Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Ypsilanti Ripper” Pt. 2 - John Norman Collins

Episode Date: May 13, 2019

After successfully murdering four women in Eastern Michigan without a whiff of suspicion in 1969, John Norman Collins began to believe he would never be caught. He grew increasingly brash, returning to crime scenes and toying with police.  Sponsors! The Farmer’s Dog - Get 50% off your two-week trial of fresh, healthy food at TheFarmersDog.com/KILLERS. Plus, you get FREE shipping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. The sun beats down on a dense pine forest. Two young women rest alongside a hiking trail, drinking water and laughing together. They're interrupted by a man about their age emerging from the woods. He shakes the leaves out of his hair and introduces himself as John. He says he's camping nearby with a friend. John is confident, handsome, and friendly. He starts talking to the women, and within minutes the three are carrying on like old friends.

At the end of the conversation, he asks one of them out on a date. The following night, the woman waits for hours in vain. She calls her friend to complain that she's been stood up, but no one answers the phone. Her friend can't answer because she's tied to a tree deep in the woods. John tortures and kills her there. By the time her body is found, two weeks later, John has already skipped town. He's on the hunt for his next victim. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson.

This is serial killers, a parkast original. Every Monday, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're going to peel back the layers behind the terrible killing spree of John Norman Collins, the Michigan murderer. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. At Parcast, we're grateful for you, our listeners. You allow us to do what we love. Let us know how we're doing. Reach out on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. And if you enjoy today's episode, the best way to help us is to leave a five-star review wherever you're listening. It really does help. We also now have merchandise. Head to Parcast.com slash merch for more information. Last week, we examined John Norman Collins' early life

and the series of events that led him to murder four people in eastern Michigan between 1967 and 1969. John was born in 1947 in Windsor, Canada. His troubled childhood, filled with abuse, taught him to suppress his emotions, including intense feelings of anger. While outwardly he was a popular, all-American athlete, In private, he was a pressure cooker, harboring rage against the outside world.

At age 20, he boiled over. He abducted Mary Flesher, a fellow student at Eastern Michigan University, and murdered her. At first, John tried to fight his violent urges and went long stretches of time without killing. But as time went on, his rage grew harder to ignore, and his methods grew more brutal. His fourth murder of 16-year-old high school student, Marilyn Skelton, was described by detective as the worst crime he'd seen in 30 years of police work. This week will probe further into John's horrific killing spree and how the small community of Ipsilanti began to unravel as the Michigan murderer remained uncaptured. In April of 1969, 22-year-old John Norman Collins was busy planning his. fifth murder. Just a week before, he abducted, beat, and raped Marilyn Skelton before killing

her. The resulting scene was horrific. John thought letting his pent-up anger loose might calm his violent urges. He wanted to lie low for a while, as he had done before his second and third murders. It didn't work. John harbored a deep hatred toward women, which only grew as he began murdering them. John stued in his Eastern Michigan University apartment alone, reliving his crimes and relishing every detail. Each day he found it harder to keep his emotions in check. John was addicted to killing, and he wasn't unique. Many killers experience a similar pattern of escalation in their desires to kill, even as they indulge in more sadistic fantasies with each new victim. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode.

Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. As neuroscientist Jack Pemmint writes, this escalation can be a symptom of conduct disorder, CD, sometimes known as childhood psychopathy, which is given as a diagnosis to children and teenagers who exhibit extreme antisocial traits, such as animal torture and cruelty. John admitted to torturing animals as a child. child and once bragged to his elementary school classmates about strangling a cat. Pemmet continues, quote, a child's destructive nature and curiosity, usually with respect to toys, coupled with CD, therefore, is a recipe for killing animals. And once the child has felt the

exhilaration, the antisocial behavior will be reinforced. This sets the ground for addiction, particularly given the high level of exhilaration. John would pace back to the same. and forth in his apartment and imagine the faces of the women he had tortured. He felt euphoric. He knew he had to kill again soon. But this time he faced more obstacles than before. After the body of his last victim had been found, police from departments across eastern Michigan had formed a coordinated task force to track down the Michigan murderer. The force was comprised of 20 investigators from departments across eastern Michigan. As John's crimes had been scattered across a couple of counties,

six police departments had jurisdiction over the murders. The investigators gathered files from each of their respective departments into one location and cross-referenced the cases to find similarities. With the increased collaboration, detectives noticed some new similarities among the victims so far. They were already aware of the basic commonalities. All four of the women were brunette and had been found within a 15-mile radius of Wastonaw County in Michigan. Upon another look at the evidence, investigators noted that all the victims were found with an item of clothing around their necks and were menstruating at the time of their deaths. Except for the third victim, Jane Mixer, the women were also beaten and stabbed in the neck.

With this information, police were reasonably certain that at least those three murders had been committed by the same perpetrator. But by now, the media had been trumpeting the work of the Michigan murderer and the co-ed killer for nearly a year. With the latest death, public agitation spiked. The creation of the task force felt like too little too late. Sales of pepper spray, knives, and other self-defense tools skyrocketed. Hitchhiking around Michigan College campuses dropped dramatically. And female students organized groups of chaperones to ensure no one went out at night.

alone. Student activist groups in Ann Arbor and Ipsilanti also made their anger known. They staged demonstrations outside police and university headquarters demanding more be done to catch the killer. And while John loved the attention, the rising caution around campus lessened his options to ensnare a victim. But thanks to John's natural charm, he could always find a way to get women alone. Nevertheless, John decided the best course of action would be to avoid college campuses for the time being. He wanted an easier target, so he sought out another high school student. On April 15, 1969, three weeks after his fourth murder, John kidnapped 13-year-old Don Louise Bassem while she walked home alone. She was coming from depotown, a small industrial area and arts

district where she and her friends hung out after school. Dawn was less than half a mile from her home when John drove up beside her. Playing the authoritative adult, John asked Dawn to stop walking. By the time Dawn realized she didn't know the man in the car, he had already gotten out and grabbed her. John threw the girl in the trunk of his car and sped off to an abandoned farmhouse in a nearby field. Police found her body on April 16th on the side of the road, clad only in a white blouse. Her bra was pushed up to her neck and a handkerchief had been stuffed in her mouth. She'd been stabbed in the chest and genitals, strangled with an electrical cord, and cut all over. Authorities searched the area around the road where her body was found for the site of the actual murder.

After the better part of a day, they arrived at the farmhouse. It was a gruesome scene. Amongst the overgrowth, splintered floorboards and crumbling walls, investigators found pools of fresh blood and signs of a struggle. broken glass covered the floor in practically every room. Dawn's bright orange sweater was found in the basement, along with scraps of her blouse. But other articles of clothing were missing. This was the first time police had come upon the actual murder scene for a victim of the Michigan murderer,

rather than just where the body had been dumped. Police hoped to find new usable evidence as they searched the farmhouse, garage, and nearby barn. Unfortunately, although they searched the place up and down, they were unable to gather any physical evidence. No fingerprints, hairs, or clothing fibers. There was debate among detectives about whether the murderer was a mastermind or just plain lucky. While they puzzled over yet another scene, John was having the time of his life. Local news coverage exploded. The story ended up going national, while he had merely been intrigued by the notoriety.

before, John was now beginning to enjoy it in earnest. After so many victims, he no longer feared the press reports would get him caught. He was overflowing with confidence and self-satisfaction. He was beginning to feel like a celebrity. John watched every news report he could find about his crimes. He finally understood the euphoria other killers have felt, seeing their exploits publicized on the news. It's natural for a killer's confidence to grow as their crimes go on solved and press coverage increases. Professor of psychology Zelda G. Knight attributes the craving

some killers have for public attention to unmet needs during childhood. She says that parents, lacking recognition of their infants emerging need for grandiosity and idealization, would have disconfirmed the child's emerging sense of self and reality. John didn't receive a lot of recognition growing up and was abused by multiple father figures. As Dr. Kenneth Barish, Clinical Professor of Psychology writes, Children are more likely to become praise junkies, children who seek and need constant praise, in the absence of our praise and approval.

Seeing his crimes reported on TV satisfied John's need for recognition, born from his childhood trauma. The attention also fed his narcissism. A paper published by the Elsevier Analytics Company found a strong link between narcissism and attention-seeking behavior. Researchers wrote,

When attention to the self is not forthcoming, narcissists may engage in compensatory actions to direct attention toward the self. Essentially, John's inflated sense of self caused him to act out for attention. By the time the news reports were in full swing, John had also gained some personal clarity about the violence he committed.

He no longer fooled himself into thinking he could only kill intermittently to stave off his desires. Now, killing became his sole reason for existing. He thought about his victims constantly and fantasized about his next ones. Several days after Don's murder, these thoughts drove him to return to the scene of the crime. It was the first time John had returned to a crime scene since his first murder. He wanted to see the farmhouse again so he could relive the girl's torture and death.

But he had something else in mind, too. Now that efforts to capture him had intensified, John wanted to show police that he wasn't afraid. He saw himself as a brilliant predator pursued by authorities that could never understand or beat him. He wanted to mock them. On April 23rd, a week after the 5th Michigan murder, a police officer returned to the site of Don Basem's murder for routine inspection. Investigators had already gone through the scene with a fine-toothed comb, so the officer was shocked to find something new in the basement of the house. Next to a large bloodstain on the floor, the officer found a new scrap of clothing and an earring.

The clothing was quickly identified as belonging to Dawn, but the earring wasn't hers. After a few days of legwork, detectives confirmed the earring belonged to Marilyn Skelton, the fourth victim of the killer. Had the murderer really revisited a crime scene just to leave evidence connected. himself to a separate killing, authorities were enraged. They knew they were being played with, and they knew they were losing. The media ran with the story, once again publicly embarrassing the task force. In addition to the embarrassment, the incident caused paranoia among some on the force. They openly worried about how brazen the killer might become if he roamed free for much longer. It suddenly seemed to police that the murderer was in total control of what would happen next.

They were playing catch-up. In a moment, the investigation takes a drastic change. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right.

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Get business internet advantage free, forever, when you get four mobile lines from Spectre. Visit Spectrum.com slash free for life to find out how. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas. Now, back to the story. In May of 1969, detectives were working overtime to make progress on the case of the now notorious Michigan murderer. Members of the coordinated force, tasked with finding the killer, felt severe pressure to find new leads and avoid prolonging what was fast becoming a national embarrassment.

After the killer returned to the site of Don Basem's murder and planted new evidence, detectives set up 24-hour surveillance at the scene, but the officers involved were already worked to the bone, interviewing potential witnesses and suspects. Many detectives considered the stakeout a waste of time. They doubted the culprit would be so brash as to return a second time. Some even reasoned that a waste of police research,

sources had been what the killer wanted all along. In light of the disagreements among the officers, the 24-hour watch was canceled after several days. It was a costly mistake. A month after the murder, and two weeks after revisiting the farmhouse for the first time, John came back again. How many times could he push his luck by provoking the police like this? In John's view, as many times as he wanted,

His confidence was now bordering on delusion. He felt a rush of malicious satisfaction as he drove down the rural backroads in the middle of the night. He had seen the frustration on the faces of police during news reports. He knew they'd been working around the clock to put him behind bars and had still come up with nothing. He laughed out loud when Sheriff Doug Harvey told media

the killer was either damn smart or damn lucky during a press conference. With this latest stunt, John set out to prove luck had nothing to do with it. He pulled to the side of the road a short distance from the farmhouse and snuck to the driveway carrying the supplies he had brought, a can of gasoline, a lighter, and five lilacs. John soaked the basement and the bottom floor of the farmhouse with the gas.

Lit the place up and arranged the flowers in the driveway. Five flowers, one for each victim. The incident once again drew the ire of investigators who were thoroughly attacked by the media for incompetence. As embarrassing as the event was, it provided some confirmation of police theories. The Five Flowers seemed to confirm that a single perpetrator was responsible for all the murders, eliminating the last vestiges of doubt that had persisted among some officers. The task force began blanketing eastern Michigan, interviewing and checking on every known sex criminal who fit the tentative description of the murderer police had put together.

By June 1969, one month after the arson, they had investigated and cleared over 500 suspects. In addition, they had chased down hundreds of tips that were submitted to the dedicated phone hotline. None of it led anywhere. While police continued to put in overtime, John was working hard too. He was in his last year at EMU, majoring in education, working part-time at a plant which manufactured motorcycle brakes, and racking his brain to find a suitable place to capture his next victim. Though he was stressed, he was determined to never let it show in public. Outwardly, he maintained his easy-going charm. Around campus, he walked female friends and classmates home at night, gleefully stoking their fears while he acted the gentleman.

He played the same game at work. He made the ongoing murders a common topic of conversation with female coworkers and described the gruesome cases point by point. Some of the details he included hadn't been broadcasted by the media, like the exact locations where the victims were found and the precise natures of some of the injuries. He claimed the information had been shared with him by his uncle, Officer David Lake, a veteran sergeant on the force.

John described the violence with faux concern and watched with concealed glee while the women became uncomfortable. Eventually, a couple of his coworkers asked him to stop bringing the murders up around them. He dutifully apologized, thrilled at the thought that his descriptions had made them imagine what he'd done. The obvious joy he took recounting his own crimes shows how self-obsessed John was. According to psychiatrist Dr. John Liebert, in the International Journal, of offender therapy and comparative criminology, most cases of serial murder are at the hands of individuals

with borderline and narcissistic personality disorders. John displayed many traits consistent with narcissistic personality disorder, including self-aggrandizing, a sense of entitlement, and a lack of guilt for his actions. John amused himself by playing with the emotions of his friends and colleagues

for weeks after burning the farmhouse. Finally, he could distract himself no longer. and he yearned to kill yet again. He took to driving around campus during nights, and even afternoons, stalking women and waiting for the right opportunity to strike. On June 8th, he found it. 21-year-old EMU student Alice Callum

was walking home from a party when she was abducted by John and taken to a construction site a few miles away. Her body was found in a field the next morning morning by a group of teenagers. Like the other victims, Alice had been raped, cut, and stabbed multiple times. Unlike most of the others, Alice had been shot by a small caliber pistol. John always threatened victims with the pistol, but only fired it when he was sure the noise would not attract witnesses. The following day, police found bloodstains and the buttons to her coat at the bottom of the gravel pit where she had been killed. As quickly as police moved,

following the murder of Alice Callum, John moved quicker. Two weeks after murdering Alice on June 21st, John made a trip out of town. He traveled with his friend Andrew Manuel to Monterey, California. As you may recall, Andrew Manuel had been John's partner in crime during his first couple of years at EMU. The pair had been caught on more than one occasion stealing from other students, including John's former fraternity brothers. John and Andrew rented a trailer under her false names and towed it to California with John's car. There, John met a young woman named Nancy Albrecht. Nancy later reported that she and John had a friendly conversation during which they agreed to see each other again. She mentioned her encounter with John to her friend,

17-year-old Roxy Phillips. According to the book, The Michigan Murders by Edward Keyes, Roxy was as eager to meet John as Nancy was to see him again. But John never came to came back to see Nancy. Instead, he began stalking Roxy. The next afternoon, June 30th, 1969, John offered Roxy a ride outside the post office. Once Roxy was in his car, instead of taking her home, he drove her deep into the California woods. Roxy's body was discovered two weeks later on July 13th in a ravine. She was found naked with her red belt around her neck.

John had beaten, strangled, and raped her. Police found some of Roxy's clothes and personal items along the highway, leading from Salinas, California to Monterey. By the time the body was found, John was already back in Michigan. He and Andrew Manuel had abandoned the trailer in the woods and parted ways. This was the plan all along. Andrew had some outstanding warrants for theft in Michigan and wanted to leave the state permanently.

Andrew hitchhiked to Arizona while Joe. John drove back to Michigan. In Ann Arbor, the community was still reeling from the discovery of Alice Callum in early June. After a month of no arrests, community leaders revolted, fed up with what they saw as police incompetence. They invited the famous Dutch psychic Peter Hercos to travel to Michigan to help find the killer. At first, Herkos told the Ann Arbor citizens who contacted him he would charge a $5,000 fee in addition to expenses to come from Europe to Michigan.

A hurried fundraising campaign began in Ann Arbor, but only $10 was collected. Apparently most Michiganites had about as much confidence in psychic powers as they did in the police department. When Hercos was informed the money was lacking, he changed his terms. He graciously offered to waive his fee if travel was paid for. He said he had been researching the case and claimed to feel strong vibrations, related to the crimes. Still, he said he could only come if the full cooperation of the police was guaranteed. Police were not in the mood to cooperate, but wanting to ease tensions in the community, they promised to be courteous at least. Hercos arrived on July 21st, 1969.

Soon after he arrived, he displayed his powers to one of the police officers escorting him, Bob Schofield. Hercos told Schofield that a fuel cylinder on his camper trailer was loose and that propane was escaping. Schofield had no idea how Hercos could have known he owned a camper. Skeptical, he called his wife and asked her to check. Sure enough, she reported back that there was a fuel leak. Hercos may have saved Schofield's life. For the remainder of Hercos' visit, officers treated him with a skeptical indulgence.

The psychic visited the scenes of each murder and made several predictions to investigators on the spot, some of which were accurate. Later, he expanded on them during press interviews. He correctly identified the killer as a white male under the age of 25, who was born outside of the United States. He also accurately noted that the killer rode a motorcycle. On the other hand, his predicted physical description of the killer varied. On some occasions, he claimed that the culprit was blonde, on others, brunette. His last prediction was that the killer would strike one fond. final time. The details provided by Hercos ultimately did little to help the police, who by July had investigated 1,000 potential suspects and 800 phone line tips. Meanwhile, John followed the story

via the local news. It was an utter fiasco. He loved it. Authorities were going in circles, and John was having a blast watching. He felt the town and the police must be crazy to employ a psychic detective. He continued to bring the topic up frequently with friends. All the while, he mentally steeled himself to resist his growing appetite for violence. He forced himself to wait a couple more weeks, let one murder run cold before jumping to the next. But he figured there was no harm in window shopping. He started scoping out new victims and new imaginative places to kill them. In late July 1969, John got an opportunity he couldn't pass up. His uncle, Sergeant Lake, was going on vacation with his family for a week.

John volunteered to feed their German Shepherd while they were gone. He practically cackled out loud when the keys to the house were handed over to him. The Lake Home was a moderately sized suburban house with close neighbors, but it also had a fairly large, private basement. Almost the instant his uncle left, John went out to buy supplies. Neighbors would later report that they witnessed John coming home with some grocery bags filled with cleaning supplies. He was planning to make this murder count. In a moment, John makes his final kill.

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Now back to the story. On the afternoon of July 23rd, John Norman Collins set off on his motorcycle from his uncle's house toward town. Since his uncle was out of town for the week, he had the house to himself and saw it as the perfect opportunity to claim his next victim. First, John visited a former girlfriend to chat, hoping to establish a flimsy alibi. Then he sped around downtown Ipsilanti, offering women rides. He was shot down several times, but continued undaunted. John's opinion of himself was so high he was never too disappointed when he was rejected. Friends later described his picking up women as a game he played.

After a few rebuffs, John spotted fellow EMU student Karen Byneman, exiting a wig shop downtown, carrying a new blonde wig. He pulled up to her and asked if she needed a ride home. According to the owner of the wig shop, Karen looked to be having a friendly conversation with a dark-haired boy on a motorcycle. Karen jokingly remarked to the owner that she She must be crazy to buy a wig and then accept a ride from a stranger. But after a little persuasive talk from the dark-haired man, Karen agreed to the ride and climbed on the back of his bike. Three days later, police found Karen's body alongside the freeway.

She had been beaten extensively with a blunt instrument, cut deeply and raped. The autopsy found her panties along with hundreds of small hair clippings inside her vaginal cavity. In addition, her digestive tract showed that she had ingested some kind of corrosive liquid, like bleach. Cloth was shoved in her throat to silence her screams. Following the autopsy, police began interviewing Karen's roommates and friends. Soon they found the wig shop where she had last been seen and interviewed the owner.

The owner passed along what she knew. She provided a strong description of the man on the motorcycle, A clerk in the store next door also remembered the motorcycle and was even able to identify the make, a triumph. Armed with an approximate time of disappearance for the victim and a description of the killer, police instituted a media blackout. Detectives hoped the killer would return to the scene of the crime

and set a trap to catch him if he did. A mannequin was placed where Karen's body was found and police patrolled the area day and night. John did return to the spot on the side of the highway around 2 a.m. on July 27th. Unfortunately, the area was pouring rain at the time and he accidentally snuck past a policeman in the dark. It didn't take long for John to see the mannequin and realized he had been duped. He sprinted back to his car. This time, the officer on patrol noticed him, but could not catch him.

He radioed for backup, but the rain interfered with the radio. After the failed attempt to snag the killer, police returned to their extensive interviewing. Based on the description of the motorcycle driver from the Whig shopkeeper, a young officer named Larry Mathewson believed he knew who the suspect was. Matthewson had seen John Norman Collins riding his motorcycle on the 23rd and went immediately to interview him. John had been questioned months previously after the murder of Joan Shell, the second victim of the killer.

This time, John could tell something was different. Officer Mathewson aggressively questioned John about his whereabouts on the 23rd. John tried his best to stay cool and barely managed. He admitted to Matthewson that he had been out riding his motorcycle that day and had gone to talk with a former girlfriend. Matthewson next spoke to the girlfriend, who confirmed she had seen John in the early afternoon and gave the officer a recent photo of him.

the wig shop owner and the clerk from the adjacent store positively identified the man in the photo as the one they had seen on the motorcycle with Karen Byneman. For the first time, police were optimistic about the state of the investigation. In light of the increasing circumstantial evidence against John, police began surveilling him on July 26th. On the 29th, his uncle, Sergeant David Lake, returned home from vacation.

The other officers at the station informed Lake that his nephew was a suspect in the Michigan murders case. Lake felt the evidence was concerning, but didn't want to jump to conclusions. He knew about John's rough childhood and had a soft spot for the boy. That night, when he returned home, Lake's wife told him she had found some strange spots of paint in the basement, and she couldn't find some of their cleaning supplies. Lake went down to the basement to take a look at the paint marks. He could immediately tell some of the furniture had been moved around.

trying to refrain from jumping to conclusions. He carefully scraped away the paint from a few of the spots on the floor. What he found underneath looked a lot like bloodstains. Horrified, he reported his findings to his department the following day and forensic examiners came to study the basement further. Meanwhile, two officers returned to John's apartment and asked him further questions about his activities on the day Karen Byneman was abducted.

This time, John dropped his calm, amenable exterior. He angrily insisted the employees who had identified him by photograph were mistaken. He swore he had never met Karen Byneman or had ever come near the wig shop where she vanished. When police asked him to come to the station and take a polygraph test, John refused. The officers who confronted John were new and had little experience with homicides. They were hurriedly briefed on the situation and told to stake. out the suspect's apartment. When, after several hours, John finally returned home, the officers jumped at the chance to interrogate him. In their eagerness, they revealed the full weight of

the circumstantial evidence they had gathered against John. When the officers left, John was in a state of full-blown panic. He suspected they were watching him, and so stayed in his apartment for the rest of the day, considering his options. The only thing that kept him calm was the fact that he still hadn't been arrested. The day after the police questioned him, he gathered up all the potential evidence he had kept in his room, including articles of clothing and weapons used in the murders. Had the officers waited just two more days to talk to John until search warrants could be obtained for John's apartment, the evidence could have been salvaged. Instead, John's roommate Arnold Davis, saw John leaving the apartment with a large cardboard box in the morning. While he didn't

see everything inside. Arnold did notice a woman's shoe, some cloth, and a purse among its contents. John told Arnold he was cleaning out his room and had decided to throw away the belongings in the box. He returned to the apartment several hours later. Although a team of officers was keeping an eye on John's apartment, they neglected to follow him when he left, and the box was never found. Back in David Lake's basement, investigators had found valuable forensic action. evidence left behind by the killer. Though the initial substance found under the paint spots was determined to be varnish rather than blood, they did find nine smaller blood stains throughout the basement. Upon analysis, samples from two of the blood stains were determined to be

type A, the same blood type as Karen Byneman. By examining the washing machine, investigators found some small fibers of human hair similar to the ones found in the vaginal cavity of the victim. Sergeant Lake explained that they often cut their children's hair in the basement. The implication of the discovery sickened him and the other investigators. When the hair fibers were analyzed further, they proved to be a match to the clippings found during Karen's autopsy. It now seemed undeniable that Bynaman had been in the lake's basement before she was killed. John was arrested on July 31st, 1969. He was interrogated at length and began to weatheed.

when officers shared what had been found in the lake's basement. But then, almost like magic, John calmed down and insisted he was innocent. He didn't break down again. The shop owner and clerk who had identified John by photo came in and again identified him as part of a police lineup. His apartment and vehicles were searched as well. Nothing concretely connecting him to the murders could be found. But his roommate told police about the cardboard box John had thrown out. John had thrown out. Once again, it seemed police were just a little too late. Though some evidence

may have been lost, some new information was revealed. On the day John was arrested, Michigan police received an unexpected call from a police department in California. John's holiday in Monterey was still being investigated. Since finding the corpse of Roxy Phillips, Monterey Police had been searching for potential suspects. Roxy's friend Nancy had told police that she had met a mysterious man named John from Michigan the day before Roxy had been murdered. The man matched the description provided by a bystander who spotted Roxy before she disappeared. Now, Monterey Police saw reports that an individual named John had just been arrested in connection with the Michigan murders. Nancy's description of John matched the newly arrested suspect exactly,

including the fact that he studied at EMU and had aspirations to be a teacher. Two days later, Michigan detectives traveled to California to discuss the case. The trailer John and Andrew Manuel had rented was finally located in the woods several miles from where Roxy's body was found. The trailer had been completely wiped of fingerprints, unusually clean for a vehicle that had been abandoned. The Michigan officers agreed that there were enough similarities between the murder of Roxy Phillips and the Michigan murders that a definite link could be established. For one thing, Roxy Phillips was a young brunette who was menstruating at the time of her death. John had an eerie history of attacking women who were on their periods. She had been

beaten, sexually assaulted, and murdered in a way consistent with the rest of the Michigan murders. In addition, her body had been found with an item of clothing around her neck, just like the victims in Michigan. All of this combined with the fact that John had been in the area at the time of Roxy's death made the circumstantial evidence very convincing. Andrew Manuel, John's friend who traveled to California with him, was soon picked up in Phoenix, Arizona. The FBI questioned him about his involvement, but Andrew agreed to take a polygraph test, and authorities determined he had no knowledge of Roxy's murder.

Due to John's pending trial for the murder of his eighth victim, Karen Byneman, his indictment for the California murder was sealed and put on hold. Throughout his interrogation, John had remained composed. He never wavered after breaking down when he was first captured. Since then, he stayed relatively quiet and maintained his innocence, even when confronted with the evidence relating to his Monterey murder. Without a confession, police only had circumstantial evidence for most of the murders. They decided that their best chance at a conviction was to focus on the last victim, Karen Byneman.

Prosecutors felt they had the best chance, with this case because it was the only murder in which there was physical evidence attesting to John's involvement found in his uncle's basement. There were also several witnesses who were certain they had seen John speaking with the victim. Initially, the decision was met with pushback from the families of the other victims who wanted justice for their loved ones. But ultimately, everyone agreed that the best chance to put the guilty party behind bars should be seized, no matter what. The case of Karen Byneman was moved toward trial. Leading up to his hearing, John continued to insist on his innocence. He reluctantly agreed

to an independent polygraph test with sealed results. The findings were never released by his defense attorney. Whatever the conclusion, the attorney suggested afterward to John's mother, Loretta, that they attempt an insanity defense. Loretta, who always believed her son was innocent, fired the attorney and remortgaged her home to find new counsel. John went to trial in August of 1970 and pled not guilty. The proceedings went on for almost a month involving many witnesses and forensic experts who primarily testified about the evidence found in Sergeant Lake's basement. In the end, John was sentenced to life in prison. In his final words to the courtroom, he maintained his innocence, calling the case

a travesty of justice. Following the trial, there were attempts by the state of California to have him extradited and tried for the murder of Roxy Phillips in Monterey. These attempts were foiled by John's attorney over the course of several years. Eventually, California announced it was no longer pursuing extradition. The state felt that it was a misuse of resources, considering John was already serving a life sentence. Today, John sits alone in his cell at Marquette.

branch prison, still refusing to provide additional information on his other victims. Just as he sought control over the women he killed, the Michigan murderer guards the last bit of control he has over his story, his confession. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back Monday with a new episode. You can find more episodes of serial killers as well as other podcast shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, CastBox, tune-in, or your favorite podcast directory. Several of you have asked how to help the show. And if you enjoy the show, the best way to help is to leave a five-star review. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at

Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Harcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Dick Schroeder, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Paul Liebeskind. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admire. Serial Killers is written by Terrell Wells and stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson. Want to hear something spooky. Some monster. It reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal.

One of the boys started to be. to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves. Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors. Where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed. And there was a fool of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers.

Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the IHot Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.