Publication Date: September 5, 2016
Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked by Gregory A. Fournier takes place between 1967 and 1969, when a number of young women between the ages of 13 and 21 disappeared from the streets in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan, many of them co-eds at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan. John Norman Collins was initially only charged with the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, an 18-year-old EMU student, but his links to other murders, including one in California; seemed straightforward for authorities. In Terror in Ypsilanti, Fournier dives into the crimes of Michigan serial killer, John Norman Collins.
To be upfront, I was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan 3 months after Collins was formally sentenced for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman. Collins was the story moms used to scare children about why they should never walk alone. the local urban legend road, Denton Road, was known as a place that Collins’ dumped the body of Jane Louise Mixer, a 23-year-old University of Michigan law student (she was later found not to be a Collins’ victim when DNA matched Gary Leiterman to the crime in 2004). The spot where the body was left was included by friends in my surprise 15th birthday party which my mother did not allow me to attend. My friends went anyway and, as teens do, other teens jumped out and scared them. Sounds like it was a great time if, looking back, perhaps quite disrespectful for a final resting place.
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In 1937 Alice McDonell Parsons was allegedly picked up at her home by two people interested in seeing a property she had for rent and was never seen again. A note found on the floorboard of a car led police to think it was a kidnapping, which wasn’t so far fetched as kidnaping was a very popular crime at the time. The FBI became involved and Hoover assigned his best agents to the case. The complications that followed and secrets that were exposed complicated the case of the missing woman whose fate was never really known. Drielak takes a deep dive into declassified documents to fit the puzzle pieces of what happened to Alice McDonell Parsons.
On November 6, 1920, in the midst of Ontario’s prohibition, Provincial liquor inspector, Reverend J.O.L “Leslie” Spracklin walked into the Chappell House Hotel in Windsor, Ontario and shot Beverly “Babe” Trumble at close range, killing him. What happened that day and how did Spracklin get away with murder?
On November 8, 1965, 52-year-old investigative reporter and television personality, Dorothy Kilgallen, is found dead of an apparent overdose in her New York City home. Her files are missing and the air conditioning is running. She has been investigating the Kennedy assassination and has told people she is poised to crack it wide open. Was she the reporter who knew too much?
In Never Tell by Alafair Burke, N.Y.P.D. Homicide Detective Ellie Hatcher, and her partner J.J. Rogan are called to the scene of what appears to be a suicide. A sixteen-year-old with an eating disorder slashes her wrists in the bathtub and even leaves a suicide note. When the wealthy parents of the deceased use their money and connections to bring an investigation, Ellie soon realizes that there’s more to this case than meets the eye.