The Misery Machine - The Case of Robert Beckowitz

Starting point is 00:00:00 When telling a victim's story on a true crime channel, what do you feel is needed in order to best honor them? Explaining who they were as a person, quotes from their family about what they meant to them, pictures of them at their best moments in life. What if none of these things are available at all? What if the only things left of this person showcases the heinous act that stole their life from them? Today we discuss a victim's story where this not only was the case, the internet made a mockery out of his death. Robert Alan Beckowitz was born in Michigan on October 5th, 1948.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Not much is known about his childhood other than the fact that he grew up in an orphanage with his brother Gerald. It's unclear what happened to the boy's parents, but their young lives were less than idyllic. According to a neighbor that knew Robert, he used to tell us about how he was beaten in the orphanage. According to others that knew him, Robert was described as a biker. in a troubled man. Much like his childhood, not a lot is known about Robert's adult life either, other than the horrific details surrounding his death. In fact, there are no known pictures of Robert Online that depict him alive.

Starting point is 00:01:13 On his Findagrave.com listing, we did find a picture claiming to be Robert's mugshot from a 1977 arrest for drug and illegal weapons possession and dissemination. However, the picture appears to be heavily photoshopped or, at the very least, a poor rendering of what Robert did look like. What we can confirm is Robert sported a thick mustache and wore his long, dark hair and a thick braid. At the time of our story, Robert was 33 years old and was living in a basement apartment on Woodbine Street in northwest Detroit. It was the summer of 1982, and things weren't looking the brightest in Motor City. The city of 1.2 million residents faced significant economic challenges, including mass

Starting point is 00:01:58 massive layoffs and factory closures in the automotive industry. In addition, there was a statewide unemployment crisis. 732,000 workers lost their jobs, and the state attained an unemployment rate of 17.2%. However, the city of Detroit was already reeling from a deadly tragedy. It was one month prior to the events of our story, June 11th, Detroit also experienced what would later be known as the Buell Building Massacre. It involved another man named Robert. who coincidentally also had a brother named Gerald.

Starting point is 00:02:32 Impatiently awaiting the last of a series of insurance payments from the Bellin-Hudson law firm, 35-year-old Robert Leonard Harrington decided to take matters into his own hands. Mr. Harrington, who suffered from a mental illness, boarded a bus headed downtown wearing a trench coat in the summer heat. In one pocket he had a pistol, the other a jar of gasoline in a book of matches. He also was hiding a sought-off shotgun in his coat. Upon arriving at the Buell building, Robert took the elevator to the law firm's office on the eighth floor. He then charged the front desk where 25-year-old intern Eve August was working. After Miss August informed him that they didn't have his money, Robert pulled his shotgun out of his coat and fired five shots into Eve,

Starting point is 00:03:16 killing her instantly. Meanwhile, Robert's wife had a feeling that something was amiss, and she called her brother-in-law Gerald, who worked at a bank downtown. She begged him to intercept his brother at the dual building. Gerald tried, but when he got there, he realized that he was too late. After shooting and killing Eve August, Robert went on a rampage, shooting at anyone at everyone he could find. At one point, he lit his own trench coat on fire while trying to fashion together a Molotov cocktail. Seeing this was his only chance at escaping, 27-year-old lawyer Doug Wartell made a break for it. Later told reporters, I just thought maybe somebody in our criminal section was unhappy with the result of something. I didn't really think I personally would be a target, but it looked like, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:02 the guy was just trying to wipe out the entire office. He's making sure that nobody else was going to be alive, and that was scary. During the melee, Gerald managed to get the gun from his brother, but was almost shot himself after an armed guard entered the building from another office, assuming that he was the rampaging madman. Off-duty Detroit Police Detective Sergeant Tommy Robinson heard a call come over his radio of shots fired, so he raced over to the the Buell building and up to the eighth floor. He told reporters, I heard some more shots. When I heard the second shot, the office manager ran out of the office and down the stairs. I couldn't blame him because if I had the opportunity, I would too. I now had the obligation to do police work on the eighth floor.

Starting point is 00:04:44 I knew it was time to go to work and said, well, this is it. He added that as he approached a law library, I opened the door and I saw the shotgun on the floor. I wanted to get the shotgun, then I thought, no, maybe it's got prints on it. It can be used for evidence. That's when I saw his brother, Gerald Harrington. And I opened the door a little wider and I saw the other brother Robert Harrington on the floor. He had a crease, an injury on his forehead, but his eyes were very red, very red. I said, you too, if you move, I'm killing you. In the end, five employees of the law firm were shot, while two jumped out the window and down three stories to a nearby rooftop. One of those employees suffered injuries that put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The other

Starting point is 00:05:27 suffered permanent head injuries. Eve August was the only person who died. In the aftermath of the melee, a photographer managed to capture this iconic picture of a fedora-clad Detective Robinson and both Harrington brothers. Robert Harrington was charged with murder, attempted murder, arson, felony firearms possession. His lawyer attempted an insanity defense, but the jury was having none of it. He's found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1985, he attacked a guard in Jackson State Prison with a steel shank and was given an additional 20 years for his crime. If you thought that this is where the story ends, will we have a surprise for you? Robert Harrington was in court once more after a clerical

Starting point is 00:06:08 error caused his original conviction to be overturned. According to reports, the original judge's jury instructions transpose the word or with the word and. Of course, Robert was found guilty once Moore and is currently serving his sentence of the Chippewa Correctional Michigan. However, just a little over a month later, another tragedy was about to unfold with our original Robert, Mr. Beckowitz. On the evening of July 17th, Robert was enjoying an evening with his 21-year-old girlfriend, Janine Lynn Charlie Clark, and his best friend, 37-year-old James Edward Glover.

Starting point is 00:06:43 Janine was a pretty petite woman with curly Auburn hair and brown eyes while James sported a scruffy beard, tattoos, and a shaved head. Due to a spinal cord injury, James used a cane to get around. Unbeknownst to Robert, Janine and James were carrying on a torrid affair. Much like Robert, there aren't many pictures of the two online, and the ones that are available have to be heavily cropped. You'll find out why in just a moment. Evening actually started out with a little bit of true crime.

Starting point is 00:07:12 The trio sat together on the couch watching a television program about the Manson fan. family. Afterwards, as a pallet cleanser, they switched gears and watched the Benny Hill show. Yes, that Benny Hill show. It was around this time that James got up and excused himself. While he was away, James retrieved a 45-calibre handgun and headed back into the living room where he proceeded to shoot his best friend in the back of the head, execution style in front of Janine. To this day, there is no evidence that proves as James shooting rock, was planned or not, or if Janine knew it was going to happen. But what there is evidence of is that in the following days,

Starting point is 00:07:55 James and Janine took part in what can only be described as a drug-fueled spiral into the unknown depths of depravity. While high on a cocktail of crystal and other drugs, the pair stripped naked and began to dismember Robert's body into 14 pieces. This included cutting off his head, limbs, hands, feet, and privates, among us. others. They used a hacksaw that James had borrowed from his parents and took photos with Robert's body in grotesque poses at every stage of the dismemberment. In one photo, Janine smiles happily at the camera holding the hacksaw to the man's neck. In others, James defiles his former friend with

Starting point is 00:08:36 an ice pick. He had actually stabbed him more than 84 times. Some of the more disturbing photos depict James placing Robert severed privates into his own mouth. In others, Robert severed head is placed upon a chair in various poses with an array of dismembered parts, including one of him sucking his own big toe, one of him flipping off the camera, and one of him picking his nose. A member of law enforcement who later viewed the photos described them as, as bad as any I've ever seen. I've seen pictures of shotgun blasts to the face or decomposing bodies, and these pictures are just as bad. It's been reported that the pair used two roles of film to document the ordeal, but only 12 of those images were ever leaked to the public. As a role of film usually produced between 24 to 36 photos, that would mean that there are upwards of 60 images that were not leaked.

Starting point is 00:09:34 Although we will never know for sure what happened to them, it's possible that they were destroyed due to the other depraved acts that reportedly took place. According to reports, James and Janine had sex on top of Robert's dead body and used some of his dismembered parts in their acts, like some sort of grotesque menager-tois. By the end of the ordeal, there wasn't much left of Robert. What was left was gathered up in black plastic garbage bags and hidden throughout his home. On July 20th, Janine called the police and confessed to everything. Upon arriving at Roberts Woodbine Street home, Janine claimed that she was held captain. by James and was subsequently arrested for a parole violation for a previous bank robbery charge. We could not find any other information about this bank robbery charge or how somebody participating in a bank robbery would still be on the streets at that point. However, she was held in jail in lieu of a $10,000 cash bond.

Starting point is 00:10:33 James, who was found by police to be heavily sedated on drugs, was subsequently arrested on the spot. At his initial hearing in the 36th District Court, James, claims pled not guilty in front of Judge William Hathaway to the charges of second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and mutilation of a dead human body. It was held without bond at the Wayne County Jail and was ordered to undergo a psych evaluation. After being found mentally competent to stand trial, James Glover ultimately took a plea deal. He agreed to plead guilty to all charges against him in exchange for a sentence of 30 to 50 years in prison.

Starting point is 00:11:10 He was sentenced on December 1st, 1982, and appeared in court wearing a curly brown wig. James offered no explanation for his actions other than the fact that he was high on drugs and that he must have been responsible for the crime due to the abundance of photographic evidence. Or as he put it, it's a big puzzle. I cannot explain. We ran a search for the name James Glover on the Michigan Department of Corrections Offender tracking information system, and there are currently two inmates listed. Neither of which are the James Glover from today's story.

Starting point is 00:11:43 As of the date of this recording in 2025, James would have served almost 43 years of his 30 to 50 years sentence. So it's very possible that he's already been released or that he's passed away. Janine, however, maintained her innocence, claiming that she was simply an innocent bystander in all of this and that her former lover had held her prisoner. She told investigators, Jimmy told me don't move and don't make any noise.

Starting point is 00:12:10 He said, I'd have to stay there a couple of days because he had to get rid of the body. James actually went as far as to support her claim, testifying that right now, I'd say she didn't really stay of her own free will. He did add that she was allowed to leave at different points. However, prosecutor Thomas Bain wasn't buying any of it and painted Janine as a villain who enthusiastically participated in defiling her boyfriend's body, citing the two roles of film documenting the dismemberment. He told the court, no one is going to know all of what happened. Those photographs are graphic evidence of some things that did happen.

Starting point is 00:12:46 Look at her face. Do you see fear, revulsion, disgust? I don't think you will find those things. Prosecutor Bain also noted James' disability in the fact that he couldn't have moved Robert on his own. The man was 6'4 and weighed nearly 250 pounds. He needed Janine's help. And as such, she could have easily overpowered him and gotten away if she wanted to. In addition, neighbors on Woodbine Street also disputed Janine's version of events,

Starting point is 00:13:13 claiming that she was seen outside Robert's house numerous times between July 17th and July 20th. In fact, both James and Janine were spotted together at a local yard sale. According to a neighbor who wished not to be named, Jim and Janine were at the garage sale twice on Saturday, once at 1 p.m., and once at about 4 p.m. According to a neighbor, Janice Smitch, she heard a woman she believed to be Janine shouting outside of Robert's house at about 3.4. 45 a.m. Her and her son were also one of the many neighbors that had seen the pair outside. If that wasn't enough evidence, Janine was also spotted buying more film for the camera at a local

Starting point is 00:13:50 store. On February 3rd, 1983, Janine Clark was convicted of mutilating Robert Beckowitz's corpse and was sentenced to serve only six to ten years in prison. Due to her paltry sentence, she was released from prison decades ago. She's either managed to keep her nose clean or is living under a pseudonym. Hopefully hasn't robbed any other banks since then. In the wake of the horrific murder, the owners of the three-bedroom ranch-style home where Robert rented his basement apartment came under fire.

Starting point is 00:14:21 According to city records, the Woodbine Street address was deeded to Ronald Franchie and Terrell Hargisheimer, both of whom have since passed and was zoned as a single family address. Allegedly, residents of Detroit's northwest side had been complaining to both the police and city officials for years about the landlords renting out individual rooms to people.

Starting point is 00:14:42 According to one neighbor, this house is always being rented to five or six people at a time. We've called, we've complained. We even told police chief William Hart about it at a community meeting out here a month ago. Somehow, no one seems to ever be able to do anything about it. Allegedly, city building inspectors took Terrell Hargisheimer to court in 1975 for allowing illegal occupancy in the basement. the same basement that Robert was renting. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest on October 31st of the same year for failure to appear.

Starting point is 00:15:15 In July of 1982, Inspector Donald Hayduck told the Detroit Free Press, as near as I can tell from the case file, the court issued a warrant for his arrest but never served it. The warrant becomes useless after seven years, so I guess nothing will ever be done if he's not served before the end of this October. Although this piece of information doesn't have, a ton to do with Robert Beckowitz's murder, it does leave me with a lot of unanswered questions.

Starting point is 00:15:43 For example, if the landlords were renting out the rooms in basement to individual renters, how did no one hear Robert get shot? Now, I grew up in a three-bedroom ranch-style home, and if someone was shot with a 45-caliber handgun in my basement, I would have absolutely heard it. Hell, the whole neighborhood would have heard it. In 2021, a 50-minute film called The Degenerative, was written and produced by a man known as Jonathan Doe. He also starred in the film alongside a woman named Felicia Fisher, whose resume included a lot of avant-garde films involving feat. The film has a 6.5 out of 10 rating on IMDB and claims to be inspired by Robert's story.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Its featured review gives it a 1 out of 10 stars and claims that it's boringly terrible. The review written in Broken English reads as follows. This movie tries hard to touch the August Underground sort of feel, but it doesn't actually do anything to deserve to be talked in the same breath as those series of movies. The only thing this movie does is copy the look with the VHS look, which is about the only thing that works for this one. Besides that, almost nothing at all happens. Just two filming and violating a corpse for an hour.

Starting point is 00:16:58 And trust me, almost nothing interesting happens with the violations to begin with. don't waste your time, this one sucks hard. For those unfamiliar with August Underground, it's the first of a series of found footage-style films about a serial killer named Peter. In the late 1990s into the 2000s, the 12 leaked photos became a fixture on shock sites such as rotten.com and Gore Gallery.

Starting point is 00:17:24 Now, many of these sites were shut down in the 2010s, but unfortunately, this became Robert's legacy. It's been almost 43 years as of the date of this recording in 2025 since Robert was murdered, and no one knows much about him other than what was cataloged on those two roles of film. It's unclear whether or not he even had a relationship with his brother Gerald, who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Gerald Stanislaus Beckowitz passed away on July 14, 2003 at the age of 56. He was buried beneath a small granite military,

Starting point is 00:18:00 style headstone at the Riverside National Cemetery in California. Roberts remains were cremated, but much like everything else in his life, his final resting place remains a mystery to this day. Now, Yergy, I think a big problem people have with creators covering this case is the fact of, oh, why are you bringing light to the fact that these horrible pictures are on the internet, like it's some new thing. People have to realize that this has been a thing. the 90s. Like I can think of many times during my childhood and teenage years where I accidentally

Starting point is 00:18:36 stumbled across the site or somebody sent me a fake link on AOL and instant messenger and I saw one of these pictures. Right. This has been, you know, as long as the internet's been up, I'm quite sure that they have probably been up on the internet somewhere. In the late 90s, you had rotten.com, you had Gore Gallery. I mean, Rant.com started in 96, I believe. So they've been up for a while. I think a big part of maybe why people have a problem with it. And I guess maybe I maybe have a little bit of a problem with it too is how TikTok is kind of exploiting this case. Now, in my opinion, true crime might not be the best place for TikTok because a lot of times you're trying to get a case or a story into just like very short snippets. And that's, you know, when you're talking about a victim story, that's not really the best way to go about these things.

Starting point is 00:19:22 We are on TikTok, but our whole episode is on TikTok, the whole shabang. Plus also, if you're trying to think about how to condense this case, how do you think you're going to condense it? Oh, there's pictures out there. Right. That's what people go to. And like the whole point that I was trying to get across in this is Roberts more than these pictures, but that's what everybody is willing to be down to.

Starting point is 00:19:43 That's what they're focusing on. And I've sat down and tried to write it. I'm just like, I don't know how to do this without focusing on the pictures. I mean, like, because you can focus on the pictures. it feels sensational. And this is difficult because over the years, for one, when I saw some of these pictures, there was no name attached to it.

Starting point is 00:20:00 There was no story attached to it. There was nothing. It was a later in life until you told me about it. And I was like, oh, I know what this is. And the problem is that when this case is brought up, there's usually not name connected to it. And it's usually some sort of compilation, like the worst crime scene photos ever.

Starting point is 00:20:18 And that's its legacy. And so when we actually tried to dig into this and mind you, I didn't find many people who have covered this and the people who have covered it, they didn't have much to work with. And we didn't have much to work with either. I know it was in the 80s and sometimes even in a major city like Detroit, some of the information is hard to come by. That's just normal. But even with that said, there was a surprising lack of information here. Right. The lack of information of Robert's family or who he was or anything like that. In terms of source, a lot of the source were like other people's like blogs on this topic. And a lot of them linked back to one singular source. And that is documenting reality, which is a shock site. It is one of the few shock sites that are that are still up.

Starting point is 00:21:03 I believe it's hosted overseas. They do have the pictures there. Of course, they have the pictures there. But what they did do, which was actually valuable, is they were able to catalog a lot of old newspaper articles to be able to get some information about the trial. to get information about like the landlord situation. That's where I found that bit of information. But there's not much on this. There really, really isn't.

Starting point is 00:21:25 And then I know you said some creators said they couldn't find any information on Gerald. I mean, I did. You just search his name. And there isn't much. You find his find a grave entry. But that's all there is. This thing is almost operated as an urban legend over the years. I would say it's urban legend plus.

Starting point is 00:21:40 Right. But it's, it was told through blog spot accounts and random GeoCities website. over the years with like a spattering of information. Some of it wasn't even true. And now with all the resources we have in front of the us, we can barely get anything out about it. We don't have a motive. We don't have anything really.

Starting point is 00:22:00 I don't have anything about her previous bank robbery, Janine's bank robbery. Like that's a major piece that we would normally include in a case. Yeah. I mean, some people speculate the motive being, you know, Janine and James's tort affair they have going on. They want to keep that going. So they wanted to get him out of the picture. but they've never admitted to that.

Starting point is 00:22:18 So it's really just speculation. I think what really bothers me with a lot of coverage of this is like the need to specialize this case. Because of the pictures or because of the drug-fueled? Well, not just the drug-fueled or essentially that they had, but the fact that Janine was a pretty woman and, you know, everyone sees it,

Starting point is 00:22:39 her standing there completely naked, holding the hacksaw smiling. They sell toize this case. And it's upsetting to me because like I said, you know, we don't really know much about Robert other than this and what they did to him. And it's disgraceful. Yeah. Robert's memory is being a victim in one of the most horrifying and humiliating ways. And people have to see the result of that.

Starting point is 00:23:00 There's obviously cases in true crime where people are basically summed up as a victim. They're known for being a victim. But the picture, the result, what was done to them usually isn't put out there on the internet to be so easily accessible. and have nothing else out there about them but that. And I do feel that one picture that the picture we have of him, but it was this one picture I was able to find on his find a grave entry. I do believe whomever put this together, I don't think it is a real mugshot.

Starting point is 00:23:29 It doesn't look like a real mugshot. I think it's a computer rendition of what they thought he did look like based on some of these pictures of his severed head. Yeah. I think something that surprises me is that nobody has been able to unearth more information because I feel like this is a case that would have hit the mainstream around the 80s or 90s even, like maybe it comes out later because of the whole satanic panic thing because I could totally see something like this being dragged into

Starting point is 00:23:55 satanic panic, especially since there were drugs involved. I'm very surprised at that, actually, that this has kind of stayed to the level that it was. There was no documentary. There wasn't anything like that because I don't know if your dare officer did this in high school. I know we're showing our age here. I'm not even sure if they still have dare officers, but for those that don't know a dare officer is somebody that comes to elementary schools and talks to kids about why they shouldn't use drugs. Well, our dare officer told us a bunch of horror stories about people dying due to drugs or doing crazy things due to drugs. And I just feel like this would be fodder, be like, hey, kids, don't use drugs. It doesn't make sense to me that somebody didn't use this in one way,

Starting point is 00:24:32 shape, or form for some sort of agenda, because there was plenty of reasons to use it for some agenda across the 80s and the 90s. Right. I almost wonder if they just wanted to sweep it onto the rug, or there's just so much like messed up crap happening like at the time in Detroit that like they just didn't have time to. If like you live in Michigan or the Detroit area, let us know in the comment section. If this is something that you're aware of, if you were, you know, alive in the 80s. I don't know exactly what was going on at that time. But you're right.

Starting point is 00:24:57 It could have just been something from that time period people wanted to be over and done with and moved on from it for all we know. And that's the best guess we can give. Thank you to June's Journey for sponsoring today's episode. Please click the link below or in the pin comment to check out June's journey today.

The Misery Machine - The Case of Robert Beckowitz

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