John Conlin allowed Davis to testify when observing Collins quickly throwing a laundry box of women's clothing and jewelry from his apartment and placing this box in the trunk of his car two days before his arrest. (The Attorney initially intended to question Davis in detail about each of the contents of this laundry box on the grounds that the contents previously described by Davies to the investigators may include Beineman's blue cut-off jeans; however, Collins's lawyer successfully filed objected to this motion on the grounds that Collins was solely tried for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, and this testimony could point to links to six other victims of the Michigan assassination who were later linked to the same perpetrator, therefore the prosecution was limited to questioning Davis as to whether the contents of this box include women's clothing and jewelry, without specifically explaining specific items.)
Also to testify in court on behalf of the prosecution was Marjorie Barnes, who testified on July 30 to watch Collins leave his uncle's house with a blanket covered laundry on 24 or 25 July 1969. In addition, Sandra Leik testified that Collins was given the key to the family home so she could feed the German family shepherds. Leik's mother also testified that she had cut her daughters' hair in her cellar two days before starting a holiday with her family, and that when they returned home, she had noticed that some of her basements had been removed, which she had found a wet cloth the dirty ones that contain hair beside the sink, and other items - including an almost full-fledged ammonia bottle. On the same day, the head of the state police crime lab, Sgt. Kennard Christensen, testified about the results of forensic tests conducted in the Leik family's basement: the results of these tests confirm evidence of blood stains in four separate areas. In response to the defense question, Sergeant. Christensen further stated that although partial fingerprints had been found in the Leik family's basement, no full fingerprints were found in the basement that the Leik family did not own.
On July 31, the prosecutor introduced two forensic witnesses to testify of physical evidence indicating that the victim had been killed in the Leik family's home. The first witness to testify was the head of the Michigan Department of Health's Crime Detective Laboratory, Walter Holz, who testified about the human haircut found in Karen Sue Beineman's pants exactly matching that obtained from the Sergeant's basement. David Leik. Despite Joseph Louisell's intense cross-examination of the reliability of his findings, Holz remains firmly in the color, length, type and diameter of hair samples found in Beineman pants is an exact match with those found in the Leik family's basement. Immediately after the testimony of Walter Holz, a colleague named Curtis Fluker testified that blood samples of tissue taken from the Leik family's basement matched Karen Sue Beineman.
The 47th and last witness who appeared for the prosecution in Collins court was a chemistry professor from the University of California named Dr. Vincent P. Guinn, who gave his testimony on Aug. 5 on his conclusion that the hair samples taken from Beineman's pants contain "a remarkable one." similarities "to those extracted from Leik's household and that, after his statistical calculations started the previous month, the possibility of incorrect matching of hair samples previously watched by Walter Holz is very low.After cross examination, Dr. Guinn agrees with defense attorney Neil Fink that analysis hair mix statistics have never been tried in court, although he remains firm that his application has been done through scientific principles.
Defense witness
Five independent witnesses were summoned to testify on behalf of the defense of the whereabouts of Collins on the date that Karen Sue Beineman disappeared and her body was found. Four of these witnesses were employees of a motorcycle sales company that Collins had visited in the afternoon of Beineman's disappearance. Each gave testimony on 6 August. The time to recall these four witnesses when Collins actually entered the motorcycle shop was slightly different, though the consensus among these three was that he entered the place during their lunch, which they usually do anytime between one and two o'clock after the examination cross, the time factor of these witnesses when they actually had seen Collins grow until between noon and two at night. Two of these employees had signed statements confirming when Collins had entered their place for about two hours, though one witness claimed he had been repeatedly harassed by Police Sgt. Ann Arbor about the exact time he had seen Collins.
On August 8, Collins's lawyer introduced a famous neutron analyst named Dr. Robert Jervis in an attempt to discredit the previous testimony of a forensic expert who has testified on behalf of the prosecutor. Dr. Jervis testifies because of his belief that insufficient chemical samples have been present in samples taken from basements that have been used by the prosecutor's investigators to form their conclusions, and that to form a concerted neutron activation analysis, at least ten components in a hair. samples should be compared, while only five components have been used by forensic prosecutors to determine their findings. Forensic experts who have testified on behalf of the prosecutor, Dr. Jervis stated, thereby basing their conclusions on "insufficient data". Dr. Jervis is supported by a private consultant named Auseklis Perkons, and Director of Forensic Research based in Massachusetts named Samuel Golub. Perkons testifies to his belief that the hair samples taken from Beineman's pants are "different origins" than the hair samples taken from the basement of Leiks, whereas Golub states that since he only found one single fiber above the victim's pants, the chances of his underwear collecting hair - this hair from the basement is very far away. In disputing Dr. Golub, the defense reminded Dr. Walter Holz on August 12 to testify about the sample he brought himself to Dr. Golub for identification; Dr. Holz confirmed that he had taken twenty enlarged slide photos of samples taken from Beineman's pants to Dr. Golub to be analyzed, and that they contain lots of artificial fibrous material.
Closing arguments
On August 13, both prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their closing arguments to the jury (this argument was concluded the next day). Prosecutor William Delhey argued first, recounting the state's evidence and Collins's conscious effort to destroy physical evidence in the Leik household before informing the jury that their common sense appli- cation could only dictate a guilty verdict.
Following the closing argument of the state, both Neil Fink and Joseph Louisell filed separate closing arguments on behalf of the defense, portraying Collins as "a young victim of circumstances" and ignoring much of the evidence presented as "fuzzy accusations," with a mocking Louisell. like Walter Holz's testimony, to which he concluded, he insisted, the prosecutor hung all his cases. In a brief final argument on behalf of the prosecution, Booker Williams re-emphasized physical and indirect evidence against Collins, before accusing defenders' lawyers of trying to cast doubt, in particular, the forensic evidence presented by the prosecutor.
In a final address to the jury on August 14, Judge Conlin told the panel that they had two choices in the verdict they could provide: Guilty of first-degree murder, or innocence. The jury then stepped back to consider their verdict, and would negotiate for more than 27 hours over three days, with an additional five and a half hours devoted to their repeated testimony section, before announcing that they had reached the verdict.
Conviction and incarceration
On August 19, 1970, John Norman Collins was unanimously declared guilty of first-degree murder Karen Sue Beineman; he remained calm when he heard the judge's jury announce the verdict, although many spectators gasped at it, and his mother and sister left the courtroom crying. Formal demands are scheduled 8: 30 a.m. August 28th. On this date, Collins was formally sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. Before imposing the sentence, Justice Conlin asked Collins if he wanted to try a trial before a life sentence was imposed. In response, Collins rose from his chair and made the following speech:
Collins was then told by Judge Conlin that if the jury's verdict was wrong, the error would be corrected in time. He was then sentenced to life in prison by forced labor, in solitary confinement, in Southern Michigan Prison.
After receiving a guilty verdict against their client, defense lawyer Collins announced their intention to file an appeal on the grounds of "polluted identification and change of spot questions." The first movement by lawyer Collins, who opposed the defense movement's refusal to move the trial outside Washtenaw County and the prejudices of prosecution witnesses, was submitted to the Michigan High Court on December 14, 1970. This first petition was formally rejected in October. 24, 1972.
Post-punishment appeals
Between 1972 and 1976, Collins appealed his murderous conviction on the next four occasions; citing disputes that the Michigan killing has received widespread media publicity in Washtenaw County, and that five separate movements for place change have been filed by defense lawyers (two of which have been filed during the actual jury selection process) on publicity pretrial grounds minimizing the possibility of getting a jury not biased in Washtenaw County. Each proposed motion has been provided or, in the last example, rejected. His lawyers further stated that, at a trial hearing in April 1970, shortly before the jury election began, Collins's indictment of California's murder of Roxie Ann Phillips also received extensive media coverage in Washtenaw County - further reducing the chances of prospective jurors. not biased. In addition, a psychologist held by the defense has given such testimony on April 20, 1970. This psychologist insists that the Collins court must be held outside Washtenaw County, and this movement has also been reserved. Furthermore, Collins's lawyers argue the problems such as the acceptance of testimony relating to the microscopic analysis of hair samples presented at his trial, and the refusal of the defense movement to suppress prosecution witnesses who testify against their clients.
In every case of appeal, Collins's conviction was upheld, with the Supreme Court appeals judge announcing in October 1974, their refusal to review his convictions and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit announced their own satisfaction with the earlier findings of the district. court. Each decision states that there is no evidence available to suggest that widespread publications have disrupted the trial or trial process, and that the police did not violate any protocol in showing two eyewitness accounts of Collins's photographs prior to his arrest and they were asked to identify him in the police ranks.
At his appeal hearing in 1972, Collins's lawyer managed to secure part of his testimony. Vincent P. Guinn, the final prosecution witness in his trial, had testified about the possibility of incorrect matching of the hair found on the Karen Beineman Pants for the people in the Leik basement to "more than a million to one." This appeals movement is partly upheld on the basis that Dr. Guinn related to probability is based on the statistical probability of other prosecutors, and therefore, part of his testimony is not permitted. Nevertheless, the three judges appealed to this appeal concluded thus: "In our view, unfairly recognized testimony that merely corroborates the evidence received correctly is not the basis for withstanding irreversible error."
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