His female friends described him as aggressive and short tempered. Her fully clothed body, covered with her own raincoat and with a copy of the novel Catch-22 placed by her side, was found the following morning atop a grave in Denton Cemetery in Van Buren Township. Delhey formally closed his opening statement to the jury by requesting they return a verdict of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. In addition, the "outstanding similarities" between the wounds inflicted upon her body and those inflicted upon Fleszar the previous year led investigators to establish a definite connection between both murders, and four detectives were assigned to work full-time on both cases. CHECK THE DNA. if what you say is true.why doesn't JNC insist on DNA testing to prove his innocence? [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. They stood out," Sheriff Harvey said. Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked Paperback - August 1, 2016 by Gregory A. Fournier (Author) 236 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle $6.95 Read with Our Free App Audiobook $0.00 Free with your Audible trial Paperback $22.95 12 Used from $12.59 15 New from $16.50 Audio CD $30.54 2 New from $28.44 Detectives recalled that'sabout thesame timewhen they visited Marquette to confront Collins about the new DNA evidence that linked him to Kalomand to try to turn over some new stones. A vacationing Leik had entrusted Collins to watch over his house while he was away. She was never seen alive again. ", Collins introducedBeineman and Davis and offeredBeineman the option of riding home on his bike with him or going in the car with Davis. [137], Five independent witnesses were called to testify on behalf of the defense as to Collins' whereabouts on the dates Karen Sue Beineman had disappeared and her body had been found. [129], Formal witness testimony began on July 20, 1970. So ur saying the women that live there cried a lot because of what happened there previously?? (I said) 'the polygraph is sitting over here'. beautiful ceramic fountain, and enjoying your concrete round gas fire pit. "He likes to have control over what is happening.". [152], At his 1972 appeal hearing, Collins' lawyers did succeed in securing the partial striking of the testimony of Dr. Vincent P. Guinn, the final prosecution witness at his trial, who had testified as to the odds of erroneous matching of the hairs found upon Karen Beineman's panties to those in the Leik family basement being "more than a million-to-one. David Leik and his wife, Sandra, following their testimony against Collins at his trial. Still, in interviews with detectives,Collins described meetingKalom, 21, of Portage, and taking her on a motorcycle-riding date just before she was slain. The man they led away, John Norman Collins, could not have been further removed from the public image of a killer he was a 22-year-old Eastern Michigan education student, former football . [17], The lack of blood beneath or near the corpse, plus the testimony of eyewitnesses, led investigators to determine Schell's body had lain in its present location for less than 24 hours. 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. ", "I started talking to him like a father would talk to his son," Harvey recalled, telling Collins:"Youve got a serious problem, son, and weve got a good case. I never took her life. A low-maintenance backyard with irrigation is the perfect place to relax and entertain guests. [50] She had been accompanied part of the way by a friend named Earl Kidd, who informed police he and Basom had parted company at a desolate road just five blocks from her home,[51] where Basom had begun walking alone alongside railroad tracks toward her home. 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. Although Washtenaw County Sheriff Douglas Harvey conceded at a press conference that same month that investigators had little physical evidence to act upon and that the perpetrator had yet to make a serious error, he was adamant about the fact the murderer was still at large was due to pure luck, and not for lack of police effort. The failed sting caused Harvey substantialpublic embarrassment, and bringing it up again, Harvey said, was Collins' way of mocking him, as if heweresaying: "Ha. In the few days he was in southern California, 17-year-old Roxie Phillips disappeared. Despite exuding confidence, evidence was overwhelming. In a new twist just this week,Collins revised his story yet again. Found: August 7, 1967. Collins claimed he never killed anyone and he even agreed to take a polygraph test. A sorority house, quiet student rentals, family homes, downtown businesses, and isolated tracts of land still stand, hidden in plain sight, as a reminder of the lives cut short during a time of Terror in Ypsilanti. This is all so fascinating.. why do dumb women want to marry inmates ?? Her body was later found with multiple stab wounds, and more grotesquely, no hands or feet on August 7. ". Wow, Kim, this does bring back memories. He writeshe ran into Beineman, "she SMILED AT ME and WAVED her hand." The discovery of several dried bloodstains and two buttons missing from the victim's raincoat at a Northfield Township commercial gravel pit on June 10 indicated the victim had been murdered at this location. Kalominvited Collins to a party in Ann Arbor, which Collins claims he wasn't sure whether he would go. Larry said. News articles described John Collinsas a square-jawed,"handsomeAll-American who seemed to be leading a textbook college career." In a brief final argument on behalf of the prosecution, Booker Williams re-emphasized the physical and circumstantial evidence against Collins, before accusing the defense attorneys of attempting to sow doubt in, particularly, the forensic evidence presented by the prosecution. because it didn't happen as you would think it did,"Collins wrote to his cousin, setting him up for a lengthy explanation that revealed he had lied for years. The forensic experts who had testified on behalf of the prosecution, Dr. Jervis stated, had therefore based their conclusions on "insufficient data". [92][n 2]. [91] Some acquaintances noted Collins' politeness around women, while others described him as lascivious and bad-tempered. Her birthday was on Christmas, and she sought toget into U-M's graduate school for social work. Collins lived at end of our block on Emmett St and he used to speed by on his motorcycle and wave to us--we thought he was soooooo coolalmost James Dean like! Chapman said he is convinced of his cousin'sguilt, and in his last letters,hewas"confessing by not really confessing. ", "The thing with my cousin, as much as I hate to say this, is, he is narcissistic," Chapman said. John Norman Collins (John Norman Chapman) an American serial killer who is a suspect in The Michigan Murders, a series of highly publicized killings of young women committed between 1967 and 1969. "He knew me, and I knew him. [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. 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. The receptionist could not offer any clear description of the man beyond that he was a handsome young white male with dark hair, that he had driven a blue-grey Chevrolet, and that he had not been carrying a camera. I had no idea that a murderer lived there!-C. ". He's believed to be the last person to see the first victim alive. [104] Reviewing information regarding the murder of Roxie Ann Phillips, investigators discovered that immediately prior to her disappearance, Phillips had informed a close friend that she had become acquainted with an Eastern Michigan University student named John, who drove a silver-grey Oldsmobile Cutlass and who was temporarily residing with a friend in a camper-trailer. My mother was friends with Maralynn Skelton. 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. Memeory is fuzzy it might have been you that let me read it. True story, but I will protect my lady friend's privacy and withold her name. 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). [48], Investigators found no definite evidence Basom had been subjected to a sexual assault prior to her murder. . Collins graduated from St. Clement High, a Catholic schoolin Center Line. He cleaned the sink andwashed his face. Less than two months later, 21-year old Michigan graduate student disappeared shortly after midnight walking home from a friends party on Thompson Street. Randy/Jerry--C'mon! "He was probably 20 or 30 pounds heavier that I was. [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. [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. Between the summers of 1967 through 1969, before the term serial killer was coined, a predatory killer stalked the campuses of Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan seeking prey until he made the arrogant mistake of killing his last victim in the basement of his uncle's home. [16] In addition, her throat had been slashed, and her miniskirt then tied around her neck. And as long as Collins denies he's a killer, he still has control even from prison. The prosecution was therefore limited to questioning Davis with regards to whether the contents of this box included women's clothing and jewelry, without specifically describing any particular item. Then-Gov. Three days later it was discovered, and this set a strange sequence of events into effect that would eventually lead to the capture of who many had dubbed the "Ypsilanti Ripper.". She was a Kind & Loving person to all that knew her." [60] She was last seen walking home towards her apartment on Thompson Street, having attended a friend's party. He wrestled, played basketball, baseball, football and skied. Folklore! She had been strangled. When his parents split during early life, his mother moved with the children just outside. 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. "[155] This appeal motion was partly upheld upon the basis that Dr. Guinn's testimony relating to probabilities was based upon on the statistical probability of another prosecution expert, and therefore, this part of his testimony was impermissible. [153], His lawyers further argued that, at an evidentiary hearing in April 1970, shortly before jury selection had begun, Collins' indictment for the California murder of Roxie Ann Phillips had likewise received extensive media coverage in Washtenaw Countyfurther reducing the chances of potential jurors being unbiased. She said that the girl was an informant. Now, 40 years later, I find that a close, (unnamed), old girlfriend of mine was one of the last people to speak to Karen alive. Upon recommendation from his lawyers, Collins chose not to testify in his own defense. She came up missing on July 23, 1969, and was discovered a few days later, strangled and beaten to death. Five different police agencies frantically searched for Karen Sue Beinemanon July 23, 1969. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for this final murder attributed to the Michigan Murderer on August 19, 1970, [4] and is currently incarcerated at G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility. [39] Nonetheless, Ann Arbor Police Chief Walter Krasny formally linked Skelton's murder to the series. 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. With the mounting evidence, Collins was arrested on July 31, 1969. Leik's home was subjected to an intense forensic examination. [105], On August 14, 1969, Collins attended a pretrial hearing at Ypsilanti District Court. To expand on their allegations that certain defense witnesses had been subjected to police harassment, and that eyewitness accounts had been flawed, defense attorney Joseph Louisell subjected Sheriff Harvey to a 45-minute cross-examination as to his contact with the two eyewitnesses prior to completion of this composite drawing. Letters, interviews reveal dark side. Collins adds:"I like to believe that I still have some 'INTEGRITY.' Collins criticizes former sheriff Harvey, accusing him of having an obsession with hismother. William Milliken promised to leave "no stone unturned" to find herkiller. Moreover, if Collins believes he was wrongly accused, he can request a review. She told him she had a boyfriend in Center Line. Following her identification of a photograph of Collins, police further questioned the proprietor of the wig shop in which Beineman had last been seen alive, asking her to identify the man she had seen with Beineman in a police lineup. The physical and circumstantial evidence linking Collins to this particular murder was stronger than any of the six outstanding murders then linked to him in Michigan, and authorities in Monterey did file several motions to extradite Collins to California to stand trial for Phillips' murder in 1970 and 1971. 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. Moreover, this search had also uncovered small bloodstains in nine areas of the basement. In 1967, John Norman Collins lived in a rental about one block south of EMU's campus. Questioned by police, Collins flatly denied even knowing Schell, and insisted he had spent the weekend of June 2930 with his mother at her house in the Detroit suburb of Center Line, and had not returned to Ypsilanti until the morning of July 1. Upon conducting a search of the basement of this farmhouse, investigators discovered a further garment of her clothing, a length of electrical flex of the same type used to strangle the victim, and fresh human bloodstains, indicating this location as being the site of Basom's murder. [131], Although subject to intense cross-examination by defense attorney Neil Fink as to the credibility of her testimony, Goshe remained insistent in her identification of John Norman Collins as being the individual who had waited for Karen Sue Beineman to return to his motorcycle. One eyewitness reported seeing the girl minutes thereafter, at approximately 7:35, although her movements thereafter were never verified. It didn't take a scientist to figure out what transpired. [27], Despite the fact Mixer had not been subjected to a sexual assault, the fact her tights had been lowered to expose her thighs and sanitary napkin suggested a sexual motive behind the murder,[27] and although the victim had not been beaten, stabbed or mutilated, her student status, the tying of a garment around her neck, and the proximity of her abduction and murder led investigators to tentatively link her murder to those of Fleszar and Schell. I walked over to see if he was playing a JOKE on me and had a dummy there to scare me. 50 years later, investigation into Michigan Murders leads to DNA revelations, Through interviews with John Norman Collins and DNA evidence, Michigan State Police look to solve the cold case Michigan Murders, a "wholesome-looking girl" with "a vivid imagination. 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. Furthermore, Collins' lawyers argued issues such as the admissibility of testimony relating to the microscopic analysis of hair samples presented at his trial, and the denial of defense motions to suppress prosecution witnesses testifying against their client. However, they acknowledged, DNA did lead to a plea ina nearly30-year-old murder of a Californiateen. John Norman Collins, 22, of Center Line Collins, a 22-year-old Eastern Michigan University student, never fit anyone's image of a killer. I was there and you didn't get me!". The jury did not take its task lightly, but, I think things were blown out of proportion. "Roxie is walking down the street, mailed a letter a block away from her house. Through interviewing a recent girlfriend of Collins, investigators also learned that she had lived in an apartment complex directly across the road from the home of Dawn Basom, and that, throughout their courtship, Collins had been a regular visitor to her apartment. You can't change the past, BUTT, you can HOPE for a better future.". [162] Nonetheless, the decision of the prosecution at his 1970 trial was to try Collins solely with the murder of Karen Sue Beineman. Fournier, who offered the letters to the Free Press,speculated that Collins blamed Davis as revenge for testifying against him at trial. [146] He remained impassive upon hearing the jury foreman announce the verdict, although many spectators gasped audibly,[102] and his mother and sister left the courtroom in tears. So sad. But, the dog, Prince, had a "NOT SO FRIENDLY STREAK," and Collins warnedBeineman he would bite her and to "STAY BACK. Her body was found on an abandoned farm in Superior Township just about one month later. Randy, bloodstains.c'mon! [31] Investigators called to the crime scene noted a dramatic increase in the savagery exhibited against the victim, with one investigator describing the injuries inflicted upon the victim as being the worst he had seen in 30 years of police work. After Kalom's body was found, Collins writes, Davis"admitted to killing her.". Karen was the latest girl in a two-year stretch to go missing. She chose the car. [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. In one of the prison interviews, Schroeder saidCollins confirmed he picked up Beineman on her way to the shop. Norman Collins (1967-1969) aka "The Michigan Murderer" was a 30-year old resident of Ypsilanti, Michigan, and he killed 7 female students at Eastern Michigan University using a variety of methods -- guns, knives, blunt instruments, strangulation. There have been six before her, five in southeast Michigan and one in California - though that one was not connected at the time. On October 14, Judge Conlin rejected defense motions to dismiss the case, or suppress any evidence obtained; ruling Collins' arrest had been on the reasonable grounds he had committed a felony. Collins has been locked up for 50 years - but that doesn't erase the pain. In this cross-examination, Sheriff Harvey admitted to having driven Mrs. Goshe and her assistant to East Lansing to view the updated composite drawing of the suspect in Beineman's murder, and that he had shown photographs of various suspects, including Collins, to Goshe prior to her formally identifying Collins in a lineup. John Norman Collins, aka the Coed Killer,was convicted of one murder in the series of seven linked murders that occurred between 1967-1969 in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area, involving young women from two college campuses. [88], Evidence of culpability in remaining cases. If police in Michigan were doubting Collins as their man, they got more evidence a few thousand miles away. Location: Near an old farmhouse in a field in Superior Township, two miles north of Ypsilanti. "This source that I have says he saw Alice on the back of Collins' motorcycle, driving away," Fournier said. Shemarried William Collins. 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. Almost one year later on July 6, 1968, student Joan Schell was found dead in Ann Arbor with 47 stab wounds. "I may be off on the day/time etc. [15], In early August, investigators were contacted by their counterparts in Salinas, California[102] who stated they had reason to believe a Michigan individual named John may be responsible for the June 30 death of a 17-year-old girl named Roxie Ann Phillips.[103]. But Collins wasn't all that he seemed. Initially, police took him at his word, and did not seek to verify his alibi. The seven. Collins was ready to confess, but without a witness, the former sheriff said itmight not stick. Welcome to Lakeside. And she looked at them and I don't know, the third or fourth picture was Collins and when she saw it she just dropped her sandwich in her lap and said 'oh shit, that's him!'" Almost one year later on July 6, 1968, student Joan Schell was found dead in Ann Arbor with 47 stab wounds. The Inside was really old and spooky, like still 1870's. Davis put thepanties which, from Collins' account, had his DNA on them inside Beineman's body. 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]. And here's California - and they've got a better case than us, and they've got the death penalty," Sheriff Harvey said. Before Collins left the Golden State, he saw a doctor for a case of poison oak. She worked alongside Witsil and Maxwell interviewing key figures into the investigation of the Michigan Murders cold case to produce a documentary video and portraits. During the trial, Collins sat more relaxed than before: He smiled at attorneys, his mother, and his family. "When the doctor and his wife came down here to the end of the street to get the mail, his wife looked down and said 'there's a body down there," Fournier said. A woman police officer mentioned her name to someone and that someone "dropped the dime" on Maralynn. Funny thing, blood and semen evidence were collected from most of the victims and never once has Collins filed an appeal demanding a DNA test. I was only 5 and 6 yrs old when the murders happened so never heard about them.. By '69, he was a senior at Eastern Michigan University, studying to be a teacher. 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.